Guess who re-Tweeted my American Spectator item last night?
Maybe you should consider subscribing to the print edition of The American Spectator. Makes a great Christmas gift. Just sayin’ . . .
Except It’s Not Called Newsweek
“In this climate, there should be room for a general-interest magazine to reinvent the old middlebrow formula. There should be room for a magazine that counterprograms against the ceaseless ephemera of much of the online world and offers things you will remember, a magazine that doesn’t endlessly chase buzz, that isn’t coastal urban journalists writing ceaselessly for each other, that doesn’t aim for insider-ish horserace gossip when covering politics, that doesn’t chase the same upscale liberal audience that every other media outlet is chasing.”
— David Brooks, New York Times
If you actually want a magazine like that, it won’t be edited by a celebrity-mongering cosmopolitan trans-Atlantic expatriate Brit like Tina Brown.
A great magazine might have first-hand reporting from Afghanistan, with contributions from thoughtful writers like Roger Scruton, Quin Hillyer and Paul Johnson. A truly great magazine might point out the idiocy of dimwit celebrities like Meghan McCain, or introduce readers to the brilliance of Hillaire Belloc.
Such a magazine would offer a year’s subscription for just $49 — and might occasionally employ a freelance journalist clever enough to point out that a subscription to the American Spectator would make an excellent Christmas gift for that special someone on your list.
EXCLUSIVE: Copy of Restraining Order in Palin vs. Gawker Copyright Lawsuit
Click here to see the order by U.S. District Judge Thomas P. Griesa (PDF).
UPDATE: Background from Associated Press:
A federal judge on Saturday ordered Gawker Media to pull leaked pages of Sarah Palin’s forthcoming book “America by Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith and Flag” from its blog.
The injunction prohibits Gawker from “continuing to distribute, publish or otherwise transmit pages from the book” pending a hearing on Nov. 30.
HarperCollins Publishers had sued Gawker after it published images on Nov. 17 from Palin’s book before its release next week. . . .
Read the rest. A source familiar with the case e-mails:
The judge found probable cause that Gawker violated copyright and ordered Gawker to pull the leaked pages and appear in court to defend themselves and explain why this wasn’t a violation of copyright and why the leaked pages shouldn’t be permanently removed. This temporary restraining order prevents Gawker from potentially further violating copyright by keeping the pages up until the court date. Date set for Nov. 30th. This is a huge victory for HarperCollins’ lawyers.
UPDATE II: Remember that when Palin complained via Twitter about Gawker’s unauthorized excerpts, Gawker’s Maureen O’Connor presumed to lecture the former Alaska governor about copyright law.
Hey, Maureen, how’s that workin’ out for ya, sweetheart?
UPDATE III: Palin has offered her own “sneak peek” at her new book on Facebook. And let me see if I can explain — for the benefit of Maureen O’Connor and anyone else who doesn’t get it — why the judge issued that injunction. Politico reports:
Gawker’s scoop, “Sarah Palin’s New Book: Leaked Excerpts” . . . included 14 images of partial pages from the book, scheduled for publication Tuesday. . . .
The disputed Gawker post began: “Well, look what popped up five days early: leaks from Sarah Palin’s forthcoming memoir/manifesto, America By Heart, in which the reality TV matriarch rants against ‘talent deprived’ reality TV stars, lauds daughter Bristol’s chastity, and celebrates not aborting Trig. . . . The book is currently in distribution centers, awaiting its official release on Tuesday. We got our hands on some of the pages . . . Here’s an annotated guide to our favorite parts, featuring rants against the media and new material about Bristol and Levi.”
Your first clue: “14 images of partial pages.” To quote or paraphrase a book — even without authorization, five days prior to the book’s release date — yeah, you might get away with that. But publishing page-scans online? See you in court, buddy.
Something else: In any fair-use situation — which is what we’re talking about here — it’s important to think about your potential liability and who you might be going up against if you should have to defend yourself in court.
It’s one thing if you’re running some piddling little personal blog and you’re pushing the limits of “fair use” against some low-rent outfit with a minor book or article by an obscure author.
It’s another thing altogether when you’re running a major commercial Web site and you’re going up against a gigantic company like Harper Collins that has invested a million bucks in a big-name author for an expected bestseller they’re counting on to make 2010 a profitable year for them.
This is about incentives, you see. Palin’s publisher has a huge interest in protecting this product — not to mention the consideration of keeping their author happy — and Harper Collins can afford the legal costs of pushing a court case a lot more than Gawker Media LLC can.
Even if Gawker could ultimately win the case, Harper Collins could make it a very expensive victory — and any Web site editor in the future who thinks it would be cute to attempt similar shenanigans will have to keep that in mind.
Now a Memeorandum thread.
UPDATE IV: “Did Gawker read those fair use links they suggested Sarah Palin read?”
UPDATE V: Welcome, Instapundit readers! I asked Professor Reynolds if he ever considered becoming a federal judge. He said, “Bah. Federal judge from law professor? Why take a demotion?”
Yeah, but what about the cocaine and lap dances?
Convicted Felon Stripper Gives Lap Dance, Gets Cocaine From Federal Judge
A veteran federal judge who was arrested on charges that he bought and used drugs with a stripper pleaded guilty Friday to two-drug related charges, including a felony count of giving her cocaine even though he knew she was a convicted felon.
U.S. Senior Judge Jack T. Camp pleaded guilty to the felony charge of aiding and abetting a felon’s possession of cocaine when he bought drugs for the stripper, who was secretly cooperating with authorities. He also pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors: possession of illegal drugs and illegally giving the stripper his government-issued laptop.
Judge Camp, 67, faces up to four years in federal prison when he is sentenced March 4 . . .
Judge Camp’s relationship with the dancer . . . appears to have begun earlier this year when he received a lap dance from her — along with her phone number — at an Atlanta strip club, according to the affidavit.
Authorities say when they met the next day, he paid her to have sex with him and the two used cocaine together. Over the next few months, the two used cocaine and other drugs together at strip clubs and other places, and the judge would pay $40 to $50 to join her in getting high, according to the documents.
The relationship grew closer over the months. Prosecutors say the judge startled the stripper by following her to a suburban Atlanta house where she was buying drugs one day in June. She told authorities that he brought a semiautomatic handgun with him in case she needed protection, the affidavit said.
(Via Clarion Advisory.) As a general rule, any time you see the phrase “lap dance” in close promiximity to the phrase “federal judge,” don’t expect that story to have a happy ending.
May I should rephrase that . . .
Da Tech Guy on Da Radio 5 p.m. ET
During this year’s campaign in Massachusetts, the Blogfather of the Axis of Fedora began making occasional appearances on WCRN-AM 830, a 50,000-watt news/talk powerhouse in Worcester. After talking to the station management, Pete realized that a weekend show was a feasible proposition, hustled up advertisers to support it and will debut his own show today at 5 p.m. ET. (Regular time for the show will be 9 p.m., but he’s on the air early today because the 9 p.m. slot got pre-empted by UMass basketball.)
Pete has been phenomenally successful in the past year. He’s traveled to CPAC, ridden the Tea Party Express, went to Georgia to cover Liz Carter, made it to BlogCon to cover the 9/12 rally, and went out on the campaign trail with me to cover Ann Marie Buerkle in NY-25 and Tom Marino in PA-10. He writes a regular column for the Examiner and now has his own talk radio show.
All of this phenomenal success, BTW, started just 10 months ago, in January, when I spent a week crashing on Pete’s sofa while covering the Scott Brown campaign (see my “Breakfast in Fitchburg” post for a good wrap-up of that trip). During that week in January, Pete demonstrated one basic aptitude necessary to success as a reporter: A willingness to ask questions to complete strangers. (In the photo above, you see Pete at a Tea Party rally during the Brown campaign interviewing Vietnam vet Randy May, whom I also interviewed.)
Over the years, I worked with a lot of newspaper interns — college kids who thought they wanted to be journalists — and saw how difficult it was for some people to overcome ordinary self-consciousness. It requires a real effort to get past that, to be aggressive, to call up people on the phone or walk up to them in person and start asking questions.
Pete’s got that exceptional quality in trumps. And he’s also got a great love for Ordinary Americans. It’s almost embarrassing at times to go to a restaurant or store with Pete, because he’ll just start interviewing a sales clerk or a waiter — “Would you mind if I ask you a few questions?” — with a real interest in their answers. The stories he gets that way are often amazing: While we were in Newton, Mass., to cover the Sean Bielat campaign, Pete started interviewing the waitress who served us breakfast — and it turns out she’s an immigrant from Haiti, who admired Ronald Reagan and did not vote for Obama.
Pete’s got the kind of optimistic can-do attitude that can accomplish miracles, and I think his radio show is going to be a smashing success. Please tune in at 5 p.m. You can listen on line and check in on Pete’s Tweets during the show.
UPDATE: Hey, that was fun! What’s amazing is to hear about stories like this state legislative election in Massachusetts:
Republican Peter J. Durant maintained the slimmest of margins — one vote — and declared victory over state Rep. Geraldo Alicea in the 6th Worcester District race yesterday afternoon, based on the last of five recounts held this week.
Lots of shenanigans in that recount that haven’t made the MSM. And, at the end of the show, I was surprised to learn that people in Massachusetts hadn’t heard about the Logan Airport TSA agent accused of raping a 14-year-girl.
Will Republicans Let SPLC Run RNC?
During the Nov. 9 American Spectator gala in Washington, I had a chance to talk briefly to my friend RNC Chairman Michael Steele. There is, of course, a movement afoot to replace Steele, and Michigan’s Saul Anuzis has already declared himself a candidate for the chairmanship. Liberals are doing everything they can to demonize Anuzis:
[T]his week, the Southern Poverty Law Center revealed that Anuzis has defended and endorsed a vocal right-wing extremist named Kyle Bristow, who was the head of the Michigan State University chapter of Young Americans for Freedom (MSU-YAF). “This is exactly the type of young kid we want out there,” Anuzis said on a radio program in May 2007. “I’ve known Kyle for years and I can tell you I have never heard him say a racist or bigoted or sexist thing, ever.” . . .
Thanks to Bristow’s leadership, the SPLC — which tracks extremist groups — designated the MSU-YAF as a hate group in 2006. . . .
It should be noted that Anuzis’ defense of Bristow came almost a full year after MSU-YAF’s exploits were made public, and after the SPLC designated him as the leader of a hate group.
Kyle Bristow is a big, rowdy kid who is now in law school in Ohio. Anuzis’s defense of Bristow in 2007 — more than three years ago, when Bristow was still an MSU undergrad — cannot be plucked out context as evidence that Anuzis endorses everything Bristow has said or done.
Let’s hope that RNC delegates are smart enough to ignore such a cheap guilt-by-association trick.
Whether or not Steele is replaced — by Anuzis or anyone else — Republicans have got to stop letting their enemies exercise a veto. What the RNC needs as chairman is someone who speaks for the party and can raise a lot of money. Without prejudice toward either Steele or Anuzis, I nominate Ann Coulter.
Just to see the SPLC go completely batshit insane.
UPDATE: Dan Collins at Piece of Work in Progress informs us that Steele has reportedly hired his former personal assistant as “liaison” to the 2012 GOP convention in Tampa. For $15,000 a month.
UPDATE II: Brian Bolduc of National Review interviews Anuzis:
“There are literally thousands of major donors who have left the party and haven’t given to us in some time . . . I think we need a nuts-and-bolts person.”
FMJRA 2.0: Not really a new beginning
Hi. This is my first FMJRA. I’m not as creative as Smitty, so you won’t be seeing creative backronyms any more unless you want to suggest some. You also won’t be seeing links back to sites on Blogger unless you submit them to me; please e-mail those no later than Friday so I can add them to the appropriate FMJRA post, just as you would your Rule 5 links.
‘The Demagogic Bloggers on the Right’
Professor Palin and the Class of ’12
‘President of the Back of the Bus’
Ezra Klein Is a Liberal. Is It Redundant to Say That Ezra Klein Is Also Insane?
What’s the Very Best Thing About Republicans Winning the Election?
Keith Olbermann and Sam Francis
Team Obama: No Moderates Allowed
‘As I Am Big-Busted and Like to Have Fun, Guys Are Instantly Interested in Me’
Wait Until Glenn Beck Sees This!
EUROPE IN CRISIS: Sudden Financial Emergency Strikes EU Zone
UPDATE: Götterdämmerung?
Not Just No, But Hell, No! John Cornyn Uncontested in Bid for NRSC Chair?
Europe: ‘Crisis? What Crisis?’
Behind-the-Scenes Video: Fox News Colleagues Mocking Sarah Palin
Charlie Rangel: Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!
Great News: Treacherous Bastard Cornyn Unanimously Re-Elected as NRSC Chair
Shocker: Sarah Palin’s Teenage Daughters Act Like Teenage Girls on Facebook
Post-Weigel Journalism? Impossible!
Andrew Sullivan: Does the Phrase ‘And the Horse You Rode In On’ Ring a Bell?
Emergency! Democrats Trying to Shove DREAM Amnesty Through Lame-Duck
Is Marriage Becoming ‘Obsolete’? Women, Children, Minorities Hardest Hit
Ann Marie Buerkle Win in NY-25 Would Give GOP Biggest Majority Since 1949
Please Permit Me to Remind You . . .
Compiled by Wombat-socho with a lot of help from Smitty.
Science Proves I’m a Genius
As if any further proof were needed:
Researchers from the London School of Economics say that human beings used to all be day-oriented, and that eveningness is an “evolutionarily novel preference” made by people with “a higher level of cognitive complexity.” Basically, smart people evolve to stay up later. . . .
On the other hand:
Night owls tend to be less reliable, more emotionally unstable, and more likely to have problems with addictions and eating disorders, according to a 2008 study by psychologist Marina Giamnietro. They are also more likely to drink alcohol and smoke, says Dutch psychiatrist Walter van den Broek.
OK, so the main course of genius — “cognitive complexity” — comes with a side order of crazy. But you didn’t need further proof of that, either, did you?