McCain's path to victory through Pa. (CHARLES MAHTESIAN, 10/22/08, Politico)
Facing seemingly limited options for getting to an Electoral College majority, John McCain’s path to victory likely runs through Pennsylvania, a state that no Republican presidential candidate has won in two decades, a state in which he trails in the polls by a wide margin and a state where in the past year more than a half-million new Democrats have been added to the voter registration rolls.It’s an unenviable position to be in, except for one thing: Nearly everyone in a position to know thinks the race for Pennsylvania’s 21 electoral votes is considerably tighter than what recent polls reveal. [...]
Even top Democrats concede that McCain’s deficit in the polls — 11 percentage points, according to the latest Real Clear Politics polling average — isn’t a solid indicator of his chances of carrying the state. On Tuesday, CNN reported that an anxious Rendell had sent two recent memos to the Obama campaign requesting that the Democratic nominee spend more time campaigning in Pennsylvania.
“The polls don’t necessarily reflect what will happen on Election Day,” said T.J. Rooney, the state Democratic Party chairman. “We’re not a state that’s accustomed to huge blowouts.”
Indeed, John F. Kerry carried Pennsylvania in 2004 by just 144,000 votes out of nearly 6 million votes cast. His win was powered, to a large degree, by an enormous 412,000-vote margin out of Philadelphia.
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Jindal Makes a Political Power Play (Chris Cillizza, 10/22/08, Washington Post: The Fix)
On its face, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal's decision to appear in an ad endorsing state Treasurer John Kennedy in his challenge to Sen. Mary Landrieu isn't that big a surprise.After all, Jindal is the Republican governor of the state and Kennedy is his party's Senate nominee.
But, those familiar with Jindal's career -- marked almost entirely by a desire to avoid the appearance of partisanship -- see the endorsement as a sign of Jindal's long term ambitions, ambitions that could include a White House bid down the line.
They point out that this is the first race Jindal has waded into since becoming governor in 2007 (he took a pass on endorsing in any of the primary runoffs that year), and that by aggressively vouching for Kennedy he is putting his popularity and reformer brand to the test in a highly visible way.
Sorting Out the Truth on Obama and ACORN (Angie Drobnic Holan, 10/22/08, Politifact.com)
The primary allegation against ACORN is that its voter registration drives result in many phony registrations. ACORN itself admits that some of its workers, in their attempts to meet registration goals, have turned in registration forms for people who do not exist or don’t live in the geographic area. (Notorious examples include Mickey Mouse and the starting lineup of the Dallas Cowboys.) ACORN says the problems are isolated, and that it works with officials to correct them. They claim to have registered 1.3-million people to vote, so a small number of irregularities are to be expected. (For more on ACORN and the controversy surrounding its voter registration drives, read the St. Petersburg Times story here.)Several states are investigating the group’s voter registration efforts. McCain brought up ACORN at the candidates’ final debate on Oct. 15, 2008, saying that ACORN was “on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy.” The next day, press reports cited anonymous sources saying the Federal Bureau of Investigation was looking into the group, but ACORN said it had had no contact with federal investigators.
On Oct. 17, the Obama campaign blasted the leakers, saying it was evidence that law enforcement was in an “unholy alliance” with partisan political operatives to undermine public confidence in the voting process. The campaign released a letter it sent to Attorney General Michael Mukasey asking for an investigation. “Republican Party officials and operatives nationwide, including the candidates themselves, are formenting specious voter fraud allegations, and there are disturbing indications of official involvement or collusion,” wrote Robert Bauer, general counsel to the Obama campaign.
It’s unknown what the results of the ongoing investigations will be, but past investigations might give us some indication. In 2007 in King County, Wash., prosecutors filed charges against seven ACORN workers and reached a civil agreement with ACORN that the organization would monitor its workers more carefully.
“A joint federal and state investigation has determined that this scheme was not intended to permit illegal voting,” said King County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg at the time. “Instead, the defendants cheated their employer, ACORN, to get paid for work they did not actually perform. ACORN’s lax oversight of their own voter registration drive permitted this to happen.”
