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2006-09-15T00:23:00.000-07:00

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NYT REVIEW OF ABC 9-11 MOVIE

2006-09-07T20:00:00.000-07:00

NEW YORK TIMES TV critic Alessandra Stanley reviews ABC's upcoming 'The Path to 9/11' in Friday editions, newsroom sources tell DRUDGE. "'The Path to 9/11' is not a documentary, or even a docu-drama; it is a fictionalized account of what took place. It relies on the report of the Sept. 11 commission, the King James version of all Sept. 11 accounts, as well as other material and memoirs. Some scenes come straight from the writers' imaginations," writes Alessandra . "Dramatic license was certainly taken, but blame is spread pretty evenly across the board. It's not the inaccuracies of 'The Path to 9/11' that make ABC's miniseries so upsetting. It's the situation on the ground in Afghanistan now." Alessandra concludes: "Hindsight is heartbreaking and disturbing to watch, even in a made-for-television movie. But it's even harder to take when those steps continue to contaminate the present." Developing... (from Drudgereport.com)

AL JAZEERA BROADCASTS OSAMA MEETING 9/11 HIJACKERS VIDEO

2006-09-07T11:46:00.000-07:00

Drudgereport.com is reporting that Al-Jazeera has just broadcast a video that shows Osama meetinf the 9/11 hijackers. This story will be updated as more information is provided.

11:45 am (pst):
ABC NEWS has now a breaking news headline on the front page of its website saying "AL JAZEERA AIRS TAPE PURPORTEDLY OF OSAMA BIN LADEN, AL QAEDA TRAINING FOR SEPT. 11 ATTACKS"

11:53 am (pst):
from the AP..."CAIRO, Egypt Sep 7, 2006 (AP)— Al-Jazeera on Thursday broadcast what it called a previously unshown video in which al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden is seen meeting with some of the Sept. 11 hijackers."

11:59am (pst)
ABC NEWS has an in-depth news article on this story. go here... http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=2405996

12:05pm (pst):
VIDEO of Osama and 9/11 hijackers... http://cbs13.com/topstories/topstories_story_250143125.html

Iran President Plans Trip to NYC; Speech at UN

2006-09-06T17:35:00.000-07:00

Ahmadinejad to Cuba, New York Wed Sep 06 2006 20:23:38 ET Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is to attend the summit of Non-Aligned Movement countries in the Cuban capital Havana in mid-September, an official said Wednesday. "The president will take part in the summit of Non-Aligned countries in Havana," said the official from the president's office, who asked not to be named. The summit of the 116-nation grouping is to take place between September 11-16, and Ahmadinejad is also expected to attend the UN General Assembly in New York that starts on September 12, the official said. There was no indication as to when Ahmadinejad would be arriving in Havana and New York. Developing... (from: http://www.drudgereport.com/flash3.htm )Related News Article: Ahmadinejad says he is ready for debate with Bush at UN General Assembly

Snakes on a Plane recieves a 8.3 rating with over 9,000 votes, high enough to be on IMDB's Top 50

2006-08-20T14:12:00.000-07:00

Votes Percentage Rating6650 73.4%10688 7.6%9558 6.2%8297 3.3%7136 1.5%668 0.8%539 0.4%442 0.5%354 0.6%2527 5.8%1

Arithmetic mean = 9.0. Median = 10

Where this would place SOAP on the IMDB Top 250 Movies of all-time list:

SOAP would be between #73 and #50 with a rating of 8.3 (23 other movies have same rating)

A tip to stuff the ballot box on voting for the Hungarian Colbert Bridge

2006-08-17T00:37:00.000-07:00

from a poster from the Colbertnation.com message board:

i found a really good way to vote tons of times an hour and all you gotta do is download a few things set it up and let it do it for you...

