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

:: Saturday, March 27, 2004 ::

Strong Bush Leadership...

Plan to Fight AIDS Overseas Is Foundering:

"Three years after the United Nations declared a worldwide offensive against AIDS and 14 months after President Bush promised $15 billion for AIDS treatment in poor countries, shortages of money and battles over patents have kept antiretroviral drugs from reaching more than 90 percent of the poor people who need them. "

:: Jim Nichols 3/27/2004 03:21:00 PM [+] ::
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Forecast: Local economy to keep adding jobs - 2004-03-26 - Sacramento Business Journal:

"The Sacramento area should see generally improving job growth over the next year as construction and finance gains -- and a nascent rebound in manufacturing -- offset the expected loss of government jobs, according to a regional forecast released Friday. "

So does that mean--according to my last post--that Bush should win in the Sacramento area? I Know the 3rd district which is partially in the Suburbs of Sacramento is highly Rupublican and Independent.

:: Jim Nichols 3/26/2004 03:40:00 PM [+] ::
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Its back to the economy stupid...

Survey: Key factor in choosing president may be jobs - 2004-03-26 - Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal:

"The presidential candidate who gets the most votes may be the one whose plan can create the most jobs, suggests a new survey done for Menlo Park-based OfficeTeam, a unit of Robert Half International, Inc."

My only question is how can anything Bush says on jobs be trusted? He's utterly failed at producing jobs.

:: Jim Nichols 3/26/2004 03:37:00 PM [+] ::
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Turning the Tide
Chomsky has a blog on ZNet. It appears to be responses to questions posted to him in the Znet Forum.

:: Jim Nichols 3/26/2004 10:59:00 AM [+] ::
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I'm going through some of my old political Science readings because, well because I'm a pack rat but I want to throw away stuff; and what better way to keep something you're actually trashing in about five minutes then by blogging on it so that it remains eternal while at the same time no longer accumalting dust in your room.

Anyways i'm reading this old Thomas Friedman article, DOSCapital, which is on globalization, and something struck me. It was written in a 1999 Foreign Policy. But what strikes me is this major point:

"The third balance in the globalization system--the one that is really the newest of all--is the balance between individuals and nation-states. Because globalization has broughtdown many of the walls that limited the movement and reach of people, and because it has simultaneously wired the world into networks, it gives more direct power to individuals than at any time in history. So we have today not only a superpower, not only supermarkets, but also super-empowered individuals. Some of these super-empowered individuals are quite angry..."

He goes on to mention Ramzi Ahmed Yousef and the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993. What hits me is this argument from the Bush adminisration, that no one saw 9/11 coming. And here we are, 1999, talking about super-empowered individuals. We had a target on our backs, and we knew that. No we didn't know the exacts, but details are filled in by experts. Yes our experts failed us in getting the details before it was too late, but we knew what was aiming for us.

:: Jim Nichols 3/26/2004 10:40:00 AM [+] ::
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"'How happy is the blameless Vestal's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd.'
-- Alexander Pope"

:: Jim Nichols 3/26/2004 08:22:00 AM [+] ::
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UCLA: No boom in sight for California - 2004-03-25 - Sacramento Business Journal:

"While the worst of the recession is ebbing across most of California, there are no signs of any return to the boom times of the late-1990s in the foreseeable future, say economists at the University of California Los Angeles. "

:: Jim Nichols 3/25/2004 09:22:00 PM [+] ::
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Troubled waters keep Coke's Dasani off French shelves | csmonitor.com:

"Coca Cola prepared to roll out its latest transAtlantic assault on the land of Perrier and Evian next month.

Now, it seems, the French will have to wait a bit longer. Coca-Cola announced Wednesday that it was indefinitely postponing Dasani's launch in both France and Germany in the wake of a public-relations fiasco that has focused fresh attention on what those handy little bottles of water actually contain."

Why do Europeans and Americans differ so much in what they find acceptable?

