Thursday News Bucket

29 Comments

1. 

   CabinGirl on June 1, 2006 at 7:35 am

   Anyone else remember the arrests at his book signing in Delaware last summer?  Well, the ACLU is suing on their behalf: WashPo

   The suit names a Delaware state trooper and one of the Pennsylvania lawmaker’s representatives.

   According to the lawsuit, the women went to a Barnes & Noble store in Wilmington to challenge Santorum at an event advertised as a signing and discussion of his book, “It Takes a Family.”

   The women were ordered to leave by a state trooper hired to provide security after a member of Santorum’s promotional team overheard them talking before the senator arrived, according to the suit. When two of the women asked why they were being ejected, they were arrested, the suit say.

   And the reasoning behind the suit?

   “The trooper denied these women their right to share their views with an elected official,” said Julia Graff, attorney for the Delaware ACLU, which sued along with the Pennsylvania ACLU.

   That damned Librul ACLU, thinking consitituents have a right to talk to the people whose salaries they’re paying…

   • 

     BrendaStewart on June 1, 2006 at 9:49 am

     your statement…..”That damned Librul ACLU, thinking consitituents have a right to talk to the people whose salaries they’re paying…”   Amen, CG!  I so agree with you on that one.

2. 

   CabinGirl on June 1, 2006 at 7:51 am

   caught editing and republishing unflattering stories about himself: Editor & Publisher

   The top editor of Syracuse (N.Y.) New Times, which saw its profile of President Bush’s new chief domestic advisor altered and reposted on his Web site, calls the incident “insulting” and said she plans to consult a lawyer about possible legal action…

   What is all this flap about?

   …The newly appointed domestic policy advisor, Karl Zinsmeister, acknowledged taking the 2004 New Times profile of him and changing both quotes and text. He then reposted it on the Web site of the American Enterprise Institute magazine, which he edits — still under the New Times author’s byline. The article, by New Times staffer Justin Park, had been written because Zinsmeister lived in the Syracuse area.

   I loved this part:

   One of his quotes he changed was originally published as: “People in Washington are morally repugnant, cheating, shifty human beings.” The Post carried an editorial today suggesting that the White House probably wished it could revise plenty of newspaper articles it did not like…

   …Zinsmeister has said that he merely “corrected” misquotes and wrong impressions in the original article, but Park has released an email from Zinsmeister shortly after the article appeared in which he praised it for fairness and accuracy. He also told Park he wanted to help him with his further journalistic efforts — then took his article and revised it before re-posting it without permission.

   Honestly, it sounds like the WH has gotten exactly what they were looking for with Zinsmeister, doesn’t it?

   • 

     BrendaStewart on June 1, 2006 at 9:51 am

     You bet they got what they were after.  Sickening, isn’t it?

3. 

   CabinGirl on June 1, 2006 at 8:04 am

   Uh-oh: NYT

   Mr. Chihuly has sued two glass blowers, including a longtime collaborator, for copyright infringement, accusing them of imitating his signature lopsided creations, and other designs inspired by the sea.

   “About 99 percent of the ocean would be wide open,” Mr. Chihuly said in an interview. “Look, all I’m trying to do is to prevent somebody from copying me directly.”

   The glass blowers say that Mr. Chihuly is trying to control entire forms, shapes and colors and that his brand does not extend to ancient and evolving techniques derived from the natural world.

   “Just because he was inspired by the sea does not mean that no one else can use the sea to make glass art,” said Bryan Rubino, the former acolyte named in the suit who worked for Mr. Chihuly as a contractor or employee for 14 years. “If anything, Mother Nature should be suing Dale Chihuly.”

   The slide show and description of the pool inside his studio in the article is worth the read…

   • 

     Knoxville Progressive on June 1, 2006 at 9:37 am

     I went to see an exhibit of Chihuly’s work here in Knoxville in 2000, and it was probably the most amazing art exhibit I’ve ever been to.  It was recommended by a friend, and I had no idea what to expect.  I felt like I was seeing the art of a time 50 or 100 years in the future, when we’ve decided that we have no choice but to live in peace with the planet, and it’s informed our art the same way the philosophy of the Renaissance informed the art of DaVinci or Michaelangelo.  I still have the poster from the show- in fact, it’s just a couple feet away as I type this.

