PSoTD

If you have some spare time in Harrisburg this Saturday, this is kinda interesting. Our family went a few years ago - a great thing for kids to check out.

Maple Sugar Festival This sweet event is free for everyone. Enjoy learning the mysteries of maple syrup making, Native American sugar making, tree tapping and children’s activities. Taste tests, great video and delicious Pennsylvania maple products for sale When: Saturday, March 3, Noon-4 p.m. Where: Centennial Barn and adjoining buildings Admission: Free

This all began with a question at Shakespeare's Sister's website:

If you were an actor, whose career would you most want to have?

My answer was John Cusack - the man has a varied and quirky resume that I particularly appreciate.

And one of the movies I most appreciate his work in is Eight Men Out, in my humble opinion one of the best movies ever made about baseball. It truly is, although comparing it with other supposed great baseball movies is damning with faint praise. (See this list for the possibilities)

And I started wondering - with all the history that has involved baseball, and with all the money that, in theory, could be available to make movies about that baseball history, and with all the fans and SABRmatricians with cash to spend on such a product, why doesn't Major League Baseball finance a baseball movie at least once a decade? Wouldn't it benefit the sport, both short- and long-term? There are so many interesting stories out there to be told, and I am NOT suggesting individual biographies, which can and are done on television. The story of baseball during World War II, the evolution of the inclusion of Central American players, the battle between baseball and church over Sunday games, the free-agency movement, etc... there are SO MANY options. So why isn't it part of the MLB program by now?

I recognize that there's a risk that such movies can turn into propaganda, because baseball owners aren't the smartest people in the world, and yet can be some of the most stubborn, and particularly in stories such as the reserve-clause, there could be a severe risk of having a once-in-ten-years effort completely backfire on them. The goal would be to generate a greater appreciation for the sport, and to that end, benefit organized baseball.

And here's how you start such an effort - send out a letter to every baseball beat writer, major league general manager and field manager in the country, and ask them this simple question:

What is the most interesting baseball story that's never been told in movies?

Think you'll find at least one great movie in that process? I think you'll find dozens.

You gotta admit, that sounds kinda fun.

Really cool - The Seventh Sense has video.

If you're attending a combined James Carville - Mary Matalin speaking engagement, please feel free to email me comments concerning your experience during that engagement. I know of four organizations at this point at which they are scheduled to speak at their annual events this year:

National Association of Housing & Redevelopment Organizations

American Health Care Association

I've watched these two on various political talk shows, and I really find it uncomfortable to watch them. So, I'm curious as to why national organizations book them as opposed to the myriad of other options they have for their event scheduling. Please feel free to review their "presentation" as well as indicate any other activities at the same event that they may have participated within.

It is important the community voices its concern to The Hershey Company to invite them to reconsider downsizing its operations in the Hometown of its Founder. On March 3rd at 10:00AM, at the Hershey Italian Lodge, located at 128 Hillcrest Road in Hershey, there will be an open forum to allow you the opportunity to express your concerns about the potential downsizing of the Hershey specific operations. We encourage all to get involved and express one’s opinion in a civil manner.

A question looking for positive notes:

If you were looking to add a positive, supportive post about any business of which you are a customer, what company would your blog post support?

Rebecca had a lot of wisdom on business blogging contained on that scrap of paper... good starting reference.

What will be the world's first country to allow voters in a national parliamentary election to cast their ballots over the Internet?

(answer in comments)

Literally.

Hershey's Joins Harrah's in Sweet Seat World Series of Poker Main Event Promotion

Two American icons are coming together as the World Series of Poker and Hershey’s unwrap a “Sweet Seats” promotion in April. America’s largest chocolate company is offering consumers a chance to win $10,000 WSOP main event entries, alongWorld Series of Poker Logo with other secondary prizes, including travel and accommodations to Las Vegas.

“The number one name in chocolate is now teamed with the number one brand in poker,” said WSOP commissioner Jeffrey Pollack.

Harrah’s sweetened the deal by naming Hershey’s the official chocolate of the 2007 WSOP. Hershey’s will have the right to use the World Series of Poker name, logo, image, and design when promoting its own products.

The promotion is scheduled to hit in-store displays April through June of 2007 throughout the United States. More than 20,000 units of Hershey’s standard bar chocolate products will feature the WSOP logo and Sweet Seats sweepstakes.

I wonder who is in charge with their image management...

I thought Bill Donohue's head was going to implode on the Larry King Show.

On the other hand, by his words, I'm not sure America could tell if it had.

