reconsider...: April 2006

reconsider...

Sunday, April 30

the more, not the better

the national review's media blog updates on the strange case of michael hiltzik, the la times columnist-blogger with alotta personality.

judgement: suspendion, then reassignment

¶ - nitish @ 4:17 PM | 0 comments

reviewing the (negative) reviewers

having seen the excellent discovery channel The Flight That Fought Back (i have yet to see the recent flight 93 i just tivo'd last night), i will also see the theatrically released united 93.
however, before seeing it the online response interested me.
slate predictably had two less than stellar reviews within the last coupla days--Ron Rosenbaum cynically questions the 'the first people to inhabit the post-9/11 world' and takes the doomsday viewpoint, while Dana Stevens laments the 'neutrality'(!) of the docudrama.

meanwhile, rotten tomatoes' flight 93 review round-up to find ~90% fresh rating

while i intended to seek out both negatives, i couldn't get past the first one by Jeffrey M. Anderson without response. i dashed off this e-mail (slightly altered here for formatting purposes)

apparently the "exploitation" and "self-satisfaction" you note in your review of fahrenheit 9/11 (by deeming "Moore a maker of personal essays--or even propaganda films--filled with opinion and emotional manipulation as well as facts.") didn't hold back a 4-star rating
why is "emotional manipulation of this kind as its main weapon" acceptable in a documentary but not in movie based on official records and personal histories?
perhaps you simply weren't able to leave your partisan baggage at the box office since you admitted to being "a frustrated American who does not support Bush, and I found myself whipped into a frenzy."
otherwise, the weak arguments which riddle fahrenheit 9/11 , as Christopher Hitchens noted
"It must be evident to anyone, despite the rapid-fire way in which Moore's direction eases the audience hastily past the contradictions, that these discrepant scatter shots do not cohere at any point. Either the Saudis run U.S. policy (through family ties or overwhelming economic interest), or they do not. As allies and patrons of the Taliban regime, they either opposed Bush's removal of it, or they did not. (They opposed the removal, all right: They wouldn't even let Tony Blair land his own plane on their soil at the time of the operation.) Either we sent too many troops, or were wrong to send any at all—the latter was Moore's view as late as 2002—or we sent too few. If we were going to make sure no Taliban or al-Qaida forces survived or escaped, we would have had to be more ruthless than I suspect that Mr. Moore is really recommending. And these are simply observations on what is "in" the film."
wouldn't have found such an easy target in you
"Yes, I was an easy target. Moore's film had tears in my eyes, my stomach in knots and my brain spinning. But if it gets people to start questioning their leaders and asking how much we are willing to let them get away with, then it will have done a service." [snip]
"Unlike a work of journalism, the film merely stops after showing these connections, leaving the viewer to finish the job in his or her imagination. That's where Fahrenheit 9/11 gets most of its power. Directly accusing this administration of wrongdoing would be met with disbelief or even violent opposition. But merely suggesting and raising doubt is a much more powerful tool."
that is simply cowardly film making...and you fell for it...
-nitish
http://chumpo.blogspot.com

i know it's likely the sound of one-hand clapping, but i had to vent

¶ - nitish @ 10:07 AM | 0 comments

Friday, April 28

too many (R) in tv listings

given the apparent increase of repeats, fillers, clips shows and/or pre-emptions dominating tv schedules, sites like is lost a repeat? are inevitable.

the cable model of ~13 episode seasons and/or split uninterrupted seasons, appears to provide consistently better shows like monk, battlestar galactica, nip/tuck, the shield. however since

la weekly chronicles the behind-the-scenes demise/rebirth of the upn-wb merged cw, touching on some of the shortfalls of broadcast tv. the model works when things are going well--like abc right now, not so much when it doesn't--like the struggling netlets. unlike cable channels which also derive some revenue from subscriber fees, the main source of revs for the networks is the broadcasts and re-airings

¶ - nitish @ 3:41 PM | 0 comments

i want my cnn!

since apparently plug etiquette appeared too lame a complaint, white house pool reporter jim vandehei bitches about the remote. the exchange is quite funny, including vandehei seemingly referring to his own request in the plural third person. outgoing WH press spokesman expresses incredulity, and (unfortunately) vandehei didn't get the name of the rude 'magic people' who denied his request. shortly thereafter, mclellan resolved the situation with the remark

