Tuesday, October 18, 2005

When blogs cry wolf. File under "usual suspects." Via Instapundit. 6:44:56 PM   permalink   comment []

Matt Gross: "Drudge Report has at least partially vacated its throne as the go-to source for breaking news by ignoring the Plame investigation. (Drudge is currently headlining a hurricane that's not-quite-yet-a-hurricane that won't hit land 'til Saturday, as a case in point.) "Supplanting Matt Drudge is RawStory." 6:27:12 PM   permalink   comment []

NC State athletic director Lee Fowler: "Letter to the Wolfpack Nation." Excerpt: "At the time we hired Coach Amato, he was asked to lift a very heavy weight--to lead us to national prominence. Let's believe he will do that." And don't foget to clap for Tinkerbell while you're at it. 2:38:06 PM   permalink   comment []

Justin Catanoso on the importance of being a headquarters city: "When the leaders of the new Charlotte-based Wachovia wanted to attract the PGA, they put up enough millions to create one of the premier golf tournaments in the spring -- one that Tiger Woods has already played in twice. "Wachovia has operations in cities throughout the East Coast; do you think bank executives ever seriously considered putting the Wachovia Championship anywhere other than Charlotte?" 2:30:01 PM   permalink   comment []

Least necessary movie since Rocky V: Rocky VI. Stallone turns 60 next year, but he's planning to get back in the ring for the new flick. Oy. 2:25:24 PM   permalink   comment []

Karl Martino of Philly Future digs deep to tell a personal story as he rallies the local blog community behind a project to help the homeless. 12:09:13 PM   permalink   comment []

Jarvis: "The Times is now linking out to those linking in." Here's the Judy Miller page. 12:03:38 PM   permalink   comment []

Bora went to the John Edwards event at Chapel Hill yesterday and got some face-time with the once-and-future candidate. "After the press conference I had several minutes of one-on-one with John, something that could not have happened even a year ago...Heck, a year ago I would not have even been allowed into the press conference. Today, being a blogger opens all doors. You have to keep your bloggers happy!" 11:50:50 AM   permalink   comment []

Schlosser blogs about more residential development in downtown G'boro. 8:09:08 AM   permalink   comment []

Plead the First has an update on the Dover, PA creationism-in-schools trial. 8:07:42 AM   permalink   comment []

DarkTimes: Tierney writes in "A Very Special Scandal" that the Plame investigation is just "nadagate." Nothing to see here folks, move along. Is there anything less illuminating than commentary that pretends to exonerate or convict these folks ahead of Fitzgerald's announcement? Well, yes. Tierney pulls a switcheroo by generalizing about reporters who hear restricted information.  "A prosecutor could indict just about anyone inside or outside government who deals with defense or foreign-policy information that could harm the U.S. The law could apply to reporters who hear this kind of classified information every day if they 'willfully communicate' it to their editors." But the suspicion here is that administration officials revealed classified information for political purposes, not just to provide a reporter with background. Oh yeah, perjury and obstruction charges don't really count, he adds. In any event, we'll hear from Fitzgerald himself soon. All else is noise. Kristof is still in Niger, and it's still awful over there. "Starved by Red Tape" is the hed. "This land of mud huts and malnourished babies is the very least developed country on the planet, but local regulations stipulate that companies must give all employees six weeks and two days of paid vacation a year. Not surprisingly, there are almost no employers in Niger. "So if we in the West want to help children in countries like Niger, we should send vaccines and mosquito nets - but we also must push these countries to open themselves up for business. Right now, many African countries are in effect killing their own citizens by making it staggeringly difficult for entrepreneurs to open shop." He says "sweatshops" should be welcomed. "(V)illagers would be far better off if Nike started a sweatshop here paying the peasants 10 cents an hour to make shoes. But Nike wouldn't do that, both because there would be howls of outrage from American campuses at the exploitative wages and because Niger's labor laws are so uninviting." Kristof is right that Western investment could help. But that word, "sweatshop" has such negative connotations that he should avoid it -- as employers should avoid the things that give it those connotations, even when they can pay people 10 cents an hour. DarkTimes is a daily roundup of the hidden material in the NYT opinion universe. 8:01:56 AM   permalink   comment []

Glenn Reynolds has an op-ed (subs req) about Harriet Miers in this morning's Wall Street Journal. Kicker: "The entire affair gives the impression of an administration that is distracted and not up to its usual standards of well-oiled efficiency on political and judicial matters. As Mr. Bush faces calls to withdraw the Miers nomination, he should think seriously about whether to accept them -- along, perhaps, with the resignations of those responsible for this mess." Bonus: he gets a mention of his upcoming book in the writer ID. Also on the page: Google CEO Eric Schmidt explains why the Google Print book project isn't a threat to copyright. "For many books, these results will, like an ordinary card catalog, contain basic bibliographic information and, at most, a few lines of text where your search terms appear. "We show more than this basic information only if a book is in the public domain, or if the copyright owner has explicitly allowed." 7:46:13 AM   permalink   comment []