Category: Links

Some additional reading December 16th from 01:33 to 01:50:

• Not so sweet on Caroline – Ben Smith and Glenn Thrush – Politico.com – “She’s never demonstrated much appetite for the folksy, repetitive rituals of retail politics. The most potent argument being used against her, however, is the little matter of Kennedy’s backing of Barack Obama in the primary over New York’s native (if adopted) daughter Clinton, a genteel betrayal many Clinton supporters haven’t quite forgotten. “Special elections should be the norm instead of simply appointing via whim of the Governor, in Illinois, in NY, wherever.

• 

• Bill Kristol defends UAW. ‘ I don’t think it’s very smart for a bunch of Southern Republicans to decide the future’ of GOP – An average automobile, 10% of the cost comes from wages and they were going to cut wages by ten or twenty percent, so it’s one or two percent of the cost of the automobile

Some additional reading December 14th from 13:14 to 16:25:

• Chicagoist: Christmas Cocktails: Glögg, Glögg, Glögg, Glögg… -Chuck Sudo’s Bridgeport Bureau glögg. You can buy these at any supermarket or drugstore. It doesn’t have to be ultra-expensive:

  – Two parts (one 750ml bottle) of port wine. Chicagoist uses a ruby port because of its deep fruit palate and color. You can use a tawny port, but it’s a bit sharper and the fruit aspects of the wine are lighter.

  – One part (375 ml- 12.5 ounces) of brandy or cognac.

  – One cup of vodka. If you want to go truly native (read: Scandinavian) you can use aquavit Mull the port wine with one teaspoon cloves, one teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg, 1/4 teaspoon whole cardamom, and one small peeled ginger root, wrapped and tied off in cheesecloth. Mull the hard spirits with 1/4 cup almonds, 1/4 cup raisins, 2 pinches dried banana, 2 pinches dried pineapple or dried apple, and fresh ornage peel, tied up in cheesecloth. Add 1/2 cup of brown sugar or honey to the spirits mixture and stir to dissolve. Mull both of these over a medium low heat.

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• detritus.: an antidote – “I am not discouraged. Things will right themselves. The pendulum swings one way, and then another, but the steady pull of gravitation is toward the center of the earth. Any structure must be plumb to endure. So it is with Nations: Wrong may seem to triumph. Right may seem to be defeated, but the gravitation of eternal justice is toward the throne of God. Any political institution which is to endure must be plumb with that line of justice.” From a speech Illinois Governor John Peter Altgeldt gave once upon a time, now etched into his tombstone at Graceland Cemetery in Chicago.

A few interesting links for December 12th through December 13th:

• Bush’s Final F.U. : Rolling Stone – “But if George Bush has his way, the country will be ruled by his slash-and-burn ideology for a long time to come.

  In its final days, the administration is rushing to implement a sweeping array of “midnight regulations” — de facto laws issued by the executive branch — designed to lock in Bush’s legacy. Under the last- minute rules, which can be extremely difficult to overturn, loaded firearms would be allowed in national parks, uranium mining would be permitted near the Grand Canyon and many injured consumers would no longer be able to sue negligent manufacturers in state courts. Other rules would gut the Endangered Species Act, open millions of acres of wild lands to mining, restrict access to birth control and put local cops to work spying for the federal government.”

• Bloomberg.com: Fed Refuses to Disclose Recipients of $2 Trillion – The Federal Reserve refused a request by Bloomberg News to disclose the recipients of more than $2 trillion of emergency loans from U.S. taxpayers and the assets the central bank is accepting as collateral.
  The Fed responded Dec. 8, saying it’s allowed to withhold internal memos as well as information about trade secrets and commercial information. The institution confirmed that a records search found 231 pages of documents pertaining to some of the requests.
  Congress is demanding more transparency from the Fed and Treasury on bailout, most recently during Dec. 10 hearings by the House Financial Services committee when Representative David Scott, a Georgia Democrat, said Americans had “been bamboozled.”

  Damn! That’s brazen!



