Huh. I didn't know Lucy Ramirez was a pollster.

Sixty-seven percent say world leaders respect Mr. Obama, while 18 percent say they do not respect the president. That's a sharp contrast to the response when this question was asked about Mr. Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush, in July 2006: Just 30 percent then said the president is respected by the leaders of other countries.

Mr. Obama's overall approval rating, meanwhile, has hit a new high of 66 percent, up from 64 percent last month. His disapproval rating stands at 24 percent. Nearly all Democrats and most independents approve of the way the president is handling his job, while only 31 percent of Republicans approve.

R: 23%
D: 39%
I: 38%

Wow. Color me unsurprised by both the shoddy sample and the results.

Posted by: Slublog at 06:57 AM | Add Comment
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Just across the internets:

MONTPELIER — The Vermont House has voted, 100-49 to override Gov. Jim Douglas' veto of a bill that would allow same-sex marriage.

Vermont will become the fourth state to legalize marriages of gay and lesbian couples. The others are Massachusetts, Connecticut and Iowa.

The Vermont Senate voted earlier this morning to override Gov. Jim Douglas' veto of the same-sex marriage legislation.

The vote passed, 23-5.

Note [Gabe]: Vermont is the only state to legalize gay marriage though the legislature and not under a court order.

Posted by: Slublog at 06:15 AM | Add Comment
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Last week the Iowa Supreme Court decided that civil marriage must be available for gay couples as well as straight. Here's what people are saying.

Robert Stacy McCain argues that marriage is important enough that conservatives should put their foot down and say "No further." A taste:

We know, however, that their latest demand is never their last demand. Grant the radicals everything they demand today, and tomorrow they will return with new demands that they insist are urgently necessary to satisfy the requirements of social justice.

When they refer to themselves as "progressives," radicals express their own basic truth: Their method of operation is always to move steadily forward, seeking a progressive series of victories, each new gain exploited to lay the groundwork for the next advance, as the opposition progressively yields terrain. Such is the remorseless aggression of radicalism that conservatives forever find themselves contemplating the latest "progressive" demand and asking, "Is this a hill worth dying on?"

Then, putting McCain's observations in a more specific light, Eugene Volokh discusses marriage in the context of the slippery slope. He points out that the Iowa Supreme Court used the creation of limited legal protections on the basis of sexual orientation, e.g. in the areas of employment, housing, and education, to support the claim that the right to marry should be seen as encompassing same-sex marriage. In other words, because the legislature prohibited discrimination in some circumstances, the judiciary felt justified in prohibiting discrimination in other circumstances.

On that note, conservatives in Iowa will likely have some difficulty overturning the ruling because amending the Iowa Constitution is more difficult than in most states. It takes a majority vote of two consecutive sessions of the state legislature to put the issue on a general election ballot. The earliest it could be in front of voters then, assuming conservatives take back the legislature, is 2012. The other method is a vote next year to hold a constitutional convention, which would put the question to voters at the earliest in 2011.

Finally, over at FiveThirtyEight, Lefty statistician Nate Silver has created a model to predict when voters in each state would vote against a marriage ban. This one really has to be seen to be believed, so click over and take a look.

In related news: Vermont has become the second state where the legislature has passed a gay marriage bill only to have it vetoed by the Republican Governor. (California's done it twice.) Today it goes back to the state House and Senate for override votes. The Senate is expected to have no problem overruling the veto. However, at last count the House was five votes short of an override.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 04:37 AM | Add Comment
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Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 04:07 AM | Comments (1)
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Without a hint of self-irony, a Seattle Times food critic tries to help out the sweaty masses as we grunt and knuckle-drag our way through our dreary and meaningless days. Here’s the actual headline of the article: ”Mac 'n' cheese is the Yes We Can food for our times.” And we get a running political commentary! Snack on this cheesy delight if you will (various emphases mine):

”If you believe the wonks on Wall Street, it seems like our collective winter of financial discontent is far from over. And given it's only April in the Northwest, we still have a few more gloomy, damp months ahead to add to our general sense of malaise. (It’s been sunny and near 70 here the past few days - ed) Admittedly, it's an unhappy forecast on both fronts.”

“So while the politicians wring their hands and search for solutions, maybe we mortals should just get busy in the kitchen cooking up some "Yes We Can" to see us through. Something to warm our hearts and fill our bellies without emptying our wallets.”

”I'll be the first to admit it: I can't afford to be a food snob anymore. Even the most optimistic of financial planners would advise the same: Leave the micro-greens behind, along with the lovely truffle-infused oils. Kiss the bûche de chèvre off your cheese plate and say "ciao" for now to the quattro formaggi agnolotti.”

Posted by: Open Blog at 06:01 PM | Comments (1)
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In the future, epic poems like this will be read by uptight computer generated characters with crappy Brit accents. The future about 20 seconds from now.

Another Content Warning. Inasmuch as it was written by ace.

(first aired on AoS July 20, 2005. I laughed, I cried, it became a part of me).

* with apologies to ace.

ALSO: comments are commenty again. more...

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 04:43 PM | Add Comment
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Congratulations to the aptly named "bill the winner" for finishing first in the AoS pool. Your 6 months of free access to all Ace of Spades HQ content begins....now.

As for me, my goal was to beat Dave in Texas. Two words:
Mission Accomplished!

Original post:
If anyone still cares.

Me? If North Carolina wins, I can finish in 35th in the AoS pool. Given that and the fact I'm not a graduate of either of these institutions and the NY Rangers are choking like the Mets, it's officially baseball season!

Posted by: DrewM at 03:49 PM | Comments (1)
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Associated Press, like most of the other major media dinosaurs, is trying to adapt to the internet and new media. The strategy thus far has been to intimidate bloggers and other websites which use AP's copyrighted content into taking it down or paying $2.50 per quoted word. Most folks just laughed their pricing scheme off, and rightly so.

(Although, there have been a few instances where copyright infringement was likely going on when bloggers reproduced whole articles or series of photos from AP. Don't do that.)

Since no one took them seriously before, AP is plotting a new strategy, one it probably hopes to sell to other dinosaurs as an additional service. The idea is to create a "a rights management and tracking system"--basically a search engine for copyrighted works--which will make it easier to go after folks who copy:

The AP, which has been facing subscription cancellation threats from a number of struggling US newspapers, also announced it will significantly cut the rates its charges newspapers for its news services.

The moves were unveiled at the AP annual meeting in San Diego, California, and in a press release by the New York-based news agency, a cooperative owned by more than 1,400 US newspapers.

In a crackdown on Web piracy, the AP board of directors said they were launching a "newspaper industry initiative to protect news content from misappropriation online."

"We can no longer stand by and watch others walk off with our work under misguided legal theories," AP chairman Dean Singleton said.

The AP statement said the news agency would work with Internet portals and other partners who legally license content "and would pursue legal and legislative actions against those who don?t."

The "misguided legal theory" referenced by Singleton is the doctrine of fair use, something AP has been trying to sidestep for years. Last year I wrote a primer on fair use for bloggers, and it's probably about time to dust it off. If you're a blogger and wonder just how much use is "fair use" you might want to take a look.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 03:40 PM | Add Comment
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A website called xtranormal lets you make animated videos from text.

So apparently -- I don't remember this, but I'm told it's true -- I wrote a parody personal ad or something. Like, an honest personal ad. I think that must have been the joke. A really honest personal ad.

A reader named Eric took that and did this very weird Steven Hawking talk show thing out of it.

I'm kind of cringing watching this, to be honest. Not really recommended, except for the weird factor -- no offense to Eric. It's just that these jokes sound even more vulgar (and not very funny at all) in this creepy robot sex-voice.

Content Warning.

more...

Posted by: Ace at 01:05 PM | Comments (1)
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George Bush gets cheered throwing out the first pitch for the Texas Rangers. more...

Posted by: DrewM at 12:56 PM | Comments (1)
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