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Iraqis Paying 5 Cents a Gallon for Gas While Americans are shelling out record prices for fuel, Iraqis pay only about 5 cents a gallon for gasoline — a benefit of hundreds of millions of dollars subsidies bankrolled by American taxpayers
comment posted at 12:40 PM on Jun-7-04

Front Pages of News Papers from Tuesday June 6th and Wendsday June 7th 1944
The wonderful Newseum provides a look back at some of the front pages from newspapers reporting the invasion of "Fortress Europe" 60 years ago today.
comment posted at 4:39 PM on Jun-6-04

pendulum continues to swing back to the left
Meet Congresswoman Stephanie Herseth (D-SD)
comment posted at 11:11 AM on Jun-2-04
comment posted at 12:29 PM on Jun-2-04
comment posted at 1:53 PM on Jun-2-04

Bush campaign lies with unprecedented frequency. Making history with unprecedented negativity.
comment posted at 1:23 PM on May-31-04
comment posted at 3:34 PM on May-31-04
comment posted at 4:16 PM on May-31-04

According to this article: The military may see a "mass exodus that will reach the hemorrhage point by mid-2005." Just in time for the return of the draft. (links via Buzzflash)
comment posted at 3:12 PM on May-30-04
comment posted at 4:05 PM on May-30-04

I stumbled on The Geek Test today. Very comprehensive (measures more than just technical geekiness). What's your score?
comment posted at 3:34 PM on May-29-04

Dial-Up For Murder.
So, you're a typical geeky teenage boy with serious angst and a death wish. How do you commit the fatal deed? Obvious! Groom an older boy by writing 50,000 lines of fantasy, inventing 8 characters, including a female spy offering sex, meet up to buy a blade, and voila! - redefine murder plots for us all.
Wierdest.Web.Story.Evah?
comment posted at 12:03 PM on May-29-04

Michael Moore finds distribution for his explosive new Bush expose', Fahrenheit 9/11.
For those interested, this is the latest chapter in the Moore saga.
More Moore discussions here, here, here, here and here.
comment posted at 11:56 AM on May-29-04

Paul Martin, Canada's current Prime Minister, running for re-election for the Liberal party, suggests that voting for him will prevent us from being like the US in his latest television AD campaign (sorry, they only make a WiMP 9 version available). Will your country be next?
comment posted at 11:31 PM on May-26-04

Remarks by Al Gore. Long, but worth it.
comment posted at 11:55 AM on May-26-04
comment posted at 12:13 PM on May-26-04
comment posted at 12:30 PM on May-26-04
comment posted at 6:14 PM on May-26-04

open debates is a nonprofit that's working to reform the presidential debate process for the american election. they have some pretty big names on their board from across the political spectrum, including john b. anderson, angela "bay" buchanan, and randall robinson.

From the website:
Currently, the presidential debates are secretly controlled by the major parties, through the private bipartisan corporation called the Commission on Presidential Debates, resulting in the stultification of format, the exclusion of popular candidates, and the avoidance of pressing national issues.
The major party candidates never pay a political price for their antidemocratic practices; posing as an independent sponsor, the Commission on Presidential Debates shields the major party candidates from public criticism and public accountability.
comment posted at 1:03 AM on May-26-04

You too can apply to become a private interrogater in Baghdad! [Via Randi Rhodes on Air America]

Assists the interrogation support program team lead to increase the effectiveness of dealing with Detainees, Persons of Interest, and Prisoners of War (POWs) that are in the custody of US/Coalition Forces...
comment posted at 12:12 PM on May-7-04

Michael Moore admits Disney 'ban' was a stunt.
Less than 24 hours after accusing the Walt Disney Company of pulling the plug on his latest documentary in a blatant attempt at political censorship, Michael Moore has admitted he knew a year ago that Disney had no intention of distributing it.