Still... Bill Donohue is a hypocrit. He demands evidence - including DNA evidence - to prove that a certain tomb in Jerusalem was the final resting place for the body of Jesus. Otherwise, it is an absolute lie.

DONOHUE: Well, here's my thought. You know, at the Catholic League, we have been tracking this stuff now for about 15, 20 years. That is to say every single Lenten season there's somebody, some author or someone of these TV magazine shows which puts out some doubts about the resurrection or Jesus' divinity.

Last year it was NBC. The year before that it was ABC. You can go back check it out on our Web site. Now look, I'm not imputing bad motive here. I'm simply saying this, we have a mountain of speculation with the icing on the top is some kind of corroborative statistical argument here.

I do agree with James on one thing, I want to see the evidence on this. I'm not afraid as a Christian to see the evidence on this.

Okay. That's all good and all, let's see the evidence. But where is Donohue's evidence that Jesus rose from the dead? Can't we hold all the arguments to the same evidentiary standard? And that's what Simcha Jacobovici is claiming to try to do:

JACOBOVICI: By screaming, it does not make it true or false. All I'm trying to tell you is that Dr. Crombine (ph), who is the world's top expert on stone, in the world, has testified in that trial the inscription, "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus," is authentic. I have just told you that Suffolk City CSI lab says it's authentic. The Royal Ontario Museum says it is authentic. What I'm trying to tell you is — you don't have to get excited. You have to just listen to the evidence and weigh it.

Of course, then Donohue claims he wants to hear the science, although his mind is already made up...

KING: What are you — Dr. Mohler and Bill Donohue, I guess we will ask Bill first, are you afraid of learning something? I'm trying to figure out.

DONOHUE: Oh no, no. As a matter of fact, I want this pursued because someone is wrong here. And I like this idea of looking at the empirical evidence. But you know what you can't do? This forced idea of connecting dots. I have seen it in the social sciences and they exist in natural sciences.

Somebody takes — starts off with a predicate this could be true. And then they tie it to something else, which could be true. By the time you're finished with this game, you have nothing but a mountain of speculation. And the idea that is preposterous that somehow you are going to come up with some statistical measure. Dr. Al Mohler is absolutely right on the money when he says, you don't have any DNA evidence here in 2007 that you can resolve this. I think we have to be extremely tentative and cautious. But, no, Larry, I want the truth to come out. And I am confident.

Oh, and he also calls this a "Titanic fraud". I wonder how long it took the Catholic League to come up with that line. They are so clever!

Here's the Donohue argument in a nutshell: even with science, you can't absolutely prove that Jesus is in that tomb. And so that proves that Jesus rose from the dead!

Hey! They never found Jimmy Hoffa!

It really is time that William Donohue be cut from the guest lists of television programs. He's an embarrassment, if not to the Catholic Church, then to thinking people who watch television. I don't mind having faith-oriented viewpoints on television, but just like any other viewpoint, I prefer them to provide more than bluster and attack. I would think Catholics would also - wouldn't they prefer that their faith be represented on television talk shows with somebody who can intelligently discuss items within his own supposed expertise?

PS: Petulant Rumblings has the video.

A very depressing amount of it.

You would think that an industry blog opposing Net Neutrality wouldn't be full of typos, visible code characters and general grammatical nonsense.

You would be wrong.

I love dill. Hate bread and butter. Do you have a favorite?

Hoffmania is right: This video of a Craig Ferguson monologue concerning his guilt pangs for poking fun of celebrities in crisis is must-see television.

Well, except for tournaments. Coaching my daughter's team this year was one of the most things I've done in a while. Thanks and congratulations to the Cumberland Valley Youth Basketball Association for running such a great program.

I've seen a lot of state legislature activity, and many of them operate their conference committee process beyond public attendance. In some states, the conference committee process makes a mockery of the rest of the public legislative process - work that occurs in public meetings of standing committees, for example, gets changed in the dark by conference committee members from both chambers. I know there are arguments that this allows work to get done by the Legislature that might not normally be accomplished.

Still, non-public conference committees are a cowardly venue for this process, and besmirches any "real" publicly-visible legislative process that occurs prior to it. Conference Committees should operate in open public scrutiny.

Where did Jennifer Dobner and Glen Johnson of the Associated Press go to college at? Did they graduate with journalism degrees? Because, if so, this article is a complete blot against those journalism programs.

Check out Lesley's post: OK, So We're Not A Blogosphere Full of 5-Year-Olds. We should all review our own behavior from time to time. Are we, as bloggers, part of the solution or just more of the problem?

