July 30, 2004

What a fiasco! What a blown opportunity

The juvenilles at Google have totally ruined its IPO.

Completely arrogant pikers who somehow feel that one genius idea ("instead of ordering search results by words, order them by the links to them") absolves them of a need to show humility in the face of history, common practice, and wisdom.

Mark me words, in 5 years Brin and Page will be the schmucks who let the fruit of the century rot on the vine. (They'll still be centimillionaires, so no schadenfredue will pertain.)

Democratic Acceptance Speech

Democratic Convention Acceptance Speech:

"The choice could not be more clear nor the consequences more crucial. In one of the futures we can choose, the future that you and I have been building together, I see security and justice and peace.

I see a future of economic security-security that will come from tapping our own great resources of oil and gas, coal and sunlight, and from building the tools and technology and factories for a revitalized economy based on jobs and stable prices for everyone.

I see a future of justice--the justice of good jobs, decent health care, quality education, a full opportunity for all people regardless of color or language or religion; the simple human justice of equal rights for all men and for all women, guaranteed equal rights at last under the Constitution of the United States of America.

And I see a future of peace--a peace born of wisdom and based on a fairness toward all countries of the world, a peace guaranteed both by American military strength and by American moral strength as well.

That is the future I want for all people, a future of confidence and hope and a good life. It's the future America must choose, and with your help and with your commitment, it is the future America will choose.

But there is another possible future. In that other future I see despair--despair of millions who would struggle for equal opportunity and a better life and struggle alone. And I see surrender--the surrender of our energy future to the merchants of oil, the surrender of our economic future to a bizarre program of massive tax cuts for the rich, service cuts for the poor, and massive inflation for everyone. And I see risk--the risk of international confrontation, the risk of an uncontrollable, unaffordable, and unwinnable nuclear arms race.

No one, Democrat or Republican either, consciously seeks such a future, and I do not claim that my opponent does. But I do question the disturbing commitments and policies already made by him and by those with him who have now captured control of the Republican Party. The consequences of those commitments and policies would drive us down the wrong road. It's up to all of us to make sure America rejects this alarming and even perilous destiny.

The only way to build a better future is to start with the realities of the present. But while we Democrats grapple with the real challenges of a real world, others talk about a world of tinsel and make-believe.

Let's look for a moment at their make-believe world.

In their fantasy America, inner-city people and farm workers and laborers do not exist. Women, like children, are to be seen but not heard. The problems of working women are simply ignored. The elderly do not need Medicare. The young do not need more help in getting a better education. Workers do not require the guarantee of a healthy and a safe place to work. In their fantasy world, all the complex global changes of the world since World War II have never happened. In their fantasy America, all problems have simple solutions--simple and wrong.

It's a make-believe world, a world of good guys and bad guys, where some politicians shoot first and ask questions later. No hard choices, no sacrifice, no tough decisions--it sounds too good to be true, and it is.

The path of fantasy leads to irresponsibility. The path of reality leads to hope and peace. The two paths could not be more different, nor could the futures to which they lead. Let's take a hard look at the consequences of our choice.

You and I have been working toward a more secure future by rebuilding our military strength--steadily, carefully, and responsibly. The Republicans talk about military strength, but they were in office for 8 out of the last 11 years, and in the face of a growing Soviet threat they steadily cut real defense spending by more than a third."

Oops! That's 1980s speech! Gosh darnit, isn't just like me to goof up like that....

From Another Point of View

Surfing around to gauge Democratic reaction, and it's of two minds:

Sober, restrained realism.

Or

Loony tunes triumphalism.

I have a tough time believing that swing voters were won-over by this speech. Cringe-worthy lines like "West Wing" and "reporting for duty" remind you that Kerry is that creepy running-for-student-council-President-since-sixth-grade type of guy.

And even rabid supporters damn with faint praise:

The speech itself had a very relaxed tone. Kerry made his points, but he did not come across as harsh or negative. He came across as likable, well-informed and tough. John Kerry delivered.

