Wozz: Salon From Wozz

Today's Gary Hart links

Thu, 03 Apr 2003 18:13:44 GMT

He hasn't declared yet, but that hasn't stopped Project Vote-Smart from putting up some useful information on the Senator, including links to transcripts of interviews (including the Sputtery and Colmes interview I mentioned earlier,) biographical info, and eventually position statements.

Also, Salon has an article today about the Senator's proposal last fall for a reasonable resolution of the situation in Iraq. It was ignored by the Democrats, leading to the mess they find themselves in today. I think it provides a good view of his position on the war.

Lastly, don't forget that tonight is National Gary Hart Meetup Day. If you're interested in talking with other Hart supporters and especially if you are interested in volunteering, be sure to check out your local Meetup.

A less than Savage debut

Tue, 11 Mar 2003 01:35:44 GMT

Savage seems either incredibly dim or just plain nuts. Or just really, really terrible on television. Without any opposition, he still had a hard time scoring simple political points.

Salon weighs in on MSNBC's new show. This guy is the biggest chump I've ever seen.

The Bottom Line On Iraq: It's The Bottom Line

Fri, 21 Feb 2003 04:18:50 GMT

"No one in the administration embodies this bottom line mentality more than Dick Cheney. The vice president is one of those ideological purists who never let little things like logic, morality, or mass murder interfere with the single-minded pursuit of profitability.
His on-again, off-again relationship with the Butcher of Baghdad is a textbook example of what modern moralists condemn as "situational ethics," an extremely convenient code that allows you to do what you want when you want and still feel good about it in the morning. In the Cheney White House (let's call it what it is), anything that can be rationalized is right.
The two were clearly on the outs back during the Gulf War, when Cheney was Secretary of Defense, and the first President Bush dubbed Saddam "Hitler revisited."
Then Cheney moved to the private sector and suddenly things between him and Saddam warmed up considerably. With Cheney in the CEO's seat, Halliburton helped Iraq reconstruct its war-torn oil industry with $73 million worth of equipment and services -- becoming Baghdad's biggest such supplier. Kinda nice how that worked out for the vice-president, really: oversee the destruction of an industry that you then profit from by rebuilding.
When, during the 2000 campaign, Cheney was asked about his company's Iraqi escapades, he flat out denied them. But the truth remains: When it came to making a buck, Cheney apparently had no qualms about doing business with "Hitler revisited."
And make no mistake, this wasn't a case of hard-nosed realpolitik -- the rationale for Rummy's cuddly overtures to Saddam back in '83 despite his almost daily habit of gassing Iranians. That, we were told, was all about "the enemy of my enemy is my friend."
No, Cheney's company chose to do business with Saddam after the rape of Kuwait. After Scuds had been fired at Tel Aviv and Riyadh. After American soldiers had been sent home from Desert Storm in body bags.
And in 2000, just months before pocketing his $34 million Halliburton retirement package and joining the GOP ticket, Cheney was lobbying for an end to U.N. sanctions against Saddam. "

Nothing groundbreaking or new here, but Arianna puts together a nice summary of why I have a hard time taking the "It's all about the Evil" arguments seriously. The fact that Saddam is evil just makes a nice pretty package in which to wrap the money.

[via BoingBoing]

Woke up in a Dictatorship today

Fri, 21 Feb 2003 02:19:19 GMT

"Today I woke up in a Dictatorship. Up to now Hugo Chavez and his hoodlums had been using the law to "hide" the repressive and intolerant nature of this Government. Last night they detained one of the two most important leaders of the opposition and an order is out to capture the Head of the Federation of Unions (CTV) the other visible leader of the opposition. The charge: treason and inciting rebellion. This is political, this is repressive and coupled with assasinations last Monday indicates to me that Chavez has decided to step out of Democracy. The charges against the two most important leaders of the opposition are just an excuse to neutralize them and silence others. The Government quickly charges two political opponents on these charges, but assasins from April are still free or not charged, no investigation has been made of other gunmen on Dec. 6th. and many other political and violent crimes have yet to be investigated. But this one has, with efficiency. Maybe the world will now understand what is going on here in Venezuela."

Venezuela takes another turn for the worst. Maybe those on the left who are screaming that we're living in a dictatorship should take a look at Chavez and Company to see what one is really like. Stay tuned to The Devil's Excrement for further developements.

