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Editorial urging further tax reform in the Federal Government`s new term, particularly cutting both corporate taxes and the top personal tax rate. `Treasuries the world over are getting the message that lower taxes can mean more business and higher revenue.
Australian Financial Review, 14/10/2004, Editorials, Page 70 (Subscribers only)
A Must New Subscription for New Matilda ($55 for 365 days)

Invisible Hands & Markets: Australia drops in world ranking
The World Economic Forum`s Global Competitiveness Report 2004-05 has ranked Australia 14th out of 104 nations in terms of the competitiveness of economies, with Australia losing four places. The Australian Industry Group said that, despite Australia losing its position in the top 10 competitive economic nations, the Australian economy was still highly competitive. AIG claimed that the decline in Australia`s ranking was a result of the appreciation of the Australian dollar and the continuing poor savings record.
• Ann Harding, Rachel Lloyd and Neil Warren The slimy trail of economics 14th out of 104 ; [Income distribution and redistribution: the impact of selected government benefits and taxes in Australia in 2001–02 ]
• · The conventional view is that Sydneysiders and New Yorkers are obsessed with accumulation—money, status, possessions. But that gets it only half-right. For every buyer, after all, there has to be a seller. Liquidating Your Exiled Life
• · · There is only one place where you are safe from inflation. The backdoor neighbours of my childhood never experienced the pain inflation causes. Our home was situated in front of the Vrbov cemetery: The report said it was a myth to think that Australia's moderate growth, low inflation and low interest rates could continue forever
• · · · In terms of economics, the paradox of the US electorate is simply this: Kerry accuses Bush of favoring the rich through large tax cuts, which have helped to produce a huge swing from budget surplus to budget deficit. Yet, most of the richest states in the country, as measured by real personal income per capita, are solidly in the Kerry camp Economics of Large Battleground States
• · · · · Edward Prescott: Nobel laureate calls for steeper tax cuts in US
• · · · · · As a businessman and former tax law professor, Dr. H. Peckron, FL cannot attest to the practical difficulties in the Bush tax policy

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It is bad to be oppressed by a minority, but it is worse to be oppressed by a majority..... from the absolute will of an entire people there is no appeal, no redemption, no refuge but treason.
-- Lord Acton - The History of Freedom in Antiquity (1877)

What follows is a conversation between Kurt Vonnegut and out-of-print science fiction writer Kilgore Trout. It was to be their last. Trout committed suicide by drinking Drano at midnight on October 15 in Cohoes, New York, after a female psychic using tarot cards predicted that the environmental calamity George W. Bush would once again be elected president of the most powerful nation on the planet by a five-to-four decision of the Supreme Court, which included “100 per-cent of the black vote.” Requiem for a Dreamer

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: How deep the divide?
Thanks to the power of the image--namely, those brightly colored maps used by TV analysts--the 2000 presidential election has come to be seen as the birth of two nations, one red and one blue. But what do those colors really tell us about American voters and the election that lies just ahead? The answers range from almost everything to almost nothing. For even on the question of our divided condition, Americans, it seems, are strongly divided.
• Jay Tolson: Scholars and pundits don't agree on the meaning of red and blue [Presidential Endorsements Around the country newspapers are taking a position on the upcoming election. This site seeks to archive some of these positions]
• · Bush Judicial Nominees Bring Close Corporate Ties to the Bench; CIR Posts Judges' Financial Data Online: Courting Influence's database of judges and nominees from 2001 to the present, covering Circuit and Federal Claims courts. Includes biographical data from nominees' Senate questionnaires, and downloadable financial disclosure statements. Courting Influence Federal Judicial Nominees and Their Ties to Special Interests; What is judicial independence? ; [The inmates at the Allred Unit, a tough Texas prison, mostly go by names like Monster, Diablo and Animal. They gave Roderick Johnson, a black gay man with a gentle manner, a different sort of name when he arrived there in September 2000. They called him Coco Under the protocols of the prison gangs at Allred, gay prisoners must take women's names. Then they are assigned to one of the gangs ]
• · · Paul McGeough: Washington bills him as the spearhead of the bloody insurgency that is wrecking virtually all efforts to impose security in liberated Iraq Zarqawi: the new bin Laden
• · · · Katherine Keating, daughter of former prime minister Paul Keating and adviser to the Minister for Infrastructure, Craig Knowles, will be the next star witness at State Parliament's Orange Grove inquiry [Freedom From Information: One of the documents which is being denied is the official register of visitors to the premier's suite at the top of Governor Macquarie Tower]
• · · · · Capital Punishment For the Liberal Party Labor had achieved a fantastic victory, receiving a swing of at least six per cent in the election
• · · · · · Liberal Ross Cameron last night conceded defeat in his bid to retain his seat of Parramatta, and blamed his revelations of infidelity for destroying his political career and his family life ;
[K. A. Taipale, Technology, Security and Privacy: The Fear of Frankenstein, the Myth of Privacy and the Lessons of King Ludd, 7 Yale J. L. & Tech. (forthcoming Dec. 2004, 88 pages, PDF):
Article Maintains Security and Privacy Are Not Mutually Exclusive ]