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Conservatism reborn: Undoing the me-too generation (Tony Blankley, October 22, 2008 , Washington Times)
Has Miss Noonan been napping up there on Mount Olympus through the last several generations of American politics? She accuses Mrs. Palin of not engaging America in a Socratic dialogue, of using phrases untethered to a political philosophy. Exactly what philosophy are the slogans "Change" and "Hope" tethered to? American presidential campaigns, with very few exceptions, have been little more than slogans shouted in the hope of exciting a crowd. The much admired Obama campaign has been the greatest exemplar of style over substance. However, it is Miss Noonan's completely unsupported sneer at Mrs. Palin's mental capacities that is most revealing.I think that Miss Noonan may have unconsciously touched on what is really going on here when she accuses Mrs. Palin - who is attracting crowds as big if not bigger than any Reagan ever drew - of being a "follower … not a leader." Miss Noonan's unconscious fear may be that it will be precisely Mrs. Palin (and others like her) who will be among the leaders of the about to be re-born conservative movement. I suspect that the conservative movement we start re-building on the ashes of November 4th (even if Mr. McCain wins) will have little use for over-written, over-delicate commentary.
The new movement will be plain spoken and social networked up from the internetted streets, suburbs and small towns of America. It certainly will not listen very attentively to those conservatives who idolatrize Mr. Obama and collaborate in heralding his arrival. They may call their commentary "honesty." I would call it - at the minimum - blindness.
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Travels with Sarah: As Palin tours New Hampshire, signs of Biblical calling, talent on the stump, and a shot at 2012 (DAVID S. BERNSTEIN, October 22, 2008, Boston Phoenix)
The theory has been around since before John McCain picked Palin in late August — it was circulating on religious Christian blogs in early June when news outlets reported that she was on McCain’s short list. After the announcement, it picked up steam — particularly after it was reported that Palin, at the suggestion of her pastor, had, upon becoming governor of Alaska, patterned herself after Queen Esther.Soon after the Republican National Convention, an e-mail went viral in conservative Christian circles, in which Pastor Mark Arnold claimed to have found himself next to Palin at a rally in his hometown of Lebanon, Ohio. According to the account, Arnold came face-to-face with Palin, and God spoke through him, telling the governor that “God wants you to know that you are a present-day Esther. . . . Keep your eyes on God and know that He has chosen you to reign!”
Palin, according to the account, immediately began to cry — as did her husband, Todd, when Arnold then repeated the news to him. Arnold also told McCain that the Palins are “called of God and she is an Esther.”
Esther, for those not up on their Old Testament, was a Jewish woman plucked from obscurity to become Queen of Persia after winning a beauty contest. This placed her in the right place, at the right time, to intervene in a plan to annihilate the Jews. In a nutshell, when she revealed herself to be Jewish, the king halted the slaughter and instead hanged Haman, the official behind the plot.
Jews recount the tale on Purim with much gaiety and, for most, little concern about historical accuracy.
Palin, of course, was a beauty-pageant participant (while McCain has oft commented that he “never won Miss Congeniality in the Senate,” Palin won that title in the 1984 Miss Alaska contest), now plucked from obscurity to be in a position to advise the powerful should John McCain become president.
The big question, of course, is for what vital role — what “time such as this” — is Palin being groomed?
One common theory among the Christian cognoscenti is that, just as Esther stopped a threat in Persia to wipe out the Jews, Palin must stop a threat from modern-day Persia — Iran — to wipe out Israel (which would be anathema to conservative Christians, who believe Jews must control that land when Christ returns).
'Taxachusetts' No More? (Daniel J. Flynn, 10.22.08, Forbes)
Thanks to the tenacity of Carla Howell of the Committee for Small Government, voters may be able to eliminate Massachusetts's income levy through Question 1 of a ballot referendum. In 2002, a similar ballot question asking for the repeal of the income tax earned 45% support.Today, with jobs and residents fleeing the economically limping Bay State, the political climate for eliminating the income tax is even more hospitable.
