The Wall Street Journal's Farnaz Fassihi is the author of an email winging its way around the internet. This first came to my attention via Poynter Online, an online resource for Journalists.

Fassihi subsequently confirmed this actually was from him, and her editor stated "Ms. Fassihi's private opinions have in no way distorted her coverage, which has been a model of intelligent and courageous reporting, and scrupulous accuracy and fairness."

Here is the actual email from WSJ reporter Fassihi's e-mail to friends:

From: [Wall Street Journal reporter] Farnaz Fassihi
Subject: From Baghdad

Being a foreign correspondent in Baghdad these days is like being under virtual house arrest. Forget about the reasons that lured me to this job: a chance to see the world, explore the exotic, meet new people in far away lands, discover their ways and tell stories that could make a difference.

Little by little, day-by-day, being based in Iraq has defied all those reasons. I am house bound. I leave when I have a very good reason to and a scheduled interview. I avoid going to people's homes and never walk in the streets. I can't go grocery shopping any more, can't eat in restaurants, can't strike a conversation with strangers, can't look for stories, can't drive in any thing but a full armored car, can't go to scenes of breaking news stories, can't be stuck in traffic, can't speak English outside, can't take a road trip, can't say I'm an American, can't linger at checkpoints, can't be curious about what people are saying, doing, feeling. And can't and can't. There has been one too many close calls, including a car bomb so near our house that it blew out all the windows. So now my most pressing concern every day is not to write a kick-ass story but to stay alive and make sure our Iraqi employees stay alive. In Baghdad I am a security personnel first, a reporter second.

It's hard to pinpoint when the 'turning point' exactly began. Was it April when the Fallujah fell out of the grasp of the Americans? Was it when Moqtada and Jish Mahdi declared war on the U.S. military? Was it when Sadr City, home to ten percent of Iraq's population, became a nightly battlefield for the Americans? Or was it when the insurgency began spreading from isolated pockets in the Sunni triangle to include most of Iraq? Despite President Bush's rosy assessments, Iraq remains a disaster. If under Saddam it was a 'potential' threat, under the Americans it has been transformed to 'imminent and active threat,' a foreign policy failure bound to haunt the United States for decades to come.

Iraqis like to call this mess 'the situation.' When asked 'how are thing?' they reply: 'the situation is very bad."

What they mean by situation is this: the Iraqi government doesn't control most Iraqi cities, there are several car bombs going off each day around the country killing and injuring scores of innocent people, the country's roads are becoming impassable and littered by hundreds of landmines and explosive devices aimed to kill American soldiers, there are assassinations, kidnappings and beheadings. The situation, basically, means a raging barbaric guerilla war. In four days, 110 people died and over 300 got injured in Baghdad alone. The numbers are so shocking that the ministry of health -- which was attempting an exercise of public transparency by releasing the numbers -- has now stopped disclosing them.

Insurgents now attack Americans 87 times a day.

A friend drove thru the Shiite slum of Sadr City yesterday. He said young men were openly placing improvised explosive devices into the ground. They melt a shallow hole into the asphalt, dig the explosive, cover it with dirt and put an old tire or plastic can over it to signal to the locals this is booby-trapped. He said on the main roads of Sadr City, there were a dozen landmines per every ten yards. His car snaked and swirled to avoid driving over them. Behind the walls sits an angry Iraqi ready to detonate them as soon as an American convoy gets near. This is in Shiite land, the population that was supposed to love America for liberating Iraq.

For journalists the significant turning point came with the wave of abduction and kidnappings. Only two weeks ago we felt safe around Baghdad because foreigners were being abducted on the roads and highways between towns. Then came a frantic phone call from a journalist female friend at 11 p.m. telling me two Italian women had been abducted from their homes in broad daylight. Then the two Americans, who got beheaded this week and the Brit, were abducted from their homes in a residential neighborhood. They were supplying the entire block with round the clock electricity from their generator to win friends. The abductors grabbed one of them at 6 a.m. when he came out to switch on the generator; his beheaded body was thrown back near the neighborhoods./CONTINUED BELOW

PART II WSJ reporter Fassahi's e-mail to friends /2 9/29/2004 2:47:12 PM

The insurgency, we are told, is rampant with no signs of calming down. If any thing, it is growing stronger, organized and more sophisticated every day. The various elements within it-baathists, criminals, nationalists and Al Qaeda-are cooperating and coordinating.

