:: NEWS COCKTAIL aka BlahBlahBlog ::

:: So Weird ::

From Chuck Shepherd's News of the Weird

LEAD STORY
Among the ice cream flavors offered recently at Ice Cream City in Namco Nanja Town in Tokyo's Toshima-ku (and posted on the Web site of the English-language Mainichi Daily News) are these: spinach, garlic, tomato, seaweed, oyster, red wine, goat, chicken, lettuce and potato, wheat, shark fin, and something called "raw horse flesh." Each flavor's package is shown, mouth-wateringly photographed. [Mainichi Daily News Web site, 6-29-04]

Update
News of the Weird has reported several times in the last 12 years on Kopi Luwak, the ultra-expensive coffee derived from beans that have been eaten and excreted by civet cats in Indonesia. In July Massimo Marcone of the University of Guelph (Canada) published his examination (in the journal Food Research International) of how taste is affected by the beans' journey through the civet. First, the civet instinctively chooses only the ripest beans. Then, digestive biochemicals penetrate the outer layer of the bean as it passes through the GI tract. Internal fermentation by digestive enzymes adds a unique flavor ("earthy, musty, smooth and rich with jungle and chocolate undertones"). Also, proteins are leached out during digestion, thus removing a source of coffee's bitterness. (On the other hand, Kopi Luwak doesn't particularly distinguish itself from other coffee in human blind taste tests.) [Montreal Gazette, 7-29-04]

Readers' Choice
Landscape contractor Blair Davis, who lives in a Houston suburb and whose own yard's flora includes the Texas Star hibiscus, was the object of a SWAT-type raid by the Harris County Organized Crime and Narcotics Task Force in July. A neighbor had reported Davis as having drugs, in that the Texas Star hibiscus somewhat vaguely resembles the marijuana plant, and the prestigious Task Force didn't know any better. Davis said that an agent also asked him warily what he planned to do with the watermelons and cantaloupes that were growing in his back yard. [Houston Chronicle, 7-29-04]

Send your Weird News to Chuck Shepherd, P.O. Box 18737, Tampa FL 33679 or WeirdNews@earthlink.net

posted by me

:: 8:49:00 AM [+] ::
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:: Bushwhacked Nation ::

Cry, 'Havoc!' and let slip the politics of war
By Molly Ivins
Creators Syndicate

We were bound to get at least one good laugh out of Swift Boat Veterans for Humongous Lies, and what a pip it is. Upon being identified as a lawyer both for the Bush-Cheney campaign and the Swift Boat Liars, Benjamin Ginsberg bravely offered his resignation to the campaign, which has said repeatedly that it has no connection to the Liars.

He made the following poignant argument in a letter to the president, which I know will touch you as deeply as it did me (emphasis added): "I cannot begin to express my sadness that my legal representations have become a distraction for the critical issues at hand in this election. I feel I cannot let that continue, so I have decided to resign as national counsel to your campaign to ensure that the giving of legal advice to decorated military veterans, which was entirely within the boundaries of the law, doesn't distract from the real issues upon which you and the country should be focused."

Do you love it?

The Swift Boat Liars are of interest only as a perfect case for those in media studies to see exactly how this stuff spreads, although it does dig up yet again the issue of how George W. Bush spent the Vietnam War. Here's a review of the state of play on that story. USA Today recently rehashed the remaining questions:

• Why did Bush, described by some of his fellow officers as a talented and enthusiastic pilot, stop flying fighter jets in the spring of 1972 and fail to take the annual physical exam required by all pilots?

• What explains the gap in the president's Guard service in 1972-73, a period when commanders in Texas and Alabama say they never saw him report for duty and records show no pay to Bush when he was supposed to be on duty in Alabama?

• Did Bush receive preferential treatment in getting into the Guard and getting a coveted pilot slot?

Read more here.

Other recent Ivins columns

posted by me

:: 9:39:00 AM [+] ::
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:: "Ohio Man Offers Vote for Sale on EBay" ::

ELYRIA, Ohio (AP) - It took authorities just 12 hours to hear about and stop a man's eBay offer to sell his vote.

James Pengov, 36, of Elyria, said he was hoping to land enough money from selling his vote to pay medical bills.

"Up for auction is MY VOTE!," said Pengov's Aug. 19 posting on the online marketplace. The item, advertised as "Presidential Vote for Sale," with a starting bid of $50, was yanked 12 hours after it was posted.

"Simply tell me who to vote for, after paying the auction, and it will be so," his listing said. "If you care, buy my vote and you will have twice the power in the upcoming election!!!!"

