by The Cranky Media Guy

White Guys Rule, D00d!

Is anyone else as giddy as a schoolgirl about George W. Bush's selection of Dick Cheney as his running-mate?  I was worried for a moment that the Republicans would lose their stranglehold on the rich white guy vote.

It's a kinda weird scenario:  Cheney was the head of Bush's V.P. selection committee.  Why didn't George just ask Cheney in the first place and cut out all the rigmarole?  Maybe it was like one of those old movies, where the guy pays no attention to the girl next door through most of the story.  They've gone through the list of everyone who wanted to run with Dubya and rejected them all for one reason or another.  Suddenly, Bush and Cheney's eyes meet across the table.  To George, it's as if he's seeing Dick for the first time.  "Why, you're...beautiful!" he says.  They kiss.  The rest is history.

Dirt Napster

Gee, you couldn't have seen this coming, huh?  The major record labels won their lawsuit against Napster.  The judge ruled that the program was just a means to facilitate piracy. 

This is one of those deals where nobody's completely right or completely wrong.  If you're a recording artist and you want to give away your work, that's your right, but it should be your decision.  No one should be able to give away your work without your consent.

On the other hand, the record companies have done a lot to create demand for things like Napster by being greedy bastards.  The cost of a CD is rapidly approaching the $20 mark and, as I've pointed out here before, the cost of manufacturing them in quantity is below a dollar.  College students, who consume a lot of music, are usually broke and are finding it increasingly difficult to afford CD's.  The record labels have essentially driven them into the arms of "pirates" like Napster.  The obvious solution is for the labels to lower the prices, but don't hold your breath waiting for that to happen. 

"New Economy" Equals Old Recession?

Just in case you were wondering, since last December, 122 dot-com companies announced staff cuts totaling 7,952 workers, according to a survey by New York-based outplacement firm, Challenger, Gray and Christmas.  Retail was the biggest culprit, with 24% of the layoffs, or 1,812 people shown the door.  Speaking of that...

Happy E-trails To:

ClickMed.com

AutoAllies.com

AudioCafe.com

Don't Ask, Don't Campaign?

So, Dick Cheney's daughter Mary is a lesbian.  The Bush people are making noise about how Dubya thinks that the Dickster has a "wonderful family" and so forth.  Since the Republicans are so gosh-darn open-minded, there should be no problem at all if Mary shows up at the convention next week with a "life partner" in tow, right?  How about if the girls hold hands or kiss on the podium when her Daddykins is confirmed as the vice-presidential nominee? Will Mary and her lover be featured in the campaign's TV ads--you know, the way they usually show the candidate's children and their spouses.  One of those happy holiday scenes, maybe? 

Where's The Press On This One?

Since the American press is supposed to be so "liberal", how come they aren't saying a friggin' word about the fact that George W. Bush apparently went AWOL for his last year in the Texas Air National Guard.  The British press has run several stories on this, but the mainstream here in the U.S. has been strangely silent.

According to the British stories, the commanding General of the unit, William Turnipseed and two of Bush's direct commanders have no record that he ever appeared for his last year at Ellington AFB in Houston or Dannelly AFB in Alabama, to which Bush had asked to be assigned.   The Sunday Times of London reported that Bush failed to show up for scheduled medical appointments and drug tests during his final year in the TANG.

There is also the question of what strings were pulled to get George into the unit in the first place, as he was supposedly the least qualified of the 30 candidates who applied for entry.  You kind of expect rich kids to move to the head of the line--not that it's right, mind you--but a potential President who went AWOL is something that the American public really deserves to know about. 

I have to assume that the Democrats know all about this and are just waiting for the right moment to use it against Bush.  They'd be foolish not to, especially since Al Gore actually served time in Vietnam.  Yeah, okay, he was a journalist and there are allegations that he spent much of his time zonked on wacky weed, but hey, he was there.   They can blow the dust off the pictures of Patriotic Al in his uniform and get back some of the VFW vote--especially if they can prove that Dubya cut and ran.

The real question is, where is the "liberal" press on this story?  If Little Billy Clinton telling his draft board what he thought of the military was a story back in '92, well, so is this, for Chrissakes.  Why hasn't it been in every paper in America?  Uh, maybe, just maybe, because they aren't really liberal at all?

Sleazy?  You Decide.

I can't say where this story came from, but a friend on the Left Coast reports that Doug Hickey, the CEO of Critical Path, an email hosting company, recently announced that the company had fantastic Q2 results.

So, what's the big deal?  Well, according to the source, at the exact moment that Hickey was making his announcement, 136 employees were being handed their walking papers.  If true, you have to admit that it's an interesting coinkydink.  How many would the company have laid off if the quarter had been lousy?  I'm guessing the third quarter won't be quite so "fantastic" for 136 families in the Bay Area.

A Nation Shrugs

Republican "candidate" for the presidency, Alan Keyes, dropped out of the race this week.  Writers everywhere scramble to find a new way to define the expression "snowball's chance in Hell."

Our Next Nominee For Creepiest Headline Of The Year Is...

"Digital Surveillance?  You'll Get Used to it"

(Reuters, July 21)