Glenn Robinson, over-rated

The 76ers need to make a decision on Glenn Robinson tomorrow, when he is eligible to come off the injured list. They could trade him, buy out his contract, activate him or leave him in the limbo where he currently finds himself. Whatever they intend to do, president and general manager Billy King is not tipping his hand. King said the Sixers are actively shopping Robinson, a career 20.8-point scorer who has yet to play a game this season. But he indicated that talks with other teams aren't yielding the names of players who would appeal to the Sixers in return.

" Philadelphia Inquirer

Blog Move

I've moved my blog to Movable Type, and it is now updated here, until further notice.

That is, if I can get the freakin' template to comply with my idiosyncratic wishes!

Xanadu from the album "A Farewell to Kings" by Rush

Google to give Gmail POP3 support, plans antivirus

Cool. This was a feature I wanted from the get-go...

From Macworld:Google to give Gmail POP3 support, plans antivirus


Google Inc. will roll out POP3 (Post Office Protocol) support gradually over the coming weeks to Gmail users, who will be able to use the feature to download e-mail messages from Gmail servers to e-mail applications on devices such as PCs and wireless devices.

Scotland smoking ban to go ahead

I wouldn't object if this ban was also instituted more here in the big Spud. Coming home after a night in a bar, everything smells like stale smoke: clothes, hair, skin, dna. Or, make reefer smoke acceptable, I wouldn't mind having that lingering thc smell, even though I don't smoke myself.
From Scotland smoking ban to go ahead


Smoking is to be banned in enclosed public places in Scotland, the Scottish Executive decides.

The decision, which was a unanimous one by Scottish ministers, was announced in the Scottish Parliament by the First Minister, Jack McConnell.

Doctors and anti-tobacco groups had urged the executive to "be brave" and opt for a ban to improve public health.

Licensees have vowed to fight the ban, which follows similar moves by Ireland, Norway and parts of the USA.

Mr McConnell told MSPs that the ban would be in force from the spring of 2006.

Test

I have gotten frustrated with my blogger account, so signed up for a month with typepad. I might tackle using MovableType, but the installation looks like it isn't trivial. I printed instructions, but I might have to move B12 Partners to another host to use perl. Maybe not, but possibly.

I prefer having my blog on my own site, but blogger is really giving me problems and I'm tired of fighting just to make a post. Some could be possibly doteasy's fault, but who knows.

Company Again Touting Weird Soda Flavors

Blech

Company Again Touting Weird Soda Flavors (AP):


AP - Jones Soda Co. takes the idea of a liquid diet to a new low. How does Green Bean Casserole Soda strike you? And how about an aggressively buttery-smelling Mashed Potato Soda?



This week Jones Soda Co. launches a full meal deal of five Thanksgiving soda flavors, from the bile-colored Green Bean Casserole to the sweet — but slightly sickly — Fruitcake Soda. Last year's Turkey & Gravy is also back on the menu.

Wired News: File-Sharing Thrives Under Radar

Wired News: File-Sharing Thrives Under Radar:
A file-sharing program called BitTorrent has become a behemoth, devouring more than a third of the internet's bandwidth, and Hollywood's copyright cops are taking notice.


For those who know where to look, there's a wealth of content, both legal -- such as hip-hop from the Beastie Boys and video game promos -- and illicit, including a wide range of TV shows, computer games and movies.


Average users are taking advantage of the software's ability to cheaply spread files around the internet. For example, when comedian Jon Stewart made an incendiary appearance on CNN's political talk show Crossfire, thousands used BitTorrent to share the much-discussed video segment.


Even as lawsuits from music companies have driven people away from peer-to-peer programs like KaZaa, BitTorrent has thus far avoided the ire of groups such as the Motion Picture Association of America. But as BitTorrent's popularity grows, the service could become a target for copyright lawsuits.


According to British web analysis firm CacheLogic, BitTorrent accounts for an astounding 35 percent of all the traffic on the Internet -- more than all other peer-to-peer programs combined -- and dwarfs mainstream traffic like web pages.


"I don't think Hollywood is willing to let it slide, but whether they're able to (stop it) is another matter," Bram Cohen, the programmer who created BitTorrent, told Reuters.


