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Bush Go George W. Bush
comment posted at 2:09 PM on Jan-18-05
comment posted at 2:21 PM on Jan-18-05
comment posted at 2:23 PM on Jan-18-05

Boxer Go Barbara Boxer
comment posted at 1:47 PM on Jan-18-05
comment posted at 1:55 PM on Jan-18-05
comment posted at 2:07 PM on Jan-18-05

Recent neuroscience research suggests that Democrats and Republicans are not nearly as far apart as they seem (NYT). Will an awareness that we are conning ourselves to feel alienated from each other help to close the political gap? Or, are we conned by science and the media?
comment posted at 11:12 AM on Jan-18-05

To set the record straight: While the country was busy with CBS and Rather's mistake, the story of Bush going AWOL was lost.
comment posted at 11:07 AM on Jan-17-05
comment posted at 11:25 AM on Jan-17-05

Authentic GOP.com Healing a divided America.
comment posted at 10:29 AM on Jan-17-05
comment posted at 10:32 AM on Jan-17-05
comment posted at 7:57 PM on Jan-17-05

Over the years, Bill O'Reilly has taken a strong, principled stand against untrustworthy and unscrupulous charities. He's not afraid to call out the crooked celebrities who shill for them, either. George Clooney is one such celebrity. Recently, O'Reilly has called into question the integrity of the United Way and its efforts to aid tsunami victims. Clooney has fired back, and even invited Bill to be on a telethon with him. After some sparring, Bill relented.
comment posted at 5:51 PM on Jan-16-05

Carnivore, the gold standard for conspiracy theory, has apparently been mothballed. An interesting element of this is that Carnivore has been removed from service not because it is invasive of civil liberties, but rather because it has failed to perform against commercially-available monitoring technologies. Of course, since we do not know what those technologies *are*, it may be that they have built into them considerations of individual rights to privacy that Carnivore could not be altered to respect. However, given the drift of the US on matters of data privacy, this seems unlikely... So, what are the programmes that do it better than Carnivore? What do they have to offer that Carniviore doesn't, or is it just the ISPs are now offering information straight to the government? And does this mean that it is no longer fashionable to append long strings of exciting-sounding nouns to emails? (Apologies if this is old news to the more plugged-in - this report has only just been released under FOI)
comment posted at 11:50 AM on Jan-16-05

Things can always get worse... Cars and trucks and harbours.....
comment posted at 4:11 PM on Jan-15-05

Farmer Homer McFarland is being sued for hundreds of thousands of dollars by the Monsanto corporation. His crime? Replanting his crops' own seed, as farmers have done for millennia, which violates the biotech giant's intellectual property rights, the company claims. Quietly, Monsanto's aggressive "seed police" have been suing farmers in 25 states for years, often settling out of court for huge sums, according to the Center for Food Safety's new report, Monsanto vs. US farmers [PDF link]. For more information, also see a new documentary called The Future of Food.
comment posted at 3:13 PM on Jan-15-05

Global dimming. It's official. Particulate pollution in the air has decreased the amount of sunlight reaching the earth. How much? A fraction of a percent? Try 10% globally over the past 50 years. Worse yet, global dimming is thought to be counteracting CO2 and its greenhouse effect, lessening the worldwide temperature increase called global warming. Why's that bad? Because, in the coming decades, particulate pollution is expected to level off, while CO2 emissions are expected to rise strongly, multiplying the effects of global warming as we know it. "That means a temperature rise of 10 degrees Celsius by 2100 could be on the cards, giving the UK a climate like that of North Africa, and rendering many parts of the world uninhabitable." Holy fucking shit! [via kottke]
comment posted at 8:08 PM on Jan-14-05

Mappr demonstrates the potential of open web APIs by plotting recently uploaded Flickr photos onto their locations using an interactive map of the US. Map24 mixes Mapquest and Keyhole (previously discussed here) by doing realtime zooming on your driving directions; good for not losing context on those tricky merges. The National Map lets you see overlaid info from the US government's geologic surveys. What are some of the best designed interactive map sites?
comment posted at 4:58 PM on Jan-12-05

Boycott Bush's inauguration by not spending any money on inauguration day
comment posted at 4:50 AM on Jan-12-05

