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Saturday, February 22, 2003
Iraq Getting Even More Blatant in Noncompliance
So, how about those inspections?
An increasingly cornered Iraq complained yesterday it might be signing its own death warrant if it obeyed a United Nations order to destroy dozens of missiles at the moment the US is poised to lead an invasion.
"They want us to destroy them at a time when we are threatened daily," said Owayed Ahmed Ali, the director of the Ibn al-Haithem plant, which produces the al-Samoud missiles, after another visit by UN weapons inspectors.
The protest is the most specific reaction yet to the demand by Hans Blix, the chief UN weapons inspector, that Baghdad start destroying the missiles by Saturday, after they were found to exceed the 93-mile range permitted by existing arms restrictions on Iraq.
Let's see, they are threatened by forces because they have weapons that they had already agreed to not have, that they claimed they didn't have, but actually did have, though to give them up now, would leave them exposed to the forces that are threatening them. Any questions?
Straight, Married, and Not Living in NYC
Otherwise, I'd apply:
Publication or Company: Bravo/NBC
Job Title: Cohost of The Queer Eye for the Straight Guy
Industry: advertising agency, magazine publishing, online/new media, other related, photography, public relations, television, health & beauty and hospitality
Job Requirements: The Queer Eye for the Straight Guy is a high-end reality makeover show and is assembling an elite team of out, gay professional men with expertise in the fields of fashion, grooming, interior design, food& wine and nightlife/culture. Each week they will do a makeover on a straight man.
Looking for Grooming and/or Nightlife expert to co-host high-end reality/makeover show, The Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, for Bravo/NBC.
Must know know one or more of the following: men's grooming, fashion, trends, culture and nightlife.
MUST be out, gay man (25-40, any ethnicity) with great sense of personal style, sense of humor, ease with himself and with camera. Professional first, gay second.
Series shoots late Mar-June, 2003 in NYC area.
Series premieres June, 2003
Pays $2000/episode
Casting immediately.
Stir Crazy
There is no other reason for otherwise sane adults to be in a mall on a Saturday afternoon with an infant, other than a need to get the $#@% out of the house. I think I saw almost as many strollers as teens today.
Another feather for US Airline Security
I suppose he could have picked them up in Europe, but I doubt it.
An 81-year-old Ohio man armed with two pistols was briefly detained in Israel where he told police he was on his way to Afghanistan hoping to hunt down Osama bin Laden and claim a $25 million bounty, the man's Israeli lawyer said yesterday.
To avoid facing charges after appearing before a judge, Daniel Chick agreed to give up his weapons and leave Israel, said his lawyer, Gideon Costa. Chick flew to Athens, Greece, on Wednesday, the lawyer said.
Police in the port city of Haifa stopped Chick on Tuesday as he tried to board a boat for Cyprus, and they found the two handguns and ammunition in his bag.
"He was looking for bin Laden for the adventure," said Costa, who did not know how to contact Chick after his departure.
The lawyer did not know much about Chick - what city he was from, if he had a family, how or why he intended to find bin Laden or why he ended up in Israel. After leaving the United States, Chick made stops in Germany to visit a daughter and in Italy, where he caught a flight to Israel, Costa said.
Chick wore military-style pants...
Nothing to see here. Just move along.
Friday, February 21, 2003
Casting Dr. Octopus
The Spider-Man movie sequel will feature Dr. Octopus as the villain. He is to be played by Alfred Molina. Who?
The veteran thespian, who just scored a Screen Actors Guild nod for his role as Diego Rivera in Julie Taymor's art-house biopic Frida, will suit up to play supervillain Dr. Octopus in the hotly anticipated sequel to Columbia Pictures' mega-hit Spider-Man due out in 2004.
Oh. Anything else of note? I mean aside from his own website.
The London-born actor made a memorable big screen debut as the double-crossing guide who tries to steal the golden idol from Harrison Ford in 1981's Raiders of the Lost Ark, (his character was switfly dispatched by a spike to the head).