"We just called up. They're going to be changing it, at your all's request, to the channel that you requested, which is CNN -- from the press corps."

the national review's media blog notes vandehei requested cnn despite being an msnbc contributor

¶ - nitish @ 9:32 AM | 0 comments

Thursday, April 27

hostile campuses

american college campuses has revealed an open hostility towards the military. yale accepts a former terrorist while blocking military recruiters. some academics even tried to deny freedom of speech while still taking money (naturally, that was smacked down).

michelle malkin focuses on a vandalism attack on UNC's ROTC

it's especially troubling given the UNC administration's absolute refusal to call terrorism terrorism.

this action--or inaction--doesn't bolster faith that this criminal matter will be resolved.
despite the hostility, military personnel numbers hold up pretty well

¶ - nitish @ 4:07 PM | 0 comments

expanding the frakchise

with the success of the 're-boot' of battlestar galactica, sci-fi channel announces a spin-off on its development docket.

the prequel series caprica will take place 50 years before battlestar's action, following the twelve colonies (humans) just before the creation of the soon-to-be/eventually parricidal cylons

¶ - nitish @ 3:29 PM | 0 comments

who reads blogs

in a clearly unscientific survey, blogs ads analyzes the readership of blogs (found via memeorandum). i say 'unscientific' since its a voluntary self-selecting sample, however it draws from a diverse set of blogs.

helpfully, instead of one-size-fits-all results, blog ads breaks them out into categories like politics, gossip and music. the results include the typical demographic numbers and tendencies of readers of each subset of blogs

¶ - nitish @ 9:26 AM | 0 comments

computer use hints

spending hours a day in front of the computer, two back-to-back articles in the register caught my attention:

- computer energy use

Power consumption fluctuates so much depending on use that it is extremely difficult to calculate. As a very rough rule of thumb, the quieter a computer is, the lower the power consumption.

there are some rather obvious hints including screensavers don't do anything, while power-saving functions naturally do...

- the reg continues with some ergonomic hints about the the man-machine dynamic, including placement and use

¶ - nitish @ 8:41 AM | 0 comments

Wednesday, April 26

more hollywood remakes

continuing a personal theme of mine

- another cartoon of yore may be remade: star blazers
while a recent dvd rental took some of the shine off, that in no way detracts from the undeniable impact of the landmark show.

- apparently, earl hickey will voice the titular character in the unnecesary remake of underdog
while the idea still sounds ridiculous, the early casting is not entirely terrible with jason lee as shoeshine boy-underdog and peter dinklage cast as nemesis simon bar sinister

¶ - nitish @ 2:55 PM | 0 comments

more academic lameness

many people get sick of spam, but rarely do they do anything about it.

three MIT students respond to spam-like requests with a computer generated submission of a nonsensical string of buzzwords...which still got accepted

it becomes increasingly clear that academia shuns dissent--even trying to legally block opponents--and relies on questionable research which is easily debunked.

although studies and/or papers can be useful, question everything since it is easy to play with polls, surveys, etc

¶ - nitish @ 9:17 AM | 0 comments

Tuesday, April 25

king of the world goes 3D-crazy

is titanic director james cameron suggesting a ted turner-esque colorization binge?

while cameron's mulls 3D treatment for his own titanic, peter jackson may 3D-ify king kong. even overrated sci-fi classic star wars may go 3D

¶ - nitish @ 4:51 PM | 0 comments

this won't work

reminding parents of their responsibility [bugmenot login] to monitor their kids sounds good...

Jack Valenti, former head of the Motion Picture Assn. of America, announced the effort Monday during his keynote speech to the National Assn. of Broadcasters.
"We want to tell American parents that they, and they alone, have total power to control every hour of television programming," Valenti said.

the use of "alone" and "total power to control" attempt to relieve themselves of their own legal responsibilities.

while fines as penalty can sometimes be insufficient, grand standingfor and against

but tv execs have launched an offensive against indecency regulation, first legally and now with an "avalanche of messages"

¶ - nitish @ 12:44 PM | 0 comments

pardon the insensitivity, but

- given the details alleged in a $100 million lawsuit against maury povich and his show...
why would someone stay in such a hostile work environment for 6 years?

i wonder if this gives maury ideas for his show
and how would this be handled in columbia?

