the washington post's media guy howard kurtz warns media types to avoid the unabashed 'glee' surrounding the cia leak/plamegate. otherwise the media may suffer a possible backlash on top of charges of bias.
¶ - nitish @ 12:57 PM | 0 comments 
stop me if you've heard this before [bugmenot login]...
¶ - nitish @ 12:36 PM | 0 comments
daily show alum stephen colbert's the colbert report, essentially a bill o'reilly parody, falls into some snl skit territory....perhaps a single good joke extended to an overlong skit...repeated to death (it's pat!)...maybe a decent skit stretched to an unwatchable length (night at the roxbury)...
¶ - nitish @ 11:14 AM | 0 comments
oregonian Christina Goodenow had the good lock to win a million dollar jackpot.
¶ - nitish @ 12:11 PM | 0 comments
jean van de velde, most famous for blowing the 1999 British Open with an unbelievable 7 stroke 18th hole, is looking to make more news at the British Open...
¶ - nitish @ 4:51 PM | 0 comments
following up on the pregnant dutch big brother contestant...
¶ - nitish @ 8:23 AM | 0 comments
some in the media, like blink counter dana milbank [bugmenot login] and obsessed chris matthews, act as if joe wilson has some credibility:
It was once said that history is a lie agreed upon. Joe Wilson has told enough lies. He doesn't need any help from the media.an ibd editorial tries to set the record straight, and disabuse people of several myths
There it was, on Page A3 of Tuesday's edition, an analysis by Post staff writers Dana Milbank and Walter Pincus, claiming: "Wilson's central assertion — disputing President Bush's 2003 State of the Union claim that Iraq was seeking nuclear material in Niger — has been validated by postwar inspections."i have a feeling the facts don't necesarily matters when there's 'a story'...
What Bush actually said was: "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." Africa, not Niger. The "claim" was not made by Bush, but by British intelligence, and Bush said Hussein had only sought yellowcake, not that he had succeeded.
Both a bipartisan report of the U.S. Senate Committee on Intelligence and a British investigation of prewar intelligence have confirmed that when Bush uttered those famous 16 words in a 5,400-word State of the Union, his statement was "well-founded" based on intelligence that was then, and is now, credible. [emphasis added]
¶ - nitish @ 10:32 AM | 0 comments
people really like to get out ahead and declare things in decline, over, done, over...media recounts media's decline...countless efforts to denounce global developments, even natural resources...
¶ - nitish @ 5:04 PM | 0 comments
continuing my increasingly negative coverage of howard stern happenings, i address the delusional aspirations of one robin ophelia quivers
But sources familiar with the Quivers project did not offer a rosy prognosis.if someone as good as howard could barely carry a tv show--one of which i liked, another a re-edit of his e! show and several which never made it to air--robin never really had a chance
"I wouldn't say [Quivers' show] is dead," said one source. "If it doesn't get picked up this year, it will be on the shelf for [2007]."
¶ - nitish @ 2:50 PM | 0 comments
conservative group blog american thinker relays a uk telegraph story of italian businessman Rocco Martino passing along french fake documents to undercut its 'allies' the US and Britain
His admission to investigating magistrates in Rome on Friday apparently confirms suggestions that - by commissioning "Giacomo" to procure and circulate documents - France was responsible for some of the information later used by Britain and the United States to promote the case for war with Iraq.funny this didn't make the newyorktimeswashingtonpostlatimescnn media. the latest gossip/illegally obtained grand jury leak from the cia leak case took too much space i guess
Italian diplomats have claimed that, by disseminating bogus documents stating that Iraq was trying to buy low-grade "yellowcake" uranium from Niger, France was trying to "set up" Britain and America in the hope that when the mistake was revealed it would undermine the case for war, which it wanted to prevent.
[snip]
He was also said to have claimed that he had obtained the documents from an employee at the Niger embassy in Rome, before passing these to French intelligence, on whose payroll he had been since at least 2000.
¶ - nitish @ 9:11 AM | 0 comments
imagine a long-running television franchise
¶ - nitish @ 2:58 PM | 0 comments
the iraqis approved [bugmenot login] the draft constitution.
¶ - nitish @ 10:11 AM | 0 comments
every once in a while, the media reports about the rather large prison population in the US. then often, a link between this statistic is often linked with an aside about dropping crime rates. and nearly every time, the media appears shocked at the facts
The U.S. prison population continued to grow last year even though reports of violent crime during 2004 were at the lowest level since the government began compiling statistics 32 years ago, according to a government report released in September.to invoke a recent ad campaign...brilliant!
¶ - nitish @ 12:54 PM | 0 comments
the concept of a 'show trial' is well known. however, grand standing ny state attorney general-turned gubernatorial candidate eliot spitzer has invented the 'show settlement'.
