Posted 7:48 PM by Gene

As after an intolerable eternity the Wizards of Mountain View have finally enabled typists with lots of posts and old Blogger to correct them I shall be doing just that, although I intend to limit my changes to obvious blunders of spelling or grammar, and will note them in parentheses at the end of the targeted posts. I will also restore photos where I can (as here -- and better), and with any luck, links. Thank you for something, G000,000,000,000,000GLE!

Posted 6:05 PM by Gene

As a not-entirely-happy union member I must post this in full (with the understanding, we hope, of KAPLAN, INC.):

Why Is the AFL-CIO's Web Site So Bad?

Posted Friday, September 03, 2010 1:45 PM | By James Ledbetter

What's the best way for a labor union to present itself? In 1992, two union experts, Sam Pizzigati and Fred Solowey, published an unusual book called The New Labor Press: Journalism for a Changing Union Movement. Part history and part advocacy, it's a thorough examination of how American unions historically have communicated with their own members and with the outside world. Some union newspapers were surprisingly good, either because they did pioneering journalism about strikes, lockouts, and working conditions, or because they gave their readers a service that was hard to find elsewhere. (Did you know that the garment workers' union newspaper Justice published a Yiddish edition until the mid-1960s, and an Italian edition until the late 1980s?)

But the bad union newspapers—and there have been many—are all bad in the same way. They become house organs for their leaders, spewing out endless proclamations, reproducing Ceausescu-like pictures of forced handshakes, and rendering invisible the actual rank-and-file. They are closed systems, speaking a private language exclusively to an internal audience that is probably not paying attention anyway.

Alas, little has changed in the digital age. Visiting the AFL-CIO Web site in search of some Labor Day inspiration is a singularly disheartening task. The primary message you get from the site is to vote for Democrats in November (thanks for the tip). An affiliate organization asks on the home page "Not a Union Member?"—which mathematically is a pretty good bet. Beyond that, though, little thought appears to have gone into making the site persuasive, or even genuinely comprehensible, to someone who's not already part of the club. There's some video from a recent Young Worker's Summit and an exhortation to attend a rally in October. There are some online games that are so hamfisted (health insurance is a shell game!) they almost have camp value.

Some lists of resources, on topics like the global economy or immigration, are actually quite useful; others seem like Web graveyards that have not been tended in a very long time. In either case, it's not clear that most people would know to visit them unless they were already on the site. There are some actual workers depicted on the site, and reasonably prominently. But they come off like political props, always presented as if the most interesting and important thing about them is their union membership.

What might an ideal union Web site look like? For starters, it could be a lot more practical, foregrounding workplace dilemmas and explaining issues to workers looking for guidance. Second, it could use the news to make the case for unionism, rather than assuming the reader already filters news through a union lens. (As it happens, Sam Pizzigati, the editor mentioned above, now runs a site about economic inequality called Too Much that does a decent job with this.) And finally, it could take advantage of the Web's unique interactivity and become a place where workers talk to one another. Sadly, a lot of unions probably wouldn't put up with that.

GRATE.COM?!?!?!?!?

Posted 5:55 PM by Gene

Paul Conrad, an extremely angry cartoonist, has died, and let's hope he's somewhere he can be a little less angry.

Posted 5:13 PM by Gene

Lately we called our two surfers' attention to the Wall Street Journals' press release on that great patri-OT GEN. McDONALD of the MOON 'n' STARS CORPS. One of the GEN.'s favorites is George Patton. You may recall Patton went into military hospitals and slapped several soldiers. It does not exaggerate to say those slaps changed the course of history, for they denied Patton a command in the European theater, and had he taken his characteristic furious charge further into Nazi territory it could have moved the Iron Curtain further back, saving millions. (Patton later apologized for the slaps.)

We thought of this today as it is obvious that autocratic PC buffoon INDRA must somewhere in the back of Her pacified head admire the slapping incidents, since today in a convenience store we saw several bags of Her company's snack food bearing a graphic reading thus:



It is bad enough that martinets like GEN. McDONALD must strafe us with Their contempt, but here INDRA is firing a warning shot at RETAILERS: with that clever positioning of ONLY She is ordering retailers DON'T CHARGE LESS. If we had connections we'd take INDRA and Her fraudulent gang to the FTC for restraint of trade. Instead, we can only gripe impotently, and get nicked by gun-wielding CEO fools.

Posted 2:23 PM by Gene

Few would argue that defending liberal principle serves Obama’s short-term interests. Americans oppose the mosque 61 percent to 26 percent, according to one recent poll, and support the Arizona law by an even wider margin. But even if some people don’t like Islam, or illegal immigrants, or gay weddings, they may respond to admonitions that our society is built around freedom of conscience and equal treatment under law. If he applied his oratorical gifts to these principles, Obama could remind a grumbling nation what it liked about him in the first place.

Jake, people do not respond to hectoring -- especially when the hectoring is for their own good, and the hectorers are always right. Look at HONORARY MAYOR MIKE's.

You still in the running to edit SIDSWEEK? Sounds it.

P. S. PREDICTION: If Jake's "promoted" MR. JOURNOLIST takes his place at Grate.com. Knee-jerk lockstep independent thinking marches on!

Posted 11:25 AM by Gene

And speaking of liberal John Stossels, people who predicted Obamacare would spin out enough money to finance the government should not be knocking the other side.

Who is this intern and where did he come from?

Posted 11:12 AM by Gene

John "Cato" Stossel's favorite heroes are -- BAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!!!!! With luck maybe this time they'll do less damage. Maybe with luck we won't have a repeat performance by John touting their HEROISM either.

Posted 11:09 AM by Gene

Taxpayers likely to face initial loss on GM IPO: sources

So that's why Obama Motors is holding off until after the election?

Posted 9:33 PM by Gene

The Crainiacs dream that now that Burger King is private it'll spend more money annoying people with junk television and condescending ads.

Do the Crainiacs' dreams ever NOT come true? Let's see if the acquirer's dreams do.

Posted 6:43 PM by Gene

Luigi Creatore, previously a writer of small-potatoes comedies....

Let us say we did a double-take at John Simon's slighting description. We would not have thought him alive, let alone a playwright. (He turns 90 in December.) He has just written a drama called An Error of the Moon, about the Booth family. Back in the sixties Mr. Creatore co-authored the flop musical Maggie Flynn, a Civil War-era vehicle for Jack Cassidy and Shirley Jones. This he wrote with his cousin Hugo Peretti and the late George David Weiss. Still don't remember? All three were songwriters, and the cousins (we didn't know that until today) were record producers, A&R men for Roulette (and the notorious Morris Levy) and later RCA; they did everything from The Tokens (and a lawsuit) to "The Hustle." If you've collected enough records you've seen the puzzling "Hugo & Luigi" logo. The trio's most famous achievement was to get a songwriter named Martini to write them a ballad called "Can't Help Falling in Love." It tickles us to see that one member of this triumvirate is still standing, and it forces us to ask whether the former scourge of the former Broadway really knows that much.

P. S. According to the bio Mr. Creatore has had only one other play produced, off-Broadway, so that small-potatoes knock doubly puzzles us.

Posted 12:46 PM by Gene

Speaking of irrelevant, how often must HENRY HONEST!!!!! treat us to this:

BHussein on Sep 3, at 10:23 AM said:

I want to thank Fidel, Hugo, Kim and all the wonderful Comunists who swept me into power. SOCIALISM FOREVER!

Dubya on Sep 3, at 10:30 AM said:

Which would not have been possible if my good Nazis friends had not kept me in power for eight years. SIEG HEIL! Long live the SS!

SHUT UP, HENRY HONEST!!!!!

P. S. I made these comments up -- and so do the commenters.

Posted 12:35 PM by Gene

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! USAOKAY!!!!! unleashes SIX GANNETTOIDS and 2,821 WORDS on a SIZZLING INVESTIGATIVE REPORT on...RETURNING TV SHOWS!!!!! Here's CRUSADING WORK if ever there was!



A NEUHARTHISM OF THE WEEK AWARD to BILL, JAYME, MIKE, GARY, MARCO and BRUCE!