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AP presidential poll: All even in the homestretch (LIZ SIDOTI, 10/22/08, Associated Press)
The presidential race tightened after the final debate, with John McCain gaining among whites and people earning less than $50,000, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll that shows McCain and Barack Obama essentially running even among likely voters in the election homestretch.The poll, which found Obama at 44 percent and McCain at 43 percent, supports what some Republicans and Democrats privately have said in recent days: that the race narrowed after the third debate as GOP-leaning voters drifted home to their party and McCain's "Joe the plumber" analogy struck a chord.
Manmohan Singh-Bush lovefest again in November? Chidanand Rajghatta, 10/22/08, TNN)
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's sentimental goodbye to President Bush in the White House last month may have been a little premature. He - Manmohan Singh - is likely to be back at 1600, Pennsylvania Avenue, next month for a summit of world leaders that Bush is convening to discuss the economic crisis. [...]While the summit itself is expected to take place on November 15 in the Washington DC area -- which could include retreats in Maryland or Virginia -- Bush will host a dinner at the White House the night before, officials said. That will give the opportunity to Singh, and other world leaders, to say their final goodbyes to Bush, and also possibly greet the President-elect, since the presidential polls would be over by then. The new president is typically sworn in on January 20, which is officially the Inauguration Day.
During his meeting with Bush in the White House on September 26, Prime Minister Singh told him that ''this may be my last visit to you during your presidency, and let me say, thank you very much.''
''The people of India deeply love you, and all that you have done to bring our two countries closer to each other,'' a sentimental Singh had said in remarks that were parsed endlessly by many commentators -- and ridiculed by some.
The Making (and Remaking) of McCain (ROBERT DRAPER, 10/25/08, Sunday's Times Magazine)
On the morning of Wednesday, Sept. 24, John McCain convened a meeting in his suite at the Hilton hotel in Midtown Manhattan. Among the handful of campaign officials in attendance were McCain’s chief campaign strategist, Steve Schmidt, and his other two top advisers: Rick Davis, the campaign manager; and Mark Salter, McCain’s longtime speechwriter. The senator’s ears were already throbbing with bad news from economic advisers and from House Republican leaders who had told him that only a small handful in their ranks were willing to support the $700 billion bailout of the banking industry proposed by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. The meeting was to focus on how McCain should respond to the crisis — but also, as one participant later told me, “to try to see this as a big-picture, leadership thing.”As this participant recalled: “We presented McCain with three options. Continue offering principles from afar. A middle ground of engaging while still campaigning. Then the third option, of going all in. The consensus was that we could stay out or go in — but that if we’re going in, we should go in all the way. So the thinking was, do you man up and try to affect the outcome, or do you hold it at arm’s length? And no, it was not an easy call.”
Discussion carried on into the afternoon at the Morgan Library and Museum as McCain prepared for the first presidential debate. Schmidt pushed for going all in: suspending the campaign, recommending that the first debate be postponed, parachuting into Washington and forging a legislative solution to the financial crisis for which McCain could then claim credit. Exactly how McCain could convincingly play a sober bipartisan problem-solver after spending the previous few weeks garbed as a populist truth teller was anything but clear. But Schmidt and others convinced McCain that it was worth the gamble.
Schmidt in particular was a believer in these kinds of defining moments. The smartest bit of political wisdom he ever heard was dispensed by George W. Bush one spring day at the White House residence in 2004, at a time when his re-election effort was not going especially well. The strategists at the meeting — including Schmidt, who was directing the Bush campaign’s rapid-response unit — fretted over their candidate’s sagging approval ratings and the grim headlines about the war in Iraq. Only Bush appeared thoroughly unworried. He explained to them why, polls notwithstanding, voters would ultimately prefer him over his opponent, John Kerry.