- with the bombing in egypt, an ldotter wonders:

Must be more radicals burnishing their credentials to get into Yale.

in reference to yale's welcome of a taliban on its campus.
john fund has been on the story of former taliban Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi, including his possible acceptance, the one who got away, and perhaps his ultimate yale fate [bugmenot login for all links]

¶ - nitish @ 8:30 AM | 0 comments

Monday, April 24

whackos in charge

seemingly taking orders from osama (walid phares' analysis), anti-peace world leaders step-up the destructive rhetoric.

while the new head of palestinian security brazenly tells the uk telegraph

"We have only one enemy. They are Jews. We have no other enemy. I will continue to carry the rifle and pull the trigger whenever required to defend my people."

iran's mahmoud ahmadinejad unequivocally states"

We say that this fake regime [Israel] cannot... logically continue to live."

at least he allows for 'right or return'

the left tended to 'disfavor' israel, except when it could exploit in their favor. don't worry, al jazeera's role as 'inciter in chief' remains intact

¶ - nitish @ 12:07 PM | 0 comments

down with idol

being the hypocrite that i am, i'm hoping for a decline of american idol. i dislike the questionable product, the payola and the overall money-grubbing.

reality blurred relays poor ratings trends for the current iteration, with a recent drop-off and even an intra-week drop-off

¶ - nitish @ 8:48 AM | 0 comments

Friday, April 21

not quite 'fake but accurate', but close

speaking of the overall lameness of the pulitzers...

the 'secret cia prison' story that won a pulitzer for is rebutted [bugmenot login] by the EU antiterror chief (found via the ldotters). granted, he uses a rather lofty 'reasonable doubt' standard, but a story that would potentially endanger lives should meet a high standard. critics express outrage citing the relatively low standard of "circumstantial evidence"

update: is this cia firing, reported by fox news (found via memeorandum), related?

¶ - nitish @ 8:53 AM | 0 comments

Thursday, April 20

get by with a little help from my...self

la times watchdog patterico spots goofy posting patterns by la times columnist Michael Hiltzik who blogs on the side (found via memeorandum) specifically, hiltzik apparently posted responses in support of/defending his own position under different handles.
instead of responding to the charge of faking support, hiltzik responds with the ridiculous argument that patterico blogs under a pseudonym with an open comment system--which has nothing to do with his own fake writing.

conservative hugh hewitt wonders about the reaction of hiltzik's employer la times

however, there wasn't much backlash when arianna huffington essentially 'ghost wrote' a 'i am liberal, hear me roar' post for george clooney
apparently, stretching the truth only matters when libs think conservatives do it

update, friday morning (found via alotta vias): hiltzik blog has been suspending pending investigation

¶ - nitish @ 4:00 PM | 0 comments

iraqi developments

lame duck iraqi prime minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari appears to step aside. his refusal to bow out had been the major obstacle to the formation of a government

the brave blogging brothers of iraq the model, who have given first hand accounts of their cause, reveal perseverance despite personal tragedy

The terrorists and criminals are targeting all elements of life and they target anyone who wants to do something good for this country…They think by assassinating one of us they could deter us from going forward but will never succeed, they can delay us for years but we will never go back and abandon our dream.
We have vowed to follow the steps of our true martyrs and we will raise the new generation to continue the march, these children of today are the hope and the future.
What a difference between those who work to preserve life and those who work to end it…it's terrorism and crime and there are no other words to describe these acts.

this is the hopeful future of iraq

¶ - nitish @ 9:57 AM | 0 comments

Wednesday, April 19

if you can't join em, beat em

New Scientist 'patent trawler' Barry Fox finds a potential mechanism to prevent ad skipping by tivo/dvr devices (found via the register). electronics giant Philips--which used to make tivo boxes (like my 1999 series1 tivo)--files a patent application embedding a 'broadcast flag' to get the job done.

that would bad news as the commercial load has increased over the years. however, implementation may not necessarily happen as iphilips acknowledges potential 'viewer resentment' in its own filing. also, the tv industry acknowledges tivo/dvr impact (partially in self-interest to bump up viewership numbers). further alienation of viewers would not be welcome.

nonetheless, ad skipping comprises only one of the tivo advantages, as 'time shifting' is another--even in high places (of course andy card may have more time going forward)

¶ - nitish @ 12:37 PM | 0 comments

that's still pretty high

there are various internet scourges: viruses (why isn't that 'virii'?), spyware, scams, etc.