Here's one I don't particularly care for: "Wintry Mix".

So Rasmussen wastes theirs, and anyone who pays attention to them, with a poll about how Giuliani and Clinton would fare if the election was held today. I won't link to it. I might link to a poll by Rasmussen on the following question: Do you think the election will be held today? Because that, at least, is based on some semblance of reality.

Need to pay attention to the opportunities if there is a Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention.

Eventually, somebody will recommend something like this...

Vilsack drops out.

That's where the IRI Summit will be next week...

IRI Summit 2007 is a world-class conference for visionaries and passionate senior leaders in the consumer packaged goods (CPG), pharma and retail industries. It's a broad-based, high-level forum designed to address and attack the major challenges facing CPG, pharma and retail through the application of cutting-edge content, technologies and best practices.

Who's gonna be there, and what will they say?

Mary Matalin and James Carville

"Collaboration: All's Fair."

In this joint presentation, Washington's best-loved couple will give audiences an entertaining look at today's important political collaborations, as well as a behind-the-scenes look at Washington politics.

Questions:

"Best-loved couple?" Is Washington really that dysfunctional?

WTF do they mean by "all's fair?"

And hey, do you think Carville's snaking for Hillary contributions?

Check out this list of Presidential endorsements, courtesy of Cup O' Joe.

Have you signed on?

We the undersigned would like to let the leaders of Hershey Foods know that you can grow the Hershey business without firing people, but instead by honoring the legacy of your founder and preserving your employees' jobs.

Please, reconsider your plans.

The Boy Scouts are taking a hit on funding because of their policies barring gay and/or atheist leadership.

Because they seem to be in a bad-PR free fall in Central Pennsylvania. Nice work by management!

I think it's best for the Democrats to let him do it. Say goodbye to Joe and let him join the Republicans. Yes, it will hurt to not hold the Senate, but it hurts more letting people like Joe Lieberman muddy up the public reflection of what Congressional Democrats should do. Think he won't whine about Republicans once he's one of them? Think again. So let him.

Yeah, I know it's February and many of us still have snow on the ground, but it'll be planting season soon enough...

Do you have any plans for planting this season? Landscaping, gardening, farming, whatever?

Maybe this is a sign of the maturation and status of the liberal/progressive blogosphere. I've been visiting blogs for the past 5 years (I think Liberal Oasis was my first "find"...), and over that time, the selection of candidates and then of winners of The Koufax Awards has been a big thing with bloggers.

This year The Koufax Awards haven't seemed to work as smoothly as before, with some delays. Understandable delays, and this post is in no way a complaint. But I think in past years the blogosphere might have shown some anxiety about the delay. This year I haven't seen any (the folks that do Koufax would know about any anxiety much better than I, but the fact is, I just haven't seen many posts about the awards, period).

In the early days of the Web, there were many Web Site Award sites, but over time most disappeared. It is likely that the same will happen to Blog Awards - but I hope that somehow, The Koufax Awards can evolve to stick around.

Maybe it's you that will lose the job...

But will it be Hershey Chocolate?

SMITHS FALLS — The union representing workers at the imperilled Hershey plant here is expecting at least 3,000 people to attend a rally at the chocolate factory Saturday.

"We hope to send a message to the U.S. that we want to save our town as well as our jobs and our plant," Boyd Pryce, plant chairman of Canadian Auto Workers Local 462 told The Recorder and Times this morning.

"The whole town is behind us 100 per cent here. They'll be out to support us."

The rally begins outside the Hershey Chocolate Shoppe on Hershey Drive at 10 a.m.

"They'll be paying attention because they probably will be getting 3,000 customers in the Chocolate Shoppe, maybe more," said Pryce when asked if he thinks the message will get through.

He added the rally is to be taped with a copy to be delivered to Hershey's brass in Pennsylvania.

Hershey officials stunned plant workers Friday morning when they announced there is a "very high probability" the plant will cease operations within a year.

With 500 employees, Hershey is the largest employer in Smiths Falls and is also a major tourist draw.

Pryce said the rally is being organized by the union's plant negotiating committee and is an attempt to show the widespread impact a closure would have on the town.

"Let's keep Smiths Falls as the Chocolate Capital of Ontario," said Pryce. "That's what our intentions are."

He said CAW area representative Harry Ghadban, Smiths Falls Mayor Dennis Staples as well as other councillors and members of the town's business community are expected to speak at the rally.

Since the possible closure was announced, the union and town have been scrambling to see if anything can be done to secure its future.

