...In a surprising back-step, Fox has decided not to release OJ Simpson's book "If I Did It: Here's How It Happened," nor will it air its planned two-night promotional interview promoting the book.
Note: both the publisher of the book, ReganBooks, and the network (Fox) are owned by Rupert Murdoch's NewsCorp.
I'm a little disappointed by Fox. I was looking forward to actively choosing to do something other than watch TV when the interview aired.
...(from the Phoenix Business Journal) In a surprising show of bipartisan unity, Arizona Republican congressmen Hayworth, Renzi, and Franks voted with their Democratic colleagues from AZ, Ed Pastor and Raul Grijalva, to block a free trade agreement between the U.S. and Vietnam.
Republicans Kolbe, Shadegg, and Flake voted for the measure.
...Congressman Charles Rangel (D-NY) has called for reinstituting a military draft.
In a word: NO.
In more words: I understand the socioeconomic impetus behind this (the membership of the current all-volunteer armed services is heavily weighted toward the poor and racial and ethnic minority groups, perhaps unfairly so) but that's a reason to fix the system, not force people into the military against their will.
His proposal is a military-only draft; perhaps if it was part of a comprehensive public-service requirement, it might be more palatable. Options could include military service, as well as public works projects or working in poorer public schools, etc.
Of course, I could support a military-only draft, if the proposal required that the first 50,000 (or so) people drafted were the children or grandchildren of federal elected officials, senior government officials (Cabinet and sub-Cabinet), and of the directors and officers of defense contractors.
In one fell swoop, we'd become the most peace-loving nation in the history of the world.
OK, so a national public service requirement is more likely.
Hell, the Earth's rotation changing so that the Sun rises in the West and sets in the East is more likely.
Oh, and one more point against reinstituting a draft: Anybody drafted would have to take an oath swearing to follow the orders of the President of the United States.
Swear to follow the orders of George W. Bush??
Not gonna happen.
...My favorite headline of the weekend, from Yahoo! News:
"Calif. couple calls for orgasm for peace"
The couple is calling for an anti-war protest on December 22nd; not in the streets, but one we can all participate in by staying home.
Provide your own punch lines. :)
All I have to ask is who is going to volunteer to take one for the team (humanity) and bring peace to Ann Coulter? (Sorry, I couldn't resist a punch line of my own. :) )
...Time to go to the LD17 Dems' reorg meeting. Later!
1 comment:
What really gets me about this whole OJ Simpson thing is that lots of folks had to agree that this was a good idea in order for it to have gotten this far. Yeah, let's give this guy a public platform to basically confess to murder. And we'll create a how to manual while we're at it.
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