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Political bloggers to duel in live forum. The scribes known as Wonkette, Kos and Hindrocket will appear at Moravian College
Indymedia was taken offline on 7 October when an unnamed United States government agency went to court on behalf of an unnamed foreign power and seized two computers from the United Kingdom. Rackspace: If this is possible, can independent media survive?

The Blog, The Press, The Media: A new patent blog
And no sooner do I publish my column on IP blogs than a new one comes along: Patent Pending. Its author, patent attorney Robert Shaver, says it is more entertainment for inventor and technology fans than it is legal postings. "I post what I am interested in," he says, "which is old patents, new technology, ancient inventions and technology, and historical patents. There is some patent and copyright law in there too." Bob is at the Boise firm Dykas, Shaver & Nipper, also home to blogger Stephen Nipper. Come to think of it, that means that half the attorneys in the firm have blogs. Must be some sort of record.
• Patent - Inventions and Technology Updates; [GetNetWise is a public service brought to you by a wide range of Internet industry corporations and public interest organizations. The GetNetWise coalition wants Internet users to be only "one click away" from the resources they need to make informed decisions about their and their family's use of the Internet ]
• · America Votes A Public librarian was responsible for uncovering the America Votes scandal; [Stereotyped Librarian Spinster's will sees charities, church and cats share £2.1m ; A sad sign of the time The Sad Irony Behind Rejection of the Horniman Museum ]
• · · Communications Minister Helen Coonan: A major shake-up of Australia's media laws could help a third force emerge alongside industry moguls Kerry Packer and Rupert Murdoch
Exclusive, Scoop via Insiders Czech Whispers: MEdia Dragon the third media mogul Down Under; [Gee, They Always Say Such Nice Things About You: Somersault Some Shares: Note Insider Trading is Illegal in Australia and Amerika ...]
• · · · Artistic bridge Is your mouse an expression of your personality?
• · · · · Blogging is not democratic only because it gives each person a place to publish -- it is also democratic because it is a body of practices that help each person invent something worth reading Blogging, Invention and Freedom - Dennis Kennedy ; [via Bill Ives Of Portals and KM fame; Mainstream Media Use of Blogs ]
• · · · · · Poor librarians were soon to go the way of blacksmiths and town criers, their chosen field made obsolete by Internet search engines and self-perpetuating electronic databases 'The Librarian': The Fog of Facts; [Lawyers In Google We Trust?]

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The Scots have confirmed what I have suspected for a long, long, time. I am right. Flamers note that I am always right. Imrigh \Im"righ\, n. [Scot.; Gael. ?un-bhrigh chicken soup.] A peculiar strong soup or broth, made in Scotland. [Written also imrich.]
Why I'm writing a book ... The Chaotic Age is upon us. We are scared. Damn right, we should be scared. But out of the terror comes the amazing opportunities for us to expand both on the material and spiritual level. The fewer safety nets there are to save us, the less choice we have to be anything other than ourselves, the less choice we have besides doing what is meaningful to us. And finding ourselves, doing what matters, becoming the person we were born to be, this is what God put on this earth to do.
We live in amazing and interesting times. I intend the book to do a damn good job proving it.

