The Weekly Poll
Results
'Informed Voter' Edition...
On August 25th The Democratic National Convention released the official platform.
Click here: 2008 Democratic Party Platform - (WARNING: pdf format)
This week's poll is...
What changes, if any, would you make to this platform?
A.) None. It is fine as it is...
B.) I would include __________...
C.) I would not have included __________...
D.) I would alter this particular position __________...
There were only 2 responses to this poll...
Sally P wrote, "...We pledge to bring the Iraq War to a responsible end, and refocus our efforts on fighting terrorism in places like Afghanistan..."
Ding, ding, ding... Wrong!!
We cannot and should not, "Fight" terrorism by invading and occupying foreign countries, devastating the populus, for politically motivated gain! We can and should DEFEND ourselves against terrorism by securing our borders, and keeping secure tabs on all who enter! War should always be the LAST or no option, period!
So, my official reply is: (D) I would alter this particular position - see last option."
She did, however, recognize, "The Democratic Platform reflects Barack Obama's commitment to changing the way they do business in Washington..."
and noted numerous positive aspects that it contains that I'm sure we would all agree with... Thanks, Sally...
And, Joe S said, "I'm going with A, I trust Barack and the Dems a hell of a lot more than the repubs." And made this observation, "I heard that the world wants Barack elected by more than 4 to 1." Thanks, Joe...
I'm taking a week off, Poll-fans, to attend to some personal matters... See ya next week with a new (and hopefully more entertaining) poll. Meanwhile, as I always say...
"Don't let the Bastards get ya down!"
BadtotheBoneBob
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: Cash for Trash (nytimes.com)
Henry Paulson is demanding extraordinary power for himself to deploy taxpayers' money on behalf of a plan that, as far as I can see, doesn't make sense.
Scott Burns: Reading the New Map (assetbuilder.com)
It takes a lot of smoke and rubble to make things clear, but this week brought crystal clarity to a new level. Wall Street bet the ranch. Wall Street lost the ranch. As we see the household names crumble and fall, the landscape of American finance is permanently changed. Add a global market decline and everyone, everywhere, is very scared. So let me point out a few silver linings.
M.J. STEPHEY: What Happens When We Die? (time.com)
When your heart stops beating, there is no blood getting to your brain. And so what happens is that within about ten seconds, brain activity ceases -as you would imagine. Yet paradoxically, ten or 20 percent of people who are then brought back to life from that period, which may be a few minutes or over an hour, will report having consciousness. So the key thing here is, are these real, or is it some sort of illusion?
Froma Harrop: McCain and the Meltdown (creators.com)
"The fundamentals of our economy are strong," John McCain said as Wall Street went into white-knuckle panic over diving investor confidence. Does he believe that? It doesn't really matter, because the Republican has outsourced his economic policy to the ideologues whose opposition to regulations brought the financial markets to their knees.
Susan Estrich: First Dude (creators.com)
First Dude. That's what they call him in Alaska. It's OK. Todd's Ok. Whatever. He smiles at Greta Van Susteren. Not a touch of noblesse. More like plan old politesse. I always laugh a little when I see people who are very much not ordinary Americans in any respect (pay, fame, education or overall wealth, for starters) try to speak for them. "This is what ordinary Americans want," says someone whose only contact with them may be while his face is getting powdered for TV.
Garrison Keillor: Moose on the loose (chicagotribune.com)
I saw two moose on a bike trail in Anchorage last week and did not kill either one of them, neither the cow nor her calf, though under the Bush Doctrine I certainly had a right to, since the cow could have charged and pinned me to a tree and danced me to death.
EMILY HOWARD: "Open Studio: Elisha Lim" (curvemag.com)
Artists often express the political sentiments of their environment. For cartoonist Elisha Lim, the personal is political, and her work illustrates a more inclusive vision of community.
Preston Jones: Don Henley talks about the Eagles' latest album, changes in the industry and more (McClatchy Newspapers)
If most bands were to go nearly 30 years between albums, they might agonize over the direction and tenor their new music should take, how time has changed them individually and collectively, and whether they will still be considered relevant.
James Hillis: NBC's Bob Costas Discusses Gays in Sports (afterelton.com)
The Olympics' anchor and renowned sportscaster speaks out on the Matthew Mitcham controversy.
PAUL CONSTANT: "Finite Jest: David Foster Wallace 1962-2008" (thestranger.com)
Wallace has, by his own hand, performed that by-now-familiar weird alchemy-think Hunter S. Thompson, think Ernest Hemingway, think Spalding Gray-to suddenly transform the mammoth, endlessly bounteous fields of his imagination into A Finite Collection of Books Written by a Suicide...
Chic lit (guardian.co.uk)
Actor Emily Mortimer brings literary heroines like Anna Karenina to life. But what does she like to curl up with at night? Jess Cartner-Morley finds out.
