Subhead: "If You Use the Term ‘Thoughts’ Loosely"
This definitely goes under the heading of something you wouldn’t confess if you didn’t have a blog.
I am a notoriously slow reader, and one of the stupider reasons for that is that I can’t seem to read any small grouping of words — a headline, a bumper sticker, a quote — without adding some nonsensical something to "finish the thought."
Take The New York Times today. Please. I found myself composing "subheads" for several of the headlines.
Actual headline: "Europe to Offer Iran Conditional Incentives"
My subhead: "’You Don’t Blow Us Up, We’ll Do Business’"
Actual headline: "Lens Cleaner is Recalled Worldwide"
My subhead: "Household Product Stirs Fond Memories"
Actual headline: "U.S. Urges Jurors to Punish ‘Lies’ at Enron"
My subhead: "12 Bars of Soap Handed Out by Judge"
Actual headline: "Most Bush Holdings Listed as Real Estate"
My subhead: "Democratic Response: No, it’s FALSE Estate"
OK, I’ll go away now.
Related Posts
Europeans are considering selling a new nuclear reactor to Iran.
Venezuela is threatening to sell their F-16s to Iran.
Thank God that John Kerry is not the President.
Lee,
You’re absolutely right. If John Kerry was president the Europeans might not be considering selling a nuclear reator to Iran and Venezuela wouldn’t be selling F-16s to them. Thankfully we have Bush in office to make sure these wonderful things happen. Perhaps Bush can offer some financial assistance to help the Iranians. After all nuclear reactors aren’t cheap.
Headline: Europe to Sell Iran Nuclear Reactor
My Subhead: Lee Blames Kerry
The only reasons to “thank God that John Kerry isn’t President” is if you like war, high gas prices, pollution, global climate destruction, governmental corruption, and police state domestic spying.
Even reactionary conservatives are starting to desert Dear Leader’s cause but I doubt that anyone ever accused Lee of being ahead of the learning curve.
Europe to Offer Conditional Incentives
caption
Ignore the Europeans and Take the Incentives Since They Surrendered Already
RTH – USA Today, the print journalism version of the Cartoon Network, published lies about Verizon and BellSouth and perhaps other companies. But, they learned from CBS that you can publish anything you want as long as you call it “Fake, but accurate”. The interesting side of it is how much the anti-American liberals pounced on it as another example of how bad America really is. Anything to bring down our own nation with the liberals is fair game. Hopefully now Verizon and Bellsouth get about $100 million in lawsuit damages and put the America haters in poverty where they belong. God Bless America!!!!!!!!!
Let’s see, RTH: I like high gas prices, and I don’t mind the surveillance stuff a bit. I’ve been for this war since the start — well, since we started shooting back, anyway.
Can’t say I like the other three at all, though. Maybe that’s why I can’t ever identify with either your side or Lee’s.
And Dave, I love it: “the print journalism version of the Cartoon Network.” I’m so glad we didn’t get bought by those people.
Brad Warthen, first in line to give up my constitutional rights.
I thought that you might at least be a little chagrined that NSA was specifically monitoring journalists’ cell phones to track leakers concerned with Dear Leader’s Perpetual War. Of course, they can’t seem to pin point those guys in the West Wing who outed Valerie Plame. Americans Who Are Paying Attention (Wake up, GI Joe Warthen!) might suspect that the Patriot Police have ulterior motives, like keeping Dear Leader’s illegal domestic spying secret.
“…since we started shooting back.” Uhm, would that have been when President Clinton sent cruise missiles to Sudan or are you still under the illusion that Iraq had anything at all to do with the Global War on Terra[tm]?
Hey, Brad, high energy prices are just a symptom. Or, perhaps you just can’t connect the dots between our Middle East policy, our addiction to oil, the sources of terrorist financing and the causes of Arab resentment?
Ya gotta wonder if God loved us so much why’d he give our oil to the Arabs?
Does running a Big City Newspaper Editorial Page really make you blind or that a prerequisite?
What lies, Dave? Those non-denial “denials” are as slippery as Ron Ray-gun’s Iran-Contra “memory lapses.”
Dave, you and GI Joe Warthen are the anti-Americans. Those of us pointing our Dear Leader’s abuses of the Constitution are trying to save the republic from gullible cowards willing to sacrifice our rights.
When neither BellSouth nor Verizon sue I’m sure that you’ll use the usual anti-American spin about “activist judges.” There are already suits against Verizon and BellSouth for doing Dear Leader’s spying. I’m sure that you think those are “frivolous suits,” naturally.
Qwest did the right thing, but only because they were afraid of class action lawsuits. The plaintiffs will need phenomenal luck with Bush’s Supreme Court. The fix is in with Roberts and Alito’s bizarre “unitary power” (for Republicans) philosophy.
RTH – Don’t forget we have Diebold standing at the ready too. Every little bit helps. haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Brad Warthen,
I’m simply shocked, shocked that you are so cavalier about the surveilance program. Can’t you at least acknowledge this program could be abused. As a journalist you should be very wary of anything that has great potential to infringe on freedom of the press.