     If you’re unfamiliar with his work, check out this, this, and this.

     The man is a genius who will someday be spoken of in the same breath as Picasso.

     • 

       CabinGirl on June 1, 2006 at 9:42 am

       Chihuly is one of my favorite artists; my favorite little hotel in Seattle has a Chihuly in the lobby…it is amazing stuff.

       • 

         Knoxville Progressive on June 1, 2006 at 9:55 am

         They probably bought it when he was a nobody, and now it’s worth as much as the building it’s in, LOL.

         If you ever hit the lottery or come into an inheritance, you can buy Chihulys on eBay once in a while. 😉

         • 

           CabinGirl on June 1, 2006 at 10:05 am

           And wouldn’t one look just beautiful here at Chez Cabin?  🙂

       • 

         Knoxville Progressive on June 1, 2006 at 10:16 am

         You’ll love this link – a preschool teacher went to the same exhibit I did, and her class decided to create their own Chihulys using balloons, plastic cups, etc.  The photo of all the little boys wearing eye patches because Dale Chihuly does is really a hoot!

         • 

           CabinGirl on June 1, 2006 at 10:21 am

           That is too cool…and the eye patch thing is way too cute!

4. 

   Nag on June 1, 2006 at 9:25 am

   Link

   Haditha Response: U.S. Troops to Receive ‘Core Values’ Training
   All 130,000 Soldiers in Iraq to Get a Reminder on Legal, Moral, Ethical Standards

   May 31, 2006 — Members of the U.S. military in Iraq will receive core values training beginning Thursday, as a result of the incident in Haditha in which American troops allegedly murdered 24 Iraqi civilians.

   The commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, will announce the new directive Thursday, assigning the training to all 130,000 U.S. troops over the next 30 days.

   All service members will view a slide presentation with vignettes that highlight the importance of adhering to legal, moral and ethical standards on the battlefield.

   The directive emphasizes professional military values, the importance of disciplined professional conduct in combat and an explanation of what to expect of Iraqi culture.

   Soldiers will also be reminded of the outcome if they act contrary to professional military values.

   I don’t know, I’m no expert , but don’t you think that they should have had this training before going to Iraq? I shouldn’t complain, at least they’re getting it now.

   • 

     CabinGirl on June 1, 2006 at 9:27 am

     I was wondering who they had left that would be qualified to give the training at this point, with so many career military getting out whenever they can.

     • 

       Nag on June 1, 2006 at 10:26 am

       Don’t worry, the military has that covered… the training is a slideshow.

5. 

   Knoxville Progressive on June 1, 2006 at 9:39 am

   NASA officials said Wednesday they remain determined to keep to the current space shuttle launch schedule and to continue to examine possible safety hazards as closely as possible in the meantime.  Currently sitting on its launch pad at Kennedy Space Center, the shuttle Discovery should lift off sometime in July for a flight to the International Space Station.

   You know there’s a moral in this story somewhere:  Thousands of rampaging monkeys are wreaking havoc on an island in Tanzania’s Zanzibar archipelago where locals have appealed for help to exterminate the simians, officials said Wednesday.  Residents described as “woefully inadequate” the 300 bullets provided by the Zanzibar agriculture minister. Increasingly brazen colobus monkeys are destroying farmers’ crops, stealing food from inside houses and menacing young children on the islet of Tumbatu just north of Zanzibar’s main island of Unguja in the Indian Ocean, they said.

