] The White House helped to block a Republican-brokered
] deal on Wednesday to extend several middle-class tax
] cuts, fearful of a bill that could draw Democratic votes
] and dilute a Republican campaign theme, Republican
] negotiators said.
] ...
] Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, the presumptive
] Democratic presidential nominee, had already said he
] would retain most of Mr. Bush's middle-class tax cuts,
] and many Democratic lawmakers said they would vote for a
] modest extension of the tax cuts even if the extension
] was not paid for.
]
] "If the Democrats had been on the same side, it would
] have taken a lot of arrows out of the quiver,'' said one
] Republican staff member.

[ Awesome. Now that's playing politics.

The not-so-absurd conspiracy theory condensing around this story is that Bush just wants to push this off 'til september (when congressional recess ends), where a nice middle class tax relief story will help him more. I shrug... anything's possible, but this is still a pretty bold and ruthless move. -k]

White House Helps Block Extension of Tax Cuts

The official web site is Slashdotted. Many news outlets have cached the report. Get it here from NYT.

[ You can also buy paperback hardcopies approximately everywhere, if you're so inclined. Last night i was at both a Barnes & Noble and a Joe Muggs, and both had racks of them. Had I not already collected a $70 stack of books, i may have picked it up... i still may over the weekend. -k]

The 9/11 Commission Report

] The funny thing is that Alan Moore hates to talk about
] film and television, because, as he explains later in our
] interview, both "have a lot to answer for." He's not
] talking about how they've distilled his densely
] researched, intricate tales of socio-historical
] interrogation, like "From Hell" and "The League of
] Extraordinary Gentlemen," into narrowcasted popcorn
] movies. Instead, he means the way they've had such an
] impact on human consciousness that many people were only
] able to articulate the horrific reality of 9/11 by
] comparing it to a disaster film.
]
] Moore clearly believes that the same mechanism has
] foisted a deadly, unwanted and unnecessary war upon the
] world. "Television and movies have short-circuited
] reality," he asserts. "I don't think a lot of people are
] entirely clear on what is real and what is on the
] screen."

[ This is a very good read... Alan Moore is an important artist of our time. -k]

Alan Moore | The man who invented the future

] Unless we have a climate that will allow more independent
] media companies to survive, a dangerously high percentage
] of what we see--and what we don't see--will be shaped by
] the profit motives and political interests of large,
] publicly traded conglomerates. The economy will suffer,
] and so will the quality of our public life. Let me be
] clear: As a business proposition, consolidation makes
] sense. The moguls behind the mergers are acting in their
] corporate interests and playing by the rules. We just
] shouldn't have those rules. They make sense for a
] corporation. But for a society, it's like over-fishing
] the oceans. When the independent businesses are gone,
] where will the new ideas come from? We have to do more
] than keep media giants from growing larger; they're
] already too big. We need a new set of rules that will
] break these huge companies to pieces.

[ This is a really good read from Mr. Turner, a figure worthy of some resepect, if not admiration. I think it will fall on many sympathetic ears around here. Blogs can't democratize the information landscape all by themselves, though i'm convinced they play a part. Big Media remains a truly enormous hurdle. -k]

'My Beef With Big Media' by Ted Turner

] The piece in question, "Terror in the Skies, Again?" is
] the work of Annie Jacobsen, a writer for
] WomensWallStreet.com. Jacobsen shares the account of the
] emotional meltdown she and her fellow passengers
] experienced when, aboard a Northwest Airlines flight from
] Detroit to Los Angeles, a group of Middle Eastern
] passengers proceeded to act "suspiciously." I'll invite
] you to experience "Terror" yourself, but be warned it's
] quite long. It needs to be, I suppose, since ultimately
] it's a story about nothing, puffed and aggrandized to
] appear important.
]
]
] The editors get the drama cooking with some foreboding
] music: "You are about to read an account of what
] happened," counsels a 70-word preamble. "The WWS
] Editorial Team debated long and hard about how to handle
] this information and ultimately we decided it was
] something that should be shared ... Here is Annie's
] story" [insert lower-octave piano chord here].
]
]
] What follows are six pages of the worst grade-school
] prose, spring-loaded with mindless hysterics and bigoted
] provocation.

[ A solid refutation of Ms. Jacobsen's, er, efforts. -k]

Salon.com Technology | The hysterical skies

The resolution, such as it is, involves the complexities of time travel — wormholes, tangent universes and so forth — in a way that asks larger questions about free will.

[ Worth seeing if it comes out in your area... i'll be interested to catch it for sure. -k]

The Resurrection of 'Donnie Darko'

] Once the fried dough embodiment of hot and fresh, Krispy
] Kreme has transformed its original glazed doughnut into a
] new frozen beverage for summer.

Now you can drink your doughnuts. Coming soon, the intravenous doughnut.

[ I dunno... sounds pretty icky to me... -k]

Krispy Kreme introduces glazed doughnut frozen beverage - Jul. 21, 2004

To anyone watching, it seems like magic. To a user, it becomes indispensable.

[ Sounds interesting. This kid is obviously pretty impressively smart and motivated. It'd be hard not to expect good things. -k]

Crafting a Revolution with the Brother of the Macintosh

] A judge in Glynn County voided the election results in an
] education board race after a poll worker posted a
] misleading sign.

Just a note on the present hysteria over election postponement, which I believe has riled up some democrats for no reason other then because someone in the administration proposed it. We reschedule elections when people accidentally post misleading signs. You would think a terrorist attack would be a little more serious then that.

[ I wouldn't say I'm riled up, but I still question the functional outcome of such a delay. There's a fundamental limit on how many days it could be pushed back without amending the rules to let the president stay longer or else pass power to congress somehow. All of the shenanigans seem to add up to not worth it, especially since i think any major attack will affect people's voting proclivities for months, rendering a delay somewhat pointless.

As i've said, in cases of public safety, where a known (or believed with high probability) threat exists, then action must be taken, but i just really think the effort spent on this exceeds it's worth.

But what do i know, let's go for it. We'll make elction day v.2 sometime in early december and if some bullshit happens in november we can all go back later.

I still think it'd be beneficial to spread voting out over a longer time frame, like days, but the logistical issues of keeping results secret for that long may render such a change impossible. If not everyone has to vote on the same day, any delays or validity concerns are mitigated somewhat.

Anyway, i've hardly heard talk of it recently... the strikingly well timed Berger incident is overshadowing pretty much everything else. -k]

On terrorist attacks and elections

An investigator for an animal rights group captured video showing chickens being kicked, stomped and thrown against a wall by workers at a supplier for Kentucky Fried Chicken, which has been under pressure since last year over the treatment of animals.
...
In a July 22 letter to the plant, copied to Yum! Brands and forwarded to The Associated Press, PETA says its investigator also obtained eyewitness testimony about employees "ripping birds' beaks off, spray painting their faces, twisting their heads off, spitting tobacco into their mouths and eyes, and breaking them in half -- all while the birds are still alive."

[ "Pilgrims Pride" indeed. PETA does it's job... shit like this makes me not want to eat meat, not because they're convincing me that it's morally wrong, but because there's so much room for inhumane treatment along the way. One wonders what kind of person enjoys these kinds of activities, and what horrors they might inflict if captive chickens can no longer be the object of their violence. Will they turn to wives? Children? Puppies? Or are they otherwise ok, but just can't resist torturing livestock while at work?

Put down that drumstick!