Pryce said the union expects to meet the company next week to discuss what conditions the company requires to continue operating in Smiths Falls, a plant it opened in 1963.

Meanwhile, Staples said Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty was unable to connect with Hershey officials yesterday.

The premier had committed to reaching out to the company after a teleconference with Staples on Monday.

This might not be such a bad idea...

From West Virginia:

Legislators are considering a bill providing incentives for state employees to go to other countries for medical procedures.

But state officials are not sure if the incentives would save any money.

The West Virginia Hospital Association says such a measure could financially harm the state's hospitals and put patients in danger.

Nationally, it's becoming a popular way of getting cheaper health care.

According to the National Coalition on Health Care, an estimated half-million Americans engaged in "medical tourism" in 2005.

Ten state delegates, including House Majority Leader Joe DeLong, D-Hancock, recognize the trend.

They are sponsoring a bill that authorizes the Public Employees Insurance Agency to waive co-payments and deductibles and provide round-trip airfare and lodging expenses to the foreign country where the patient has the procedure done.

The bill is meant to reduce the state's costs for medical care. The bill says the incentives would be offered only if the foreign procedure were cheaper than the procedure here.

Cheeseburgers Cheeseburgers Cheeseburgers Cheeseburgers Cheeseburgers Cheeseburgers Cheeseburgers Cheeseburgers Cheeseburgers Cheeseburgers.

Or No Cheeseburgers.

I wish the national media would quit writing and talking about the powerful in Washington, DC as some kind of victims. Especially as victims of mean people who don't live in DC, especially victims of mean people who use blogs to discuss these DC professionals' actions, because it's the best mechanism they have for the discussion. It's not like the Washington Post and MSNBC gives average, everyday people much opportunity to say what we feel about those who are in power in governance, or those charged with the responsibility to report on what they're doing. No, they save those opportunities for the wealthy (advertising) and powerful (news and editorial).

But the truth is, the national news media will probably keep seeing bloggers as mean as long as they stay in their Insulated Igno-Shell.

I wrote yesterday at Suburban Guerrilla about a similar situation in Florida.

It's a trend, though, so this story is in Michigan.

Ever wanted to put your name on a park bench? How about a jungle gym, soccer field or baseball diamond?

Break out your checkbooks, Novi. Now you can do just that.

For as little as $100 a year for a meeting room or up to $15,000 for a ball field or beach, the Novi Parks Foundation is offering individuals and corporations the chance to purchase naming rights to the city's recreational venues for three years.

"As money keeps getting tighter and tighter, with more money going rightfully to services like police, fire and roads, we started thinking of ways to generate revenue to keep up our parks without increasing resident taxes," said Dave Staudt, president of the Parks Foundation, a nonprofit established in 2004 to raise private dollars to enhance parks and recreation programs.

Parks officials hope to raise about $200,000 annually once the program reaches full speed. The money will be used to supplement the parks and recreation department's budget for park maintenance projects that might otherwise go unfunded. The parks department has a $3.8 million annual budget, of which $1.2 million comes from a parks millage, $800,000 from program fees and the remainder from the city's general fund.

Novi's first donor is Telcom Credit Union, which purchased $2,500 naming rights for the playground at Power Park behind City Hall, said Cindy Tschirhart, Telcom's director of community and business development. New signs will go up in about a month.

There are no plans to rename anything that's already named for a person, such as the Tim Pope Memorial play structure, which honors a former council member. But some residents are concerned about commercializing the city's parks system, which includes seven parks encompassing 936 acres.

"It's an innovative idea, but I worry that things could get excessive and everywhere you look there will be a company sign," Mitch Greene said.

And I have the same concerns as yesterday:

Probably the biggest problem I have with this is that the determination of "client" gets blurred in this process. Yes, there is still the "play client", but now there is the "advertising client" as well, and eventually what happens is that future development goes to meet both. Are community parks destined to go the way of "amusement parks", where every moment of fun also serves to upsell another item? Is that what we want our community parks to be? Do kids have to be bombarded with advertising everywhere they go? Will parks eventually only be situated in areas which are literally surrounded with shops and fast food places that are meant to sell to kids? We're heading towards Disney here, on the public dime.

There's now a blog called Save Hershey Jobs! It looks like they plan to be around a while, they are collecting signatures through July 7th to promote a reconsideration by the company of the layoff plans.

I've had a dialup account for 12 years with Epix. Obviously, at the beginning, I used it for access, but for many years now I've had cable access to the Internet, but kept the Epix account as "backup" access and because it was my original personal email address. I haven't used it for backup access for at least 2 years (the last time was when Comcast went down for about a day) and even then, I was spoiled and couldn't take the load time. Still... I have it.

