A Truly Frightening Article

From The Guardian, about corporate control of the world's food supply.

Here's the story.

Evil Powell Dismantles Volcano Hideout

Megalomaniacal FCC boss Michael 'The Spawn of Colin' Powell has tendered his resignation (cue images of flowers beginning to bloom from charred earth and audio of birds chirping happily).

But rest assured, our Good Mr. Bush will find an even more ridiculously misguided moral crusader to replace Powell tout de suite.

Fact Checking is a Full-Time Job, I Should Know

I was disappointed to discover today that the two sites that so reliably put the brakes on partisan spin during the 2004 Presidential election, spinsanity.com and factcheck.org, are in their death throes.

Spinsanity.com announced yesterday, on their site, that they would be hanging up the fact checker's red pencil and pursuing other interests. They call the task of unspinning spin 'rewarding but exhausting' and assure readers that their archive will remain online as a source of information for those interested in keeping the fight alive. They also refer their disciples to factcheck.org and CJR Daily (A blog affiliated with the Columbia Journalism Review).


But while a quick look at factcheck.org, aka Annenberg Fact Check, yields an assurance that factcheck.org will continue to operate after the election, there is little evidence that it is, in fact, doing so.

One might conclude that those dedicated to fighting spin have just given up, unless one visited CJR Daily at campaigndesk.com where the battle against spin is still being fought and fought vigorously.

Leave it to those industrious Ivy Leaguers!

Four Years in Review

Salon.com lists 34 scandalsperpetrated by the Bush administration during its first term. Ah, sweet nostalgia.

Los Bandidos Yankees!

Sports journalists have devoted quite a bit of space to the Yankees' already-bloated payroll ballooning to a ridiculous $207 million. But George Steinbrenner hasn't been the only one busy buying up baseball's biggest names. The defending MLB champion Boston Red Sox haven't been standing pat, shedding clubhouse cancer Pedro Martinez and upgrading at shortshop from Orlando Cabrera to Edgar Renteria. And while the Braves, Cardinals and Dodgers have also made some interesting moves, this year may be remembered as the year of the 'other' teams.

In Anaheim, the Angels are vying to become Los Angeles' other team -- proposing a name change to The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. While they weren't busy befuddling fans with their thinly veiled marketing ploys, the Angels found time to bring Steve Finley and Orlando Cabrera on board what is already a talented offense. But third base will be a question mark after the departure of Troy Glaus.

In Chicago, the Cubs may find themselves the second-best team in town. Their Southside counterparts have bolstered their picthing staff in a big way. The rotation now looks like this: Mark Buehrle, Freddy Garcia, Orlando Hernandez, Jose Contreras and Jon Garland. The Sox also added the bats of Jermaine Dye and Scott Podsednik, though giving up Carlos Lee in the bargain.

Over in Queens, the Mets have been trying to steal headlines from Steinbrenner, signing two of the biggest names in free agency this year -- Pedro Martinez and Carlos Beltran. Many of you remember when new manager Willie Randolph got a lot of good ink in the Bronx, now he'll be trying to do the same on the other side of the Queensboro.

And here in the Bay Area, Billy Beane has once again succeeded in striking fear into the hearts of opposing managers while trading away three of his biggest-name players, including two perennial Cy Young contenders. His young and talented squad should be exciting to follow in the coming years.

Low Voter Turnout

I hate to have to write this post, but I think it may be necessary. You all know how I have a problem with self-motivation. This blog has been a good thing for me, and, for a while, was driven by feedback that I received from all 'a yous out there.

I am a very sensitive individual and prone to finding reasons to avoid anything that could be considered 'effort'. Allow me to cut to the chase. I haven't gotten one comment on my sideways rants in almost a month. Come on people! At least tell me to give up the fuckin' ghost!

Have you ever spent a significant amount of time talking to a wall? I have, and it's not something I'd like to do on a regular basis. (Walls don't talk back and they often have spit, piss or chewed gum stuck to them)

I know you have to go through some kind of field-filling bullshit to leave a comment, but get creative people -- they're not checking this shit out! Just make it up so you can go on to tell me how full of poop I am.

Dammit, I don't want to die unrecognized!

Republicants Back Down

It's amazing to me how Republicans can manage to spin any situation to make themselves seem like the guys in the white hats. A particularly telling example arrived today when Dennis Hastert and Tom DeLay backpedalled (read: sacrificed their own careers for what is right) by revoking their call for the loosening of ethics rules. The original proposals, intended to rescue DeLay from his moral woes, were reconsidered after Demos succeeded in making this legislation an issue.

DeLay announced that he no longer wants party leaders to be able to retain their positions after being indicted for ethics violations, a position in which he currently finds himself. His Republican colleagues are expressing their admiration for his action calling it "courageous" and saying that he is "taking a bullet for the team".

Hastert has withdrawn his proposal to make it harder for Congressman to be brought up on ethics charges.

A spokesman maintains that their original policy decision was "the right thing to do," but says they have backed off because it was becoming a distraction. Yeah, Watergate was a distraction as well.

This is called damage control (and begrudgingly enacted damage control at that), not selfless acts of heroism.

A 'Shout Out' From Kucinich

According to Salon -- my primary source for leftist news -- Dennis Kucinich has started a blog that I can tell you is nothing if not interesting. A little goofy, a little self-pitying -- but a lot honest, straightforward and engaging.

He accuses lefties of being more caught up in appearing liberal than actually sacrificing to make the world a better place. He admits to abandoning his nonviolent approaches to ant conrol in favor of Raid. He pines about wasting his chance to have children. He tells us "he has a personality he wants to express." He raves about the latest South Park Christmas special. He even closes a post with "will rap wit ya lates!"

And fittingly, this man of the people's musings are served up by none other than Blogspot.