Month: March 2005

Kofi is depressed.

Some conservatives are angered by opinionated quotes that Starbucks puts on its cups.

Moments after picking up a venti vanilla latte from a St. Petersburg Starbucks, Sam Maston removed his cup’s cardboard sleeve to inspect a message printed beneath.

“America’s national debt is now $7.5-trillion, and it’s skyrocketing, even as America’s population ages,” the cup read. “There will never be a better time to start paying off this crippling debt than today.”

The quote, from environmentalist Denis Hayes, didn’t faze the 29-year-old Maston.

“I’m a pretty hardcore Democrat,” said Maston, who wore a black rubber wristband bearing the words I DID NOT VOTE 4 BUSH. “I think they should put that stuff on there.”

Not everyone agrees.

The Seattle coffee chain has raised some eyebrows over its “The Way I See It” campaign, which prints quotes from thinkers, authors, athletes and entertainers on the side of your morning machiatto. The goal, according to the company, is to foster philosophical debate in its 9,000-plus coffeehouses.

The quotes aren’t all that inflammatory, though several mirror Starbucks’ hallmark tall-grande-venti pretentiousness. Take this one from film critic Roger Ebert: “A movie is not about what it is about. It is about how it is about it.”

The problem, critics say, is the company’s list of overwhelmingly liberal contributors, including Al Franken, Melissa Etheridge, Quincy Jones, Chuck D. Of the 31 contributors listed on Starbucks’ Web site, only one, National Review editor Jonah Goldberg, offers a conservative viewpoint.

If anyone going to Starbucks is the least bit like me, they’re not looking at the cup or the writing on the cup or even that cardboard sleeve. We’re drinking the coffee! That’s it. I don’t even hang out in Starbucks. The place is too yuppie centric for me. Am I surprised that the place is run by socialistic tree huggers? Nope.

Don’t get me wrong, I can’t stand being bombarded by leftist speak – I get enough as it is, in the newspaper, on the television, and on the signs waving in my face as I’m walking down the street to go to the local post office. I don’t need more of it from Costco, 7-Eleven, Denny’s or Burger King.

But getting angry about what’s printed on a cup and hidden by a cardboard sleeve is just plain silly.

To my fellow java loving conservative brothers and sisters – get a grip, relax, and have cup of coffee.

Nope. Not even death.

If you’re a fan of CSI, or any other prime time show on CBS, you won’t have to worry about network news producers breaking in to do a special report if Terri Schiavo dies. They made it very clear that during prime time, they’ll do a crawl only. They want to avoid repeating this at all costs. 

Either Rep. John Conyers (D-Michigan) is looking to hire Marcos Zuniga to blog about his next campaign or he really does believe that bloggers should be classified as journalists.

In a column published on CNet today, Rep. Conyers stated that bloggers have shown they warrant First Amendment protection. He lists the following reasons:

• Bloggers have become widely accepted as legitimate news gatherers and disseminators.
• Columbia University’s Project for Excellence in Journalism reports that 32 million Americans are currently turning to blogs for their information.
• Bloggers were granted press passes to both the Democratic and Republican national conventions last summer.
• The White House recently approved the first blog press pass to a day’s gaggle

Then, the money shot:

Bloggers should be classified as journalists and given First Amendment protections based on the function they perform, not the form of their transmissions. Properly understood, the First Amendment applies to all those who report with journalistic integrity–offline or online.

OK, I’m gonna say it.

(Gulp)

(Ahem)

He’s right.

Yes, Democrat Representative John Conyers is right.

Not about First Amendment rights. Everyone is covered there – no matter who they are or what they say. I’m taking about bloggers being accepted as equals to those in the traditional media. Bloggers should be looked at no differently than those who report for the local hometown newspaper or the New York Times.

Did you catch the key phrase Conyers used?

“Journalistic Integrity”

In other words, responsibility. Bloggers have a responsibility, the same way a newspaper, radio, television, or magazine journalist has a responsibility. It’s simple really.

• We must be factual.
• We must be thorough.
• We must disclose fully.
• We must be ready and willing to correct ourselves.
• We must be honest.

Citizen journalists must hold themselves to these standards. If we do not, we risk the legitimacy we seek. We will be refused the access we need. We will be a liability to the organizations, the groups, and the individuals we attempt to serve.  