Posted 12:19 PM by Gene

God we are tired of mourning for Mike Royko but TINA!!!!! hackwork like this makes us seethe because there's wicked satire buried here, and we wouldn't expect "frequent contributor[s] to the business pages of The New York Times and...former Moscow-based correspondent[s] for Reuters" to disburse it.

And the comments are singularly irrelevant and annoying. Why ever bother reading comments?

Posted 11:43 AM by Gene

Chuck Krauthammer says what I said eight months ago!

Enough boasting!

Posted 11:24 AM by Gene

Which reminds us -- it's time for our irregular feature, PLAYER ARRESTED!

1. University of Georgia Police took out a warrant Thursday for the arrest of Georgia football player Alec Ogletree on a misdemeanor charge of theft by taking.

UGA Police Chief Jimmy Williamson told the AJC that the warrant stems from a June 15 incident in which a motorcycle scooter helmet, valued at $35, was taken from the Rankin Smith Center on campus.

The helmet was found in Ogletree’s possession Thursday, Williamson said.

2. The Michigan State basketball team is again dealing with off-court issues of one of its guards.

Junior Korie Lucious was arrested early Monday morning on a charge of operating while intoxicated, according to records obtained by The Detroit News on Tuesday.

Lucious was pulled over at 2:20 a.m. on Charles Street near Linden Street in East Lansing and given a breathalyzer test. He registered at .09, just above Michigan's legal limit of .08. He was released on his own recognizance.

3. A Grizzly football player landed himself in jail overnight for drunk driving. It's the second time in a month a Griz player was charged with a misdemeanor.

4. An Oregon State University offensive lineman has been dismissed from the team after police say they found him naked and intoxicated in a stranger's home and had to use stun guns to take him into custody.

Corvallis police say they received the call about a naked intruder early Sunday.

Officer Christine Peterson says responding officers ordered 19-year-old Tyler Patrick Thomas of Kalispell, Mont., to get on the ground. She says Thomas instead dropped into a three-point stance like a football player and lunged at the officers. At that point, Peterson says, two officers fired their stun guns.

"I think he just had too much to drink and got a little rowdy," said Jeremy Noring, who awoke to Thomas inside his home.

Posted 11:17 AM by Gene

There is GRAVE CONCERN in Happy Valley that finally St. JoePa will retire this year. Professional college sports having long ago become part of Corporate America it's all one to us; two hundred years from now Penn State will still be a football factory, although perhaps by that time the players will finally be paid for their moral turpitude.

Posted 9:07 PM by Gene

You need to publish crap to sell crap.



HEY SOB, HE'S PLAYING YOUR SONG!



YOURS TOO, CARLOS THE JACKASS!

Posted 8:49 PM by Gene

When mo-VEE cri-TICS use words like "psychosexual" that means they've invented a new form of masturbation.

Posted 8:33 PM by Gene

Obama on Detroit Big 3: 'Why can't they make a Corolla?'

I don't know, Barack "DURANT" Obama -- aren't YOU the CEO?

Posted 8:20 PM by Gene

ONE OF THE MOST DISGRACEFUL THINGS I'VE EVER HEARD!!!!!

IN CASE AFTER CASE AFTER CASE, THE ROBERTS COURT HAS PUT NOT JUST A THUMB, BUT A FIST, ON THE SCALE IN FAVOR OF CORPORATIONS -- (pause for comedic effect) -- A FIST WITH BRASS KNUCKLES!!!!!!!!!! [Comedic overemphasis added]

"He's still very sensitive to the fact that there's a stereotype out there of Angry Al," says his dear, dear, DEAR friend NORM C. W. ORNSTEIN.

We too hope Angry Al steps "out of his shell" -- so he can put his newly emerged foot in his mouth.

Posted 7:52 PM by Gene

History teaches us that if SPEAKER BANEHEAD fails and a third party comes to life not to expect much. The GOP is itself the descendant of another party that lost its way, the W-HIGS, and any "new" party would merely be a stew with the same old ingredients. And the DEMOCRATS have existed for over two centuries.

