ambivalent bits

Dems fear Kerry getting Gored:
"Every Sunday, Team Bush goes in overdrive by outlining the upcoming week's attacks on Kerry. It's followed by paid advertisements and assigning top-notch surrogates," Brazile said. "This is the exact moment in 2000 when Gore was seriously damaged as the Bush team painted the former vice president as a "serial exaggerator.'"

Caffeine Effects Differ in Men/Women:
" Although caffeine appears to raise pressure for different reasons in men and women, blood pressure increased by the same amount in both sexes, suggesting that the potential health risks of caffeine are the same for men and women,"

iTunes 4.5 and iTMS 3:
"In his iTunes 1-year Anniversary Conference Call, Apple CEO Steve Jobs highlighted the iTunes 4.5 release and the new Third-generation iTunes Music Store." Careful! The iTunes update may screw w/your playlists and library. I went from 5,000 songs to 1600 somehow. I hope they're not gone...

Free Wireless planned for DC Mall:
"Members of the Open Park Project already have set up a wireless access point covering the Supreme Court and the Capitol and say they hope to extend wireless broadband coverage across the capital's monument-filled core within a year."

U.S. Intelligence Tracking Blogs:
"People in black trench coats might soon be chasing blogs."

Homeless at NYU
Bobst Basement Boy lived in library basement at NYU and blogged about it here and here.

NASA worries about enviro disaster movie:
"he prospect that moviegoers will be alarmed enough to blame the Bush administration for inattention to climate change has stirred alarm at the space agency, scientists there say."

Doomed to failure in the Middle East:
A letter from 52 former senior British diplomats to Tony Blair...

Free Fonts from Dinc!
Never design a boring document again! Especially for those who like 1950s-70s retro.

Cheney Secrecy Case Goes to High Court:
"The Bush administration has lost two rounds in federal court. If the Supreme Court makes it three, Cheney could have to reveal potentially embarrassing records just in time for the presidential election." Quack quack quack!

Al Queda Bombers Back Bush:
"An Islamic militant group claiming responsibility for the train bombings in Spain endorsed a second term for President George W. Bush yesterday, praising his "idiocy and religious fanaticism," which the group said is helping to "wake up" the Islamic world." Now, this is what I call satire!

Download.com:
Apparently, this is the replacement for now defunct mp3.com.

E-Voting on defensive:
"The worst-case scenario is that, come November, we're going to have nostalgia for what happened in Florida, which at least had an appearance of an attempt to do the right thing with people trying to recount ballots,"

Court Won't Reinstate Prayer at School
" With the Supreme Court rebuff, the ruling of a lower court stands. That court said the nightly prayers violate the Constitution's ban on state promotion of religion."

Spoils of War:
"As Marketplace reporters have discovered, not all of the $22 billion being spent to rebuild Iraq is going where it should."

Moving Image:
A mosaic of some of the soldiers who have died in Iraq. [link via Scripting News]

Truth in Labeling:
"Nous sommes desoles que notre president soit un idiot. Nous n'avons pas vote pour lui." Get your t-shirts here.

Quid Pro Quack:
Hey, did you hear the one about Cheney and Scalia going hunting on an oilman's private grounds...

Fearless leader followed Cheney?
Timothy Noah says Bush never decided to go to war in Iraq; Cheney did. Shock. Can you see the puppet's strings dancing?

Man Set Fire, Stayed, Died:
Bennett's story of what happened "is so incredible," Fandrey said, that it's probably "credible." [link via Favorable Dicta]

Better Propaganda:
Free indie music downloads and info. Rock, hip-hop, electronic and more. Awesome.

15-yr-old Writes Bestseller:
"It's the story of a hospitalized young girl who imagines another world where three heroines band together with the help of some magical stones to save their land."

Live, Digital video heading to U.S. police cars:
"[Tyler, Texas] next month will start to install a digital video system designed to beam TV images of any police action in real-time from the police department's 60 cruisers over a wireless network back to headquarters, IBM officials and Tyler police said Tuesday."

Photos of Military Coffins (casualties from Iraq):
"Due to a Freedom of Information Act request from The Memory Hole, the Air Force has released 361 photographs showing soldiers' remains arriving home. These are the images that the Pentagon prevented the public from seeing"

Salon interviews Neal Stephenson:
"I have a perverse weakness for past generations that are universally reviled today."