• Lee Bey: The Urban Observer: When Life Came to Chicago – On my list of things to do is explore the Life Magazine archive just like Lee Bey has done. There’s a lot of good stuff newly available.
  “This photo and the ones below come courtesy of Life magazine. The digitized archives of the once world-famous photo magazine are now only a Google away. See the archive here. And there’s more to come. The Google people are going to add 10 million photos over the next few months.

  Naturally I was drawn to the Chicago stuff.”

Some additional reading December 10th from 08:23 to 13:00:

• SAB, Joshua 5 – 5:2 At that time the LORD said unto Joshua, Make thee sharp knives, and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time. (5:2-3)
  At God's command, Joshua makes some knives and circumcises "again the children of Israel the second time" (ouch!) at the "hill of the foreskins."

  5:3 And Joshua made him sharp knives, and circumcised the children of Israel at the hill of the foreskins.
  5:4 And this is the cause why Joshua did circumcise: All the people that came out of Egypt, that were males, even all the men of war, died in the wilderness by the way, after they came out of Egypt.
  5:5 Now all the people that came out were circumcised: but all the people that were born in the wilderness by the way as they came forth out of Egypt, them they had not circumcised.

• The Brick Testament – Ok, I'm not sure if this is creepy, funny, or just wacked out.
  "At this time Yahweh told Joshua, 'Make flint knives and circumcise the Israelites a second time.'"
  A biblical tale, told by Lego figures.



• Whole Story » Blog Archive » Dr. Bronner’s Soap and Whole Trade Guarantee – I've been using Dr Bronner's Soap since at least 1987…
  "Dr. Bronner’s Magical Soap was one of the first Whole Body products offered at our original Whole Foods Market store in Austin, Texas in 1980. Over the years Dr. Bronner’s and Whole Foods Market have successfully grown their business in parallel, always committed to caring for the communities and environment around them. Today Dr. Bronner’s and Whole Foods Market have taken great strides towards improving the lives of producers in Third World countries with the fair trade certification of Dr. Bronner’s ingredients and the establishment of the Whole Trade Guarantee."
• Daley: Mistakes were made in snow removal | Clout Street – local political coverage – "Does this mean I'll no longer be able to celebrate the first salt storm of each winter, when salt drifts pile up around cars, people with high blood pressure stay inside to avoid raising their blood pressure, and on certain blocks on the southwest side, eastern european gather the salt harvest for the big community cabbage-pickling?

  This city uses way too much salt. If we've finally conquered the weird Bilandic-inspired snow fetish, it's about time."

  LOL…



• Norm Coleman Under Investigation – "Yet another politician is being investigated on corruption charges. The latest FBI investigation involves Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman, according to the St. Paul Pioneer Press, who's locked in a prolonged recount battle with Democrat Al Franken."
• What Was Blagojevich Thinking? | The American Prospect – "Blago got in trouble precisely because he wanted to cut off dependency on Mell, and build his own political machine. Apparently that is why he has been shaking down campaign contributions from just about anyone looking to do business with the state.

  (I first heard about Blago's backstabbing when I got a call from a couple of dissatisfied loyalists in Papa Mell's camp after the 2002 election. They said the old man was heartbroken over Blago's betrayal. I took them out to eat at an Italian restaurant, and fed them pasta, and listened while they spun a tale of treachery that rivaled Shakespeare for all of its deceit.)

  By the end of Blago's first term, his feud with Mell was front-page news, as was the fact that federal prosecutors were closing in on him with their relentless investigation."



• He's the clown, but joke's on us — chicagotribune.com – "Political corruption in the state that has made corruption an art form isn't funny, like a clown. The joke is on all of us, everyone who lives in Illinois. Because Blagojevich was elected governor on the reform ticket, promising to clean up the state and end business as usual.

  Chicagoans aren't really surprised. This is the state run by the Combine, with the Democratic machine on one side and the Republican insiders on the other, and the Chicago Outfit forming the base. That is the real iron triangle.