Posted 7:09 PM by Gene

HENRY HONEST!!!!! (in collaboration with FORBESLISTBLOG) has compiled a list of HISTORY'S RICHEST GAZILLIONAIRES, and we're disappointed only one con-SER-va-tive made the list -- although William the Conqueror might count as an honorary con-SER-va-tive, and so would J. D. Rockefeller -- if he hadn't sired DEMOCRATS. What strikes us though is that despite the made-up numbers most of these vast fortunes vanished. What happened to the Vanderbilts'? Or A. T. Stewart's? Or Stephen Girard's? But nothing will stop megalomaniacal Web creatures from insisting in their own way you CAN take it with you.

Posted 3:32 PM by Gene

GM won't go for IPO until after mid-term elections

Hmmm, I wonder why THAT would be -- Obama Motors?

Posted 3:24 PM by Gene

Stephen Hawking changes his view on God

See, YAHOO!LIGANS at $13.52, down 20 percent for the year, down 30 percent since May, down 80 percent since 2000, when I saw the home-page hed I knew how he changed them. I repeat: is there anyway of getting your CW NEWS off the home page?

(The best I can do is Page Options / Move News Down. Not GOOD enough, $13.52 a share!)

P. S. at 6:36 p. m. Given stories like this (not to mention this one from March) we can safely say Web news sites have become even more ossified than the print.

Prior to joining Yahoo, Mr. Golis spent several years as the deputy publisher of Talking Points Memo, where he helped grow Joshua Marshall’s progressive political site into a thriving boutique news organization.

TRANSLATION: Several of his tantrums have made the home page. JOURNOLIST, anyone?

Posted 10:44 AM by Gene

Which raises the question, how much of SI's empire is off the record? How much of what the professional scribblers do is off the record? When people speak of sunlight and disinfectant they've readied truckloads of blinds.

Posted 8:27 AM by Gene

LIFESTYLES OF THE RICH AND RECALLED:

Ferrari says it is recalling 1,248 of its 458 Italia supercars [!] after reports of fires breaking out in five of the luxury vehicles in several countries.

Posted 5:20 PM by Gene

Megan McArdle, you have superbly justified your decision not to work among the well-paid parasites.

(Via HENRY HONEST!!!!!, who has been intimate with them)

Posted 3:38 PM by Gene

“The good news is that some people are thinking beyond November,” said a senior GOP aide with extensive experience on House procedures. “I can’t say precisely what, but something will happen.”

We know what will happen. Surprise us, Republicans!

Posted 11:09 AM by Gene

Whirlpool to Invest in Tennessee Plant

Hmmm, what's the reason behind this? Tax breaks? Politicians to curry favor with? Do we shut the plant down when our profits feel like it? Even when Corporate America does its extremely little good we must question its motives.

(Via Seeking Alpha)

Posted 11:03 AM by Gene

EXCITING NEWS FROM THE MONEY VACUUM CLEANERS OF CABLE:

Conan's TBS Show Will Be Called 'Conan'

Posted 10:44 AM by Gene

CEOs that lay off workers earn more: study

The liberals' answer: regulate CEO pay. The conservatives' answer: THE SKY'S THE LIMIT!!!!!

Posted 10:35 AM by Gene

DOW UP 100,000!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted 10:00 AM by Gene

We hate to sound like the proverbial broken record (or rather the skipped CD) but when we read these ads we comfort ourselves to know GanNETtdom's stock is lower now than 25 years ago.

Posted 9:14 AM by Gene

Dear Yahoo!:

Is there any way I can turn off the WE'LL-TELL-YOU-WHAT-TO-THINK CW NEWS on your home page?

Yours,

Eugene David

Posted 8:35 AM by Gene

Washington's Tiresome War on TV Curse Words

What's that strong Bhopal-like odor wafting from New York? Oh, it must be -- SYNERGY!!!!!!!!!!

Posted 7:36 PM by Gene

Why can't TNR -- indeed why can't any Web site with the slightest pretensions -- run more energizing stuff like THIS?

Posted 12:20 PM by Gene

His Omnipotence will make His non-declaration of non-triumph from the NEW! IMPROVED!! Oval Office, a sterile room that screams for its inhabit to get out of the White House and in with reality. Given our recent presidents it's clear they loved the Oval Office.

