A dose of reality not a bad thing right now. Bumped by carol in the interest of sanity. Originally posted 2008-03-11 08:22:47 -0500.

If you are old enough, in 4th grade, accustomed to jig saw puzzles, and then looking at a map of the world, you might have thought: "gees, this rounded protruding part of South America looks as if it could fit right into this shallow depression along the edge of Africa." (Okay, I know that fourth graders don't talk like that, but hopefully you get the picture.)

from the mailbag

Tonight at 6:30PST/9:30EST!
Call in number for the show is (718) 508-9410! Call in and hijack the thread at your leisure...

Tonights topics include:

• Should Obama pay off clinton's debt?
• McCain "Losing his bearings": will the "age card" become the new "race card" in this campaign?
• The situations in Burma, Tibet and Darfur: how to promote freedom and human rights in a post-Bush world?
• Vito Fossella: another House Republican falls to scandal--is the New York/New England Republican nearing extinction?
• Conservatives "happier than liberals": gee, I wonder why?

Dust off those talking points and debating skills for another edition of Don't Hijack My Thread! Or listen in at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/epradio

Considering the demographics of AOL users, 'nuf said.

promoted by roxy

It's kind of humorous... in article after article on the ePluribus Media Journal and in commentaries on this community, Aaron Barlow has been "battling" David Horowitz over Academic Freedom and Horowitz's faux concern over students rights.

Aaron's latest, Student Bill of Rights suggesting some compromises, was published this past Monday on the ePluribus Media Journal.

So Aaron's funny bone was mostly tickled to discover that Horowitz lifted Academic Freedom and Student Rights in Politicized Institutions in its almost full blown glory (with just a couple, telling omissions, but more about those later). Now, as with all journal pieces, the rights to reprint revert immediately to the author. Since Aaron is a proponent of Creative Commons, the lifting didn't bother him.

From yesterday's Wall Street Journal, specifically from Andrew LaVallee's article Newspaper-Circulation Drop Sharpens, we learn that of the big ten newspapers, for eight, the numbers are sharply down -- ranging from a drop of 5.13 percent (LA Times) to a drop of 1.79 at the Houston Chronicle. Down 4.70%, The Arizona Republic, where my dad worked for 30 years, lost almost as much circulation as the Los Angeles rag did. As LaVallee reports:

Most of the nation's biggest newspapers saw circulation tumble at an increased rate, a sign that the migration of readers online may be picking up speed.

Just two of the ten showed gains, and those tiny. USA Today is up .27% and The Wall Street Journal is up .35%.

[Though, it would be interesting to research the cost of those subscriptions. In an attempt to lull me back after I balked at the $300 year subscription rate for the WSJ, they got me with their $99 special... a 2/3s off bargain basement sale that would make K-Mart proud.)

But while the big national guns are struggling, the health of the little guys at the community level tell a different story.

I was hoping that Jim Staro would post more information about this... just saw it via the Vets4Politics

This is a straight blockquote, but I thought the one comment on the Des Moines paper so incredibly sad.

Associated Press:

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Sens. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and Russ Feingold, D-Wis., introduced legislation Tuesday requiring the Veterans Administration to track veteran suicides.

Roxy's been working behind the scenes and has created an account for us at Click to Blue, which distributes ads to websites throughout the internet. You can see the ads in the top banner on this site as well as on the right menu.

ePluribus Media gets a few cents for every clickthrough on the ads (just like for the google ads in the right menu). It's not a lot -- over four years I think we've collected maybe 120 dollars from Google ads. Standingup or Roxy can correct me on that figure.

Although these tools are available on the old ePluribus Media Scoop site, I thought I would recap them here, just for the convenience of the Race and New Media participants.

A Reminder of Why Fact-Checking is Important

...check out the DVD Shattered Glass, which as the Amazon review notes: "tells the true story of fraudulent Washington, D.C. journalist Stephen Glass (Christensen), who rose to meteoric heights as a young writer in his 20s, becoming a staff writer at The New Republic for three years (1995-1998), where 27 of his 41 published stories were either partially or completely made up."

Click Read More for the Guidelines and Tenets

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:
Kathryn Hohlwein, President and Founder
The Readers of Homer, Inc
Tel: 917.597.2520
Email khohlwein@mindspring.com
Website URL: http://www.thereadersofhomer.org

The Readers of Homer Announce a Reading of HOMER’S ILIAD AT GRACE CATHEDRAL

A PUBLIC READING BY and For VETERANS
Grace Cathedral
1100 California Street
San Francisco, California
MAY the 27th, 2008 NOON to 9 P.M.

I don't know about others, but I am pretty tired and disgusted by the hate-group boot stomp that has become the democratic presidential primary. It's like the whole show has attracted every racist, misogynist, and nutcase on the planet.

Being a hopeful sort, I woke up this morning with a vision of my dream ticket: Al Gore and John Edwards.

Okay, okay, okay. I hear you. Two white men and from the same geographic area to boot. But there you have it. My subconcious at work.