Bottom line, I believe these strong speeches strung together -- first former President Bill Clinton, then keynote speaker Barack Obama, vice president pick John Edwards on Wednesday, and Kerry on the final night -- all of that will ultimately produce a strong, single-digit jump in the polls.

And by the way, Kerry needs every bit of that advantage

"Strong speeches strung together.. will ultimately produce".... doesn't sing to me a song of victory.

I just wish there was a Republican candidate in the race.

'WHAT THE F**K ARE YOU GUYS DOING UP THERE'

Stone apologizes for the multiple potty-mouth posts this week.

Must be the heat.

DNC CONVENTION DIRECTOR DON MISCHER AIRED ON CNN AS KERRY ENDS SPEECH, HEARD WORLDWIDE

July 29, 2004

Them's good-looking shoes

Check out these Cenedella slippers from my fourth cousin, once removed, Renato Cenedella.

Slipper made from many leather stripes sewn with raw threads to make it look more sporty. Available sizes: 35 trough 41 (European Size) Link here.

Snazzy!

(by the way, how does the whole "removed" thing work when it comes to cousins?)

Pride Goeth Before the Fall

From today's WSJ:

Google's Roadshow Leaves Investors Searching for Data

The much-anticipated initial public offering of Google Inc. has run into its first glitch.

Google's executives came to Wall Street this week to woo large investors, donning suits and ties rather than their usual casual attire for a series of meetings in recent days aimed at whetting appetites for an IPO that could be as large as $36 billion. But they soon found out that it takes more than grown-up clothes to get investors to open their wallets.

Presentations from the executives, including co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, were marked by humor and confidence, but little in the way of details that investors hunger for. They shed little light on the Internet search-engine company's strategy to keep the heady growth going and provided no details about existing relationships with third-party partners, according to people at the meetings.

This stance is in keeping with the company's strategy to court customers, rather than investors, even as it tries to persuade them to buy into the big stock offering. It also reflects securities rules that limit how much forward-looking information can be disclosed at so-called roadshows before an offering. Recently, for instance, salesforce.com's IPO was delayed after the company's chief executive gave a wide-ranging interview.

But the Google presentations left some investors saying that unless the company provides more details about its business they will be less eager to bid a high price for the shares, suggesting that Google may have to rely on individual investors to make the IPO a success. The company has set a price range for its shares of between $108 and $135 each.

The presentation "could have been more detailed. I was waiting for an elaboration of strategy," says Anna Nikolayevsky, who runs hedge fund Axel Capital Management in New York. "The sense of excitement [from investors] that I anticipated was definitely missing."

The unorthodox auction process that Google is employing has led to some grousing on Wall Street. But for all their complaining, the mutual funds and hedge funds likely will still be big participants in the coming IPO. Technology and media investors have a dearth of companies in their universe growing as rapidly as Google, which doubled its revenue in the past year. Many may elect to bite the bullet and pay the expected high price for Google shares next month.

Messrs. Brin and Page, along with Chief Executive Eric Schmidt and Chief Financial Officer George Reyes, met with mutual-fund and hedge-fund investors in New York and in the Washington area, the beginning of a group of meetings in different cities. It was highlighted by a luncheon Tuesday in the ballroom of New York's Waldorf-Astoria hotel attended by about 450 investors, though about 30% of the room was empty.

The meeting began on a light note, with Mr. Brin staging a disagreement with Mr. Schmidt, and Mr. Brin taking a poll of the investors asking how many of them used Google as their primary search engine. Most said they do. Flash bulbs went off throughout the presentation, underscoring how some Hollywood glitz is attached to this IPO. But when the presentation, and question-and-answer period that followed, failed to give the investors the insight they came for, there was some disenchantment, according to those at the meeting.

The potential investors also peppered Google executives with questions about the novel auction process for the shares, but were disappointed when they didn't receive any fresh details. At one point, the executives appeared to be so blase that an audience member asked if they were taking the auction process seriously, said one person who attended the Waldorf meeting. The Google team assured them that they were.

