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Post by annie90807 on Nov 21, 2008 9:50:12 GMT -8
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Post by Linda on Nov 30, 2008 19:24:58 GMT -8
I cant believe the news of Black Friday. People killing to get a T.V. from Wal-Mart. Here in the desert (Palm Desert) two men killing each other in a Toy-R-Us by shooting each other in the store full of children. What has come of us?
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Brian
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Post by Brian on Dec 2, 2008 0:01:37 GMT -8
Linda, I remember when you used to work at a Toys R Us store. Anni and I were watching MSNBC Friday when that news broke. In case you missed it, this article in the L.A. Times relies on several eyewitnesses: www.latimes.com/news/local/inland/la-me-toystoreshooting29-2008nov29,0,1609916.story Turning to today's news: I dunno, Gates seemed so reassuring after Rumsfeld two years ago. I had already figured out that my pick for attorney general, Constitutional law Professor Jonathan Turley of George Washington University, wasn't going to be nominated by our president elect. Maybe Holder will root out Bush's crimes. And Hillary could be great if she embodies the spirit she showed in the final weeks of the primaries and while campaigning 70 times for Obama afterwards. Is the honeymoon over or just beginning?
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Brian
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Post by Brian on Dec 10, 2008 0:00:35 GMT -8
"The bleep has been redacted."
That's my favorite line, by Patrick Fitzgerald, the only person who grew in stature from the Scooter Libby trial.
As much as it has enlivened my TV viewing since I woke up, Blagojevich's alleged crimes are audacious but venal. He plotted and cursed on tape but only sought to enrich himself, not bleep over the Constitution like Nixon and Scooter.
I trust Fitzgerald's integrity and sense of justice but wonder if he arrested Blagojevich too soon in his investigation to ensure a conviction because he wanted to prevent a tainted Senate appointment.
Pat Buchanan is more obsessed with Watergate than I am, but from an entirely different perspective. Tonight on "Hardball with Chris Matthews," he said the governor was just blabbing with his chief of staff, much like Nixon and Colson used to do. And Stan Brand, former counsel to the House of Representatives, wisely asked if any money changed hands.
No matter what, the Republicans can have at least 12 days of Christmas exploiting this story, an unexpected binge after Congressman Jefferson lost his reelection in Louisiana to a Vietnamese immigrant in a district where only 11 percent are Republicans.
But Bush could kill their buzz if he pardons Scooter.
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Brian
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Post by Brian on Dec 14, 2008 15:29:11 GMT -8
Every day I find more to fear about the fate of newspapers.
I was spoiled as a youth, I'll admit. I could read four daily papers that published at least two daily editions when I visited Chicago in the 1970's and New York in the 1980's. Anni worked at the Herald-Examiner until the day they closed in late 1989 -- what a great paper that was the last ten years.
So I've gotten used to the thinning Saturday edition of the Los Angeles Times, with its disappearing real estate and auto ads -- and the now common four-page business section.
I take the layoffs in stride. The Times now has 660 employees in its news division for a weekday circulation of 739,000, down from more than a million only a few years ago. But the new publisher's debt and bankruptcy filing last week is scary.
Yesterday I needed a new tire and an oil change on my day off. Having read everything in the L.A. Times, I stopped at Starbucks to buy the New York Times -- in three sections instead of the usual two because of the surplus of movie ads for Academy members' consideration.
Just Tires and Jiffy Lube were virtually empty of customers and employees were sent home early. I didn't have time to read much except for the article about the Detroit Free Press and Detroit News considering whether to stop home delivery of their papers except for Sunday, Thursday and Friday. They'd print a tiny newsstand edition the rest of the week.
I suppose someday I can buy an iPhone and read newspapers over the Internet instead. But who will pay for the reporting?
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anni
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Post by anni on Dec 14, 2008 17:21:00 GMT -8
I suppose someday I can buy an iPhone and read newspapers over the Internet instead. But who will pay for the reporting? A sign of the coming "a PorkLips"
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Brian
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Post by Brian on Dec 15, 2008 23:17:36 GMT -8
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Brian
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Post by Brian on Dec 16, 2008 23:15:55 GMT -8
Two more shoes from ABC News, these thrown in an interview by Dick Cheney right at our heads. First, he confesses to war crimes, authorizing torture even though he refuses to define waterboarding that way. Then he refutes recent statements by Rove blaming bad intelligence for the decision to invade Iraq, saying the Administration was going there anyway: abcnews.go.com/WN/story?id=6464919&page=1I've been haunted by an article in Esquire last summer pointing out Obama's aversion to confrontation, specifically his opposition to bringing the Bush Administration to justice. I was lukewarm on impeachment because it would set a bad precedent if Bush and Cheney had found 34 senators to keep them in office. But the article posited that we'll never learn our lessons without some kind of catharsis and punishment -- because so many Americans have been complicit in their crimes by being silent. And now we see Dick Cheney's sole.
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Brian
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Post by Brian on Dec 17, 2008 23:29:45 GMT -8
The shoe story, day four: Codepink staged a protest in Washington today, gathering shoes representing Iraqis who died under our occupation and then hurling them at someone wearing a giant Bush head and a prison uniform. Articles and video are easily found via Google, so here instead are two photos and a petition for the Iraqi embassy to release the shoe throwing journalist on Codepink's website: salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/424/signUp.jsp?key=3909I'm ambivalent because the act itself is violent. Yet clearly Sunday's shoe toss has captured the public imagination both here in the U.S. and in Iraq. The best news today, however, was the Dodgers signing shortstop Rafael Furcal to a three-year deal, I must say.
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anni
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Post by anni on Dec 18, 2008 15:33:01 GMT -8
Thanks, Brian! I signed the petition. And I do belive I still want some Code Pink Nail Polish. Is that too fem even for me?
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