John Malcolm, director of worldwide anti-piracy operations for the MPAA, said that his group is well aware of the vast amounts of copyrighted material being traded via BitTorrent.

....
BitTorrent, which is available for free, can be used to distribute legitimate content and to enable copyright infringement on a massive scale. The key is to understand how the software works.


....
BitTorrent's "file-swarming" software breaks the original digital file into fragments, then shares those fragments between all the users that have downloaded the "torrent." Then the software stitches together those fragments into a single file that a user can view on their PC.

Sites like Slovenia-based Suprnova offer up thousands of different torrents without storing the shows themselves. Suprnova is a treasure trove of movies, television shows, and pirated games and software. Funded by advertising, it is run by a teenage programmer who goes only by the name Sloncek, who did not respond to an e-mailed interview request.


"They're doing something flagrantly illegal, but getting away with it because they're offshore," said Cohen. He is not eager to get into a battle about how his creation is used. "To me, it's all bits," he said.
...
Meanwhile, BitTorrent is rapidly emerging as the preferred means of distributing large amounts of legitimate content such as versions of the free computer operating system Linux, and these benign uses may give it some legal protection.


"Almost any software that makes it easy to swap copyrighted files is ripe for a crackdown," said Harvard University associate law professor Jonathan Zittrain. "BitTorrent's turn at bat will definitely happen. At least under U.S. law, it's a bit more difficult to find the makers liable as long as the software is capable of being used for innocent uses, which I think (BitTorrent) surely is."


Among the best legitimate sites for movies and music:


• Legal Torrents, which includes a wide selection of electronic music. It also has the Wired magazine Creative Commons CD, which has songs from artists like the Beastie Boys who agreed to release some of their songs under a more permissive copyright that allows free distribution and remixing.
• Torrentocracy has videos of the U.S. presidential debates and other political materials.
• File Soup offers open-source software and freeware, music from artists whose labels don't belong to the Recording Industry Association of America trade group, and programs from public television stations like PBS or the BBC.
• Etree is for devotees of "trade-friendly" bands like Phish and the Dead, who encourage fans to share live recordings, usually in the form of large files that have been minimally compressed to maintain sound quality.

Howard refuses to congratulate Bush

Wow, it's something when a Tory thinks Bush is an asshole....
Guardian Unlimited | US elections 2004 | Howard refuses to congratulate Bush:

Michael Howard deepened his feud with the White House yesterday when he pointedly refused to offer the traditional post-election congratulations to George Bush.

Angered by a White House edict banning him from meeting the president - as punishment for criticising Tony Blair over Iraq - Mr Howard said it would be wrong for him to express any view on the poll.

In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph the arch-Atlanticist was asked whether he was pleased that a fellow rightwinger had beaten a liberal. He said: "I made it clear that I could work perfectly well with both President Bush and President Kerry ... I don't think it's appropriate to express a view on those elections."

Mr Howard's remarks may appear bland. But in the language of diplomacy they amount to a rebuke to Mr Bush - and in particular to his polling guru, Karl Rove, who told him he would not be welcome at the White House after he criticised Mr Blair's use of intelligence before the Iraq war.

Mr Rove was reported by the Sun as telling Howard aides: "You can forget about him meeting the president. Don't bother coming."

In his interview Mr Howard hit back at Mr Rove, who is widely credited with masterminding President Bush's decisive victory. Criticising the White House for being "very protective" of Mr Blair, he added: "I am not going to be told by anyone how to do my job and if it displeases those in the White House, that's tough."

Andrew Sullivan is evil

I watched Bill Maher's last HBO show, before hiatus, with his guest, the irritatingly smug and duplicitous Andrew Sullivan, but TiVo cut out the last minute or so, where apparently Sullivan started massaging his own buttocks.

James Wolcott caught it however:

The strangest thing in the broadcast happened when the show was over. The panelists stood, Sullivan's back to the camera, and as the credits rolled, he began squeezing, massaging his own buttocks with his hands. I thought he might be trying to dislodge a thong strap that had run up rather deep, but no, he seemed to be feeling up his own butt. I've never seen anything quite like it, unless I was hallucinating, and if I start hallucinating about Andrew Sullivan copping a feel of his own butt, it's time to check into the clinic for a little Elizabeth Wurtzel layoff.


