News You Can Use for June 18

IMPORTANT NOTE: These headlines are applicable to June 18, 2008, and may be out of date.

If you've watched the (national) news today, demand that they cover THESE headlines before ANY filler (and comment if there are some I missed yet):

1. China yuan hits new high against US dollar
2. Bali bomber warns of al-Qaida attacks if executed
3. Iraq foreign minister hails US "flexibity"
4. Bipartisan accord reached on war funding bill
5. Judge: Calif. Blackwater facility may remain open
6. Guantanamo Bay detainees have rights. Now what?
7. US disputes claim Guantanamo detainee was ill
8. Report: Former detainees still suffer from trauma
9. US-India nuclear deal appears to be in trouble
10. Dow briefly dips below 12,000 as oil rises
11. Bush sending energy chief to Saudi oil parley
12. Midwest flooding may cause more levee overflows
13. Audit cites lack of planning for Afghan security
14. ACLU seeks to clear 2 charities in Holy Land case
15. Many CEOS have visions of swirling pink slips/Job cuts likely in HP's overhaul of printing group
16. Housing rescue bill could be slowed by Republicans
17. White House seeks $1.8 billion for Midwest flood aid
18. Boeing wins key round in Air Force tanker protest/McCain: Tanker report unfortunate for taxpayers
19. Obama says bin Laden must not be a martyr/Obama meets with national security advisory group
20. Forces deployed to Sudan's oil-rich Abyei region
21. Olmert, Assad could meet in Paris
22. Home buying practices adjust to high gas prices
23. Belgian truckers, farmers protest high fuel prices
24. Chinese engineer sentenced for economic espionage
25. Rice to host UN talks on rape, Zimbabwe

Honorable Mentions:

26. Second fromer EADS exec charged in trading probe
27. CDC counts 383 salmonella cases from tomatoes
28. UN says Colombia coca crop grew by 27 pct. in '07
29. Congress enacts farm bill over Bush veto, again
30. Official: Charges loom for 2 Bear Stearns execs
31. TD Ameritrade close to settling data theft lawsuit
32. Flight delays spur fight over air travel changes
33. Airline passengers sue to stop Delta-Northwest deal
34. Even best efforts can't prevent all heart attacks
35. Credit card fees: Some gas stations say 'no more'
36. FDA OKs breathing device used by Christopher Reeve
37. Man with deadly skin cancer saved by new treatment
38. Anglican Bible conservatives hold strategy summit
39. Bono, Bob Geldof press G-8 on aid to Africa
40. Sweden adopts law allowing official eavesdropping
41. Israel urges Lebanon to open peace talks

Other important stories:

42. Australian minister says drought needs attention
43. Scientists fighting disease with climate forecasts
44. Suit asks Coast Guard to protect whales from ships
45. Political leaders pay tribute to TV's Russert
46. YouTube opens screening room for indie filmmakers
47. Continental Airlines studying first-bag fee
48. Tiger won US Open with torn ligament, 2 fractures
49. Banner 17: Celtics add to record championship haul
50. Fla.'s Crist has new view of offshore drilling ban/States weigh options in offshore fight
51. Bush rallies behind McCain at fundraising dinner
52. Michelle Obama grateful for first lady's defense
53. Muslim woman: Scarf kept her from seat near Obama
54. Texas GOP cuts off vendor that sold racist button
55. Board member, former Microsoft president to retire
56. Founders of Yahoo's Flickr head for the exits
57. Fla. court declines jurisdiction in Allstate suit
58. Morgan Stanley 2Q profit falls 61 percent
59. West Coast shippers, dockworkers near new deal
60. Collapsed bridge's successor may be done by Sept.
61. Internet domain name for China surpasses ".net"
62. Voted items at FCC are secret, agency says
63. Fifth Third to raise $2B capital, cut dividend
64. FedEx swings to 4Q loss; guidance disappoints
65. Sprint sets price for new smart phone: $129.99
66. 3 men charged with killing suspected mob informant
67. Teenager from faith-healing family dies in Oregon
68. Tribal casinos continue growth in 2007
69. Study shatters myths on personal Net use at work
70. Low-caste Indian group ends weeks of protests
71. Cuba says 2 die as as smugglers overturn boat
72. Mexico freezes prices on 150 foods for 6 months
73. Official says Chad's army kills 161 rebels
74. Somalis flee terror, pour into Kenya refugee camp
75. Srebrenica survivors seek damages from UN, Dutch
76. Monsoon floods kill 29 in India
77. South Korea: Japan should give aid to North Korea
78. Japan, China reach deal on undersea gas exploration
79. Georgia authorities release 4 Russian peacekeepers

Also important:
Editorial Roundup: Excerpts From Recent Editorials.

