Value Driven - Don?t Blame Wal-Mart - FORTUNE

Value Driven - Don?t Blame Wal-Mart - FORTUNE: "So my first piece of advice to CEO Lee Scott and his team is: Stop worrying about the movie. It?s a jeremiad?a ham-handed snore with none of the humor, craft, or story sense that made Moore?s film so engaging. The people who already hate you will love it, but nobody else will be able to sit through it. My second piece of advice is to worry deeply about what the film represents. It?s a response to the great social disrupter of our time?the emergence of a friction-free global economy. This new film, awful though it may be, is a cry from the hearts of people being wrenched from the old world into the new and not liking it. There are millions of them, and they will demand to be heard in the media, the markets, and government. And the world?s largest corporation is, inevitably, the most inviting target they can find."

Joe Klein on looking forward

TIME.com -- Joe Klein: Think Twice About a Pullout: "The most passionate discussions in Washington last week were about the past?whether the President intentionally misled the country into war?not the future. They are a waste of time. Two questions need to be addressed: Will an American withdrawal from Iraq create more or less stability in the Middle East? Will a withdrawal increase or decrease the threat of another terrorist attack at home? It does not matter whether you believe the war was right or wrong. If the answers to those questions are less stability and an empowered al-Qaeda, we'd better think twice about slipping down this dangerous path."

Welcome to EYG

Welcome to EYG

fascinating uses of flickr and my space

The best deals on electronics are online -- survey - Nov. 14, 2005

for everyone shopping for me (I need a new camera with a zoom, please), pls follow consumer reports guide to the best stores:

The best deals on electronics are online -- survey - Nov. 14, 2005: "Overall, Internet retailers received the best ratings, the survey said. Two online retailers -- Amazon.com (Research) and J&R.com -- received the top scores for best price and product selection.

Crutchfield.com scored high marks for overall satisfaction and had the best product information online.

But, if low price matters most, BJ's Wholesale (Research), Amazon.com, J&R.com, Costco.com (Research) and Costco are all good choices, according to Consumer Reports.

Costco also has the best return policy according to Consumer Reports' survey, while local independent stores, Tweeter Home Entertainment and Ritz Camera were noted for top service."

In a Battle of Wits, Iraq's Insurgency Mastermind Stays a Step Ahead of U.S. - Los Angeles Times

umm, couldnt these resources be used to track another terrorist, one who actually attacked us?

In a Battle of Wits, Iraq's Insurgency Mastermind Stays a Step Ahead of U.S. - Los Angeles Times: "U.S. officials from four agencies involved in the hunt for Zarqawi said their failure was not for lack of effort.

At least two top-secret, multi-agency commando teams have been assigned solely to track Zarqawi and mobilize quickly to pursue him into the most unstable areas of Iraq where he is believed to be hiding, several U.S. officials familiar with the units said. One of them is called Task Force 626, which was established last year by the Pentagon.

There are also dozens of special forces commandos and military intelligence gatherers looking for him. The CIA has deployed dozens of case officers and analysts, the FBI has flown in special agents and bomb experts, and forensic money-trackers from the Treasury Department are trying to monitor the flow of illicit funds into and out of Iraq as a way of cornering Zarqawi and his top aides, those officials said in interviews.

Eavesdropping satellites, unmanned drones and even U-2 spy planes are gathering intelligence on the insurgency, some of them specifically watching for Zarqawi, the officials confirmed.
"

Clinton: Friday morning Quarterback

If it was such a bad idea, where was he in 2002?
Bill Clinton Calls Iraq 'Big Mistake' - Yahoo! News: "ormer
President Clinton told Arab students Wednesday the United States made a 'big mistake' when it invaded
Iraq, stoking the partisan debate back home over the war.
ADVERTISEMENT

Clinton cited the lack of planning for what would happen after
Saddam Hussein was overthrown.

'Saddam is gone. It's a good thing, but I don't agree with what was done,' Clinton told students at a forum at the American University of Dubai.

'It was a big mistake. The American government made several errors ... one of which is how easy it would be to get rid of Saddam and how hard it would be to unite the country.'"