'click fraud' could undermine the ad-based internet. search engine watch provides a technical--even legal--background.

an analysis by internet ad consultants fraud click network finds click fraud in the ~15% range rather than the 20%-30% feared. that may be the case, but that's still high.

now, contribute to the click fraud numbers by clicking on one of the ads on this page
(btw, would democrat tactics after katrina qualify?)

¶ - nitish @ 8:48 AM | 0 comments

Tuesday, April 18

promises, promises

the beleaguered cable consumer--particularly those who suffer a $1 increase every coupla months--received some welcome news recently.

last fall, the fcc changed course in its take on a la carte cable, formalizing 'support' earlier this year.

while some viewing habits could bring relief to some viewers, the best solution is more robust competition. analysis by a UCal Berkely professor finds ~15%-20% savings given competition.

If telephone companies compete on a wider scale throughout California, Braunstein anticipates average prices falling about $56.40 per month to between $43.99 and $47.94 per month. With more than 60 percent of California's 11.5 million households signed up for cable service, that's a savings of between $690 million and $1 billion, he said.

while subscribers hope, cable companies resist

¶ - nitish @ 4:48 PM | 0 comments

pulitzer standards dropping

the pulitzer prize were awarded, and pretty much no one outside the industry really cares. slate recycles jack shafer's critique of the insider-y nature of the pulitzers

the new orleans times-picayune won a pulitzer for its katrina coverage. while the staff must be lauded for its stalwart coverage, the paper's coverage included, as blog sweetness & light reminds, some questionable urban myths that the MSM unskeptically reported (my NO mayor post goes over more)

¶ - nitish @ 9:37 AM | 0 comments

Monday, April 17

what's the difference

washington post media guy howard kurtz, while sometimes goofy, still influences opinion.
he correctly called the MSM's temporary re-discovery of the poor, warned of overglee over the joe wilson/non-cia leak/scooter libby story, then urging more blame-assigning in another story

kurtz sees hypocrisy / glass house-ism in reporting of the page six extortion scandal, as the washington press corps has its own problems [bugmenot login]
personally, i felt 60 minutes ambush journalism always had a tabloid ring to it

of course, kurtz has his own glass house regarding conflict-of-interest

¶ - nitish @ 3:02 PM | 0 comments

who are the ad wizards?

i'm not a huge sandler fan, but that refrain from the snl skit sticks with me...

the web has been a great place to come up with interesting money-making ventures:
it's helped people run the nigerian scam, made a sock puppet worth almost half a billion dollars
but not all of them have been totally bogus

kyle macdonald came up with the notion: "I am trying to trade one red paperclip for a house"

in the scheme of novel entrepreneurial ventures, i think one red paperclip trumps the million dollar web page, as the million dollar web page's execution remains rather untidy and low rent

¶ - nitish @ 9:19 AM | 0 comments

Sunday, April 16

killer tv / dying for tv

similar to an ohio woman discovered watching tv over two years after her death,
a uk woman was found in front of a tv presumably three years after her death (found via tv tattle).
officials seeking years of back rent from 2003 bust in to her apartment--flat as the brits say--to also find unopened christmas presents and expired medication.

in both of these cases, no foul play is suspected

¶ - nitish @ 9:17 AM | 0 comments

Saturday, April 15

who wants to be NO mayor?

with the nationally televised new orleans mayorial debates this monday, its time to check the race.

being new orleans mayor will be a daunting task...
the MSM congratulated itself on its katrina coverage, even vowing more enlightened work. however the media flaws, which contributed to some damagaging myths. meanwhile the mayor will be encharged with staggering amounts of money, and play a determining factor in direction of reconstruction

as for the specific candidates, mayor nagin promised--then backed off--chocolate city

the register finds candidate Kimberly Williamson Butler running an interesting campaign using disneyland as a stand-in for the city

¶ - nitish @ 8:54 AM | 0 comments

Friday, April 14

tv does some good

last summer, without a trace yielded it's first found missing persons when a viewer tip led to a brother and sister taken by a non-custodial parent. a profile on a march 9th episode of led to a 18 month old girl, Anisa Jackson, kidnapped by another non-custodial parent.

a broadcasting & cable story cynically plays up the PR angle, mentioning a hefty indecency fine levied against the CBS show