How about you? Do you have a dialup Internet account?

Good old Marty Feldman...

Jonathan S. Adelstein, Commissioner, Federal Communications Commission, tells the House Committee on Energy and Commerce that...

The nationwide deployment of higher-bandwidth, open and neutral, broadband is critical to the success of our citizens and our country as a whole.

And, adds that, oh by the way, we're not doing nearly enough to achieve that deployment.

I didn't realize that frequent travelers have been asked to make their picks for the best frequent travel programs via the Freddie Awards. For 19 years now.

She has a blog.

One of the things I wish candidates that have blogs would do is to allow their traffic numbers to be publicly visible. I think many would find it of interest - where references come from, whether traffic increases or decreases, what drives spikes, etc. I think the interest in a particular message or issue, or what drives interest to a candidate, is something that bloggers discuss, and that candidates can add to that discussion - and they should.

He has a blog.

There's too much emphasis on the electability issue. Any polling company that spends time polling on this issue as a general news item is unpatriotic and uncaring for the direction of our country. I'll say it every time I see the bastards do it.

Don't the Chargers like going to the playoffs?

The FCC is holding its third official public hearing on media ownership issues in Harrisburg this Friday.

It appears that there is an opportunity to be part of the "Chocolate Capital of Canada".

It appears Hershey has given the kiss of death to its plant here.

In what was an ominous start to the workday Friday morning, the plant's workers gathered in the cafeteria where they were told there's "a very high probability" the plant will close.

With 500 employees, Hershey is the largest employer in Smiths Falls.

The blow, while devastating economically, also strikes at the very identity of this town of 9,200, which bills itself as the 'Chocolate Capital of Canada.'

Indeed the Hershey logo is emblazoned just below the town's name on its water tower. Signs throughout the town direct visitors to the east-end factory and its iconic Chocolate Shoppe, which in 2005 attracted more than 400,000 visitors.

Yesterday morning's announcement comes one day after Hershey said it was embarking on a major three-year cost-cutting plan to slash 1,500 jobs.

"The next year most of it is going to be phased out and the next year will be just dribbling away whatever's left," said veteran employee Rick Kirkwood, who was on hand to hear the bad news.

He said the information was delivered by plant manager Rene Albert.

"It doesn't sound good for most of us," he said.

Speaking from his office in Pennsylvania, company spokesman Kirk Saville refused to answer questions about why Hershey is looking to close the plant.

"I can confirm that the company has expressed its willingness to resume negotiations in order to reach a contract settlement and to discuss the effects of a potential closure on our employees," Saville said, reading from a prepared statement.

He would not say if contract talks, put off recently at the company's request according to the union, had anything to do with the potential closure.

Hershey's contract with the plant's 500 workers, represented by Canadian Auto Workers Local 462, expired last month.

I wonder what last week's interstate ice storm mess did to the debate for privatizing The Pennsylvania Turnpike.

Cut by half. Is this a secret Hershey recipe?

When the candymaker announced a restructuring plan Thursday, it said it was looking at a "net reduction" of 1,500 jobs, but workers at the main chocolate plant said double that number was mentioned by company officials during a meeting with employees yesterday morning at the Hershey Theatre.

It's not just central Pennsylvania getting the bad news...

Meanwhile, workers and union officials at Hershey's plant in Smiths Falls, Ontario, were told yesterday that there is a "very high probability" the Canadian plant will close.

It's the only Hershey plant that has received that kind of ominous warning since Hershey's announcement that it intends to eliminate more than a third of its production lines and shift some work to a plant under construction in Monterrey, Mexico. About 500 people work at the Smiths Falls plant.

In a 2006 Roper Poll, 24% of the population have gone "skinny dipping" or nude sunbathing.

Check out Eating Out in Harrisburg for some dining ideas.

For many in the Northeast, it could be a perfect weekend to go sledding. Our kids have been out of school the past three days, and spent quite a bit of time in the back yard sledding down our rather mild slope.

You rarely hear how potentially dangerous sledding can be, particularly with kids who don’t know their limits, or the speeds they can attain. People die from sledding accidents, and get badly hurt, and not just in car versus sled incidents. It’s a good thing for anyone sledding to keep in mind.

Yes, business uses Wikipedia to promote themselves...

In Google, Wikipedia is everywhere. Pretty much anything you type into Google seems to result in a Wikipedia entry being returned as a top-10 result. Wikipedia's status in the search engines as an "authority site" is undisputed. Those lucky, well-connected, skillful or famous enough to be cited enjoyed the benefits of Wikipedia's unique "golden link effect."

