Bush is at Camp David tonight? Hmm... methinks someone is trying to look presidential

FOX News is on (don't ask), and I just heard that Dear Leader is spending the night at Camp David. Camp David? I think Mr. 31% is trying awfully hard to look presidential, now that nobody likes him anymore. He never stays at Camp David. That isn't his thing. The fact that he's doing it tonight, on a major holiday, when he almost never does, suggests to me that the Bush spin-folk are trying to paint him as a "real" president by tapping into the public memory of Camp David as a place of history. They're trying to save his presidency, make him "relevant" again. But rather than do it with substance, because the man has no substance, they're doing it with symbolism.

He's so pathetic. Read the rest of this post...

Is Russia a state-sponsor of terrorism?

It's certainly starting to look that way. I'm sure glad that George Bush has been keeping a close eye on Vladimir Putin and his country that, as you may recall, was a danger to the world for 70 years. Yes, glad Bush has been so heavily involved in sitting back and watching Russia slowly but surely turn back into a horrible dictatorship. But then again, George Bush said he could see Putin's soul, and it was a good one. Maybe Bush learned to read people's souls in one of those regular conversations he says God has with him in order to tell Bush what God wants him to do next, which country to destroy, which civil liberties to rescind, who to torture, stuff like that. Read the rest of this post...

Open thread

So are there any competitors for YouTube out there who haven't sold out to the corporate man? Perhaps it's time we gave them some publicity and traffic.

In the meantime, rest assured that I'll be turning over a new leaf and joining YouTube and Google in their jihad against their own users. We'll be checking in daily to see how many copyright violations YouTube is promoting on their video home page. I sure hope it doesn't stay at the current level, which appears to be about 50%. That would mean YouTube is pretty much just a criminal venture, and, well, I suspect the feds wouldn't look kindly on that, especially congress the next time they have to look at copyright laws. But I'm sure YouTube is so much more than that, so today's promotion of nearly 50% seemingly illegal videos is I'm sure just a fluke. Because if it wasn't a fluke, well, then YouTube would pretty much have to cease to exist, since we wouldn't want to be breaking any laws. Read the rest of this post...

NC-08: Democrat Kissell closing gap, can still win.

This is why the GOP hates to have all the votes counted. Larry Kissell has picked up 150 votes already -- before the manual recount. He still may pull out this major upset over Robin Hayes:

Voters in North Carolina’s 8th Congressional District will have to wait for a manual inspection of ballots next week to determine who will represent them in the 110th Congress, with four-term Republican Rep. Robin Hayes holding a mere 329-vote lead over Democratic challenger Larry Kissell.

A count of provisional ballots and a machine recount that ended Wednesday revealed that Hayes’ margin diminished by nearly 150 votes since he declared victory over Kissell on Election Night two weeks ago.

Kissell spokesman Steve Hudson said the recount had uncovered ballots with arrows and punched holes that clearly indicated a candidate but had not previously been counted. “It kind of confirms what we’ve been observing, that there are still votes to be counted,” he said.

Read the rest of this post...

800,000 fill the streets of Beirut

The funeral and protest against the murder of Lebanese minister Pierre Gemayel is bringing out a very large crowd today. Read the rest of this post...

Actually, Darwin is the root of all terrorism

I see the extremist Christian right in America might have some new friends.

Arriving unsolicited by post, the large-format tome offers 768 glossy pages of photographs and easy-to-read text to prove that God created the world with all its species.

At first sight, it looks like it could be the work of United States creationists, the Christian fundamentalists who believe the world was created in six days as told in the Bible.

But the author's name, Harun Yahya, reveals the surprise inside. This is Islamic creationism, a richly funded movement based in predominantly Muslim Turkey which has an influence U.S. creationists could only dream of.

Creationism is so widely accepted here that Turkey placed last in a recent survey of public acceptance of evolution in 34 countries -- just behind the United States.

America's Taliban. So much in common with so many backwards, screwed up people. Read the rest of this post...

Jon Stewart just had YouTube permanently close my account

And a very Happy Thanksgiving to you too, Mr. Stewart.