I went to an emergency meeting for foreign correspondents with the military and embassy to discuss the kidnappings. We were somberly told our fate would largely depend on where we were in the kidnapping chain once it was determined we were missing. Here is how it goes: criminal gangs grab you and sell you up to Baathists in Fallujah, who will in turn sell you to Al Qaeda. In turn, cash and weapons flow the other way from Al Qaeda to the Baathisst to the criminals. My friend Georges, the French journalist snatched on the road to Najaf, has been missing for a month with no word on release or whether he is still alive.

America's last hope for a quick exit? The Iraqi police and National Guard units we are spending billions of dollars to train. The cops are being murdered by the dozens every day-over 700 to date -- and the insurgents are infiltrating their ranks. The problem is so serious that the U.S. military has allocated $6 million dollars to buy out 30,000 cops they just trained to get rid of them quietly.

As for reconstruction: firstly it's so unsafe for foreigners to operate that almost all projects have come to a halt. After two years, of the $18 billion Congress appropriated for Iraq reconstruction only about $1 billion or so has been spent and a chuck has now been reallocated for improving security, a sign of just how bad things are going here.

Oil dreams? Insurgents disrupt oil flow routinely as a result of sabotage and oil prices have hit record high of $49 a barrel. Who did this war exactly benefit? Was it worth it? Are we safer because Saddam is holed up and Al Qaeda is running around in Iraq?

Iraqis say that thanks to America they got freedom in exchange for insecurity. Guess what? They say they'd take security over freedom any day, even if it means having a dictator ruler.

I heard an educated Iraqi say today that if Saddam Hussein were allowed to run for elections he would get the majority of the vote. This is truly sad.

Then I went to see an Iraqi scholar this week to talk to him about elections here. He has been trying to educate the public on the importance of voting. He said, "President Bush wanted to turn Iraq into a democracy that would be an example for the Middle East. Forget about democracy, forget about being a model for the region, we have to salvage Iraq before all is lost."

One could argue that Iraq is already lost beyond salvation. For those of us on the ground it's hard to imagine what if any thing could salvage it from its violent downward spiral. The genie of terrorism, chaos and mayhem has been unleashed onto this country as a result of American mistakes and it can't be put back into a bottle.

The Iraqi government is talking about having elections in three months while half of the country remains a 'no go zone'-out of the hands of the government and the Americans and out of reach of journalists. In the other half, the disenchanted population is too terrified to show up at polling stations. The Sunnis have already said they'd boycott elections, leaving the stage open for polarized government of Kurds and Shiites that will not be deemed as legitimate and will most certainly lead to civil war.

I asked a 28-year-old engineer if he and his family would participate in the Iraqi elections since it was the first time Iraqis could to some degree elect a leadership. His response summed it all: "Go and vote and risk being blown into pieces or followed by the insurgents and murdered for cooperating with the Americans? For what? To practice democracy? Are you joking?"

-Farnaz

Posted at 04:18 PM in War/Defense | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Once again, we are forced to play "Spot the Outlier"

via Polling Report

Yes, its Gallup. It turns out that the once estimable opinion outfit are now run by a bunch of religous zealots. Perhaps that explains why they were so wrong in 2000 in their Presidential polling data.

The unanswered question is why they have any credibility with the media today.

Posted at 02:09 PM in Politics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Another thought from Hugh "cartoons drawn on the back of business cards" Macleod

via Gaping Void

Posted at 11:43 AM in Design | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Guess who is the latest company to embrace Spam?

Why its the US Postal Service!

Makes sense . . . Maybe they get some new clients . . . Maybe they make email -- their prime competitor -- a little less usable.

Images from an email recieved this morning . . .

Shame on them!

P.S. I never signed up for anything at the USPS -- so I assume they either troll for email names, or buy lists.

Posted at 03:16 PM in Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Iraq has offically become a total clusterfuck:

"Operations by U.S. and multinational forces and Iraqi police are killing twice as many Iraqis - most of them civilians - as attacks by insurgents, according to statistics compiled by the Iraqi Health Ministry and obtained exclusively by Knight Ridder.  
 
According to the ministry, the interim Iraqi government recorded 3,487 Iraqi deaths in 15 of the country's 18 provinces from April 5 - when the ministry began compiling the data - until Sept. 19. Of those, 328 were women and children. Another 13,720 Iraqis were injured, the ministry said."

