It has been difficult for Rudy Giuliani to win support, be it from his Republican base or even from those looking to cling to his 9/11 hero image. Now, you can count his 17 year old daughter Caroline amongst those who are voting for Barack. According to her Facebook profile, the incoming Harvard freshman was a member of an Obama support group on the social networking site. If you can't win an election held by your own family, Rudolph, how can we expect you to win a Republican nomination, much less a Presidential election?
British troops are withdrawing from Basra in Iraq, and following soon behind is sectarian bedlam. Then again, it isn't like life on the ground in Basra was all cookies and candy before the redcoats left, and it isn't improving, so make sure to get while the getting is good.
Press freedom organizations are crying foul based upon China's empty promises to allow unfettered access for foreign journalists during next year's Olympics. If they wanted press freedom, perhaps they should have spent more time detailing China's human rights records before the bid was accepted in order to have the Olympics elsewhere. At this point, all we can do is report that this time, LeBron James will put the smack down on their newly married bean-pole of a superstar Yao Ming. Tell Beijing to censor that!
Europe doesn't quite support the U.S. plan of firearms to Israel and Saudi Arabia as diplomacy in the Middle East. Obviously the European Union has never read the United States' holy book, the Constitution, and it's most holy chapter, the Second Amendment. If spreading democracy doesn't work, at least we can give the Middle East more guns, because much like New Jersey, the region would be safer if more people were armed. It's a slam dunk when you consider our success at keeping track of the weaponry when we send it there.
There is a great new feature on the Huffington Post that is a database that allows you to search through the records of individual donations to the coming Presidential election. This tool will allow you to ascertain whether young Caroline Giuliani's allowance money will be going to the Obama '08 campaign.
CMJ ran a feature on hosting sites on the Web that allow for music piracy by bypassing the traditional peer-to-peer and torrent routes of music distribution, making them part of the fabric of the Web. If the music business continues like this, the only thing left for the industry to do will be to (gasp) focus on the quality of their recorded product and work on putting together kick-ass live shows. Imagine the horror!
Gary Vaynerchuk, co-owner of a large wine store in New Jersey, is trying to take the arrogance out of wine drinking, and he's reaching curious consumers through his lighthearted streaming videos on the Web. Leave it to new media to create a forum where the curious don't need to know the definitions of the words brettanomyces and trichloroanisol in order to appreciate fermented grape juice. Bravo!
Every year, the loopy news wire reports on the winner of the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest at San Diego State, a contest where the winner tries to pen the worst opening line to a work of fiction possible. This year's winner began thusly: "Gerald began -- but was interrupted by a piercing whistle which cost him ten percent of his hearing permanently, as it did everyone else in a ten-mile radius of the eruption, not that it mattered much because for them 'permanently' meant the next ten minutes or so until buried by searing lava or suffocated by choking ash -- to pee." Is it even possible for me to pen a joke funnier than that piece of prose?
Finally, dog owners upset with the Michael Vick dogfighting case but unable to take their frustrations out on the nimble quarterback may have a new recourse. The Michael Vick Dog Chew Toy is available online for animal rights activists, humorists and Falcons fans everywhere.
Here is a picture of the brains behind the brawn in the Oval Office. The only obstacle to Cheney being recognized as the Thinker to Bush's Decider is his refusal to admit that he is part of the Executive office. As the field of public relations has proven, if you can't win the argument, change the terminology.
Mother Jones detailed all of the possible steps that Congress could take to cut off Bush and Cheney's wet dream of a war with Iran before (or slightly after) it even begins. It's too bad they can't follow a detailed set of instructions (like the Constitution) to draw up impeachment procedure on the two goons before they hatch another brainstorm. Just do something before they have any more time to scheme their next brainchild.
Israel released 250 Fatah prisoners in a gesture aimed at strengthening the toothless Mahmoud Abbas. Gaza has deteriorated into a state of anarchy. The area is controlled by Hamas militants, and some are hoping that the effort might help secure the release of captured soldier Gilad Shalit and kidnapped journalist Alan Johnston. I keep trying to convince Israel to move the Western Wall to Utah and allow the Palestinians to have the Holy Land. After the next round of immigration reform stateside, Salt Lake City will be a much safer place than Gaza or the West Bank, and I'm sure John McCain could float the whole country at least five free immigration points towards becoming a permanent resident. The other benefit is that the surge in Jewish population would diversify the Mormon-heavy Utah, allowing the state to portray itself as a diverse community that accepts everybody.Speaking of McCain legislation, the Supreme Court identified a new loophole in the McCain-Feingold Act that will allow corporations to fund political advertisements. I don't even want to think about what that will mean when Mark Cuban and his varied portfolio run for President in 2016. I'm hoping that the Coalition of People who Oppose Abortion and Love Donald Trump (COPOALDT) is piecing together commercials to submarine Cuban's chances.Those who thought that Rupert Murdoch is only a little evil obviously missed today's article about his business dealings in China. At least China has the good sense to make sure that the Australian tycoon and his media business dealings in the country were miserable failures. China keeps its friends close and its enemies closer. The U.S. is a cheap hooker that will let you do anything for the right price.Blogo-news is also invading the corporate landscape. Earlier posts in this blog referenced the strange logic that dictated when and where antitrust cases were raised, particularly in the cases of the Sirius/XM merger and the Whole Foods/Wild Oats merger. Whole Foods CEO John Mackey used the methodology employed by masterminds like Kobe Bryant and myself, blogging up a vindictive rant against the Federal Trade Commission that could harm his company's current merger case. Enjoy the ride, baby.No matter if you are a CEO or a criminal, a King or Don King, a poet, a musician, an actor or just some dude from Quebec, you are probably involved in some way in the vortex of time wasting that is social networking. Those who are as well as those who aren't would be interested in the qualitative look at the differences between users of MySpace (me) and Facebook (me, also). The piece also determined that I am a loser for belonging to multiple electronic social networks.CBS compiled its list of the 50 Biggest Sports Jerks. It's a good list. As usual, Maurice Clarett came up a little short. Gary Bettman might be a good choice. I believe that Carmelo "Sucker Punch" Anthony might also have earned a 48th or 49th place this year. Whatever demon is responsible for the Cubs and the last century of disappointment easily ranks somewhere in the top 50. It's a cruel beast with the body of a goat and the head of Steve Bartman that chokes on anything remotely tough. And it's a big jerk.