There’s an accidental genius to the way Americans pick a president, Schmidt remembers Bush saying that day. By the end of it all, a candidate’s true character is revealed to the American people.
Had Schmidt been working for his present client back in 2000, he might have disputed Bush’s premise. After all, in McCain’s first run for the presidency, “true character” was the one thing the Vietnam hero and campaign-finance-reform crusader seemed to have going for him eight years ago in the Republican primaries. Bush had everything else, and he buried McCain.
Oil drops to 15-month low (Chris Stanton, October 22. 2008, The National)
Oil prices continued their retreat today, falling below US$70 a barrel for the second time in a week to a 15-month low despite widespread expectations that Opec will dramatically cut output at its emergency meeting in Vienna on Friday
Haider's deputy reveals gay affair (Tony Paterson, 22 October 2008, Independent)
Conservative Austria was in a state of shock today after the male successor to Jörg Haider admitted to having a longstanding “special relationship” with the far right leader who died dramatically in a high speed car crash earlier this month.
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The Media vs. Joe the Plumber: Suddenly the questioner matters more than the answer. (Jonah Goldberg, 10/22/08, National Review)
At a John McCain rally in Virginia on Saturday, Tito Munoz had come to face the enemy: the news media, which had declared war on Joe Wurzelbacher.“Why the hell are you going after Joe the Plumber?” Munoz yelled at a group of reporters, including my National Review colleague Byron York. “Joe the Plumber has an idea. He has a future. He wants to be something else. Why is that wrong? Everything is possible in America. I made it. Joe the Plumber could make it even better than me. ... I was born in Colombia, but I was made in the U.S.A.” [...]
In short, Obama’s explanation to Joe the Plumber that we need to “spread the wealth around” is a sincere and significant expression of his worldview, with roots stretching back to his church and his days as a community organizer.
Millions of Americans don’t share this vision. They don’t see the economy as a pie, whereby your slice can only get bigger if someone else’s gets smaller. They don’t begrudge the wealthy their wealth; they only ask to be given the same opportunities. They look at countries such as France and, rather than envy its socialized medicine and short workweeks, they fear its joblessness and tax policies that punish entrepreneurialism. People like Tito Munoz look at America and see an open path to their own American dream.
It would be nice if the media at least tried to understand this point.
MORE:
Obama and the Tax Tipping Point: How long before taxpayers are pushed too far? (ADAM LERRICK, 10/22/08, Wall Street Journal)
In 2006, the latest year for which we have Census data, 220 million Americans were eligible to vote and 89 million -- 40% -- paid no income taxes. According to the Tax Policy Center (a joint venture of the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute), this will jump to 49% when Mr. Obama's cash credits remove 18 million more voters from the tax rolls. What's more, there are an additional 24 million taxpayers (11% of the electorate) who will pay a minimal amount of income taxes -- less than 5% of their income and less than $1,000 annually.In all, three out of every five voters will pay little or nothing in income taxes under Mr. Obama's plans and gain when taxes rise on the 40% that already pays 95% of income tax revenues.
The plunder that the Democrats plan to extract from the "very rich" -- the 5% that earn more than $250,000 and who already pay 60% of the federal income tax bill -- will never stretch to cover the expansive programs Mr. Obama promises. [...]
Other nations have tried the ideology of fairness in the place of incentives and found that reward without work is a recipe for decline. In the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, Margaret Thatcher took on the unions and slashed taxes to restore growth and jobs in Great Britain. In Germany a few years ago, Social Democrat Gerhard Schroeder defied his party's dogma and loosened labor's grip on the economy to end stagnation. And more recently in France, Nicolas Sarkozy was swept to power on a platform of restoring flexibility to the economy.
The sequence is always the same. High-tax, big-spending policies force the economy to lose momentum. Then growth in government spending outstrips revenues. Fiscal and trade deficits soar. Public debt, excessive taxation and unemployment follow. The central bank tries to solve the problem by printing money. International competitiveness is lost and the currency depreciates. The system stagnates. And then a frightened electorate returns conservatives to power.
