:: blame the extended gestation.... ::

:: Sunday, August 29, 2004 ::

Chomsky Nazis Odonian: "Gabriel Kolko"... hmm I've never read anything by him

:: Jim Nichols 8/29/2004 11:53:00 PM [+] ::
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The New York Times > Opinion > Abolish the Electoral College:

"The majority does not rule and every vote is not equal - those are reasons enough for scrapping the system. But there are other consequences as well. This election has been making clear how the Electoral College distorts presidential campaigns. A few swing states take on oversized importance, leading the candidates to focus their attention, money and promises on a small slice of the electorate. "

:: Jim Nichols 8/29/2004 07:15:00 PM [+] ::
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The Australian%3A Writing on wall for another one-term Bush %5BAugust 23%2C 2004%5D:

Charlie Cook says "the election is John Kerrys to lose."

:: Jim Nichols 8/23/2004 11:40:00 PM [+] ::
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Yahoo%21 News - Bush Criticizes Anti-Kerry Television Ad:

"President Bush on Monday criticized a commercial that accused John Kerry of inflating his own Vietnam War record more than a week after the ad stopped running and said broadcast attacks by outside groups have no place in the race for the White House. "

He caved!!! I didn't think he would...

:: Jim Nichols 8/23/2004 07:34:00 PM [+] ::
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Power exposes and disposes in forms such that only the fool, the heritic, and the oppressed take their right to smile about their violence and the violence done upon them seriously.

:: Jim Nichols 8/21/2004 03:13:00 PM [+] ::
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I have a new favorite olympic sport: Trampoline...

:: Jim Nichols 8/20/2004 08:41:00 PM [+] ::
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The problem with watching the olympics on TV while you are online is that you sometimes read headlines of events you are in the middle of watching. So I've ruined the drama of the womens gymnastics.

:: Jim Nichols 8/19/2004 10:29:00 PM [+] ::
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YahooNews - Costco Begins Test Marketing Caskets:

"On Monday Costco Wholesale Corp. better known for bulk chicken and cases of soda started test marketing caskets along side mattresses at a North Side Chicago store and one in suburban Oak Brook. "

Rock on... i've always thought of buying caskets in bulk. Can you get a five pack?

:: Jim Nichols 8/16/2004 10:11:00 PM [+] ::
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Chavez declares referendum victory but is battle over csmonitor.com:

"Early Monday with 94 percent of the ballots counted Venezuelas electoral council announced that Chvezs mandate had been confirmed with some 5 million no votes rejecting the recall against 3.57 million yes votes in favor of the recall."

Looks like Chavezs survived with Carters blessing--the democratic seal of approval-- even though the opposition is claiming fraud.

:: Jim Nichols 8/16/2004 07:44:00 PM [+] ::
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15 years after cold war a troop shift csmonitor.com:

"President Bushs announcement that the US will withdraw 70000 troops from Europe and Asia represents a long-awaited major adjustment of the American military following the cold wars end. "

:: Jim Nichols 8/16/2004 07:36:00 PM [+] ::
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Yahoo%21 News - Income Gap Up Over Two Decades%2C Data Show:

" Over two decades the income gap has steadily increased between the richest Americans who own homes and stocks and got big tax breaks and those at the middle and bottom of the pay scale whose paychecks buy less. The growing disparity is even more pronounced in this recovering economy. Wages are stagnant and the middle class is shouldering a larger tax burden. Prices for health care housing tuition gas and food have soared. The wealthiest 20 percent of households in 1973 accounted for 44 percent of total U.S. income%2C according to the Census Bureau. Their share jumped to 50 percent in 2002 while everyone elses fell. For the bottom fifth the share dropped from 4.2 percent to 3.5 percent. "

:: Jim Nichols 8/16/2004 06:42:00 PM [+] ::
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Australia's low-cost drugs threatened by US trade deal | csmonitor.com:

"A model approach that allows Australians in some cases to pay even less than Canadians for prescription drugs may be jeopardized by a new free-trade agreement with the United States. "

I still don't know enough about the economics and sociology of the medical field. Or about trade deals in general. I know one thing though, its wrong to call these deals free trade because of the patent protection involved in these types of deals.

:: Jim Nichols 8/15/2004 06:45:00 PM [+] ::
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Yahoo! News - Increasing number of people have second thoughts over their tattoos:

"More and more people in Britain are having second thoughts about their tattoos, and that means growing business for laser clinics that specialise in the painful and expensive task of removing them. "

:: Jim Nichols 8/15/2004 02:30:00 AM [+] ::
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Tax Burden Shifts to the Middle (washingtonpost.com):

"Since 2001, President Bush's tax cuts have shifted federal tax payments from the richest Americans to a wide swath of middle-class families, the Congressional Budget Office has found, a conclusion likely to roil the presidential election campaign. "

:: Jim Nichols 8/13/2004 06:28:00 PM [+] ::
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Unemployment rises in region - 2004-08-13 - Sacramento Business Journal:

"Sacramento, Placer and El Dorado counties hit 5.7 percent unemployment in July, with the area losing 5,600 wage and salary jobs, according to preliminary data released Friday by the state. "

:: Jim Nichols 8/13/2004 06:18:00 PM [+] ::
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California unemployment rate declines to 6.1 percent - 2004-08-13 - Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal:

"The percentage of people jobless in California dropped to 6.1 percent in July, down from 6.3 percent in June, the state Employment Development Department said Friday."