Google declined to comment.

Arrogance will bring Google down, and, unfortunately for the team there, the senior executives won't realize it until it is much too late.

July 28, 2004

11 Minutes You Must Watch

President Kerry Speaks. Please, please listen.

July 27, 2004

The Worm Lives

At ¡No Pasarán!

Spot the Made-up Story

Where The Fuck Is Diane With My Fair-Trade Coffee?

OR

Mystery Creature Lurks In Baltimore County.

July 24, 2004

Carvajal Jams!

David Carvajal has joined TheLadders.com!

Laid-Off: A Day In THe Life

In a way, just as reminiscent of it's era as the sock puppet was of his.

With the improving economy, OddTodd feels like nostalgia!

July 23, 2004

Vanity License Plate Brings Tickets

Poor bugger:

A vanity license tag chosen as a gag has left its owner holding the bag. Jim Cara thought the "NOTAG" plate he got for his Suzuki motorcycle would give people a laugh.

Instead, he found that the laugh — along with more than 200 parking violations — was on him.

The new tag arrived in the mail Saturday, along with an avalanche of Wilmington parking violations.

"All the traffic tickets say, 'Notice of violation. License number: no tag,'" Cara explained.

Seems like there are multiple license plate shenanigans this morning.

"You Will"

Ten years ago, AT&T ran an ad campaign called "You Will". It was chock full of crazy, pie-in-the-sky, technoligcla pipe dreams that might as well of sounded like the Jetsons.

Among the outlandish predictions Tom Selleck makes in this commerical made 10 years ago:

* Have you ever checked out of a supermarket a shopping cart at a time (not quite there, but you can check yourself out at many places these days. RFID could technically make this possible).
* Have you ever put your heads together when you're not togehter? (WebEx and any cheap WebCam)
* Have you ever gotten a phone call on your wrist? (Sure, and taken a 2 megapixel photo of it!)
* And the company that will bring it to you: AT&T (oops).

I wonder what other amazing advances the future holds.

Gonna be a long day

When this greets you in the morning.

Our Norwegian Correspondent

Writes to say:

With all this hoi-polloi around Michael Moore these days (which you obviously don’t like J), I thought I’d recommend another documentary for you, “Breaking the silence” by John Pilger. He has a somewhat better reputation than Moore, having been a political commentator and war-reporter for over 40 years.

He’s pretty unforgiving, and usually has a lot better foundation for his claims than Moore (that’s probably why he’s held in such high regard, except among them he attack).

yours,

Øyvind

Thanks Øyvind!

Well, Moore is a mendacious glory-hog who is actually only interested in using little people to make himself wealthier and more prominent. He doesn't give a rat's ass about economics (he told me so himself) and doesn't care to study the issues he pretends to portentiously weigh in on.

I've been feeding Democrats possible avenues of attack such as:

Spending

and

The House of Saud
for years now, so in some sense there are things that I agree with Moore on, though in the same way that I agree with Hitler on the need for modern asphalt and grading on national highways.

Stone: Where are Democrats?

One Year Ago In Stone

I still think this was clever: Missed Headline Opportunity of the Day.

July 22, 2004

More Tales From the Verizon Wireless Crypt

A reader writes:

Actually, my first verizon phone broke. It was the startac flip phone, and the earpiece half of the phone was simply breaking off. I took it into a verizon store in RI and explained that I had the insurance and wanted a new phone. Instead of giving me a new phone for free, the salesguy told me that the insurance doesn't cover broken phones!!

He forced me to upgrade to a new phone and laughed all the way to the bank.

I guess I've surpressed that memory of being swindled as it's somewhat embarassing, but that certainly wasn't a pleasant Verizon experience.

S Edgar -- what sayeth you?

Extra! Extra! Google About It!

1960 style.

Everybody Doing That Rag

The J-Walk Rag.

July 21, 2004

I Fought the Law

..and the laws won.

My favorite is Kurzweil's law. If you have the inclination and a spare decade, check out his intricate site.

