Scorched Earth

I've been away from this blog due to a business related trip. Unfortunately, I didn't have Internet access while I was gone. Upon my return, I learned that 3/4ths of the public library's budget could be cut due to a $130 million dollar deficit at the County level. If you live in the Buffalo/Erie County area, and you care about library service contact your lawmakers and ask them to maintain funding. Without this money, all branches will close by January 1, 2005 and service will be extremely reduced. This area cannot afford to be without libraries. They are the cornerstone of a community. By providing free access to information they are part of the foundation of democracy.

Earlier this evening, attorneys for Bill O'Reilly and Andrea Mackris, his accuser in the sexual harassment lawsuit, met but a settlement is not likely to happen any time soon.

My search for news on this front lead me to fellow blogger Bill O'Falafel of The Falafel Factor who made up a hilarious graphic that
uses references made in the complaint filed against him.

Finally check out The O'Sexxxy Factor a 5 minute movie courtesy of Jim Gilliam who co-produced Outfoxed and Uncovered: the War on Iraq. Gilliam splices together various references to sex used by Bill O'Reilly on The Factor. God, I hate the name of that show. Howard Stern aptly changed it to The O'Reilly Fear Factor in light of the allegations that clown is facing.

Shut Up!

Check out this new parody song that uses the infamous Bill O'Reilly "shut up". Very clever! Look on the left side under "Listen to the Politinix" and click on "Shut up".

"Fry", a good friend of mine, happened to catch an excellent show about Dick Cheney on the CBC. Unbeknownst to me, Cheney had his own DWI issues.

fact checking

Major party Vice Presidential candidates Dick Cheney and John Edwards went toe-to-toe the other night in what was a fairly medicore debate. Edwards was much more camera friendly and had the cojones to bring up Halliburton . Cheney tried to show his Web savvy by pointing viewers/listeners to a fact checking Web site that would prove Edwards' accusations against him incorrect. Fackcheck.com pointed users to anti Bush financier George Soros. I learned yesterday that Soros was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Insert evil laugh here. I was familiar with the Web site that he was talking about but could've sworn it was a .org site. Here's the correct site. Regrettably, that site didn't have good things to say about either one of them. However, it wasn't as harsh on Edwards as it was on Cheney.
On a fairly unrelated note, Howard Stern is going to Sirius satellite radio in 2006. No real surprise considering his Bulletin Board has Sirius advertising on it. Terrestrial radio is the pits and has been for quite some time. This will be a good move for Howard if he can keep Congress from regulating pay services such as satellite TV and products like HBO. He might be just what Sirius needs to gain subscribers. Will I subscribe? The jury is still out on that. Local radio is so bad that I might have to. I just hate the thought of adding onto my satellite, broadband, and cell phone bills. It's not that much money but still...
While searching for the above Howard Stern related links, I found a great "soundboard". If only I were a teen again...the celebrity prank phone calls page is a riot! You can listen to calls composed of soundbites or go to a celebrity's "soundboard" so you can construct your own prank. Love it! The only drawback is that Howard Stern wannabees from all over use this in an effort to be "creative". Maybe I will cough up for satellite radio...

Documentary

I've been a fan of documentary films for a long time. In the last couple of years the genre has been receiving the notice that it deserves. In large part, fans have Michael Moore to thank whether or not they agree with how he accomplishes his goals. Nonetheless, before I dozed off last night I had a chance to watch Persons of Interest, a documentary which is airing on the Sundance Channel. They're airing a lot of other interesting documentaries this month, check it out! Persons addresses people who were arrested in the days following 9/11. More than 5000 were deemed "persons of interest" by the U.S. Department of Justice. 12 detainees and some of their family members talk to the filmmakers about mistreatment, denial of legal counsel, and deportation. This was a consequence of a skittish U.S. population that was willing to assist authorities in profiling efforts. The first person they spoke to was Salem Jaffar who apparently was turned in on 9/13/01 by Burger King employees in Depew, NY which is a suburb about 15 miles outside of Buffalo, NY. I live in the Buffalo area and didn't recall hearing about this case. Maybe because the local media doesn't do its job? The Lackawanna Six case was broken by the New York Times if I'm not mistaken. It's sad that I have to watch a documentary to find out what happened in my own backyard *3 years ago*!

Why?

I forgot to mention this in my last post but there seems to be a new "media disease". Case in point, Jon Stewart of the Daily Show spoke to Rudy Giuliani and Wesley Clark following the first Presidential Debate. It was a live shot from Coral Gables, Florida. Behind Giuliani and Clark you could see young people milling about and dialing their cell phones. If they reached someone, they'd look at the camera and either wave or make "born to hand jive" motions at the camera. I realize that live TV is just that and a lot of things can happen. However, are people such media whores that they have to phone home when they're near a camera? Reality TV has done us in. Anything for airtime!

Indecision 2004

The Daily Show did a post wrap-up on the first Presidential debate. It was hilarious. It's too bad the real news people couldn't do some truly insightful analysis. The ratings success of Fox News has inspired the big 3 networks to appeal to the lowest common denominator. Remember when Bill O'Reilly was on the tabloid entertainment news program Inside Edition? Didn't Deborah Norville appear on that show, too?
Thank God Kerry came out swinging on last night's debate. I'm not a big fan of his but at least he has a brain and is articulate. I watched the debate on CSPAN. It is the true fair and balanced choice because they just show things the way they are. Without any spin or glossy reporters to interrupt the message. Watching Bush was like watching the Fox News Channel. Right winged and repetitious.