Coincidence or Prophecy?

Tagged.

I've never been tagged before.

Here are the instructions:

1. Delve into your blog archive.
2. Find your 23rd post (or closest to).
3. Find the fifth sentence (or closest to).
4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions.
5. Tag five people to do the same.

But a majority of us took George W. Bush back.

From a post called Dumped On.

As if you needed a reminder.

Tagging:

Planet Dan
Master B.
Tequila Red
Rebecca Blood
Neil Gaiman (Hey, what the hell? He's responded to weirder inquiries.)

What if I just want to read the articles?

Recruits sought for porn squad (Washington Post)

Impin' Ain't Easy: Sensa Cloud 9 Pens

Impin' Ain't Easy is a semi-regular feature wherein I endorse products and services I like very much for no money whatsoever and solely for the satisfaction of broadcasting their superiority to other things I use regularly.



The Sensa Cloud 9 Pen is an unparalleled writing tool that's also pretty. I lose mine quite often and am emotionally distraught and poised to buy another when I find my original charmingly buried at the bottom of my purse.

Who said complainers never offer solutions?

Slate's David Wallace-Wells mentions my Sept. 13 imp_perfect post badmouthing the Times' Times Select today in his 'today's blogs' column.

"The Edsel. New Coke. Times Select," intones conservative GT at Civilized Invective. Others are equally skeptical. At imp_perfect, Iva-Marie Palmer writes the package is overpriced and suggests a scaled pricing system by which readers could purchase access to as few or as many columnists as they'd like. "What Business Is The New York Times In?" asks Jeff Lang of URBANintelligence. "Doesn't the Time's value come from the spread of it's ideas?"

I don't know how I feel about being mentioned in the same graph as a conservative, but I do know how I feel about being mentioned: Pretty cool.

Leader of the Pee World

Not only does George W. Bush lack curiosity, compassion and the ability to thoughtfully consider outcomes before taking action on false pretenses ....



But he's got a weak spincter too!


(via Planet Dan who more-responsibly-than-me links to the page with Reuters' caption: U.S. President George W. Bush writes a note to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during a Security Council meeting at the 2005 World Summit and 60th General Assembly of the United Nations in New York September 14, 2005. World leaders are exploring ways to revitalize the United Nations at a summit on Wednesday but their blueprint falls short of Secretary-General Kofi Annan's vision of freedom from want, persecution and war. REUTERS/Rick Wilking)

Opinions? Yes, everybody's got one. But not all are free.

The New York Times is rolling out its Times Select package, which will charge an annual fee ($39.95 if you join by Sept. 18 and $49.95 thereafter) to those who want to read online columns by sage commentators like Frank Rich, Paul Krugman and Maureen Dowd. Trying to sweeten the deal, the ability to read up to 100 archived articles per month (normally costing $3.95 each) is included with purchasing access to the op-ed pieces. They're also promising exclusive online discussions with certain columnists, videos and access to anticipated Sunday articles before they're posted to the Web site. A last selling point is perhaps most disturbing:

Reader Interaction Reach out to the columnists with your opinions and questions.

This might mean Times Select subscribers receive special interactive privileges with the writers. But, by charging to read its opinion pages (either through a traditional and very price-y subscription to NYT in print or through Times Select), the Times is eliminating even the possibility of its non-paying Web readers from commenting at all.

I do love the Times, but I think $40 and up per year is pushing it. How many people will end up paying the subscription fee just to be able to read one or two columns a week? How many people will likely never use the other features promised? I understand that paid online content is likely to be key to traditional newspapers' future survival, but I think the Times could have planned its new program with a more fair eye toward its less-flush-with-funds-and/or-time reader base. (Namely, me.)

I mean, how about:

- $15 a year allows you to pick two of your favorite columnists (Krugman might get axed by me in favor of Rich and Dowd) and grants you access to 10 archived pieces per month?
- $20 a year gets you three columnists, 30 archived pieces a month and access to some of the multimedia features?

And so on.

Newspapers -- and their Web sites -- have a right and a need to want to be profitable. But part of what has always purported to keep newspapers at a nominal cost (thereby allowing greater numbers to become readers) are the ads. Salon.com has figured out a way to sponsor free access to content: You have to watch an ad to get to the piece you desire; if you find that too inconvenient, you pay. The NYT model seems to be lacking in value, elitist and possibly destined to fail.

Just thank your lucky stars that in an age where you have to pay for some people's opinions, I will never ever charge you for mine. (Though donations are happily accepted.)

Umm, what's that word again? Oh, yeah, hubris.

President Vainglory and his favorite PR-machine-posing-as-legitimate-media get all mixed up. But not really.

The more-technologically-adept-than-I Planet Dan has the screenshot to illustrate.

Fair & Balanced at last.

Tears for Waterworld

We knew this would happen.

"They did anticipate breaching of the levees, that the pumps wouldn't work," said Natural Hazards Center Director Kathleen Tierney. Louisiana and New Orleans "couldn't get the federal assistance they needed. They knew they were living on a time bomb." (from L.A. Times)

After the first big national emergency, what did we do? Um, made a colorful chart and started making people take their shoes off at airports.

America pays people to think thoughts that defy imagination, though it then often ignores their recommendations. In early 2001, experts with the Federal Emergency Management Agency set out to rank the likeliest, most catastrophic disasters facing America. According to the Houston Chronicle, they were a terrorist attack in New York, a major earthquake in San Francisco and a major hurricane in New Orleans.

