Thursday, November 07, 2002

Gibraltar rejects deal with Spain. Almost 99% of voters in a referendum reject the idea of Spain sharing sovereignty over the British colony. [BBC News | WORLD] Well, THAT is a convincing mandate. The people of Gibraltar REALLY don't want to have anything to do with Spain - it's kind of funny, really. Gibraltar is the last outpost of the British Mediterranean empire - at one point or another, they controlled Gibraltar, Majorca and Minorca, the islands of the Adriatic, and Cyprus - and they keep trying to get rid of Gibraltar now...the Spanish really want it back. But, as we can see, that ain't happenin'.

10:37:50 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

New threat to trial by jury. Home Office plans for jury-free trials where jurors are at risk from intimidation. [Guardian Unlimited] I'd say something like "See? At least we still have that right here in the States," but then I remember military tribunals and the illegal detentions of American citizens. Whoops.
10:23:55 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

This has been an ugly game in many ways - lousy shooting by both teams most notably, Kobe in particular, but DAMN. Nothing like a game that goes to overtime and isn't decided until the last shot of that overtime. Oh, and we beat the goddamn Lakers. It's nights like this that make me remember just how much I love basketball. But Mike Fratello needs to be slapped. He just referred to Kobe Bryant's "brilliant" game...uh, the guy threw up *47* shots, and only made 17 of them. That's pretty bad. Oh, and 9 rebounds - in 46 minutes on the floor - and 4 assists. What, did he not think anyone else on his team could shoot?

10:18:35 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

I just heard something wonderful - a replay of a good old-fashioned "BEAT LA!" chant from Boston. The Lakers are in town tonight, and it's time to see if the Celtics' defense from last night's game in Chicago is more than just a one night thing. I should have gone to tonight's game, but forgot to get tickets in time - it's gonna be crazy. Basketball Nirvana is the Celtics and Lakers going at it in Boston Garden - more specifically, Game 7, '84 finals...Kareem goes for the last shot, 5 seconds or so left, airballs, and the crowd is instantly all over the court - they'd actually had to stop play a couple times in the closing minutes to get the crowd off the court. Ah, and the crowd is doing what makes Boston such a great basketball town for opponents - booing the hell out of Kobe the moment he touches the ball. Nothing like Iverson in the playoffs, but it's nice to hear anyway. Damn! Pierce is such a horrible free throw shooter...

7:42:39 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

Consumers Go on Buying Spree. The nation's retailers got a welcome surprise in October as the arrival of cold weather sent consumers on a buying spree. By The Associated Press. [New York Times: Business] ...but weren't we just told last week that consumer confidence had dropped to its lowest level in years? Doesn't that conflict with consumers spending more? Or are all of these statistics just not that important?

4:20:26 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

Nasa challenges Moon hoax claims. Nasa¸ the US space agency¸ is preparing a book to prove its astronauts did land on the Moon. [BBC News | Front Page] Moon responds: "I've never seen those men before in my life! I'm not like that, really!"
2:20:16 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Corrupt, crass and moribund. Brit critique below is right, our electoral system just doesn't work, as the man says, its corrupt, crass and moribund. Too bad that the Repugs are alive to take advantage of this while the Dems roll over... Serious reform of the system needed to make it work Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Corrupt, crass and moribund [Blog Left: Critical Interventions] Stuff to think about in the Guardian article (the lower link)...there are some disturbingly undemocratic aspects to the American system - after all, the reason we have two Senators per state is to keep Rhode Island and Delaware from bolting. Is that kind of thinking still applicable?

2:03:07 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

Stocks Fall on Cisco's Outlook. Stocks sagged at Thursday's open as a cautious revenue outlook from technology bellwether Cisco put a dent in investor enthusiasm. By Reuters. [New York Times: Business] Really? And here I thought that the Republicans winning everything was supposed to mean the end of the recession, right? Or do we need them to do "tax breaks"? Or get rid of some more of that useless regulation...? Yeah, I know. I'm just babbling - but I'm still pissed.

11:41:42 AM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

Outcome Closes Some Doors to 2004. The repudiation of Democrats on Election Day had party stalwarts scratching their heads today to come up with a credible candidate to challenge President Bush in 2004. By Katharine Q. Seelye. [New York Times: National] Yes! The Warren-Beatty-For-President meme is spreading! It's even in the Times! The same Democratic strategist who throws Beatty's name out also mentions Howard Dean of Vermont - I've heard his name a number of times in the past, most notably from a pollster friend of mine from DC, who said that the Democratic rank-and-file in DC has been pretty actively pro-Dean for a while. I need to read up on him more. On an aside, is anyone familiar with Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif? She's mentioned as the leading liberal candidate for minority leader in the House. Martin Frost, the leading conservative candidate, thinks the election losses are reason to move to the right - seems to me that he's exactly what we need to fight against within the party. Is Pelosi worth fighting for, or do we need another candidate altogther?

7:04:47 AM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

(this post grows out of the discussion in the comments thread here - take a look; there's some important thoughts there.) For the last few years, I've felt that we should toss the Democrats to the side and take a third path - but now, the liberals of the country can take it back. The Greens can play an absolutely essential role in that process - by energizing the left within the Democratic party in competitive states, and by pulling the Democrats to the left by challenging them in guaranteeed Democrat victories - I'm thinking Massachusetts as a good example of this. The legislature is controlled by Charles Finneran, a corrupt Democrat. He doles out favors to Democratic representatives, keeping their loyalty to him intact. No one ever votes against them in significant amounts - we're a strongly Democratic state, as everyone knows, and no one's going to vote against a guy who brings home the pork. Frankly, I wouldn't be particularly worried if the Republicans were to do well in legislature races in Massachusetts - playing the spoiler here could be a very, very good thing to wake up the party power structure.

6:54:05 AM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []