A Newspaper with any pride would never think of selling an Ad on their front page. But NYTimes reported The Times Starts Selling Display Ads on Page 1. In its latest concession to the worst revenue slide since the Depression, The New York Times has begun selling display advertising on its front page, a step that has become increasingly common across the newspaper industry. The first such ad, appearing Monday in color, was bought by CBS. The ad, two-and-a-half inches high, lies horizontally across the bottom of the front page, below the news articles and a brief summary of some articles in the paper. In a statement, the paper said such ads would be placed “below the fold” — that is, on the lower half of the page.
Monday, January 05, 2009
Proof the NYT is almost bankrupt
Sunday, January 04, 2009
Showdown Looms
ABC News reported Arrangements are under way for a Wednesday meeting between Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Roland Burris, the Democrat tapped by Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich to succeed President-elect Barack Obama in the U.S. Senate, ABC News has learned.
Get the popcorn ready, the fit is about to hit the shan.
Get the popcorn ready, the fit is about to hit the shan.
Friday, January 02, 2009
Well you certainly won't see it
AFP reported The day before a powerful blast sent his headless body flying out of his Gaza home on Thursday, senior Hamas leader Nizar Rayan predicted that the Islamist movement would defeat Israel.
Well you certainly won't see it, unless Allah installs a TV set in Hell for you."God willing, Hamas will win,"
Why would God create the entire world, just so nut cases like you kill every civilian you can, regardless of what faith they follow?Rayan said in a vitriol-laden speech that the movement's television broadcast just after he, his four wives and 10 of his children were killed in the Israeli blitz of the Gaza Strip on Thursday.
Israel Shakes Up the Information War
Pajamas Media reported Bypassing the mainstream media, Israel gets its message out through Twitter and YouTube.
Monday afternoon saw the Israeli consulate in New York hold a press conference on Twitter on their own “hashtag” stream for anyone to read and listen to. It’s called simply AskIsrael. What was more impressive is that they were taking questions for those “listening in.”....
At the same time the Israeli Defense Forces launched its own channel on YouTube to display their view of events on the ground.
And I understand they may be setting up their own YouTube-like server to counter the Jihadis who are using YouTube's feature to delete videos they find offensive.
Monday afternoon saw the Israeli consulate in New York hold a press conference on Twitter on their own “hashtag” stream for anyone to read and listen to. It’s called simply AskIsrael. What was more impressive is that they were taking questions for those “listening in.”....
At the same time the Israeli Defense Forces launched its own channel on YouTube to display their view of events on the ground.
And I understand they may be setting up their own YouTube-like server to counter the Jihadis who are using YouTube's feature to delete videos they find offensive.
Israel and Hamas
Glenn Greenwald wrote in Salon most of the rest of the world -- Europe, South America, Asia, the Middle East, the U.N. leadership -- opposes and condemns the attack, all to no avail.
Is this surprising? The have both Jews and Muslims in their country. They know that the Jews will remain peaceful regardless of what they say, but if they take Israel's side they know that the muslims are apt to start a riot where people will be killed.The parties with the superior military might (the U.S. and Israel) dismiss world opinion as essentially irrelevant. Even the pro-war rhetorical tactics are the same (just as those who opposed the Iraq War were demonized as being "pro-Saddam," those who oppose the Israeli attack on Gaza are now "pro-Hamas").
Should Israel just remain peaceful and allow rockets to be fired into their country, killing their citizens, without responding?Substantively, there are certainly meaningful differences between the U.S. attack on Iraq and the Israeli attack on Gaza (most notably the fact that Hamas really does shoot rockets into Israel and has killed Israeli civilians
And doesn't Israel have a right to respond?and Israel really is blockading and occupying Palestinian land,
They withdrew completely from Gaza, and gave the people there a chance to show how they could live peacefully with their neighbors, and then the rocket attacks started.whereas Iraq did not attack and could not attack the U.S. as the U.S. was sanctioning them and controlling their airspace).
Although they could and did shoot at those planes, requested by the UN, controlling their airspace and preventing Saddam from killing more Kurds in the North or more Shia in the South.But the underlying logic of both wars are far more similar than different: military attacks, invasions and occupations will end rather than exacerbate terrorism; the Muslim world only understands brute force;
What indication do you have that they understand anything else. Have you read the Koran?the root causes of the disputes are irrelevant; diplomacy and the U.N. are largely worthless.
