brainrow

What you gotta do, see, is make sure you’re the guy defining the words. Via Boing Boing:

Via Boing Boing: Last week a Texas man asked his daughter’s school district to drop Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury’s novel about a future world where “firemen” don’t fight fires, but burn books.

“It’s just all kinds of filth,” said Alton Verm, adding that he had not read “Fahrenheit 451.” “The words don’t need to be brought out in class. I want to get the book taken out of the class.”

Last week, you may recall, was the American Library Association’s Banned Books Week. How much do you suppose the ALA had to pay Mr. Verm to illustrate the problem so effectively?

This is not an ad. I haven’t bought anything from this vendor. I just like this sticker from Progressive Passion, that’s all.

I’m still thinking Nixon, but Bush keeps moving up.

How will the “moral values” Republicans talk their way out of the Mark Foley scandal and cover-up? How will they avoid charges of hypocrisy? Over on Fox News, the O’Reilly Factor has the answer: just label Foley as a Democrat. Quick. Easy. Almost subliminal.

But nobody tops Rush Limbaugh:

There are things that will offend liberals. Or are there? ’Cause I continue to ask, are they really offended by this? How many of them wish that they were in on the action?

Notice how blissfully free of content Limbaugh is. He doesn’t have to offer any evidence that any liberals “wish they were in on the action,” because he never actually says they do. He just “continues to ask,” that’s all.

Last night, MSNBC’s Countdown without Keith Olbermann brought together a lot of Republican talking points:

Update: I thought Fox labeling Foley a Democrat was a simple slip-up, but maybe not. It’s never smart to give Fox the benefit of the doubt.

From CNET, this quote of the day:

At a public hearing in Los Angeles Tuesday before the Federal Communications Commission, consumer groups, civil rights leaders, independent content producers, journalists and the like argued that media consolidation is killing creativity and diversity.

“Homogenization is good for milk,” said Patric Verrone, president of Writers Guild of America, West. “But it’s bad for ideas.”

Surely everybody agrees with that.

I need this:

Sharp has produced a 64-inch LCD monitor that provides screen resolution four times that of normal high-definition screens. Normal HD screens have 2 million pixel points. The new Sharp monitor, which is on display at the Ceatec technology trade show here this week, sports 4,096-by-2,160 pixel-line resolution — double the number of vertical and horizontal pixel lines offered by a normal HD screen. This comes out to nearly 9 million pixel points.

…

The screen, still in the development phase, will be targeted at film and television producers as well as medical researchers, a Sharp representative said. The exhibit is one of the more popular at the weeklong trade show taking place outside Tokyo. But eventually, these technologies trickle down to the consumer market.

Now! Now! Now! Now! NOW!

Other prototypes being shown include a screen with a technology Sharp calls Mega Contrast. The screen has a 1 million-to-1 contrast ratio. Typical HD LCD screens sport a 1,200-to-1 contrast ratio.

I hate technology. It brings out the worst in me.

Let me get this straight: No plan for victory. Detailed plan for victory celebration?

Even as the Bush administration urges Americans to stay the course in Iraq, Republicans in Congress have put down a quiet marker in the apparent hope that V-I Day might be only months away.

Tucked away in fine print in the military spending bill for this past year was a lump sum of $20 million to pay for a celebration in the nation’s capital “for commemoration of success” in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Not surprisingly, the money was not spent.

Now Congressional Republicans are saying, in effect, maybe next year. A paragraph written into spending legislation and approved by the Senate and House allows the $20 million to be rolled over into 2007.

A few days ago, I mentioned my suspicions about the drop in gasoline prices as we approach election day. But surely that’s just the magic of the marketplace, huh? Maybe not:

Prince Bandar enjoys easy access to the Oval Office. His family and the Bush family are close. And Woodward told 60 Minutes that Bandar has promised the president that Saudi Arabia will lower oil prices in the months before the election — to ensure the U.S. economy is strong on election day.

Woodward says that Bandar understood that economic conditions were key before a presidential election: “They’re [oil prices] high. And they could go down very quickly. That’s the Saudi pledge. Certainly over the summer, or as we get closer to the election, they could increase production several million barrels a day and the price would drop significantly.”

Okay, what do you think will happen to gas prices after election day?

I went to the Ohio Democratic Party fundraiser with John Kerry this morning.

I felt a little out of my depth. Almost everyone there was a big wheel. Fortunately, I think they assumed I was a big wheel, too, and they just weren’t recognizing me. I wore my button that says “I’m the decider. I vote!” and was warned that with Ken Blackwell running elections here in Ohio, perhaps I was being naive. I said I was an optimist.