¶ - nitish @ 3:14 PM | 0 comments

too black and white

ofter opening strong, fx's black.white limped to the finish line.

time.com's ta-nehisi coates encapsulates major flaws in what it dubs a 'minstrel show': a crazy out-of-it white family and the black family saw everything through the prism of racism. maybe there's some validity to both points, but it was taken to an extreme by all involved.

coates continues that the overbroad nature of black.white harkens back to oscar winner crash, despite some advancements in race relations

But worse is the feeling, in watching both Crash and Black.White., that you could have made both of them 20 years ago and changed only a few lines.

the stock, cliched characters stand in for there stereotypes and do/do not undergo life-altering changes as the show biz people wanted

¶ - nitish @ 12:36 PM | 0 comments

Thursday, April 13

takin the fun outta it

the high school football rules committee bans the fumblerooski

i'm a big fan of trick plays, but high schools follow the ban already instituted in the nfl and college

¶ - nitish @ 4:01 PM | 0 comments

NY Times serves a dilly with its dally

last night's correction attempt by chris matthews may have been lame, at least it was done somewhat promptly.

the new york times is a full day late in its own correction (probably a date sensitive link), as fnc's brit hume noted yesterday and ldotters skewer today.

and the 'dog ate my homework' excuse is great

Although Mr. Fitzgerald formally filed his corrective yesterday, accounts of it were provided to some news organizations on Tuesday night, and were the basis for news articles yesterday. The Times did not publish one, as other organizations did, because a telephone message and an e-mail message about the court filing went unnoticed at the newspaper. An article on the filing appears today, on Page A17.

the false story on the front page, the correction on page A17

¶ - nitish @ 9:56 AM | 0 comments

a 90,000 mile commute

auto repair midas holds a contest for america's longest commute and
find california man david givens with a 7 hour, 372 mile daily commute to work at cisco.
assuming 5 days/wk, 2 wks vacation...that's where i come up with the 90000 number

while the stock is down bigtime since the bubble burst, it's up huge ~10 times since givens started the killer commute in 1989
so maybe that and the view is worth it

my commute consists of rolling outta bed to my computer ~maybe 10 feet

¶ - nitish @ 8:30 AM | 0 comments

Wednesday, April 12

the correction never equals the mistake

i just watched chris matthews' walkbalk on the fitzgerald made a mistake the MSM ran with story

the man who has devoted hours of tv time to this matter took all of 2 minutes, including david shuster in full-CYA mode...
and it appears matthews throws his papers in disgust at the close of the segment

update: the national review's media corner sums up the abysmal matthews-shuster exchange, with a call to action

¶ - nitish @ 5:32 PM | 0 comments

the joke's on you

one of the most consistently funny entries on the web is Bruce Reed's "the has-been"
it's funny because the reed often chips in with supposedly insightful analysis of the republicans, all while being a former DLC president while viewing the 90s with rose-colored glasses

unfortunately for reed, i think takes it seriously

¶ - nitish @ 2:40 PM | 0 comments

much ado about a typo

with apologies to cynthia mckinney (i tried in vain to find the hilarious jimmy kimmel live clip which strung together all of her 'much ado about a hairdo' lines)...

special prosecutor patrick fitzgerald corrects his own erroneous filing which sparked much coverage (which chris matthews probably believes still wasn't enough)

the national review's byron york helpfully describes the mistake and the correction

chris matthews should have his show ready made. he has obsessed on the joe wilson/CIA non-leak/scooter libby story. specifically, david shuster's bogus report (one of too many bogus reports he puts out regularly) could provide show fodder

¶ - nitish @ 8:55 AM | 0 comments

Tuesday, April 11

the media failure

the conservative national review's media blog picks up on a failure of the MSM demonstrated by a gallup poll
[note my personal opinion: it's easy to play with polls, surveys, etc]

The latest USA Today/Gallup poll finds more than 6 in 10 Americans critical of President George W. Bush on the leak controversy.
[snip]
The more closely people are following the issue, the more likely they are to say Bush did something illegal rather than unethical, though expert opinion suggests that Bush has the authority to declassify information and thus his actions could not have been illegal. The less attentive respondents are more likely to think Bush did something unethical rather than illegal.

if experts maintain bush's actions are not illegal, those who 'follow closely' (presumably through the newspapers and tv news) should know that the president's actions are within his authority--or not illegal.