Click for larger graphic

Graphic courtesy Knight Ridder Newspapers

While most of the dead are believed to be civilians, the data include an unknown number of police and Iraqi national guardsmen. Many Iraqi deaths, especially of insurgents, are never reported, so the actual number of Iraqis killed in fighting could be significantly higher.  
 
During the same period, 432 American soldiers were killed.  
 

Sources:
Iraqi civilian casualties mounting
NANCY A. YOUSSEF
Knight Ridder Newspapers, Posted on Sat, Sep. 25, 2004
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/9753603.htm

Posted at 12:52 AM in War/Defense | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Saw something on the Discovery Channel on the Shelby GR-1.

While everyone is all gaga about the new Mustang (which is pretty cool), check out this beastie:

click for larger photo

click for larger photo

Its a pretty bad ass lookin set of wheels . . .

Via Car Design News

Posted at 03:57 PM in Design | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

It seems in NY. most carriers will give you 15 days to try out their service. Thanks goodness! Our experience with Cingular was awful.

I was a relatively happy Sprint subscriber (with a Samsung N400 phone); Their cell quality was good (more on that later). Cingular was a different story:

1. Call quality was very disappointing -- this is first and foremost my biggest complaint -- hissy, phase shifting / rolling sound. Terribly substandard. Also, calls take a few moments to "lock in," which is annoying. The phone is a Motorola V220 -- I can't say how much the phone or the network gets assigned the blame, but the combo is unimpressive.

2. Dropped calls -- constantly losing people. Halfway thru, and the call is gone. Happened repeatedly.

3. No roaming charges? That's cause there was no roaming. I got too many "Call failed" to count. And to add insult to injury, I am sitting right next to either an AT&T customer (in Woodbury and in Oyster Bay) who were getting perfect reception, or a Verizon user on the train, and there hones were working fine.

No call -- yet my seat mate was chatting away? Inadequate, to say the least.

The 2nd line was for my wife, who drives back and forth to work. In the event of an emergency -- car trouble, etc., -- I need to know that the phone will absolutely positively work. The failure to roam is a deal killer for me. It is completely unacceptable. I'd rather pay the roaming charges, and have the call got thru. (This also smells like false advertising -- Look at us! No Roamimg charges!).

4. My initial Cingular phone service took 3 days to get turned on -- we were carrying both the new Cingular and old Sprint phone: one for incoming, and one for outgoing service. That was, until Cingular stopped working alltogether for 3 more days. It took a 90 minute visit to the store to have my SIM cards replaced. No fun. (they should owe me money).

Finally, let me add that all these places where I used the phone that sounded so awful -- were the exact same places I always called from -- the wife from the train (in the station!) on the way home, the car at nite and on weekends, walking down the street near my office in NYC. Literally, the exact same places as before.

To Cingular's credit, the process of cancelling the 2 year contract within our 15 day trial period was relatively painless. Brought the phones back, got a receipt from them, easy.

Lastly, if you are curious how we became Cingular customors -- for however briefly -- its over on the other side of the blog: Customer Acquisition versus Retention: A case study in costs

Posted at 06:18 AM in Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

There's an in-depth story in the Sunday magazine section on Political bloggers.

The focus is really on Daily Kos, Wonkette, and Talking Points Memo. But Bopster Stirling Newberry gets mentioned towards the end of the piece.

Its not yet online, but us NY residents already have a hard copy -- I've always thought that's what Steely Dan meant by "celebrate Sunday on a Saturday night".

As an aside, I'd like to address something else mentioned in the article: The newfound monies the top tier of bloggers have been getting. I sincerely hope Josh, Anne Marie and Markos recognize the cyclical nature of elections and public interest in discussing them. (In other words, bank some money).

Like the man said, "this too, will pass."

If the challenger wins, there will still be a group of hard core readers after November 02, but I suspect page views will drop immediately after the elections, and especially on the left leaning side of the blogosphere. If the incumbent retains office, then a drift downwards may occur, until we get closer to 2006, and then cycle strongly back up towards 2008.

Just some food for thought . . .

Posted at 10:33 AM in Media, Politics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

What sort of crap do you have lurking hidden on your iPod?

That's the question a recent article (found in The Arizona Republic) asked:

"Those saccharine pop tunes and schmaltzy ballads cloaked from friends? There's no excuse anymore. No blaming it on a CD that had just one song you liked. No claiming it belonged to your wife, husband or friend.