Then a new policy instituted in January changed all that. As a countermeasure to thwart spammers competing in an SEO contest, all external links within Wikipedia were "nofollowed." This effectively cut off the outward flow of "link juice" (PageRank) to websites referenced in Wikipedia.

Despite this setback, Wikipedia remains an important component to your SEO strategy. Firstly, having a Wikipedia entry for your company that shows up in the search results lends credibility to your organization. Secondly, if high rankings for a competitive keyword prove elusive, you can get Wikipedia into the top 10 with relative ease. Of course it would only be of benefit to do so if the entry referenced you or linked to you, or if you wanted to displace competitors or pages that were unflattering or critical of you.

Difficult to dance to. Love the tune and the lyrics, though. Kate Bush rarely goes wrong.

It's Day Three of No School for the kids. The storm was Tuesday and Wednesday, and I would guess it dropped somewhere between 6 and 8 inches. That alone wouldn't account for the problems. It was the recipe. Some weather person called it an ice sandwich, and that was a pretty good description: several hours of snow followed by several hours of freezing rain followed by several hours of snow. All the while the temperature dropped. The stuff is hard and it's stuck fast.

I spent much of Wednesday shoveling, as best I could, my driveway. My driveway is at a slant, and moisture puddles up at the bottom at the sidewalk. Two days later, I can still see the treadmarks of my boots in the frozen slush that has adhered to the sidewalk. The freezing rain froze within a few hours on Wednesday. Today's high temperature is supposed to be 27 degrees. There won't be that much melt today.

Many of the driveways in my neighborhood remain uncleared. You need a standard shovel to chop the ice out, and then remove it. Snowblowers are getting killed in this stuff. I watched a snow removal service start to remove the ice from the sidewalk from our neighbors across the street. They gave up. There's no quick and efficient way to get rid of this stuff at this point - either you wait for nature to warm up the environs and make it easy to shovel up slush, or you slowly chip away.

I've only lived in Central Pennsylvania for 15 years, but I haven't seen a storm of this recipe before. We've had big snows that stop the state in its tracks for a bit (oh yeah, 1996...) and we've had freezing rain that's done the same - but this was different and seemed to provide a tantalizingly too short window to get the mixture out of the way.

I see where Pennsylvania is getting a bit of a black eye in the news media for the highway problems during the storm. You can't help but feel sympathetic to everyone involved - people stuck on the highway, road crews trying to clear the roads, police. And there's sure to be some real improvements in governance in the future to reduce the possibility of this happening at this scope and level again. But there's really no villain here. Sometimes Mother Nature kicks our ass.

What do you do, if anything, to celebrate Chinese New Year?

Sometime in the past week this blog went past 200,000 visits. All in a week's work for some blogs, but I think the last 100K visits came a lot faster than the first 100K. Anyways, thanks!

You would think that most newspapers would publish such an article a couple days before the first expected big snowstorm of the season was to hit their area. Sadly, most don't.

Natasha explains why she doesn't plan to back a primary candidate for the Democratic Party Presidential Primary. That's my expectation for 2007 at least, as well. I know that I'm not going to commit to anyone this year - nobody has locked me up with a platform yet, and I'm going to be a patient shopper for 2008. I want a platform I generally believe in, and I want a candidate with a biography that encourages the belief that there will be strong effort on that platform. I'm not seeing enough of either at this point.

What is not going to be a key concern to me in the primary is the issue of "electability". Any candidates that run primarily on that account are not going to have much of a chance with me.

This will be interesting.

Hershey Co. is cutting 1,500 jobs over three years as part of a plan to scale back production lines and move some manufacturing to Mexico, the candy maker announced Thursday.

When the plan is complete, Hershey's will make its chocolates and other candies at fewer facilities and have a lower overall cost structure. About 80 percent of Hershey's manufacturing will take place in the U.S. and Canada.

Spokesman Kirk Saville said Hershey currently employs more than 13,000 workers, which would mean the cuts will amount to about 11.5 percent of its work force.

In Central Pennsylvania, discussion about employment at Hershey is almost reverent. The deeds of Milton Hershey are well known to the area's communities. Hershey doesn't seem to be seen as just "another corporation" around here. It'll be interesting to see how this move may alter the community's reverence around here.

Blinq had been shuttered.

Funky.

I posted this yesterday at Susie's. I think it's worth a repost here.