I got notice this morning that Comedy Central had YouTube remove a video we put up of a segment the Daily Show had done on the Mark Foley scandal. In a strictly legal sense, I get the concern. In a business sense, and a PR sense, it's obnoxious and counterproductive. In any case, I went to log in to my YouTube account to delete any other Comedy Central videos I had, and what do you know, I get a notice that my account has been permanently closed.



Again, this isn't about the law - Google and YouTube may - and I say "may" - have a valid legal argument about anyone posting videos that are longer than, say, 30 seconds. But Google and YouTube need to think about the service they are and the service they will be after they institute this new draconian clamp-down.

First, does it really hurt Comedy Central when people repost snippets of their show? I don't watch less Jon Stewart because I can catch some of the segments on YouTube. I watch more Jon Stewart as a result. YouTube, and the blogs, have been major supporters of Jon Stewart, and I find it hard to believe that that support hasn't helped him and his show - you can't believe how many Jon Stewart fans I met in France this past summer - and just as importantly, I find it hard to believe that we haven't helped get his political message out to the masses (and as much as Stewart likes to say his show is only about comedy, it's clearly not, otherwise he wouldn't be interviewing Nobel Laureates and doing segments on books about Iran).

Again, I get the strictly legal argument, but I think it's rude, and just as importantly, a bad business move. And having my account closed is beyond obnoxious. It not only calls into question Comedy Central's appreciation of what the blogs and the larger liberal audience has done for their network, but it also calls into question just what Google is doing to YouTube.

We already know that Google is slowly but surely destroying Blogger (it worked fine until they got their hands on it). And now we have Google acquiring YouTube, and what happens? Some of the large sites using YouTube lose their accounts.

Well, two can play that game. There's lots and lots and lots of content on YouTube that violates copyright. The Taser video at UCLA that we all posted, the owner was not happy that it was on YouTube. I guess YouTube should have removed that video, and then no one would have known about the incident. And all the other recent policy brutality incidents in LA. All copyright violations. Sure, people are getting attacked, sure the posting of those videos on YouTube made a huge difference not just on the issue, but it also got YouTube huge publicity. What matters is that Google has now taken over YouTube and suddenly it's just wrong for YouTube to be exactly what YouTube is.

Maybe someone ought to start a campaign to find all the highly-trafficked, copyright violation, videos on YouTube and demand they be pulled and the accounts be closed. I can't imagine a quicker way for Google to destroy that service than to close the sites sending the most traffic, and to close down the most popular videos. Two can play this game.

And actually, just a quick look at YouTube's video home page, where the most popular videos are highlighted, shows lots of videos that appear of questionable copyright - and YouTube is giving them top-billing. How odd? For example:

- #2 ranked video of a Japanese soccer game from TV.
- #5 video of the American Music Awards.
- #8 video of ABC's THE VIEW
- #9 video of the American Music Awards.
- #11 video of a soccer game from TV
- #12 soccer game from TV
- #13 from Good Morning America
- #15 soccer game from TV
- #20 video from ABC

That means that nearly half of the videos YouTube is showcasing on its Video home page are of questionable legality. If that extrapolates to YouTube as a whole, that would mean 50% of the service is illegal. Wouldn't that be an interesting research project for someone to partake in. After all, it's so very important that we obey the law while on YouTube. And actually, maybe we all can provide YouTube and Google a clearly much-needed service by regularly checking their video home page, and other videos, to make sure they're not copies of something from TV or the broadway stage.

Email: copyright@youtube.com

Something even more interesting - CBS is now a regular publisher on YouTube under username "CBS." Yes, you see where this is heading. YouTube used to be about you and me. Now it appears that YouTube may be turning into one big corporate publisher. And I strongly suspect that this is Google's plan. Call it "corporate bait-and-switch." Google buys YouTube. Google has millions of regular readers and publishers to YouTube who are loyal to the service because they think it represents the regular guy. Google quietly switches YouTube's main content - at least half of it - to corporate-published content like what CBS is now doing. Google hopes its users don't notice the shift and keep watching the videos, making Google and the companies involved lots of money. But in the end, YouTube, which started off as an experiment in citizen publishing, ends up as one big corporate community simply out to make a buck. That is of course their right, but I'm curious how many YouTube regulars are going to be happy when, and if, they find out that YouTube has sold out.