So I beg any blogger able to do a "screen-grab," if you're pardon the expression, to study the last few minutes of this week's Real Time with Bill Maher and assure me my mind's not playing mad tricks.

Sullivan is such an ass, the B12 viewing party had to stop the show periodically to yell at the screen in disgust. I especially hate his repeated point that Kerry lost because of liberal elitist condescension towards Red-Staters. Uh, huh. I'm sure there were so many Christian Evangelicals who were going to vote for Kerry, but because they heard that Tim Robbins was campaigning for Kerry, they changed their minds and voted for Bush instead. Puh-lease.

Sullivan also tried to portray liberals and especially Michael Moore and Noam Chomsky (looking a little older than last time I've seen him speak) as America-haters. Sullivan, you jack-ass, I've heard both men repeatedly proclaim America is a great country, and that neither would want to live anywhere else. Since when does criticism of policy equal rabid-foam-mouthed hatred?


Wolcott again:

Like an infant banging his spoon on the high-chair tray, Sullivan threw quite a tantrum last night after Maher had the GALL to interview Noam Chomsky. Sullivan sputtered that Chomsky made "millions" going around the world telling audiences America was "evil." Now I don't pretend to have read or heard all of the millions of words Chomsky has written and spoken, but "evil" doesn't seem to be a prominent word in his vocabulary, being so theological; he tends to talk in terms of brutal realpolitick and self-interest. And it's highly unlikely he's raking in "millions"--if he is, he isn't splurging on wardrobe and pimpmobiles.


Since every war criminal in the current Bush administration will be able to command huge honoraria on the lecture circuit and lucrative positions on corporate boards once they leave the bloodshed behind, working up ire over a professor's speaking fees seems a bit much.


Unable to impart the red depths of Chomsky's villainy to host and panel, Sullivan attacked Chomsky for being symptomatic of an America-hating elitist left.

Abortion Remark by G.O.P. Senator Puts Heat on Peers

Abortion Remark by G.O.P. Senator Puts Heat on Peers:


Conservatives demanded that Republicans prevent Senator Arlen Specter from presiding over the Judiciary Committee.

Angry conservatives flooded Senate phone and fax lines on Friday demanding that Republicans prevent Senator Arlen Specter from presiding over the Judiciary Committee after he remarked that strongly anti-abortion judicial nominees might be rejected in the Senate.

Republican lawmakers and top Senate aides, speaking privately for the most part, said the uproar from the right was becoming an impediment for Mr. Specter, a Pennsylvania lawmaker who has coveted the chairmanship. They said while it was likely he would still get the post, it was no longer a certainty.

So, to my Republican "friends", when you claim that Bush doesn't really want to end abortion, what do you make of this?

Americans flock to Canada's immigration website (Reuters)

Americans flock to Canada's immigration website (Reuters):


Reuters - The number of U.S. citizens visiting Canada's main immigration
website has shot up six-fold as Americans flirt with the idea of abandoning their homeland after
President George W. Bush's election win this week.

Ha, me too baby!

Read Books, Get Brain Yahoo! News - Read a Book, Get Oral Sex?

Yahoo! News - Read a Book, Get Oral Sex?:

New York officials were red-faced on Friday after they discovered that clothing ads on city buses that appeared to promote reading suggested a love of books could be rewarded with oral sex.

The advertisements that ran on about 200 buses across the city in recent months carried posters displaying a suggestively posed woman in hot pants kneeling among a pile of books beside the snappy slogan "Read Books, Get Brain."

What unhip, unsuspecting local transportation officials did not know was that "get brain" is street slang for oral sex.

The ads -- from hip-hop clothing maker Akademiks, which intended the double-entendre -- was stripped off New York buses on Friday after transportation officials discovered the street slang meaning.

Postal Service Tale: Indie Rock, Snail Mail and Trademark Law

Postal Service: Give UpNot my favorite release of 2003, but still a decent release.

Tale: Indie Rock, Snail Mail and Trademark Law:
For the Los Angeles-Seattle based music duo, keeping your name means promoting the mail service.