As for the Iraq war, I don’t think American security is hurt if we end up losing in Iraq. My big thing is how the whole war issue crowds out any discussions concerning important domestic issues. So I’ll try to get the dialog started on an issue important to me, traffic accidents.
Did you know that 1,094 persons died on South Carolina highways in 2005? That’s the second highest total on record. Further, about 70% of the traffic fatalities (excluding pedestrians, bikers, cyclists and other non-vehicle occupants) were not wearing seat belts. In December the general assembly passed a primary belt law. So far this year we are running 67 fewer traffic deaths than for the same period in 2005. This bill passed in spite of intense lobbying by various libertarian thinking groups that do not wish to have the government impose any restrictions on personal behavior. But the benefits from this bill are greatly diluted because we don’t have enough law enforcement officers to enforce it. Why? Lack of funding. The highway patrol has 200 fewer troopers than they did in the 80s.
I would suggest to all you pro-war diehards to do a bit of math and you’ll quickly see that terrorism really is not much of a problem compared to other pressing issues that are being ignored. With the resources we’re squandering in Iraq we could save many thousands of lives here at home. And frankly the threat of terrorism would, in a few years, actually go down.
Who would we save here at home, and why should we save them? Why can’t they pay for their own “saving”?
Clinton might have saved 3,000 lives here on 9/11 if he had pursued the terrorists in the preceding years.
Europeans already were selling nuclear processing equipment to Iraq before Bush even ran for office. They were also selling equipment for culturing biological weapons and small facilities for making nerve gasses. China was selling nuclear weapons technology to Iran. So you can’t blame Bush for that.
Lots of other nations have bought fighter planes from the U.S., without threatening to sell them to our enemies. The only difference with Venezeula is that they have a new communist dictator. He hates America, even the useful idiot liberals.
Brad, I have to join Bud and RTH in my disappointment that you as a journalist share the (sadly, probably majority) casual attitude towards the Bill of Rights. I notice you still have Andrew Sullivan on your “Fun with Links” roll. Have you been reading him lately?
Bud, 68 cycles have crashed in Myrtle Beach just since last Friday.. 5 dead. And there will be several more by the time this next weekend is over. I bet the do gooders can think of all kinds of ways to stop this slaughter. By the way, MB is loaded with police and it doesnt help a bit.
Here are a few suggestions to improve safety on the roads:
Enact a comprehensive motorcycle helmet law.
Increase the number of troopers on the highways.
Increased funding for the SCDOT to address road safety issues.
Allow cameras to be used to ticket motorists who run red lights.
Raise the driving age to 17.
Lower the Blood Alcohol Thresshold for drunk driving.
Promote and even fund transportation home for persons who become inibriated at bars.
Increase penalties for drunk driving up to and including confiscation of vehicles.
Increase funding for public awareness campaigns.
At the national level increase safety standards for automobiles including rollover standards for trucks and SUVs.
These are a few suggestions. Much can be done if we have the will to do it.
WAG THE DOG, Lee, WAG THE DOG… remember how the Rethugs and their media mouthpieces brayed when President Clinton took military actions against AQ?
Jeez, what a pathetic hippocrite.
And, then there was the nine months when the Bush Administration ignored terrorism prior to 9/l1.
Your playbook is not just tattered– “Blame Clinton” five years after he left office– but some sheeple are finally waking up to being conned. (Brad excluded, of course.)
Dave, thinking he’s cute, writes: Don’t forget we have Diebold standing at the ready too.
Will you be quite so complacent if Hillary whens in ’08?
New Fears of Security Risks in Electronic Voting Systems
By MONICA DAVEY
Published: May 12, 2006
CHICAGO, May 11 — With primary election dates fast approaching in many states, officials in Pennsylvania and California issued urgent directives in recent days about a potential security risk in their Diebold Election Systems touch-screen voting machines, while other states with similar equipment hurried to assess the seriousness of the problem.
“It’s the most severe security flaw ever discovered in a voting system,” said Michael I. Shamos, a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University who is an examiner of electronic voting systems for Pennsylvania, where the primary is to take place on Tuesday.
Officials from Diebold and from elections’ offices in numerous states minimized the significance of the risk and emphasized that there were no signs that any touch-screen machines had been tampered with. But computer scientists said the problem might allow someone to tamper with a machine’s software, some saying they preferred not to discuss the flaw at all for fear of offering a roadmap to a hacker.
“This is the barn door being wide open, while people were arguing over the lock on the front door,” said Douglas W. Jones, a professor of computer science at the University of Iowa, a state where the primary is June 6.
The latest concern about the touch-screen machines was only the newest chapter in an emerging political and legal fight around the country over voting machines. While some voting officials defend the ease of touch-screens (similar to A.T.M.’s), some advocacy groups argue that optical scan machines, using paper ballots, are far more secure.