Oh yeah. Now I know who he is. Bit roll, but probably the only movie where I can clearly place him. Of course he did play Snidely Whiplash in the underappreciated live-action movie, " Dudley Do-Right"
Make a Note for November
Yesterday was the filing deadline for tax issues on the May 6 ballot in Ohio. Throughout Cuyahoga County there are many increases/renewals for taxes on the ballot -- schools, library system, health and services -- all on now to try and keep the tax issues clear for the convention center in November. Of course, if any of these measures aren't approved, they will likely reappear in November.
In Lake County, where I live, there are increases sought mainly for the schools, but no county wide taxes. I wonder how the Willoughby-Eastlake school tax increase will do. A year ago, the Eastlake voters approved the bonds for the minor league team that opens this spring.
Thursday, February 20, 2003
Where do you fill your tank?
Sunoco doesn't seem that bad a place to fill the tank, based on this list of what companies import what amount of oil from the Persian Gulf via the Department of Energy. Personally, anything that doesn't come from Saudi Arabia is a good thing.
The data is a little old. The new data is due out February 25.
Drink Specials at Pitt
I feel so old. The Pitt News provides the students a public service. Looking over the prices of the drink specials, forces me to think back some ten years ago. That leads to the inevitable "why, when I was at Pitt..."
Actually, I guess the prices are still very good. It's just that I still remember $2 pitchers and quarter draft nights. Well, maybe remember isn't quite the right way to put it.
Amish Kidnapping Attempt
No. Seriously. It took place in Parkman Township, Ohio.
Two men - one dressed as an Amish girl - tried to coax a handful of Amish children into their van as the group walked home from school Monday, authorities said.
...
The driver of a red-and-black van pulled up to a group of four or five Amish girls walking home after class and asked the girls to come over, Hiscox said. The girls started toward the vehicle after seeing what appeared to be an Amish girl sitting in the passenger seat.
As the girls got closer, they realized the passenger was actually a man dressed as an Amish girl, Hiscox said.
The girls fled and the van took off. An Amish man on the street chased the van but could not get a license plate number
Creepy.
Wednesday, February 19, 2003
Stupid Pennsylvania Speech and Alcohol Law
Pennsylvania makes a small step forward with its alcohol laws, but keeps those big, stumbling, steps backwards with the US District Court for Western Pennsylvania upholding State Law 199.
Under the Law (page 3):
Act 199 of 1996 (P.L. 1523, no. 199) Section 498. Unlawful Advertising:
No advertisement [of alcoholic beverages] shall be permitted, either directly or indirectly, in any
booklet, program booklet, yearbook, magazine, newspaper, periodical, brochure, circular or other
similar publication published by, for or in behalf of any educational institution.
The Pitt News, which is financially and editorially independent but operates on University property, is prohibited from publishing the ads so long as it specifically targets Pitt's community, regardless of the degree to which the paper is independent.
Although The Pitt News is not subject to fines under the law, any advertiser violating the amendment faces fines or other punishment from the PLCB.
The case has been bouncing around for several years. Pitt News v. Fisher, 215 F.3d 354 (3rd Cir. 2000)
Sadly there isn't much information available on the case. The Pitt News story doesn't bother to list the case name, or even the district court judge who issued the most recent opinion. There is this from the ACLU commenting back in 2001. The ACLU-Pittsburgh chapter has nothing. The District Court's site, just sucks, and uses PACER for docket info. Here is some good background info on the case history, as far as the attempts for an injunction that was rejected by the court of appeals.
It seems, the ACLU spent most of its effort focusing on the economic losses suffered by the Pitt News for lost advertising revenue. I think part of this was to establish standing for the suit -- the courts at first felt that the real standing of free speech claims were the companies who were not permitted to advertise in the Pitt News -- but focusing on lost income is not a real winner in the long run.
The whole law was stupid, because all it means is the advertisers shifted their ads to the free weeklies and the regular dailies. It is a dumb law that hardly prevents the information from getting to the students, the great majority of legal drinking age (the Pitt News was able to show that about 75% of its readers were over the age of 21).
UPDATE: Now the Pitt News will just publish the drink specials at local bars, thus not violating the law.
Tuesday, February 18, 2003
Some on the Blogroll
Over the last month I've made some additions to my blogroll. Most were long overdue. Also overdue, was mentioning them.