  Blagojevich was supported by the machine and by the now-indicted Republican power broker Big Bill Cellini. If that's not reform, what is?"

Some additional reading December 9th from 11:21 to 19:17:

• Now with the recyling downturn – Disarranging Mine – "As to the recycling situation specifically, the prices paid for waste paper crashed suddenly, and now those who broker the stuff for sale overseas — waste paper is one of our leading exports by weight; it comes back to the States as packaging — can't get rid of it. Out here in California, recycling centers are sitting on mountains of recycling and in some cases are having to rent land to store the stuff or just send it to landfills."

  Ru-oh. Our building just started paying our garbage contractor more to pick up recycling too, now what?

• It’s on: Telstra strikes to go ahead | Dileys ONLINE – "Unionised Telstra workers are officially ready to strike for
  better pay, with voting results released this afternoon and last week showing the majority of workers recently polled were in favour of industrial action.

  (Credit: On Strike by swanksalot, CC2.0 )"



• Trib bankruptcy a Zell of a deal :: rogerebert.com :: Opinion – "Zell recently observed that no paper ever made money because of its Pulitzers. I would add that no paper ever made money because of its putzes, which Zell has proven. The lesson here is that journalists create newspapers, and their owners should be in sympathy with that purpose. Sam Zell made his purchase because he wanted to make money.

  There are quicker ways to make money than buying newspapers, although for some people, few more satisfying. When I told my mom I wanted to be a newspaperman, she said, “Oh, honey, if that’s what you want to do, I suppose so. But they don’t make any money.” Even she knew that."

• David Byrne 12.05.08: Mattel, Bratz and Creative Rights – "remember reading about the Bratz dolls a year or so ago — the designer tried to get Mattel interested in the line, but with their traditional and long-standing emphasis on the All American Breasts of Barbie, they passed. So, the designer went elsewhere, and despite some initial resistance, the line of dolls caught fire and began to threaten Miss Barbie herself. The Bratz dolls, who look to be of indeterminate ethnic origin — but definitely not Anglo-Saxon — started to crowd out the tall white chick with pointy tits. Do we have a metaphor for immigration attitudes (and policies) here or what?

  The designer should have gotten Mattel to sign away their rights after passing on his idea, though I suspect Mattel would not have done so unless they had to. Just like record companies will often pass on an artist’s record and then prohibit anyone else from releasing it, they are scared of both being shown up and possible competition.

• Get This: Apparently George W. Bush Isn't a Creationist – "BUSH: Well, I think you can have both. I think evolution can — you're getting me way out of my lane here. I'm just a simple president. But it's, I think that God created the Earth, created the world; I think the creation of the world is so mysterious it requires something as large as an almighty, and I don't think it's incompatible with the scientific proof that there is evolution."



• Unique Transparency Program Uncovers Problems with Voting Software | Threat Level from Wired.com – "a California county uncovered a problem with its voting system software only because the county's registrar of voters had decided to implement an innovative public auditing program.
  That program, the Humboldt County Election Transparency Project, was launched by Carolyn Crnich, who has been the county's registrar of voters since 2002. She created the project with help from a dedicated group of volunteers that included former Green Party presidential candidate David Cobb, an employee of the Humboldt County district attorney's office named Tom Pinto, and three citizens, Kevin Collins, a commercial fisherman, and Parke Bostrom and Mitch Trachtenberg, two technology experts who had a strong interest in finding a way to ensure the integrity of elections. They've documented their efforts on a web site to help educate groups in other states and counties who may want to replicate the project."

Some additional reading December 8th from 16:41 to 23:54:

• PostPartisan – Sam Zell – Worst CEO – Sam Zell " put up $315 million of his own money and paid the balance of the purchase price, $8.2 billion, with the employee stock ownership plan – a move in which Tribune employees had no say whatever. But that actually overstates the amount of Zell’s investment. Of the $315 million he sunk into the company, it turns out that $225 million was simply a promissory note. Due to the vagaries of bankruptcy law, writes business analyst Mark Lacter on laobserved.com, that means that Zell has better protection for his stake than all his employees. Trib’s ESOP holds 100 percent of the company common equity – and it’s the holders of common stock who usually take a bath, or get wiped out altogether, in the debt restructuring that goes on under Chapter 11."

  asshole.