Oh No Verizo!

Hmmm, more tales of Verizon perfidy:

Yes Verizon's customer service is horrible. It took me over an hour on hold and 2 transfers in order to have questions about my bill answered and change my service plan to include more minutes. But I refuse to change plans, because they have the best reception out there. I get reception everywhere. I even had the phone ring once as the subway doors closed. Even after moving to Florida, I still get better service here than friends who have local providers. Some of them have since taken their numbers with them to Verizon. I recently had all bars on vacation in Ecuador. Conclusion: I'd rather have better reception than better customer service. Trapped.

Sally

Will anybody tout Verizon's customer service SEdgar13??

Sugar Megs

For the real old-time religion crowd.

NOW they tell us!

Restrictive pre-electioneering limitations on free speech can lead to jailtime for Michael Moore???

Can I travel back in time to support McCain-Feingold?

Good riddance

Yea! Uday Hussein dead one year!

Moore Lies

Filthy lies so that he can make millions. I've met the man face-to-face and he is a phony, a fraud, a bold deceiver.

Leniency!!

Our Southern East Village Correspondent writes:

Marc, please start a plea on Stone for leniency for these guys. Surely there must be some justice in this world. Good God, man---they...just...wanted...a...BEER! For all that is holy, please help them!

Verily, we beseech the Powers of Tennesse, in all their benevelonce, to shower these men with beer nuts and cozies.

July 20, 2004

Dress Like A Republican Day

Would actually be pretty funny. I wonder if the party of Abby Hoffman still has a sense of humor.

July 18, 2004

The 2004 Race

In Song and Cartoon.

Now that's my type of political humor.

July 17, 2004

Verizon Wireless Sucks, Or It Doesn't.... You Tell Me!

OK, the connectivity is actually really good, and the phones they offer are also very nice.

But has anybody had a POSITIVE customer service experience with them? As this Verizon employee would lead one to believe? Am I really just a "cocky, stuffy arrogant Northerner" (way to alienate your customer based sedgar) or is my experience pretty typical for a wide range of human beings living in the United States who interact with Verizon Wireless' malevolent customer service people?

So I am soliciting two types of comments:

GLOWING reports of wonderful customer service at Verizon

and

HORRIBLE tales of rude, nasty, incompetent, or negative Verizon Wireless interactions

And let's see what the true story is!

(p.s. frequent readers of this page will know the ground rules: I post only polite, profanity-free letters, whether they agree with me or not! So please forward this post to somebody you know who has had a memorable customer service experience with Verizon Wireless and ask them to write in to me at BLOG at CENEDELLA dot COM!)

Losing the Generation

The foolish mis-leading of the Republican Party by Karl Rove's tactical blunders and George Bush's incurious political philosophy has damaged the party's chances for a generation to come. This New York Post editorial succinctly indicts a myopic strategy that, sure enough, pleases some parts of a plurality coalition a little, while disappointing any principled conservative or libertarian worthy of the name:

I'm not sure I can do it. And, if it weren't for the War on Terror, I know few for whom it would even be a question.

The Republican Party, under Bush, has stopped standing for fiscal responsibility and small government (see "Medicare bill"), it has stopped standing for free trade (see "steel tariffs") and it has stopped standing for free speech (see "campaign-finance reform").

So, what's left?

George Bush, always something of a Embarassment Primogeniture for the party, and the creation from whole cloth of Campaign Finance "Reform" (ah, the unitended consequences! When political campaigns can not accept big donations, they must accept thousands (millions?) of small ones. In order to extract multitudes of small donations from the populace, one must have a sufficiently large political organization and donor list at one's beck. Such organizations, it turns out, are alarmingly heritable.) has imposed upon our party a concoction of blights the individual damage of which we are only just beginning to see. And the larger, more comprehensive damage he has done to our ability to assert ourselves as the party of free minds and free markets, is depressingly abiding.

July 16, 2004

Congratulations!

To Sir Timothy Berners-Lee, Inventor of the World Wide Web.