Literature & Sport Across Frontiers: My Master Plan for World Domination & Soul Soup
Since the dawn of the film industry, it has been common practice for writers to send scripts and pitch stories to movie executives and producers. And for almost as long, scores of writers have sued the studios for stealing their ideas, only to have suits, filed on hard-to-prove copyright infringement grounds, which are dismissed or quietly settled. But a recently published opinion from the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in Jeff Grosso v. Miramax Film Corporation, may soon shift the balance of power in this age-old tug of war.
Every successful movie ever made has had a raft of crazy lawsuits.
• What? We Can't Steal Your Ideas? [Is Canada Really Stealing Hollywood Productions? ; Can you win over the same folks who read People magazine without turning off the so-called serious reader? Stand-alone book magazines ride choppy seas to celebrate the promise of the written word: Bookmarks]
• · Exhibitionists who like to feel more than the wind in their hair rejoice - nude cruises are coming to Australia The Bare Necessities of the Maiden Voyage (Boat People); [ It's Maiden Book Blitz Week at Slate ! ; Maiden high-tech security: Vatican: It is home to 1.6 million books, centuries-old manuscripts and the oldest known complete Bible]
• · · A few months ago Hollie Andrew was collecting tickets at a Sydney Dendy Cinema at Circular Quay. Now she is nominated for an AFI award: her movie Somersault premiered at the Sydney Film Festival What a Somersault of Artistic Life; [Snakes hit the beach; and may Gianna’s Novel-in-progress Hit #1]
• · · · Why Authors Should Blog ; [The sexual memoir has been gaining steam (no pun intended) as a literary form in recent years, and far from being near-porn, many of the books read like throwbacks to an age when sex was allowed to be beautiful, and not simply an animal act. Literature Regains Its Sex Life: sexual writing aims... to demystify and de-emotionalize sex — to reduce it to a physical and hormonal process not much different from, say, scratching an itch ]
• · · · · Leisel Jones' and our old coach, Ken Wood, has seemingly re-opened the rift between her and Brooke Hanson by playing down the Victorian's record-breaking feats at the world shortcourse swimming championships; [The allergy is now under control thanks to her switch from an indoor pool to an outdoor one at Sutherland, where she trains under the guidance of Ian Thorpe's coach Tracey Menzies. Kirsten Thomson ]
• · · · · · Elfriede Jelinek has been pilloried in Austria as a Nestbeschmutzer, someone who fouls her own nest by exposing the seamy side of her country of birth to the outside world. She's very adventurous. She's a playwright and poet too and is always doing crazy and wonderful things with the form of the novel. While the form taken by her writing constantly shifts, however, its fundamental purpose appears to be to disturb. And she does so, in the academy's words, by demonstrating how the entertainment industry's cliches seep into people's consciousness and paralyze opposition to class injustices and gender oppression ; [Reports of the Death of the Printed Word Have Been Exaggerated]

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The European Dream: How Europe's Vision of the Future Is Quietly Eclipsing the American Dream
Tang Yiwen seems to materialise from nowhere when she approaches at the agreed rendezvous outside a Beijing restaurant. She cuts a nun-like figure in a girlish dress, white ankle socks and black shoes. Tang's conversion to Falun Gong followed a familiar pattern

