MetaFilter

Bush abandons national strategy to bridge the digital divide. After a year of public speculation over whether the White House was committed to expanding Internet access and skills to all of America's citizens, the administration has finally broken its silence. In its FY 2003 budget, the White House stripped over $100 million in public investments previously available for community technology grants and IT training programs--programs that offer real payoffs to rural communities, the working poor, minorities and children.
comment posted at 7:45 PM on Feb-11-02
comment posted at 7:48 PM on Feb-11-02

The Battle Over Bush's Gov. Papers. What are they hiding? Executive order blocking Presidential papers, refusing to turn over Energy Taskforce member list, and now this! There must be something to hide. But what?!?!?
comment posted at 3:11 PM on Feb-11-02
comment posted at 7:53 PM on Feb-11-02

Is Comcast modifying your packets? With the transition from @home to Comcast it seems that Comcast is considering the possibility of intercepting your port 80 web traffic and inserting ads or selling your browsing history to marketers. According to Federal law isn't monitoring and altering your traffic illegal or does that not apply to large corporations? With a possible AT&T/Comcast merger this is a little scary.
comment posted at 10:01 AM on Feb-11-02

The world of the laid-off techie. "Human resource experts say the underemployment trend in the current economic cycle is just starting to emerge. Many workers got the ax when mass layoffs peaked in the summer and fall of 2001, and they coasted on several months of severance and unemployment insurance, which generally lasts six months. With the tech job market still in the doldrums, they're now considering new gigs as waitresses, bartenders, forklift drivers or baby sitters--anything to pay the rent. " I wish the media hadn't/didn't focus so much attention on the suits who seem to only be able to "fail upwards" versus the folks in the trenches. (via /.)
comment posted at 4:00 PM on Feb-11-02
comment posted at 4:18 PM on Feb-11-02
comment posted at 12:45 AM on Feb-13-02

Bigots are alive and well in America. Here we are still fighting for equal rights for all Americans. Some will find this link uplifting because of the outpouring of community support, but to me it's just another sign of how quickly intolerance turns to attempted murder.
comment posted at 9:31 PM on Feb-10-02

Chicken Soup for the soulless? Is Psychology screwing us all up? From messing up the civil rights movement , medicalizing grief, inventing faux illnesses and treating them , planting false memories , to diagnosing 25% of the United States with PTSD on October 11th, the industry/profession of psychology and its drug prescribing cousin psychiatry seem to be both the sloppiest and most ethically bankrupt scientific field. Is a diet of steady chicken soup for the soul actually toxic?
comment posted at 9:51 PM on Feb-10-02

Senator Hollings makes the case for a special council to look into the Enron affair. (NY Times link). San Antonio columnist Jan Jarboe Russell argues for the same. Here's a Guardian article on the situation.
comment posted at 2:59 PM on Feb-9-02

The 19th Winter Olympics are now officially under way, begun with America's take on the traditional opening ceremonies. What moved you to tears? What made you gag? Were you proud to be an American, or so embarrassed that you couldn't watch? Was the WTC flag presentation tasteful? Was John Williams' score inspirational? Did you like the ice dancing, the fireworks, and the Native Indian celebrations? Who did you want to see light the Olympic caldron?
comment posted at 3:22 PM on Feb-9-02
comment posted at 4:34 PM on Feb-9-02

Some undiluted Brother Cornel West for ya. Now, who could give this man a professional reprimand? A great 3 hour clip from CNN's Book Tv. "Between Coltrane and Chekov is where I live... think in love, fight in justice". Shameless big-name-dropper: total genius. And the controversial CD? Mnnff... preachy performance, watery r'n'b. Not quite Gil Scott Heron or Last Poets. But not a firing issue, President Summers.
comment posted at 4:40 PM on Feb-9-02

Enough Already With The Journalists - What Do The Finest Political Philosophers Think About Terrorism? There aren't many of them. On the liberal side of things, apart from John Rawls, Michael Walzer [here's a fascinating interview with him]is probably the most original and intelligent pluralist alive. In the above-linked article in Dissent he sets out the questions that we should be asking ourselves right now about terrorism. Something tells me we should be paying attention. But what would our answers be? Or are we too caught up with the banality of columnists and pundits to actually face up to the thoughts of a real political thinker?
comment posted at 4:18 PM on Feb-9-02

Someone please get this man some pancakes.
comment posted at 4:50 PM on Feb-9-02
comment posted at 5:56 PM on Feb-9-02
comment posted at 5:57 PM on Feb-9-02

The New Voice of MSNBC: Twisted Sister's Dee Snider He's the new voiceover guy at MSNBC.I knew I recognized that voice, I just couldn't place it. It sort of makes you wonder who other networks might get to do voiceovers.
comment posted at 4:59 PM on Feb-9-02

America Too Patriotic, Says Norman Mailer
comment posted at 10:35 AM on Feb-8-02

So it's finally come down to this. E-content, 2002 style. Could there be any more conclusive proof that the dotcom era is over?
comment posted at 9:33 PM on Feb-7-02