"Almost a year ago, after we'd started making the film, the chairman of Disney, Michael Eisner, told my agent he was upset Miramax had made the film and he will not distribute it."
comment posted at 10:22 AM on May-7-04
comment posted at 12:03 PM on May-7-04
comment posted at 5:10 PM on May-7-04

This site has a real cool slide show of a bunch of graffitied Rudy Guiliani tv movie posters in NYC subway stations (under 'Other'). Some other good stuff by this artist to check out, too (Flash required).
comment posted at 9:06 AM on Apr-27-04

Bin Ladin Determined to Strike In US - The Memo From A Design Perspective A desginer looks at the original memo and re-designs it for usability.
comment posted at 12:08 PM on Apr-12-04

John Ashcroft's Patriot Games. An interesting article from last month's Vanity Fair on Ashcroft and his revolution inside the Justice Department. Now the Justice Department wants to wage a war on porn, and "are spending millions of dollars to bring anti-obscenity cases to courthouses across the country for the first time in 10 years. Nothing is off limits, they warn, even soft-core cable programs such as HBO's long-running Real Sex or the adult movies widely offered in guestrooms of major hotel chains." [Via Boing Boing and Instapundit.]
comment posted at 12:55 AM on Apr-7-04
comment posted at 1:11 AM on Apr-7-04

The PETA sinks to a new low. This time drawing parallels between the gruesome Pickton murders and the the slaughter of pigs for meat. Many of the human remains of Pickton's victims are still being found at the Pickton pig farm. They were drugged and dragged across the room... Their struggles and cries went unanswered... They were slaughtered and their heads sawed off... Their body parts were refrigerated... Their bones were discarded.
comment posted at 12:50 AM on Apr-7-04

"What did you think of Seabiscuit?" the young man added helpfully. Even the deadpan Jarmusch laughed. Jim Jarmusch's new movie (the first feature-lenght after 1999's Ghost Dog), "Coffee And Cigarettes", is "a droll, ironic look at two of our favorite addictions". The black and white movie (trailer here) has a strange (or Stranger than Paradise?) cast: Roberto Benigni, Steven Wright, Steve Buscemi, Iggy Pop, Tom Waits, Cate Blanchett, Meg White, Jack White, Alfred Molina, Steve Coogan, GZA, RZA, Bill Murray, ... Jarmusch's philosophy: "When you're watching movies, the guy's girlfriend calls him, she's having something bad happening, and he says, 'I'll take a cab. I'll be right over.' Cut to him getting out of the cab. And my brain always says, what about the cab ride? The incidental thing, the thing that's not the destination?". (more inside)
comment posted at 6:03 PM on Mar-28-04

Conservatives Win Big With Fetus Bill
comment posted at 11:10 AM on Mar-28-04

political friendster
an offspring of theyrule.net after a one night stand with disinfopedia? via k10k
comment posted at 10:30 PM on Mar-26-04

Just what does breast milk taste like, anyway?
comment posted at 9:37 PM on Mar-25-04

How to fold clothes. [via Serenity Now] [6.1 MB .wmv]
comment posted at 9:34 PM on Mar-25-04

Turning the Tide If Kerry and his friends are not far enough from the political center, you might try this, Noam Chomsky's new blog. I would call it "No lefty left behind" But, hey, whatever packs your suitcase.
comment posted at 9:29 PM on Mar-25-04

Why is C-Span downplaying the 9/11 Hearings? I don't even get C-Span 3 with my cable company. Is this a pattern?
comment posted at 8:30 AM on Mar-24-04

Microsoft Corp. accused the European Union on Tuesday of going too far in seeking a record fine of about $615 million against the software giant for alleged antitrust abuses, saying it was being penalized for behavior permitted in the United States.
comment posted at 9:38 AM on Mar-23-04
comment posted at 9:46 AM on Mar-23-04

Known by the ladies as The Kingpin. Thorne Peters is a Prophet, Author, Publisher, Composer, Troubadour, Producer, Provocateur, Pontificator, Raconteur, Hedonist. He is the Poet Laureate of Planet Earth. He truly lives a life to be envied (galleries showing his hedonism are NSFW).
comment posted at 7:26 AM on Mar-23-04

More Foreign (Terrorist) Leaders Want Bush Reelected A statement sent to the Arabic language daily al-Hayat by the terrorist group Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades said it supported President Bush in his reelection campaign, and would prefer him to win in November rather than the Democratic candidate John Kerry, as it was not possible to find a leader "more foolish than you (Bush), who deals with matters by force rather than with wisdom."
comment posted at 6:38 PM on Mar-21-04