Iraqi PM executed six insurgents

This type of rumor is very, very useful in the war Iraq is fighting against the foreigners.

New Campaign Poster

A striking Kerry-Edwards message.

July 15, 2004

205 Years of Stone

Our Mascot was discovered 205 years ago today!

July 14, 2004

And I Rest My Case

A letter from Verizon Wireless Employee sedgar13:

I am sending this in response to your opinion of Lowell McAdam. You are obviously just another narrow minded consumer who has never had any experience working in a retail sales environment and has passed judgment on one the industries highest proven leaders because you didn't get what you wanted and how you wanted it.

You are blaming the COO of the largest and most successful wireless service provider in the US for a poor experience you had with a manager and sales associate that Lowell doesn't know, and probably never will know. This Mike and his rep could have provided you with other options to solve your dilemma but according to what you have wrote failed to do so. The manager and sales associate were concerned with selling you an upgrade so they could acquire a contract for commission. If anyone is to blame for this it is Mike's District Manager. Mike's DM and the Director of Retail for the NY Metro area would be the only people who would know Mike's management and service style, not the COO.

Do you expect someone with Lowell's position and stature to micromanage his company and know what each of his 1000+ managers are doing? You had an unpleasant experience with a particular manager and rep and immediately formulated an opinion of the Operations Officer of the company that Consumer Reports, J.D. Power, and the Wall Street Journal have all ranked as the number one service provider in the industry. Verizon Wireless has also been one of the Top 100 companies to work for in the United States. Do you actually think that Verizon Wireless came to that stature by having a poor Operations Officer? Open your eyes man. I am not excusing the actions and behavior of those you dealt with, but I am encouraging you to think for more than a few seconds before passing judgment.

I am also curious about these "posters" on the walls that you referred to . There is nothing on any sales floor that states "Sell 2yrs. Service only! Accept nothing less", and I can guarantee that. As a Verizon Wireless customer you have the option to choose a either a 1yr or 2yr contract, or go prepaid. As far as the warranty is concerned, Verizon Wireless backs the manufacture's warranty of the products it sells. If you had a video camera made by Sony but was purchased at Best Buy, and the battery was defective and out of warranty and Best Buy would not give you a free battery, would you then race home to type another article bashing the COO of one of the nations leading electronic retailers? Verizon does not produce the phones that it's uses and is only able to warrant what the equipment manufacturer does; as does many leading retailers and or service providers.

Your third point is one of the most ridiculous statements that I have ever read. Considering that ninety percent of you wrote was nothing more than you ranting, your last statement was not a surprise. "His poor leadership causes his company's employees to not respect themselves, their customers, or their own company." What the hell are you talking about? Again your narrow and small minded outlook has led you to loose your composure and scribble that absurd statement. Unless you work for Verizon, which you don't, who are you to speak on our community and how we work, operate, and portray ourselves? If anyone should plead ignorance it should be yourself, I am surprised you were educated at Yale and Harvard.

I'm sure by now you have realized that I am an employee of Verizon Wireless, and I do respect myself, company, and my customers. I have been working in the wireless telecommunications industry for over four years and in retail for over six years. I have worked for T-Mobile, AT&T wireless, and am now happily at Verizon Wireless. During my tenure at Verizon I have worked, trained, and assisted at over sixteen locations so I actually have an idea on how we are trained to service and sell our customers, which again you do not. If you think we our COO has dropped the ball by all means give me your cell number, I'll let you out of your contract, and then you can have fun with whatever wireless carrier you choose and then they can have the pleasure of putting up with you.

If I was to do the same about you, considering that I have never met but basing my opinion off of your bio I would say that you are a stuffy, cocky, arrogant, stereotypical Northerner who whines, complains, and threatens to write letters to "management" if you don't get what YOU want; not what company states but what YOU want. I know because I deal with people such as yourself on a daily basis. But guess what, that's why you are not the COO of the country's leading service provider and Lowell is.