• Thoughts from Kansas : The Creationist Running the EPA? – "t: Illinois Governor Halts Business With Bank of America
  Johnson's administration of the EPA has been marked by a willingness to set aside scientific evidence in favor of the received word of his superiors.
  Johnson worked his way up through the EPA ranks. His background in the sciences got him a gig in a lab at a chemical and biological warfare company (a company alleged by conspiracy theorists to have helped create AIDS), where his boss suggested he should go to work for the EPA to get insights into the regulatory process. Johnson explains: "Regulations were really frustrating. … I wondered if they [the EPA] really understood what it was like to work in a laboratory." So, at his boss's urging, off he went.

  At the EPA he worked his way up the ranks, opening the door to atrazine (an herbicide associated with sex changes in frogs), and pesticide testing on children. As administrator, he was in charge of some of the most contentious decisions of the post-invasion Bush Presidency. "

• Bloomberg.com: Illinois Governor Halts Business With Bank of America – " Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich said the state will suspend business with Bank of America Corp. until the lender restores credit to the shuttered Republic Windows & Doors company in Chicago where workers are staging a sit-in.

  Blagojevich, a Democrat, spoke at a news conference today after meeting with employees who remained at the factory since Dec. 5, when it closed following the bank’s cancellation of its credit line. Illinois does “hundreds of millions of dollars” in business with the bank, he said. The Illinois Department of Labor will sue the manufacturer if Republic doesn’t respond to employee requests for vacation and severance pay, the governor said in a press release."

• Bill-O and Me: Hendrik Hertzberg: Online Only: The New Yorker – "The following is only for those who have an obsessive interest in petty squabbles between Fox News hosts and New Yorker scribblers. Consider yourself warned."

  Bill-O sounds a bit unhinged if you ask me. Jeez. Somebody send O'Lielly a loofa, stat!

• Chrysler's chutzpah – "It seems to me it is one thing to bail out GM and Ford, which I favor, and quite another to bail out Chrysler, which I don't.

  GM and Ford are public companies. Chrysler? It's owned by Cerberus, a private firm, and 100 co-investors.

  Why should the federal taxpayer bail out 100 rich investors?

  A few years ago they bought Chrysler for $7 billion. And their deal went bad. Shouldn't they suffer? "

A few interesting links for December 6th through December 7th:

• Bush to move into formerly "Whites Only" Neighborhood – "Of course, none of this implies that George Bush is a racist, or anything of that sort. Such restrictions are a throwback to the past, a sad reminder of an earlier era. But the irony of George Bush moving back to Texas to a formerly all-white area just as Barack Obama readies to move into the White House is quite rich indeed."



• Awesome & Fabulous!: You Know It's Hard Out Here For a Blogger – "So what. She's still a rock star. She's got her rock moves.

  And she's being photographed like a celebrity.

  So, Swanksalot over at B12 Solipsism doesn't think of himself/herself as a paparazzo, but well, when was the last time you saw Laura Bush being photographed like this?

  When is the last time you saw any first lady dressed like a regular person?

  Are those blue Tims?

  Or Doc Martens? "

Some additional reading December 4th from 18:17 to 21:21:

• Day 18 – "My job is crazy. I mean looney tunes. I wish everybody in America could come to my school tomorrow and just hang out with me for 20 minutes. How long would everybody in America last in that building? If everybody in America really knew what it was like the problem would get fixed tomorrow. This shit is unConstitutional. Nobody should have to go to school under these circumstances, and I include faculty under the umbrella "nobody." Nobody in the world should ever have to send their kids into a public school system this fucked up, and we mandate it by law that parents do just that. "
• Amanda Palmer Too Gorgeous For Her Own Record Label | Blowfish Blog – I've never heard of this chick, but by no meaning of the word is she fat.
  "Incredibly cool and beautiful singer Amanda Palmer (of Dresden Dolls fame) has been forced to search for a new record label after Roadrunner refused to promote her latest single, video and album. Why? Because she refused to let them remove shots of her “fat” belly from the video for Leeds United (see above), and is therefore “uncommercial”.

