Observation (2nd in a series)

Leet is internet Cockney.

Observation (1st in a series)

Horseshoe Crabs have 10 legs.

That's really freaky, man.

...And becomes very suspicious of said human's shoes.

Well, that raps it up for Friday Cat Blogging. Tune in next Friday for more photos of Mitzi.

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Check out the Carnival of the Cats at Ibejo.

Mitzi loses interest in the human holding the gray object in its hands...

It's my grandmother's cat, Mitzi, again. This picture is dark because it used no flash, and Mitzi is inquisitive because it is most unusual indeed for humans to brandish gray objects at her and not worship the ground Tsarina Mitzi strides upon. Oh well, she'll let this provocation pass.

CBS is Defeated

Since January 10th, there have been over 1,000 news articles published containing Dan Rather's name.

James Pinkerton asks in Newsday, "Why do Rather and his boss still have jobs?"

David Letterman has a Top 10 list ridiculing CBS news for its failure in Memogate.

The former producer of 60 Minutes, Don Hewitt, has said, “Does anybody really think there wouldn’t have been more scrutiny if this had been about John Kerry?”

Mary Mapes, a major person behind Memogate has been fired. Not just asked to leave, but publicly shown the door. "Terminated." She will never work in mainstream journalism again.

In USA Today, Andy Rooney, of the original 60 Minutes, has said “The people on the front lines got fired while the people most instrumental in getting the broadcast on escaped.”

Howard Kurtz has reported in the Washington Post that political bias is a likely possible eexplanation of how Memogate occured.

Les Moonves has indirectly connected Rather's retirement from the Evening News with his failure in Memogate.

Howard Fineman has said that the MSM stopped being politically unbiased a long time ago, and their downfall has begun.

CBS News has been strategically defeated, and it doesn't really matter what isn't in the report, because everyone who is aware knows what has been left out, and they understand the magnitude of CBS's scandal. They also understand the inadequacies of CBS's response. CBS's reputation has been permanently damaged, and Rather's resembles swiss cheese. This will serve as a lesson to any future journalist that if they try to lie to smear a political figure, and pass it off as investigative journalism, they will be caught and punished for it. CBS lost. The public won.

More Memogate Report Blowback

A great case for the firing of CBS News President Andrew Heyward on grounds of negligent incompetence, from Ernest Miller.

Re:Memogate Report Quote #1

PANEL UNABLE TO VERIFY RATHER'S CLAIM TO BE QUEEN OF THE SPACE UNICORNS

From TKS [The Kerry Spot]

Celestial Convergence Watch

Earlier this night, the moon was very yellow and very low in the sky. I'm positive that somewhere, someone, probably someone drunk, looked at that and thought it was a UFO.

Elsewhere

Damn, is LGF running fast.

Used to be 10 times slower. Quoth pookleblinky, "LGF is high on PHP!"

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Also from that comment thread:

#7 song_and_dance_man: "I posting at LUDICRIOUS SPEED"

#10 song_and_dance_man: "And now I'm PIMF'ing at LUDICROUS SPEED"

Elsewhere on the Web

Perhaps the great music web-game of all time: What's That Song?

Fixing the Democratic Party, Part 1

Jonah Goldberg examines the reaction to Peter Beinart's effective article on the critically flawed current Democratic foreign policy. What he finds is illustrative of the problem Beinart was talking about.

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By effective, I'm not saying that Beinart is completely right. I'm saying that he admits there is a problem, makes a significant attempt to really get to the source of it, and puts the problem in a historical perspective by comparing it to the Cold War (on the issue of communist sympathizers in the Democratic party in the late 1940s, it think the real problem is less that they were supportive of communism than that they were supportive of Soviet communism, which I agree was as big a threat, though less overtly dangerous by being more rational, as Islamic Totalitarianism. He then proposes a solution. Even if he isn't correct in all the details, he has approached the problem honestly and competently enough to feed and start debate on fixing the problem, which most definitely does exist.

I say it exists because I voted Bush, and I have significantly social libertarian views, which contradict immensely with Bush's conservative social views. I also think that Iran and North Korea are more of a threat than Bush is treating them as, and have often recommended extreme action in this weblog, yet still voted for Bush. Why? Because Kerry is in no way competent to lead our nation's foreign policy. If Lieberman had won the nomination I would have voted for him in a heart-beat.

The person the Democrats should nominate in 2008 should be a prominent center-left liberal with a strong history of leadership in foreign policy. Unfortunately, I don't think such a person exists in today's Democratic party, so I propose the party compromises on Joseph Lieberman.

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Big surprise, huh?

A little something I worked up late last night.

In case you've been wondering where I've been, the Laurence Simon Dead Pool weblog has become my new timewaster.

So many picks, so little time.

Quote of the Day

Laurence Simon: "I am the weed-eater in your lawn of ignorance."

Other Counties Heard From

The legendary Laurence Simon:

I do not do this for ribbons, trophies, swag, traffic, or any other tangible item of commerce.

In fact, I have no idea why I do this.

My hypothesis:

"You do it so that the people at work don't have you committed to a nuthouse."

Go forth and contribute your ideas why Laurence does what he does.

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Also, Laurence Simon' 2005 IFOC Dead Pool is currently accepting rosters. If your a blogger, make a list of 15 famous people you hate, go to the site to read the rules, and submit before the ball drops in Times Square.

"Death, be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so..."

Day By Day on Rathers Semi-Retirement

Most excellent.

Nuclear Crisis #2 is 1 Minute From Midnight

Iran hails UN nuclear 'victory':

A top Iranian official has claimed a "great victory" over the US after the UN said it would not punish Iran's nuclear activities with sanctions.
Hassan Rohani said Iran would never give up its right to nuclear power.

He stressed its freeze in uranium enrichment was only temporary during talks with European countries.

The UN atomic agency IAEA has welcomed Iran's offer to freeze enrichment in a statement on Monday that did not mention any threat of future sanctions.

We need to begin bombing tomorrow, and fast-track any plan to depose the government.

These people will not stop until they have nuclear weapons, and when they do, it will be nuclear midnight.

If Iran has nuclear weapons, Hezbollah can get nuclear bombs, Syria can get nuclear bombs, and soon everyone who wants them will have them.

Then the nuclear apocalypse will begin.

CLINCH!!

11th kyu.

Palestinian Coffin Swarm!

Martin Peretz does the right thing.