About two and a half years ago, Jimmy Tamborello and Ben Gibbard began to make music together despite the distance between them. Mr. Tamborello, who makes electronica with a group called Dntel, lived in Los Angeles, while Mr. Gibbard, who sings in the emo band Death Cab for Cutie, lived in Seattle. They sent each other music through the mail, completing songs bit by bit, and after about five months, they had finished an album.


In honor of their working method they called themselves the Postal Service. Their album, "Give Up," was released by the Seattle-based Sub Pop Records in early 2003 and became an indie-rock hit, eventually selling almost 400,000 copies, the label's second biggest seller ever, after Nirvana's "Bleach."

Then they heard from the real Postal Service, in the form of a cease-and-desist letter.

"It was really polite," said Tony Kiewel, an artist and repertory representative at Sub Pop who works with the band. "It said that the Postal Service is a registered trademark of the United States Postal Service, and that though they were very, very flattered that we were using the name, they need to enforce their copyright."

The letter arrived in August 2003, and for months the label and the band fretted over the consequences: Would the band have to change its name? Would Sub Pop have to destroy its stock of the album?

The outcome was as unusual as the band itself: this week the United States Postal Service - the real one, as in stamps and letters - signed an agreement with Sub Pop granting a free license to use the name in exchange for working to promote using the mail. Future copies of the album and the group's follow-up work will have a notice about the trademark, while the federal Postal Service will sell the band's CD's on its Web site, potentially earning a profit. The band may do some television commercials for the post office.

The group also agreed to perform at the postmaster general's annual National Executive Conference in Washington on Nov. 17. The attendees might not realize what a rare treat they are in for since the Postal Service does not play many gigs. Mr. Tamborello and Mr. Gibbard are busy with their regular bands: Dntel, with its atmospheric electronic dance music, and Death Cab for Cutie, which has become a college rock favorite for its heartfelt, jangly punk rock known as emo.

HAVAS AGENCIES WIN VONAGE ADVERTISING ACCOUNT

HAVAS AGENCIES WIN VONAGE ADVERTISING ACCOUNT:
Internet phone service pioneer Vonage, in a tough battle to maintain market share in the emerging market, said it has awarded its estimated $50 million to $75 million advertising account to Havas-owned agencies, including MPG and Arnold One.

Arnold Worldwide, including its interactive unit, Arnold One, will handle creative, while MPG picks up the media buying and planning portion.
Online ad spenderVonage spends the majority of its media online, and the MPG unit Media Contacts, Boston, will have primary responsibility for the account, the executives said.

Man Date

The 51% Mandate:
I have to admit that I am a little confused by all this talk of "man date" by Republican leaders in the days since the election. I thought they were opposed to same-sex fooling around. Some of them even embrace the idea of a "solid" man date.

You might forgive my confusion, however. I heard and read that word so often on Thursday my head is still spinning.

As Doyle McManus and Janet Hook of the Los Angeles Times put it, Bush aides "repeatedly" made the point that their man had won by such a wide margin he should be given full rein to institute new policies (or perhaps enact new wars). Did McManus and Hook consider this a bit overblown? No, they repeated the talking point, declaring that "Bush can claim a solid mandate of 51% of the vote."

A Wall Street Journal editorial called the mandate "decisive." To the New York Sun it was an "extraordinary mandate." Charles Krauthammer in The Washington Post said the "endorsement" was "resounding." Bill Kristol of the Weekly Standard capitalized the word, saying that Bush's Mandate was greater than the Nixon landslide of 1972 and Reagan's sweep in 1984. Peggy Noonan got so excited that she paraphrased Bush in his victory speech saying, "Honey, I'm not just going to lower your taxes. I am transforming the tax system."

Now, where I come from, 51% is considered a bare majority, not a comfortable margin. If only 51% percent of my family or my editorial staff think I am doing a good job, I might look to moderate my behavior, not repeat or enlarge it. At the minimum, I would not assert that I was overwhelmingly popular.

