] Indicators measure the nation's unemployment rate,
] consumer spending and other economic milestones, but Vice
] President Dick Cheney says it misses the hundreds of
] thousands who make money selling on eBay.
]
] "That's a source that didn't even exist 10
] years ago," Cheney told an audience in Cincinnati on
] Thursday. "Four hundred thousand people make some
] money trading on eBay."

[ Seriously, you can't even make up shit this absurd.

Edwards' response was right on : “If we only included bake sales and how much money kids make at lemonade stands, this economy would really be cooking.”

Selling shit on eBay is not a fucking job. -k]

Quad-City Times Newspaper Online - the Quad-Cities Home Page

] "We may hate our politicians, but the one thing we all
] have in common is that we were all once children," he
] continues. "We can all relate to that question, 'How did
] I get here?' We don't ask ourselves that big question
] everyday, but you know what? We should."

[ This show has intrigued me. If we get this channel, I think i'll TiVo it. -k]

CNN.com - Electioneering for 'Jack & Bobby' - Sep 10, 2004

South Korea has pledged 3,600 troops to help U.S. operations in Iraq, the largest number of foreign soldiers following the United States and Britain.

[ Chimptastic job, yet again. -k]

World Tribune.com--Front Page

[ I think I'll give this a gold star. There are a lot of arguments in here that aren't new, but they're presented together, cohesively, and well supported by argument and citation.

The key statement, as I read it :

"None of this is intended to suggest that intellectual property is a bad idea. Far from it. Rather, the point is that we cannot and should not seek to internalize all positive externalities and prevent “free riding” on intellectual property. Granting intellectual property rights imposes a complex set of economic costs, and it can be justified only to the extent those rights are necessary to provide incentives to create. The economic justification for intellectual property simply does not map to the justification we offer for real property, because negative externalities dominate the analysis of real property and positive externalities dominate the analysis of intellectual property."

Thoughts? -k]

SSRN-Property, Intellectual Property, and Free Riding by Mark Lemley

] David Sirota of CAP picks up on the White House's Big Lie
] regarding Bush's National Guard records.
]
] CLAIM:
] "The White House says, `We've released all of [the
] documents]. You should take our word for it and this is
] the evidence.'"
]
] - CNN, 2/13/04
]
] FACT:
] "After the [CBS] broadcast, the White House, without
] comment, released to the news media two of the memos, one
] ordering Bush to report for his physical exam and the
] other suspending him from flight status."
]
] - AP, 9/9/04

[ Again it's not so much that he didn't show up, which *is* bad, but whatever, it was 30 years ago. It's that he's been patently lying about it ever since. *That's* the problem. -k]

Daily Kos :: Political Analysis and other daily rants on the state of the nation.

] According to "60 Minutes," Killian's personal files show
] that he ordered Bush "suspended from flight status" on
] Aug. 1, 1972. National Guard documents already released
] by the White House and the Pentagon show that Bush was
] suspended from flight status on that day for "failure to
] accomplish annual medical examination" but do not mention
] his alleged failure to comply with National Guard and Air
] Force standards.
]
] In another "memo to file," dated Aug. 18, 1973, Killian
] complained that he was under pressure from his superior,
] Col. Walter B. "Buck" Staudt, to "sugar coat" Bush's
] officer evaluations. "I'm having trouble running
] interference and doing my job," he wrote in a memo titled
] "CYA." "I will not rate."

Bush disobeyed a direct order to get a medical exam.

Records Say Bush Balked at Order (washingtonpost.com)

I haven't bothered to read this whole article. Its making the rounds because of this quote. This is something I've been thinking about for the past 2 days, and here it is.

The Fundies and the Islamists want the same basic things from a policy standpoint. The reason that the fundies seem less extreme is that in the U.S. they are marginalized. Most of their platform is illegal (which is why they want Constitutional Amendments) and so the things they can realistically get are more limited. If they were in power they'd want more. They also produce their share of terrorists.

The irony here is that Bush defending me from Islamic fundamentalism is of little value if he also props up the Christian fundamentalists. I'll end up having to live with the same laws either way. The Christians would likely stop short of requiring women to wear veils in spite of the fact that unveiled women are in direct violation of biblical edict. However, the institutionalization of religion, coupled with violent responses to "immoral" behavior, particularly sexuality, are in the cards no matter what group of religious nuts ends up running this country in the future.

[ Gore's gonna catch hell for this, of course, but he's fucking 100% right. Killing an abortion doctor is terrorism, plain and simple. As you say, it's the legal stucture and what's left of reason which keeps this country from being the same fundamentalist hell that other nations are.

I wish we could stop calling these fuckers Christian. They're not. At the best, they're Biblical Fundamentalists, and at worst, they're simply hypocrites using whatever passage justifies their stupid hateful beliefs. -k]

Gore compares Islamists and Fundies

] ``It's kind of like a panic on the part of Kerry: Just
] because he got clobbered with his record he thinks
] something like this would hurt Bush,'' said Pete
] Domenici, a Republican Senator from New Mexico. ``But
] they're not in the same ballpark.''

[ Wait a sec, what?! So, completely unsubstantiated claims of possible exaggeration of war injuries are MORE RELEVANT than the standing CiC having outright lied about his service, having performed poorly when he did serve, and having gotten the opportunity to fuck around back home due to family connections and nepotism?

He's fucking right they're not in the same ballpark... if those "I think Bush is honest and forthright." numbers don't drop precipitously, my faith in the American public is gonna hit a new low. -k

and PS, what the fuck kind of bullshit response is this from the Kerry camp : ``These are questions for Scott McClellan and Dan Bartlett to answer, not the Kerry campaign,'' That's the softest answer i've ever fucking heard.]

Bush's Guard Record Raises Credibility Questions

] British scientists are developing a robot that will
] generate its own power by eating flies.

[ Wow. -k]

MSNBC - Smelly robot eats flies to generate its own power

] The ruling says artists must pay for not only large
] samples of another artist's work, but also snippets —
] smaller notes, chords and beats that are not the artist's
] original composition — which had previously been
] legal, according to The Associated Press.
]
] ...
]
] "Get a license or do not sample," the court said Tuesday.
] "We do not see this as stifling creativity in any
] significant way."

[ Unless you make rap, electronica or are a DJ, which we don't consider significant.

OTOH, having read the opinion, i'm not sure it's as bad as all that. I'm not a lawyer... maybe someone who is can follow up...

it's here : http://pacer.ca6.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/getopn.pl?OPINION=04a0297p.06 -k]

MTV.com - News -Court Rules That All Musical Samples Must Be Paid For