First of all, just a point to some of the interesting points at the Bloggasm interview with Skippy the Bush Kangaroo about the debate of the size and scope of blogrolls on the supposed “A” list blogs:

as you may or may not know, google search hierarchy ranking depends in part upon the number of links to your stories and blog(s). with the severing of the link path between the more visible, successful blogs (atrios and dkos) and the median blogs such as my own, my left wing by maryscott o’connor, the booman tribune, the sideshow by avedon carol (i could go on and on), these bloggers in the upper eschalon (rhymes with eschaton) has effectively cut off the inter-connected support system of left, or liberal thought in cyberspace.

Links do matter, for purposes of Google searches, and that is the best reason that the top liberal/progressive blogs ought to have a blogroll that stretches the availability of active known bloggers that they appreciate, period. Google visibility is a major source of visibility for some bloggers, and Skippy is right, it benefits progressive political blogging in general by having as many bloggers as possible easily findable in the vast variety of search attempts on Google. On any particular subject search in Google, do you want more conservative or more liberal blogs found in the first page of results?

But… for everyday, current quality post blogging, nothing provides visibility as much as a reference post, with context, from a more popular blogger. And this happens at the larger bloggers from time to time. The real question is how to get those quality blog posts recently posted and most newsworthy to the attention of folks at Kos and Atrios. That’s where sites such as the The Blog Report at Salon and The Sideshow come in. Every day they highlight some of the more interesting or relevant recent blog and news posts. They generate visibility for the original blog poster, and in a perfect world, provide visibility to the largest blogs as well.

Maybe what is really needed are more of these kinds of sites. I’d really like to see the debate change from a discussion about blogrolls to a discussion of how can we make the blogging system efficiently lift quality posts, no matter where they come from, to a higher visibility. How do we keep the barrier low to entry for new bloggers - those with an interesting voice and a value to be read - so they can find their audience? How do we all make the system work better?

Interesting post by BooMan.

Paying attention?

ResMae Mortgage, a Brea-based lender with 1,037 workers, has filed for bankruptcy protection and agreed to sell its assets to Credit Suisse Group for $19 million.

It's the latest bad news for the subprime industry, which is being roiled by borrowers missing mortgage payments in ever increasing numbers.

ResMae is the first major subprime lender to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the county since homes sales plummeted last year. It has just enough cash to last through Friday, the day after its next payroll, it said in its filing Monday.

It's selling for $6 million less than it raised in venture capital four years ago, when it entered the crowded field of lending to consumers with poor credit.

The sale to Credit Suisse is its best, and perhaps only option to avoid insolvency, the company said in court documents. Its doors are open and should stay open, if the sale goes as planned, the company said.

The lender still needs court approval to get operating cash from Credit Suisse and for the asset sale, which includes all money it's owed, its contracts, and equipment.

ResMae, which made nearly $8 billion in loans last year and is one of the top 25 subprime lenders in the nation, hopes the sale will allow it to preserve more than 800 jobs, or 77 percent of its work force.

...

In recent months, several smaller lenders based here have closed all or part of their operations or been sold. And two large lenders, New Century Financial and Option One, both based in Irvine, lost money in one or more quarters last year. What's crushing these lenders is a sharp rise in borrowers who miss the first or second payment on their mortgages. When that occurs, an investor who bought such a loan can compel the lender to buy it back – a very costly move for the lender.

In December, Merrill Lynch, the largest buyer of ResMae's loans, demanded it buy back $308 million in loans, according to the bankruptcy filing. ResMae disputes the amount, saying the buyback period has expired for many of them. The issue is unresolved.

Melissa leaves also.

And now we find out that Amanda and Melissa were threatened due to Donohue's attack by those who follow Donohue. Not surprising, there has been so much violent talk in the blogging of the Republican noise machine. But Lane Hudson is wrong about this:

Bill Donohue must immediately rescind his hateful comments against these two young women and call on the hate-mongers, which he is responsible for inciting, to cease their threats against Amanda, Melissa, and their families.

Donohue's attacks on junior staffers are completely unprecedented. It is a new low. His actions have the effect of putting their lives in danger and he must not be allowed to get away with it.

Allowing just an "I was wrong" message and an apology isn't enough. Donohue has to lose his access to the news media. He is a fraud. He is a hater. He must be removed from the Rolodexes and the Palm Pilots of the media. He must be the pariah he so richly deserves to be. And the news media needs to explain what credentials, what credibility, what factors go into the determination that a person such as Bill Donohue deserves to be on a national news program, or reported in a national news story. Just who the fuck is Bill Donohue, and why is he on my television? The news media owes us that explanation.