Betty Ragan - Maximum Verbosity. I came across this nifty little blog. Betty lives out in New Mexico, and is a rabid science fiction/fantasy fan. Her commentary often focuses on the stuff on TV, and she really should start posting some of the reviews on BlogCritics. If you want to set her off, ask her whether "Farscape" jumped the shark or not by the end of season 3.
Doug Dever - Society for Preservation of a Clue. A Cleveland Westsider -- but I don't hold that against him -- who I met (briefly, the wife and I had to leave early) at the Blogger Fiesta hosted by the wonderful Eric and Dawn Olsen. Doug is a funny guy and covers politics and anything else he finds interesting.
Dave Hogberg - Cornfield Commentary. Smart and funny conservative political commentary. I may not agree with everything he writes, but you better bring your A game to argue.
Jason Scavone - Stick and Move. A sports blog. Jason sent me an e-mail letting me know about his blog, then put up a link to my site without demanding reciprocity. I checked out his site for a few weeks, and realized I was starting to check it regularly. Sorry, Jason, but the Suicide Squad was better as a concept than the way DC ever delivered with it. The cast had to fully turn over, or everyone dies on a mission or two for it to have started matching its potential.
3 Bruces - Funny shit.
Dave Copeland - There are reporters and there are journalists. Reporters are the ones you want to have a drink with at a bar where you can talk, debate and argue. Reporters are the guys (and gals) who don't take themselves or their work too seriously. Reporters give you information, tell the story, and keep going. Reporters are open to the idea that they don't know everything. Journalists are pretentious and believe every story they right will have an impact on society, and contains a kernel of wisdom that the masses are too ignorant to notice. Journalists hear nothing that doesn't fit their worldview.
Dave is a reporter.
Dave has been on my blogroll from the beginning. He is and has been one of my regular reads, but I don't think I've pimped him like I should. One of these days we're going to have to have a drink or several together when I make a trip to the 'Burgh.
Shut Up
Dave Copeland has some well thought out advice for those who deal with a mid-life crisis by purchasing a Harley: Don't waste everyone's time by writing about it!
I guess, if a journalist going through a midlife crisis suddenly decides to buy a Harley Davidson, that’s his prerogative. But please don’t bore your readers with the same lame ass clichés used by motorcycle riders for the past half century.
Red Meat
I rip the Plain Dealer a lot. It isn't undeserved, but I should point out when they do some good work. Their early coverage of Rep. Dennis Kucinich's nascent campaign for the Democratic nomination for President has been accurate and very good. They continue with an article that covers Kucinich's speech before the Iowa Federation of Labor's annual legislative convention in Altoona, Iowa along with Sens. Lieberman and Edwards and Gov. Dean.
Waving his old union card in front of him, Kucinich vowed to create a "workers' White House." He said his first act as chief executive would be to withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement, which knocked down barriers to commerce among the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Kucinich maintained that NAFTA has cost millions of U.S. jobs and concentrated power in multinational corporations.
I guess it's a standard claim for the populist candidate, that the corporations or certain powers have been controlling the power in the US and the world. I don't even know how long it can go back, but there is always a more recent event that is insidiously responsible. For Denn-boy, it is NAFTA.
Kucinich shared the stage with onetime vice presidential nominee Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina and former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean.
Prior commitments prevented other candidates from making the trip to an event previewing the Iowa caucuses next Jan. 19, the first state contest of the 2004 presidential campaign season. Iowa AFL-CIO President Mark Smith set the stage for Kucinich - the first speaker - by demanding that candidates "lay it out" on issues important to organized labor, especially health-care costs.
Kucinich met that mark, calling for a national health-care system to insure all Americans. He did not specify who would pay for the plan.
He also noted that he was the "only candidate in the room" to vote against the Iraq war resolution.
"America is about to go on the offensive in the world for empire and oil," he said to about 125 union activists, "but not for us."
Hear that? Kucninch has declared his goal for a "workers White House"; Bush and Co. are working an imperialist expansion of power worldwide; and the war with Iraq will be all about oil. How in the hell will Carol Moseley-Braun be able to run to the left of that?
Strangely, Kucinich's rhetoric was not mentioned by the Des Moines Register coverage. The Des Moines Register, while hailing his candidacy, didn't mention the sudden flip-flop on abortion.
Kucinich is a fringe Democrat candidate who will only make the case for the Right on how out of touch the Left is.