A story that isn't important but worth reading anyway:
Veganic farmers work without animal fertilizers

News You Can Use for June 17

In the Internet circles I often find myself in, I often hear about how terrible the news media is today, even outside the accusations of bias. So I thought about starting a feature where I run down the top 25 stories of the day that you should know, with no fluff or filler. Think of it as what the evening news SHOULD be. Should generally be up to date by 7:45.

My verdict: There is no such thing as a slow news day. This was a big time sink the first time but I may actually go at it again tomorrow now that I know just how many important stories there really are if you know where to look.

Note that I'm only listing stories reported on by the Associated Press, and for all I know there are probably places on the Internet or elsewhere that are already a great source for substantive news. But it's so hard to get the word out because the Internet audience is so diverse.

Leave a comment if you quibble with my order or if I missed an important story, or even if I judged a story important that isn't.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Remember that this is for June 17, 2008, and may be out of date by the time you read this.

1. Fed auctions $75 billion to ease credit stresses
2. Report: Pentagon misled Congress on NORAD threat
3. Official says Iraq contract dispute cost him job
4. Bush closes defense contractor tax loophole
5. Iran says uranium enrichment to continue
6. Pakistan's A.Q. Khan denies new nuke weapons claim
7. Attorney seeks clearance for 9/11 defendant
8. Gitmo war crimes court back in session
9. Findings on the Pentagon's detainee policies
10. Radical preacher Abu Qatada to be freed in Britain
11. Hamas says it's reached cease-fire with Israel/Details of Israel-Hamas truce
12. US, activists decry Darfur 'failure'
13. Energy prices fuel US-China strains
14. GOP objects to jobless benefits extension bill
15. Bush to urge Congress to allow offshore drilling
16. Senators jab OPEC over high oil prices
17. CFTC boosting oversight of foreign oil trades
18. Weather, costs could cause record Texas ag losses
19. Bush begins effort to track state of environment
20. Fed: industrial production dipped in May
21. Study: Health costs to rise nearly 10 percent
22. Countrywide revelations muddle housing rescue
23. Republicans on tax bill: Just say no.
24. DNC wants McCain investigated
25. Obama: Bin Laden still free because of GOP tactics

Other important stories (honorable mentions):

26. AFSMCE, MoveOn ad targets McCain on Iraq war/McCain ad puts distance with Bush on environment
27. Obama to seek AFL-CIO, labor backing in meetings/Clinton asks top donors to meeting with Obama
28. Obama promises tuition tax credit
29. Conviction thrown out in Abramoff scandal/People convicted in the Abramoff investigation
30. Mexico to have public trials, presumed innocence
31. Maryland elects 1st black woman to Congress
32. Patients signing away right to sue nursing homes
33. US expects food inspectors in China by year end
34. Appeals court refuses to stop gay weddings
35. Summer job market especially tough for poor kids/Tips for teens to land a summer job (hey, a story that's relevant to me!)
36. Flood health risks exist, but common sense rules
37. Taco Bell, Wendy's starting to use tomatoes again
38. United projects 2008 fuel costs soaring to $9.5B
39. Northwest Airlines announces larger capacity cuts
40. Low sales force Ford to idle SUV plant for 9 weeks
41. Bush to inspect Iowa flood damage
42. FDA warns about fraudulent cancer treatments
43. AMA takes no action on tobacco bill challenge
44. Not important: Study: The new SAT is not much better

Also of interest:
Poll: Obama leads McCain nationally by small margin

Sports Watcher for the Weekend of 6/14-15

All times PDT.

Saturday
8:50-11 AM: UEFA Soccer, Euro 2008, Sweden v. Spain (ESPN2). Because my dad will kill me if I don't mention this quickly.

1-3 PM: College track and field, national championship (CBS). I find it strange that not all NCAA Championships are on TV somewhere. The real surprise was finding out that the golf championships are not nationally televised. CBS College Sports televises the women's water polo final but not the golf final? Let's get with the program! (I wonder if this has anything to do with golf not being an Olympic sport?)

4-7 PM: College baseball, College World Series, Georgia v. Miami (ESPN). I recently saw a discussion on "Around the Horn" wondering why the MLB draft isn't as big as the NFL and NBA draft. Two factors I didn't hear in that discussion: going straight from high school to the pros is WAY more popular in baseball than it ever was in the NBA, which depresses the popularity (and quality) of college baseball. And second, THE MLB DRAFT OCCURS BEFORE THE COLLEGE WORLD SERIES PROPER HAS EVEN STARTED! That makes it more of a crap shoot, no?

Sunday
11-2:30 PM: NASCAR Racing, LifeLock 400 (TNT). Ah, what's two and a half hours off of US Open coverage? It's been a while since I mentioned the stock cars.