That was the average Wall Street bonus last year. Wall Street is in trouble with jobs going overseas? Shrug.

What is this white stuff?

I have a question about this story...

Isaac Daniel calls the tiny Global Positioning System chip he's embedded into a line of sneakers "peace of mind." He wishes his 8-year-old son had been wearing them when he got a call from his school in 2002 saying the boy was missing. The worried father hopped a flight to Atlanta from New York where he had been on business to find the incident had been a miscommunication and his son was safe.

Days later, the engineer started working on a prototype of Quantum Satellite Technology, a line of $325 to $350 adult sneakers that hit shelves next month. It promises to locate the wearer anywhere in the world with the press of a button. A children's line will be out this summer.

If your motivation was your lost kid, why did you start by making them for adults?

I just think this kind of stuff is ridiculous. $350 dollar sneakers. Plus $20 per month for service. Why? If you really need the GPS service, there are cheaper ways to do it. What are we really tracking, anyway?

The argument is that shoes are harder to lose than phones and other devices with GPS. They also take a bigger beating. Ever seen a kid use a shoe as a hammer? I have, many times. Kicking rocks? Knocking mud off the tread?

They also don't go everywhere. Dressing up? Different shoes. Basketball or soccer? Probably different shoes. Going swimming? Different shoes.

Bottom line - this seems to me to be a completely impractical idea for kids. If... that's really the point of this.

I must be getting too old. I, too, don't get the hype around Justin Timberlake...

From Pesky Apostrophe:

And I really don't get the Justin Timberlake love - he sounds like a girl and those white kicks with his suit looked idiotic. I cut him some slack for the whole Dick in a Box hilarity, but I'm back to thinking he's a talentless hack.

So who enabled him?

I'm sure there will be another week as this all is shouted up and then winnowed, but two things I suspect:

This probably is going to be pretty bad for the Edwards campaign; and

Blogger pelt season is now open.

Interesting business idea, based in Central PA...

Now if only Rendell had really thought of it...

Yeah, maybe Ron Artest shouldn't have dogs.

A followup about the story from a few weeks ago about Catherine McLin and her husband, who are protesting the Iraq War with signs on their property in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Now they are being terrorized and labeled as terrorists for exercising their right of free speech in their beliefs.

(02/09/07 — FAYETTEVILLE) - An Army couple in Fayetteville is upset about the war inIraq and says they are being terrorized.

Last night, someone spray-painted the word terrorist on their home and tore down anti-war signs in their yard. The couple says it's not the first time someone has tried to silence them.

Fayetteville police are investigating the incident. Catherine and James McLin say they knew their signs would draw attention, but they did not imagine someone would take it so far. And on the same day N.C.'s copy of the Bill of Rights went on display at the Airborne and Special Operations Museum in Fayetteville.

"We are super angry that someone would infringe upon our right to free speech," said Catherine McLin, soldier's wife.

McLin said after someone tore down her signs last month she put up more and added American flags. Capt. James McLin, Ft. Bragg soldier, said the vandalism is an insult to the uniform he wears.

"This is sort of like the heart of America right here where we are all...you know, about defending the constitution of the U.S.," said Capt. McLin. "So we we're a little shocked but not totally surprised."

The McLins consider the act intimidation, not vandalism and says it will not work on them.

"I am not going to let them silence me cause they obviously have no concept of what terrorism is," said Catherine. "They are actually terrorizing us by trying to make us live in fear for what we believe in."

At this time, police are not commenting on any suspects. The McLin's haven't decided if they will clean of the paint or leave it up as a sign that free speech in their military community comes with a price.

So this is where we are - some people equate freedom of speech and opposition to the war - peaceful opposition to the war - with terrorism. And they trespass and defile another's personal property in order to do that.

I hope when they catch the coward(s) that vandalized the McLin place, and that they're hauled in front of the public, regardless of age, position, rank, status. I hope their names, their address, their educational history is published. We need to know where the hopelessly stupid who commit criminal activities in the dark of night under the cheap paper mask of patriotism are. They need to be pointed out. And they need to be remembered so that everyone else knows why they shouldn't be listened to ever again.

When you define people by their body parts, you get writing like this. I'm sure his buddies, Urethra Earl and Scrotum Horace and Cecum Charlie and, of course, Dick Sphincter think it's really funny. But don't pull his finger!

I don't know what the NCAA will really do about it if they're ignored, but they've warned Omaha that there's too much sudsy stuff flowing near the College World Series.