the MSM has failed to correctly inform those who 'follow closely' the story.
one might believe an agenda gets in the way of news reporting, but, of course, there is no media bias...
perhaps that's why the media is so distrusted

¶ - nitish @ 2:47 PM | 0 comments

meanwhile

ScrappleFace describes the underreported counter protest to the much covered immigration reform protests...
you know, the one where people went to work and went on with their lives.

if you didn't notice...ScrappleFace is a conservative leaning satire site

¶ - nitish @ 8:33 AM | 0 comments

Monday, April 10

frenchies do what they do best

after uncharacteristically developing somewhat of a backbone, french president jacques chirac continued the long-standing tradition of surrendering. this time chirac scraps the youth employment reforms which the stagnating french economy badly needs (found via those ldotters).

as i said earlier, things don't look so good for france

¶ - nitish @ 12:40 PM | 0 comments

accentuate the negative, eliminate the positive

given the improved numbers in military personnel, the ny times attempts to cherry pick some numbers to keep flogging the story.

the ny times included the image on the right to depict trends in military officer retention [bugmenot login]. during the late 90s, the military suffered near double digit 'loss rate', while 9/11 appears to have caused a spike in retention which has abated a bit.

i could suggest another possible interpretation: 'military retention historically high despite war'. one would think retention would have been even higher during the perceived peacetime of the clinton 90s, yet current numbers still come in better.

even the times notes that some changes already improved retention in the first quarter after a coupla off years

update (via memeorandum): usa today goes positive by stressing higher than expected retention numbers

¶ - nitish @ 8:55 AM | 0 comments

Sunday, April 9

current immigration system is backwards

this week, there will be huge demonstrations protesting immigration reform. many participants hail from a country whose leader proves a very unhelpful 'partner' in reform, despite his own country's particularly restrictive immigration policy.

mark steyn debunks the difficulty of 'living in shadows' (found via lucianne.com)

Here's my immigration "compromise": We need to regularize the situation of the 298 million non-undocumented residents of the United States. Right now, we get a lousy deal compared with the 15 million fine upstanding members of the Undocumented American community. I think the 298 million of us in the overdocumented segment of the population should get the chance to be undocumented. You know when President Bush talks about all those undocumented people "living in the shadows"? Doesn't that sound kinda nice? Living in the shadows, no government agencies harassing you for taxes and numbers and paperwork.

steyn continues by relating the relative ease of would-be 9/11 hijackers to appear legal. meanwhile, the immigration policy makes it extremely difficult for law abiding people to work the system. while the mary poppins example is great comedy, the story of a 9/11 widow being deported is heart-breaking.

a personal example: a neighbor of mine serves this country in the armed services for over 10 years in such hot spots as korea, bosnia and most recently iraq. however when he got married outside the country, the INS made it overly difficult for my friend and his new bride.

steyn closes with the absurdity of the suggested reforms--cumbersome, easily gamed, doomed to failure--which will likely be repeated within our lifetimes

Sure, believe that if you want to. It'll be good practice for swallowing the amnesty for the next 40 million circa 2025.

mark steyn should be read

¶ - nitish @ 10:19 AM | 0 comments

Saturday, April 8

more congress shenanigans

reading the lead paragraph of a NY Times article [bugmenot login] describing alleged wrongdoing:

As lawmakers have increasingly slipped pet projects into federal spending bills over the past decade, one lawmaker has used his powerful perch on the House Appropriations Committee to funnel $250 million into five nonprofit organizations that he set up.

imply republican misdeeds referring to a time period ('past decade') associated with the the republican revolution and current control of congress ('powerful perch').

however, the culprit is Democratic congressman Alan B. Mollohan...but you wouldn't find that out until the 8th paragraph.
in contrast, the ny times wasted no time pointing out bob ney's party affilition within 6 words when he ran into ethical troubles --even viewable by the select times curtain. but democratic misdeeds often receive much less coverage than republican misdeeds
[sarcastic aside: but there is no media bias...]

further you wouldn't discover the scope of Mollohan's alleged misdeeds
[btw, Mollohan didn't 'pay his fair share' of his taxes when he, um, 'withheld' ~$9000 in taxes from rental income]
until the clever burying tools 'next page' links are followed