You selected each and every tune. Like it or not, these are your greatest hits.

Now, let the melodic mocking commence."

How about you? What embarrassing ditties would your close friends be aghast about -- if they knew? Since our last interactive musical discussion -- Greatest American R&R Band -- was so much fun, let's take another swipe at it:

          What are the most horrendous, embarrassing, guilty pleasures on your iPod?

I'll start the HD spinning with my hidden collection of pathetic guilty pleasures ('tho music snob that I am, I foolishly believe my guilty pleasures are superior to most people's -- indefensible as that position might be).

These lists go from least (10) to most (1) embarrassing.

Generally embarrassing pop orotherwise awful commercial song:

10. Semi-Charmed Kinda of Life, Third Eye Blind
9. Undone - The Sweater Song, Weezer
8. Horndog, Overseer
7. Hey Leonardo (She Likes Me for Me), Blessid Union Of Souls
6. I Touch Myself, Divinyls
5. Closing Time, Semisonic
4. Complicated, Avril Lavigne
3. (I Hate) Everything About You, Ugly Kid Joe
2. She Hates Me, Puddle of Mudd
1. Mmmm Bop, Hanson

These are the utterly embarrassing songs on my "Gym Mix" :

10. I'm Just a Girl, No Doubt
9. Groove Is In The Heart, Deee-Lite
8. Take It Off, The Donnas
7. Fantastic Voyage, Coolio
6. Murder On The Dance floor, Sophie Ellis Bextor
5. Good Vibrations, Marky Mark
4. Steal My Sunshine, Len
3. That Don't Impress Me Much, Shania Twain
2. I Just Want to Make Love to You, Foghat
1. Rico Suave, Gerardo

And lastly, a mix I named "Bad radio from my Youth" -- and it is utterly ghastly:

10. Bad Time (for Being in Love), Grand Funk Railroad
9. Keep On Loving You, REO Speedwagon
8. Day After Day, Badfinger
7. Without you, Badfinger

A two way tie of simply awful for 3rd place:

6. (Shake, Shake, Shake) Your Booty, K.C. & The Sunshine Band
5. Keep It Comin' Love, K.C. & The Sunshine Band
(I've actually grown to like some other KC stuff, but these 2 -- shudder -- sheesh!)

A three way tie totally lacking any redeeming qualities for 2nd place:

4. Cover of the Rolling Stone, Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show
3. When You're in Love (with a Beautiful Woman), Dr. Hook
2. Sylvia's Mother, Dr. Hook

Last, and actually least, a song beyond bad:

1. Coconut, Harry Nilsson

Update: Monday, September 20, 2004 11:12 PM
There are some interesting comments on this issue over at kottke, which is where I originally saw the pointer for this. Since then, there have been over 100 entries of guilty iPod pleasures, including what must be the playlist from Hell.

Check it out . . .

Sources:
iPod guilty pleasures
Don Fernandez
Cox News, Sept. 11, 2004 12:00 AM
http://www.azcentral.com/ent/pop/articles/0911ipod11.html

Posted at 09:47 AM in Design, Music, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (29) | TrackBack

way cool photo"

Supersized ships squeeze into port
Gregory Richards
The Times-Union, September 23, 2004 - 01:23 AM
http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/092304/bus_16714158.shtml

Posted at 08:01 AM in Design | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Steve Benson

via This is Rumor Control

Posted at 06:16 PM in Humor | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Wow! This is an impressive bit of graphicology!

click for larger chart

chart courtesy of Washington Post

via Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/daily/graphics/cbsdocs_091804.html

Posted at 06:28 AM in Media | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Just when thought music journalism couldn't possibly get anymore superficial or petty, along comes the Riverfront Times to prove you wrong. Its snarky article "The Ten Most Hated Men in Rock (Besides Sting)", while not particularly enlightening, is at least mildly amusing.

Here's the list; Go read the entire article, if you at all give a shit . . .

1. Paul McCartney
2. Carlos Santana
3. Jimmy Buffett
4. The Adams Family (Ryan & Bryan)
5. Elton John
6. Johnny Rzeznik
7. G.E. Smith
8. Conor Oberst & Chris Carrabba
9. Fred Durst
10. Bob Weir

Rounding out the Top Twenty: 11. Glenn Frey & Don Henley. 12. Scott Stapp. 13. Rod Stewart. 14. Phil Collins. 15. Lenny Kravitz. 16. Steve Miller. 17. John Cougar Mellencamp. 18. Michael McDonald. 19. Max Weinberg. 20. Lars Ulrich.

