Author: Ruby Sinreich

Look out world, the bloggers are coming! The Pew Internet and American Life Project recently found that one-fifth of American teenagers have blogs, more than half have created online content, and “those who get music files online believe it is unrealistic to expect people to self-regulate and avoid free downloading and file-sharing altogether.”

Continue reading “The Next Generation” →

Wow. The CommonCensus Map Projectis building an experimental map of districts of the country based on “spheres of influence” instead of traditional political boundaries. It’s very much focused on how people feel connected to cities and regions

You can go fill in their survey to add your own prefences to the map.

…do you think it will be until Scott McClellan resigns? The White House press corps are staring at their watches.

Continue reading “How long” →

First of all, you have to understand that Halloween in Chapel Hill is very different from any place I’ve known. It is very common for adults to dress up and go to parties and/or to Franklin Street. In recent years there have been about 80,000 people on Franklin at Halloween, which is more than the population of Chapel Hill and Carrboro combined.

I am a strong believer in Adult Halloween because it allows us to dress up in a way we otherwise wouldn’t and act out some part of our id that normally doesn’t see the light of day. In the past I have been J.R. “Bob” Dobbs, a sexy beatnik, and Valerie Solanas, among other things.

Continue reading “Meet Wangari Maathai” →

I just sent this to the local papers, so I might as well tell you. I had to keep this short because of the length restriction on letters to the editor. You can get more info about all of the candidates at http://OrangePolitics.org/elections-2005
Continue reading “Progressive picks for Chapel Hill and Carrboro” →

…that Harriet Miers’ replacement would be a man.

“Look we tried to nominate a woman, it didn’t work. What do you mean ‘qualifications?’“

I was just listening to the news and thinking about this Republican investigator and how hard it must be for him to indict Bush and Cheney’s brains. They say this Fitzgerald guy is all principled and stuff, but you don’t get to be a powerful Republican in this country by pissing the Bush family off.

It seems to me that he’s not really that concerned with the leak that compromised U.S. security, he’s more pissed off that the guys lied to him personally. I suspect that this is why Scooter Libby and maybe Karl Rove are only going to get charged with obstructing the investigation instead of with the crime that was being investigated.

As far as I know, there has been no evidence that pointed to anyone but Cheney -> Libby -> Rove as the source of the leak. I haven’t heard any explanation for why Fitzgerald is unable (or unwilling) to indict on the crime that led to his investigation.

Remember this entire investigation is a result of Bush’s lying to convince Congress to support his war for oil. Let’s make sure voters don’t forget that.

UPDATE @ 2:00pm: it’s official:

Libby was indicted on charges of perjury, obstruction of justice and making false statements. The five-count indictment charged that he gave misleading information to the grand jury, allegedly lying about information he discussed with three news reporters. It alleged that he committed perjury before the grand jury in March 2004 and that he also lied to FBI agents investigating the case.

Shortly after the indictment was announced, Libby resigned his White House positions.

Isn’t it obvious? Republicans don’t want Katrina refugees voting because they know who they are pissed off at right now. I don’t blame them, if I was devoid of ethics I would do the same thing.

[T]he Displaced Citizens Voter Protection Act of 2005 (HR3734) … would allow displaced Katrina evacuees to vote in their home state elections by absentee ballots under the same protections afforded absent military and overseas voters.
…
To date, 38 Democrats and no Republicans have cosponsored the House bill, and two Democrats (Kerry and Landrieu) cosponsored the Senate version. Republicans are reluctant to sign on.
– Facing South: Absentee voting for Katrina evacuees