Several people involved in the appropriations process said no other lawmaker employed that strategy to the same extent.
[snip]
Those forms show a jump in Mr. Mollohan's portfolio from less than $500,000 in assets generating less than $80,000 in income in 2000 to at least $6.3 million in assets earning $200,000 to $1.2 million in 2004, along with large mortgage debts.
[snip]
A review of campaign finance records by The New York Times shows that from 1997 through February 2006, top-paid employees, board members and contractors of the five organizations gave at least $397,122 to Mr. Mollohan's campaign and political action committees.

sometimes being a congressman is a nice racket (2nd definition)

¶ - nitish @ 9:52 AM | 0 comments

Friday, April 7

do as the mexicans...

with the supreme court's newfound reliance on international law (in between undercutting property rights and playmate appearances, perhaps congress should take up international policy with regards to immigration policy.

righty leaning center for security policy issues a summary of mexico's policies in a report dubbed mexico's glass house (pdf - adobe acrobat reader required) here are some highlights

In brief, the Mexican Constitution states that:
• Immigrants and foreign visitors are banned from public political discourse.
• Immigrants and foreigners are denied certain basic property rights.
• Immigrants are denied equal employment rights.
• Immigrants and naturalized citizens will never be treated as real Mexican citizens.
• Immigrants and naturalized citizens are not to be trusted in public service.
• Immigrants and naturalized citizens may never become members of the clergy.
• Private citizens may make citizens arrests of lawbreakers (i.e., illegal immigrants) and hand them to the authorities.
• Immigrants may be expelled from Mexico for any reason and without due process.

that would put a crimp in the reconquista

(found via today's "your world with neil cavuto"--actually david asman today)

¶ - nitish @ 4:29 PM | 0 comments

bloody reminder

as the trials of saddam continue (reuters timeline)--with or without clean underwear, the discovery of another mass grave remind of his crimes (found via lucianne.com). however the numbers and scope boggle the mind. USAID documents the Legacy of Terror

"We've already discovered just so far the remains of 400,000 people in mass graves," said British Prime Minister Tony Blair on November 20 in London. The United Nations, the U.S. State Department, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch (HRW) all estimate that Saddam Hussein's regime murdered hundreds of thousands of innocent people. "Human Rights Watch estimates that as many as 290,000 Iraqis have been 'disappeared' by the Iraqi government over the past two decades," said the group in a statement in May. "Many of these 'disappeared' are those whose remains are now being unearthed in mass graves all over Iraq."

meanwhile pbs frontline travels saddam's road to hell

the humanitarian crisis alone poses sufficient grounds to remove saddam

¶ - nitish @ 9:33 AM | 0 comments

Thursday, April 6

nature finds a way

while nature adjusts and bounces back today, evolution is the 'ultimate adjustment'.

scientists discover a 'missing link' in the evolution from sea to land animals about 375 million years ago (found via memeorandum).

however given some of the questionable stuff that makes it into Nature magazine, some skepticism may be due

¶ - nitish @ 2:24 PM | 0 comments

nature adjusts, bounces back

a 'sky is falling' syndrome dominates environmental coverage. also apparently alotta free ad space too.

after the chernobyl disaster, predictions of blinky the three-eyed fish abounded.

while chernobyl still remains unhabitable for humans nearly 20 years later, nature returns (found via lucianne.com)

The zone - an area with a radius of 29 kilometres in modern-day Ukraine - lives on in the popular imagination as a post-apocalyptic wasteland irreparably poisoned with strontium and caesium. It is associated with death and alarming yet nebulous stories of genetic mutation, a post-nuclear badland that shows what happens when mankind gets atomic energy wrong.
The reality, at least on the surface, is starkly different from the mythology, however. The almost complete absence of human activity in large swaths of the zone during the past two decades has given the area's flora and fauna a chance to first recover and then to flourish.

don't worry there are still naysayers

"Our work indicates that the worst is yet to come in the human population. The consequences for generations down the line could be greater than we've seen so far," said Mousseau, a biology professor at the University of South Carolina.

however nature often finds a way

¶ - nitish @ 11:40 AM | 0 comments

it'll take more than that

those warning label proponents must be loving the news that the fda finds more carcinogenic benzene in sodas than it would like. the fda however doesn't deem it necessarily unsafe, nor fault the industry given its manufacturing and even marketing efforts

perhaps its time to make your own at home--although i'll stick to my coke a day

¶ - nitish @ 8:24 AM | 0 comments

Wednesday, April 5

more MSM madness

unlike another guy, i'm not blog-stalking michelle malkin
but she's uncovered another MSM outlet putting its bias ahead of the news.

