Hey, parents & students!

Remember those announcements over the past few days about a disk found in Iraq with schol information?

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So thrilled!

So a group of 11 teachers & staff from my high school won the five million dollar lottery grand prize here in Florida this week! And among the group was my 12th grade AP English teacher, the one who chaperoned us on our Spring Break trip to London that year, where we saw seven plays & musicals in six days - he said that with part of his three hundred thousand dollar share of the prize, he's going to London for a tehater extravaganza. I am so happy for him, and for the other ten in the group. I probably don't know them all, being (gasp!) sixteen years out of high school already, but I am sure they're all going to have a great time with it!

Hey, parents & students!

Repost. Trying to delete the prior.
Remember those announcements over the past few days about a disk found in Iraq with schol information? No terrorist threat, the administration says. as it turns out, the disk was generated by someone who's working on school safety in Iraq for Iraqi kids.

Also, Salon has speculation about whether Bush was wearing an earpiece in the last debate.

And did anyone see Bill Maher say on his show last week that because of the no-fly zones through 2003, technically, the US + allies controlled more of Iraq when Saddam was in power than we do now? Anyone know if that's fact or hyperbole?

Hmmm.

So, did Kerry slap Bush on the back to see if he had a box on?

Also, not everyone in the audience is an undecided voter - I saw spouses there ;)

I'm sorry, I know this is silly, but...

Did he just say, "...rumors on the internets?

Bwa!

(Also, we just decided to slow the withdrawal of troops from S Korea. Hmmm)

Betas & politics

Ok, things are weird. Leaving this here for archival purposes...



FictionAlley celebrates Beta Reader Appreciation Day (thanks to friede for the image-tweaking).

Speaking of betas, we're beta-testing the new artisticalley, wheee!

I am running quite far behind on LJ - I was at skip=400 this morning -
and I haven't read anything posted since about 7am today. But I talked
with tea_and_toast this AM and learned that she hadn't seen
any of the news reports about Sinclair Media and their decision to air
an anti-Kerry film next week which is purportedly focused on his Viet
Nam days. In other words, it seems that they're trying to influence
the election.

Sinclair owns a little over 60 stations around the country, and have
penetration into about 1/4 of the US, and many of those states are in
swing states. You may remember them from the Spring; in April,
Sinclair ordered seven of its stations not to air Ted Koppel's
Nightline broadcast featuring a roll call of the 700 U.S. troops who
had died in Iraq. Republican Sen. John McCain, who was a prisoner of
war in Vietnam, was among the many who criticized Sinclair's action.
McCain has also criticized some of the people who are expected to be
featured in the film Sinclair will be showing.


Here's a bit from USAToday on the situation:
AmericaBlog summarizes: Sinclair -- which is now synonymous with the
dangers of media consolidation -- is throwing its support behind Bush
because its business is hurting and it wants to consolidate even
further and have the right to control TV stations and radio stations
and newspapers in one broadcast area. At least you could respect them
if it was just a viciously held political belief rather than a cold
calculation.

And quoting: "The decision [to air the anti-Kerry video just days
before the election] annoyed investors. Sinclair's shares, which have
lost about half their value in 2004, closed Monday at $7.38, down 12
cents. That's about as low as they've been since 1995."

And advertisers are pulling away from Sinclair. Sylvan Learning
Centers is one national advertiser who has refused to advertise on
Sinclair if they go forward with this showing. More of their
advertisers are listed here. And as a
former intern in the Political Enforcement Branch of the FCC (back in
the day, we were in charge of the fairness doctrine and equal time
reulations), I also recommend filing
a petition with the FCC to deny renewal of Sinclair's licenses.
Some of the deadlines are November 1, so nothing will happen on the
license front before the election, but it's a way to tell the FCC that
you believe that Sinclair has abrogated their responsibility to the
American public; they are a custodian of the airwaves, and they are
not living up to their promise on how to use that scarce spectrum.

I'll also link to MediaMatters
page on the situation, where they're adding more and more informaiton.

I also wanted to crosspost from Americablog about the actions of a
company funded by the Republican National Committee, which is
especially relevant to anyone in Nevada or Oregon - KLAS
in Nevada ( reports )

The company [collecting and allegedly destroying the registrations]
has been largely, if not entirely funded, by the Republican National
Committee. Similar complaints have been received in Reno where the
registrar has asked the FBI to investigate.

ETA: for some reason, this showed up on October 8, even though I posted it at around 1pm EDT on the 13th. Does anyone know what's going on?

Factoid!

Bush may've forgotten that he owns a small tree-related interest, but FactCheck.org knows he does.

Also, you can buy some from eBay (at least until they pull the listing, which I just *hope* someone has saved).