Yet here was one reporter or columnist after another obligingly using the term mandate, after Vice President Cheney delivered it from on high on Wednesday. We'd expect that from Peggy Noonan (and more), but not necessarily from the many mainstream reporters who endorsed the idea. Here's David Sanger in today's New York Times: "Mr. Bush no longer has to pretend that he possesses a clear electoral mandate. Because for the first time in his presidency, he can argue that he has the real thing."

Mindshare wins another account

Good year for Mindshare apparently. According to today's AdAge:

WPP Group's MindShare has won Unilever's $1.25 billion European media account, besting Interpublic Group-owned incumbent Initiative and Aegis Group's Carat, the client confirmed today.

Initiative had held the Unilever business in every market across Europe, with the exceptions of Italy and Germany, where MindShare held the account.

Simmons on Sacramento Kings

Funny, pointed NBA pre-season prediction column by Bill Simmons, includes this:

ESPN.com: Page 2 - The rest in the West:

Sacramento
Can't you see the "What's wrong with the Kings?" story in Sports Illustrated coming in about six weeks? The full-page picture of C-Webb screaming at a ref, along with the headline, "ROYAL PAINS" or "KINGS OF DYSFUNCTION"? These guys have just been together a little too long.


A quick recap: Peja has been demanding a trade since Vlade left. C-Webb missed 102 games over the past 3 seasons, can't jump anymore and still took the time to blast his teammates this summer. He's a delight. There isn't a more untradeable guy in the league. Also, the Bibby-Jackson leadership issue has never been entirely resolved. Doug Christie is still around, which means Mrs. Christie is still around. Rick Adelman's "Ultimate Adelman: The 25 Most Memorable Playoff Collapses of the Last 15 Years" is being released by NBA Entertainment this Friday. And if that's not enough, the Maloofs are bitching about a new arena.


You know what? I feel good about this one. That was easy.


(Where's the old guy and the blonde lady from "The Apprentice" when I need them?)

I haven't gotten too excited about the Kings prospects this year, but who knows. I do expect Adelman to get fired, unless the Kings go to the Finals this year.

TomPaine.com - Kerry Won

the often essential Greg Palast on the stolen election....TomPaine.com - Kerry Won:

Kerry won. Here's the facts.


I know you don't want to hear it. You can't face one more hung chad. But I don't have a choice. As a journalist examining that messy sausage called American democracy, it's my job to tell you who got the most votes in the deciding states. Tuesday, in Ohio and New Mexico, it was John Kerry.


Most voters in Ohio thought they were voting for Kerry. CNN's exit poll showed Kerry beating Bush among Ohio women by 53 percent to 47 percent. Kerry also defeated Bush among Ohio's male voters 51 percent to 49 percent. Unless a third gender voted in Ohio, Kerry took the state.


So what's going on here? Answer: the exit polls are accurate. Pollsters ask, "Who did you vote for?" Unfortunately, they don't ask the crucial, question, "Was your vote counted?" The voters don't know.


Here's why. Although the exit polls show that most voters in Ohio punched cards for Kerry-Edwards, thousands of these votes were simply not recorded. This was predictable and it was predicted. [See TomPaine.com, "An Election Spoiled Rotten," November 1.]


Once again, at the heart of the Ohio uncounted vote game are, I'm sorry to report, hanging chads and pregnant chads, plus some other ballot tricks old and new.


The election in Ohio was not decided by the voters but by something called "spoilage." Typically in the United States, about 3 percent of the vote is voided, just thrown away, not recorded. When the bobble-head boobs on the tube tell you Ohio or any state was won by 51 percent to 49 percent, don't you believe it ... it has never happened in the United States, because the total never reaches a neat 100 percent. The television totals simply subtract out the spoiled vote.


And not all vote spoil equally. Most of those votes, say every official report, come from African American and minority precincts. (To learn more, click here.)


We saw this in Florida in 2000. Exit polls showed Gore with a plurality of at least 50,000, but it didn't match the official count. That's because the official, Secretary of State Katherine Harris, excluded 179,855 spoiled votes. In Florida, as in Ohio, most of these votes lost were cast on punch cards where the hole wasn't punched through completely?leaving a 'hanging chad,'?or was punched extra times. Whose cards were discarded? Expert statisticians investigating spoilage for the government calculated that 54 percent of the ballots thrown in the dumpster were cast by black folks. (To read the report from the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, click here .)