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French Toast (Denver Post, 10/21/2008)
3/4 cup half and half
3 eggs
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla paste or extract
1 teaspoon orange zest
1/3 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
Four 1-inch-thick slices bread, such as challah or brioche, preferably day-old
2 tablespoons ( 1/4stick) unsalted butter, plus more for garnish
2 tablespoons canola oil
Powdered sugar
Pure maple syrup, (preferably Grade B)
Few grains Maldon sea salt (optional)Directions
Whisk first 9 ingredients in medium bowl, cover and leave in the refrigerator overnight. When ready to cook, preheat oven to 250 degrees. Place a wire rack on a baking sheet, and set aside. Place bread in a shallow baking dish large enough to hold bread slices in a single layer. Pour egg mixture over bread; soak for only a couple of minutes, and turn slices over; soak 1 more minute until coated, but make sure not to oversoak the slices.
Heat 1 tablespoon butter and 1 tablespoon vegetable oil in a skillet over medium heat. Fry two bread slices until golden brown, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Transfer to wire rack; place in oven too keep warm. Wipe skillet, and repeat with remaining butter, oil and bread. Keep in oven until ready to serve. Sift a little powdered sugar over the French toast. Serve warm with butter, maple syrup and Maldon salt, if desired.
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Lobster prices tumble with demand (KIM PIERCE, October 22, 2008, The Dallas Morning News)
Talk about far-reaching impacts of the global economic crisis. Lobster prices are so bad for Maine lobstermen that many are already pulling their traps up for the winter and selling their lobsters for hamburger prices.
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Pan-Seared Pork Loins with Green Beans (Arlene Burnett, October 22, 2008, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
* 1 pound fresh or frozen green beans* 1/4 cup flour
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1 1/2 pounds boneless pork loin or turkey cutlets
* 1 tablespoon olive oil
* 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon butter
* 1 teaspoon chopped garlic (about 2 cloves)
* 2 tablespoons lemon juice (about 1/2 lemon)
* 1 tablespoon capers, optional
Place green beans in a serving bowl. Mix the flour and salt in a shallow dish. Dredge the meat in the flour and shake off excess.
Heat oil and 1 tablespoon of the butter over medium-high heat. When butter starts to bubble, add the garlic and cook for 1 minute until it starts to brown. Add meat and brown until no longer pink, about 3 minutes per side. After turning the meat, squeeze lemon juice on top and sprinkle with capers.
Remove meat to a plate and cover. Add the remaining butter to the skillet. When it melts, add the green beans. Cover and cook beans until they are softened, about 5 minutes.
Return green beans to bowl and cut the meat into slices.
LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD SYNDROME: Stoking Fears of the Big Bad Wolf: Residents of the Lausitz region of eastern Germany are growing increasingly fearful of wolves. As the predators encroach on human settlements, hunters and animal rights activists disagree over how dangerous these gray predators really are. (Steffen Winter, 10/22/08, Der Spiegel)
Death is Vinzenz Baberschke's constant companion. Baberschke is the mayor of the town of Radibor in the eastern German state of Saxony, and when his mobile phone rings, it sounds as if death has come knocking. His ringtone for normal calls is Ennio Morricone's "Play Me the Song of Death," but when the biologists from the local wolf control agency are on the line, his phone emits the sound of howling wolves.In his job, Baberschke deals with both phenomena: death and the wolf. His mobile phone is rarely silent, now that wolves are becoming more widespread in the Lausitz region in Germany's easternmost corner. Agitated citizens say that they have seen wolves in their towns and villages, and they no longer allow their children to go into the forest alone. Despite the use of electric fences, shepherds are reporting dead sheep, dismembered by wolves. There have already been 16 attacks this year. "We have a leash law for dogs and regulations prohibiting the ownership of fighting dogs," the mayor, a member of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), growls as he sits in his office. But protection against wolves, he says, is nonexistent.