Monday, February 17, 2003
Caveat Convention
The Plain Dealer, perhaps sensing that they might be helping to build unrealistic expectations for what a convention center can actually do for Cleveland gives a cautionary story.
Around the country, cities are enlarging and updating convention centers. Milwaukee and Louisville, Ky., which overhauled their facilities in recent years, are midsize cities about an hour's flight from Cleveland that vie for similar convention business. Their anecdotes offer insights, and cautionary tales for Cleveland as the city weighs whether to scrap its structure on Lakeside Avenue and East Sixth Street and build anew.
Everywhere, it seems, competition for business from the stagnant convention market has surged. Milwaukee and Louisville are raring to expand their convention space again, although neither has enough money to do so.
Supply is up. Demand is not. It's a case of textbook economics. Meeting planners now extract deals and freebies unheard of years ago.
Louisville's convention and visitors bureau is dangling offers of up to $10,000 in cash to meeting planners who commit to a big enough block of hotel rooms by June 30. "Book with us, and bank up to a cool 10 grand!" says an advertisement in the publication Meeting News.
Milwaukee's center, meanwhile, slashes rent to pennies a square foot for some groups. "Ten years ago, you wouldn't have thought about doing that," said Richard Geyer, president of the Wisconsin Center District, which owns the convention center, arena and a historic theater.
So the number of conventions is flat; more cities than ever are competing; prices are being slashed; and even cities that recently expanded, renovated or built are feeling a need to do so again. Sounds like Cleveland is at the perfect time to build a new convention center.
Essentially, the story says nothing new. The same people in every town talk about how good the convention centers are, even as they downplay (in the face of no evidence) the actual value -- hotel operators, the people running the convention centers, business development groups, real estate developers, and economists hired to write positive reports. You know who you can't find to say that a renovated or new convention center has helped: the nearby retail businesses, restaurants and bars, and the saps who got convinced that the new convention center would be big and bought or leased space for a business based on the convention center business.
Right now, I have to admit I feel like there is a better than 50% chance the new convention center will not happen. Not for lack of trying by the county, but because of all the other taxes voters will have to vote on. They are probably moving a key levy to the May vote, but there are a lot of areas that will have tax levy increases for schools facing votes in May, as well as a library tax increase. If these fail, they will be back on the ballot in November.
Kucinich's Principles
So, Dennis Kucinich wants to be the next President of the USA. Kucinich's profile has been rising as one of the few Democrats to actively support the anti-war position. He is an admitted full-fledged labor liberal./
In Washington, Kucinich [with Barbara Lee] co-chairs the Progressive Caucus, a group of the most liberal lawmakers on Capitol Hill. He crisscrossed the country last year, traveling to 40 cities, to speak against President Bush's Iraq policy.
Kucinich could easily be labeled the peace candidate because his stand against war-making preceded the Iraq debate. Among the first bills he introduced after getting to Congress in 1997 was a plan to create a Cabinet-level Department of Peace, dedicated to finding nonmilitary conflict resolution. Another early bill barred deployment of weapons in space, a counter to Republican plans for a missile shield. Neither of his proposals gained much support.
Kucinich is the ranking Democrat on the Government Reform National Security subcommittee, which gives him a forum for his anti-war views.
On Wednesday, he filed a resolution in the House demanding that the White House turn over "any evidence it has about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction."
On domestic issues, Kucinich - a tireless advocate for labor - lobbied Bush personally to impose tariffs on steel importers.
He also claims credit for helping develop a Democratic policy that resulted in a law providing a $300 tax rebate to individuals in 2001. The National Journal, a Washington periodical, said Kucinich voted the liberal line 95 percent of the time in 2002 on economic issues and 90 percent of the time on foreign affairs.
Kucinich is very popular with the labor unions. He has a long history of supporting them, and has cultivated many ties in the AFL-CIO because of the steel industry in Cleveland. The Democrat who will be harmed the most by Kucinich entering the race is probably Dick Gephardt, who is counting very heavily on the labor vote.
Speaking of Gephardt, there is another thing that is now similar between the two. Gephardt, in the past used to be vaguely anti-abortion, but as he likes to say, he has "evolved on the issue." Translation, Gephardt is pandering to the pro-choice/women's groups. Kucinich has been staunchly anti-abortion on principle and religious grounds.