Google is destroying YouTube, just like they're destroying Blogger.

Thanks again, Jon Stewart and all the folks at Google and YouTube. You have a really Happy Thanksgiving too.
digg this! Read the rest of this post...

Over 130 killed in Baghdad car bombings. Is Cheney headed there?

UPDATE: This is now being called the deadliest insurgent attack since the Iraq war began.

Not much to give thanks for in Iraq today. Extreme violence on top of extreme violence:

Six car bombs killed more than 130 people Thursday in Baghdad's Sadr City, according to Iraq's health minister.

Police had conflicting numbers for those killed and wounded, but Health Minister Ali Shummari said the death toll is 133, with 201 wounded.

Earlier, police said three car bombings and a mortar round firing occurred within a 30-minute period in Sadr City, a densely populated Shiite slum in northeastern Baghdad.

The minister said a missile was fired in addition to the car blasts.

In a separate incident, police also said U.S. forces killed four people Thursday when they opened fire on a minibus in Sadr City.

But a "surprise visit" by Cheney would make this all better. Against the backdrop of this spiraling violence in Iraq's civil war, let's review the words of our Vice President in 2003:

On CBS's "Face the Nation" on March 16, Cheney said the fight would be "weeks rather than months. There's always the possibility of complications that you can't anticipate, but I have great confidence in our troops." Cheney also predicted the fight would "go relatively quickly, but we can't count on that." That same day on NBC's "Meet the Press," Cheney said, "I think things have gotten so bad inside Iraq, from the standpoint of the Iraqi people, my belief is we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators." It was then he predicted that the regular Iraqi soldiers would not "put up such a struggle," and that even "significant elements of the Republican Guard . . . are likely to step aside." Asked if Americans are prepared for a "long, costly and bloody battle," Cheney replied: "Well, I don't think it's likely to unfold that way. . . . The read we get on the people of Iraq is there is no question but what they want to the get rid of Saddam Hussein, and they will welcome as liberators the United States when we come to do that." Cheney has spoken that way for months.

Let the Great Liberator tour Sadr City today. Read the rest of this post...

Bush is basically destroying the Marine Corps

But he did have a Turkey with them. Republicans simply hate the military. Read the rest of this post...

Thanksgiving Morning Open Thread

Happy Thanksgiving. Read the rest of this post...

Who would have guessed? Cheney in Baghdad for photo op

Hmm, a visit to Saudi Arabia at Thanksgiving and he goes to Iraq. Shocking. So since everything is going so well and Cheney wants to stay the course, will he do a walk about or just another candy ass visit to the Green Zone? C'mon Dick, are you a man or a mouse? With all of the positive news from Cheney about Iraq, why not go out and meet the people who are crying out for democracy instead of staying in the wimpy Green Zone? Now that Dick has tuned up on his gun skills out in the fields of Texas he ought to be ready to take on the safe streets of Baghdad.

UPDATE 8:01 a.m.: Cheney's office is now denying that he's in Iraq: "He is not there now." "Now" seems to be the operative word. The Iraqis may have stepped on his fake Thanksgiving photo-op. But, if he goes to the quagmire, he should bring his wife, Lynn. She's a big supporter of the war, too. Chris is right. If Dick goes, he should really tour the country and see first-hand the havoc they've wreaked. Read the rest of this post...

Happy Thanksgiving

So what does everyone have to be thankful for this year? For me, it has been a very tough twelve months since last Thanksgiving, having lost both my dad as well as a very close friend. I'll be toasting to a much better next twelve months with just a bit of peace and calm for a while. On a positive note, a very dear friend who is almost like an uncle is being released from the hospital today after a three week stay after passing out at lunch with him a few days after arrival in Paris. It has been a stressful three weeks with lots of planning for his care upon release but that day is finally here so that's a very nice Thanksgiving gift.

What does everyone have to be thankful about this year? Here's a funny cartoon with at least one other thing we can all be thankful for in 2006. How sweet it is to finally have the tables turned! Read the rest of this post...