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Democracy Is Everybody's Business
In the early '90s, Krist Novoselic played bass for Nirvana, one of the most popular bands of the decade. While politically active as a musician, in his post-rock-idol life he has become very involved in politics. In September, Novoselic released his first book, "Of Grunge and Government: Let's Fix This Broken Democracy," which takes on the issues of political activism and electoral reform. Novoselic is currently on a lecture tour, including a stop in Denver last month.
As far as music goes, I like to say that democracy is everybody's business. Musicians have an edge on other vocations or pastimes because people really look for meaning in music, and I believe that people look for meaning in their politics. I say in the book that it's no mistake that a political event is called a rally, because you want to rally people. I make the analogy that there is a time for a new wave in music when things get predictable and the establishment is just entrenched, and I believe the time is right for a new wave in politics. This new wave would be greatly facilitated by a change in our electoral system to have more inclusive elections and have more competition.
• Meaningful work takes time. It's going to be a colossal undertaking [ ]
• · Chris Sheil, Backpages What's that on my neck? [Don Watson: This is the danger with old enemies, especially ones your side has humiliated. One day – a day perhaps when you are gazing at your reflection in a pond – they at last get their foot on the back of your neck, and there’s no pity left in them and nothing will persuade them to take it off. All the days of your life they will make you pay.]
[Canberra defied the national trend in the federal election by swinging marginally to Labor when most of the nation swung to the Liberals: It may be that Canberrans - most of them more intimately acquainted with federal than local government - will exact some revenge ]
• · · The major media networks have been willfully ignoring alternative voices in this presidential election, focusing only on the two major parties, Democratic and Republican Michael Badnarik’s and David Cobb’s arrest last Friday
• · · · Adam Wolfson: We have a calling from beyond the stars to stand for freedom The Two Faces of Liberalism ; [Was informing the government of the investigation into Mr Dunning before the subject was informed wrong. Is it is the Police`s role to protect the Government from embarrassment? Not when but why: Police chief 'right' to tell ministers]
• · · · · I team: Bombshell piece on voter fraud
• · · · · · They leave home with the promise of a better life in a wealthier land, but a sad and degrading existence awaits. Leonie Lamont reports on women caught in the sex trade

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Nostalgia used to be something that obsessed my generation born at the end of baby boomers. But a new generation is discovering a fondness for its youth. It's hip to be so five years ago (About the time span since I left the NSW Parliament
James Cumes of VOW and Lakatoi fame shares with the blogosphere via Jeffa the Good News
James Cumes is the author of Haverleigh (and other great books) which are filled with grace, style, honesty and wit. Read James’ master pieces for sheer history, beauty and charm. Nothing new even comes close. Austrio-Czech Jelinek is great, yet Austrio-Australian Cumes is greatest of them all... I think life is too short to waste it on mediocre wine, artificial flowers and meaningless books. Obey my orders taste James' words and you will never be hungry again!

Tracking Trends Great & Small: Can You Name That Supertitle?
Businesses spend millions to create a catchy tagline for their products. Too bad consumers don't remember most of them ....
Quick -- what's the title of Jozef Imrich’s book? How about Kmart's (KMRT )? And Buick's (GM )? If you don't know, you won't advance in Jeopardy! when the category is advertising. But you won't be alone.
Like Cold River, contemporary catch-phrases just crumble into dust.
• Obey your reading thirst; [Yellow brick road to righteousness: More people gain their philosophy of life and spiritual values through musicals than by going to church, says a new book. So what life lessons can musicals teach us? My Mamka Maria taught Do-Re-Mi while My Tato Jozef taught me Guralu Ci Ci Nezal; ]
• · Good news for men everywhere: the more sex you have, the better your sperm quality Superman 2004
• · · There is, of course, a Sod's Law factor to the equation. If you judge your ratings wrongly, you might become too optimistic - and calamity will strike A new mathematical formula has proved Murphy's Law really does strike at the worst possible time ; [Having the blues lifts the Imrich’s heart It's not always easy feeling blue ]
• · · · Most of the cells in your body are not your own, nor are they even human. They are bacterial
• · · · · More wonderful things on the blog include a comment about how women have much more influence on the Net than people think as they tend to be the emailers and listserv supporters, spreading the stories that need to be spread
• · · Value your life! Superior protection Phil Harvey sells sexual excitement to the rich, then helps the poor
• · · · · · Czechs and Aussies take a sip: A report finds not all beers are created equal; [ Coke versus Pepsi: It's all in the head ]