In this case, two out of three is bad.

"It is our job at FEMA to think the unthinkable in terms of disasters, and to prepare for those that will become catastrophic," Joe Allbaugh, FEMA's then-director, told a conference of the National Emergency Management Association four years ago. "I want our most vulnerable communities to plan for the worst. ... A major earthquake or Category 5 hurricane in an urban area would stretch our current response and recovery capabilities to the breaking point."

The date of this conference: Sept. 10, 2001.(via St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

And, oh, yeah, started a multi-billion dollar war, diverting money from one of those other "unthinkable" -- but entirely, apparently possible -- disasters:

Bush administration funding cuts forced federal engineers to delay improvements on the levees, floodgates and pumping stations that failed to protect New Orleans from Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters, agency documents showed on Thursday. ...

Since 2001, the Army Corps has requested $496 million for that project but the Bush administration only budgeted $166 million, according to figures provided by the office of Louisiana Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu.

Congress ultimately approved $250 million for the project during that time period.

Another project designed to shore up defenses along Lake Pontchartrain was similarly underfunded, as the administration budgeted $22 million of the $99 million requested by the Corps between 2001 and 2005. Congress boosted spending on that project to $42.5 million, according to Landrieu's office. (via Reuters)

But we're so damn capable and prepared. We don't need any damn international help.

Jamaica was among the nations offering what help they could. But the Kingston embassy, while stating its appreciation for the support, politely declined the offers, saying in a statement: "The United States Government is not yet requesting international assistance at this time."(from Jamaican Observer)

Just new shoes.

Just moments ago at the Ferragamo on 5th Avenue, Condoleeza Rice was seen spending several thousands of dollars on some nice, new shoes (we’ve confirmed this, so her new heels will surely get coverage from the WaPo’s Robin Givhan). A fellow shopper, unable to fathom the absurdity of Rice’s timing, went up to the Secretary and reportedly shouted, “How dare you shop for shoes while thousands are dying and homeless!” Never one to have her fashion choices questioned, Rice had security PHYSICALLY REMOVE the woman. (via Gawker)

And a picture for the presidential scrapbook.

Here, the president wonders if daughter Jenna will have to miss Mardi Gras this year.

But rest assured, some more dollars for the suffering rich. 'Cause they really earned it.

Washington (Sept. 2, 2005) - With Congress preparing to reconvene in early September, Senate Majority Leader William H. Frist said a vote to fully repeal the estate tax will be tops on the to-do list.

Frist, a Tennessee Republican, has not wavered publicly from statements that the either the first or second bill of the September session would be a vote on a bill to repeal the estate tax beginning in 2005 -- meaning a vote is scheduled for the week of Sept. 6.(via WebCPA)

But rebuilding a poor people's city? Eh.

One question already on the table is whether it is wise for the federal government to fund the reconstruction of New Orleans, a city built mostly below sea level in a location that has proved vulnerable. House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) expressed reservations about that in an interview with an Illinois newspaper published Thursday.

"It doesn't make sense to me," the Daily Herald of Arlington Heights quoted Hastert as saying. "And it's a question that certainly we should ask." (via L.A. Times)

But, Denny, some people don't think so:

New Orleans is one of the nation's most iconic cities, and after the calculable costs of Hurricane Katrina are tallied, after they count the casualties and the destroyed houses, it will be time for a different kind of accounting. Some of the places and pieces that make this city irreplaceable will have to be replaced.

"This is a special place. It sounds funny, but there are a lot of mornings when I walk outside and look around and think, 'I am lucky to live here,' " said Sylvia Atkins, 42, who was born and raised in the working-class neighborhood of Gentilly. "We'll miss that. I still feel lucky. But it's going to be a while before I do that." (from L.A. Times)

She said, 'a while,' not 'never again.' It will be hard, but the Big Easy deserves new life, though it will have to come from someone not so unfeeling.

Different situation, same story:

But this president does not know what death is. He hasn't the mind for it. You see him joking with the press, peering under the table for the weapons of mass destruction he can't seem to find, you see him at rallies strutting up to the stage in shirt sleeves to the roar of the carefully screened crowd, smiling and waving, triumphal, a he-man.

He does not mourn. He doesn't understand why he should mourn. He is satisfied during the course of a speech written for him to look solemn for a moment and speak of the brave young Americans who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.

But you study him, you look into his eyes and know he dissembles an emotion which he does not feel in the depths of his being because he has no capacity for it. He does not feel a personal responsibility for the 1,000 dead young men and women who wanted to be what they could be. (E.L. Doctorow, The Unfeeling President, via truthout)

Today in spam

Sometimes, after sitting in a meeting with an individual so boring you can hear your brain begin to crumble between your ears, some nonsensical spam email can act as jumper cables for the mind.

If I decode this, I think I get a tour of the Wonka factory:

Why do topless dancers say that the parasites are suspected of being
child prodigies? Hot dog vendors belittle the elephants. Lower primates
are thought to be heathens. It is said that the flatworms live with
Macintosh users. Ballroom dancers are destined to become hot dog vendors. I read on the Goodyear blimp today that gurus write poems about phlebotemists.
Bodybuilders supervise the compulsive gamblers. Geeks secretly admire the
rodeo clowns.

So, from the logic expressed above, the ballroom dancers -- after fulfilling their hot dog-vending destiny -- will belittle elephants. I'm sure those damn pachyderms deserve it.