Honorable Mention: Eric Clapton, Anthony Kiedis, Kid Rock, Scott Weiland, Liam & Noel Gallagher, Zack de la Rocha, Peter Gabriel, Kenny Loggins, George Thorogood, Bob Seger, Ted Nugent, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Bruce Springsteen, Axl Rose, James Hetfield, Ozzy Osbourne, Steve Winwood, Bruce Hornsby, Billy Joel, Dave Matthews, John Popper, Julian Casablancas, Jack White, Rob Thomas, Huey Lewis, Jackson Browne, Dave Grohl, Chris Cornell, Mark McGrath, Melissa Etheridge and the lead singer of Maroon 5 (we're too indifferent to even bother learning his name).

Sources:
The Ten Most Hated Men in Rock (Besides Sting)
BY MIKE SEELY
Riverfront Times Sep 01, 2004
http://www.riverfronttimes.com/issues/2004-09-01/music.html

Posted at 06:19 AM in Humor, Music | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Wicked cool: "Welcome to the National Climatic Data Center's (NCDC) Historical Significant Events Imagery database (HSEI)! In here you will find hundreds of selected satellite images capturing some of the more important weather and environmental events over the last 30 years"

Click on "What's new" for the most recent satellite photos of recent hurricanes.

Really quite spectacular photos like this one:

Click for larger graphic

Sources:
National Climatic Data Center's (NCDC) Historical Significant Events Imagery database
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov

Hurricane Ivan just before it makes landfall
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2004/images/ivan091504-2015z.jpg

Posted at 09:40 PM in Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Can you really increase your iPod battery by 70%?

That's the assertion of NewerTech: "The NewerTech battery is the highest capacity iPod battery on the market and provides 70 percent more capacity than standard Apple stock batteries. It is available immediately for US$39.95."

Here's engadget's write up:

"It was nice of Apple to up the battery life on the new iPod to 12 hours from the sorta dismal 8 hours of juice the earlier ones got, but if you’re not quite ready to drop $300 or $400 to upgrade, NewerTech has a new replacement battery for first and second generation iPods that adds an extra 70% of battery capacity. The iPod originally came with a 1230mAh rated battery, while this Ultra High Capacity version tops out at almost double that, 2100mAh. Easily worth the $40 if it’s really that good."

For sale at Other World Computing

via engadget

Posted at 06:33 PM in Design | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

President Bush continues to lead John Kerry in most polls released since the Republican National Convention, but his bounce seems to be fading somewhat.

In fact, in the two most recent surveys, taken by Harris Interactive and Investor's Business Daily, Mr. Kerry leads or is tied with Mr. Bush. The two major newsweeklies released their second post-convention polls earlier this week, and while Mr. Bush maintained his advantage of 10 percentage points in the Time poll, his lead narrowed to six percentage points in a reading from Newsweek.

Mr. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney also lost ground to Mr. Kerry and his running mate, North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, in a new Zogby poll, which they only led by four percentage points, but the pair had a nine-point advantage in AP-Ipsos survey.

Note the progression in polling data from the RNC to the present . . .

Harris poll

Bush Cheney         47
Kerry-Edwards       48
Nader Camejo         2
Not Sure/Refused     3

Bush Cheney       46
Kerry-Edwards     46
Nader-Camejo       3
Not Sure           5

Bush Cheney        49
Kerry-Edwards      43
Nader-Camejo        2
Other/Undecided     6

Bush Cheney       46
Kerry-Edwards     42
Nader-Camejo       2
Other/Unsure      10

Bush Cheney       52
Kerry-Edwards     42
Nader-Camejo       3
Unsure             4

Bush Cheney       52
Kerry-Edwards     43
Nader-Camejo       2
Other/None/Unsure  3

Source: the polls; PollingReport.com

Sources:
Bush's Lead Narrowing In Post-Convention Polls
September 16, 2004 3:27 p.m.
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB108792552424744155,00.html

Posted at 08:45 AM in Politics | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Sen. John Kerry and President Bush are now enjoying almost equal levels of support, according to the latest Harris Interactive poll.

Immediately after the Republican convention in New York, several polls showed Mr. Bush jumping ahead of Mr. Kerry with a clear lead of between six and 11 percentage points. There's no such "convention bounce" for the president in the latest poll by Harris.