We will be “second class” citizen journalists.

Bravo Mr. Conyers. For today, I’m willing to believe that you mean what you say, and I’ll be expecting your help in the weeks and months to come as this important decision is considered by your colleagues in the FEC.

UPDATE (3/31/05): Conyers has his own blog.

From MSNBC – Howard Reig, the last staff announcer for NBC, retired today at the age of 84. Reig’s title is special. “Staff Announcer”. They came from radio and made the transition to television. In this new media age, they are a dying breed.

So few staff announcers remain on the rosters of the nation’s networks and broadcasting outlets that they constitute an endangered species. Staff announcers are increasingly being replaced by “daily hires” and freelancers who, in many cases, live hundreds of miles from they stations they identify or promote. They pre-record their announcements and ship them to the point of transmission by post, Federal Express, satellites or ISDN lines. Instantaneous audio synthesis of text files by means of hardware and software will mark the final stage of the staff announcer’s evolution.

The only “real” announcer left is Don Pardo. He’s still working, but at age 87, he’ll be the next to go.

A significant era is coming to an end. In another 5 years or so, the job of staff announcer will be only a memory.

(h/t OTB)

Cheat on your husband, get a divorce and net $40 million.

A judge has awarded the former wife of a multimillionaire businessman a divorce settlement worth more than $40 million, even though she admitted having affairs with both her rock-climbing guide and a man she met on a flight to China.

In addition to a $24 million payment, Susan Sosin will keep the couple’s $3.6 million Manhattan apartment, $2 million Utah ski house and $800,000 home in Wallkill, N.Y. But she has to vacate the couple’s two mansions in Connecticut and three desert properties in Arizona.

In the divorce granted Wednesday, she also gets to keep $6 million in her brokerage accounts, eight cars and $2.9 million in jewelry, including a ruby piece her husband had bought for her but hadn’t given to her prior to their divorce.

Richard Albrecht, attorney for Sosin’s husband, Howard Sosin, estimated the total value of the award at $43 million, or 27 percent of the estate. She wanted half, he said.

“My opinion is her conduct in this matter affected the award,” Albrecht said.

The life of the super rich. And I love that quote from the lawyer. You can almost hear the hint of disappointment in his voice. Excuse me Sir, SHE GOT $40 MILLION DOLLARS! And he’s bummed out. Hah.

I’m sure the appeal is forthcoming. I mean really, how can anyone live on a measly $40 million?

REDSTATE.ORG has it all. Should bloggers be worried?

The Seattle market finally received the speed upgrade from Comcast tonight. My home cable modem Internet connection is now 6 MBPS.

Via AP:

Crystal Senger stopped at a convenience store in Bismarck, North Dakota to buy pop and cigarettes, and she saw the clerk being choked in a robbery attempt. She ran to call for help. Then she started throwing bananas.

Senger, 19, said she grew up playing organized baseball, and used those skills to pelt the suspect in the head with every banana she threw, from about 10 feet away.

“I was seven-for-seven,” Senger said in a telephone interview Thursday. “They were green bananas — not the ripe mushy ones — so they hurt.”

How long before Sen. Barbara Boxer introduces legislation to impose a 5 day waiting period for banana purchases?

Via Brit:

Clinton Connection

Two female senators embracing one another at a Washington Women’s History Museum may not sound like news, but video showing New York Democrat Hillary Clinton and Texas Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison hugging one another, is circulating among conservatives and Texas Governor Rick Perry’s campaign staff now admits they paid someone to shoot and produce the video.

Hutchison, a Republican senator, has expressed interest in running against Republican governor Perry next year and Perry’s campaign director says “News flash: Potential opponents trashing my governor are not going to get a free ride.” He adds, “We’re being very aggressive in everything we do. And you ain’t seen nothing yet.”

Now, if this was a general election and the opponents were Republican against Democrat, I wouldn’t think twice about this tactic. I’d expect a Democrat to play this card. But two Republicans playing this game – that’s not right.

Politics is politics, I know, but this is a wrong move in my opinion. Republicans must show the electorate that they play a better game on the campaign trail. They must identify the Left as the party of dirty tricks. If they don’t, the tit-for-tat game will further alienate voters, and more will sit in disgust and avoid the polls in future elections.