Pengov said he didn't know that selling a vote was illegal.

posted by me

:: 1:09:00 AM [+] ::
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:: "Shhh!" ::

All That Secrecy Is Expensive
From Wired News
By Noah Shachtman
Not only is the U.S. government keeping too many secrets, it's spending too much money to do it. That's the conclusion of a government watchdog group, which estimates more than $6.5 billion was spent last year keeping data under wraps.

posted by me

:: 10:09:00 AM [+] ::
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:: Are you down w/ RNC? ::

From a Greg Palast e-newsletter that I received:

Prostitutes with AIDS to Seduce Republican Visitors
Wednesday, August 25, 2004

[I couldn't make this up ... direct from the Republican National Committee website ....]

"NEXT WEEK, people who hate Republicans plan to release swarms of mice in New York City to terrorize delegates to the National Republican Convention.

"Republican-haters plan on dressing up as RNC volunteers, and giving false directions to little blue hair ladies from Kansas, sending them into the sectors of New York City that are unfit for human habitation.

"They plan on throwing pies and Lord knows what else at Republican visitors to the city. Prostitutes with AIDS plan to seduce Republican visitors, and discourage the use of condoms ...."

For GregPalast-dot-commies who want more Pop-eyed Paranoia in Party Hats, go to the Republican National Committee site and click on "protesters supporting Kerry."

I do hope the RNC can stop these evil doings in the Big Apple: the idea of people dressing up as Republicans gives me the creeps. And denying Republicans condoms only encourages them to reproduce.

********

posted by me

:: 10:00:00 PM [+] ::
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:: FOCUSING ON UNDECIDED VOTERS ... ::

NOT A VERY SWIFT IDEA
From an e-newsletter
By Arianna Huffington

I've decided: I've had enough of the undecideds.

Thanks to a tidal wave of polls, focus groups, Powerpoint presentations,
slideshows, studies and laboratory dissections, we now know more about
undecided voters than we do about almost anyone else involved in the 2004
campaign - including the candidates themselves.

For instance, it turns out these irresolute souls are more likely to be
white than black, female than male, married than single, and live in the
suburbs rather than large cities. They are less likely to think that
politics is relevant to their lives. They are likely to be younger and
less educated than the general electorate - but older and more affluent
than those who have committed to a candidate. Most will not make their
decision until the week before the election.

And, perhaps most important of all, undecided voters love cartoons, talk
shows, "CSI: Miami", and reality shows like "Big Brother" and "Fear
Factor" (no word yet on whether they prefer Coke or Pepsi, boxers or
briefs, Alien or Predator - but I'm sure that info is being tabulated by
some highly paid polling company as we speak).

The problem is, this fixation with all things undecided is threatening to
turn a campaign that should be about big ideas, big decisions and the
very, very big differences between the worldviews of John Kerry and George
Bush into a narrow trench war fought over ludicrous charges.

As a group, undecided voters long to be soothed and reassured. And the
danger in playing to this fickle crowd is that the message is tailored not
to offend rather than to challenge and inspire.

Witness Kerry on Iraq, President Bush's greatest political liability.
"Before you go to battle," he said in his powerful and unambiguous
convention statement, "you have to be able to look a parent in the eye and
truthfully say: 'I tried everything possible to avoid sending your son or
daughter into harm's way. But we had no choice. We had to protect the
American people, fundamental American values from a threat that was real
and imminent.'"

That is the right message on Iraq, and the one he should stick to. And if
undecided voters find it too bold and unmodulated, tough luck.

The repugnant non-story of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth is an
irony-drenched exhibit A in the case against focusing on undecided voters.
Consider: After being ardently wooed, courted, pursued and catered to by
Team Kerry, a sizeable chunk of this capricious lot has taken the noxious
bait being dangled by the anti-Kerry slime machine and swallowed it hook,
line and stinker.

According to a new poll by the National Annenberg Election Survey, 46
percent of undecided and persuadable voters say they find the group's vile
ads "very or somewhat believable".

Believable?! But then why are we surprised that the folks who are still on
the fence nearly four years into one of the most disastrous and polarizing
presidencies in American history find foaming-at-the-mouth accusations
that John Kerry might have shot himself because it would look good on his
resume "believable"?

The 2004 election is nothing less than a referendum on the soul of our
country - a political event with unprecedented significance for our lives
and the lives of our children. The Kerry campaign cannot allow it to
devolve into a debate over whether John Kerry bled enough to warrant a
Purple Heart.