Rumors of Salon's demise...

Tue, 18 Feb 2003 22:23:56 GMT

"I know it's easy to read our latest financial filings and assume, as some correspondents have, that Salon's tragic fate is already a done deal.

Here's the situation: We are a public company, I am an executive of the company, and as such there is no way I can sit here and go into detail about all the steps we're taking to secure Salon's future. Our SEC filing, upon which all the coverage has been based, specifically stated that Salon would run into trouble if it fails to raise new funds. Somehow that conditional clause seemed to drop away from most of the press reports. Sure, nothing in business is certain, but Salon also has a long history of raising the money it needs to survive.

This is the quote from our CEO, Mike O'Donnell, in our press release:

"We are in active, continuing discussions with potential investors to complete an equity financing that would give the company financial stability for 2003. Salon has reported the issuance of notes with equity conversion features in recent months and believe these will become part of a significant round."

Unlike the AP, which didn't even bother to call us for comment before running its imminent-death notice, this CBS Marketwatch report tells more of the story from our side."

Scott weighed in on the Salon blogger's mailing list yesterday reassuring everyone that the end was not so nigh. Today he reiterates on his blog.

AP Wire | 02/14/2003 | Salon warns it may not survive beyond February

Fri, 14 Feb 2003 22:26:38 GMT

"Online magazine publisher Salon Media Group Inc. on Friday warned that it may not survive beyond this month if it can't raise more money to pay its rent and other bills.

The San Francisco-based company painted a grim financial picture in a quarterly report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Things are so bad, Salon said, it stopped paying rent for its San Francisco headquarters in December, prompting the landlord to issue a Jan. 29 demand for a $200,000 payment."

Put up or shut up folks. If you think Salon is worth anything, they need your support now.

[via Drudgereport]

Shock troops for Bush

Fri, 07 Feb 2003 23:50:30 GMT

" CPACers exemplify what historian Richard Hofstadter called "the paranoid style in American politics" in the 1964 essay of the same name. "Since the enemy is thought of as being totally evil and totally unappeasable, he must be totally eliminated -- if not from the world, at least from the theatre of operations to which the paranoid directs his attention," Hofstadter wrote. "Even partial success leaves him with the same feeling of powerlessness with which he began, and this in turn only strengthens his awareness of the vast and terrifying quality of the enemy he opposes." And George W. Bush has harnessed their obsession and rage for his own political gain. "

CPAC - The right's answer to A.N.S.W.E.R.

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Embrace file-sharing, or die

Fri, 07 Feb 2003 22:56:36 GMT

"Record companies are not logical, righteous entities. They are ramshackle, profit-driven enterprises. They act in their perceived best interests, and they act ruthlessly and, in many cases, irrationally. The people who run them still have their e-mail printed out by their secretaries. We have to wait for the next generation to take over, the "software" generation, the generation of people who don't remember growing up without a computer around. I would argue that the future of music is multimedia, the future of multimedia is DVD, and the future of music companies is software. In five years, record labels will be software companies and I don't think they know that yet. The music business will be saved by someone from the software business who can impose a new business model on music assets.

In the future there will be no record stores as we know them, no tangible product as we know it. The CD is going the way of the 8-track and the cassette. Soon there will be no need for the tangible thing. Consumers have made their choice. They want to listen to music while they're working at their computers, on a portable device like an iPod or MiniDisc player, or on a home theater jukebox (similar to a feature of Microsoft's Xbox). Digitally available music has given the consumer choices, and they like those choices. They don't want music just from commercial radio. They also want it from their hard drives and from the Internet. Yet record companies still want to force tangible, overpriced media on consumers who want to obtain data files and temporarily store them on their hard drives or on cheap, disposable discs (CD-Rs). If record labels don't start trying to be part of the future they will be bought up and converted to it by someone who is. "

A call to reason - and arms - from within the music industry. President of a record label, the author discusses the changing nature of intellectual property, the death of the CD, the rise of downloadable music, why people hate the music industry and not other content industries, and how the music industry (specifically NARAS, aka the Grammy people) must reconcile all of this to avoid death and possibly even thrive.