¶ - nitish @ 10:41 AM | 0 comments
while the UN issued a report implicating syria in the assassination of lebanese opponent rafiq hariri, the report was apparently toned down to remove the names of very high ranking syrian officials, including the brother and brother-in-law of syrian president bashar al-assad.
Mr Annan had pledged repeatedly through his chief spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, that he would not change a word of the report by Detlev Mehlis, a German prosecutor. But computer tracking showed that the final edit began at about 11.38am on Thursday — a minute after Herr Mehlis began a meeting with Mr Annan to present his report. The names of Maher al-Assad, General Shawkat and the others were apparently removed at 11.55am, after the meeting ended.annan must have some incriminating photos of some very important people to keep his job.
¶ - nitish @ 2:57 PM | 0 comments
the last coupla weeks of the howard stern show have been a tough listen...
That was the lowest total for Stern in years, and possibly decades, given his long and successful career.i suppose stern and sirius can take some solace in the subscription bump for that pay service. 'better late than never' as there hadn't been much of a boost till now.
[snip]
Yet Stern now looks like a dead weight, at least for WJFK. Among all stations in the Washington market, WJFK fell from fifth place to eighth with adult listeners during daytime hours (6 a.m. to 7 p.m.), the most listened-to period of the day. The decline can largely be blamed on Stern, since the station's other daytime personalities -- the Junkies, Don & Mike, and the syndicated Bill O'Reilly -- drew nearly the same or slightly better ratings compared with the preceding three months.
¶ - nitish @ 11:47 AM | 0 comments
something must be wrong at turtle bay....the UN actually says something bad [bugmenot login] about a rogue regime...
¶ - nitish @ 10:27 AM | 0 comments
the prosecution and defense work out a plea agreement for an oklahoma city criminal.
"I've never seen anything like this in 26 years in the courthouse. But, I know the DA is happy about it."he wanted more....33 years to be exact to match larry bird's jersey number, 33.
"He said if he was going to go down, he was going to go down in Larry Bird's jersey," Oklahoma County District Judge Ray Elliott said Wednesday. "We accommodated his request and he was just as happy as he could be.
¶ - nitish @ 3:04 PM | 0 comments
abc's john stossel disputes the myth that gun control reduces violent crime. some of the highlights:
First, criminals don't obey the law. (That's why we call them "criminals.")....The study found that what felons fear most is not the police or the prison system, but their fellow citizens, who might be armed.asking former democratic candidate for president
What if it were legal in America for adults to carry concealed weapons? I put that question to gun-control advocate Rev. Al Sharpton. His eyes opened wide, and he said, "We'd be living in a state of terror!"stossel is a compelling 'contrarian' news guy
In fact, it was a trick question. Most states now have "right to carry" laws. And their people are not living in a state of terror. Not one of those states reported an upsurge in crime.
¶ - nitish @ 10:56 AM | 0 comments
having a silly fascination yet healthy skepticism of polls, i realize word selection and sampling greatly impact the results of polls.
¶ - nitish @ 12:21 PM | 0 comments
i'm not a big fan of some lawyers chasing frivolous lawsuits...
It’s about externalities – like a chemical company polluting a river – they don’t live downstream and they don’t care what happens. You need regulation to make it bad business for them not to care. You need to raise the cost of doing it wrong.” Schneier said there was a parallel with the success of the environmental movement – protests and court cases made it too expensive to keep polluting and made it better business to be greener.the fear of liability may cause changes for the better.
¶ - nitish @ 9:59 AM | 0 comments
following up on a previous post, dutch big brother contestant tanja gave birth to a baby girl...while still in the house
¶ - nitish @ 4:47 PM | 0 comments
the la times laments [bugmenot login] the state of the labor market, just as the auto industry's ridiculous jobs bank program is revealed:
¶ - nitish @ 10:23 AM | 0 comments
cindy sheehan apparently misses the cameras...
¶ - nitish @ 4:09 PM | 0 comments
some of those campaigners for animal rights-types at peta were busted for not treating animals right.
¶ - nitish @ 10:37 AM | 0 comments
the ny times has given itself/earned several nicknames over the years, most dealing with its eminent position in the media. however its position on the web has been undercut by its archive policy, likely worsening with its ridiculous timesselect subscription program.
Time will tell whether Tierney's commentary in his "Nadagate" column will hold up. He wrote: "...it looks as if this scandal is about a spy who was not endangered, a whistle-blower who did not blow the whistle and was not smeared, and a White House official who has not been fired for a felony that he did not commit. And so far the only victim is a reporter who did not write a story about it."the public editor byron calame calls for an overdue change [bugmenot login].
¶ - nitish @ 9:27 AM | 0 comments
let it be known that i stopped watching the simpsons with the dallas-like 'who shot mr burns?' bit.