The UN definitely is worthless..... Even for those Americans who, for whatever their reasons, want endlessly to fixate on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, who care deeply and passionately about whether the Israelis or the Palestinians control this or that West Bank hill or village and want to spend the rest of their days arguing about who did what to whom in 1948 and 1967,
Actually when the Palestinian Mandate was split into TransJordan, which became Jordan, and the land west of the Jordan, Israel should have gotten all of the land west of the Jordan. It would have given them enough land they could have had a cushion on all borders wide enough to separate their settlements from their neighbors.what possible interests do Americans generally have in any of that,
Genesis 12:3 which says I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."sufficient to involve ourselves so directly and vigorously on one side, and thereby subject ourselves to the significant costs -- financial, reputational, diplomatic and security -- from doing so?
Thursday, January 01, 2009
Roland Burris
Rod Blagojevich nominated former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris to fill Obama's Senate seat. Democratic U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush of Chicago played the Race Card, saying "I would ask you to not hang or lynch the appointee as you try to castigate the appointer".
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says he will refuse to seat Burris. Eugene Volokh doubts the court would allow the Senate not to seat Burris because of Powell v. McCormack, but Akhil Amar and Josh Chafetz in Slate believes the Senate easily has the power to block the governor's appointment of Roland Burris. Eugene Volokh and Ann Althouse respond to the Slate article.
Jack Balkin, Scott Lemieux, and Lyle Denniston of SCOTUSblog pontificate on the matter.
It should be interesting to watch. Reid risks offending the Congressional Black Caucus by refusing to seat Burris, but if he does, he risks tieing Blagokevich to the Senate, and with the many other Senators and Congressmen (like Dodd and Frank) with ethical clouds over them, he does not want to get close to Blago at all.
Laurence H. Tribe says the arguments saying the Senate must seat Burris miss the mark as well. The fact that he is indisputably "qualified" in the constitutional sense has no bearing on the authority of the Senate under Article I, Section 5 to serve as the sole "Judge of the Elections"--and, by extension, the temporary appointments--of would-be members.... The Senate's early December decision to exclude any Blagojevich appointee reflected nothing about the particular person he appointed cuts for, not against, leaving the matter to the judicially unreviewable judgment of the Senate itself. For the danger of invoking doubts about the process of election or appointment, as a pretext for excluding someone that a Senate majority finds objectionable, is minimized when the decision to exclude is made in advance of any individual's appointment, and thus under the classical philosopher's veil of ignorance about whose ox might be gored.
Baltimore Sun reported Should Roland Burris show up Tuesday for duty in the Senate, armed police officers stand ready to bar him from the floor. Jane Hamsher says Harry Reid's back is against the wall. He thinks that if he doesn't oppose Rod Blagojevich's appointment of Roland Burris to fill Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat, John Cornyn and the Republicans will make the Democrats wear Blago around their necks for the rest of their natural lives. And on that count, he's probably right. Athenae says I don't even know what to do when Harry Reid wakes up from his two-year nap and discovers that THIS is a bridge too far.
Plan B
Chicago Tribune reported Senate Democrats also have a follow-up plan: Refusing to seat Burris until the Senate Rules Committee completes an investigation into whether the appointment process was tainted by corruption. Blagojevich was arrested Dec. 9 on federal charges that he tried to sell the Senate seat.
The plan is for the Senate committee investigation to extend longer than the Illinois impeachment process under way against Blagojevich, leaving open the possibility that a new governor would make a rival Senate appointment. The end game that Democratic leaders are considering is to then seat the new governor's choice. That could allow the Senate to accept the new appointee without going through the formal process of explicitly voting to reject Burris.... While the process slogs along, it's also possible that Burris could take on some limited trappings of office.
Past practice in the Senate has been to grant a senator whose credentials are disputed office space and payroll for a staff, as well as floor privileges—but not a Senate seat—until the situation is resolved. So Burris potentially could be allowed to enter the exclusive club, but not as a full member, without the ability to vote, speak or even literally sit at a senator's desk.
Reid spokesman Jim Manley said Senate leaders have not yet decided whether they would follow that tradition. Other officials said senators are reluctant to break with custom on such matters but that permitting Burris any of the perquisites of office also has potential political drawbacks. He could sue to sit.