Catch that? The apparent "sting" involves targeting Nascar and other sporting events. 'Cause that's presumably where the fair and balanced NBC news staff thinks all the bigots are.

you'd think dateline nbc would learn from staging news

¶ - nitish @ 2:49 PM | 0 comments

when blogging becomes stalking

george clooney may not like the gawker stalker effort, but its not just traditional celebrities that can be tracked online...prolific conservative blogstress michelle malkin (see great posts on air america, the NYT, loony liberal darlings, along with some worthy causes) responds to some quite obsessive-stalky charges that she's basically a fraud.

i think the 'is that legal' guy interprets the time stamp too strictly. it could be when the blog was written and/or posted, depending on the blogger's discretion...
at least i hope so, that's how i do it for this blog noone reads

¶ - nitish @ 8:46 AM | 0 comments

Tuesday, April 4

looming crises

several of the so-called crises facing the US economy seem overblown to me: the trade deficit, the weak dollar, the deficit-interest rate myth (i use 'conservative' bruce bartlett since he become a media darling due to his bush-bashing...if they prop him up now, they can't disavow what he said earlier)

however real problems include the potential pension system collapse
while the private sector stumbles, public sector employees demand even more (luckily this effort failed).

looming closer is a housing bubble burst. the usa today goes anecdotal to illustrate the problem. gimmicks like adjustable rate mortages and interest only loans will come home to roost just like the s&l crisis

¶ - nitish @ 12:54 PM | 0 comments

bad, bad move by a bad move news division

despite a mini-resurgence of cbs evening news with bob schieffer, all the rumors appear to be true as the insufferable katie couric will leave nbc's today to head over the the cbs anchor chair
tv week (found via tv newser) came out with the 'official scoop', followed by the big media and media watchers

it appears katie will get there just in time to cover the trial of her favorite (derived by her advocacy) child killer

¶ - nitish @ 9:05 AM | 0 comments

Monday, April 3

good old fashioned explorers

with the prevalence satellites and the advent of gps, i figured exploration would take a more automated manner. however a group of explorers brave a hardy expedition (found via the uk reg) through croc and rebel infested land to find another source for the nile in rwanda, lengthening that mighty river another 66 miles.

"History has been rewritten," British explorer Neil McGrigor told reporters on Friday. "This is the end of an 80 day amazing and exhausting journey."
The expedition, dubbed "Ascend the Nile", travelled over 6,700 km (4,163 miles) in three boats, tracing the Nile from the Mediterranean through five countries to what they say is its origin.
McGrigor and New Zealanders Cam McLeay and Garth MacIntyre suffered a rebel attack in northern Uganda, which killed one of their team, and overcame a cocktail of testing climates, massive rapids and crocodile charges before reaching their final destination.
The last leg of their journey saw them abandon their tiny boats and trek some 70 km (43 miles) for seven days through thick forest, sometimes being forced to wade in the fast-running Nile waters.

the official ascend the nile expedition website documents a journey which harkens back to stanley and livingstone

¶ - nitish @ 4:51 PM | 0 comments

stern misses another bonus

that's my take on howard lashing out at his formerly large-now considerably smaller audience as 'insulting' and 'cheap'. you know the one that helped him get a hamptons houseful of money (details of his cbs radio days compensation)...and a butterface girlfriend.

howard received a hefty $220 million in stock for the sirius subscriber bump
[note: there is legal dispute surrounding this transaction. and that whopping $220mill likely fell with the recent decline of SIRI stock]

the fact of the matter is the last few months of stern's cbs show were tough. his audience already began to tune out as the show became a sirius programming meeting at the same time that stern became increasingly partisan despite not having a great grasp (search 'pentagon' for the stupidity)... all while hypocritically complaining about others' subscription programs

stern did not have an immediate impact on sirius fortunes for a full year. but as mentioned, the 4th quarter and opening month of this year were undeniably good. however evidence mounts that the stern halo effect already dissipated

and don't even get me started on the delusional robin quivers...

all this means that future incentive clauses remain less likely to be met

¶ - nitish @ 8:33 AM | 0 comments