Daily Kos has a review up of Naomi Klein’s new book The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. Harper’s ran an excerpt from The Shock Doctrine in the October issue which was, as the DKos review says, riveting, and immediately put the book on my must-read list. I’m planning to pick up a copy […]

[Read more →]

OcPot is still on hiatus for at least a couple-few more days. But yesterday, down in the comments to the hiatus post, Miss Rubbery Nun asked how I was doing and I thought I’d repost my answer here for anyone else wondering how the move went:
Survived. Just barely. No thanks to AT&T, who, in […]

[Read more →]

Out, damned spot! Fox News caught red-handed, laundering entries on Wikipedia. Keep on scrubbing, Lady MacFox, but those stains belong to you always.

The GOP’s California strategy: winning the 2008 election by undoing California’s winner-take-all electoral system. Once the state goes piecemeal, the Repubs gain at least 20 electoral votes from safe GOP districts.
Arianna Huffington looks […]

[Read more →]

So there’s lots of news buzz this week about how Michael Moore’s health care industry documentary Sicko has already been pirated to YouTube and other places, two weeks before the film’s original June 29 release date. And as a result the movie will be opening early, with sneak previews in 27 selected markets.
I think […]

[Read more →]

This way-clever video, which I found on YouTube, uses short snips from various animated Disney films to provide an entertaining education on the nature of copyright, fair use, and the public domain.

 
The daunting reality is that copyright has way gotten out of control in recent years — where once upon a time copyright lasted […]

[Read more →]

Kansas governor says it’s been harder to deal with the recent tornado disaster because the war in Iraq has put such a drain on the state’s National Guard. Both personnel and equipment that should have been available to the state are currently tied up in Iraq. “Here in Kansas, about 50 percent of our trucks […]

[Read more →]

Sunday was always potluck day where I grew up, so I hereby present to you this glorious covered casserole of links I didn’t get around to posting this week. With a few fresh ones stirred in, just to keep you guessing.

Retired general compares Bush to a deserter: “By vetoing this bill and failing to […]

[Read more →]

France heads for a runoff election between right-winger Nicolas Sarkozy and left-winger Ségolène Royal. The country’s future hangs in the balance, and a lot depends on where the defeated centrist candidate steers his followers.
Right wing blogs are now trying to push the idea that there was a massive conspiracy to hide WMDs in Iraq. […]

[Read more →]

Yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling on abortion makes no exception for women whose health is in danger. This DKos diary, “5 out of 9 SCOTUS justices say my mom should be dead,” describes in vivid personal terms how a late-term abortion saved the life of the writer’s mother, and how this new ruling means that a […]

[Read more →]

I’m getting a lot of Google traffic today from people who are searching for information about the recall of Natural Balance’s pet food, specifically the venison varieties.
So, if you’re one of those folks, here’s a link to the Natural Balance site and here’s what it currently says:
NOTICE:
We are receiving consumer complaints regarding the Venison & […]

[Read more →]

Gonzales is now helpfully explaining that he only had an “indirect” role in the firing of the U.S. attorneys. Yes, just like I had an indirect role in what happened to the passersby who got hit by those water balloons I dropped yesterday. I mean, all I did was let go! It was the water […]

[Read more →]

Newt Gingrich calls on Abu Gonzales to resign.
Trying to sound like a big, butch hunter to please the NRA, dreadfully amusing little joke of a candidate Mitt Romney says he likes to hunt rabbits and refers to them as “varmints.” Tell it to the Easter bunny, Mitt. I hope he left a gaily decorated rotten […]

[Read more →]

So, in the comments to my previous post on the pet food issue, I promised I’d provide a progress report on transitioning my little monsters over to the Newman’s Own organic cat food. And the short version is, so far, so good. (See this comment in particular for why I chose Newman’s Own over other […]

[Read more →]

Bush thinks he has the right to “attach conditions” to the Supreme Court’s ruling on greenhouse gases.
Bush also said China and India must get on board the international effort to combat global warming.
“Unless there is an accord with China,” he said, “China will produce greenhouse gases that will offset anything we do in a brief […]

[Read more →]