Time Out For Big Ink! Actually, more like slowing to an irregular sputter. BI posting will be light while I hack my way through the thesis process (and a few other things). Still posting when I can, though; see you around the ranch. Don't be strangers! c

Now in Big Ink! Clap your hands, little neocon!; Major P.R., General Disaster; say it with me: po-lit-i-cal; murdering the poor with food; brown is the new guilty; firing up the old swiftboats; Jonah, flailing in the blackness of his own soul; Pretty Girls Make Graves full album download!; some Histories of Labor Day; eavesdropping liedropping; grabbing labor by the blue collar; economic less is more; Rotten Anniversary I: Katrina; the "doc" in "docudrama" means "doctored"; where Bushes meet Bears; Joey Nutmeg gets his cut; student debt to society; Olberman II: nailed it!; Walt's boys skip a $200 million payday; Couric must be on drugs; Disney Hitler cartoons (whee!); the schlockudrama scandal picks up steam; history rewrit; donkey v. mouse; NY Times, hack factory; journalist market still strong; 9/11 caused by gays and loose women (duh); the Nowrasteh Code (is pretty dumb); rats in the walls in Burbank; journalistic origami; something loose in the machinery?; Karl's revenge; Rotten Anniversary II: 9/11 (featuring a very important Bonus Olbermann!); But wait... there's French pop! and Appenzellers! and Rollergirls! and Psychobilly! Kapayapaan!

This Week In Big Ink! (Okay, Ten Days) The Times gets it momentarily; haters make me blow my top; Senator James Inhofe (R-Fantasyland); Suskind on W and alQ; a great Navy story for the outmanned idiot; YouTube as time machine; enabling racism; the mathematician returns; Plame ensnares Armitage; covering up the bodies of journalists in Iraq; blogging across no-man's-land; hurricanes sweep away the underclass; academic death cult tactics revealed; Zippers from beyond the grave; conservative compassion means choking the life out of the opposition; Greenwald points out the silver lining's cloud; it's 2002 and you're a git; Fox girds loins (probably with loofa); Must-See Political TV: Keith Olbermann Goes Murrow On Rumsfeld's Ass; remember pushback?; making sure the terrorists win. Buffaloes!

Briefly in Big Ink! The VRWC tries to stick it to Big Al; DOD skulduggery; Conason on the neocon con; Columbia in reverse; terror alert raised to nutmeg; the Onion nails it; the Times does not; fear! it's not just for breakfast anymore; until HP7, enjoy the new Conyers report; let's play Hope/No Hope!; CSI: Mathmagic Land; courts are entitled to their opinion, I guess; the Daily Show Horrorshow; JonBenet versus Iraq; Newsflash: Schoolhouse still Rocks; How Right-Wingers See The NY Times; cheerleader of the free world; watch your back, hippies!; at 33% approval, the truncheons come out; Bush pretty much blames you for Iraq; and Pat Buchanan is totally trippin'! Ssssssss!

Ennis has an, um, tip for those who are interested in profiling Muslims.

A major backlog of Big Ink! I've been in three cities (four if you count Portland twice) since the last update, and my computer was back in the shop. But I refuse to apologize! Instead, allow me to distract you with the following: Disney gets its GOP on; if you're still following the Middle East SNOAP (the new SNAFU), you might as well be getting your facts from an expert; the Cowardly Lion goes to J-School; Tony Snow, the foot-in-mouth poster boy; the Gray Lady gets uppity; when newspapers are soap operas; behind the scenes with George and Tony; perspective from a Park Slope sandbox; who's a big slut now, hm?; global thermonuclear drama club (or the intercontinental ballistic backrub); when nosy neighbors meet the police state, it's a bad thing; one-time golden boy Ralph Reed runs smack into reality in Georgia; W finally gets to veto something and it's "hope for Alzheimer's patients"; Froomkin on yet another of the kudzuu-like coverups in the current administration (with fun Fox facts as a bonus); the Times tightens its belt and trims down (I'd suggest leaving Brooks out in the woods, but that's just me); our terror-sniffing infrastructure is getting all Rube Goldberg; W is incapable of fault and Nixon, apparently, was a piker; stem cells or terrorist cells, it's a no-brainer; the people who got bounced out of W's 2004 political events are trying a little Law & Order of their own; Ken Blackwell, the Katherine Harris of the Buckeye State, goes a-thumpin'; looks like the lawyers are now telling president jokes; the press secretary through history; Oklahoma, where the wind blows freely through the Senators' ears; presidential focus has never been focusier, we promise; Reed: "if the papers hadn't reported all that stuff I did, this wouldn't have happened"; the man behind the curtain says no looking behind the curtain; Denis Leary's a conservative jerk, but unlike these idiots he's a conservative jerk you can respect; Fox News is all about smoking and mushrooms, but not in the good way; welcome to the future, where politics is the environment is politics; not to be missed Colbert repor*t* on the media; detain U.S. citizens indefinitely? sure, why not?; Ted Kennedy states the obvious, but at least that's something; our pretty, pretty war; "vote early and often" redux, campaign finance style; when bloggers are journalists enough to get tossed in the pokey, is that good for bloggers or bad for journalists?; more on the fastly fading First Amendment; not to be overly shrill, but the game Rove, Inc., is playing could cost us a goodly chunk of our democracy; Wikipedia party people; Joe Lieberman, not feeling the love, gets indie fever; flashbulbs pop for Lamont; you no good rotten bloggers, get off my lawn; Joe sees phantom voters, officially goes off his nutmeg; and finally, we kick off the real campaign season with a conveniently timed terror alert and a new Personal Item of Death: energy drinks! Abracadabra!