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Six online journalists and webloggers have been arrested in Iran recently in a crackdown on dissent on the internet Iran cracks down on blog protests
Evan Williams, founder of Pyra Labs, who allowed me from time to time comment on his blog is the man who launched extraordinarily popular Blogger service in 1999. I linked to his blog entry about his depature last week, but I only came aware of this entry in Motley Fool the traders behind Media Dragon shares today (thanks a million Jeff Myers). Evan is being sued by my family and friends (did I say friends - smile) for the blogging addiction which affects nearly one in a million of adults in the world Evan Williams at Bali or Nepal? Hardly!

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Well, that was a real snooze-a-thon
Czech out Blogging at the end of the earth exclusive for Perth and Yobbo Bloggers
• Bob Novak: View from the right
• Paul Begala: View from the left
• Jessi Klein: The Lighter Side
Bush didn't pee his pants or kill anyone, so my guess is that people will say it was a tie. Kerry was solid, in his usual, uninspired, A-student-that-memorized-the-text-book sort of way.
The most fun part was at the end when the families had to come up onstage and try to look all huggy and "normal," which tends to fail, since, like every family, both groups are clearly totally dysfunctional.
But after the kisses and handshaking they all kind of got in a line and waved to the crowd. It looked like the final bow at a mediocre community theater production of "Godspell." But that's basically what it feels like our country has turned into, so I guess that's appropriate. I don't mean to sound so pessimistic.
• CNN Blog ; [Blue reporter and Penn State senior Adam Smeltz was recruited by the Centre Daily Times' parent company, Knight Ridder, to cover the campaign trail. He reported on both national conventions and will follow the politicians through the Nov. 2 election Check out his blog - Centre Daily Times]
• · Richard Byrne: How the broadcast news organizations -- and their viewers -- went astray Books on the media
• · · Female Fox coworker details lewd behavior of cable TV star Bill O'Reilly is hit with a sexual harassment suit ; [A UCLA student's online journal is used in bid to discredit her claims that she was raped by a football player ]
• · · · NAOMI KLEIN Proposal to Assist the Government of Kuwait in Protecting and Realizing Claims Against Iraq James Baker's Double Life
• · · · · A million thanks to: Google Desktop Search - Beta Version ; [Where To Submit My RSS Feeds And Weblog URLs To Get More Exposure, Visibility And Reach]
• · · · · · A freelance journalist, Richard Sleeman, was awarded $434,000 in damages today over an article in The Australian newspaper about a story he wrote on Olympic swimming champion Ian Thorpe The Water God

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Farce is higher than comedy in that it is very close to tragedy. You've only got to play some of Shakespeare's tragedies plain and they are nearly farcical. All gradations of theatre between tragedy and farce—light comedy, drama—are a load of rubbish."
Joe Orton (quoted in John Lahr, Prick Up Your Ears: The Biography of Joe Orton)

Because there are over 175,000 books published a year and they can't all get reviews in the NYTBR. Authored by M.J. Rose, Superwoman (2004)
Psychologists call it the Proustian phenomenon. Specific odours can spark a flood of reminiscences. The first time I walked inside the David Jones Glorious Food Hall all I could smell was Vrbov everywhere the Vrbov of our baker Mr Zummer: Supersmell (1980)