And here's the key: Florida is terribly typical. The majority of ballots thrown out (there will be nearly 2 million tossed out from Tuesday's election) will have been cast by African American and other minority citizens.

lots more here, but it's too depressing to respond to, other than with the use of chemical substances which may or may not be illegal (depending if you live in a red state that's banned alcohol yet)

'Tis of Thee

'Tis of Thee:



(It's gone viral.)

yikes. I guess I already live outside of JesusLand, so it could be worse, much worse...

So you want to move to Canada?

So you want to move to Canada?:


David Cohen, partner of Cohen-Campbell, a leading Canadian immigration law firm, had barely settled into work Wednesday morning when his phone started ringing with Americans seeking legal guidance to taking up residence in the land of the maple leaf. The Bush victory did it, they told him: America's shift to the right had finally squeezed them out of their own country. Farewell Ten Commandment statues in public squares, hello single-payer health care.

ha, ha. I suppose if one were born in Canada in the first place, entry might be even easier.... but wouldn't this mean the terrorists win?

Graham Greene Biography, Heavy on Sex, Draws Some Outrage

Graham Greene Biography, Heavy on Sex, Draws Some Outrage:


The final volume of Norman Sherry's three-part, 2,251-page biography of Graham Greene was supposed to be the capstone of an obsessive 30-year undertaking.

I might have to check this out...sex always sells, and Graham Greene is on my reading list.

US attack on Iran 'inconceivable'

US attack on Iran 'inconceivable':


UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw says it is "inconceivable" that the US would try to bomb Iran.



Ha, we'll see how prescient Jack Straw actually is. Can we wager?

NRDC: The Bush Record - Bush budget cuts lead poisoning prevention funding

NRDC: The Bush Record - Bush budget cuts lead poisoning prevention funding:

The Bush administration's proposed 2005 budget slashes federal funding to prevent lead poisoning by $35 million. The national lead prevention program is aimed at providing expert evaluations and repairs for homes in an effort to prevent young children from being exposed to lead-tainted paint particles, dust or soil. The toxic metal can cause permanent brain damage and learning disabilities. Although cases of lead poisoning in children under the age of six have sharply declined in the past decade, nearly 435,000 children suffered from lead poisoning in 2000. That year experts determined that approximately 38 million homes contained poisonous lead paint. The whopping 20 percent funding reduction called for by President Bush could leave some 40,000 homes contaminated with lead next year.

"No excuses, the Bush administration should get the lead out," said NRDC scientist Jennifer Sass

yeah, would be funny, if it wasn't scary.....

What May Lie Ahead for Business in America

I wonder if soup lines that wrap around the block would make these "sighs of relief" echo louder?


What May Lie Ahead for Business in America:


A special report. From Wall Street to Detroit, there were plenty of sighs of relief. But the mood was tempered by worries.

But even as stocks rose on the news, the exuberant mood of business executives was tempered by worries about continuing high prices of oil, the nation's ballooning budget deficit and the increasing cost of health care. Military contractors, for example, expect that the Pentagon budget will flatten out, forcing the government to rein in spending for new weapons programs, as it needs to put more money into the war in Iraq.

And all employers - but particularly the auto industry, which is footing the bill for health benefits for thousands of retirees - are worried about the brisk rise in medical costs and whether the administration has a realistic plan for dealing with the problem.

The telecommunications and media industries expect the White House and their regulators to continue to step back and allow greater industry consolidation, even as regulators are faced with major decisions about the future of Internet and telephone services.

But the biggest smiles yesterday came from Wall Street executives, who were pleased with the tax cuts in the first Bush term and hope for more of the same from the second.

fuck you all.

Election blues

I would have posted this earlier, but blogger was overloaded with everyone's election 'commentary' and gnashing of teeth...

FYI, here is the RSS for the blogger status page





bleh

Bush to 'unite' US in second term

Bush to 'unite' US in second term:


President Bush prepares to return to work after his re-election and vows to "reach out" to a divided nation.

Ha. What are the odds that this will be the last time anyone uses the word "Unite" and "Bush" in the same paragraph, except in bitter sarcasm?