I was able to walk right up and chat with Senator Kerry and shake his hand. It’s kinda fun being mistaken for a big wheel.

I saw him again, a little later, when he spoke to a student crowd at the Ohio State University.

The College Republicans had set up a recruiting table outside, with a sign that said, “Join the College Republicans, Make a Difference.” As the crowd came out after Kerry’s speech, they held up signs and one guy shouted derision through a bullhorn. Most of them were wearing masks. I told them I understood — I’d be ashamed, too.

I don’t drink. Many years ago, when I was a little kid, I was once offered the sip of beer I had been clamoring for, and it wasn’t nearly as good as I had imagined it would be. Since then, I’ve never seen the appeal of alcohol, and I’ve counted myself lucky.

Today, someone suggested I ought to start drinking, anyway. That way, if I ever got caught doing something shameful — not that I would ever do anything shameful, heaven forfend — I could just blame it on the booze and check myself into rehab.

The demon rum has provided convenient absolution for countless public figures in recent years, but you can’t swear off the bottle unless you drink. It’s a quandary.

The current consensus seems to be that Republican Mark Foley’s misbehavior, and the Republican leadership’s apparent year-long cover-up might hurt the GOP. Heaven forfend, indeed. So some Republican apologists are going to work — for example, Matt Drudge blames the young pages, not former congressman Foley.

But look on the bright side. The Foley story is everywhere today — all over the news, all over the blogs. And people talking about Foley aren’t talking about Iraq, where at least 70 U.S. troops were killed in September, along with thousands of civilians.

The Foley story is getting another big boost today from things like a call by some conservatives for Dennis Hastert’s resignation.

It sounds like bad news for Republicans, but it sure has changed the subject, hasn’t it?

I’m thinking, “Karl Rove, Suuuper Genius.”

I first saw John Kerry many years ago, on Dick Cavett’s late night talk show on ABC TV.

I was impressed. Years went by and I followed his career — his unsuccessful campaign for Congress in 1972, his rise through prosecutor, lieutenant governor of Massachusetts, and then into the U.S. Senate — and I thought that he would someday make a good president. Voters really missed the boat in 2004.

From a recent Kerry speech:

Just recently, Donald Rumsfeld — the man who should have been fired as Secretary of Defense long ago — Donald Rumsfeld gave a low and ugly speech in which he smeared those who dissent from a catastrophic policy, and then spoke of “moral confusion.”

Well, there certainly is a lot of moral confusion around these days.

It is immoral for old men to send young Americans to fight and die in a conflict without a strategy that can work — on a mission that has not weakened terrorism but worsened it.

It is immoral to lie about progress in that war to get through a news cycle or an election.

It is immoral to treat 9/11 as a political pawn — and to continue to excuse the invasion of Iraq by exploiting the 3,000 mothers and fathers, sons and daughters who were lost that day. They were attacked and killed not by Saddam Hussein but by Osama bin Laden.

And it is deeply immoral to compare a majority of Americans who oppose a failing policy and seek a winning one to appeasers of Fascism and Nazism.

Kerry is coming here to Columbus, Ohio tomorrow, to raise money and drum up support for the Ohio Democratic Party and local candidates. He’s going to be busy.

From 8:45 to 10:00 tomorrow morning, we have the “Wake Up for Change Breakfast,” a fundraiser for the Ohio Democratic Party, at The Capital Club, 41 South High Street. I called to make a reservation, and was told there’s no need for reservations, I can just pay at the door. There are several price tiers. The lowest is $150, but it’s for a good cause.

At 11:30, Kerry will be at the Ohio Union East Ball Room at 1739 North High Street. Doors open at 11:00 am. Admission is free. There is a form on Kerry’s website if you would like to attend.

At 12:30 pm, Kerry moves a just a little bit down the street, to Eddie George’s Grille 27, at 1636 North High Street, for a fundraiser for Mary Jo Kilroy’s congressional campaign. Once again, there are several price tiers, and the lowest is $150. The email I got announcing this fundraiser said “Please RSVP to Ray Coatoam at (614) 437-9793 or CoatoamR@gmail.com,” but I haven’t had time to call. I’ll bet money is all you need to get in there, too.

Update: Just got another email message. Kerry will promote early voting at 10:00am at St. Dominic Parish Center, 455 North 20th Street. Open to the public, no RSVP or donation required.

You can’t say the man doesn’t have a full schedule.

Crooks and Liars has video and a transcript of Bob Woodward on 60 Minutes, talking about his new book, State of Denial.