Departure memo - Wiki Gonzalez

FOR SCOTT
Departure memo - Wiki Gonzalez: "When I was a medical student, a very wise resident at a VA hospital once told me that, in whatever you do, you must always remember that life is a river. When you find yourself in the middle, stuck in a small boat with nothing but a couple of oars and a cooler full of beer, you have but two choices: (1) sit back, get drunk, and let the current carry you where you are going; or (2) paddle like hell toward something else. The choice depends entirely upon where you think the river is taking you."

Wal Mart the Movie two cent review

I've made it through about 15 mins of Robert Greenwald's movie. I get it. Other than Springsteen's cover of 'This Land is Your Land,' its a yawner. Time to return to Goodfellas on HBO or the Sopranos.
OK, now they're talking to former WalMart employees. That's a bit more interesting than the focus on the ma & pa hardware store in Western PA.

Voter Profiles for Bloomberg Went Beyond Ethnic Labels - New York Times

Interesting comments about the politics of the Bloomberg campaign. This pragmatic, non-ideological politics is something the national Democrats better get hip to quick. Maybe they could start by talking to this guy.

Voter Profiles for Bloomberg Went Beyond Ethnic Labels - New York Times: "'After 9/11, New Yorkers unified under a paradigm that was not race-based,' Mr. Sheekey said.

And with that understanding, Mr. Schoen said, the Bloomberg campaign was able to address voters in a way that Mr. Ferrer's campaign could not. Its frequent critiques of Mr. Bloomberg as a Republican, and its descriptions of the city as 'two New Yorks' separated by class, he said, were not addressing the true concerns of New Yorkers.

'If you are a poor person worried about your job, you're not talking in party terms,' Mr. Schoen said. 'We were talking responsively to their needs and people weren't going to respond to the old language of class and race and party.'"

Zadie Smith, Putting Herself Into Her Work

The Post calls On Beauty a "comic novel." I suppose, but its also a hip hop novel and a haitian american novel and a mixed race novel. Its just a freakin good read-- reading Howard's End beforehand helped me to enjoy it , I think.
Zadie Smith, Putting Herself Into Her Work: "She is a literary rock star, Zadie Smith, all of 30 years old and spoken about in the same breath as fellow Brits Salman Rushdie, Ian McEwan and Martin Amos ('a postmodern Charles Dickens,' this newspaper declared her)."

Bush y Gabo

Seria una sorpresa a aprender que bush si conoce a las obras de Gabo.
For comparison's sake; Hugo Chavez can site Leaves of Grass from memory. In English.
Odds that Bush knows who Whitman is?

Between Elections: "The country's economic miracle, done without IMF help, Kirchner said, was such that famed Colombian novelist ' Garcia Marquez ' might want to use his 'magical realism' style to write a few paragraphs about it.

President Bush , who somehow managed to stay awake through Kirchner's dreadful economics tour, leaned over to ask Bolivian President Eduardo Rodriguez a question.

Rodriguez wasn't sure he understood and Bush repeated the question.

'One Hundred Years of Solitude,' Rodriguez said, apparently figuring that would explain the reference to Nobel literature laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez . "

The Right Way in Iraq

what if John Edwards and his running mate had made this admission 16 months ago? sigh...
The Right Way in Iraq: "It was a mistake to vote for this war in 2002. I take responsibility for that mistake. It has been hard to say these words because those who didn't make a mistake -- the men and women of our armed forces and their families -- have performed heroically and paid a dear price."

A 'Law & Order' Spinoff Acquires Some Reinforcements - New York Times

A 'Law & Order' Spinoff Acquires Some Reinforcements - New York Times: "In the vast, jumbled television landscape, the 'Law & Order' formula is reliably distinctive and smart, often topical yet most of all familiar and comforting. That could partly be because, like all the best mysteries, 'Law & Order' provides cathartic social vengeance: middle-class detectives and prosecutors expose the greed and perversions of the rich, exacting a retribution that the tax code fails to deliver. (It is remarkable how many homicidal psychopaths live in apartments with views of Central Park.)"

Soothe Your Senses

look whats new in our neighborhood;
Soothe Your Senses: "
Soothe Your Senses - Chicago

6260 North Broadway,
Chicago, IL 60660
773-262-4246

An Edgewater destination that takes you away from the noise of the city. Just minutes away from downtown Chicago, Soothe Your Senses Day Spa for men and women invites you to experience the comfort of our French Quarter inspired location. "

Arnold Terminates Himself

More Election Day wrap ups, from Harld Myerson:
Arnold Terminates Himself: "Schwarzenegger's fierce opposition to raising taxes to pay for state services is profoundly at odds with the wishes of state voters. Over the past couple of years, while he has raised tuition and restricted admissions to the state's universities rather than hike taxes on the rich, voters in more than 100 municipalities around the state have levied higher property taxes on themselves to pay for new schools.