I suppose the most damning phrase of sedgar's letter is his incredulity that one should expect "not what company states but what YOU want."

Hey S: that's what the customer service business is all about!!

July 13, 2004

Down in NC!

This is a shocker. Kerry / Edwards down 15 points in North Carolina.

That's kinda unusual, so I wonder if there's a poll methodology mix-up.

Spam Filters Gone Wild

Stone most emphatically does not have a potty mouth. That's why I can't tell if this is too dirty for Stone or not.

OK, I'll let you judge....

A letter from a friend:

Hey Marc -

Check this one out. I emailed my resume to a friend at a VC. As shown below, the email was blocked by the VC's overly zealous spam filter. I've hidden the name to protect the prudish.

Hope all's well man.

Steve

From: System Administrator [mailto:*******@****.com]
Sent: Monday, July 12, 2004 6:17 PM
To: steve@******.com
Subject: Non delivery report: 5.9.7 (Blocked message)

Your message

From: Steve

To: ****@****.com

Subj: Referral from ***********
Sent: 2004-07-12 19:17

has encountered a delivery problem.

Reason: Blocked message
One of the words in the message is blocked.
For security reasons the message was not or not completely delivered to the recipient.

Additional info:
The blocked string is: " Cum "
The line is: BA, Economics, cum laude.

Guess I'm glad I graduated High Distinction!

The Sky is Falling!

I blame The New York Times > Science >Bush.

July 12, 2004

Kegerator!

I love the "Beer Not Included" messaging....

Dude, Where's My State?

A great story via Drudge: Stoned Del. student gets lost in Conn..

Stone does not condone eating an entire bag of hallucogenic mushrooms, stealing vans, or visiting Connecticut.

July 11, 2004

Which side of the road do they drive on...?

Which side of the road do they drive on...? Answered.

It's Off the Coast of Africa, As It Turns Out

São Tomé and Príncipe, that is.

July 10, 2004

A Star Is Born: Coco Scales

The New York Times > Fashion & Style > The Hostess Diary: My Year at a Hot Spot.

I had dinner at Hue on my birthday last year. It was one of those boring hot places because it was too obvious.

But at least Coco let me in.

July 09, 2004

One of Them is Lying

Take your pick.

One look is all it takes

To view 970 dictionaries.

They even have kerfuffle.

Free Conference Calls

Interesting, and heck, Nick Denton uses it.

Outstanding

Spiderman.

In legos.

July 08, 2004

CAN'T KEEP HANDS OFF EACH OTHER

From the inimitable DRUDGE REPORT.

Kerry Hitting His Stride

I think the Edwards selection has energized the haughty Democrat:

Kerry said elections officials in Florida still are trying to fix voting machines. "I'll make a deal with them," he said. "They fix those machines and we'll fix America!"

I haven't seen the speech but the soundbites quoted here are pretty good.

As I've said before, this guy is a very, very good campaigner, and will probe for the Bush campaign's soft spot.

If he were really, truly, and credibly anti-Wahhabi, I'd have a tough time deciding which way to vote.

That's about right

Andrew Sullivan takes the President to task:

The sad truth is that if Bush Republicanism exists, it's one of the most ramshackle distillations of political expediency ever tarted up as an "ism".

So even though I'm voting for the guy (seriously, "I actually voted for the bill before I voted against it" is no way to fight, much more defeat, Wahhabiism), I think Bush II underscores the importance in governance of elaborating a philosophy, and illuminates the dangerous road we tread when we abandon it.

July 07, 2004

I guess I'm buying Kid ROck albums from here on out

A stubborn Kid Rocks the Bush vote:

It was a lazy afternoon at Russell Simmons' spread outside downtown East Hampton.

The hip-hop and fashion mogul, his younger brother Joe (aka Rev. Run, who's filming a pilot of his own reality show for the ABC Family Channel), movie director Brett Ratner and his girlfriend, Serena Williams (recovering from her defeat in the Wimbledon final), were getting a little antsy on a rainy Monday, wondering what to do with themselves.