But Kucinich, a Catholic, deviates from his liberal pedigree on abortion, voting against Medicaid funding for the procedure and opposing the procedure known as partial-birth abortion.
While he said he stands by his votes on abortion-related issues, he acknowledged he has been meeting with abortion-rights advocates. "I have reached out to both sides," he said.
Well, at least he used to.
U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich opened a long-shot bid for the White House yesterday by altering one of his long-standing positions, promising Iowa Democrats he would be "pro-choice" on the question of abortion.
Kucinich, starting his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in a state that will host the first major contest of the 2004 presidential race, said in answer to a question that "as president, I would protect that right [to abortion], and I would also make sure that appointees to the Supreme Court protected that right."
In Congress, Kucinich, who represents Cleveland's West Side and western suburbs, has generally voted against abortion rights and has consistently opposed federal funding of abortion for poor women, a record he acknowledged at a later stop in Iowa City.
...
Outside the small caucus meetings in the two cities, Kucinich conceded that he had expanded his view on abortion. He said he had grown "increasingly uncomfortable" with debates in Congress that focused narrowly on that issue while ignoring the needs of poor families.
I find Dennis' principles as believable as his hairpiece. It will be fun whenever he tries to call someone out for hypocrisy.
Sunday, February 16, 2003
Child Safety or Conserving Natural Resources
But I thought carpooling was a good thing? How many problems do you see with this law?
The law [in Pennsylvania], which goes into effect Friday, requires children ages 4 through 7 to ride in booster seats. The goal is to protect youngsters who are too big for car seats, now required up to age 4, and too small for standard lap belts and shoulder harnesses that are designed for taller, heavier adults.
But some critics see the change as an unnecessary mandate, and even parents who embrace the safety concept are wrestling with some of the practical implications.
...
Last week at a news conference to publicize the law, a state trooper said the only exemption would be for cars manufactured before 1996. But when contacted for this story, a legislative aide who helped draft the law said it contained other exceptions for physical limitations of the vehicle or the child, but specifics are not spelled out.
"If your car doesn't have shoulder harnesses and the booster seats won't work, you won't have to have them," said Cheryl Hicks, legislative director for Democratic Sen. Barry Stout of Washington County.
The same should be true when children's weight, height or medical conditions render the booster seats ineffective, Hicks said. However, it will up to the arresting officer or district justice to grant exemptions on a case-by-case basis.
Violators who are stopped for another offense could be fined $100 for each child not properly restrained.
...
About 500 children between 4 and 8 die each year in car accidents nationwide, the leading cause of death for that age group.
...
Booster seats sell for $20 and up. That's not necessarily a hardship for families with a few children, but for school districts and taxi cab companies, it's going to add up.
Schools, which would need the car seats in vans transporting fewer than 10 children, say they need more time to comply, and taxi cab companies say the law puts an unfair burden on them.
"It is not that we are against child seats or child safety, but when you have a 300-car fleet and do 2,000 trips a day, you can't be thinking, "Is this child old enough?' " James Capolongo, president of the Pennsylvania Taxicab and Paratransit Association, told The Associated Press.
Some parents have complained that the requirement appears to be based on age rather than size, so a small 9-year-old could ride unrestrained while a large 7-year-old could not
Here is a table of the laws in each state. Good luck to parents who take their kids across state lines.
Aiiighhh
Blog-wise, there is nothing more frustrating than spending a long time on a post with lots of links without bothering to copy it before trying to post, and then finding it lost.
A Few Minutes of Silence
My parents came out to see their granddaughter this weekend. They drove out from Lebanon, PA, and left this morning. They left around 10:30 am, hoping to get home before the PA turnpike became really bad. Before they left, my dad checked the PA turnpike website weather conditions. Basically, the report said, the weather conditions will probably be bad after 2pm. Of course, I just checked a few minutes ago and noticed this message posted at 10:48 am.
Currently across the entire Turnpike system, there is multiple accidents, delays and backlogs. The Turnpike is open however travel is strongly discouraged, due to this dangerous storm.
Great.
UPDATE: They called around 7 pm, to let us know they finally made it home.
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