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Wednesday, September 29, 2004I See A Bad Moon Risin'
So we have four hurricanes hit Florida, an earthquake in California, Mount St. Helens ready to blow, Jay Leno leaving The Tonight Show and now this:
An asteroid will pass within 1 million miles of Earth on Wednesday, making it the closest encounter with a major solar system object so far this century.
Maybe I should be booking a flight on Spaceship One now.
File under Current Events.
11:38:31 PM
Thursday, September 16, 2004Does Vanessa Williams Get Reinstated?
The Miss America Pageant is planning to show more skin.
File under Current Events.
11:08:07 PM
Tuesday, September 14, 2004Rather Biased
"Watchin' Dan Rather do the news, he looks like he's making a hostage tape. They should have guys in ski masks and AK-47s just standing off to the side..."
--Don Imus, cited in Imus: America's Cowboy, 1999.
Courtesy of RatherBiased.
File under Current Events.
9:35:48 PM
Saturday, September 11, 2004Three Years
I'm watching the ceremonies at the World Trade Center, listening to the names of those who were murdered by inhuman animals. I'm still just as sick over this as I was when I watched the towers fall. I don't think I'll ever get over this.
I don't give a rat's ass what Kerry did in his four months in Vietnam or what Bush did or didn't do in the National Guard. The only thing that matters to me is who is fit to lead this country now. Based on his voting record, it is not John Kerry.
File under Current Events.
9:38:54 AM
Thursday, July 22, 2004Martha Might Be Interested
Yes, our economy has truly turned into one based on service industries. And boy, aren't we all getting serviced. Exhibit "A" is from the Denver Post:
What makes David Novak an expert? The former Microsoft consultant served almost 10 months in a Florida federal prison in 1997 after pleading guilty to mail fraud.
"I made some very poor choices," he said. "But one of the things that I often say to my clients is that the government doesn't go out of their way to prosecute anybody. You need to basically jump up and down in front of them and beg them to come after you."
Novak's first piece of advice to clients is to accept responsibility for their actions.
"My primary goal when I get involved is to get them to let go of that victim mentality and recognize they've got nobody to blame but themselves," he said. "Let go of the anger about the process and recognize that the prosecutor doesn't hate you, the judge doesn't hate you. Your choices put you in this position."
Novak works with about five clients at a time but dispenses advice to dozens of convicted criminals each month, he said. He declined to divulge any names, but said the public "would recognize the names of a lot of my clients."
According to Novak, executives might be better suited for prison life than the average criminal.
"Individuals who have achieved the professional recognition that Ken Lay or Martha Stewart have, in certain respects, are at an advantage emotionally because they have a tremendous amount of confidence and ultimately recognize that they can deal with most challenges," he said.
The average day for federal prisoners consists of three communal meals and eight hours of menial labor, like doing laundry or cleaning toilets, with pay ranging from 12 cents to 40 cents per hour.
"The thing that is really difficult for business executives is that all of the little things, commuting, writing e-mails, answering the phone, are now gone. It's just empty time," Novak said. "One of the big challenges that inmates face is maintaining mental sharpness."
The Federal Bureau of Prisons currently houses more than 177,000 inmates. Drug offenses make up the largest crime category, with over 54 percent of all inmates, compared with 4.4 percent for extortion, fraud or bribery and 0.7 percent for banking, insurance, counterfeit and embezzlement.
"Federal prison is really the great equalizer," Novak said. "It doesn't matter if you're rich or poor, most inmates have to deal with the same challenges. The federal government is very good at making sure that nobody gets special treatment."
Fastow was convicted of signing a fraudulent tax return, a misdemeanor, and will serve a year in prison. Her husband, Andrew Fastow, pleaded guilty to conspiracy for his involvement in the collapse of energy giant Enron. He will serve a maximum of 10 years.
Enron's two former chief executive officers, Jeffrey Skilling and Kenneth Lay, have been indicted on felony fraud charges.
Thank God for consultants.
File under Current Events.
2:15:09 AM
wtf?
I always thought that California was the land of the loonies. My theory was that the country was tilted toward the west and everything that was loose sooner or later ended up there. Well, if California has cornered the market on the crazies, San Francisco must be its ground zero (please forgive me Chey). Anyway, here's this little tidbit I came across over at Little Green Footballs:
“I believe this is important because it further democratizes our society,” said board president Matt Gonzalez, author of the initiative. The board voted 9-2 to place the measure on the ballot for a city vote. ...
San Francisco has attempted to extend voting rights to non-citizens in the past. In 1996, a state judge struck down an attempt by some residents to allow non-citizens to vote in all municipal elections. The judge ruled that the proposal conflicted with the California constitution, which requires U.S. citizenship to vote.
Supporters of the new ballot measure said they are confident that this time, with the narrow focus on local school board elections, the proposal will stand up to a legal challenge.
“It’s important because it integrates residents of the city who are disenfranchised in the decision-making process in schools,” said Carlo Petroni, a founder of Movimiento de los derechos des inmigrantes, (Movement for Immigrant Rights), a San Francisco group that’s campaigning to get the ballot measure approved. “It’s good policy and it’s good government.”
Disenfranchised? You've got to be kidding me! They're disenfranchised either because they don't belong here in the first place or because they choose to be.
This country is like some tour bus ready to go over a cliff. Then again, maybe they'll let me vote in France this year.
File under Current Events.
2:00:55 AM
Monday, July 05, 2004Something To Ponder
While we celebrate our freedoms this weekend (yes, even the freedom of Michael Moore to be a total asshole) let's not forget that there is an evil in this world that would like nothing better than to make our Declaration of Independence nothing more than a forgotten footnote in history. Here's some words from my former boss, via Little Green Footballs:
In World Wars I and II, the U.S., suffering great casualties to its military personnel, saved the world, particularly in WWII, from occupation by the German Nazi Reich and Japanese empire. We currently are fighting the battle against a minority of fundamentalist Islamists whose objective is to destroy Western civilization. They are willing to use every act of terrorism from suicide bombers to hacking off heads to destroy and terrorize us into surrender. And Michael Moore weakens us before that enemy. How should we respond? With scorn, catcalls, the Bronx cheer and the truth. Of course, we should recognize the outrages and criminal acts committed by Americans in military service and civilians at the Iraqi prison Abu Ghraib. We should continue as we have done and take action to punish those involved. But we ought not in the media show again and again the pictures of the atrocities to simply flagellate ourselves and give aid and comfort to our enemies. A good rule of thumb might be to show the pictures of Abu Ghraib as many times as we show the beheadings of Danny Pearl, Nicholas Berg and Paul Johnson.
--Edward Koch
File under Current Events.
3:31:19 PM
Thursday, July 01, 2004
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