Literature & Art Across Frontiers: Water's water everywhere
SSometimes I wonder why nobody reads philosophy. It requires, to be sure, a degree of hyperbole to wonder this. Academics like me, who eke out their sustenance by writing and teaching the stuff, still browse in the journals; it's mainly the laity that seems to have lost interest. And it's mostly Anglophone analytic philosophy that it has lost interest in. As far as I can tell, 'Continental' philosophers (Derrida, Foucault, Habermas, Heidegger, Husserl, Kierkegaard, Sartre and the rest) continue to hold their market. Even Hegel has a vogue from time to time, though he is famous for being impossible to read. All this strikes me anew whenever I visit a bookstore. The place on the shelf where my stuff would be if they had it (but they don't) is just to the left of Foucault, of which there is always yards and yards. I'm huffy about that; I wish I had his royalties.
• For water to be necessarily H2O is just for water to be H2O in every possible world [Sometimes when you read Updike you laugh outloud, other times you are going 'wow'. Like yesterday in 'Couples' when they described the local fire chief as the most neurotic man in town, he had a phobia of fire, water and dogs!
From what I can make out Updike is always struggling, always experimenting with the idea of 'the good life' or 'the best life'. Only this struggle does not begin when we are 15 and end when we are 18. No, for Updike it begins the day you are born and it ends the day you die, or maybe you are lucky if you even find an answer by the day you die. Books Of Note]
• · Book distorts history by omitting crucial facts, including an important link to the Czech Republic Not Everything Is Illuminated [The real-life hero of the movie might be actually found in the Czech Republic]
• · · The first thing you notice about alumnus Matt Mankins, SM ’03, is that he doesn’t look like the Lone Ranger or Don Quixote Being Book Smart
• · · · Dion Painter and blogger of Artnews; [One in three people believes in angels and one in five believes they have been helped by one ]
• · · · · A farm is about to be overwhelmed by a bushfire. The oldest son keeps pigeons, and he lets them go The fire of the truth [A fiction-like form gives this story its entertainment value. But it is the truth that gives it power]
• · · · · · Fact v Fiction
[Elfriede Jelinek gave an interview to Profil (Austria's top weekly).
The interview headline shouts: "Habe gebetet, dass ich ihn nicht bekomme" (I prayed I wouldn't get it)
Die Kinder der Toten ist sicher mein wichtigstes Werk. Es enthält alles, was ich sagen wollte; es hätte eigentlich genügt, dieses eine Buch zu veröffentlichen.
(Die Kinder der Toten ('The Children of the Dead') is certainly my most important work. It contains everything that I wanted to say; it would have sufficed to publish just that one book.)]

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Following is a transcript of the presidential debate last night in Tempe, Ariz., between President Bush and Senator John Kerry, as recorded by The New York Times
Cameron Marlow just could not help himself, could he? Now Where is Poland?

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Left Jab v. Right Hook
Senator, in the mainstream of American politics you sit on the far-left bank. Your record is such that Ted Kennedy, your colleague, is the conservative senator from Massachusetts, zinged Bush.
Kerry retorted that he plans a pay as you go approach and suggested that for Bush to talk about balanced budgets is a little bit like Tony Soprano talking to me about law and order.
• Debate hits hot buttons ; [Left Right and Centre ; Google Latest links to the Third Presidential Debate]
• · but in the corrupted Orwellian journalism of our time, power and truth did not make it "fit to print" in our most important paper Is not the Farnaz Fassihi story a perfect little parable of the "transformation" we've been talking about for a year now
• · · I fault this president for not knowing what death is. He does not suffer the death of our 21-year-olds who wanted to be what they could be. On the eve of D-Day in 1944 General Eisenhower prayed to God for the lives of the young soldiers he knew were going to die. He knew what death was [Even in a justifiable war, a war not of choice but of necessity, a war of survival, the cost was almost more than Eisenhower could bear.]
• · · · Backpages Chris Sheil In the Shadow of the Forrest (Election Wood)
• · · · · From Amerika Marian Wilkinson Head-to-heart battle to be first past post
• · · · · · Damian Murphy From the Down Under Politics is next to godliness

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It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data. One begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.
-Sherlock Holmes told Watson

The combined wealth of Australians has topped $5 trillion for the first time, thanks to a house price boom and surging sharemarket We're richer than ever - on the funny sand foundations.
Ironically, who determines what constitutes an essential worker (or plum worker) who cannot afford rents in the suburbs where they are most needed? Superworker (2004)