It's not a "sit-in" but it rhymes with it. "Caroline Estes is organizing a mass protest of a new Austin police policy to ticket women who flash their breasts at the upcoming Mardi Gras celebration on Sixth Street."
comment posted at 12:12 PM on Feb-7-02

Remember the 15 year old that crashed a cessna into a Florida building? His suicide note is up at the smoking gun, and apparently "Al Qaeda and other organizations have met with me several times to discuss the option of me joining" and he thought "Osama bin Laden is absolutely justified" in a screed that blasts US involvement with Israel. Kids today.
comment posted at 10:52 AM on Feb-7-02

Beam me up dipankar. The dream of teleporting atoms and molecules - and maybe even larger objects - has become a real possibility for the first time. Look out! - it's nearly the future. Not long until we all get our silver faces.
comment posted at 11:08 AM on Feb-7-02

"AXIS OF EVIL" was supposed to send a message. "Those who condition themselves to think that an axis of evil surrounds them will only live a painful, gloomy and uncomfortable life. They will, in effect, loose many of their powers and abilities as a result of their exaggerated sensitivity and drown themselves in fatal ignorance of the blessings and good things of the world."
comment posted at 9:57 PM on Feb-6-02

When Chyrons go very, very, very, very, very, very, very bad. (Or, How To Lose Your Job In Just One Second) Niger Innis is the spokesman for the Congress of Racial Equality, one of those scary conservative African-American groups. He's also a regular MSNBC pundit. Well, he was on there the other day talking about Enron, and whoever was in charge of plugging the names into the rundown that hour was a little sloppy with his or her typing and ... well, just click on the link.
comment posted at 9:33 PM on Feb-6-02
comment posted at 7:02 AM on Feb-7-02
comment posted at 10:27 AM on Feb-7-02

The return of Trax sneakers might be a strategic way for Kmart to come back to life. Same goes for Pony. If Candies could do it . . .
comment posted at 12:23 PM on Feb-6-02

The Reagan Legacy Machine rolls on... For Ron's 91st, National Review talks to Peggy Noonan, who claims that Reagan lived an "emotionally and intellectually arduous life."
comment posted at 12:06 PM on Feb-6-02
comment posted at 12:06 PM on Feb-6-02
comment posted at 12:55 PM on Feb-6-02
comment posted at 12:34 AM on Feb-7-02
comment posted at 12:57 AM on Feb-7-02

dubya nominated for the nobel peace prize? peace?....here's bbc's story
comment posted at 12:20 PM on Feb-6-02
comment posted at 12:58 PM on Feb-6-02

Tiffany goes Topless 80's teen pop sensation Tiffany will appear in a photo spread in an upcoming issue of Playboy. She says "it's time the world realizes she's no longer 18 but a wife and mother."
comment posted at 11:26 AM on Feb-6-02
comment posted at 1:10 PM on Feb-6-02

Terry Gross gets more than she bargained for from KISS frontman. Don't you think they'd make a cute couple? (Maybe soon we'll see her here.)
comment posted at 2:20 PM on Feb-6-02

Cutting-edge pancake technology.
comment posted at 6:14 PM on Feb-5-02
comment posted at 6:30 PM on Feb-5-02
comment posted at 10:13 PM on Feb-5-02
comment posted at 10:14 PM on Feb-5-02

SmallPox 2002 - Silent Weapon...
It is April 2002, and a smallpox outbreak occures in New York. 4 and a half months later and 60 million people across the planet are dead. Tonight, The BBC broadcast a fictional documentary as if it were filmed in 2005, looking back at the smallpox pandemic that swept the world in 2002 and killed 60 million people. Heavily rooted in fact, it was disturbing viewing, to put it mildly. Did anyone else in Europe see this?
comment posted at 11:03 PM on Feb-5-02

"They thought I was some kind of Greek god." Tim Eyman, the self-styled "maverick" author of several tax-slash initiatives in Washington state, has admitted to not only taking $210,000 from his "grass-roots" campaigns for personal use but consistently lying about it. Now, he says, he wants "his peasants" to decide whether he should give it back. When will people learn what populists usually amount to?
comment posted at 1:44 PM on Feb-5-02
comment posted at 3:57 PM on Feb-5-02
comment posted at 6:25 PM on Feb-5-02

Little Girl Missing in California Is this front-page national news because she is the only missing child in America, or because she's a cute white girl from the suburbs?
comment posted at 2:00 PM on Feb-5-02
comment posted at 3:59 PM on Feb-5-02

For any unconvinced that demonstrations against corporate greed are called for, take a look at this documentary about a section of NAFTA which allows corporations to sue governments (in private tribunals) for having laws which get in the way of their profits. One current example is a canadian company suing the US gov't for an environmental law which bans their product.
comment posted at 3:15 PM on Feb-5-02