:: Jim Nichols 8/13/2004 05:48:00 PM [+] ::
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Just saw Paul Krugman and Bill OReilly on msnbc. It was funny. Bill got all pissed off and just threw around a bunch of slurs attacking Krugman and his "leftist" pals.

:: Jim Nichols 8/09/2004 06:01:00 PM [+] ::
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Current Electoral Vote Predictor 2004

:: Jim Nichols 8/09/2004 05:08:00 PM [+] ::
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New US strategy: 'lily pad' bases | csmonitor.com:

"US forces are repositioning overseas forces, opting for smaller, transitory bases in places like Kyrgyzstan."

:: Jim Nichols 8/09/2004 04:40:00 PM [+] ::
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Just got John Zallers The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion. I think I may have found what I want to do in grad school.

:: Jim Nichols 8/08/2004 07:12:00 PM [+] ::
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Yahoo! News - Canadian Wal-Mart Employees Reject Union:

"Wal-Mart Canada says employees at a store in Thompson, Manitoba, have rejected union representation, just days after a Quebec board certified the only unionized Wal-Mart in North America. "

:: Jim Nichols 8/06/2004 04:43:00 PM [+] ::
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Watching Clinton on Letterman. Clinton really does a good job of making the argument for Kerry.

:: Jim Nichols 8/03/2004 11:34:00 PM [+] ::
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"The young always have the same problem- how to rebel and conform at the same time. They have now solved this by defying their parents and copying one another."
-- George Chapman (c.1559-1634), playwright

:: Jim Nichols 8/03/2004 12:30:00 AM [+] ::
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"A man should never be ashamed to own he has been in the wrong, which is butsaying, in other words, that he is wiser today than he was yesterday." -Alexander Pope

:: Jim Nichols 8/03/2004 12:22:00 AM [+] ::
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TAPPED: July 2004 Archives:

"Tom Ridge has made it public that he's likely to step down from his post as Secretary of Homeland Security after the November election. But the given explanation seems a bit off-message for the Bush-Cheney reelect campaign:

Ridge, 58, has explained to colleagues that he needs to earn money to comfortably put his two children, Tommy Jr. and Lesley, through college, officials said. Both are now teenagers. Ridge earns $175,700 a year as a Cabinet secretary."

:: Jim Nichols 8/01/2004 06:08:00 PM [+] ::
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In a word...Freedom
Salon.com Arts & Entertainment | Kuwait bans "Fahrenheit 9/11":

"Kuwait, a major U.S. ally in the Persian Gulf, has banned Michael Moore's 'Fahrenheit 9/11' because it deems the movie insulting to the Saudi Arabian royal family and critical of America's invasion of Iraq, an official said Sunday. "

I didn't even like 911 but jesus I'm luckey to live in the US cause deep down I know I'd be one of those people who disappears and you never hear from again.

:: Jim Nichols 8/01/2004 06:01:00 PM [+] ::
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Kerry - as seen by Europe | csmonitor.com:

"Die Presse in Vienna editorialized that a Kerry victory would mean that Europe could then no longer 'turn up its nose at the coarse Texan George Bush and duck its responsibilities in international crises.'"

I've always felt a major argument for Kerry was that he could bring in the Europeans. What if he can't? What if Nato still doesn't want to touch Iraq with a 40 foot pole? I think he can sway the Europeans but is that just wishfull thinking on my part?

:: Jim Nichols 8/01/2004 05:52:00 PM [+] ::
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Kill Bush?
It's only fiction, but is it legal? | csmonitor.com:

"A work of literary fiction, it carries Michael Moore's case against Mr. Bush to extremes that the partisan moviemaker has never dared approach. It may also be the most specifically articulated argument about killing a sitting US president ever published by a major commercial publisher."

:: Jim Nichols 8/01/2004 05:47:00 PM [+] ::
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An "I support President Bush" prereq.

ABQjournal: Lawyer Loses Bid for Open Cheney Rally:

"Upset by a requirement to sign an I-support-George-Bush pledge in order to see Vice President Dick Cheney in Rio Rancho today, an Albuquerque attorney went to court late Friday to ask that the event be open to people of all political stripes or shut down."

:: Jim Nichols 8/01/2004 05:24:00 PM [+] ::
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