Lesbian Scientistics: The "Rolling Stone" comedy issue (afterellen.com)
Tina Fey, Mindy Kaling and Wanda Sykes are among our favorite funny ladies who share anecdotes on their career thus far.
Commentoon: Working Mom Flip Flop (womensenews.org)
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and cooler than seasonal.
Next Year's Nominees Announced
Rock Hall
Run-D.M.C. could "Walk This Way" into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
The 1980s rap act, along with Metallica and the Stooges, are among the nine nominees for next year's hall of fame class, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation announced Monday.
The other nominees are guitarist Jeff Beck, singer Wanda Jackson, Little Anthony and the Imperials, War, Bobby Womack, and disco and R&B group Chic.
The list is notable for the wide range of musical genres represented - hip-hop, metal, punk, disco and R&B - and the large number of first-time candidates. Only Chic, the Stooges and Jackson have been previously nominated.
Rock Hall
London Concert
Peace One Day
Jude Law and Annie Lennox were some of the stars at the Peace One Day concert in London.
Hosted by Law at the Royal Albert Hall, performances came from Bryan Adams, John Legend and Peter Gabriel while Lenny Kravitz and Kofi Annan sent messages of support.
The Peace One Day campaign was first founded in 1999 by actor turned filmmaker Jeremy Gilley.
By 2001, his efforts resulted in the UN adopting the first ever day of global ceasefire on September 21 which has since been observed by a number of countries.
This year, all parties in Afghanistan recognised Peace Day and allowed Unicef to carry out vital immunisation on more than a million children in the country.
Peace One Day
Savannah Film Festival To Honor
Malcolm McDowell
Malcolm McDowell, who starred in the 1971 film classic "A Clockwork Orange," will be honored with a lifetime achievement award at the 11th annual Savannah Film Festival.
The festival, hosted by the Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Ga., will run Oct. 25-Nov. 1.
"A Clockwork Orange" will be screened back-to-back with McDowell's 2007 film "Never Apologize," a documentary about the late British stage and film director Lindsay Anderson, who was a mentor to the 65-year-old actor.
Movies to be screened at the festival include Charlie Kaufman's "Synechdoche, New York," Philippe Claudel's "I've Loved You So Long," Mark Herman's "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" and the French classroom drama "The Class," which took the top prize at this year's Cannes Film Festival.
Malcolm McDowell
For Sale Again On eBay
Elvis Is Alive Museum
The Elvis Is Alive Museum is once again for sale on eBay. The museum's owner, Andy Key of Mississippi, says military duties will keep him away from home for at least five months.
The 39-year-old Key set a minimum starting bid of $15,000 on the listing, which ends Friday. He bought the museum on eBay last year for $8,300.
The collection includes photographs, books, FBI files, DNA reports and other memorabilia that aim to support the theory that Elvis never died.
Bill Beeny, a Baptist minister who founded the museum in 1990 in Missouri, says he has no plans to buy it back.
Elvis Is Alive Museum
Court Backs Bollywood
"Hari Puttar"
A New Delhi court on Monday dismissed a lawsuit by Hollywood studio Warner Bros against the makers of Bollywood film "Hari Puttar" over its title, lawyers for both sides said.
Warner Bros, which owns the rights to the blockbuster "Harry Potter" movies, argued the Indian film sounded too similar to the name of their young wizard hero.
"The case has been dismissed. The court said that Warner Bros had known the title of the film since 2005 and had delayed bringing the case to court until the last moment," defending lawyer Pratibha Singh told AFP.
The Delhi High Court added that consumers who read the "Harry Potter" books, written by J.K. Rowling, were sufficiently educated to know "Hari Puttar" was different, Singh said.
"Hari Puttar"
Revelation Lauded
Lucy Maud Montgomery
The revelation that beloved author Lucy Maud Montgomery, who wrote the Anne of Green Gables books, committed suicide in 1942 is being lauded for helping generate public discussion on mental health issues.
Montgomery's battle with mental illness was known for many years, but confirmation of her death by a drug overdose at the age of 67 only came this weekend in an article written by her granddaughter, Kate Macdonald Butler, in a national newspaper.
"I have come to feel very strongly that the stigma surrounding mental illness will be forever upon us as a society until we sweep away the misconception that depression happens to other people, not to us - and most certainly not to our heroes and icons," she wrote.
Kismet Baun, communications director for the Canadian Mental Health Association, said unlike the stories Montgomery wrote, her life didn't have a happy ending, but some good can result by promoting public discussion.
Lucy Maud Montgomery
4.68-Carat Diamond
'Sweet Caroline'
The good times have never seemed so good for one Michigan man who found a diamond Saturday in an Arkansas state park. Richard Burke, a retired high school counselor and golf coach from Flint, found a 4.68-carat white diamond at the Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro.
