Day: August 11, 2005

Quick! Name the Most Densely Populated City in the U.S.

Jon Ponder

Who knew?:

The urbanized area in and around Los Angeles has become the most densely populated place in the continental United States, according to the Census Bureau. Its density is 25 percent higher than that of New York, twice that of Washington and four times that of Atlanta, as measured by residents per square mile of urban land.

And Los Angeles grows more crowded every year, adding residents faster than it adds land, while most metropolitan areas in the Northeast, Midwest and South march in the opposite direction. They are the sprawling ones, dense in the center but devouring land at their edges much faster than they add people.

Thanks to EW for the tip!

If It Wasn’t Cheney or Valerie Plame, Who Sent Joe Wilson to Niger?

Jon Ponder
Rove, Scooter Libby, Ari Fleisher and others had an irresistable impulse to smear Joe Wilson simply because he dared to challenge them in public, and even though they and their Dear Leader were, in fact, wrong.

After President Bush was caught lying in his 2003 State of the Union speech about Saddam’s nuclear capabilities – the infamous “16 words” about Niger and yellow cake uranium – a Rovian blame game was contrived that successfully confused and blurred the responsibility for the falsehood in the minds of the media and the rest of us.

(Ultimately, the Administration laid the blame on Stephen Hadley, an assistant to Condi Rice, who was National Security Adviser at the time. In classic Bush fashion, rather than being punished, Hadley was promoted. He was given Rice’s job when she moved over to State.)

However, a secondary blame game also ensued that has still not been resolved – and that has now become a central issue in the investigation into the Bush CIA Leak scandal, according to the Washington Post:

The origin of Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV’s trip to Niger in 2002 to check out intelligence reports that Saddam Hussein was attempting to purchase uranium has become a contentious side issue to the inquiry by special counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald…

[…]

Trump Starts Weblog; Internet Surrenders

Buck Banks

There’s a new and improved reason why we here at Pensito World Headquarters are proud that we are not just another weblog — Donald Trump has started blogging on his Trump University site. It makes us glad that we are instead, in the words of Jon Pensito, “an on-line news and opinion journal” where the elite meet to bleat.

In an article on TechWeb.com, Alexander Wolfe quotes Michael Gartenberg, vice president and research director at Jupitermedia: “If Donald Trump is blogging, then blogging is about as mainstream as it gets.” Ew!

And while Gartenberg expressed hope that The Donald would embrace the medium and post a lot of cool, insightful stuff so “we could see what makes him tick,” a sampling of some of Trump’s postings bodes ill in the insight department:

June 28: Trump has ultimately become a great brand name due to my rigorous standards of quality. The Trump brand carries a promise that whatever bears the name will be elite.

July 5: I’d be lying if I said I don’t think about my legacy. The values I hold true and the buildings I’ve put up are intended to carry beyond the here and now; I want them to survive well past my own time on earth.

August 8: The glamour and grandeur of my buildings and my life are no mere trappings.

Add to that claptrap the fawning posts of Trump’s circle of obsequious toadies, and you’ve got something akin to a Trump fanzine for middle-aged white men:

From Adam Eisenstat, director of communications for Trump University, comes “Donald Trump is the colossus of the New York City skyline. He stands astride the buildings that bear his name–his signature branded on the cityscape.”

From Michael Sexton, president of Trump University, we get: “Donald Trump has long had a high profile, but only recently, with the popularity of The Apprentice, has he assumed the dimensions of a folk hero.”

Man, what I wouldn’t give to say “YOU’RE FIRED!!” to all three of these Bozos.

God Continues to Refuse to Call Jerry Falwell Home

Buck Banks

As further proof that a loving, merciful transcendent being does not exist, God did not call the Rev. Jerry Falwell home to heaven again this year. Falwell turned 72 today to the dismay of enlightened earthlings who continue to pray for a sign from God that Falwell’s work on the planet is complete.

Instead, Falwell continues his evangelical mischief, as evidenced by the Anti-Defamation League’s calls for him to retract his “vote Christian in 2008” statement in a fundraising letter.

According to the Lynchburg News Advance, Falwell claimed his statement was not meant to be anti-Jewish. Obviously, the ADL is not buying that particular line of B.S.:

“Rev. Falwell’s recent statements are directly at odds with the American ideal and should be rejected,” said ADL National Director Abraham H. Foxman. “Understanding the danger of combining religion and politics, our founding fathers wisely cre-ated a political system based on individual merit and religious inclusiveness.”

Falwell, pastor of Lynchburg’s Thomas Road Baptist Church, claimed his statement was misunderstood.

“What I was saying was for conservative Christian voters to vote their values, which are pro-life and pro-family,” Falwell said. “I had no intention of being anti-Jewish at all.”

According to the ADL, Falwell’s “vote Christian” appeal was included in a fundraising letter in which Falwell exhorted supporters to “call America back to God;” the letter included a bumper sticker with the legend, “I Vote Christian.”

In other news, Pat Robertson, who also has not been called home to God, issued a statement urging conservative voters to ask themselves “How would Jesus vote?”