Now that the European gray wolf, a protected species, is leaving its largely deserted territory on the Muskau Heath in Germany's far southeastern corner and suddenly migrating to the north and west, into the states of Saxony-Anhalt, Hesse and Lower Saxony, something of a Little Red Riding Hood syndrome has taken hold in Germany. There are now at least 40 wolves in Germany, as well as another 40 young animals that officials appear to have lost track of. In the eastern states of Saxony and Brandenburg, there have been 800 wolf sightings in the last 10 years, and some animals have recently been seen near human settlements. While animal rights activists and conservationists are delighted, others are terrified.
The mood in the "Gute Quelle," a pub in the town of Lippitsch, is already heated enough when the mayor says: "You can't go into the forest without a knife anymore." Hunters, he adds, have seen wolves "wagging their tails expectantly" -- waiting for people. The animals, says the mayor, must be taught to respect humans, if only with rubber bullets.
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Cassel doing OK job for Pats and an untapped QB market (Peter King, 10/21/08, Sports Illustrated)
I came here to get my first live look at Matt Cassel. Relatively speaking, the view was mostly positive from New England's surprisingly one-sided 41-7 win over the Broncos. Cassel is being asked to be almost exactly what Brady was asked to do when Brady took over for an injured Drew Bledsoe seven seasons ago -- don't lose the game. Last night Cassel completed 18-of-24 mostly risk-free passes, for 185 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions. [...]I went back after the game and compared the young Brady to Cassel. These numbers -- for Brady's first six starts in 2001 and Cassel's first six games (he played the majority of the opener when Brady went down for the year) -- tell a remarkable story:
Player/Year W-L Comp.-Att. Pct. Yards TD-Int
Brady '01 4-2 120-190 .632 1,105 10-4
Cassel '08 4-2 110-166 .663 1,095 6-4Eerie.
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Theorists Tackle Universe's 'Coincidence Problem' (ABC Science Online, Oct. 22, 2008)
"We're right on the cusp between the matter-dominated and dark energy-dominated epochs," said [Ph.D. student Chas] Egan.Astronomers have been puzzled why this shift is happening right now, just when humans are here to observe it.
"When theorists see something like that, that indicates something suspicious. It looks like a coincidence," said Egan.
Various efforts have been made to explain this coincidence problem over the years, but none of the ideas raised have gained widespread acceptance.
Now Egan and Lineweaver have taken a pragmatic approach, reasoning that the only time in the history of the universe that it would be possible for us to exist is around now -- when stars have been formed, galaxies coalesced and planets have evolved for us to live on.
"It struck us that it's kind of silly to think that observers could have occurred anywhere during the whole history of the universe," said Egan. "If we are tied to terrestrial planets then we could not possibly have observed the radiation era, and when the universe gets large and diffuse and so on then we could not possible observe that late future either."
Image via Wikipedia
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard1 teaspoon dried thyme
2 pork tenderloins (about 2 pounds)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 red onion, halved and thinly sliced
4 cups thinly sliced red cabbage, cut into strips
2 Granny Smith or Golden Delicious apples, peeled, thinly sliced and cut into strips
1 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup dried sweetened cranberries, optional
1 tablespoon brown sugar
Preheat oven to 450. Lightly coat a foil-lined rimmed baking sheet with nonstick spray.
In a bowl, combine mustard and thyme. Cover the pork with mustard mixture and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place pork on the baking sheet and bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until an instant-read thermometer reaches 155. Let rest for 5 minutes before slicing into 1/2 -inch pieces.
Meanwhile, in a large skillet over medium-high heat, add the oil. Saute the onion for 5 to 8 minutes, or until softened. Add the cabbage and apples and saute for 1 to 2 minutes to combine. Add broth and vinegar and cook until cabbage is tender and almost all the liquid has evaporated, 15 to 20 minutes. Add cranberries and sugar and stir to combine. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes.
Serve pork slices alongside or over the cabbage mixture.
