And in (old) Japan, falling on one's sword comes to mind. Unfortunately, in this country, the sword makers couldn't keep up if CEOs acted in the same way.

Tom

One overlooked "pandering" that gained some traction in the 1990s was when a country awarded a certain TDL (top level domain) used it in global commerce, re-awarding it, via registrars, to companies with enough money. Specifically, I remember Tuvalu, 26 sq miles of ....Pacific Island Paradise. They had the TDL .tv and every US TV station seemed to want to have their call letters attached to that .tv. I don't know how much of the money changing hands ever got to the Tuvalu people ... or even its government...but it seems like the "stamp pandering" of the New Media World. Unfortunately, I don't think that ploy worked too well for the buyers, either.

I must wonder if, considering the our government's status in Iraq--which is an independent and sovereign nation, as we all know—as protector of that country’s people and government, why we didn’t launch interception aircraft when Turkey attacked the Northern Kurdish areas. Would we have allowed Iranian aircraft to do the same? I cannot but assume we had warning of the attack and, in effect, condoned it to placate our “allies” in Turkey. Perhaps they were merely acting as our surrogate force since we also consider the PKK to be a terrorist group. But doesn’t it seem politically sensitive that we allow a foreign power (Turkey) to attack a sovereign nation under our protection (Iraq), with the full knowledge that such an attack will, by its very nature (high speed fighter-bombers at night), result in “collateral damage”—i.e. civilian casualties? Is life getting to be so cheap in our dealings with Iraq that we’d allow this without a military response?

I was one of the Democrats who caucused in our Nevada precinct. In a oollege cafeteria with four precincts in caucus, ours was the smallest, composed of four men and three women. The end result (majority takes all) was a delegate for Edwards. The vote was actually 3 Edwards, 3 Clinton and 1 Obama. The swing vote came over to Edwards immediately saying he, Edwards, was the closest to Obama's thinking on issues he thought were most important (primarily corporate greed, NAFTA, economics, health care). There was no "lobbying" and the Clinton faction simply got up and left when the secondary vote showed they had "lost."

Meanwhile, other caucuses were in heated discussion with Obama and Clinton supporters literally shouting at each other. To the casual observer, this whole day was a two-person contest here; yard signs for Clinton (Solutions for America) and Obama (Change!) were all that were seen anywhere. Not ONE for Edwards or any of the others on the ballot.

Did the up-and-leave response of the three Clinton supporters at our little (OK, tiny) caucus indicate a trend? Will they be the stay-at-home types we worry about if Clinton doesn't get the nomination? Bad enough with 75-80 Democrats registered in the precinct, only seven came out (unknown, of course, is how many, if any, were at the "open" caucuses at the casinos). Where is that driving spirit the Democrats will need come November? With the heated Obama-Clinton contest, low turnout on a sunny, albeit cool, day is scary.

Liberal@MediaElite.com

When Glenn said "...our establishment press takes its cues in all sorts of ways from exactly the dark crevices from which this filth spews..." he could have added that, lacking the "Bleed" in the "If it bleeds, it leads" theory, the news media today might very well attempt to create the bleeding.

Tech patents are being more broadly written to try and head off any competition, it seems. See the UNIX brouhaha. But what is described here sound a lot like what was being used as the rationale for AI (Artificial Intelligence) a decade or two ago; Collecting and storing knowledge of experienced workers so it can be transferred to incoming workers (or as a disaster recovery schema should the experienced worker die or, heaven forfend, leave the company). Then there was a thought (pun intended) that it could also be used in non-human interactions as well. Give that "knowledge" to a machine to perform the tasks humans do and...well, we are still waiting for most of the benefits claimed for that idea.

Add another mouthpiece for the "right side," Darrell Issa, R-CA, in an op-ed in the LA Times:

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oew-issa25feb25,0,1843063.story

"But it does suggest that Solomon has his eyes on impressing the national media elite..."

I'm not impressed. Culling certain words out and including others in isn't as impressive as how they are used.

Abused.

Misused.

All of the above

Liberal@MediaElite.com

In 1972, working with Encyclopedia Britannica Films, I did the sound (and narrated) a film "The Bird Who is a Clown" on the Booby. I thought that was ancient history, the guano islands harvesting, but recall the dropping covered islands off Ecuador with fondness now that the subject has come up here. Blue-footed Boobies, the name conjuring up grade school giggling, are neat little birds. Well, not "neat" in as much as they leave a very slippery trail of "stuff" wherever they migrate.

OK, since they are both sitting Senators, why don't McCain and Clinton co-sponsor the bill for the gas tax holiday and put it into the hopper? Talk about bipartisanship! Spell out the details, move it from the hustings to the Capital. Neither can do anything "as President" since neither IS president this year but they can do something, on the record, as Senators. As Clinton said, then the Congress will have to stand up and be counted. Not that anyone will see this before November....

TomByrd

Liberal@MediaElite.com

On who is doing the looking. Obviously, #1, 2, 3 for Democrats and honest people in general and #4 for Republicans. Oh, and honest people, too. Republicans are not mutually exclusive of honest people. Misguided, perhaps but honestly so....