--first of all download firefox- the reason for this is because there is an option on a drop down menu in the cookies tab (which is under private) that delete cookies once firefox closes

--you will also need to download smack 1.06- this program remembers your mouse movements and keystrokes. you can download it here http://www.softplatz.com/Soft/Utilities/Other/24913.exe

i guess i might as well tell you the fastest way (that i have found) to vote with this program

-first click record new macro
-then open firefox
make sure that you have the website (http://www.m0hid.gov.hu/vote) copied so you can paste it
-rightclick in the address bar and paste the website
-wait a little bit after the site loads then ctrl-f and type in colbert
-select colbert then grab the scroll bar and go to the vote button
-after the next page loads close the window and hit alt-F10
-now name the macro whatever you want then click playback to make sure it works, if it does set it to repeats howmany times you want it to

just note that the program does not record if you use the mouse wheel

Residents wonder if dead animal is legendary mystery beast

2006-08-16T15:17:00.000-07:00

August 16, 2006

TURNER, Maine --Residents are wondering if an animal found dead over the weekend may be the mysterious creature that has mauled dogs, frightened residents and been the subject of local legend for half a generation.

The animal was found near power lines along Route 4 on Saturday, apparently struck by a car while chasing a cat. The carcass was photographed and inspected by several people who live in the area, but nobody is sure exactly what it is.

Michelle O'Donnell of Turner spotted the animal near her yard about a week before it was killed. She called it a "hybrid mutant of something."

"It was evil, evil looking. And it had a horrible stench I will never forget," she told the Sun Journal of Lewiston. "We locked eyes for a few seconds and then it took off. I've lived in Maine my whole life and I've never seen anything like it."

For the past 15 years, residents across Androscoggin County have reported seeing and hearing a mysterious animal with chilling monstrous cries and eyes that glow in the night. The animal has been blamed for attacking and killing a Doberman pinscher and a Rottweiler the past couple of years.

People from Litchfield, Sabattus, Greene, Turner, Lewiston and Auburn have come forward to speak of a mystery monster that roams the woods. Nobody knows for sure what it is, and theories have ranged from a hyena or dingo to a fisher or coydog, an offspring of a coyote and a wild dog.

3 Exclusive clips from "Snakes on a Plane"

2006-08-10T12:20:00.000-07:00

In an act of self-preservation, the crime boss facing prison smuggles hundreds of poisonous snakes onto the commercial aircraft in a crate timed to release its deadly cargo halfway over the Pacific. Flynn, along with a frightened flight crew and passengers, must then band together in a desperate attempt to survive.

read more | digg story

How to say, :I'm Not Gay"

2006-08-06T19:23:00.000-07:00

If You Must Know, I’m Straight

By MIREYA NAVARRO

LOS ANGELES

TO issue “the denial” in 2006, do the following:

Step 1: State emphatically what it is you are not.

Step 2: Scoff at the rumor with good humor.

Step 3: Note, for the record, your true feelings about the rumor: not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Or, skip steps 1 through 3 and opt for evasion with the nondenial denial: “I don’t want to talk about my private life.”

We are talking, of course, about denying the Gay Rumor, that surreptitious creature that attacks scores of entertainment, political and athletic personalities and that most recently has prompted disclaimers from Oprah Winfrey, the “Superman Returns” star Brandon Routh and Michael Strahan, the New York Giants defensive end.

Ms. Winfrey, who has denied in the past that she is a lesbian, said in the August “friendship’’ issue of her magazine, O, that her close bond with her best friend of 30 years, Gayle King, defies definition, but added: “People think I’d be so ashamed of being gay that I wouldn’t admit it? Oh, please.”

In the case of Mr. Routh, the denial came during a July 2 interview on “Larry King Live,” when Mr. King asked whether Superman’s appeal among gays, the subject of an earlier article in the gay publication “The Advocate,” could lead people to assume the actor was gay.

“I’m very confident in who I am and my relationship with my lovely girlfriend,” Mr. Routh responded.

The list of suspected lesbians and gay men is ever growing: In addition to the perennial suspect Tom Cruise, actors like Jake Gyllenhaal and Marcia Cross of “Desperate Housewives” have had to assert their heterosexuality. Mr. Strahan’s run-in with it was brief, prompted by a comment his wife made during their tumultuous divorce proceeding but that she later retracted.

“For every one coming out, we have five denials,” said Michelangelo Signorile, the gay author and Sirius Satellite Radio talk show host famous for pioneering the outing of prominent people as homosexuals in the late 1980’s. As for how gay rumors begin in the first place, they can be triggered by just about anything — a certain look, too many gay friends, being older and still romantically unattached. And more public figures are being put on the spot about their sexual orientation, something that was once considered in bad taste.