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TIA trinkets

Thu, 06 Feb 2003 04:31:32 GMT

The Total Information Awareness program may have removed its ominous logo from its Web site -- but you can still get your TIA-insignia T-shirts, teddy bears, mugs and thongs! Hurry, though, they're going fast (into detention)!

I want the greeting cards in hat form.

[via Scott Rosenberg's Links & Comment]

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Big march in defense of the media and showing off to the amigos

Sat, 01 Feb 2003 05:58:56 GMT

I would not want to be Hugo Chavez right now. Apparently he's trying to shut up the media and the people aren't gonna take it. Keep an eye on The Devil's Excrement for more Venezuela news.

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Fool me once, shame on you, etc.

Fri, 31 Jan 2003 03:58:53 GMT

"So where does that leave us? If you can't use the intelligence you have to sway world opinion it's not much use -- unless the world trusts you. And this is where the Bush team's habit of twisting the truth has got them in deep trouble."

Scott comments on today's NY Times article discussing the decision over what evidence can be declassified for the UN. His comments sum up some of my discomfort with accepting the Administration's arguments at face value. Their penchant towards saying whatever will sway the audience no matter how off-base and un-supported has resulted in the public regarding them with a good degree more skepticism than they might normally be due.

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CNN.com - At 74, Internet cowboy spreads wireless - Jan. 26, 2003

Mon, 27 Jan 2003 06:30:39 GMT

""Col. Dave Hughes, USA, Ret., is the only character who has popped up in the plot every time I've investigated the roots of a technology revolution," futurist author Howard Rheingold wrote in "Smart Mobs," his 2002 book about the sociology of constant Internet connectivity."

Dave Hughes, LONG-time fellow WELL and Colorado resident is a personal hero of mine - not-wiring the un-wired for many years now. 76 years old and, still hard at work and finally getting some national recognition - in this case in a great article on CNN - for his lifetime of hard work. Read the article, check out his website and go join the WELL to read his years of writing.

Can Tony Blair stop the war?

Mon, 27 Jan 2003 04:23:02 GMT

"Meanwhile, Britain's war critics, both in Parliament and in the press, are far less timid than their counterparts in America. Using the type of strident language that's rarely heard by elected U.S. officials, one on-the-record Labour Party chairman recently told the Telegraph: "We have no justification at all for a war on Iraq. The logic of the situation beggars belief. It is manufactured by George Bush, and oil is a factor."

And unlike Bush, Blair does not have an entrenched neoconservative movement like the one in the U.S. that's been beating the drums of war so effectively for the past year. Neocon hawks both inside the administration (Vice President Dick Cheney and Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz) and in the political press (the Weekly Standard, Wall Street Journal) have been lobbying for war with Iraq almost since the moment the World Trade Center was attacked. They're convinced that toppling Saddam will not only make America safer but, after the regime change, also be the first crucial step in redrawing the entire Middle East.

"There's very little of that neocon culture here, or that messianic sense of this war," notes Kettle. "Nobody thinks we can redraw the map of the world. And Blair certainly does not talk about it.""

A good Salon article on the difficulties Tony Blair faces trying to sustain the rush to war in the face of a country thats not really interested in what Bush has to say.

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Worst-case scenarios

Sun, 26 Jan 2003 23:18:48 GMT

"Two years into his presidency, on the eve of his second State of the Union address, almost exactly a year before the 2004 presidential primary season begins with the Iowa caucus, President Bush faces trouble everywhere he turns. War with Iraq seems inevitable even as crises in Venezuela and North Korea simmer, and al-Qaida remains menacing and elusive. On the domestic front, unemployment is still rising, the stock market continues to slump, budget deficits are climbing again -- and the president's only answer is a massive tax cut for the rich, while states and cities slash funds for public safety, healthcare and education. A broad spectrum of scientists agree that global warming is getting worse, but the administration insists the issue needs more study.

It's hard not to notice a disconnection between the challenges facing the U.S. and the Bush administration's response. And what if, against this already gloomy backdrop, things get worse on several fronts at once?