Zabernism

From Word of the Day

zabernism (ZAB-uhr-niz-uhm) noun

The misuse of military power; aggression; bullying.

[After Zabern, German name for Saverne, a village in Alsace, France.
In 1912, in this village, a German military officer killed a lame
cobbler who smiled at him.]

"Both countries have been slaves to Kruppism and Zabernism--because they
were sovereign and free! So it will always be. So long as patriotic cant
can keep the common man jealous of international controls over his
belligerent possibilities, so long will he be the helpless slave of the
foreign threat, and 'Peace' remain a mere name for the resting phase
between wars."
H.G. Wells; In The Fourth Year: Anticipations of a World Peace; 1918.

And what is Kruppism? It's an eponym, coined after Alfred Krupp (1812-1887),
German industrialist and armament manufacturer. It implies indiscriminate
trade in arms and war profiteering.

more blogger errors

I suppose I shouldn't have thought I could make changes to my template on probably blogger's busiest day ever, but still - since google purchased blogger, I assumed the underlying services would be more robust. Bleh....

There were errors. (Hide status messages)

004 dk.eos.net.FtpError: Too many users - please try again later.

NORML Home / News Archive / 2004 / Special News Release

NORML Home / News Archive / 2004 /

Police arrested an estimated 755,187 persons for marijuana violations in 2003, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's annual Uniform Crime Report, released today. The total is the highest ever recorded by the FBI, and comprised 45 percent of all drug arrests in the United States.

"These numbers belie the myth that police do not target and arrest minor marijuana offenders," said Keith Stroup, Executive Director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), who noted that at current rates, a marijuana smoker is arrested every 42 seconds in America. "This effort is a tremendous waste of criminal justice resources, costing American taxpayers approximately $7.6 billion dollars annually. These dollars would be better served combating serious and violent crime, including the war on terrorism."

Of those charged with marijuana violations, 88 percent - some 662,886 Americans - were charged with possession only. The remaining 92,301 individuals were charged with "sale/manufacture," a category that includes all cultivation offenses - even those where the marijuana was being grown for personal or medical use. In past years, approximately 30 percent of those arrested were age 19 or younger.

"Present policies have done little if anything to decrease marijuana's availability or dissuade youth from trying it," Stroup said, noting that a majority of young people now report that they have easier access to pot than alcohol or tobacco.

The total number of marijuana arrests for 2003 far exceeded the total number of arrests for all violent crimes combined, including murder, manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault.

Marijuana arrests for 2003 increased 8 percent from the previous year, and have nearly doubled since 1993.

"Arresting adults who smoke marijuana responsibly needlessly destroys the lives of tens of thousands of otherwise law abiding citizens each year," Stroup said.

Hey, hey, EPA How many kids did you kill today?

What a crock of shit. Nov 3, baby.


Chemical Industry Funds Aid EPA Study (washingtonpost.com):

The Environmental Protection Agency has agreed to accept $2 million from the American Chemistry Council to help fund a study exploring the impact of pesticides and household chemicals on young children, prompting an outcry from environmentalists.

The Children's Environmental Exposure Research Study -- known by its acronym CHEERS -- does not mark the first time the agency has accepted chemical industry money to conduct research; the Clinton administration signed similar agreements. But it represents the most money the chemical trade group has given the EPA. The chemical industry council represents about 135 manufacturers and spends $20 million a year on research.

...Environmental Working Group President Kenneth A. Cook questioned why an agency with a $572 million research budget needed to accept industry contributions to conduct scientific research.

"It simply is not credible that a $7.8 billion agency that employs almost 18,000 people has to go to the chemical industry to get $2 million for a crucial study to see if chemicals hurt kids," he said. "This is a government function; we should be investing government funds to be absolutely sure it's independent."


But Cook said he remained concerned industry officials could still influence a study that could lay the groundwork for future regulation. "To have industry sponsoring the government to do it, to us, doesn't seem like a good idea, to say the least," Cook said.

NAACP Faces IRS Investigation (washingtonpost.com)

Another crock. How about the Moonie organization? how about Pat Robertson? and a million other 'tax-exempt' organizations, who happen to support Republicans? Can we throw these bums out already?