And since no one can doubt that more scurrilous attacks are coming Kerry's
way, it is imperative that in the future the right answers to all wrong
questions be offered immediately. And not for one moment should they cause
the Kerry campaign to relinquish its attacks on the president's failures
at home and abroad or cloud its alternative moral vision of what America
can be with George Bush safely back in Crawford.

This is all the more important since, sadly, the media will continue to
make no distinctions in the volume and content of their coverage between
true claims and false ones. According to the Annenberg study, nearly six
in 10 people saw or heard the smears, despite a small ad buy in only three
swing states - thanks to the obsessive, unfair and imbalanced media
coverage, which gave greater play to the politically motivated lies of a
few than to the official Navy records.

By reframing the discussion on his terms and not Karl Rove's, Kerry will
not only inoculate himself against the next round of smears, he will also
go a long way toward expanding the electorate by convincing unlikely
voters - the 100 million eligible voters who didn't vote in 2000 - that
this election, and their participation in it, would make a huge difference
in their lives and the life of our country.

And, as an added bonus, he could free himself from the soul-sapping
tyranny of trying to please and placate America's vacillating - and
terminally unreliable - undecided voters.

© 2004 ARIANNA HUFFINGTON.
DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.

---
posted by me

:: 12:46:00 AM [+] ::
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:: "New York Judge Rules City Can Ban Protesters From Park" ::

From The NY Times
By CHRISTINE HAUSER and CARLA BARANAUCKAS

A State Supreme Court judge in Manhattan ruled today that New York City can ban protesters from using the Great Lawn in Central Park on Sunday for a rally, the largest that has been planned to coincide with the Republican National Convention, which begins on Monday.

Justice Jacqueline W. Silbermann wrote in her ruling that the protesters' group, United for Peace and Justice, was "guilty of inexcusable and inequitable delay" in bringing its case against the city.

The group sued to try to force the city to grant a permit to rally in the park after months of negotiation failed to produce an agreement on where the demonstration could be held.

Read more here.

posted by me

:: 9:09:00 PM [+] ::
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:: The P2P War: CNET News.com reports ::

Industry offers alternative to P2P bill
The proposal, from a handful of telecom firms and other groups, takes a softer approach than a bill introduced in June.

College P2P use on the decline?
Music industry and university leaders say authorized services and lawsuits are helping to stem campus file swapping.

Justice Dept. takes P2P with 'grain of salt'
The recording industry, not federal prosecutors, should take lead in suing peer-to-peer pirates, a Justice Department official says.

Addtl. coverage.

posted by me

:: 9:28:00 PM [+] ::
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:: "Bin Laden's Driver Charged at Guantanamo" ::

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba - Osama bin Laden's chauffeur was formally charged Tuesday at the first U.S. military tribunal to convene since World War II, and the defendant's lawyer quickly challenged the panel over its impartially and questioned the proceeding's fairness.

Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a 34-year-old Yemeni, declined to enter a plea until motions filed by his military-appointed lawyer attacking the legality of the proceeding are decided, probably in November.

Read more here.

posted by me

:: 9:20:00 PM [+] ::
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:: So Weird ::

From Chuck Shepherd's News of the Weird
Great Art!
Cape Town (South Africa)'s Old Town House museum has scheduled an exhibit for September featuring familiar 17th-century Dutch Master paintings, but with all of them turned to face the wall, which curator Andrew Lamprecht said will be a "conceptual art intervention" that turns the pieces "into something new and unexpected" which will "force gallery goers to reconsider their preconceptions about the art." "These are fascinating things to see from behind," he said. [Reuters, 8-3-04]

Send your Weird News to Chuck Shepherd, P.O. Box 18737, Tampa FL 33679 or WeirdNews@earthlink.net

posted by me

:: 9:25:00 PM [+] ::
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:: Benway's in the house ::

Doctors faulted in torture
From Newsday.com

LONDON - Doctors working for the U.S. military in Iraq collaborated with interrogators in the abuse of detainees at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison, profoundly breaching medical ethics and human rights, a bioethicist charges in The Lancet medical journal.

In a scathing analysis of the behavior of military doctors, nurses and medics, Dr. Steven Miles of the University of Minnesota School of Medicine calls for reform of military medicine and an official investigation into the role played by physicians and other medical staff in the torture scandal.

He cites evidence that doctors or medics falsified death certificates to cover up homicides, hid evidence of beatings and revived a prisoner so he could be further tortured. No reports of abuses were initiated by medical personnel until the official investigation into Abu Ghraib began, he found.