Then Kid Rock arrived.

So they all decided to drive into town and take in a movie.

They jumped into various vehicles and headed for the United Artists East Hampton theater on Main St.

Standing in front of the box office and perusing the titles, Simmons suggested that everybody catch the 7:15 showing of "Fahrenheit 9/11."

Kid Rock balked.

"I don't want to see that, it's all propaganda," the rock star said - sparking a prolonged political debate right there on the sidewalk.

"Russell, don't you understand, everything we got in this country, we got from fighting," Kid Rock argued, according to Simmons' account. "It's just a movie. ... I'd rather go to the bar across the street."

Kid Rock refused to see the movie, and said goodbye. The others bought tickets and went into the theater.

A couple of hours later, Simmons returned to his parked car. On his windshield was a scribbled note:

"Vote Bush. Bush Rocks," apparently written by Kid Rock himself.

Only in the Hamptons, kids, only in the Hamptons.

How don you think he'll fit in with my Dark Star Orchestra MP3s?

I'm going

are you?

July 06, 2004

Edwards' Record

Pretty effective oppo research from the GOP.

Not exactly a use of internet technology, the way the Kerry campaign has been much more effective in my view, but reasonably effective.

July 02, 2004

Colin Powell Sings Village People Song

This is my favorite headline so far today.

UWS Correspondent Deprecates Moore

Let me preface this by saying that I agree with you.

I don't want the restrictions placed on free speech either and I am against these efforts to censor Moore (fat doofus, indeed) for political purposes.

I agree with you again that we spend too little time discussing political issues in this country. But a greater American sin than political apathy is intellectual laziness. I'd rather have a substantial portion of the populace be apolitical than politically active and utterly misinformed. That's why Moore's mischief is so insidious. In the end, voting isn't some mere right, it's a duty. But that duty is predicated on a responsibility -- to know what the hell you're talking about.

So Moore is a disgrace, but, unfortunately, one we have to suffer. Or do we? Slander and libel are not protected practices. Neither is incitement to riot or yelling "movie!" in a crowded firehouse. I wonder at what point vicious propoganda crosses that line. Because at some point.. it does.

July 01, 2004

God Bless the New Republic of Iraq; God Bless America

From our fellow citizen of the world, THE MESOPOTAMIAN:

Hail our true friends, the Great People of the United States of America; The Freedom giving Republic, the nation of Liberators. Never has the world known such a nation, willing to spill the blood of her children and spend the treasure of her land even for the sake of the freedom and well being of erstwhile enemies. The tree of friendship is going to grow and grow and bear fruit as sure as day follows night. And the people deep down at the bottom of their hearts, they appreciate. Make no mistake about that. The people have voted today, the pulse of the street is clear, without any hesitation I would give 90% of all Iraqis are hopeful and supportive of the new government, and this is a tacit indirect yes to the U.S. which has been the prime mover of all these events. This is what the foolish fail to understand. Why is this a different situation from that for example of a Vietnam? The answer is very simple: Because, the U.S. has achieved something very popular around here; which is the removal of the Saddam regime. Those who are really against the U.S. from amongst the Iraqis have been and remain a small minority; all other forms of resentment are simply disappointment and disgruntlement resulting from the discomfiture of the present situation and will simply disappear with progress and gradual improvement.

I am reading the letters of the Founding Fathers of our country -- Washington currently -- and the parallels are illuminating. Perhaps 1/3 of the colonies were actively AGAINST the revolution, 1/3 were indifferent, and 1/3 were FOR the revolution.

The setbacks, failures, and mistakes during our long (eight year) fight for liberation and the subsequent six years until we had a workable government, were cloudy, confusing, difficult times. The fifteeen months that Iraq has just been through have been confusing and cloudy, cetainly (though perhaps less deadly), but the good works and the freedom of a people are worthy, lofty goals.

History will note who stood for a Free Iraq and who stood against it, and will chasten their posterity accordingly.

Fact checking

Michael Moore's difficulties with reality.