Red, White and Blue Dogs of War Just found this story in The Nation about a decision by the Bush administration to hire Aegis Defense Services to protect U.S. diplomats in Iraq. The trouble is, its boss, ex-British Lt. Col. Tim Spicer, who is responsible for actually starting a coup in Papua New Guinea in 1996, among other things. Perhaps Bush, the free market disciple, is beginning to think that he needs to hire some mercs to make up for all the reserve and Guard guys quitting. If the Army needs more help and advice, they could hire this or that homegrown "consulting firm."
comment posted at 10:07 PM on Jan-11-05

Meet The Lucky Ones. (more...)
comment posted at 3:13 PM on Jan-11-05

If rats can distinguish between Japanese and Dutch , why would Elvis have looked like this at age 70?
comment posted at 5:18 PM on Jan-12-05

Meta meta meta self. Photographer Donald Andrew Agarrat plays -- er, poses with himself.
comment posted at 6:06 PM on Jan-8-05

Curious George Escapes the Nazis. A true story from a neat little exhibit about the life and work of H.A. and Margret Rey, German Jews who fled Paris on bicycle (with the unpublished Curious George manuscript as one of their few possessions) hours before the Nazis arrived. Lots of info, including Curious George's first appearance, Hans' famous book on astronomy, notes on the couple's lesser-known work and more.
comment posted at 1:08 PM on Jan-7-05

The Reality of Red-State Fascism, by Lew Rockwell. We consistently say "Man, we're on the road to fascism" yet people fall all over themselves to say "We're nowhere near it.". Well, when do we say "Holy shit...we're there"? Everybody's favorite libertarian gives us a timeline of the descent, and lets us know how we are now not just on the brink, but in the midst of Americanized Fascism:

"If you follow hate-filled sites such as Free Republic, you know that the populist right in this country has been advocating nuclear holocaust and mass bloodshed for more than a year now. The militarism and nationalism dwarfs anything I saw at any point during the Cold War. It celebrates the shedding of blood, and exhibits a maniacal love of the state...In 1994, the central state was seen by the bourgeoisie as the main threat to the family; in 2004 it is seen as the main tool for keeping the family together and ensuring its ascendancy. In 1994, the state was seen as the enemy of education; today, the same people view the state as the means of raising standards and purging education of its left-wing influences....it sees the state as the central organizing principle of society, views public institutions as the most essential means by which all these institutions are protected and advanced, and adores the head of state as a godlike figure who knows better than anyone else what the country and world's needs"
comment posted at 5:54 PM on Jan-6-05

Exxonsecrets - "How Exxonmobil Funds The Climate Change Skeptics" - a Flash-based tool (there are HTML-based fact-sheets available as well) to track the players, money, and Exxon's influence in various environmental issues. Designed for Greenpeace by Josh On (of Futurefarmers and TheyRule) and artist Amy Balkin...and via Doors of Perception.
comment posted at 10:01 AM on Jan-6-05

MC Chris is the pseudonym of Chris Ward, comedian, writer, and aspiring rap star. Most popular as the voice of Hesh on Sealab 2021, his site is a great little archive of silly (but good) songs, and improv comedy bits- some from his UCB Theater days with now-Daily Show reporter Ed Helms.
comment posted at 9:24 AM on Jan-6-05
comment posted at 9:39 AM on Jan-6-05

CNN Cans Tucker Carlson of 'Crossfire' - To quote chief executive of CNN Jonathan Klein, "I guess I come down more firmly in the Jon Stewart camp." (via)
comment posted at 7:03 PM on Jan-5-05

Is N+1's review of the Life Aquatic more than a bit snobbish or dead on? While I agree with much of the review, particularly how Life Aquatic seemed to lack a plot, I can't help but feel icky having read this. (Link via TMFTML)
comment posted at 2:49 PM on Jan-5-05

Where's the moral outrage?(pdf) It seems the Westboro Baptist Church is at it again...
comment posted at 1:05 PM on Jan-4-05

Kid Rock To Play Bush Inauguration ... The Bush Twins have invited Kid Rock to play their inauguration bash after their father is sworn in to a second term. Rock also played the Republican National Convention. This is a guy who stuck his head through an American flag at the Superbowl and has lyrics that say all women are whores and extol drug and alcohol abuse. (The link has actual lyrics from Rock, so if you are offended by cursing don't follow it.)
comment posted at 11:25 AM on Jan-4-05