"The medical system collaborated with designing and implementing psychologically and physically coercive interrogations," Miles said in this week's edition of Lancet.

"Army officials stated that a physician and a psychiatrist helped design, approve and monitor interrogations at Abu Ghraib."

Read more here.

posted by me

:: 11:14:00 AM [+] ::
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:: Campaign 2K4: News from the front ::

Kerry: Bush Lets Groups Do 'Dirty Work'

BOSTON (AP) - John Kerry fought back Thursday against campaign allegations that he exaggerated his combat record in Vietnam, accusing President Bush of using a Republican front group "to do his dirty work" and challenging Bush to debate their wartime service records.

"Well, if he wants to have a debate about our service in Vietnam, here is my answer: Bring it on," said the Democratic presidential candidate, reviving an old war and campaign slogan amid strong urging from party leaders for him to respond to two-week-old GOP assertions.

As Kerry denounced the criticism as "lies about my record," aides privately acknowledged that they and their boss had been slow to recognize the damage being done to his political standing.

Kerry won three Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star and Silver Star for Vietnam War combat. Bush served stateside in the Texas Air National Guard. Both men say the other served honorably, but their supporters are pouring tens of thousands of dollars into television ads and other tactics to insist otherwise.

MoveOn.org, a liberal group funded by Kerry supporters, is airing an ad accusing Bush of using family connections to avoid the Vietnam War. It also asks the president to denounce an ad that aired early this month by "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth," a GOP-leaning group of Vietnam veterans who say Kerry exaggerated his actions to win Vietnam War medals.

Read more here.

posted by me

:: 9:34:00 PM [+] ::
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:: bingo handjob nation ::

R.E.M. joins pro-Kerry tour
From Athens Weekly News
By: Brad Aaron

R.E.M. has rearranged its upcoming tour schedule to play five shows with Bruce Springsteen in support of the John Kerry presidential campaign.

The shows are part of the "Vote for Change" tour, a series of fundraising performances to be concentrated in the swing states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Iowa, Michigan and Florida. Performing in different cities across those states from October 1 through 10 will be R.E.M. and Springsteen, Pearl Jam, Dave Matthews Band, Dixie Chicks, John Mellencamp, Bonnie Raitt, James Taylor, Jackson Browne, Death Cab for Cutie, My Morning Jacket and Jurassic 5, among others.

R.E.M. manager Bertis Downs says the impetus for the tour came from an April meeting of about 50 managers and artists who gathered in New York City to discuss their respective plans for election season.

"Our position has been [that] we want to do something," says Downs. "A lot of other people were sort of thinking the same thing."

Springsteen's manager Jon Landau conceived the notion of having different artists play different cities in the same battleground state on the same night-a break from the traditional one-shot benefit concert where performers line up for short sets on the same stage.

Proceeds from the shows will benefit America Coming Together (ACT), a pro-Democrat group which bills itself as "the largest voter contact program in history." For the concerts, ACT has partnered with the political action committee of MoveOn, a popular and unapologetically anti-Bush organization that defines its mission as bringing "ordinary people back into politics."

"We all agreed we should try to raise money to go into actual get out the vote efforts," Downs says, "so ACT seemed like the right beneficiary."

But for R.E.M. to participate, the band had to alter plans for a fall U.S. tour in support of its latest album, "Around the Sun."

"We wanted to do this thing, and we needed to fit everybody else's time period," says Downs, "so we essentially junked our first tour and put it back together as best we could."

R.E.M. will appear with Springsteen in Philadelphia, Cleveland, Ann Arbor, St. Paul and Orlando. Also on the bill are John Fogerty and Bright Eyes.

"Our goal is to change the direction of the government and change the current administration come November," wrote Springsteen in a recent New York Times op-ed.

As the weathered campaign sign in one window of R.E.M.'s downtown office can attest, Downs backed John Kerry long before the Massachusetts senator sealed the Democratic nomination. And for the first time since 1992's "Automatic for the People," the band's political persuasions will be evident on record with "Around the Sun," set for release on October 5.

"Some of the songs seem to be more political than others," including "The Outsiders" and "Final Straw," says Downs. R.E.M. released the first incarnation of "Final Straw" last year in response to the war in Iraq. A different mix appears on the "Future Soundtrack for America" compilation, which also benefits MoveOn.

"There's nothing on the record that says 'Vote for Kerry,'" Downs continues. "As Michael [Stipe] writes he writes kind of impressionistically about what's on his heart, what's on his mind."