Sometimes in Big Ink! A nasty cold, humidity, intermittent Web access, and the Brooklyn Cyclones have all conspired against me this summer, but they won't win in the long run. (Well, the humidity might.) Here's what we're talking about in the meantime: Greenwald reminds us that we're all traitors; the GOP is flipping a two-headed coin; truth in the media turns out (go figure) to have consequences; Kristoff clues in; Rupert sees future, rubs hands together ominously; Al Gore goes mano-a-robot with Bender; Digby sees future, writes useful chalk diagram; though time continues to pass, as of today David Brooks is still no closer to reality; though they doth protest too much, you know who's the hatahs; I try to get in on the Ennis explosion; budget math so fuzzy it could be a muppet; and a very special treat (for being such patient readers), the unaired Buffy pilot. Gooooooooooaalllll!

Lately in Big Ink! As of a few days ago, I have my computer back at last. (Have you backed up lately?) Now, whenever the humidity drops below a certain point, I can actually get a post in. Your topics: DIY Star Trek fanatics boldy produce what no one has produced before; 15-year-old Ava Lowery schools CNN and triple snaps the neocons; we reinvent the book and the old school quakes in its boots; and finally, what force is powerful enough to save us from global warming? Synergy, baby. A little Orwellian apertif, and we're good to go. More asap. Up, up and away!

Once Upon A Time In Big Ink! Hey there. I've been traveling and—lucky me—had a major hard drive meltdown last week. Thus, I have been far away from my computer, which is probably good for me but doesn't feel like it. Anyway, there are a few new links that might interest you. Once I have my own gear again, I can get back to regular posting (which I know you're all like totally on tinterhooks). So for now: The Judy and Bill Show just gives and gives, unfortunately; Billmon's travels in Egypt; Foser on one-way hype; John Solomon and the WaPo seem to be saying that journalism is hard work; Digby on moving beyond 9/11; despite thinking the worst, my imagination gets undercut again; Matt Cooper's legal Catch-22; Stephen Colbert lets the grads have it; Daou on the media's rope-a-dope strategy; the Solomon case illuminates the blogosphere/MSM dynamic; the PI says "our bad"; hurricanes won't be the only deadly spinning this season; the Plame scandal panel smells like freshly mown justice; and behind the scenes in the VRWC. More after Tekserve calls. Don't tread on me!

Recently in Big Ink! An unscheduled brain vacation happened last week, so I've been slacking on BI and OOB (sorry, Mike; although since Ennis and Andrea and Greg and Dot and the Owlanphy's refuse to battle me for space here, I'm carrying this corner solo). In any case, I do have a few Scooby snacks for you meddling kids. First, perhaps my favorite Big Ink post ever: Tony Snow Job hits the bigs. The newspapers didn't seem to like this invasion- of- privacy thing so much. A serious look at the police state, by Billmon. Frank Rich, on fear and loathing. In the W era, hindsight is simply painful. If it's Midterm Season, it must mean we're off to the (inferior) races. Fox News to Whites: Missionary Imposable. Being Newt means never having to say... the truth. Race (baiting) to the bottom. New Blue: Maps for a repentant nation. Mea culpa, now with headlines. The case of Web v. Print is murkier than it appears. More Big Ink to come! I'd buy that for a dollar!

