Archive for 2006

porkbustersnewsm.jpgPORKBUSTERS UPDATE: There’s lots more information on the new Pork Barrel Reduction Act over at the PorkBusters site.

See the bill, and find out what you can do.

UPDATE: Here’s more on pork, from Harper’s, illustrating the importance of transparency.

PRAISE for the Washington Post’s web-friendly approach.

A SECOND LOOK at global warming data.

A SPY SCANDAL STORY:

An ex–Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporter and former U.S. Senate and House aide, Lindauer, 43, was charged in March 2004 with conspiring to act as a spy and being an unregistered Iraqi agent. U.S. prosecutors allege the antiwar activist accepted $10,000 from Hussein’s intelligence unit over five years and sought to support resistance groups after the U.S. invasion of Iraq. She insisted her efforts—principally, to get economic sanctions lifted against Iraq—were misunderstood. She was not specifically charged with spying or espionage. The bigger question, however, was always her sanity. She had a history of mood swings and paranoid fears. People were watching her, she often said, although, as it turned out, federal agents indeed had set up surveillance and tapped her phone. Still, if she betrayed her country, did she do so knowingly?

I had lost track of this.

THE BBC’S PAUL REYNOLDS (no relation) calls bloggers “an army of irregulars.”

Well, he’s close. Pretty interesting article, actually, and evidence that some people at Big Media are getting it.

FROM PODCASTING TO PODFADING: That’s why we haven’t committed to a schedule for ours — it might feel too much like work. Though doing something at night and posting at 3 a.m. would feel like work pretty much anytime . . . .

PERSONALLY, I found glasses sexy even before Lisa Loeb.

A CARTOON WAR roundup.

MEG KREIKEMEIER: “So where were the glowing headlines about the economy?” She continues:

In fact, the lack of headlines prompted a search of the Lexis Nexis database to compare magazine articles written about the topic of economic recovery for President Clinton in 1993 and 1994 and for President Bush in 2004 and 2005; years when the economy began to show significant improvements for both presidents.

The search turned up 320 articles for President Clinton and 260 for President Bush. The searches produced articles published by well-known news magazines, financial publications as well as trade publications.

A review of the magazines revealed that far more articles were written about President Clinton in the weekly news magazines whereas the bulk of the articles written about President Bush were found in financial and trade magazines and in right-of-center publications like The National Review and The Weekly Standard.

Most glaring was the disparity in coverage by both US News and World Report and Time Magazine.

Not only did US News and World Report and Time Magazine publish significantly more articles about Clinton, but the tone of the articles was very different, as well.

Do tell.

TOM MAGUIRE has lots of interesting stuff — just keep scrolling.

THE “GOOGLE DESKTOP” doesn’t sound very secure.

LASHAWN BARBER is blogging from CPAC. And Mary Katherine Ham lists some other folks who are CPAC-blogging, too.

HARRY REID AND JACK ABRAMOFF: More connections than Harry Reid would like. As I’ve said before, this can’t help being a Republican scandal, but the Democrats hurt themselves by trying to pretend that it’s only a Republican scandal.

MARK STEYN ON HUGH HEWITT, talking about Islamist extremism and American politics. Transcript is here.

SWEDEN IS REPORTEDLY SHUTTING DOWN WEBSITES that show the dread Mohammed cartoons. Michael Moynihan is practicing civil disobedience.

MADE IT IN ONE PIECE: The Insta-Wife doesn’t like to drive for long, so I didn’t manage to blog any more while enroute.

WEST COAST TERROR PLOT thwarted?

I’M ON THE INTERSTATE (not driving) but Ryan Sager is blogging from CPAC.

WALTER OLSON HAS more on the rather lame lawsuit against Craigslist mentioned below.

BLOGGING WILL BE LIGHT TODAY — I’m traveling to Washington, where I’ll be signing books tomorrow (Friday) at CPAC, in the Exhibit Hall, at 10:00 AM. I’ll also be doing a panel on online media at 11:15,* and a meet-and-greet in the publisher’s booth (518/520) at 2. Drop by if you’re there and have the time.

* Preempted by a C-SPAN taping. Sorry! I’m an author. I go where the publicists tell me.

HOWARD KURTZ: “Much of the MSM missed the boat. Too many wrote predictable leads about the Coretta Scott King funeral, all but ignoring, or at least burying, the Bush-bashing that was going on.”