Does He need an office with His BlackBerry?

Posted 12:14 PM by Gene

And as if to prove our point that foreign policy is "a lose-lose for His Omnipotence":

Obama Speech Won't Declare Victory in Iraq or Progress in Afghanistan

(Sorry for the NewsMAX!!!!! -- but it IS the ASSPress!)

Posted 10:09 AM by Gene

Wealthy lawmakers increased their riches as economy sputtered in '09

Who says the economy is bad?

Posted 9:37 AM by Gene

And in another I Want Media link the movee excretion biz shows just because you CHARGE for something doesn't mean people are willing to PAY for it.

Posted 9:29 AM by Gene

The First Amendment-defending snobs of the newsroom are suddenly in a SLIME-inspired race to create little pay fiefdoms. Yes, a few people will pay; but as The Paper of Re-CORD will demonstrate all they're walling off is a better paid hack. Exclusive and GOOD may NOT be mutually inclusive. The juicy chuckle to all this is that they're creating these fiefdoms amidst more evidence the dep -- RECESSION is coming back, meaning fewer people to finance their dreams of total control over their readers.

P. S. at 12:08 p. m. At least one publisher heard from his -- DaMN readers. (Usual Romy link)

(First link via I Want Media)

Posted 9:27 AM by Gene

The natives don't like 15 Depilatory Plaza either.

Posted 6:52 PM by Gene

There seems to be a cycle with SNL: Every four years the hacks proclaim it's never been so unfunny, and then PRESTO! Two years later Belushi and Aykroyd are back. (As if THEY were funny.) All this cycling and recycling says is that with LOTS of news-hack help SNL will STILL be on the air in 36 years, which makes us ponder how many more unfunny comedians and grossout comedies it will inflict on the audience.

And another thing: 72 years will be scarcely more than the distance between us and the start of network television in the U. S., and only one year more than the distance between us and GWTW and The Wizard of Oz.

And 36 minus eight is 28, which is how many years ago Bluto killed himself. Is this immortality really worthy of Mt. Rushmore?

Posted 5:54 PM by Gene

And in news to warm the cockles of the hard left's withered heart:

Fidel Castro says was at death's door, now better

He told La Jornada he walked 600 steps without help and now weighed 190 pounds, up from pounds [SIC!!!!!] at the depths of his illness....

(Reporting by Jeff Franks; Editing by Bill Trott)

Hey Bill, do you take your editing a bit too seriously?

Posted 5:52 PM by Gene

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's invitation to hundreds of young women to convert to Islam overshadowed a two-day visit to Italy intended to cement the growing ties between Tripoli and Rome.

Yes, you really can judge an Italian prime minister by his friends.

Posted 5:45 PM by Gene

And if THIS FORBESLISTBLOG post is true now we can blame Israel for GLOBAL WARMING!

Posted 5:37 PM by Gene

Chris is on to something but he's trying too hard to be loved. Of course THE REV. DR. BECK's rally was squishy at its core -- how could it not be attracting gazillions of people whose favorite song is "AH'M PRAAAAAYOUD T'BE A CAAAAAAAAAYN -- AMERICAAAAAAAAAYN"? This is less about white minority status (Chris, you really don't have to try THAT hard to be loved) and more about "the Waterworld of self-pity" that runs through what must pass these days for patriotism. At least His Omnipotence is dimwit enough to do away with the patriotism.

Now no more talk about crowd size at the Capitol until the next PR stunt.

Posted 5:32 PM by Gene

If we got the reports right it seems The Cute Green Flower of an Oil Company was responsible for the Gulf disaster -- and so were the contractors. As the late Lord Koppel would say, everyone's responsible, and no one's responsible.

What would make this complete is if con-SER-va-tives blamed the government.

Posted 5:24 PM by Gene

We would wager there will be no significant change in this publicity-seeking panel of Cassandras because WE'RE STILL DESTROYING THE EARTH and this IS the League of Nations, which accuses Israel of doing the same thing.

Posted 5:22 PM by Gene

And THIS story is exasperating because the only questions about the outcome are: 1. Who will get the chance to make a zillion dollars shaking down the taxpayers for a new Dodger Stadium; and 2. Who will be number one in some mythical ranking in FORBESLISTBLOG.