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Diageo/Hotline Tracking Poll: The Early Line (MATTHEW GOTTLIEB, 10/22/08, Hotline)
Obama/Biden 47%
McCain/Palin 42%
Undec 8%- McCain now leads men by 8% -- his largest lead among them in more than a month. In the survey completed 9/19, McCain also led men by 8%.
Battling Scientology: Anonymous's Gregg Housh is committed to bringing down the Church of Scientology. Is he a gadfly or a goon? (CHRIS FARAONE, October 20, 2008, Boston Phoenix)
In a world wracked with uncertainty, there is at least one thing you can bet on: pick a fight with the Church of Scientology (CoS), and its leaders will fight back — always with vigor, often with a vengeance, and sometimes with litigation that can be long and costly.The idea of locking legal horns with the CoS might be enough to cool the ardor of some critics. But that is not Gregg Housh’s style. Housh, an Internet activist and provocateur, is not an easy guy to characterize. A member of a group that calls itself “Anonymous,” Housh is pitted in what appears to be an escalating rift with the CoS. Core constitutional issues such as freedom of speech and freedom of religion are central to the dispute.
Almost 10 months ago, Housh helped launch a protest group that he now describes as the world’s fastest-growing grassroots movement (mobilizing several thousand people in less than one month). The group formed as a response to the removal of a video from YouTube and other sites that featured Tom Cruise describing CoS doctrines and principles. From a few simple mouse clicks, a mighty battle has grown.
Housh is himself a rather casual, almost random sort of activist. A seventh-grade dropout, devout atheist, and proud computer troll, he claims to loathe all political parties equally, and could give a damn about Greenpeace, PETA, or any other picket-happy causes. In fact, had the CoS not “messed” with what he thinks of as his Internets, Housh would probably be wasting his spare time sparking Web mischief instead of dedicating approximately 40 hours every week to Anonymous, his now infamously masked group, whose mission seems to be toying with L. Ron Hubbard’s minions. [...]
Housh and his Anonymous peers are hardly the first to fight the CoS online. The original anti-Scientology Web site, the newsgroup alt.religion.scientology, debuted on Usenet in July 1991. For its first three years, the site actually served as a forum for believers and dissenters to exchange opinions, but by 1994 users on the Scientology side had had enough. A memo written by CoS staffer Elaine Siegel addressed church strategy vis-à-vis dealing with dissenters on the Web. “If you imagine 40 to 50 Scientologists posting on the Internet every few days, we’ll just run the SPs [Suppressive Persons] right off the system. It will be quite simple . . . I would like to hear from you on your ideas to make the Internet a safe space for Scientology to expand into.” Her memo seemed to enrage secular alt.religion.scientology regulars.
The CoS did more than just post pro-Scientology messages where opposition surfaced. In 1995, it turned to the justice system, claiming that its copyrighted files were being illegally posted on alt.religion.scientology. The dispute over such materials, which parishioners pay tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars to obtain on their journey — or “bridge” — to enlightenment, has been the centerpiece of most CoS feuds with Web detractors. That year, the FBI raided several Usenet posters’ homes, including that of former Scientologist Arnaldo Lerma in Arlington, Virginia, seizing his computer and data-storage devices.
The CoS has a well-documented history of battling opponents: Boston attorney Michael Flynn, who filed lawsuits through the 1980s on behalf of former CoS devotees, was sued more than a dozen times. Reporters, who CoS founder Hubbard labeled “merchants of chaos,” have also been targeted; former Time magazine journalist Richard Behar, whose 1991 exposé “The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power” provoked widespread anti-CoS sentiment, found himself under surveillance by CoS investigators while his magazine was sued for $416 million. (The suit was ultimately dismissed, but only after Time Warner Inc. spent $7 million defending itself.) But whereas individuals and even corporations were relatively easy to tie up in lawsuits, the Web posed a newer, less containable wave of protest. In a December 1995 Wired article titled “alt.scientology.war,” writer Wendy M. Grossman described the rift as “mortal combat between two alien cultures. . . . A fight that has burst the banks of the Net and into the real world of police, lawyers, and armed search and seizure.” (The CoS declined to comment on copyright-related litigation.)