  Check out the video. She’s insanely hot."

• MenuPages Blog :: Boston: Down By The Shipyard – my photo used here

  "Unless you live or work down that way, do you often trek to Charlestown? But what's stopping you? While it may seem a little out of the way, parking sucks, and parts can be overrun with tourists and their fanny packs, taking photos of the harbor, there's one solid reason to visit: Navy Yard."

Some additional reading December 3rd from 18:27 to 18:42:

• Dan Shanoff: My Sportsman of the Year: Barack Obama – "The DanShanoff.com Sportsman of the Year is Barack Obama.

  Much as he will be named regular ol' "Person of the Year" in a consensus probably not seen in the history of "Person of the Year" award-giving, he similarly deserves Sportsman of the Year.

  Here is the case for Barack Obama as Sportsman of the Year:"

• Media Matters – We're in the money … – "Regarding the McCaffrey/NBC affair: I find it appalling that the main argument from NBC and McCaffrey himself to justify this utter lack of professionalism is that McCaffrey was wounded in action; ergo he is a man of integrity. It's as if they are implying that one shouldn't question the ethics of anyone who has been wounded in the line of duty. Apparently NBC does not remember Benedict Arnold, a general wounded severely fighting the British at the Battle of Saratoga. Three years later he became America's most notorious sell-out. "

Some additional reading December 2nd from 21:14 to 21:14:

• Vice President For SUPERTRAIN – “China invests 7-9 percent of its GDP in infrastructure projects. We invest just 1 percent. There’s a reason they have a mag-lev train that can go over 200 miles per hour.I may have a bit of a pro-rail bias, but think of the jobs we could create – in both construction and innovation – if we made similarly bold investments here.

  We should fast-track funding for the thousands of ready-to-go projects across the country that can quickly put people back to work and lay the foundation for long-term growth.

  In the longer term, we are calling for the creation of a new National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank that will help us make the investments we need to build a 21st century transportation system – while creating jobs and taking the politics out of infrastructure spending. And it has the added benefit of making American business more competitive in the world. “

Some additional reading November 19th from 09:12 to 09:12:

• FiveThirtyEight.com: Politics Done Right: An Interview with John Ziegler on the Zogby “Push Poll” – Republican mind-set, encapsulated. Wow, just wow.
  “Ziegler was responsible for commissioning a Zogby International survey of Barack Obama supporters, which took the form of a multiple choice political knowledge test, stating a “fact” to the respondent and asking them which of the four major candidates (Obama, McCain, Biden, Palin) the statement applied to. Because I believe that many of the statements on the survey are questionable or false but are misleadingly presented as factual to the respondent, I characterized the survey as a “push poll” in an article posted early this morning.” 

  You should read this transcript if you are up for a good laugh. The RNC pays this guy Ziegler?

Some additional reading October 30th from 20:58 to 21:01:

• Archaeologists report finding oldest Hebrew text – Yahoo! News – Archaeologists in Israel said on Thursday they had unearthed the oldest Hebrew text ever found, while excavating a fortress city overlooking a valley where the Bible says David slew Goliath.
• ESPN – ESPN The Magazine – I KNEW Pippen and the Bulls got robbed:
  “Did Scottie Pippen’s ratings in the game really drop when he played certain teams?
  It’s true, but only when the Bulls played the Pistons. If there was a close game and anyone on the Bulls took a last second shot, we wrote special code in the game so that they would average out to be bricks. There was the big competition back in the day between the Pistons and the Bulls, and since I was always a big Pistons fan, that was my opportunity to level the playing field.”