Invisible Hands & Markets: America Is Undergoing a Creative Brain Drain
As the outsourcing of U.S. jobs continues, America is also experiencing the exodus of many of its most creative business, research, and academic minds to other countries, according to the cover story of the latest issue of Across the Board, The Conference Board’s bimonthly magazine.
Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Ireland are among the newly favored hotspots for creative talent in business and other sectors.
• America’s Best and Brightest are Leaving … and Taking the Creative Economy With Them [Children of Immigrant Children]
• · The G7 no longer governs the world economy. Does anyone?
• · · If America is richer, why are its families so much less secure? [Citizens for Tax Justice - PDF format Corporate income tax in the Bush years ]
• · · · 400 Richest Amerikans; [All the riches of the east restored How China has become a major player in the world economy ]
• · · · · Russia retreats into repression
• · · · · · Books on crude oil and cruder geopolitics

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In a terribly earnest age, it is gotta be comforting to Gen-X'ers that irony is making a comeback. It is like rock-paper-scissors. Ironic beats earnest; cute beats ironic. Filthy Linking Rich tell me more about it ... Making It to Page One

The Blog, The Press, The Media: We Are All in This Together
I still like to think that I am, as the late novelist Irwin Shaw famously said, a storyteller in the bazaar, telling the world about itself, sharing my experiences with unknown readers out there.
I like to think that there are readers out there who want us to circumvent the sensational and serve up analyses and reflections. I like to think that by helping others understand our complex world better, journalists also help people understand themselves and their cultures better.
I know that focus groups in many countries are telling editors that they don't much care for the news, and certainly not for longish dispatches. But I haven't heard of any focus groups saying that they'd ignore rich, compellingly written stories about the daily dramas of our collective lives...
The most enduring lesson that Mr Rosenthal - now 82 - taught me was that in the pursuit of truth and fairness, no price is too high to pay. He always said: Make that extra call, take that extra trip, visit that additional source - then do it all over again until you are truly convinced that your story is as accurate, as fair and as thorough as humanly possible.
My other great teacher was Mr James Michaels, the man who created the modern-day Forbes Magazine. His lesson? You've got to be a bulldog in the journalism business: You mustn't let go of a story once you've sunk your teeth into it. Don't allow yourself to be bullied. And don't allow yourself to be bought.
• Hard questions to answer [Firedragon Guys with mustaches are switching to Firefox ]
• · Progressive Blogs by State: a directory from American Street
• · · A9.com: Amazon's search engine, now out of beta. Lots of cool features remember and categorize your searches. If you sign in with your Amazon ID you get a discount for using A9 - Cold River so Hot @ Amazon
• · · · Who's Buying Up Expired Domains? ; [Who2 is a good biographical resource. They've added several compilations, including a list of 'celebrities mauled by lions' and killed in cars, serial spouses ]
• · · · · Slashdot Politics: see what the techies have to say
• · · · · · SearchEngineWatch Blog ; Search Blog ; Search Engine Guide ; SE Low Down

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If Oprah moderated a presidential debate, the whole country would come to a standstill ... In just under 4 hours American’s will have their third and final look at John Kerry and George Bush, go heart to heart as well as head to head before the election on November 2

Update compliments of Google: Presidential Debate over 1000 links

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Oh my, yes! State By State Guide for Amerikan Voters
From Newsweek, via MSNBC, a state by state voters guide to election 2004. Information provided includes how each state voted in the 2000 election, a brief analysis/projection of the 2004 race (to be updated), number of electoral college votes, whether e-voting is offered, if Nader is on the ballot, absentee ballot information, and population data.
• Amerika Amerika ; [BeSpacific ]
• · The wholly grail of Senate control is close for the Coalition and the complicated voting scenario in Queensland is at the heart of it, as Charles Richardson explains Senate majority ; [It's a burning hot blue day here that feels like the absolute height of summer. taste of things to come by Gianna]
• · · We will never achieve what we can't imagine, so what are we hoping for? Democrazy: ten ideas for change (Margo Kingston); [What accounts for the staying power of Democracy and Distrust? ]
• · · · The United States maintains more than 700 military bases worldwide, spanning an area that dwarfs the great empires of world history. U.S. Foreign Policy Exposed A synopsis of The Empire Has No Clothes
• · · · · Jack Shafer Kissinger and Reston Good friends [Kissinger's career has been guided by one principle: If you have friends, use them]
• · · · · · Debate analysis - From Saunders, Tapper and Borger Reliable Sources

