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Saturday, September 27, 2003 |
From CNN:Bush said he insulates himself from the "opinions" that seep into news coverage by getting his news from his own aides. He said he scans headlines, but rarely reads news stories.
"I appreciate people's opinions, but I'm more interested in news," the president said. "And the best way to get the news is from objective sources, and the most objective sources I have are people on my staff who tell me what's happening in the world." I didn't know "objective" meant "hand-picked sycophants who are on your payroll". [The Adventures of Accordion Guy]
3:24:02 AM 
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A very interesting posting about the perfectly legal way to do music file swapping. Coming soon to a portable MP3 player near you...over the RIAA's dead body.
"No action may be brought under this title alleging infringement of copyright based on the manufacture, importation, or distribution of a digital audio recording device, a digital audio recording medium, an analog recording device, or an analog recording medium, or based on the noncommercial use by a consumer of such a device or medium for making digital musical recordings or analog musical recordings." -- US Code, Title 17, Chapter 10, Subchapter D, Sec. 1008 (also see its legislative history).
You can tape away to your heart's content as long as you aren't doing it for money. You could make a tape for your friend, even an analog tape that wasn't subject to the new tax. [Philip Greenspun Weblog]
3:12:49 AM
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I can easily believe that Microsoft made no direct threats in either case, as in "Fire this guy or we'll never do business with you again," or "No more advertising from us if you run this report even as a paid insert."
But I can easily imagine someone from Microsoft expressing great displeasure. And I can more easily imagine internal conversations at the companies that acted in such knee-jerk ways, as in "God, what happens when Microsoft sees this? Isn't business bad enough already?"
So even though the boilerplate denials from the companies are probably true in the strict sense, it's pretty tough to imagine a total lack of connection. Microsoft never abandoned its predatory ways -- it now has the U.S. government's nearly total approval to do as it wishes in this regard -- and it's hard for people to maintain their principles when money is at stake. [Dan Gillmor's eJournal]
2:31:58 AM
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CNN's Tucker Carlson says he was besieged by angry and threatening phone calls last night, when unknown persons at rival network Faux Fox posted his home telephone number on foxnews.com:
Carlson said hundreds of angry phone calls were made to his home, including threatening calls. Carlson's wife and four young children were at home at the time the calls were made. Carlson and Carville on Friday excoriated Fox for the reverse prank, which Carville said "scared young children to death," unnecessarily.
[via Boing Boing Blog]
More evidence that rabid conservatives will cross just about any line in their attempts to force their ideology down everyone else's throats...
1:52:11 AM
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© Copyright 2003 The Decline and Fall of the American Empire.
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