Indeed, the repudiation of Schwarzenegger's propositions, coupled with the defeat in Virginia of the Republicans' taxophobic gubernatorial nominee, Jerry Kilgore, and last week's decision by Colorado voters to partially overturn a spending limit that was blocking road and school construction, strongly suggests that the Republicans' anti-tax revolt is running out of steam."

Is There a Hit Film in the Battle for Ohio? - New York Times

Is There a Hit Film in the Battle for Ohio? - New York Times: "The resulting film, which the co-directors are still polishing in hopes of getting it accepted by the Sundance Film Festival, shows Republican campaigners functioning like a well-oiled machine and Democrats looking incapable of ordering lunch, let alone organizing a major get-out-the-vote operation. These scenes, interspersed with interviews with top strategists for both the Bush and the Kerry campaigns - with the glaring exceptions of Karl Rove and Bob Shrum - by and large leave the impression that the Bush campaign was run by major-league professionals and the Kerry campaign by bush-league amateurs.

One sequence is particularly memorable: After Tad Devine, a top Kerry consultant, is quoted earnestly explaining the Democrats' strategic decision to appeal to swing voters, or 'persuadables,' an unshaven young Democratic operative is shown knocking on doors of these supposed persuadables in Ohio. When a young man eating his breakfast says he is leaning to the Republican side, the hapless organizer meekly asks, 'Can I persuade you otherwise?' but has nothing more to add as the door shuts in his face."

ABC News: The Note: Credit Where Credit Is Due

ABC News: The Note: Credit Where Credit Is Due: "In a sense Bloomberg's win was a victory for smart-government liberalism,' writes Greg Sargent in the online edition of the American Prospect"

Delays, Low Fines Weaken FCC Attack on Indecency

this is inaccurate, Steve Dahl was on in afternoons in 1987.
Delays, Low Fines Weaken FCC Attack on Indecency: "The FCC has collected most of the fines it has imposed. But the long turnaround time has allowed some broadcasters to outwait the agency.

An example: During an August 1987 morning show on Chicago rock powerhouse WLUP, deejays Steve Dahl and Garry Meier talked to a caller who offered a gay-themed song called 'Kiddie Porn.'

More than two years passed before the FCC, under Republican Chairman Alfred E. Sikes, proposed a $6,000 indecency fine."

Mayor Crossed Ethnic Barriers For Big Victory - New York Times

Mayor Crossed Ethnic Barriers For Big Victory - New York Times: "The mayor's wide support among minority voters is a sign that the strategy of the Democrat, Fernando Ferrer, to build on a dependable base of black and Hispanic votes fell victim to emerging political realities: that blacks and Hispanics no longer vote reflexively as a bloc, and that a middle-class coalition can trump traditional ethnic-based appeals. "

OpinionJournal - Featured Article

OpinionJournal - Featured Article: "But for the most part immigrants, white and nonwhite, have been making considerable progress. Particularly telling, immigrant business ownership has been surging far faster than among native-born Americans. Ironically, some of the highest rates for ethnic entrepreneurship in the U.S. belong to Muslim immigrants, along with Russians, Indians, Israelis and Koreans.

Perhaps nothing confirms immigrant upward mobility more than the fact that the majority have joined the white middle class in the suburbs--a geography properly associated here mostly with upward mobility. These newcomers and their businesses have carved out a powerful presence in suburban areas that now count among the nation's most diverse regions. Prime examples include what demographer Bill Frey calls 'melting pot suburbs': the San Gabriel Valley east of Los Angeles; Arlington County, Va.; Essex County, N.J.; and Fort Bend County in suburban Houston. The connection between this spreading geography and immigrant opportunity is not coincidental. Like other Americans, immigrants often dramatically improve their quality of life and economic prospects by moving out to less dense, faster growing areas. They can also take advantage of more business-friendly government. Perhaps the most extreme case is Houston, a low-cost, low-tax haven where immigrant entrepreneurship has exploded in recent decades. Much of this has taken place in the city itself. Looser regulations and a lack of zoning lower land and rental costs, providing opportunities to build businesses and acquire property."