Ann Althouse says So at at time when there isn't a single black person in the U.S. Senate, a black man arrives at the doorway and means to go forward to take what he believes is his rightful seat... [photo of George Wallace standong in the schoolhouse door to block integration of Alabama public schools ] Great imagery, Democrats!
This should be fun to watch. Either way it goes, the Dems look bad. Let's order extra popcorn and prepare to watch the show.
Steve Chapman says Burris is An empty suit for an empty seat. He has lost races for mayor of Chicago, U.S. senator, and governor (three times).
That should make him perfectly qualified for being a Senator. He has more qualifications than Caroline Kennedy, who wants Hillary's seat. He may have lost those elections, but at least he ran.No one thinks more of Roland Burris than he does. Burris has already charted his esteemed career path on the walls of his future grave in Chicago's Oak Woods Cemetery.
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Merry Christmas
I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. Whether you celebrate this day when Christians remember the birth of Jesus or not, I hope that you have a very good day, and that we all can look forward to a Happy New Year.
Here are two very different interpretations of the 12 Days of Christmas
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Christmas Not Just for Christians
In the U.S., Christmas Not Just for Christians reported Despite the fact that only a little more than 80% of Americans identify with a Christian faith, 93% of those interviewed in a recent USA Today/Gallup poll indicate that they celebrate Christmas.
56% are Protestant or other Christian, 25% Catholic, 2% Jewish, 0.4% Muslim, 3% other non-Christian religion, 13% None/Atheist/Agnostic, 2% no response.
56% are Protestant or other Christian, 25% Catholic, 2% Jewish, 0.4% Muslim, 3% other non-Christian religion, 13% None/Atheist/Agnostic, 2% no response.
Brit Hume
Brit Hume finished his tenure as "Special Report" anchor. He will remain a senior political analyst at the network, and will appear frequently on "Fox News Sunday", "Special Report", and elsewhere. I am glad he will continue to be on Fox News.
Muslims Erect ‘Allah Has No Son’ Banner in Nazareth
CNSNews reported As Nazareth’s Christians prepare to celebrate Christmas, they are playing down the appearance of a confrontational Islamic banner that challenges an elemental Christian belief. Journalists visiting the city saw two large banners--one in English, one in Arabic--hanging in the plaza in front of the Basilica of the Annunciation, with a verse from the Koran (112:1-4) contradicting the New Testament proclamation that Jesus is the “only begotten” of God.
Nazareth Mayor Ramiz Jaraisy played down concerns that a banner effectively denying Jesus’ deity was provocative to Christians,
“I don’t think that it’s provocative against anyone,”
But Jaraisy said he would not remove the banner because some Islamic fundamentalist groups were looking to provoke a confrontation in order to promote their cause. He did not want to provide them with that opportunity.
And I certainly would not do as one Catholic Priest did, and put a mosque in Nativity scene
Only if you assume Allah is God. The more I hear about Islam, the more I think the Angel that appeared to Mohammad was not Gabriel, but Lucifer (Satan) in disguise, or from one of his other fallen angels, and that the Koran did not come from God, but from Satan.“In the name of Allah, the most beneficent, the most merciful, Say (O Muhammad): He is Allah, (the) One and Only. Allah, the Eternal, the Absolute. He begetteth not, nor was begotten, and there is none like unto him,” the banner reads.
Nazareth Mayor Ramiz Jaraisy played down concerns that a banner effectively denying Jesus’ deity was provocative to Christians,
People don't worry about offending Christians. But post a sign that offends Muslims, and all Hell breaks loose.although he did question its position, in front of Nazareth’s most prominent landmark.
“I don’t think that it’s provocative against anyone,”
If it was not intended to be provocative, then why not add another sign quoting John 3:16: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.he said. “My point of view [is] that it’s not the right place to put it and it’s not the right way to do that.”
But Jaraisy said he would not remove the banner because some Islamic fundamentalist groups were looking to provoke a confrontation in order to promote their cause. He did not want to provide them with that opportunity.
And I certainly would not do as one Catholic Priest did, and put a mosque in Nativity scene
Monday, December 22, 2008
This is going to tick the LGBTs off
Pope likens "saving" gays to saving the rainforest - Yahoo! News reported Pope Benedict said on Monday that saving humanity from homosexual or transsexual behavior was just as important as saving the rainforest from destruction.