Salon asked six writers to look at worst-case scenarios on the domestic and international scenes. What if deficits mount and the war with Iraq is messier than expected? What if joblessness continues to rise but states' unemployment insurance funds collapse? What if al-Qaida rebuilds while the Palestinian situation festers? "

We've heard plenty of the 'best-case' scenarios from the Administration and their supporters. Salon summarizes the best-case arguments, and presents their own view on the worst-case. Are those supporting our current Administration willing to live with these consequences, which, Salon concludes, include

Continued Arab support of the Intifada despite the installation or election of more democratic regimes in the Middle East
Anger against the US policies growing leading to Palestinian style suicide bombings in the United States justifying furthur good-guy-bad-guyism from the Administration ensconsing us in our own Isreali-style vicious circle.
Widespread economic breakdown in American states and local municipalities caused by Bush's bizarre economic policies.
Environmental catastrophe
Women's abortion rights overturned

Those holding their tounge about the Administration's stupidity because they support war against Iraq need to take a look at these articles and see if they're willing to accept these consequences for the rest of the us.

Another fine example of why its important to keep Salon around. Subscribe now!

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Salon Goes for Broke

Fri, 24 Jan 2003 04:48:59 GMT

"This is an historic moment for the Web. Salon is calling the question that many in the Internet community have long debated. Will people pay for quality editorial content online? So far it hasn't proven to be a good model. The same people who think nothing of paying $5 for a latte, $40 for a bottle of wine, $35 for a subscription to a magazine they see once a month and may never glance at, haven't quite managed to pull out the credit card for another $30 for hot news every weekday from Salon. "

A good piece from the executive editor of AlterNet on why you should be paying for a Salon subscription, and sums up some of what's great about us Salon Blogger's home on the web.

"Many of this demographic apparently likes Salon's smart yet restrained liberal writers like Jake Tapper and Joe Conason, as well as the similar strong voices coming from inside the magazine like Joan Walsh and Gary Kamiya, and especially the prodigious work of the considerably younger Michelle Goldberg in New York (when she can stop worrying about those darn sectarians organizing the peace marches). Salon has terrific cultural coverage; smart takes on movies and music, excellent technology writing, and sometimes clever writing about sex and relationships."

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There's no free lunch on the Web anymore

Tue, 21 Jan 2003 23:38:23 GMT

"Salon is perhaps the last great independent experiment in online journalism. Once the Web was crowded with nervy upstarts such as Suck and Feed, new media sites that disparaged their traditional rivals as dinosaurs but were actually the first to disappear. Salon was one of the most celebrated -- and, with 30 million page views a month, one of the most popular -- but the online magazine has been struggling for years to reach profitability and recently has been teetering on the edge of insolvency.

Now in what may be a last-ditch effort to stay alive, Salon is about to dramatically change its business model. The company is expected to announce this week that it will require all readers to either buy a subscription for full access to stories or agree to click through several screens of advertising to gain limited access. (Salon instituted a limited-subscription option a couple years ago that made some content available to subscribers only.)

"There's no free lunch on the Web anymore," Talbot says. "There's no viable media without developing a base of revenue.""

If you enjoy Salon and don't want it to disappear, its time to pony up. No complaining about the media being owned by the man if you don't. It costs money to produce content, and it has to come from somewhere. If it doesn't come from your pocket, its going to come from special interests that may have their own agenda for media coverage.

"viadrudge"

This Modern World

Tue, 14 Jan 2003 04:04:42 GMT

"The moon could come crashing down on our heads any moment -- let's destroy it now!"

Hee.

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Salon.com News | George Bush's war on nature

Fri, 10 Jan 2003 15:54:25 GMT

"Then Schiller drops the bomb: "You know, the more I look, the more it is just as it says in the Bible." The Book of Daniel, he tells Leggett, predicts that increased earthly devastation will mark the End Time and return of Christ. Paradoxically, Leggett notes, many fundamentalists see dying coral reefs, melting ice caps and other environmental destruction not as an urgent call to action but as God's will. Within the religious right worldview, the wreck of the earth is Good News!

Some true believers, interpreting biblical prophecy, are sure they will be saved from the horrific destruction brought by ecosystem collapse. They'll be raptured: rescued from earth by God, who will then rain down seven ghastly years of misery on unbelieving humanity. During this tribulation, a powerful ruler led by Satan and called the antichrist will rule the world. Then Jesus will come in glory to defeat Satan's forces at the battle of Armageddon. His return marks the Millennium, when the Lord restores the earth to its green pristine condition, and the faithful enjoy a thousand years of peace and prosperity."