This Week In Big Ink! Finally finished up the term, and not a minute too soon. Still groggy, but here are few posts from this ridiculous week. The Randy Duke had many friends; "I'm not evil, I'm an idiot!" Er, ah, either way...; It's all some meta-joke on 'hook, line and sinker'; NPR=Not Particularly Reliable; Say Again, Mr. President?; We may never know, but there are certainly some ominous rumblings; and finally, Tony Snow will be taking questions when he's damn good and ready, thanks. Yoiks! And away!

This Week In Big Ink! I'm totally bringing it in hot here at the end of the term, so apologies for being late and keeping it short/sweet! Here's the better part of two weeks' postings. Click! Enjoy! Billmon on the Mother of All Dozens; the press won't; talking heads! (for political geeks, sorry); old school goes old school on W; a little more on Det. Zadroga; they broke it, we bought it; family values and the estate tax repeal; spy toys!; tough love at Gitmo; O'Reilly... in... Spaaaace; the (Josh) Marshall Plan; when I think about this, I do solemly swear; Big Ink 101! (Thanks, Mike!); Horowitless; mind like a Steele trap. Serenity now!

This Week in Big Ink! First, the bad news. This might sting a little: the black helicopters of the corporate media are about to get their dirty mitts on your Internet (but, for a nominal fee, you won't notice a thing). Michael Savage makes his bid for worst person of 2006 (and at the moment, he's number one with a bullet). Meanwhile, the Decider Two-Step is all the rage in D.C. But wait! It's not all doom and gloom! My close personal friend Kos dropped by for a chat. I debate the Public Sphere on the topic of Al Gore and the Internet. We take a sneak peek behind the Democratic political strategery and how it gets processed from officials to reporters to bloggers. Carl Bernstein goes where Bob Woodward never can. And the Pulitzer Announcements are positively adorable. Never surrender!

This week in Big Ink! Maybe newspapers are dying; maybe they aren't; then again, maybe they are. 9/11 ripples and I am so mad I can hardly think straight. Billmon: The world is so strange right now, we might just be able to invade Iran without anyone really noticing. Digby: In fact, we might have already done just that. We get a big shipment of red herring that causes WMD flashbacks. A Harvard Law prof says privacy is a virus and seems to not be kidding. A quick hit on the future of television. And, for those of you joining the Bush administration late, a recap of the story thus far. Spoons!

Since I spent much of the last week in scenic Athens, Ohio, I've got only a quick news recap, but we do cover: Joe Wilson on Libby, Cheney and Bush; Fox News, not so much; ear-plugs as global warming policy; McCain's deal with the devil; Hersh is dropping bombs; at Salon, the truth dawns on Bush, or perhaps nearby; meanwhile, turns out, the calls are coming from inside the (White) House (Mehlman denies everything. Of course.); and just for Mike, the MBA president gets graded. Also, a meme-based tour of the conference I just attended, featuring such exciting concepts as: chain gangs; ChicagoCrime.org; transparency; accuracy, or not; strikethrough as discourse; the Cluetrain Manifesto; copyright; BitTorrent; anonymity; donuts; citmedia.org; BoingBoing; WizBang; The Dumpster; The Scream; Habermas; Clooney; Critical Publicity; 92%; 60 to 70%; Habermas; salmon or roast beef; Habermas; "war is a dialectic"; EMP weapons; hazing; Fast Eddie Felson; and Goth homeschoolers. Hey, whaddya want fer free?

Hammer Time is over. (We can stick a fork in him, but somehow I have the feeling that, zombielike, he'll be back.) Andy Card, chief of cheeseburgers, falls on his sword. School's in session with Glenn Greenwald on Congressional abuse-victim psychology; Digby on propaganda v. standards; and Lara Logan on real reporting in Iraq. Meanwhile, ABC goes all Renfield on the White House; NPR has a fun little Abramoff link tracker; and the New York Times goes... to the future. Semper Lassus! (Which might translate roughly as "I am always tired.")

TWO Weeks In Big Ink! Handed in the better part of 50 pages of drafts last week, so I didn't update here. Sorry. I'm sure you were devastated. But you did miss some fun, to wit: Bill O'Reilly, attack dog; a very twitchy fellow; more conspicuously missing women (as in, voices in the media); Jews Who Are Saving the World (hey, some of my best friends are saving the world); the ex-Post blogger gets a lesson in journalism; Chris Matthews, split personality; B.S. thoroughly called on the latest Iraq spin by Lara Logan of CBS (extremely attractive) and Jack Cafferty of CNN (attractively extreme (at least as far as media personalities typically go)); and, finally, the greatest political quote of the new millennium. Booyah!

