TODAY'S TOP FIVE: College Students Prefer Kerry to Bush: Big Fucking Surprise.
Payola: Part 3 Eliot Spitzer, the New York State attorney general who has struck fear into the heart of corporate America, is now taking on the major labels and the scummy way they get radio play: paying "independent promoters" who operate like mafiosi (complete with beatdowns) and who plug the singles to radio stations. This practice has been investigated by Congress at least twice, but it keeps popping up. However, since the 1996 Telecommunications Act, the day of the independent promoter is rapidly vanishing. Anyway, I'm always happy to see anyone fuck with major labels.
24 Inductees Into the Douche Bag Hall of Fame 24 professional athletes have signed a letter endorsing George W. Bush for president. Put aside the nakedly hypocritical display of a party that complains bitterly about actors and musicians supporting Democrats now enlisting famous jocks into their cause, because the real horror of this is having childhood icons shattered forever. Fine, it was always clear that tools like John Elway, Nolan Ryan, and crazy racist Bob Feller were always likely to be Republicans. But, Cubs fans, gaze in horror: the letter is signed by Ernie Banks. Say it ain't so.
Tenet's Favorite Social Distortion Song: "I Was Wrong" 24-year-old Anna Clark, reporter for the Herald-Palladium of St. Joseph, Mich., snagged a great story that is now all over "the Internets" (cf. George Bush): George Tenet, visiting some chicken-in-a-basket fund-raiser in the hinterlands, admitted that the Iraq war was "wrong." Oops! Kudos to Miss Clark, and to George Tenet, for admitting the truth, even if it was two years too late.
Poor People Suck! Vote for Bush! What with all the war and disaster and election fraud and whatnot, it's easy to forget little stories like this: the Bush administration, in a burst of that compassionate conservatism we heard so much about four years ago, is getting ready to hang millions of poor people and their communities out to dry. The way it works is this: Currently, banks with $250 million or more in assets are required by the federal government to serve low-income Americans in their own neighborhoods by investing in housing programs and devlepment strategies. Since 1977, the banks of American have spent more than $1.5 trillion doing this. But now, the Bush administration wants to change the regulation so that only banks with $1 billion in assets or more are required to pass these tests, meaning that 1,100 banks are off the hook to be good citizens and millions of poor people are out to dry. But, you know, he's a man of faith.
Ann Coulter Loves Pie. . . Not that there's anything wrong with that. Two dudes at the University of Arizona threw custard pies at an appearance by the shrill McCarthyite, leading to their arrest and potential beatification. Anyone with footage of this hilarious event, send it along.
-Consider Arms