Gay Games VIII - Chicago July 15-22, 2006

I won't play in them, but I hope we get lots of visitors!!

From 15-22 July 2006, Chicago will play host to the world and welcome thousands of athletes, spectators and cultural participants into our homes, our hearts and our city for the seventh quadrennial Gay Games Sports and Cultural Festival. The Games will feature 12,000 participants, competition in 30 sports, world-class athletes and artists, band and choral performances, nightly medal ceremonies, a week-long arts festival, parties, and spectacular opening and closing ceremonies featuring entertainment, pageantry, and the parade of participants from more than 70 countries. For more info, visit gaygameschicago.org.

AP Wire | 11/02/2005 | Feingold faults both sides for early response to AlitoFeingold said the odds of a McCain-Feingold race in 2008 are remote.

AP Wire | 11/02/2005 | Feingold faults both sides for early response to Alito: "Feingold said the odds of a McCain-Feingold race in 2008 are remote.

'So I don't worry about it,' he said. 'I do like John McCain a great deal. The thought of running against him would not be my idea of an easy task. I'm a big fan.

'If he wins the Republican primaries, I think the chances of the Democrats winning the White House that year are going to be pretty thin. I think we all know that.'"

The Globe and Mail: The Washington gadfly

Be wary of unnamed sources in the Iranian Air Force:
The Globe and Mail: The Washington gadfly: "Hersh recently got hold of a copy of the United Nations interim report by German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis on the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri. The document cited 'converging evidence' that senior levels of the Syrian government were involved in the murder.

But according to Hersh, the Mehlis report is built on the same anemic foundations as Powell's UN presentation in February, 2003. 'He is relying on intercepts of an unnamed source inside the Iranian air force, someone without inside stuff. It's not empirical.' On the basis of this thin evidence, he says, the Bush administration is campaigning at the UN for sanctions on Syria."

Chicago Tribune | State senator targets A&F shirts

Good thing there's nothing else for our state senate to worry about.
Chicago Tribune | State senator targets A&F shirts: "State Sen. Steve Rauschenberger (R-Elgin) said today he will introduce a resolution on the senate floor later this week asking Abercrombie & Fitch to stop selling a line of controversial T-shirts in Illinois.

'We've got young people taking action in Pennsylvania and we have to resonate that in the state of Illinois and show we have community standards as well,' said Rauschenberger, who was spurred on by a group of Pennsylvania girls he saw on NBC's 'Today' show. The group began its boycott-what they call a girlcott-earlier this week.
"

BoardFirst.com - Tired of Waiting in Lines?

The market solves all:
BoardFirst.com - Tired of Waiting in Lines?: "Let's face it, most of us don't have a personal assistant. Many of us have jobs where a computer is not at hand. While traveling we often don't have access to a computer. If your plane departs tomorrow during rush hour, all the 'A' passes may be taken while you drive in your car trying to get home to your computer. But with the assistance of BoardFirst, you can get your boarding pass as soon as it is available no matter where you are. BoardFirst will be ready twenty-four hours before your departure time to secure your 'A' pass."

On The Media-- ”TABULA ROSA”

the true Rosa Parks, an activist.
As Tim Tyson says, we don't have a lot of pacficist white heroes in America.

On The Media-- ”TABULA ROSA”: " ”TABULA ROSA”



BOB GARFIELD: Rosa Parks died Monday, a humble woman whose act of defiance helped galvanize the civil rights movement. Her story is the stuff of legend, a mixture of reality and myth. Here to help us unpack that legend and bring us closer to the whole truth of Rosa Parks is Tim Tyson, professor of Afro-American Studies at the University of Wisconsin"

TIM TYSON: There's a sense in which Mrs. Parks is very important to our post-civil rights racial narrative, because we really want a kind of sugar-coated civil rights movement that's about purity and interracial non-violence. And so we don't really want to meet the real Rosa Parks. We don't, for example, want to know that in the late 1960s, Rosa Parks became a black nationalist and a great admirer of Malcolm X. I met Rosa Parks at the funeral of Robert F. Williams, who had fought the Ku Klux Klan in North Carolina with a machine gun in the late 1950s and then fled to Cuba, and had been a kind of international revolutionary icon of black power. Ms. Parks delivered the eulogy at his funeral. She talks in her autobiography and says that she never believed in non-violence and that she was incapable of that herself, and that she kept guns in her home to protect her family. But we want a little old lady with tired feet. You may have noticed we don't have a lot of pacifist white heroes. We prefer our black people meek and mild, I think.