Though R.E.M.'s last few records have lacked the populist fire of eighties sets like "Document" and "Green," Downs says band members have remained active.

"They've done some cause-related stuff over the years, and they've certainly given money to candidates and tried to do their part to help out as citizens. That's been the same whether the songs were reflecting it or not."

For instance, singer Stipe served last November as a judge for MoveOn's "Bush in 30 Seconds" contest, which awarded prizes for ad spots challenging Bush policies. Earlier this year, Stipe and bassist Mike Mills helped out with publicity for the launch of the liberal Air America Radio network. Mills also went public recently to challenge new Federal Communications Commission policy weakening media ownership regulations.

As for the music, says Downs, "There's no master plan. There's no, like, 'Let's veer back toward being more political.' I think it's just more of what materialized when the artists got together and started creating."

The new material, no doubt, will be a prominent feature of the Vote for Change shows. Dates and ticket information are available here.

ALSO
LISTEN TO LEAVING NEW YORK

posted by me

:: 10:57:00 PM [+] ::
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:: RE OK City ::

[NOTE: Someone that I considered a friend once asked me, in reference to the Oklahoma City bombing: 'I killed 161 people for my cause today. What did you do?' I was speechless that this person would say something so extraordinarily -- excuse me -- and just completely fucking stupid. I refused to dignify the idiocy with an answer. How would one reply to such a revolting and doltish question anyway. OK. Perhaps by saying, 'I DIDN'T kill 161 people... an INFINITELY superior position. I bring this up because Terry Nichols addressed his jury today & below is a story conerning the event.]

Nichols Asks Forgiveness After Sentencing
McALESTER, Okla. (AP) - Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols, addressing a court for the first time, pledged his allegiance to Christianity and asked victims of the blast for forgiveness Monday as a judge sentenced him to 161 consecutive life sentences.

"Words cannot adequately express the sorrow I have had over the years for the grief that so many have endured and continue to suffer," Nichols said from the witness stand. "I am truly sorry for what occurred."

District Judge Steven Taylor gave Nichols life without parole on each of 161 counts of first-degree murder.

The judge called Nichols a "terrorist" and the "No. 1 mass murderer in all of U.S. history."

"Your criminal acts in this case are historic in proportion," the judge said. "What could motivate you to do this? There are no answers."

Read more here.

posted by me

:: 10:25:00 PM [+] ::
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:: "FBI probes beheading hoax on Web" ::

From CNET News.com
Reuters

SAN FRANCISCO--A San Francisco computer expert duped international media on Saturday into believing Islamist kidnappers had executed an American hostage in Iraq by staging his own mock beheading on the Internet.

The FBI questioned Benjamin Vanderford, 22, shortly after the hoax became public. "We will pursue any and all legal avenues for prosecution," said FBI special agent LaRae Quy of the bureau's San Francisco office. "At this point the matter is still under investigation."

The video, which appeared on a Web site used by Islamic militants, showed Vanderford appealing to the United States to leave Iraq. The Web format was that used by al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and was introduced by a headline that said it showed Zarqawi killing an American.

"If we don't (leave Iraq), everyone is gonna be killed in this way ... I have been offered for exchange for prisoners here in Iraq," the terrified-looking man said, rocking back and forth in his chair, his hands tied behind his back.

The video showed a hand with a large knife apparently slicing the neck of a limp body.

But the blood was dye, the setting was a friend's garage, the Koran reading was a tape and ...

Read more here.

posted by me

:: 11:31:00 AM [+] ::
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:: "Tributes flow for Cartier-Bresson" ::

From Expatica
PARIS, Aug 5 (AFP) - Lavish tributes were paid Thursday to Henri Cartier-Bresson, the pioneering French photographer and co-founder of the Magnum picture agency who died earlier this week at the age of 95.

In France newspapers carried several-page spreads detailing his life and works, and radio and television stations announced a series of special programmes.

"Most of his peers saw in Henri Cartier-Bresson ... the greatest photographer of modern times. For ordinary mortals he was a kind of one-eyed demi-god who invented the world of the 20th century - in the sense that he who discovers a treasure is its inventor," Liberation newspaper said.

Read more here.

posted by me

:: 9:12:00 AM [+] ::
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:: BEAT BUSH ::

Musicians band together in Michigan to drum out Bush
The Grand Rapids Press
Pearl Jam, Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne are headed for Grand Rapids as part of unprecedented set of fund-raising concerts aimed at unseating President Bush in November.