The Catholic Church teaches that while homosexuality is not sinful, homosexual acts are. It opposes gay marriage and, in October, a leading Vatican official called homosexuality "a deviation, an irregularity, a wound."
Rick Warren just said they should not marry each other. The Pope now raises the issue to something on the level of AGW."(The Church) should also protect man from the destruction of himself. A sort of ecology of man is needed," the pontiff said in a holiday address to the Curia, the Vatican's central administration. "The tropical forests do deserve our protection. But man, as a creature, does not deserve any less."
The Catholic Church teaches that while homosexuality is not sinful, homosexual acts are. It opposes gay marriage and, in October, a leading Vatican official called homosexuality "a deviation, an irregularity, a wound."
I agree.The pope said humanity needed to "listen to the language of creation" to understand the intended roles of man and woman. He compared behavior beyond traditional heterosexual relations as "a destruction of God's work." He also defended the Church's right to "speak of human nature as man and woman, and ask that this order of creation be respected."
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Fantastic idea
Bloomberg reported Credit Suisse Group AG’s investment bank has found a new way to reduce the risk of losses from about $5 billion of its most illiquid loans and bonds: using them to pay employees’ year-end bonuses.
Fantastic idea. They are responsible for buying them. Make them eat them. The only thing better would be to fire them and put these illiquid securities in their Golden Parachutes.The bank will use leveraged loans and commercial mortgage- backed debt, some of the securities blamed for generating the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, to fund executive compensation packages, people familiar with the matter said. The new policy applies only to managing directors and directors, the two most senior ranks at the Zurich-based company, according to a memo sent to employees today.
Wouldn't Chapter 11 be better?
Did you ever wonder why the Big 3 are in trouble. Maybe it is because of decisions like this: Autoblog reported Chrysler is shuttering all of its plants for one month, beginning December 19.... Chrysler plant workers will have a really, really long Christmas break at 95% pay. So they stop making cars, but keep paying their workers 95% of what they would pay them if they were making cars. And they wonder why they are losing money. And want the government to give them a lot of money while they try to figure out why they are losing money. Wouldn't Chapter 11 be a better idea?
Obama Selects Rick Warren for Inauguration Pulpit
The far left is upset that Obama Selected Rick Warren for Inauguration Pulpit. Firedoglake reported President-elect Obama chose eliminationist
What is eliminationist? Orcinus sayshate preacher Rick Warren to give the invocation at Obama's Inaguration. With this choice, Obama sends three destructive messages. Number one: In Obama's America, equal rights and reproductive freedom aren't for everyone.Eliminationism describes a kind of politics and culture that shuns dialogue and the democratic exchange of ideas for the pursuit of outright elimination of the opposing side, either through complete suppression, exile and ejection, or extermination.Since when has Rick Warren done any of that. He supported Prop 8 in California, to define marriage as between a man and a woman, as it has been for thousands of years, as the people of California had called for before a group of judges overruled them and authorized gay marriage. If anything was undemocratic it was what the judge did, not what the people of California did.
How does reproductive freedom enter into things. Gays can't reproduce, but it has nothing to do with whether they can marry or not. It has to do with biology. Their complaint should be with God, not Rick Warren.Number two: President-elect Obama likes sharing the national stage with hate.
This apparently stems from this article which saysNumber three: While Obama enjoys his equality before the law, LGBT Americans can go to Hell.Dr Rick Warren has said he supports the decision by Ugandan bishops to boycott the forthcoming Lamebth conference in England, United Kingdom.... "The Church of England is wrong and I support the Church of Uganda(CoU) on the boycott,"Dr Warren said on Thursday shortly after arriving in Uganda. The Bishops are protesting the Church of England's tolerance a homosexuality. Announcing the boycott in February, Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi said that Uganda's action had been prompted by the invitation of bishops of The US Episcopal Church (TEC) who in 2003 elected as bishop, Gene Robinson, a divorced man living in an active homosexual relationship.So Rick Warren is a hate preacher because he supported bishops that were upset by the US Episcopal Church selecting a practicing Gay Bishop? Rick was quoted as saying homosexuality is not a natural way of life and thus not a human right. It is not a natural way of life, and I don't know why it should be called a "human right." Persecuting homosexuals by depriving them of things that are human rights is not good, but homosexuality itself is not a human right.