“The media is more willing to ask the question, because being gay has become a more publicly acknowledged fact of life,” said Larry Gross, director of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California and author of “Up From Invisibility: Lesbians, Gay Men and the Media in America” (2001, Columbia University Press).

But while that may speak well of the achievements of the gay rights movement, some sociologists and gay advocates say that all the fuss over the Denial is one more indication of the stigma still attached to being gay.

“At least there’s no longer the presumption that everyone is straight,” said Laura Grindstaff, an associate professor of sociology at the University of California, Davis, who teaches on gender and sexuality. “But this intense interest in knowing, and the need to deny, are problematic. Why does the difference matter? Because there are all these consequences.”

With blogs and celebrity magazines always at the ready to dissect every rumor and its corresponding response, how to handle the denial is tricky terrain for those who feel one is in order. Protest too much and it may seem too defensive, and therefore suspect. Ignore it and the rumors can take on a life of their own.

Gay media watchers regard Mr. Gyllenhaal, who fielded questions about his sexual orientation after his starring role as a gay cowboy in “Brokeback Mountain,” as a model for the right approach.

“I can honestly say I’ve never been attracted to a man sexually,” he said, “but I don’t think I’d be afraid of it if it happened.”

Contrast that balanced response to sharp-tongued quotes attributed to Mel Gibson. After his drunken-driving arrest and anti-Semitic outburst in Malibu last week, entertainment journalists dredged up other controversial remarks of his, including the following quote from a 1992 interview with the Spanish newspaper “El Pais.”

“Do I sound like a homosexual? Do I talk like them? Do I move like them? I think not.”

Wrong approach, said Neil G. Giuliano, president of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, or Glaad. “Building ourselves up by putting another class of people down is never a good thing.”

Mr. Gross, of the Annenberg School, said that filing a lawsuit or taking full-page ads to disavow gayness was not uncommon in Hollywood at one time, but today that would smack of overkill and send the wrong message.

“A lawsuit says, ‘This is a terrible thing you’re saying,’ ” he said. “Now it becomes a balancing act for people.”

The New York publicist Ken Sunshine said that among his celebrity clients, being an attractive 20-something man is almost a guarantee that gaydars will go off.

“It comes up all the time,” Mr. Sunshine said. “The gay rumors are based on nothing and then they have to make the decision to comment on their sexuality.”

Mr. Sunshine said his media strategy varies depending on the circumstances and the wishes of his clients, most of whom he said choose not to comment.

“Sometimes I yell and scream, sometimes we threaten to sue, sometimes we try to charm,” Mr. Sunshine said of how he deals with prodding from the news media. “It’s very difficult to combat with the celebrity obsession that we’re going through.”

Even a cartoon sea sponge became a target last year when a conservative Christian leader deemed a children’s video starring SpongeBob SquarePants pro-homosexual. Dan Martinsen, a spokesman for Nickelodeon, said the characterization was so absurd the company did not have a media strategy other than to state the obvious.

“He’s a sponge, for crying out loud,” Mr. Martinsen said.

But dispelling gay rumors is harder for humans, as Dr. Daniel Mongiardo found out. Barely two weeks before the 2004 election, Dr. Mongiardo, 46, a Kentucky Democratic state senator who was running for a seat in the United States Senate, said the Republican camp went after him by insinuating that he might be gay.

“They said things like ‘he’s limp-wristed’ and there’s no ‘man’ in ‘gentleman’ when it comes to him,” said Dr. Mongiardo, a co-sponsor of Kentucky’s amendment banning gay marriage who is single. Dr. Mongiardo, an ear, nose and throat specialist who said he has been in a fairly serious relationship with a woman for over a year, uttered the ubiquitous “I’m not gay” denial but he said there was no way to deflect the damage. He narrowly lost to the incumbent, Senator Jim Bunning, and blames the gay label. “It cost me and my party a seat in the Senate, ” Dr. Mongiardo said. But if rumors are used as a weapon, they can also be the product of wishful thinking.

“Gay people propagate these rumors, too, because they’re looking for affirmation in the public arena by identifying positive cultural icons as part of their own community,” said Verta Taylor, the chairwoman of the sociology department at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who is a lesbian and writes about gender and sexuality.