:: Jim Nichols 3/25/2004 07:17:00 PM [+] ::
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Looks like the girl from Jack off Jill
scarling.home

:: Jim Nichols 3/25/2004 05:14:00 PM [+] ::
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Perfect find on a rainy day

Rasputina has a new album. Go check out their website. Here is a fashion show they played earlier this year. I found it on one of their sites.

An old interview... Kevin & Nicole Interview Melora from Rasputina

:: Jim Nichols 3/25/2004 04:22:00 PM [+] ::
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Chief justice warns against court budget cuts - 2004-03-24 - Sacramento Business Journal:

"Californians will face drastic reductions in access to justice as the result of proposed budget cuts to the state's judicial branch of government, California Chief Justice Ronald George warned in his annual 'State of the Judiciary' address to the Legislature on Wednesday. "

:: Jim Nichols 3/24/2004 04:51:00 PM [+] ::
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U.S. Urges Close Watch on Antidepressant Users
Yeah... cause they're depressed. Okay being bi-polar and always getting the line about how anti-depressants up your mood makes me feel like this is a no kidding warning. But I guess some people aren't getting it yet.

:: Jim Nichols 3/22/2004 03:00:00 PM [+] ::
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Do you ever find that you can sometimes fall inside the music as it plays...

I've been trying to find a piece to fit my mood all day... first I tried Corelli... then Mendelssohn... but then ah ha a fit! Rachmaninoff's Symphony no. 2 in E minor. I can sit back and dwell now...

:: Jim Nichols 3/22/2004 02:50:00 PM [+] ::
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Libel Suit May Put Gov. on the Spot:

"Less than 24 hours before last October's recall election, a petite stuntwoman named Rhonda Miller stood before a row of television cameras in Los Angeles and alleged that Arnold Schwarzenegger had twice sexually assaulted her on movie sets.

But before her charges made the evening news, the campaign of Arnold Schwarzenegger had dismissed Miller's accusation and raised a claim of its own, suggesting in an e-mail that reporters should see whether Miller had a criminal record."

Maybe its just my partisan nature, but it seems like Clinton got a lot more press for his shall we say... failings. Rightfully so? Maybe. Thats just my take...

:: Jim Nichols 3/22/2004 02:44:00 PM [+] ::
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For a good time... look up...

Yahoo! News - Asteroid Scare Prompts NASA to Formalize Response:

"An asteroid flew past Earth last week so close that it nearly entered an orbital halo where weather satellites roam. Scientists spotted it March 15 and watched it zoom by just three days later. It posed no threat, but there are hundreds of thousands more where that one came from. "

No need to go see the new body snatcher movie at the megaplex... you know whats it's called... The Passion... wait no thats not the name

:: Jim Nichols 3/22/2004 02:40:00 PM [+] ::
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Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Noam Chomsky:

"Kerry is sometimes described as Bush-lite, which is not inaccurate, and in general the political spectrum is pretty narrow in the United States, and elections are mostly bought, as the population knows.

But despite the limited differences both domestically and internationally, there are differences. And in this system of immense power, small differences can translate into large outcomes.

My feeling is pretty much the way it was in the year 2000. I admire Ralph Nader and Denis Kucinich very much, and insofar as they bring up issues and carry out an educational and organisational function - that's important, and fine, and I support it.

However, when it comes to the choice between the two factions of the business party, it does sometimes, in this case as in 2000, make a difference. A fraction."

:: Jim Nichols 3/22/2004 01:41:00 PM [+] ::
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Istvan Kantor / 010100 - The Great Robotic Machinery Rebellion:

I get excited of managing information all the time. It would be even nicer to have a little more. To go over the flow. I learned to keep things organized in my office. I use telephones, megaphones, microphones, vocal chords, sensors, antennas, samplers, pirate transmitters, video projectors, kinetic sculptures, telepathic devices and computers to manipulate information. Without technology I'm confused, depressed and lost.

:: Jim Nichols 3/22/2004 01:25:00 PM [+] ::
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