   Saturn’s moon Enceladus recently grabbed scientists’ attention when the Cassini spacecraft observed icy jets and plumes indicating active geysers spewing from the tiny moon’s south polar region.  Scientists wondered “Why at the south pole?  It should be coldest there.”  Now there is a theory:  A planet or moon often will reorient itself to put the maximum mass at the equator and the less massive part (in this case the liquid water) at the pole.  The liquid water is formed from tidal effects on the icy moon by massive Saturn, nearby.  A similar process may have happened on Miranda, one of the moons of Uranus, scientists said.

   Higher temperatures near the equator speed up the metabolisms of the inhabitants, fueling genetic changes that actually lead to the creation of new species.  The new research explains why more living species seem to exist near the equator, a scientific observation made nearly two centuries ago.  It may also have a bearing on concepts such as global warming and efforts to preserve diversity of life on Earth.  There is a higher rate of evolutionary change in the form and structure of plankton in the tropics and it increases exponentially because of temperature.  It takes more energy than all the fossil fuel people burn on the planet in a year to form one new species of plankton, researchers found.

   The first detailed analysis of an extraordinary climatic and biological record from the seabed near the North Pole shows that 55 million years ago the Arctic was as warm as Florida, scientists found in a study with implications for the rate and degree of climate change we can expect from human-caused global warming.  Once it started cooling, it took 800,000 years to revert to a cold condition.  …Speaking of a warmer Arctic, here is a good summary of the increasingly heated (get it?) discussion of the sovereignty issues between the US and Canada caused by melting sea ice opening new shipping channels in the “Northwest Passage.”

   Indonesia’s Mount Merapi volcano maintained a high level of activity for a fifth consecutive day Wednesday, spewing heat clouds and longer trails of lava down its slopes, geologists said. In the first six hours of Wednesday, Merapi sent 162 lava trails spilling down its slopes, some of them up to 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) long, according to data released by the vulcanology office in Yogyakarta, south of the peak.

   Parts of New Orleans are sinking more rapidly than first thought and could become “death traps”, a study says.  The areas sinking fastest include those worst affected by flooding last year – the sinking in effect helped lower levees by up to an inch a year.  (How many decades old are those levees?  Hmmm – not good.)  One scientist says the data argue against rebuilding in affected areas (you knew that was coming).  The effect was not found earlier from ground surveys, as the survey benchmarks were sinking faster than thought, along with everything else.

6. 

   BrendaStewart on June 1, 2006 at 9:46 am

   liar

   daily pot of gold

   more on Ned Lamont vs Leibrerman

   Good Morning everyone.  Hope you will have a great day.  Am looking forward to being on vacation in FL. next week.  Son is getting married there.  Hope no hurricaines show up for the reception…..:o)

7. 

   growthrate on June 1, 2006 at 9:47 am

   The news here is the continued rightward drift of the NYT, in contrast to the FT’s more consistently liberal stance.  The basic story is this (from the FT):

   The Bush administration bowed to pressure yesterday and said it was ready to join European allies in talks with Iran — on condition that Tehran first suspended its nuclear fuel program.

   The FT story is front and center, and sports a big headline, “Bush bows to pressure and offers Iran talks.”  It includes a large, above-the-fold photo of a scowling Condoleeza Rice (is there any other kind of photo of her?)

   Here’s the NYT version, under a demure, one-column headline saying “US is now ready to meet Iranians on nuclear plan.”  The adjacent photo doesn’t (exactly) pertain — it shows Michael Hayden, still in dress uniform, greeting the CIA hoi polloi.  The NYT story on Iran:

   The Bush administration said Wednesday that the United States would join Europeans in talks with Iran over its nuclear program, but only if Tehran first suspended its uranium activities, which are thought to be a cover for developing nuclear arms.

   Final score, FT “Bush bows to pressure,” NYT “thought to be a cover for developing nuclear arms.”   Hmmm…..

   • 

     CabinGirl on June 1, 2006 at 9:53 am

     …photo of a scowling Condoleeza Rice (is there any other kind of photo of her?)  Not unless you count the ones where she’s gazing adoringly at her husba-, I mean, the pResident.

     Re the NYT, heaven forbid they make the monkeyboy they’re flacking for look weak…it is interesting to see just how different the spin is from what the FT published.