"A growing body of evidence suggests that the meritocratic ideal is in trouble in America. Income inequality is growing to levels not seen since the Gilded Age, around the 1880s. But social mobility is not increasing at anything like the same pace: would-be Horatio Algers are finding it no easier to climb from rags to riches, while the children of the privileged have a greater chance of staying at the top of the social heap. The United States risks calcifying into a European-style class-based society."
comment posted at 2:56 PM on Jan-4-05

Marx Playsets at the Official Marx Toy Museum. Anybody remember them? [much more inside].
comment posted at 5:54 PM on Jan-2-05
comment posted at 6:41 PM on Jan-2-05

Unproduced Screenplays "The Writers Guild of America registers approximately 30,000 screenplays every year, most of which never make it anywhere near the silver screen. Some of these are by "big name" writers like James Cameron and The Wachowski Brothers." Presented here for your reading pleasure are: "Edward Ford" by Lem Dobbs, "One Saliva Bubble" by David Lynch & Mark Frost, "Red, White, Black, and Blue" by Andrew Kevin Walker, "Carnivore" by The Wachowski Brothers, "Alien 3" by David Twohy, "A Crowded Room" by James Cameron, and "I Am Legend" by Mark Protosevic.
comment posted at 6:44 PM on Jan-2-05

Our country is more humanitarian than YOURS is! No it's not. Yes it is. See? We donated more aid than you did. Well, we doubled our donation. So there. But yours are loans, not donations. Nuh uh. They're donations. Are not. Besides, we'll triple ours. And we'll send planes. You wouldn't. Watch us. Well then, we'll just octuple ours. Yeah? I bet you won't. I quadruple dog dare you. I hate you... you know that, right?
comment posted at 9:32 AM on Dec-31-04

The Global Baby Bust Summary: Most people think overpopulation is one of the worst dangers facing the globe. In fact, the opposite is true. As countries get richer, their populations age and their birthrates plummet. And this is not just a problem of rich countries: the developing world is also getting older fast. Falling birthrates might seem beneficial, but the economic and social price is too steep to pay. The right policies could help turn the tide, but only if enacted before it's too late.
comment posted at 4:39 PM on Dec-28-04

A call for Christian lawyers who have worked for the ACLU. The ACLU tries to be balanced , but considering the amount of effort they have put forth to inhibit Christian influence from/to the government, should a Christian lawyer work for them?
comment posted at 9:24 PM on Dec-27-04

Bush's suit bulge revisited: Originally it was thought to be a hidden radio prompter (that Bush laughed off in an interview). Others speculated it was a bullet proof vest, and maybe troutfishing almost got it right. So now, the latest theory is a portable defibrillator.
Is the president as healthy as they'd want us to believe?
(more inside)
via cryptome
comment posted at 12:06 PM on Dec-27-04

Phuket tsunami photo gallery. Crazy stuff. And the aftermath.
comment posted at 11:03 AM on Dec-27-04

+WAR +Iraq Poster Exhibit Graphic designers from multiple political POVs collaborate, and the gallery is up to 17 pages of thumbnalish posters since March, 2003. [via jennet.radio]
comment posted at 1:36 PM on Dec-26-04
comment posted at 5:32 PM on Dec-26-04

Santa Santa Santa Santa It's Friday, it's Flash, it's Christmas Eve, so....
comment posted at 11:37 AM on Dec-24-04

Why Pottersville is better than Bedford Falls. Merry Christmas you old building and loan!
comment posted at 1:10 AM on Dec-24-04

Santa Saves Time and Money by simply skipping over the Blue States. SNL still somehow relevant. TV Funhouse still on the good side of that damn shark.
comment posted at 2:45 PM on Dec-22-04

The Diebold Variations. Yes, I'm in a one-trick pony mood.
comment posted at 2:47 PM on Dec-20-04

Clinton Eugene Curtis gives sworn testimony to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary. [RealPlayer, sorry]
Yang Enterprises (YEI) respond.
Brad Friedman responds in kind.
... next ... previously ...
comment posted at 12:09 PM on Dec-19-04
comment posted at 12:14 PM on Dec-19-04
comment posted at 5:25 PM on Dec-19-04