Post from the plane

I tried and failed to post this from my blackberry on Friday night:

These are my favorite kinds of trips-- when andreas on the recvng end, nor the departure end.

I'm going to try to finish passae to india before arriving. I'm kicking mself for deciding not to bring the zadie amith novel which arrived last night, but I trust amng the nerds ill be with this weekend-- drs. Gilmore and erzen and mr. Bill-- that ill find something intersting to read on sundays flight and train ride-- which promises to as long or longer than the flight.

I snuck up to lasalle st. this aft to feel the sox celebration vibes. It was pretty lovely-- sort of a 21st century stew of multi culti south siders and suburban white folks. Lots of kids on mens shoulders. I snapped a couple of photos that ill post later.
I had to leave to hear Howard Gardener talk about Trustees and the loss of trust.
Take off time!
--------------------------
Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld

CIA Holds Terror Suspects in Secret Prisons

is this ethical of the post?
CIA Holds Terror Suspects in Secret Prisons: "The Washington Post is not publishing the names of the Eastern European countries involved in the covert program, at the request of senior U.S. officials. They argued that the disclosure might disrupt counterterrorism efforts in those countries and elsewhere and could make them targets of possible terrorist retaliation."

CIA Holds Terror Suspects in Secret Prisons

no one can be surprised by this, thats the sad thing.
CIA Holds Terror Suspects in Secret Prisons: "The CIA has been hiding and interrogating some of its most important al Qaeda captives at a Soviet-era compound in Eastern Europe, according to U.S. and foreign officials familiar with the arrangement.

The secret facility is part of a covert prison system set up by the CIA nearly four years ago that at various times has included sites in eight countries, including Thailand, Afghanistan and several democracies in Eastern Europe, as well as a small center at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, according to current and former intelligence officials and diplomats from three continents."

ESPN.com: Page 2 : Prodigal son, departs

my first thought on hearing of Theo Epstein's divorce from the Red Sox was to check the blogs. Sure enough, baseball primer pointed to this excellent Bill Simmons column from ESPN.
ESPN.com: Page 2 : Prodigal son, departs: "Call me crazy, but I believe this is a bigger story than Theo Epstein leaving the Red Sox -- an unprecedented situation where a sports franchise controls the local coverage of itself, to some degree, in every possible medium."

Married & Bored or Single & Lonely

I'm listening to Chris Rock's rant on marriage. So far, i haven't reached his desperation, though I have been on some husband playdates: "you like baseball, he likes baseball."

WSJ.com - Many Internet Start-Ups Are Telling Venture Capitalists: 'We Don't Need You'

These two sentences are a nice summary of web 2.0.

WSJ.com - Many Internet Start-Ups Are Telling Venture Capitalists: 'We Don't Need You': "A new generation of Internet companies -- many offering online photo and blogging services or downloadable software for businesses -- have been built for a fraction of the cost just a few years ago. That's mainly due to the increasing popularity of cheap 'open source' software and programming tools, as well as dramatic cost reductions in computer memory, storage and Internet bandwidth."

WSJ.com - Many Internet Start-Ups Are Telling Venture Capitalists: 'We Don't Need You'

these 2 sentences sum up a lot:
WSJ.com - Many Internet Start-Ups Are Telling Venture Capitalists: 'We Don't Need You': "A new generation of Internet companies -- many offering online photo and blogging services or downloadable software for businesses -- have been built for a fraction of the cost just a few years ago. That's mainly due to the increasing popularity of cheap 'open source' software and programming tools, as well as dramatic cost reductions in computer memory, storage and Internet bandwidth."

Edwards 08

The Fix - Chris Cillizza - (washingtonpost.com): "An independent poll conducted last month by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press shows Arizona Sen. John McCain (R) and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards (D) as the 2008 presidential candidates with the most potential crossover appeal among registered voters."