Monthly Archives: November 2007

USA Today cuts 45 jobs

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From The LA Times:

USA Today, the flagship of industry leader Gannett Co., said Thursday that it would eliminate about 45 newsroom jobs.

The job losses reflect a cut of almost 9% to a current newsroom staff of about 500, USA Today said.

In a memo to staff, USA Today Editor Ken Paulson said the paper hoped to reduce the staff through voluntary buyouts, but layoffs were possible.

Like other newspapers, USA Today has struggled with declining revenue as advertisers shift spending to the Internet. Unlike most, though, its circulation rose, to 2.3 million.

That’s odd considering their circulation rose. My guess, the McPaper isn’t taking advantage of its online potential. Look at their website. They are hardly serving any ads, and the ones they have are tiny. You can serve ads on a news sites without them being too intrusive.

Plus their circulation numbers are probably a little inaccurate. USA Today gets delivered to a fair number of hotel rooms in the U.S. and their are more and more hotels being built everyday. Just because more papers are needed, that doesn’t mean they are getting into more hands. Advertisers know this and would rather advertise through other avenues. If they took advantage of their online footprint, they could keep that revenue up and save jobs. Or just shift those positions to online positions and improve their site. As it stands their site is seriously lacking in both design and content.

And I just realized there is exactly zero people that read this blog that will care about this. You know, because the journalism business is oh, so exciting. To j-geek like me though, it is.

Senate Republicans block funding for U.S. troops

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I find it really amazing how every time either Bush vetoes or Republicans block funding for the war, the Democrats get labeled as “not supporting the troops.” So, trying to give them $50 billion that was requested is “not supporting” them? Simply because the bill had stipulations on troops coming home, Republicans voted against it.

Senate Republicans on Friday blocked a $50 billion bill by Democrats that would have paid for several months of combat but also would have ordered troop withdrawals from Iraq to begin within 30 days. The measure, narrowly passed this week by the House, also would have set a goal of ending combat in December 2008.

The 53-45 vote was seven votes short of the 60 needed to advance. It came minutes after the Senate rejected a Republican proposal to pay for the Iraq war with no strings attached.

Now, Democratic leaders say they won't send President Bush a war spending bill this year. They calculate the military has enough money to run through mid-February.

Their logic would send Spock into a fit.

“This is highly ridiculous Captain.”

Star Wars, nothing but Star Wars!

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I’m not sure if anyone has seen this yet, but the Star Wars Vault collectible book came out and it is $85.00 dollars worth of awesome ($53.55 if you act now at Amazon.com.)



I was killing time at the bookstore looking at this behemoth and it is well worth the cover price for Star Wars fanatics. Almost every pages has a pull-out, an insert or some sort of collectible goodie. No doubt this will be the most highly pilfered item on the bookshelves this holiday season. Definitely order one online or, if you must get it in the store, make sure it is wrapped in cellophane still. Kids will be stealing stuff out of these left and right.

As for the inserts though, they are super cool. Replicas of ticket stubs, promotional materials, posters, animations cells, mock-ups of letter invites to private screenings, iron-ons, full blueprints, two CDs of rare audio; the list goes on and on.

Really, a sweet item for the geek or your holiday list (which very well may be you.)

CBS News investigates veteran suicides…

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…and the results are startling.


PART 1


PART 2

The raw numbers:

Results for 2004

Overall Rates
Veterans: 17.5 to 21.8 per 100,000
Non-Veterans: 9.4 per 100,000

Male Rates
Veterans: 30.6 to 38.3 per 100,000
Non-Veterans: 18.3 per 100,000

Female Rates
Veterans: 10.0 to 12.5 per 100,000
Non-Veterans: 4.8 per 100,000

Results for 2005

Overall Rates
Veterans: 18.7 to 20.8 per 100,000
Non-Veterans: 8.9 per 100,000

Male Rates
Veterans: 31.5 to 35.3 per 100,000
Non-Veterans: 17.6 per 100,000

Female Rates
Veterans: 11.1 to 12.3 per 100,000
Non-Veterans: 4.5 per 100,000

Wow, this is really ridiculous. Think about that, for every 100,000 male troops, 30 are statistically likely to kill themselves. That is unacceptable!

Whether you support the war or not, President Bush or not, this should be a concern. It is a non-partisan issue. Hell, war supporters should be more concerned. If the military starts getting a bad (or worse) reputation, who in the hell is going to want to sign up? Recruiters will be casing more high schools and colleges being forced to spin their lies about military service. Guys on their third and fourth tours will be forced to go back because there is no one to replace them and our military will be less effective. So, taking care of veterans is in their best interest.