The Harris poll, conducted by telephone Sept. 9-13, shows Sen. Kerry leading Mr. Bush 48% to 47% among likely voters nationwide. The poll also found that a slender 51% to 45% majority doesn't believe that Mr. Bush deserves to be re-elected.

The previous poll in which likely U.S. voters were asked which candidate they preferred showed Messrs. Kerry and Bush tied 47% to 47%. That survey was conducted before the Republican National Convention in New York City, which ended earlier this month. An earlier poll in June indicated a Bush lead over Mr. Kerry of 10 percentage points, at 51% to 41%.

The latest poll was conducted within the U. S. among a nationwide cross section of 1,018 adults. It has a margin of error of +/-3 percentage points.

The results echo a recent poll sponsored by Investor's Business Daily, which also showed that the gap between the U.S. presidential candidates has disappeared. The poll of likely voters showed the two candidates tied at 47% in a two-man race and tied at 46% if independent candidate Ralph Nader is included.

Here are the results of the latest Harris poll:

"If the next presidential election were held today between George W. Bush for the Republicans, John Kerry for the Democrats and Ralph Nader as an Independent, for whom would you most likely vote?"*

NOTE: Percentages may not add up exactly to 100% due to rounding

* * *

"Based on who he is and his record, do you think George W. Bush deserves to be re-elected for another four years?"

Sources:
Harris Poll Shows Tight Presidential Race
The WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE
September16,2004
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/0,,SB109526872487418642,00.html

Posted at 01:29 PM in Politics | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Got too many GMail invites? Need one?

Problem solved.

Welcome to isnoop.net's gmail invite spooler. This page offers a place for people with Gmail invites and those who want them to come together with minimal effort and fuss.         

via boingboing

UPDATE:  February 17, 2005  11:29pm

Go to town, kids!!

Thanks for signing up to be updated on the latest Gmail happenings. We hope it's been worth the wait, because we're excited to finally offer you an invitation to open a free Gmail account! Just click on this link to create your new account:

http://gmail.google.com/gmail/d-2-ritholtz%40optonline.net-2411f89e48d348283f8a7d9c87900a7459eda0cc

Posted at 07:27 AM in Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (87) | TrackBack

A global overview of spammers, by locale:

Click for larger graphic

Note that anyone not making cars or electronics on the Korean peninsula is apparently a spammer.

via linkfilter
http://postini.com/stats/map_window_spam.html

Posted at 06:20 AM in Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

If Europeans could vote in the U.S. presidential election, they would pick John Kerry over George W. Bush by a nearly 6-to-1 majority, the latest HI Europe poll shows.

President Bush is supported by less than 7% of adults in three of five European countries in the survey. These countries also had the largest majorities who said they would choose Mr. Kerry over Mr. Bush: Germany, 69% to 6%; France, 63% to 4%; and Spain, 57% to 5%.

Not only do most European adults prefer Mr. Kerry over Mr. Bush, the survey indicated, but 62% of those polled also believe Mr. Kerry will defeat Mr. Bush in the presidential election.

However, the survey of adults in Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain also found that 27% of people in these countries are undecided -- far more than in the U.S.

In Britain, where Prime Minister Tony Blair has been the strongest and most visible supporter of the war in Iraq, Mr. Kerry leads Mr. Bush by a more modest 36 % to 12% plurality, with fully 45% still undecided.

Here are the results of the latest poll:

"Are you aware that in November there will be a presidential election in the U.S.?"

Base: All Adults

* * *

"If you were given the opportunity, for which of the following would you vote in the upcoming U.S. presidential election?"

Base: All Adults

Note: Numbers may not add up to 100% due to rounding.

* * *

"Regardless of whom you want to win, which one of the following do you think will actually win the upcoming U.S. presidential election?"

Base: All Adults

Note: Numbers may not add up to 100% due to rounding.

Methodology: This survey was conducted online by HI Europe Aug. 11-17, 2004, among the following nationwide cross sections of adults aged 16 and over: 1,032 in Great Britain; 1,011 in France; 1,056 in Germany; 1,028 in Italy and 974 in Spain. Figures for region, age, sex, education and income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents' propensity to be online. In theory, with probability samples of these sizes, one could say with 95% certainty that the results in each: Great Britain, France, Germany, Spain and Italy have a statistical precision of +/-3 percentage points of what they would be if the entire populations in those countries had been polled with complete accuracy.