One Year Later... "In truth, most things have gone well... All in all, a good year's work."
comment posted at 9:50 AM on Mar-21-04

One year later "It's easy to send soldiers off to war. It's a lot harder to face them when they come home"
comment posted at 11:25 AM on Mar-21-04

FORMER WHITE HOUSE TERRORISM ADVISOR: BUSH ADMIN WAS DISCUSSING BOMBING IRAQ FOR 9/11 DESPITE KNOWING AL QAEDA WAS TO BLAME Former White House terrorism advisor Richard Clarke tells Lesley Stahl that on September 11, 2001 and the day after - when it was clear Al Qaeda had carried out the terrorist attacks - the Bush administration was considering bombing Iraq in retaliation. Clarke's exclusive interview will be broadcast on 60 MINUTES Sunday March 21 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. Clarke was surprised that the attention of administration officials was turning toward Iraq when he expected the focus to be on Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. "They were talking about Iraq on 9/11. They were talking about it on 9/12," says Clarke
comment posted at 6:24 PM on Mar-19-04
comment posted at 6:26 PM on Mar-19-04

The Apparat: George W. Bush's back-door political machine -- "It's anti-democratic, anti-Constitutional, and is working to create a one-party America"

Consider this article from Media Transparency regarding how "hundreds of tax-exempt organizations of the far right have been exploiting the twilight zone of campaign and IRS regulations for three decades -- receiving billions of dollars in grants and contributions to wage ideo-political warfare for far-right ideas, causes, and Republican candidates."

Might it already be too late to stop this juggernaut?
comment posted at 3:26 PM on Mar-19-04
comment posted at 3:36 PM on Mar-19-04

Vigilantes troll for pedophiles in chat rooms, set up meetings and videotape them. Then they out them at Perverted-Justice.com. The ensnared men sometimes exercise their "right of reply" to explain their actions. Huh.
comment posted at 12:17 AM on Mar-19-04

Drawn in the style of a pre-school children's cartoon. But from the sick & twisted minds of the guys from Southpark. Princess, A lap dog who observes the very adult world around her. The sexual content was so extreme shockwave.com halted development of the "webisodes" only after seeing the first 2 of 39 episodes that were contracted. Now you can watch these shorts & judge for yourself. Thanks to the folks at Trio. (username/password required... mefi/mefi)
comment posted at 7:40 PM on Mar-18-04

''Complaints should no longer be denied because of a lack of tape, transcript or significant excerpt''. Evidence? We don't need no evidence. Indecent use or not, the FCC will now crack down on all uses of the F-word. I can only assume this will give Stern even more fodder for his new liberal radio show.
comment posted at 6:25 PM on Mar-18-04

Blog is dead. (via twodolla.org)
comment posted at 12:42 PM on Mar-18-04

Say goodbye to more jobs? This is an interesting research report from the Gartner Group on the future of banking, money and economic transition. One of the participants at a conference that Gartner cites is Bernard Leitaer, who is interviewed here. Leitaer is the author of the book The Future of Money. He argues " the malaise Japan has suffered since the early 1990s reflects an economic challenge the whole developed world has begun to face. Today, European and U.S. factories, too, suffer from overcapacity. The vaunted productivity growth spurred by the digital revolution has raised the economy’s stall speed. If the natural growth rate of the U.S. economy has risen to 4% annually, anything less than that rate will cause firms to trim capacity. A firm’s revenue growth often must come at the expense of competitors as well as its own profits because companies have trouble raising prices. In response, companies cut costs any way they can, usually by laying off employees and squeezing suppliers, which causes further layoffs. For developed countries, the safety valves that limited damage during contractions in manufacturing may not work. In past recessions, laid-off factory workers in the Great Lakes states, for example, could migrate to the growing Sun Belt to find new jobs. In the present transition, areas with job growth may lie overseas." The long heralded rise of the information economy, the death of distance and the rise of the global knowledge workers is paradigm shift that our goverment leader's seem ill equiped to handle.
comment posted at 8:08 AM on Mar-17-04