Outside the entertainment industry, lawsuits by heterosexual plaintiffs alleging discriminatory treatment or sexual harassment because they were mistakenly perceived to be gay are becoming increasingly common, and in some cases victorious, lawyers say. In some cases those affirming their heterosexuality are being represented by gay organizations like Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund.

“It’s just as bad either way,” Jon Davidson, Lambda’s legal director, said of the discriminatory treatment of people assumed to be gay, whether gay or straight.

Not everyone reaches for the Denial. In some cases, there’s the Declaration. Lance Bass, a member of the 1990’s boy band ’N Sync, came out publicly in an article in the Aug. 7 issue of People magazine, which splashed his picture on the cover with the headline, “I’m Gay.” Mr. Bass, 27, said that while the people closest to him knew he was gay, he had kept his sexual orientation out of the public domain because, “I knew I was in this popular band and I had four other guys’ careers in my hand.”

(from NYTimes.com: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/06/fashion/06gay.html?_r=2&oref=login&ref=fashion&pagewanted=print )

Reggie Bush; Saints agree to deal

2006-07-29T19:56:00.000-07:00

The New Orleans Saints and first-round draft choice Reggie Bush agreed to terms late Saturday night on a six-year contract, ESPN.com has learned.

Financial terms of the contract, which will be signed on Sunday, were not yet available. But based on discussions with NFL sources throughout Saturday, as the two sides moved closer to the accord, it appears that Bush's contract will easily exceed the one signed earlier this week by Tennessee Titans quarterback Vince Young, and will come very close to the deal for top overall pick Mario Williams.

Agent Joel Segal, who hammered out the accord over the last few days, would only confirm late Saturday that he will travel to Jackson, Miss., site of the Saints' training camp at Millsaps College, to meet with New Orleans officials there. He will be joined by Bush, who is flying in from Los Angeles.

It is doubtful that, given the travel involved and the time that it will take for all the parties to review what is expected to be a very lengthy contract document, Bush will practice on Sunday.

For a while on Saturday night, it appeared that an agreement would not come until Sunday, as the two sides approached a deal, but still had to pore over a substantial amount of complicated data. But Segal and Saints negotiator Russ Ball forged ahead and came to an agreement at about 10:30 p.m. ET.

It is not known how much impetus was provided by the contract to which Young, the third overall selection in the draft, agreed this week. Young received $25.74 million in guarantees from the Titans, slightly less than the $26.5 million in bonuses that the Houston Texans awarded Williams.

Bush was the second player chosen and had missed the first two days of training camp practices.

Before the discussions heated up on Thursday, the two sides had discussed framework and concepts, and perhaps even floated some dollar figures.

Compounding the negotiations for the Saints was the fact that Bush, who has embraced the hurricane-ravaged city of New Orleans and already made several sizeable donations to charities there, has banked $5 million-$7 million in various endorsement contracts negotiated by Mike Ornstein, his marketing agent.

That certainly alleviated the urgency for Bush to sign a contract quickly, since he already has considerable cash flow.

Bush said during the team's rookie minicamp in May that he wanted to be in camp on time and that he had instructed Segal to attempt to accomplish that goal. But only a few days later, Bush clarified his remarks, telling ESPN.com that any contract had to be a sound business decision.

Len Pasquarelli is a senior NFL writer for ESPN.com. To check out Len's chat archive, click here .

Where is Digg Swarm and Stack?

2006-07-24T13:19:00.000-07:00

According to TechCrunch.com, the new visualization features of Swarm and Stack would be released today, July 24th. So far there has been no update to why there has been no Digg Swarm or Stack present on the Digg.com site. Please add comments if you have any updates to this story.

Digg surpasses Google China in Alexa's traffic rankings

2006-07-04T12:33:00.000-07:00

According to Alexa's Top 500 Global Sites, Digg.com has a traffic ranking of #116 while Google.cn (Google China) is behind at #117. Other notable websites behind Digg.com in online traffic includes:
BankofAmerica.com
Ask.com
Monster.com
Webshots.com

Related Links: Alexa's Top 500 Global Sites - #100 to #200