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February 02, 2004

Standard of living
: Go read Omar's post about his standard of living in Iraq.

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Finally, something about which I agree with Howard Dean...
: He says:

Howard Dean, a physician and a Democratic presidential candidate, on Monday dismissed as "silly" a government inquiry into whether indecency rules were broken during the broadcast of the Super Bowl halftime show when pop diva Janet Jackson's bodice was ripped to expose her right breast.
"I find that to be a bit of a flap about nothing," the former Vermont governor said. "I'm probably affected in some ways by the fact that I'm a doctor, so it's not exactly an unusual phenomenon for me."

Well, I agree with him about the silly part, but not about the bored-with-breasts part. Does he have to try so hard to be the unClinton?
But you should all note what a fair and balanced headline that is, above. I could have said this instead:
Howard Dean bored by breasts!

LINK | Comments (16)

Not again
: Homeland Security says deadly ricin found in the office of Sen. Bill Frist.

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The issue blog
: Here's a blog I wish someone would create: a blog that concentrates on nothing but issues and Presidential candidates. No personality. No punditry. No horse races. No attacks. Just issues. Issues without repetition. A category for each issue or each candidate. Want to see what Kerry says about health insurance and what others say about his stance, click here. That wouild filter through all the popcorn. That would be useful.

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The American Idol primary
: Oh, how I wish they'd run the next primary debate like American Idol with Simon scowling and sneering when the candidates say something stupid. Forget about the candidates snarking at each other; give us a shot at them.

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The Janet Jackson conspiracy theory
: She's a Howard Dean supporter and wanted to make his speech look tame.

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Reporter, report thyself
: The BBC program(me) that aired Andrew Gilligan's crock of crap is not hiring a new defence correspondent, which was Gilligan's alleged post.
Instead, says the Guardian, they are hiring "an additional reporter to probe the 'accountability' of the government and other public bodies."
Hmmm. After what we've seen lately, it seems it's the BBC that needs someone to "probe its accountability."

LINK | Comments (9)

Take that!
: You'll remember that Rittenhouse Square (a blog I never read but only rarely read about) got pissed at Nick Denton's new Wonkette for dissing Media Whores and so Rittenhouse went off on some boy-needs-his-meds rant demanding that the world delink Wonkette. Gary Farber now discovers that Rittenhouse has made all this unhappen: post and all evidence gone, he reports. No matter. When I saw Denton the other night, he was utterly delighted that Rittenhouse pitched its hissy fits. Say whatever you want, just spell the URL right.

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Crossing the breast line
: The one area where Europe beats America is breasts. Europe admits they exist. So you see them on billboards, on TV, in parks. No big. Just breasts. So Janet Jackson shows one on TV... kinda. It was covered/adorned with a steel-tipped pastie that made it look, in Howard Stern's description, like a Christimas-tree ornament. (Later, he said it looked like a football.) No big. Just a breast. Time for us to grow up and not get our thongs in a twist over this. Oh, there'll be a 48-hour furor but it's hypocritical as hell in a show that pushed no end of chemical cures for erectile dysfunction. What's so wrong with showing the organic cure?

: Adam Curry says get over it.
: Tom Shales huffs.

: UPDATE: Correspondent Tim Windsor says the MTV press release about Jackson's "shocking" performance has been disappeared from the TV site. But it's cached on Google.

: UPDATE II: Michele gets off her sickbed to shout at America: It was just a breast!

LINK | Comments (53)

Bush, Blair nominated for Nobel Peace Prize
: Yup, I read it in the Telegraph:

Tony Blair has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. A Norwegian politician has proposed the Prime Minister and George W Bush for a joint award in recognition of their achievement in ensuring the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. Jan Simonsen, from the Right-wing Party of Progress, argued that the leaders deserved credit for laying the foundation of democracy in Iraq.
Nominations closed yesterday and other candidates are thought to include Pope John Paul II and the European Union. The winner will be announced in December.

I second that motion. And the sputtering begins.

: The sputtering has begun:

The Irish Anti-War Movement has reacted angrily to the news that US President George W Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair have been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize....
IAWM chairman Richard Boyd-Barrett said: “How you can say somebody has reduced the chances of war by conducting a war in which thousands of people are killed really seems incredible.
"Why they would be awarded for engaging in a criminal war against innocent people is just beyond belief.”

Oh, and the EU should get the award for siding with the murdering tyrant and taking his oil money?

: EUObserver adds:

However, according to French agency AFP, the chances of the EU scooping the award are not good, because two of the judging panel of five appointed by the Norwegian Parliament (in accordance with Alfred Nobel's will) are noted eurosceptics....
Being nominated for the award is not necessarily an honour in itself. Adolf Hitler and Slobodan Milosevic have been nominated in the past, along with US pop star Michael Jackson.

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