¶ - nitish @ 3:53 PM | 0 comments
the media is shocked! shocked! that a bush event was pre-planned--'rehearsed', 'staged', 'choreographed', or whatever euphemism the MSM uses.
¶ - nitish @ 10:25 AM | 0 comments
internet companies often look the other way (at best) and even enable crimes with reckless abandon.
Some of the chat rooms had names like "girls13 & up for much older men", "8-12 yo girls for older men", and "teen girls for older fat men". Many of these were lurking in the Teen chat, or even Schools and Education categories.the disturbing thing is these policies should have been in place from the beginning
If the company does decide to allow user-created chat rooms again, it says it will now screen all the names and will remove any deemed offensive with 24 hours. It will also make it easier to report and follow up "inappropriate" behaviour in chatrooms and will alert users that their IP address are being logged. It has also agreed to do more to educate children about online safety, including making a donation to a national charity for missing children, and running free banner adverts for the same organisation. [emphasis added]
¶ - nitish @ 12:08 PM | 0 comments
despite the recent demonization of the drug industry, it certainly gets the job done...
¶ - nitish @ 11:40 AM | 0 comments
the uk sun reports (with the unnecessary jordan pic), but the register puts more meat on the story of mp3 implants. i especially like the register's 'full stereo effect' suggestion.
¶ - nitish @ 9:22 AM | 0 comments
michelle malkin reminds, because the media hasn't acknowledged it much, about the 5th year anniversary of the USS Cole bombing
¶ - nitish @ 4:13 PM | 0 comments
the next spike lee project that no one will watch is a katrina documentary for hbo. unfortunately, he may be going the oliver stone-conspiracy theory route with theories of gov't involvement in intentional flooding
"It's not too far-fetched ... I don't put anything past the United States government," Lee said. "I don't find it too far-fetched that they tried to displace all the black people out of New Orleans."incidentally, there are no adsense ads for "spike lee"...that lawsuit against spike tv must've worked
¶ - nitish @ 3:08 PM | 0 comments
the yearly viewers are sick of commercials piece rolled out, this time by usatoday
But across prime-time TV, the number of ads and promos has increased sharply over the years. A typical “one-hour” prime-time series clocks in at less than 42 minutes, down from 44 minutes several years ago and nearly 48 minutes in the 1980s.the article mentions some 'tricks' network execs do to get viewers more likely view ads and stay with their channel.
And shaving off the “previously on …” recap, opening credits and a teaser for next week's episode, Sunday's Housewives ran 40 minutes and 30 seconds, meaning for every two minutes of programming, there's a minute of commercials or promos for other network shows. On cable, MTV has even more so-called clutter, with USA and Lifetime close behind.
¶ - nitish @ 9:57 AM | 0 comments
now-former german chancellor Gerhard Schroeder will step aside for germany's first female chancellor Angela Merkel. schroeder wasn't able to rally to victory with his trusty anti-american platform, with merkel vowing to improve relations with the united states.
¶ - nitish @ 10:18 AM | 0 comments
in its continued (but not necessarily successfuly) bid to take over--enter--another market...
¶ - nitish @ 12:17 PM | 0 comments
maybe it reflects the non-PETA, masochistic streak in me...
It was ill-looking and its eyes looked bloodshot but it kept on desperately digging. It was almost as if it was trying to find hidden crack rocks."as it remains anecdotal, with no 'official' reports
Crack squirrels are a recognised phenomena in America.
They are known to live in parks frequented by addicts in New York and Washington DC.
The squirrels have been known to attack other park visitors in their frenzied search for their next fix.
¶ - nitish @ 9:58 AM | 0 comments
a single source material can produce drastically different results.
¶ - nitish @ 11:49 AM | 0 comments
the concept of peak oil may prove true...
The limits-to-growth crowd has predicted the end of oil since the days when this black gold was first discovered as an energy source in the mid-19th century. In the 1860s the U.S. Geological Survey forecast that there was "little or no chance" that oil would be found in Texas or California. In 1914 the Interior Department forecast that there was only a 10-year supply of oil left; in 1939 it calculated there was only a 13-year supply left, and in 1951 Interior warned that by the mid-1960s the oil wells would certainly run dry. In the 1970s, Jimmy Carter somberly told the nation that "we could use up all of the proven reserves of oil in the entire world by the end of the next decade."in fact, despite the scarcity issue, the price of oil has fallen in real terms
If gasoline cost today what it cost a family in 1900 (relative to income), we would be paying not $3 but $10 a gallon at the pump. Or consider that in 1860 oil sold for $4 a barrel, or the equivalent of about $400 a barrel in today's wage-adjusted prices.technology and the market ultimately overcome.