NAACP Faces IRS Investigation (washingtonpost.com):

The Internal Revenue Service has threatened to revoke the NAACP's tax-exempt status because the civil rights group's chairman, Julian Bond, "condemned the administration policies of George W. Bush" during a speech this summer, according to documents the group provided yesterday.


The NAACP, which is based in Baltimore and is the nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization, is incorporated under a tax-code section that prohibits participation in a political campaign. The group has long had a strained relationship with the Bush administration.

test

blogger screwing up again

Pippen: Praising the other '33'

Bill Simmons praises one of my favorite NBA players, Scottie Pippen.....

ESPN.com: Page 2 - Praising the other '33':
You don't define a career by one play that wasn't.
... you probably wonder why Scottie's recent retirement wasn't a bigger story. It's not every day one of the 20 greatest players ever hangs it up, right? Does MJ win six rings without him? Does anyone even consider the concept of a point forward? Did any other small forward affect a game in more ways? Was there a more influential defensive player in the past 30 years?


During the 1992 Olympics, Chuck Daly called Scottie his second-best player, describing him as the ultimate "fill-in-the-blanks guy." That's right. Like The Wolf in "Pulp Fiction," Scottie specialized in cleaning up everyone else's mess. When Magic was running amok in the 1991 Finals, Scottie shut him down. When the Knicks were shoving the Bulls around in the 1994 playoffs, Scottie dunked on Ewing, then stood over him defiantly. During the Charles Smith game the year before, Pippen and Horace Grant were the ones stuffing Smith again and again. And when the 1998 Pacers tried to snuff out the MJ era, Jordan and Pippen crashed the boards and willed themselves time and again to the foul line in Game 7, two smaller guys dominating the paint against a bigger team. They just wanted it more

....

which was precisely what happened in 1994 during MJ's first sabbatical. Scottie (20.8 ppg, 8.7 rpg, 5.6 apg, 49% FG) came within a fishy foul on Hubert Davis from taking Chicago to the Finals. How did he not win the MVP award? Pippen detractors conveniently forget that season, just like they ignore the older Scottie leading Portland to within one self-destructive quarter of the 2000 Finals, or gutting through the 1998 playoffs with two herniated disks, in the process jeopardizing his crack at free agency. It's easy to dismiss him as Jordan's sidekick.

Bankruptcy

Bloomberg notes bin Laden's strategy, in a nutshell.....

Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden said he is trying to bankrupt the U.S. through its war on terror, a strategy he says felled the Soviet Union two decades ago in Afghanistan, according to a translation by al-Jazeera television of his full, videotaped statement.

``The mujahedeen recently forced Bush to resort to emergency funds to continue the fight in Afghanistan and Iraq, which is evidence of the success of the bleed-until-bankruptcy plan -- with Allah's permission,'' bin Laden said in the video that aired on the Qatar-based satellite network, according to the translation, posted today to al-Jazeera's Web site. The channel aired portions of the statement on Oct. 29.

President George W. Bush's administration plans to seek an additional $70 billion from lawmakers for Iraq and Afghanistan, the head of the U.S. Army Materiel Command, General Paul Kern, said on Oct. 26. The U.S. Congress last year approved $87 billion for military operations and rebuilding in the two countries.

Bin Laden's video appearance, his first since September 2003, came four days before the Nov. 2 presidential vote in which Bush's anti-terrorism policies will play a central role. Bush's challenger, Democratic Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, said in debates and campaign speeches that the president should have focused on capturing bin Laden rather than invading Iraq.

Dept of meaningless coincidences

No doubt, this is hokum, but hey, whatever, at least it picks the right winner.....

Yahoo! News - Redskins loss bad news for Bush:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Washington Redskins have lost their final home football game before the U.S. presidential election -- and that's great news for Democratic Senator John Kerry and bad news for President George W. Bush

In every presidential election since 1936, the Redskins' last home game has accurately predicted the winner. If they win, the incumbent president's party wins. If they lose, the challenger wins.



The Redskins lost to Green Bay 28-14 on Sunday and Kerry quickly celebrated.



"I think it's a good tradition to follow," Kerry told reporters on his campaign plane. "I think the country should stay with tradition, don't you?"