Sources:
Europeans Overwhelmingly Favor Kerry for President
The Harris Poll
Wall Street Journal, September14,2004
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109509053137416313,00.html

Posted at 05:55 AM in Politics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The 25 Best Futurama Moments Ever
written by Justin, Bill, and B - July 20th, 2004

Its a shame when a great show gets cancelled before its time. As a fan, youre often times left to wallow in remorse and self-pity wondering whats left worth living for. Usually when coming up with ways to cope with the loss, youre faced with one of the following four options;

1: Support the show even after its demise by buying the episodes on DVD. If consumer demand is great enough theres always a chance the show will be brought back for another run.

2: Hurl inflammatory remarks at the network responsible for its cancellation through means of an online petition. Be sure to include a part about how even if the show were to be brought back, you wouldnt watch it because youve boycotted the network forever unless the episode where Homer smokes weed comes on. weed=lol

3: Bitch about it on an alt.tv newsgroup. Dont forget to clarify that FOX is actually more like COX in the sense that they suck a lot of them. Also, make it a point to concede that the series was already going downhill anyway and that [insert late series episode here] was, in fact, the Worst. Episode. Ever.

4: Compile a list of the series greatest moments for an entertainment website.

Futurama, Vol. 1

Futurama, Vol. 2

Futurama, Vol. 3

Futurama, Vol. 4

Futurama - Volumes 1-3

Matt Groening: Futurama-O-Rama

Posted at 09:38 AM in Humor, SciFi, Television | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Heres a quick roundup of stories which may be of interest . . .