Big fun this week at Big Ink with Jack "Mr. Pointy-Finger" Abramoff and his good pals John, Tom, Newt and Ken. Who no longer speak to him. And don't remember meeting him. And are kind of hoping he gets hit by a bus. Also, those wiretaps? Not such an exact science, turns out. Ooops! And Olbermann, god bless him, hangs it right on Rupert with one of the most hilarious quotes about the media I've ever seen. Andrea! Ennis! Trip! Surely you're not going to let me monopolize this prime real estate are you?

Had a quite a big week over at Big Ink, with more than a thousand pageviews coming -- thanks to Lynn Harris and Broadsheet -- to a post about the new abortion bill in South Dakota. Conspicuously missing from both the law and the press: not only the women of S.D., but also the men. Well, I heard from some of those women and they were actually working their butts off to oppose the legislation, not that that was reported in the national media. Drop by for a photo of their rally. Also on the docket this week: Katrina video (unfortunately not that Katrina video); a couple of interesting perspectives on Iraq; and every professor's best friend, David Horowitz. Where are we going? Planet Ten!

Thanks to Mike for resurrecting this corner of Ish for any and all of us who want to hype our own blogging. I would definitely love to hear more from the Vast Ish-Wing Conspiracy. In any case, I'm going to occasionally offer up TWIBI: This Week in Big Ink. This week, TWIBI is really LWIBI (Last Week...), and that's harder to say. Nonetheless, it's a rogue's gallery of in-case-you-missed-them:

Bill Kristol
Bill Buckley
Bill O'Reilly
and for good measure
Rick Santorum
Also, as a bonus: how about those 250 pages of emails the White House just "discovered"? What emails? Swish!

Howdy. I'm now writing about journalism and the media (with a side dish of culture and politics) at my new blog Big Ink. Yeah, it's not as fun as Ish. But I blogged Ann Coulter's little voter registration problem, for example, so you never know what might be going on over there.

It'd be great to have you drop by and chime in. Please feel free. And if you know of a place to promote it, go for it or give me a holler. Thanks.

Whoa! You can't stop Chris Kalb!

Check out the Custom Candy Heart eCard Generator!

Unbelievable. Should we tell him we all got laid off?

Syllables, that is.

Come over to the spectacularly cool redesign of BreakupGirl.net and enter the sporadically annual Valentine's Day Haiku Contest. Some faves from years past:

My long dating drought
has been reclassified a
"dating climate change."

You have morning breath
and a weed-wacker hairstyle.
I still snuggle you.

Supah-cool prizes on the line, including the first season of Veronica Mars on DVD!

Come over and send in your haikus (as many as you like) and please help us spread the word around!

Thanks!

Crossposted from Fojazz:

It's Groundhog Day, and that can only mean two things: the annual appearance of Punxsutawney Phil, and the singing of the Groundhog Day Song.

I composed this song when I was ten years old, and I have sung it (out loud!) every February 2nd for the past 25 years:

Let's hear it for groundhogs
'Cause they're really neat!
They're small and cute 'hogs,
And smell better than feet.
So if you like groundhogs,
Give a great big cheer! (YAY!)
Hip-hip-hooray,
Hip-hip-hooray,
Groundhog Day is here!
Hip-hip-hooray,
Hip-hip-hooray,
Groundhog Day is here!

Would you like to sing along? Click here to hear the melody!

PS: Phil sez six more weeks of winter. Foo.

Back on World AIDS day in December our own Ennis posted at Sepia Mutiny about how to Fight AIDS in your Computer's Spare Time:

The World Community Grid team has announced the FightAIDS @ Home project. By downloading their screensaver you donate your computer’s idle processing power to the project. The increased processing power will hopefully allow researchers to more aggressively and quickly screen possible HIV-fighting drugs.

It's a distributed computing project -- consider it the terrestrial version of SETI@Home. It's easy to download and the screensaver is kinda cool looking.

But how, you ask, can this possibly be a productivity tool?

Simple! I have mine set to work only when the computer is in screen-saver mode. (You have the option to have it work in the background all the time as well.) So when I'm working, and the screen saver is up and folding proteins, I have a moment's hesitation before I hit the keyboard. Do I really need to check my email? If I do, I will interrupt the Fight AIDS@Home program -- and we will be that much further from a cure.

There you have it: guilt as a productivity tool.

Should you decide to sign up, please join the "Ishbadiddle" team.