The concerts in nine swing states feature more than 20 musical acts -- from Bruce Springsteen to the Dixie Chicks -- starting in early October.

The shows take an unusual approach: as many as six concerts on a single day in cities across the states expected to decide the November presidential race. Tour stops include Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Ohio, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Wisconsin and the key state in 2000, Florida.

Read more here.

ALSO, here's a related e-mail that I received from ACT (America Coming Together):

Today, ACT and MoveOn PAC are very proud to announce our partnership in a truly historic event.

The Vote for Change Tour (October 1-10) includes Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band, Bonnie Raitt, Dave Matthews Band, Dixie Chicks, Jackson Brown, John Mellencamp, Kenny "Babyface" Edmonds, Pearl Jam and R.E.M and others.

This historic tour will visit 28 cities in 9 battleground states. Tickets will go on sale to the public on Saturday, August 21st. All proceeds from ticket sales will benefit ACT's work in the battleground states.

Get more details and tell your friends about this historic tour.

Never before has such a respected and powerful group of artists come together for a single concert tour. Hundreds of thousands of music fans will unite for a common cause -- ACT's work mobilizing millions of voters to elect democrats in federal, state and local elections in 2004, and MoveOn PAC's work to give ordinary people a voice in the electoral process.

The artists' official statement reads:

"(We are) excited to annouce the Vote for Change concert tour. Vote for Change is a loose coalition of musicians brought together by a single idea -- the need to make a change in the direction of our country. We share a belief that this is the most important election of our lifetime. We are fighting for a government that is open, rational, just and progressive. And we intend to be heard."

Tickets go on sale through Ticketmaster on August 21st. More details available here.

A limited number of pre-sale tickets are available from MoveOn PAC.

By purchasing tickets to Vote for Change, you will be making a political contribution to ACT, subject to the limitations and restrictions of federal campaign laws. Contributions to ACT are not deductible for federal income tax purposes.

This is more than a concert tour; this is a call to action. Millions of concerned citizens and activists will be working for change in the days leading up to the November 2nd elections, but the hard work is already underway. Please don't wait. Get involved in ACT's work today.

Find grassroots organizers and events in your area here.

This tour is an extraordinary example of Americans coming together to win this election and change the direction of the country. We are deeply grateful to the artists and their managers for creating this tour. I believe when the book is written about this election, the Vote for Change Tour will be given an important place in the victories of hundreds of Democrats in federal, state and local elections on November 2nd.

Please share this message with your friends!

posted by me

:: 10:34:00 AM [+] ::
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:: "Kerry Leads Bush in Post-Convention Poll" ::

From WashingtonPost.com
Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry emerged from his national convention last week with a small lead over President Bush in the race for the White House and improved his standing against the president on both the economy and on who is better qualified to serve as commander in chief, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News Poll.

Read more here.

posted by me

:: 10:12:00 PM [+] ::
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:: So Weird ::

From Chuck Shepherd's News of the Weird

(Here's a note found @ the site: "Chuck Shepherd appeared to be getting too close to his subject matter and thus needs about three more weeks off. Before he left, he picked out some golden oldies to tide you over.")

Lead Story
Autobiography of the Least Interesting Man in America: According to a 1996 Seattle Times feature, Robert Shields, 77, of Dayton, Wash., is the author of perhaps the longest personal diary in history, nearly 38 million words on paper stored in 81 cardboard boxes covering the previous 24 years, in five-minute segments. Example: July 25, 1993, 7 a.m.: "I cleaned out the tub and scraped my feet with my fingernails to remove layers of dead skin." 7:05 a.m.: "Passed a large, firm stool, and a pint of urine. Used 5 sheets of paper." [Seattle Times, 3-17-96]

Great Art!
From time to time News of the Weird has reported on the fluctuating value of the late Italian artist Piero Manzoni's personal feces, which he canned in 1961, 30 grams at a time in 90 tins, as art objects (though, over the years, 45 have reportedly exploded). Their price to collectors has varied from about $28,000 for a tin in 1998 to $75,000 in 1993. In June 2002, the Tate Gallery in London excitedly announced it had purchased tin number 004 for about $38,000. (The price of 30 grams of gold at that time was a little over $300.) [Sydney Morning Herald, 7-1-02]

Send your Weird News to Chuck Shepherd, P.O. Box 18737, Tampa FL 33679 or WeirdNews@earthlink.net or go to www.NewsoftheWeird.com (Perhaps it can wait until after Chuck's break =).

posted by me

:: 12:45:00 AM [+] ::
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