An interesting article by Glenn Scherer on Salon about what may be a hidden factor behind Bush's anti-environmental stances. The same literal Christianity that claims creationism as truth would also seem to indicate that God won't let us kill the Earth, at least not until Judgement Day, but by then all the true-believers will be hanging with JC up in Heaven. By this logic, God will provide all the gas we need for our SUV's, as long as we believe in him. Uhm ... yeah.

New campaign in SUV battle

Wed, 08 Jan 2003 03:43:08 GMT

"SUVs are in a peculiar position in the American psyche these days. They are at once very popular and also despised; popular for their room, power and safety, despised for their gas-guzzling, more-power-than-is-necessary appetite. Now a familiar political and social commentator has decided the best way to attack SUV drivers is to accuse them of aiding terrorism. It that fair?"

There was a piece on the NBC Nightly News tonight about Arianna Huffington's anti-SUV ad campaign, The Detroit Project, which she mentioned back in October in her Salon column. The ads are made and should start appearing in Washington and Detroit in the near future. They're still asking for donations to get them a wider audience.

Happy New Year!

Wed, 01 Jan 2003 07:02:51 GMT

Let's hope this year is better than the last, and that there's many more to come!

Salon.com Arts & Entertainment | Style with meaning, and vice versa

Fri, 27 Dec 2002 23:41:53 GMT

"Don't believe the naysayers: This was a great year in film, from the sexy-sweet "Secretary" to the nasty musical "Chicago.""

And Stephanie Zacharek has a list as well. I won't transcribe it all here, as there's nothing that wasn't included in Charles Taylor's list, but she does provide some interesting comments, as well as her honorable mentions.

Salon.com Arts & Entertainment | Sweet 16

Fri, 27 Dec 2002 23:35:31 GMT

"A year of erotic masterpieces and exhilarating amorality proves good movies still get made, even if they don't always get seen."

Salon's Charles Taylor offers up his Top 16 films of 2002:

Far From Heaven, Secretary, 24-Hour Party People and Punch-Drunk Love were already on my list of movies to see (once they're out on DVD, I don't like going to movies, but thats a whole other story) and now there's a few more that will have to be added.

Happy Holidays!

Mon, 23 Dec 2002 05:41:38 GMT

For those that care, I'm off for the Holidays this week, so I'm not likely to be posting much of anything.

Salon.com News | America's apostrophe catastrophe

Fri, 20 Dec 2002 05:17:33 GMT

"It's really not that complicated. To make a word plural, you simply add an "s" (ropes). To make the word possessive, you add an apostrophe and an "s" (rope's). To make a plural noun ending in "s" possessive, add only the apostrophe (ropes', states' rights, the girls' toys, etc.). Of course, apostrophes are also used for contractions such as can't, he's, won't and it's. "

Arianna's pissed about improper apostrophication and she's not gonna take it anymore! I thought this appropriate due to recent chastisings I've taken over the improper use of the little bugger.

Salon.com Politics | The antiwar movement goes mainstream

Mon, 16 Dec 2002 21:15:01 GMT

"As George Packer wrote in the New York Times Magazine on Sunday, "If you're a liberal ... why is there no anti-war movement that you'd want to join?"

One might have finally appeared Wednesday, when many of the pillars of progressive politics in America announced they were banding together to oppose a preemptive, unilateral war on Iraq. The Win Without War coalition includes the National Council of Churches, NOW, NAACP, the Sierra Club, MoveOn, Working Assets, Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities, Physicians for Social Responsibly and Veterans for Common Sense. Taken together, these groups represent a vast swath of America -- the National Council of Churches alone indirectly represents 50 million congregants -- and they aim to channel their millions of members into antiwar activism. "

A Salon update on the steadily coalescing anti-war movement - one that represents the more mainstream values on the left: that Saddam is a danger who must be disarmed, but only with multilateral support. Now I'm sure those on the right will find some reason to pick them apart - because if they're against war, they must be either godless commies, closeted islamists or sausage-fingered anti-semites - but I suspect the right may have to face up to the fact that there is an emerging mainstream anti-war movement that must be reckoned with rather than ridiculed. This is not the fringe, this is mainstream America.