It is the Old Testament of the Bible that says homosexuality is bad. Not Rick Warren. He just reads the Bible.Literally. Gee. Is this change we can believe in?
Do you think Obama is going to change what the Bible says?Does Obama's America include GLBT's, along with the fundamentalists who want to take away their rights?
Take away rights, or just not grant special rights?John Hawkins blogged Although Rick Warren takes his Christian beliefs seriously, he has always come across as a centrist politically. In other words, he can fairly be called "religious," but he's not really a member of the "religious right."
He is much more a mainstream preacher, with some liberal tendencies.Since that's the case and since Barack Obama has spent much of his adult life surrounded by ultra-left wing, pseudo-Christian wackadoodles like Jeremiah Wright and Michael Pfleger, Warren seems to be a sensible choice to do his inaugural invocation.
He certainly does not want to involve his former preacher to damn AmeriKKKa.However, Obama's selection of Warren is flipping out the left side of the blogosphere, which is generally appalled by people who hold mainstream Christian beliefs.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
DARPA Blood Pharming
Popular Mechanics reported New research from DARPA could open the door to on-demand blood-cell manufacturing on battlefields and in hospitals. All medics need is a machine that uses a nanofiber that mimics bone marrow to turn a handful of stem cells
Hat tip to Glenn Reynolds
And it uses umbilical-cord stem cells, not Embryonic stem cells, so rather than killing babies, they need to be born.into gallons of blood. Who needs blood donations when you have blood pharming?
Hat tip to Glenn Reynolds
Advent Conspiracy
I am not a Catholic, so I don't know a lot about Advent, but I liked what I saw at The Anchoress about the Advent Conspiracy
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Americans Losing Confidence in Teachers Unions
Rasmussen Reports™: The most comprehensive public opinion coverage ever provided for a presidential election. reported two-thirds of U.S. voters (66%)
Jazz Shaw blogged This brings up two related issues: unions in general and education policy in specific. I’m not one of the “destroy the unions” types and I recognize the important role they played in our nation’s early days of industrialization and the useful purpose they can continue to serve today.
Unions seem to fight any change to the status quo, such as charter schools, vouchers, home schooling and other alternative theories.
Just 2/3? The other 1/3 must be asleep (or teachers).say the teachers’ unions – the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers – are more interested in protecting their members’ jobs than in the quality of education.
Jazz Shaw blogged This brings up two related issues: unions in general and education policy in specific. I’m not one of the “destroy the unions” types and I recognize the important role they played in our nation’s early days of industrialization and the useful purpose they can continue to serve today.
I agree with the fact that they did serve an important role in the early days of industrialization, but seeing how the UAW was not willing to compromise any in the efforts to save the Big 3 Automakers, I wonder if they have not passed the point of being useful, and I certainly hope congress does not pass the misnamed Employee Free Choice ActHowever, as the economic battleground shifts, I have become increasingly aware that some unions have grown into self-feeding beasts which can - in the wrong hands - grow into positions where they cease helping their own members and begin to damage the industries providing the jobs their workers need. While this has been more apparent in the auto industry of late, the current state of education in this country certainly warrants some attention to their policies and practices.
Unions seem to fight any change to the status quo, such as charter schools, vouchers, home schooling and other alternative theories.
Because they all offer to do a better job than the public school system.With the sad state of affairs in American education, it would seem that anything might be worth a try. I’m not terribly surprised that voter confidence in the unions may be on the decline and this may be a well timed wake up call to union leadership. If we are truly moving into a “post partisan” age of new politics, here’s one opportunity to get started.
Pelosi lays down the law with Rahm
Politico.com reported In talks with Emanuel and others, sources say, Pelosi has “set parameters” for what she wants from Barack Obama and his White House staff — no surprises, and no backdoor efforts to go around her and other Democratic leaders by cutting deals with moderate New Democrats or conservative Blue Dogs.
I wonder how the moderate New Democrats and conservative Blue Dogs feel about knowing the radical left will not allow them to try to cut any deals. Maybe they should find someone else to be speaker.Specifically, Pelosi has told Emanuel that she wants to know when representatives of the incoming administration have any contact with her rank-and-file Democrats — and why, sources say.
The why is they have a right to represent the people that elected them.... Pelosi “is not going to allow Obama to triangulate her,”
Like Clinton did.said a Democratic source close to the leadership. “It’s not going to happen to her.”
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