He named the diamond "Sweet Caroline," after his wife Carol and their favorite song by Neil Diamond.
The couple had been in Colorado panning for gold and hunting for fossils and then drove 950 miles to Murfreesboro to dig at Crater of Diamonds.
Assistant Superintendent Bill Henderson said Saturday's find was the 612th diamond found this year by park visitors.
'Sweet Caroline'
Dig Exposes Ice Age Pothole
NYC
Crews excavating the World Trade Center site this summer for the foundations of a new skyscraper have uncovered features carved into the bedrock by glaciers about 20,000 years ago, including a 40-foot-deep pothole.
Exposing the solid rock beneath at the ground zero site in lower Manhattan is critical for supporting what will be Tower 4 of the new World Trade Center, being built by Silverstein Properties.
While removing the overlying soil is an engineering necessity, the digging has given scientists a rare window into the deep past and formations like the huge pothole.
"There are areas in local parks that have small vertical potholes exposed," Cheryl J. Moss, the senior geologist at Mueser Rutledge, told The New York Times. "But I'm not aware of anything in the city with a whole, self-contained depression on this scale."
NYC
Weekend Box Office
'Lakeview Terrace'
Audiences paid up to see Samuel L. Jackson go nuts on his new neighbors in the thriller "Lakeview Terrace," which debuted as the weekend's No. 1 movie with $15 million.
The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Sunday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Monday by Media By Numbers LLC:
1. "Lakeview Terrace," Sony Screen Gems, $15,004,672, 2,464 locations, $6,090 average, $15,004,672, one week.
2. "Burn After Reading," Focus, $11,028,257, 2,657 locations, $4,151 average, $36,135,221, two weeks.
3. "My Best Friend's Girl," Lionsgate, $8,265,357, 2,604 locations, $3,174 average, $8,265,357, one week.
4. "Igor," MGM, $7,803,347, 2,339 locations, $3,336 average, $7,803,347, one week.
5. "Righteous Kill," Overture Films, $7,424,479, 3,152 locations, $2,355 average, $28,534,233, two weeks.
6. "Tyler Perry's the Family That Preys," Lionsgate, $7,271,899, 2,070 locations, $3,513 average, $28,128,159, two weeks.
7. "The Women," Picturehouse, $5,417,779, 2,995 locations, $1,809 average, $19,321,011, two weeks.
8. "Ghost Town," DreamWorks-Paramount, $5,012,315, 1,505 locations, $3,330 average, $5,012,315, one week.
9. "The Dark Knight," Warner Bros., $2,915,174, 1,905 locations, $1,530 average, $521,890,027, 10 weeks.
10. "The House Bunny," Sony, $2,662,650, 2,675 locations, $995 average, $45,587,131, five weeks.
11. "Tropic Thunder," DreamWorks-Paramount, $2,556,241, 2,333 locations, $1,096 average, $106,805,722, six weeks.
12. "Mamma Mia!," Universal, $1,046,575, 1,121 locations, $934 average, $141,192,290, 10 weeks.
13. "Death Race," Universal, $1,036,105, 1,240 locations, $836 average, $34,918,855, five weeks.
14. "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," MGM, $951,512, 637 locations, $1,494 average, $19,394,888, six weeks.
15. "Traitor," Overture Films, $946,744, 1,407 locations, $673 average, $22,372,692, four weeks.
16. "Bangkok Dangerous," Lionsgate, $844,608, 1,349 locations, $626 average, $14,535,371, three weeks.
17. "Fly Me to the Moon," Summit, $776,759, 662 locations, $1,173 average, $11,005,828, six weeks.
18. "Journey to the Center of the Earth," Warner Bros., $768,325, 675 locations, $1,138 average, $99,096,933, 11 weeks.
19. "Babylon A.D.," Fox, $754,936, 1,013 locations, $745 average, $21,709,956, four weeks.
20. "Disaster Movie," Lionsgate, $660,627, 971 locations, $680 average, $13,600,376, four weeks.
'Lakeview Terrace'
In Memory
Thomas Doerflein
Thomas Doerflein, the zoo keeper in charge of rearing Berlin zoo's superstar polar bear Knut, has died, police said on Monday.
There were no signs of any foul play and so far no indications the 44-year-old committed suicide although investigations were continuing, a police spokeswoman said.
Daily newspaper Berliner Zeitung said in an article to be published Tuesday that Doerflein was found dead in his flat in the Wilmersdorf area of Berlin.
Knut shot to fame as a cub in 2007, drawing huge crowds and even appearing on the cover of glossy US magazine Vanity Fair. Now an adult, Knut is now showing disturbed behaviour, animal welfare groups say.
Thomas Doerflein
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