Survey: Bush, Kerry Tied In Missouri Forget the stories of a big lead by either candudate in this state: Its neck and neck.

~~~

PAUL KRUGMAN discusses The Dishonesty Thing
Could it be? There appears to be some sort of a pattern here . . .

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Ellsberg Urges Insiders to Leak Iraq Info
Daniel Ellsberg, the former Defense Department official who leaked the Pentagon Papers during the Vietnam war, is urging government insiders to provide similar classified documents about the invasion of Iraq.

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Bush's military service in question again
Note: This is a focus on the official paper trail (released February), and not the CBS docs:
Records appear to show that the president failed to fulfill his duty to the Air National Guard. A new examination of payroll records and other documents released by the White House earlier this year appear to confirm critics' assertions that President George W. Bush failed to fulfill his duty to the Air National Guard during the Vietnam War . . .

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Forget Bush
So urges Molly Ivins. Focus instead on this theory about how to choose a president. "It didn't matter who was running, that it was unnecessary to pay any attention to them. What matters, he said, is the approximately 1,500 people the president brings to Washington with him, his appointments to the positions where people actually run things. The question to consider is which 1,500 people we get."

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Hiding the bodies
During August, Iraqi insurgents proved themselves more capable of inflicting casualties on American troops than ever before. Sixty-six American soldiers were killed and more than 1,100 were wounded, according to information released by the Department of Defense. But even with extensive coverage of the intense conflict in Najaf last month, the U.S. media was relatively quiet about the cost of battle to U.S. soldiers . . .

That cost has been steadily rising for months, says John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a think tank in Washington specializing in military and international security issues. "The amount of combat that U.S. soldiers are seeing is going up, but the amount of combat the American public is seeing is going down," he says. "Iraq has almost turned into the forgotten war it's just faded into the background."

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Bitter truth unfolds about Iraqi's memorial sculpture
You can't always trust what you read on the Internet.

Fairbanks veterans and the local media were taken in by a patriotic e-mail last spring that twisted the truth.

The widely circulating e-mail included a photo of a bronze war memorial sculpture said to have been made by an Iraqi artist who had been forced to make bronze busts of former Iraq dictator Saddam Hussein until American troops arrived.

The e-mail said that the artist was so grateful for the presence of the U.S. troops that he melted down three bronze Saddam busts toppled by his countrymen, and cast the memorial sculpture from the molten metal as a tribute to American soldiers in Iraq and their fallen comrades.

Local veterans responded by having the memorial duplicated in ice at the World Ice Art Championships in March, and the News-Miner and other local media responded with stories and film about the bronze memorial and its icy local rendition.

The ice sculpture melted months ago, and the bronze original, shipped to Fort Hood in Texas, was respectfully dedicated last week in tribute to the 80 members of the 4th Infantry Division and one civilian who lost their lives in battle.

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Posted at 07:18 AM in Media | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

So I stumble across the "Ethical Philosophy Selector" courtesy of plasticbag, and decide to see how the test plays out.

The results are pretty astounding: I know I am a libertarian, fiscal conservative, socially progressive, who believes the government should be out of social issues like abortion, gambling and drugs.

Now for the funny thing: I simply cannot stand Ayn Rand -- hate her writing; Its pedantic, wordy, overwrought. Quite simply, unreadable.

The rest of the list: Sartre, Kant, John Stuart Mill, Aquinas, Aristotle -- all solid, and I adhere to sekect tenets of each of these philosophies to a greater or lesser degree.

My score:

1. Ayn Rand (100%)

2. Jean-Paul Sartre (91%)

3. Kant (90%)

4. John Stuart Mill (85%)

5. Aquinas (73%)

6. Aristotle (69%)

7. Stoics (60%)

8. Jeremy Bentham (59%)

9. Spinoza (58%)

10. Prescriptivism (56%)

11. David Hume (55%)

12. Nietzsche (52%)

13. Ockham (51%)

14. St. Augustine (51%)

15. Cynics (50%)

16. Nel Noddings (46%)

17. Epicureans (43%)

18. Thomas Hobbes (40%)

19. Plato (20%)

via plasticbag

Posted at 06:48 AM in Philosophy | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

I had an interesting chat about the RNC with Jan, an old family friend. Jan is one of those savvy business people who has been around long enough that he has extensive contacts in practically any field you can think of. Call him very “plugged-in.” This gives him insights into things ordinary mortals simply don’t.

We were discussing the net costs to NYC of the convention, when Jan mentioned some of his buddies who had been on the NYPD for 20 years or so were thrilled with the RNC.

You might think “Because of overtime?” Kinda -- but its really because of retirement.

NYPD and NYFD provides retirement at 1/2 pay after 20 years of service. Here’s the kicker: That payscale is determined by your final 6 months of service.

While retiring cops and firefighters are known to take as much OT as they can get before they step down, the RNC provided a huge windfall: Instead of a small bump in pay, municipal employees -- and cops in particular -- worked massive overtime.

The word is that many officers who were planning on retiring in January or June 2004 all pushed their retirements back to 2005. These guys worked practically around the clock for the RNC. The salary bump was quite substantial.

They way I figure it, most cops increased their total wages for this 6 month (26 week) period by between 4 - 8%. That means their retirement pay -- for the next 20, 30, or 40 years (the rest of their lives) is that much higher. Its a hidden cost of the RNC that the NYC will be paying until 2050 or so.

I’d be curious if anyone with contacts in the Boston area could verify if a similar phenomena took place around the DNC.

National conventions: The gift that keeps on costing taxpayers, far, far into the future.

Posted at 07:12 AM in Finance, Politics | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Click for larger graphic

Graphic courtesy London News Review

London News Review via boing boing

Posted at 10:03 PM in Humor, Music | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Slate has an interesting comparo of premium vodas -- yet somehow, they missed my brand -- Vox.

Their top picks:

1. Chopin
2. Armadale
3. Jewel of Russia Classic
4. Zyr
5. Ketel One

I'm still stunned about no Vox . . .

Sources:
Hit Me With Your Best Shot: Which vodka is the best?
By Alex Abramovich
Slate, Thursday, Sept. 2, 2004, at 3:48 AM PT
http://slate.msn.com/id/2106004

Posted at 07:27 PM in Food and Drink | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Has the race broken wide? Or, does someone need to explain the concept of an outlier to the cable networks?

We will have a better idea after the weekend . . .

via Daily Kos

Posted at 08:03 AM in Politics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

At about the time our original 13 states adopted their new constitution, inthe year 1787, Alexander Tyler (a Scottish history professor at The University of Edinburgh) had this to say about "The Fall of The Athenian Republic" some 2,000 years prior:

"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, (which is) always followed by a dictatorship."

"The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:

From Bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence;
From dependence back into bondage.

Posted at 06:52 AM in Current Affairs, Philosophy, Politics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Operation Just Cause had as its highlight, a "Rock 'n' Roll assault on Noriega"

Curious what tunes we played to blast Noriega out of hiding?

keep reading . . .

via linkfilter

Posted at 08:51 AM in Music, War/Defense | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack