Good News
Robb has cover art, which is always cool. Keeping an eye out for the rest of the fun book stuff – tours, TV, radio and review copies ( as a locally published “op-ed-er” I occasionally get lucky.)
Security Theater Part III
Boston Herald –
“This event caused a lot of pain and suffering in Boston,” Menino said. “This should send a message that guerrilla marketing will not be tolerated here,” he said.
It also took out a Cartoon Network exec –
Jim Samples, general manager and executive vice president of Turner Broadcasting’s Cartoon Network, resigned yesterday citing the “recent negativity and expense” he caused the company with a guerrilla marketing stunt to promote an upcoming movie based on an animated “Adult Swim” series.
NYC Keeps Breaking Free
Looks like NYC is moving to combat other threats (it already has a significant anti-terror force deployed around the globe) –
Last year, Bloomberg’s office hired private investigators who wore hidden cameras while trying to make “straw purchases” from federally licensed gun dealers in Georgia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Virginia. The goal was to prove that out-of-state stores contribute to crime in New York City.
Feds and gun lobby don’t like it –
Five months ago, The Second Amendment Foundation called on U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to investigate Bloomberg for obstruction of justice relating to Bloomberg’s “rogue” operation.
SAF founder Alan Gottlieb said he has just received a letter from W. Larry Ford of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, confirming that the agency “is investigating the matter in order to determine if violations of federal firearms laws occurred.”
But its definitely the right move on the part of the city.
MEND On The Move
CNN –
He said his group would soon launch “Operation Black Locust,” aimed at key [oil] installations across the country. His militants claimed to have 200,000 fighters among them.
If this happens and oil prices shoot through the roof it could stave off a fiasco in Iran. But it won’t be pretty.
Senate Disclosure Process
BaltimoreSun – There’s simply no excuse for this bizarre “business” process-
Senators, good politicians that they are, use computers to track their campaign contributors and maintain campaign records. But rather than transmit this information electronically to comply with the disclosure laws, senators print the documents, which can run thousands of pages, and deliver them to the Senate’s public disclosure unit two blocks away.
Many senators drop them in the mail. As long as they are postmarked by the filing date, they are in compliance with the law.
There, Senate staffers scan the reports, page by page, transforming them back to digital images. That can take two days.
Then they send the reconstituted computer files by e-mail to the FEC. There, the HP-8100 goes to work, printing and collating the material and preparing it for key-punchers.
Once that’s done, the data are transmitted electronically back to the FEC – which then posts them online. The process can take months.