For more:

CBS Investigates story

VA Watchdog dot Org

Veterans for Common Sense

Hat tip: Crooks & Liars

Go Dave, go Dave!

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According to Deadline Hollywood Daily, Late Show host David Letterman is paying his entire staff during the WGA strike despite the show being off the air. Here’s the kicker, Dave is paying them out of his own pocket. CBS (and NBC) have stopped paying their entire staffs due to the writer’s strike, in order to put pressure on the writers to come back. Those writer’s should watch out once the violence starts, I hear gaffers are killer at knife fights.

In all seriousness though, this is the type of awesome, noble and just badass act that puts Dave above the rest late-night hosts. Once this strike is over, writers are going to be lining to work for The Late Show. Then again, they probably already are.

For more interesting reading on the WGA strike, the LA Times has a good day-by-day tracker of news and updates.

Oh, and What Would Tyler Do? has the best response to Dave’s kindness:

Dave Letterman is the fuckin coolest. I like to think I would kind of do the same thing, that I would do my part to help the people who worked for me, but then it would occur to me - fuck those homos. And then I'd roll around on the waterbed and throw a pile of hundreds at the naked teen models.

Word.

The Tale of the Marlboro Marine

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Via Crooks & Liars:

...gut wrenching story of Lance Corporal James Blake Miller– better known as the Marlboro Marine–who is now jobless, divorced and near suicidal since being discharged from the military after being diagnosed with PTSD. With little aid from his government, Miller received help from an unlikely source — Luis Sinco, the LA Times photographer who snapped the famous picture of him during the battle of Fallujah in 2004.

You can read the full LA Times story here.

The gist of the story is that Lance Corporal James Blake Miller was “Saving Private Ryan’ed” after this photo shot by Luis Sinco “connected” with the American people. Not wanting to hear of a soldier getting killed, no doubt in order to avoid the realities of this war with America, he was sent home. Miller even received care packages and cigars from President George W. Bush.

After a violent episode caused by PTSD, he was medically discharged with a “personality disorder” on Nov. 10, 2005 — exactly one year after his picture made worldwide news. He was given a superficial award from the National Mental Health Association, yet oddly no military mental health treatment.

He has since become divorced and suicidal with few places left to turn.

Is this how we support our troops? By turning scared, scarred and traumatized young men and women loose on a world that has no idea what they’ve gone through. You know why we need news and movies that show the horrors of war and the atrocities that happen in the name of peace? So that when these men and women come home and tell their loved ones that they are fine, their loved ones will have reason to question that and get them help.

Really America?

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They are seriously and honestly discussing the “Power of Prayer” on Anderson Cooper 360 tonight. Guests include Dr. Mehmet Oz (of the uber-selling You books) and Dr. Deepak Chopra. I’ve lost just a tiny, tiny bit of respect for my boy Cooper.

What the f–k?

Also, the Governor of Georgia publicly prayed for rain.

Did the last 1000 years suddenly not happen? I mean for crying out loud people, we’re doing face transplants now! I think we can stop looking toward the heavens to save our dying. We’ve got science!

I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again:


Courtesy of www.xkcd.com

500 unionized news writers might follow WGA lead

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So dependent on a vote on Thursday, the WGA may be joined on the picket line by some 500 unionized news writers who are represented by the Writer’s Guild of America: East.

Hmm, if the news goes on strike will they put on reruns too.

OK sure, it’s just CBS writers and producers. Still, it would be weird to see CBS suddenly come to a halt.

BONUS: The WGA strike explained in two minutes:

In case you didn’t know, homelessness is over

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According to Fox News’ John “War on Christmas” Gibson that is. Check it:

On another front we have full employment, and the economy is sailing strong into a storm of $100 a barrel oil.

On yet another front, a published report today said that homelessness is virtually over. People may have crushing mortgages, but they have homes.

So all in all, the war is going in our favor. Proof of that is that Democrats have shut up about it. Bush has made sure you have a job, and this economy has insured you have a home.

Published report? Where, in the printing press of your psycho mind? Also in case you didn’t know, we have full employment. Every able-bodied adult has a job–What!? Tell that to the people on the dole you twit.

Then of course there is this. Homeless veterans, meaning they don’t have a home or a job. Kind of blows your whole theory out of the water doesn’t it Gibby.

Someone get this guy off of the air.

Original source: Crooks & Liars