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It turns out Dick Cheney got more wrong than just the name of the website factcheck.org during the vice presidential debate Tuesday.
Just The Facts, Ma'am - Websites Clarify Campaign Errors Spinsanity.org and other sites profiled
Ach, Hack Watch suggests that the search for Australia's worst campaign journalist has ended, while in Amerika it just begun

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Pranay Gupte: old-fashioned shoe-leather journalism
Tim Porter of First Draft Fame writes: Warning: This post may induce dyspepsia in critics of Mainstream Journalism
If you are starting out in journalism or thinking about it, listen to an old hand tell why it is still worth the while. Pranay Gupte reflects on a life well spent on good, old-fashioned shoe-leather journalism and says that while the focus of journalism may change, its values must remain inviolate
IN ALL probability, this is for me the last innings in a newspaper career that has stretched four decades over two centuries in several continents and may well end in Singapore.
Daily journalism everywhere is changing so speedily that it's become hard to tell fact from fiction, education from entertainment, and information from ideology. Reckless opinion masquerades as analysis, and character assassination postures as legitimate portraiture. Even the sanctity of news columns often doesn't seem to matter: some of India's major newspapers, for example, openly offer their editorial space on Page One for sale - and they have to turn away takers.
• Why journalism is still a job worth doing [Oregonian editor Sandy Rowe says printing the allegations against David Wu, who is running for a fourth term representing Oregon's 1st Congressional District, "was a difficult decision, raising serious questions about how far the news media should go in examining a candidate's background ]
• · Here are 10 policies to fix our media
• · · Program enjoyed by Gabriella the Behind the News (BTN), the ABC's long-running news program aimed at school-children, will return next year [The Daily Terror and Channel Ten replaced BTN with TTN]
• · · · Discourse at the Boundary between Conversation and Publication; [Blogjam Last Trainspotting ]
• · · · · A Possible Example of Old Media Journalism - Blog Co-Existence ; [From small-town reporter to waitress She's treated
shabbily now: My Turn: Can I Get You Some Manners With That? ]
• · · · · · Mark (Human) Steyn’s column which argued that all future hostages like Kenneth Bigley should be written off to reduce the incentive to take more hostages was cancelled Today, for the first time in all my years with the Telegraph Group, I had a column pulled ; [Nine Japanese were found dead on Tuesday in two rented cars with the windows sealed and charcoal burners at their feet in pacts End of the road facilitated by Internet suicide sites ]

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The art of prophecy, Mark Twain once said, is very difficult, especially with respect to the future.

Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Why your ballot is not as meaningless as you think
Landsburg is arguing against voting, not chicken-dancing: Your presidential vote, he says, "will never matter unless the election in your state is within one vote of a dead-even tie." That, of course, is extremely unlikely. So, the negligible chance of casting the deciding ballot is outweighed by the small but certain costs of voting, like the gas you'll use and the time you'll spend.
And yet people vote anyway, by the millions. Political scientists call this conundrum "the paradox of voting," and you could stay up half the night (I just did) reading research literature on the subject.
• Why do people vote when it's so unlikely to matter? ; [ Walter Cronkite, Charles Brown and John Anderson on questions for Bush and Kerry]
• · Dan Chaon, Amy Tan, John Updike Who are novelists voting for?
• · · Why Catholics may find themselves returning to their Democratic roots in 2004
• · · · Europe's Private Affair: From prisons to hospitals to toll roads, the next chapter in the dismantling of the public sector has arrived
• · · · · Jiri Pehe: The government of Poland collapsed first, followed by the Czech government. Then the Hungarian prime minister resigned. The government of Slovakia lost its majority and is unstable. Within months, if not weeks, of realizing the long-sought goal of European Union membershipA wave of political instability surged through Central Europe