DiFranco in DC:
Ani's coming to town again! See you there?

Ideology Run Amok:
What is the purpose of Carnival of the Capitalists? How do you tell a fish it's wet?

Not Cheaper by the Gallon:
We complain about the cost of a gallon of gas, but does it make sense that gas is cheaper than bottled water!?

Bad Marine:
"In the photo, [Lance Cpl. Ted J. Boudreaux] is shown with two Iraqi boys. All three are smiling, and all three are flashing a "thumbs-up" sign. The middle boy is holding a handmade cardboard sign that reads in English, "Lcpl. Boudreaux killed my dad then he knocked up my sister."

CitizenTruth:
"Not Suitable for Children or Republicans." Press continue and listen to "Dubya"—very well done!

Free Cone Day:
Coming April 27th, get a free ice cream cone from Ben & Jerry's! Visit the website that day and sign an "Oath to Vote" and you'll also get a free song from the iTunes Music Store. [via MacNN]

2004 Whitest Law School Report
GW is 157 out of 184, which exactly matches the "total whiteness in the National LSAC Applications." Coincidence? I'm thinking not.

Why no impeachment II:
"(At) the end of July 2002, they need $700 million, a large amount of money for all these tasks. And the president approves it. But Congress doesn't know and it is done.

"They get the money from a supplemental appropriation for the Afghan War, which Congress has approved. ... Some people are gonna look at a document called the Constitution which says that no money will be drawn from the treasury unless appropriated by Congress. Congress was totally in the dark on this."

Why no Impeachment?
"To recap: President Strong-on-Terror passed state secrets to the ambassador of a nation known to support terrorism. Said ambassador of foreign power has agreed to manipulate oil prices in an attempt to influence the November election."

SCOTUS Hears Detainees' Appeals:
"History teaches that we tend to sacrifice civil liberties too quickly based on claims of military necessity and national security, only to discover later that those claims were overstated from the start,"

SCOTUS to Reconsider Death Sentences:
"The court ruled two years ago that juries must have the final say in who receives the death penalty, and the justices must decide whether that ruling should void old death sentences handed down by judges."

McD's CEO dies of heart attack:
No comment.

Woman gives self Caesarean:
"She took three small glasses of hard liquor and, using a kitchen knife, sliced her abdomen in three attempts and delivered a male infant that breathed immediately and cried." [link via elevator ride]

Sororities: Really that bad:
Author of new book says the stereotypes—binge drinking, drug use, eating disorders and promiscuity—are true. [link via don't get any on you]

Beer Drinking Causes Gout:
"Two or more beers per day increased the risk of gout 25-fold compared with no beer intake." [link via don't get any on you]

Air America: Also Not Dead Yet:
"Air America Radio isn’t dead, we’re in court and we’re going to slam Liu’s head in a car door. Another metaphor."

Bush Backs Israel on West Bank
What the hell is he doing!?

"Blonde Angel" Robs Frisky Patient:
"A man laid up in hospital with multiple fractures telephoned out for a prostitute to help him end weeks of sexual frustration." And then she robbed him! Talk about playing dirty!

Real Wants to Play w/Apple:
"The email proposes a "tactical alliance" between the two companies to create a combined force against Microsoft's dominant Windows Media Player technology."

Rejected iPod Engravings:
"Rip, Mix, Burn Down RIAA Headquarters"

iPod Mini Design Flaw?
Is Apple secretly and feverishly redesigning the minis to eliminate a sound problem?

President Bush News Conference:
Was he drunk? [And how did this become the top search result for "president bush news conference" on Google News?]

Liking Scalia:
"Every opinion, concurrence, dissent he writes is consistent. Plain meaning, framer intent, historical practice, judicial restraint." Sure, but "a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." —Emerson

What is BackToCrawford.net?

Lynne Cheney's book reissue cancelled:
A publisher has canceled plans to reissue a racy novel by Lynne Cheney, wife of Vice President Dick Cheney, after she said the book did not represent "her best work." Bogus.

Condi's Cover-up Caves In:
They lost the August 6th memo cover-up, but "are there other cover-ups, which are not yet publicly known, that will end up more to Bush and Rice's liking?"

Colored Apples:
What color would you like your next iPod, iBook, or Powerbook to be? I'll take a 15" Powerbook w/superdrive in Envy, please.