12-6 PM: PGA Golf, US Open, final round (NBC). It's golf in primetime! Wait, it's not the Masters? I don't care if it's still a major, I'm only watching the Masters! Wait, it's got Tiger in it? I don't care that when he leads a major, he wins so easily it's boring; count me in! Casual golf fans might be the most fickle in sports.

6-8:30 PM: NBA Basketball, Boston @ LA Lakers (ABC). Story of the Finals: Team A leaps out to a big lead. Team B comes roaring back. One team wins. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Apologies for the lateness of today's strip

The Internet connection I usually use is not working properly. I will probably move the post time back a few hours at a time until we're back to normal, and from now on I will do everything in my power to get the strip out in a timely manner if the problem is a bad Internet connection.

One quick thought on the Belmont

Did I really hear Brent Musberger say that perhaps the Triple Crown races could be spaced out?!?

Is it possible that part of the reason we've had so many Derby and Preakness winners falter in the Belmont is because these horses should maybe be moved to being bred for more endurance... for the sake of winning the Triple Crown?

That balance between needing a lot of speed to win, but being able to hold up long enough to do it thrice in less than two months, is part of what makes the Triple Crown one of the greatest feats in sports. If it was intended to reward speed alone, it would consist of just one race.

If the horse racing community decides to reward speed alone even more by spacing out the Triple Crown races, they're doing the exact opposite of what they should do. They shouldn't legitimize the years-long bastardization of the sport.

Here's a thought: Is a de-emphasization of the Triple Crown in order?

Random, irrelevant rant time!

Several weeks back, I knocked a small piece of my tooth out after slightly burning a hamburger. Today, I called a local dental clinic to see when I could set an appointment.

I just got off the phone. I was redirected to the "answering service" for - and I may get this name wrong - "Puget Sound Neighborhood Health Clinics". The conversation went something like this:

Me: Hi.
Person on phone: Hi.
Me: My name is Morgan Wick.
Person on phone: And what clinic are you calling?
Me: (name of clinic)
Person on phone: That clinic does not have Friday hours.
Conversation wraps up and concludes.

Now, about a week ago I called this clinic during business hours and was patched through to an automated system. Because I didn't want to set an appointment until I had answers to some questions, I didn't do anything at that time.

I know these people would get swamped, and I know that no one would have the answers to these questions better than the people who work at the specific clinic. But if you have a centralized "answering service" shouldn't you use it for more than just telling people they tried to call a place that's closed? Shouldn't I be able to get some questions answered anyway (not that I tried)? Why can't the same automated service that runs the clinic's own system also tell me I can't call right now? And WHY THE HELL don't the people at the "answering service" have some system to tell them what number I was calling so they don't have to ask me what clinic I was calling?

Sports Watcher for the Weekend of 6/7-8

The first time I filled out most of this schedule, including all the comments on the French Open women's final, the second paragraph of the UFC write-up, and all the college baseball and IndyCar stuff, I lost it all because I pre-scheduled all the posts with pre-qualified championship info, once a post is scheduled Blogger stops autosaving drafts, and the Internet connection I'm using is fritzing out all of a sudden. DSZGFJBD JGGHFXGDFMS HVCJHJXGD!!!!!!!~!!!~!!!!!

It's moments like these that are the ONLY reason I keep strongly considering getting a job and moving out of my mom's place and into a place where I can have my own Internet connection instead of stealing a neighbor's.

Ahem.

As I was saying. All times PDT.

Saturday
6-9 AM: Tennis, French Open, includes women's final, Dinara Safina v. Ana Ivanovic (NBC). Okay, I've heard some things about these two, but really, do you really think either one of them is really a household name in the US? Most people are going, "Dana Sana wha? Ana Vana wha?" At least it doesn't involve 3-seed Jelena Jankovic. Who? Exactly.

9-12 PM: College baseball, NC State v. Georgia or Wichita State v. Florida State (ESPN2). Wait, is ESPN regionalizing the super regionals? And Coastal Carolina plays North Carolina on ESPNU at the same time as well!

12-3 PM: Ultimate Fighting Championship, UFC 85 (PPV). It's a bit odd for UFC to be running events every other week, and then not necessarily show the same people each week. Oh wait, this is in London. Odd schedule placement might be to be expected. Well, I'm still keeping an eye on things.

While we're on the topic of MMA, the verdict is in from EliteXC, and, well... whether or not it outperformed the Stanley Cup Finals depends on your definition. But expect it to tumble in the future after Kimbo Slice lost his aura. Meanwhile, look for World Extreme Cagefighting - essentially UFC's equivalent to the Nationwide Series (see below) - to potentially make an appearance in future Watchers; I missed their show on Sunday, which most MMA-heads would say put EliteXC to shame. Of course, that "cagefighting" bit can't be good for building legitimacy.