CoS actions to quiet online enemies have provoked a great deal of anger. According to Seltzer, contrarian sites such as xenu.net have proliferated as a result. Launched in 1996 by Norwegian tech-provocateur Andreas Heldal-Lund, xenu.net — a comprehensive anti-CoS clearing-house better known as Operation Clambake — became a hub for multimedia, ranging from articles condemning Scientology to detailed insider accounts written by former church officials and secret Hubbard recordings. The church has sued, among others, Heldal-Lund, his service provider, and Google over Operation Clambake postings. It has succeeded in having various copyrighted materials removed. Yet xenu.net remains alive and clicking. Xenu, by the way, is a reference to an evil intergalactic overlord who, top church members reportedly believe, excommunicated billions of aliens to Earth 75 million years ago and incinerated them inside volcanoes. The title, Operation Clambake, is a poke at the late Hubbard’s claim, from his 1952 book, Scientology: A History of Man, that humans evolved from clams.
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Anand,Vishwanathan - Kramnik,Vladimir (FIDE World Chess Championship Bonn, Germany (6), 21.10.2008)
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Anand wins Game 6, takes three-point lead over Kramnik (Times of India, 21 Oct 2008)
World champion Viswanathan Anand opened his account with white pieces on Tuesday in the World Championship winning the sixth round game against Vladimir Kramnik and in the process almost closed the door on the Russian winning in 47 moves. He now leads 4.5-1.5. ( Watch )The seventh game with Anand having black will be played on Thursday after a day’s rest. Anand, who has scored two wins with black pieces, will have three more whites in the remaining six games. The victory has not come with his natural King-pawn opening with white. The Indian GM opened with 1.d4 for the third time in three white games and Game Six promised lot of action after the opening struggle. [...]
And all this, despite the fact that Anand had not castled in this game.In fact, Anand did not castle in three of the six games he has played and still his King was safe as a locker. After 27 moves, Anand had 40 minutes left to Kramnik’s 19. What a turnaround!
Mike Penner returns to Los Angeles Times (Kevin Roderick, 10/21/08, LA Observed)
Eighteen month after writing a column about becoming Christine Daniels, veteran sportswriter Mike Penner has quietly returned to work at the Los Angeles Times, according to multiple sources close to the LAT's Sports staff. Penner's column in April 2007 about his sexual transformation became one of the most-viewed Times' stories of the year and was followed by a story in the LAT from media writer James Rainey and tons of other media attention. Daniels for a time chronicled her transformation in a blog at LATimes.com; the blog entries have been removed and the Times has so far posted nothing about Penner's return.
Desert cross may lead to landmark ruling: The Supreme Court soon will decide whether to take up the case of the monument to fallen service members in Mojave National Preserve. At stake is a new definition of the church-state separation. (David G. Savage, October 22, 2008, LA Times)
The appeal may be well timed. For two decades, the court has been closely divided over the presence of religious displays -- such as a Christmas tree, the Ten Commandments or a cross -- on public property.Three years ago, the justices were evenly split in a pair of cases involving the Ten Commandments. They upheld, 5 to 4, a granite monument on the grounds of the Texas state capitol, but struck down a similar display inside a courthouse in Kentucky in another 5-4 ruling.
Soon afterward, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who said both displays were unconstitutional, retired. She was replaced by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.
"I think the court is poised for a major change as to the Establishment Clause," said UC Irvine Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, referring to the 1st Amendment's ban on "an establishment of religion."
"Under Chief Justice [William H.] Rehnquist, there were four votes to say the Establishment Clause is violated only if the government literally establishes a church or coerces religious participation," said Chemerinsky, who argued one of the Ten Commandments cases before the high court. "Now, I think there are five."
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