¶ - nitish @ 5:23 PM | 0 comments
in the spirit of awarding terrorist yassir arafat the 1994 nobel peace prize (a few years before the bloody intifada) and jimmy carter (more for his bush-bashing rather than the landmark camp david accords), the 2005 nobel peace prize goes to Mohamed ElBaradei and the nuclear watchdog IAEA. the committee (laughably) states
"At a time when the threat of nuclear arms is again increasing, the Norwegian Nobel Committee wishes to underline that this threat must be met through the broadest possible international cooperation. This principle finds its clearest expression today in the work of the IAEA and its director general."ElBaradei considered it a "Keep doing what you are doing" message and a "shot in the arm".
¶ - nitish @ 11:51 AM | 0 comments
al qaeda is looking for a few tech savvy people...
¶ - nitish @ 3:13 PM | 0 comments
the 'bush-crony' charge has been leveled all over the place.
¶ - nitish @ 12:08 PM | 0 comments
contrary to the rolling stones, the doors have not licensed their music [bugmenot login]to anyone dangling some moolah. well at least one member, drummer john densmore, has prevented any such thing:
Offers keep coming in, such as the $15 million dangled by Cadillac last year to lease the song "Break On Through (to the Other Side)" to hawk its luxury SUVs.the other surviving band members are none too happy. despite their opposition, densmore sticks to his guns
To the surprise of the corporation and the chagrin of his former bandmates, [Doors' Drummer John] Densmore vetoed the idea. He said he did the same when Apple Computer called with a $4-million offer, and every time "some deodorant company wants to use 'Light My Fire.'"
"People lost their virginity to this music, got high for the first time to this music," Densmore said. "I've had people say kids died in Vietnam listening to this music, other people say they know someone who didn't commit suicide because of this music…. On stage, when we played these songs, they felt mysterious and magic. That's not for rent."not even being a doors fan, i still find this to be a refreshing bit of artistic integrity
¶ - nitish @ 3:55 PM | 0 comments
i'm a fan of howard stern, essentially radio tivo-ing every morning.
subscriber numbers for satellite radio since mid-2004it doesn't appear howard has helped sirius catch-up, let alone pass xm.
------------3Q-04---4Q-04---1Q-05---2Q-05---3Q-05
xm-------415671--713101--541140--647226--617000
sirius-----181948--480969--305437--365931--359000
difference-233723---232031---235703--281295--258000
¶ - nitish @ 10:32 AM | 0 comments
conventional wisdom goes that reality television doesn't repeat that well.
¶ - nitish @ 3:30 PM | 0 comments
liars apparently are 'wired differently' [bugmenot login]
People who habitually lie and cheat — pathological liars — appear to have much more white matter, which speeds communication between neurons, in the prefrontal cortex than normal people, the researchers found. They also have fewer actual neurons.i imagine some lawyer will try to use this as a novel defense in criminal case.
[snip]
Lying is hard work, and these brains may be better-equipped to handle it, the researchers said.
"Lying is cognitively complex," said USC psychologist Adrian Raine, senior scientist on the project. "It is not easy to lie. It is certainly more difficult than telling the truth. Some people have a biological advantage in lying. It gives them a slight edge."
¶ - nitish @ 9:03 AM | 0 comments
i hadn't realized it, but after the sprint-nextel merger, sprint's trench coat guy and nextel dance party have been retired in favor of the bright yellow re-branding campaign.
¶ - nitish @ 3:49 PM | 0 comments
movie execs finally realize what the movie-going public may already know...
- "I think it has to do with the movies themselves."
- They were clueless about what audiences wanted
- All along, theater owners said they knew better. Audiences, they contended, were weary of films with lame plots whose advertising campaigns seemed to be better thought out than their story lines.
- "It's the movies, stupid," said John Fithian, president of the National Assn. of Theatre Owners. "That's what we've been saying all along."
¶ - nitish @ 2:32 PM | 0 comments
slate's john dickerson looks into 2004 kerry campaign documentary 'inside the bubble' (check out a vid), still seeming befuddle by kerry's loss...
"There are some amusing and entertaining moments, but there is little in it to explain why Kerry lost—no inside scoop from his senior advisers or much insight into the man himself."that is why kerry lost...
"But alas, the film doesn't get much from him on Kerry the man. "
"After the swirl of the campaign is over, [kerry campaign worker] Loftus is interviewed and offered as a sage to pinpoint the Kerry team's one great weakness. 'What was the overarching point of the campaign?' he asks. 'I don't know what the hell it was … I don't know now. I lived it for 11 months, admittedly intoxicated and exhausted and strung out from cigarettes and arguing with the press and sappers and the whole thing. I don't know. That's a problem.' That is a problem, even when the guy saying it isn't your tactician or strategist. But the filmmakers shouldn't expect Loftus to play analyst—especially after lampooning him."
¶ - nitish @ 10:24 AM | 0 comments
i've never been a fan of the rolling stones...
¶ - nitish @ 6:42 PM | 0 comments
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