The wave of high-tech voting machines was prompted by the 2000 election in Florida, which spotlighted the problems of old-fashioned punch card ballots. But the machines that soon followed have spurred division. Here in Chicago, where voters used both touch-screen and optical-scan systems in a March primary, it took officials a week to tally all the votes because of technical problems and human errors, touching off a flurry of criticism over the Sequoia Voting Systems equipment.
In Maryland this spring, the State House of Delegates passed a bill that would have scrapped touch-screen machines, but the Senate last month took no action on the bill, effectively killing the idea.
b
Bud, that list you presented exemplifies what is wrong with society today. People think there is a governmental solution for all problems. Some of the cyclists who were killed were drag racing. I say forget all those laws and let people be responsible for their own actions. For people who are dumb enough to race on crowded roads, drive while drunk, etc., who cares?
RTH – The inner city dems who routinely cheat on elections are raising a fuss because they aren’t smart enough to cheat using the hi tech kiosks. Much easier to cheat by stuffing paper ballets in a box. I won’t worry about Diebold unless Der Slickmeister gets put on their board of directors. Relax, as Stalin said, It’s not who votes that is important, it’s who counts the votes!!!!! haaaaaaaaaaaaaaahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Aw, Hillary can’t when. I’m not even sure she can what, but she sure does why a lot.
Nice, Dave, look who’s quoting Stalin– Mr. Anti-American.
Brad, check your meds.
Nice II, Dave: dredge up some unsubstantiated race boogeyman (“inner city”) and disregard the very real threat to the integrity of votes from Diebold or a hacker.
Obviously Dave has no problem with fixing elections— as long as the Rethugs are doing the fixing.
Next you’ll be telling us how egalitarian the Rethugs are. Even Brad might not buy that load of manure.
Dave,
Racing and drunk driving frequently claim the lives of innocent bystanders. You seem to have no interest in fair elections either. What does the right really want? It seems to me this is nothing more than a sporting event to the right. Go team Elephant!! Rah, Rah, Rah. I believe in justice, security, peace and prosperity. The right only cares about winning. That’s really disgusting. And I don’t care who’s in charge if they can deliver the goods. It’s crystal clear that the people in charge are failing. Every bad number is up from the Clinton years: unemployment, inflation, traffic deaths, murders, soldiers killed overseas, persons in poverty, persons without medical insurance, lack of respect from abroad. We live in terror, thanks to the right wing spin machine. We fail to provide for those in need while the ultra wealthy get even richer. These are facts, not gloom and doom. Bring back the glory days of Bill Clinton. There was a REAL president who really did feel our pain, even though there was a heckuva lot less of it to feel back then. By the way, check out the latest DOW figure. It’s about where it was when Bush took office. But hey, the guy would be great fun to have a beer with. And that’s what’s really important to the right wing lemmings now isn’t it?
Bud, you forgot to mention that gator attacks are at an alltime high in Florida and New Hampshire had their most rain in 70 years. Obviously two more tragic events you would pin on Bush. We all want fair elections, right or left, and thankfully we have the Supreme Court as the final arbiter to keep them fair. You really need to stop focusing on the depressing news and focus on the positives. Here is an exercise that will do it. Close your eyes, imagine you were actually born in Bangladesh instead of the USA. You wake up every morning with nothing to eat, you are filled with disease from malnutrition, your feet are shoeless and calloused, but loaded with fungus and parasitic worms from the filthy ground. There is no clean water (no Dasani, horrible) so you drink from the filthy river water. Your breakfast is a single 3 day old rice ball that the Mother Theresa shelter gave you. The real problem is this is your day every day, and there is no way out as you can’t move to India or China. You will be shot if you try to cross the border.
OK Bud, now wake up from the dream, count your blessings and stop whining about Bush and how horrible you have it here. I bet you feel better already.
Hillary who? Oh, that Hillary. She does why all the time, and shouldn’t even think about whenning no matter what or where. And how? Never happen.
Dave,
I did what you said. You’re right, I do feel better. I had this wonderful dream that we had a Clinton in the White House again. Ahhh. What a wonderful thought.
It’s not that it’s so horrible for me personally. My life if pretty good. (It was better in the 90s though). But many others really are suffering. Especially the civilians in Iraq and those who die in the US needlessly. If we had competent leadership life could be even better if the wealth were spread around a bit more.
Hillary in ’08!!
Great new! The conservative Rasmussen Reports now shows a better than 3 to 1 margin between strongly disapprove vs strongly approve of the president’s job performance. Now that’s something we can celebrate.
President Bush Job Approval
Updated Daily by Noon Eastern Bush Job Approval
Strongly Approve 15%
Somewhat Approve 21%
Somewhat Disapprove 17%
Strongly Disapprov 46%
Thursday May 18, 2006 –Thirty-six percent (36%) of Americans Approve of the way that George W. Bush is performing his role as President. Just 15% Strongly Approve. Those are the lowest levels ever measured by Rasmussen Reports. Just 65% of Republicans approve of the President’s Job Performance, also a new low.