     • 

       BrendaStewart on June 1, 2006 at 10:02 am

       My exact same thoughts, CG…good for you…

       • 

         CabinGirl on June 1, 2006 at 10:05 am

         Yeah, I hate those photos where Condi looks absolutely besotted with George, don’t you?  They are so creepy!

         • 

           BrendaStewart on June 1, 2006 at 10:13 am

           Oh My heavens yes!  I have to give it to the press for doing her just right on her daily mentality.  They have her pegged, don’t they?!  The evil coming out in her facial expressions are priceless!  Her eyes are classical EVIL!  :o)

         • 

           Nag on June 1, 2006 at 10:20 am

           Condi kind of creeps me out anyway. I think she has a new makeup person. Between her new hair doo and softer makeup she looks less like a nazi matron who needs a leather skirt and a whip.

8. 

   boran2 on June 1, 2006 at 11:24 am

   Hay, CG, I guess that you’ll be too busy live-blogging from ykos next week.  😉

   • 

     CabinGirl on June 1, 2006 at 11:33 am

     Should be interesting to see how that live-blogging idea works, given that the convention center doesn’t appear to have it’s own wireless access…

     • 

       boran2 on June 1, 2006 at 11:36 am

       But Air America is providing it, no?

       • 

         CabinGirl on June 1, 2006 at 11:41 am

         I guess.  Just looks a little sketchy to me to see the diary about needing help setting it up.  🙂

9. 

   Militarytracy on June 1, 2006 at 4:05 pm

   next Friday?  I can do it but I can’t promise to be anywhere near as good at it as CG and Knoxville.

   • 

     Nag on June 1, 2006 at 5:41 pm

     No backing out… you’ll be great. I’ll make a point of hanging out with you as much as I can. 🙂

10. 

    dada on June 1, 2006 at 5:21 pm

    

    From Raw Story:

    Little-known media psychology firm sees Gore landslide, Clinton flop

    A new behavior prediction tool by a media psychology firm is forecasts a landslide victory for former Democratic Vice President Al Gore in the 2008 presidential election should he run for office — but says if Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) wins the Democratic nod, any potential Republican challenger will emerge victorious, RAW STORY has learned. More from their release (hat tip Political Wire :

    #

    These are among the surprising findings reported by Dr. James N. Herndon, a media psychologist with Media Psychology Affiliates. Using a new research tool called Affective Encryption Analysis, Dr. Herndon led an investigation into the likely outcome of the 2008 Presidential election.

    “Affective Encryption Analysis is a new behavior forecasting tool that looks at how our feelings and emotions can influence our long-term actions,” explains Dr. Herndon. “Traditional survey techniques are not very good at predicting trends. Affective Encryption Analysis was developed to dig deeper into the emotional factors that control our future behaviors.”
    .
    .
    .
    “Voter behavior is not primarily issue-driven,” states Dr. Herndon. “Subtle emotional factors drive our actions at the ballot box. When we decided to study the potential outcome of the 2008 Presidential election, we had no preconceptions about what we’d find. Nonetheless, there were some surprises.”
    .
    .
    .
    “Despite the widespread public dissatisfaction with the George W. Bush administration, our results showed even greater ill-feelings toward potential Democratic challengers,” says Dr. Herndon. “But there was one exception: Al Gore.”

    “With a predictive accuracy of 93%, our results showed that Al Gore would easily defeat any Republican challenger in 2008. However, he is the only Democrat on the scene today who has the ability to defeat the likely Republican challengers, who we believe will be either John McCain or Jeb Bush.”

    Results were not rosy for Hillary Clinton. “Hillary Clinton would suffer a disastrous defeat at the hands of any Republican who receives the nomination,” states Dr. Herndon.
    .
    .
    .
    Media Psychology Affiliates is a media research and analysis firm based in Los Angeles and Coburg, Germany.

    I really don’t know what to say except: Do’h!!!

    Peace