3:25-4 PM: Horse racing, Belmont Stakes (ABC). Skip the mindless pregame and cut straight to the race. I'm not sure if they'll be off before or after 3:30; if I had to guess, it'd probably be after, but you might want to tune in a little early just in case. WILL BIG BROWN WIN THE ELUSIVE TRIPLE CROWN OR WILL HE JOIN THE SCRAP HEAP OF A GAZILLION PREVIOUS OVERHYPED DERBY/PREAKNESS WINNERS THAT FLOPPED IN THE BELMONT JUST SINCE AFFIRMED OR HELL JUST IN THE LAST TEN YEARS?

4:30-7:30 PM: College baseball, Arizona v. Miami (FL) or Stanford v. Cal State Fullerton (ESPN). Yes, I know it conflicts with the event below. I would have done the Nationwide Series race but I'm not doing the Sprint Cup race. The nearest ESPNU games' start times are 3 and 6 PM. Sue me.

7-9:30 PM: IndyCar Series, Bombardier Learjet 550 (ESPN2). Last week's race was on ABC coming out of the Indy 500 in a year where ratings are up because of the merger. The ratings: .8. Did I mention that USA Today ran an article around the time of the Indy 500 saying that IndyCar could very well run down NASCAR?

Sunday
6-11 AM: Tennis, French Open, includes men's final, Roger Federer v. Rafael Nadal (NBC). How many times have these two squared off just at the French? How about some dap for Gael Monfils making it all the way to the semis before running headfirst into FederTron 2000? I remember when he was a sensation in the boys' tournament...

1-4 PM: LPGA Golf, McDonald's LPGA Championship, final round (Golf Channel). WTF is the final round of a MAJOR still doing on the f'ing Golf Channel? I mean, I knew it was on the Golf Channel a few years ago, but I thought they'd corrected that injustice! Virtually every PGA Tour event has its final round on broadcast; what does it say that one of the top four women's event is considered less important than, well, ANY men's event? When can this come up for renegotiation? The LPGA needs to correct this injustice... back when it happened in the first place!

(Incidentially, it appears to technically be the "McDonald's LPGA Championship Presented by Coca-Cola". That's as bad as the "Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim". Also, what the hell is with the sports news cycle acting like the US Open is THIS weekend?)

6-8:30 PM: NBA Basketball, LA Lakers @ Boston (ABC). Obviously, I shouldn't have to say anything more.

Abstractions without context, and a rare moment of self-honesty

I wrote today's strip in what you might call a fit of pique (I'm not even sure what that means) after getting dissed. Probably a mistake to crank something out in the moment, but what do I care? Are we really so uptight as a society that we value pandering to everyone over honesty? No wonder politicians do the same. At heart, we're all politicians whether we like it or not.

I'm perfectly fine with getting my ass handed to me. The sentiment in the last panel is genuine (although I intend to continue my remarks tomorrow). In fact I would have been perfectly fine with receiving this criticism via e-mail. The problem is that:

1. None of the criticisms offered are things I see as bad for what I'm trying to do.
2. Conversely, I'm not getting any criticism that would be constructive for me and what I'm trying to do.

Incidentially, the main reason I'm writing this post is to point out the latest deluge of readers.

Now playing on C-SPAN 2:

"Senate Republicans are forcing the clerk to read the entire" much-ballyhooed climate change bill. The part in quotes is actually being displayed at the bottom of the screen.

Absolutely disgraceful. Not just because I'm morally opposed to the filibuster, but because there is no reason whatsoever not to save the planet. When the s*** hits the fan, it's going to be in everyone's interests, conflicts with anything else be damned. From what I've found out about it from watching C-SPAN 2, I don't think it goes far enough.

Of course, if there's one thing you're not here for, it's a political blog, but as I couldn't find any mention of this anywhere else in my admittedly pathetically lame search...

UPDATE: "Republicans are protesting what they say is the slow pace of work on judicial nominations." By slowing down the work of the Senate even further? By risking the future of the entire planet? Personally, I'm a bit disturbed at the fact the Supreme Court has essentially become filled with partisans from both parties. Shouldn't the Supreme Court be impartial and objective, not bipartisan and only objective in its divided subjectivity? How can we make sure it's the best judges, not the best partisans, who get selected to our federal courts?

UPDATE 2: Full AP story with quotes from legislators. The most distressing part: If a cloture motion fails we'll have to wait another year for the American people to turn out the Republicans not swept up in the revolt of 2006... another year of more ravaging of the planet that's already quite possibly ravaged beyond repair.

Strip will be up soon.

Very soon. Hey, I've been much later than this.

Okay, I'm only two hours late as I write this, but if the next strip is what it might be, it would mean tomorrow's would be one less hour late than today's, if that makes any sense.