500 smackeroos! what should i gamble it on?

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I finally watched it this past saturday, I don't see the fuss it was a good flick. Sure it had its cheesy moments but it wasn't the worst movie of all times, it was the same shit thats been coming out of the studio system for years now. I liked the retarded kid singing the rap tunes, good times. Plus J Lo talking about her pussy makes me happy.

This is blatantly stolen from Fark.com...

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/031305Z.shtml">http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/031305Z.shtml</a><!-- m -->

Quote:Under Bush, a New Age of Prepackaged Television News
By David Barstow and Robin Stein
The New York Times

Sunday 13 March 2005

It is the kind of TV news coverage every president covets.

"Thank you, Bush. Thank you, U.S.A.," a jubilant Iraqi-American told a camera crew in Kansas City for a segment about reaction to the fall of Baghdad. A second report told of "another success" in the Bush administration's "drive to strengthen aviation security"; the reporter called it "one of the most remarkable campaigns in aviation history." A third segment, broadcast in January, described the administration's determination to open markets for American farmers.

To a viewer, each report looked like any other 90-second segment on the local news. In fact, the federal government produced all three. The report from Kansas City was made by the State Department. The "reporter" covering airport safety was actually a public relations professional working under a false name for the Transportation Security Administration. The farming segment was done by the Agriculture Department's office of communications.

Under the Bush administration, the federal government has aggressively used a well-established tool of public relations: the prepackaged, ready-to-serve news report that major corporations have long distributed to TV stations to pitch everything from headache remedies to auto insurance. In all, at least 20 federal agencies, including the Defense Department and the Census Bureau, have made and distributed hundreds of television news segments in the past four years, records and interviews show. Many were subsequently broadcast on local stations across the country without any acknowledgement of the government's role in their production.

This winter, Washington has been roiled by revelations that a handful of columnists wrote in support of administration policies without disclosing they had accepted payments from the government. But the administration's efforts to generate positive news coverage have been considerably more pervasive than previously known. At the same time, records and interviews suggest widespread complicity or negligence by television stations, given industry ethics standards that discourage the broadcast of prepackaged news segments from any outside group without revealing the source.

Federal agencies are forthright with broadcasters about the origin of the news segments they distribute. The reports themselves, though, are designed to fit seamlessly into the typical local news broadcast. In most cases, the "reporters" are careful not to state in the segment that they work for the government. Their reports generally avoid overt ideological appeals. Instead, the government's news-making apparatus has produced a quiet drumbeat of broadcasts describing a vigilant and compassionate administration.

Quote:The controversy began when the White House said Air Force One was spotted by a British Airways plane but the president's pilots told the dubious British Airways pilots by radio that they were flying a Gulfstream V. The White House later said there was no British Airways plane involved and the conversation took place between British air traffic control and another plane while Air Force One was "off the western coast of England."

Quote:Although television stations knew the materials were produced by the Office of National Drug Control Policy, there was nothing in the two-minute, prepackaged reports that would indicate to viewers that they came from the government or that Morris, a former journalist, was working under contract for the government.

"You think you are getting a news story, but what you are getting is a paid announcement," said Susan A. Poling, managing associate general counsel at the GAO. "What is objectionable about these is the fact the viewer has no idea their tax dollars are being used to write and produce this video segment."

Quote:a copy of the contract, obtained under the federal Freedom of Information Act, says that in addition to the six-month ad campaign last year, Williams was to "comment regularly on NCLB during the course of his broadcasts" and "encourage the producers" of a cable TV program, America's Black Forum, to do the same. The program has terminated its relationship with Williams.

Quote:The government also prepared scripts that can be used by news anchors introducing what the administration describes as a made-for-television "story package."

In one script, the administration suggests that anchors use this language: "In December, President Bush signed into law the first-ever prescription drug benefit for people with Medicare. Since then, there have been a lot of questions about how the law will help older Americans and people with disabilities. Reporter Karen Ryan helps sort through the details."

The "reporter" then explains the benefits of the new law.

Quote:Pretty much every day, Gannon got cleared into the White House briefing room by a press office that knew his real name. Press Secretary Scott McClellan frequently called on him during the mid-day briefings, using his fake name. McClellan was consistently rewarded with questions that -- in stark contrast from most of what passes for questions in that room -- were more expressions of conservative dogma than actual attempts to elicit information. Members of the press corps individually confronted Gannon and told him that he didn't belong there. But nothing more serious than that happened -- until Bush called on him at his televised Jan. 26 news conference and he asked a loaded, inaccurate question partly derived from a Rush Limbaugh joke.

<span style='font-size:31pt;line-height:100%'>Paint.NET</span>

Quote:Paint.NET is image and photo manipulation software designed to be used on computers that run Windows XP or 2000. Paint.NET is jointly developed at Washington State University with additional help from Microsoft, and is meant to be a free replacement for the MS Paint software that comes with all Windows operating systems. The programming language used to create Paint.NET is C#, with GDI+ extensions.

Paint.NET has many of the powerful features that expensive commercial applications have, including the ability to use layers. This is the second semester that Paint.NET has been a project at Washington State University, and we have the goal of adding as much functionality as expensive commercial applications provide, but of course, for free! In the spirit of all this freedom, we welcome any suggestions, as well as provide the source code free of charge for anyone who wishes to tinker with it. Please explore this website, download the software and try out many of the things you would do on those expensive commercial applications.

Be sure to check out the screenshots, and the download page

When I first logged in here last week after forgetting about the board for several months, I got a pop-up about a PM with the subject "Happy Birthday". Is that now a standard board-generated thing or did one of you caring souls actually attempt to wish me well in July? ANyway, my inbox is empty, where'd it go?

from ESPN.com:

Quote:Updated: Mar. 13, 2005, 2:23 AM ET
<span style='font-size:25pt;line-height:100%'>Jeremy Giambi: 'I made a mistake'</span>
Associated Press

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Former major leaguer Jeremy Giambi admitted he used steroids, The Kansas City Star reported Sunday.

"It's something I did," Giambi told the newspaper. "I apologize. I made a mistake. I moved on. I kind of want it in the past."


Giambi

Giambi, the younger brother of Yankees star Jason Giambi, signed a minor league contract with the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday. While he did not specifically say his brother used steroids, Jeremy Giambi noted a news conference his brother had last month in New York during which he apologized profusely, but did not say why he was apologizing.

"If you don't know what he's apologizing for," Jeremy Giambi said, "you must've been in a coma for two years."

Jeremy Giambi declined to be specific about his steroid use. He told the newspaper he wants to come clean about steroids and hopes others will do the same.

"They're not good for you," the younger Giambi said. "I think we need to reach out and let teenagers know they're not good for your body and not good for your health."

Jeremy Giambi broke into the big leagues in 1998 with Kansas City, then played with his brother in Oakland from 2000-01.

Jason Giambi won the AL MVP Award in 2000, and his younger brother had his best season the next year, hitting .283 with 12 homers and 57 RBI in 371 at-bats.

It was the elder Giambi who introduced his brother to steroids, according to a transcript of the BALCO grand jury proceedings, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. When he testified before the grand jury, Jeremy Giambi said he used steroids in cream and liquid form and injected human growth hormone and testosterone.

The Yankees on Saturday declined a request by the Star to interview Jason Giambi.

The younger Giambi has also played for Philadelphia and Boston. His last stint in the majors was in 2003, when he batted .197 in 127 at-bats with the Red Sox. He missed most of last season with a herniated disc. Signed by the Dodgers, he didn't play in a big league game.

In January, baseball adopted a harsher steroid-testing policy.

"Baseball has taken a step forward," the younger Giambi said. "People need to realize that and let it work. I wouldn't want to be the first one to get caught. It might be worse than a murder trial."

Once the grand jury proceedings end, Jeremy Giambi plans to tell his story in detail. He thinks his brother might, too.

The younger Giambi said he regrets his decision to use steroids.

"You look at some situations and tell yourself that it's something you wish never happened," he said. "But it did. You've got to move on with it and get on and wake up every day and do what you normally do."

from FOXSports.com:

Quote:<span style='font-size:25pt;line-height:100%'>Report: Probe links McGwire to steroids</span>
FOXSports.com

Mark McGwire's name came up several times in a landmark Federal Bureau of Investigation anabolic steroids inquiry that led to 70 convictions in the early '90s, the New York Daily News is reporting.

Two steriod dealers caught in the probe told the Daily News that another dealer provided McGwire and Jose Canseco with anabolic steroids.
However, evidence against McGwire was never collected and he was not a target in the investigation.

This comes just five days before the House Government Reform Committee is scheduled to question seven current or former players and four baseball executives about steroids. McGwire is one of the players subpoenaed for the congressional hearing.

An informant told the Daily News that McGwire was injected on several occasions at a Southern California gym by a California man named Curtis Wenzlaff. A former member of that gym told the Daily News that he heard the two discuss steroids. According to informants, McGwire's regimen reportedly included injecting himself in the buttocks once every three days with two testosterone substances and weekly with another.

According to the Daily News, Wenzlaff admitted turning Canseco from a novice into an expert steroid user, but would not comment on accounts regarding McGwire.

In Juiced : Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big, Canseco admitted to using steroids as a player, and went as far as to point out former teammates he helped introduce to the substance. Canseco wrote that he and McGwire allegedly injected steroids together in a bathroom stall at the Oakland Coliseum.

McGwire adamently denied that he used steroids.

The congressional hearing on steroids is scheduled for March 17, but the commissioner's office has said that it will fight the subpoenas.

"I am very protective of the players, and there has to be a sense of fairness," commissioner Bud Selig said Saturday. "If I sound a bit elevated, it is for that reason. We made agreements and we are doing the things we promised to do."

Under pressure from Congress, baseball and its players agreed in January to a tougher steroid-testing program that added penalties for first-time offenders (10-day suspensions) and random, year-round tests.

"It's an evolving policy. When we went to testing, it was called weak and toothless," Selig said. "But we started at 7 percent (testing positive), now we're down to 1-2 percent. I believe while this policy isn't exactly what I want, it's the best that could be done in collective bargaining.

Selig said he has worried about steroids the past seven years, since the story about McGwire's use of androstenedione, a steroid precursor.

"The andro thing brought it to my attention and that's when this all started," Selig said.

But the problem wasn't thought widespread then, with only rumors of "a player or two" - including Canseco - using steroids.

"In 1998, when balls were flying out of the ballpark, everybody said the ball was juiced up," Selig said. "I send Sandy Alderson to Costa Rica because everybody said you better do something about the baseballs. Nobody ever said to me you better do something about the players."

Back in the '90s, Canseco denied using steroids. He now has a best-selling book in which he admits using them, and named other players he claimed did as well.

Canseco has requested immunity when he testifies, and his lawyer said the request is being considered by the Justice Department.

Curt Schilling said Friday he was willing to testify. Frank Thomas also said he planned to attend, but could testify by telephone because of an injury. McGwire, Jason Giambi, Sammy Sosa and Rafael Palmeiro haven't said whether they'll show up in Washington.

Guess what it is

...because me and Arelis are awake.

Apparently, in Ridgefield, you have to be in bed by dusk.