Posted 5:11 PM by Gene

And when effete yahoos celebrate THE BEST RATINGS IN THREE YEARS!!!!! over yet another coronation of ED MURROW and THAT IN-CROWD SOAP OPERA that draws TWO MILLION -- and when ITS audience is MAYBE 13.5 MILLION, or 4.35 PERCENT OF THE CURRENT U. S. POPULATION -- we have the very definition of IRRELEVANT.

P. S. 13.5 million minus 13.471 million is 29,000 -- and that took a good dose of NIELSEN TWEAKING.

Posted 4:58 PM by Gene

One thing that's very middle-finger-old politics is the way pressure groups stage huge rallies for the sole purpose of inventing dubious crowd numbers to leverage spin. It was exasperating when GEORGE "KILL THE NAZIS!" SOROS did it; it's exasperating when THE REV. DR. MARTIN LUTHER BECK does it. While such rallies may play to the screaming maniacs on both sides they still raise the middle finger to those who aren't.

And does anyone place any faith in any crowd numbers? That's why such politics isn't old -- it was wheeled out on a gurney a long time ago.

Posted 2:24 PM by Gene

What's the difference between a total goofball and RON!!!! PAUL!!!!!!!!!!?

"REP."

The man who wears a dead animal on his head knows it.

Posted 2:22 PM by Gene

Dodd: 'No lobbying' in post-Senate plans

Pffh-hh-hh hh hh hh ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!

Posted 2:11 PM by Gene

His Omnipotence speaks, the stock market goes down.

Better look out for that water underneath You.

Posted 6:17 PM by Gene

We were thinking: Looking at the haunting pictures of the newly refurbished 103-year-old Belasco Theater, instead of the theme-park kings of Branson East putting on those things once called plays, why not simply shuttle tourists in and out of these largely meaningless landmarks, the way the Park Service does at our Independence Square? I'd much rather spend the time in one of these landmarks dreaming of the past than enduring a bankrupting present of jukebox shows or no-talents screaming profanities at the top of their lungs.

Speaking of, does anyone know who David Belasco was? He was the great playwright-producer of his day. He lived in an apartment at the theater, its ghostly remains shown in the third slide. I can imagine living there now, with huge sunlight-eating boxes on all sides and a view of shadows and fire escapes. He's as well known now as the something about rocks and horror that caused the lower balconies to be destroyed in 1975 deserves to be so long after its death. "The dozens of plays Belasco wrote or co-wrote are virtually never produced today." Chuck clearly is not reflecting on his own raves. "'The all-important factor in a dramatic production,' Belasco once said, 'is the lighting of the scenes.'" If this doesn't make him sound like UB IGER, or Lord Schlockintosh. And we know from those two fools he wasn't. There are some good reasons David Belasco can't be revived -- and likely just as many bad ones. If only Branson East's caretakers could let us judge for ourselves.

(Via the usual AHTSJournal)

Posted 12:08 PM by Gene

TRANSLATION: IF WE'RE GONNA GO DOWN IN FLAMES LET'S ADD GASOLINE TO THE FIRE!!!!!

Posted 11:03 AM by Gene

We had not thought of this in mentioning that story yesterday but we'd guess a great many HIP! HOT! spots in Lower Manhattan serve booze to minors who are trying to make themselves HIP! and HOT!, so maybe it will serve a purpose.

Posted 10:14 AM by Gene

December 28, 2009:

Obama low-profile after terror attempt

TRANSLATION: Another lose-lose for His Omnipotence. He knows foreign policy is always a downer; thus His administration has an essential indifference to the subject bordering on negligence, particularly on human rights; and taking care of terr -- MILITANTS may involve the military, and deep down one suspects His Omnipotence is still the community activist toward the people in uniform, even after nearly a year as putative Commander-in-Chief. So of course He keeps a non-existent profile, all the better to hope this blows away, and He can get back to burning our money on social schemes.

In so many words The Paper of Re-CORD says TODAY what I said eight months ago.

(Via JENNIFER!!!!!)