Thursday, April 06, 2006

The End Draws Nigh

Well you may have noticed I haven't updated in awhile. The fact of the matter is that with getting ready for graduation, researching and visiting grad schools, getting ready to move, trying to finish up class, and everyhting else in between, I just haven't had time.

In light of this, I've decided to go ahead and call it quits here. I just don't have the time necessary to put myself whole-heartedly into the effort, and I certainly don't want to only do something halfway.

But don't worry, I'm still keeping my personal blog regularly over at MySpace, and I'll keep posting interesting politics and news items over there as I find them. But for now, I suppose this is the end of things over here.

It's been fun,
~Peace out
Jon

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

I'm a national news magnet

Alright, time for some good old fashioned narcissism.

For the third time in my career with The Daily Beacon, I've garnered national attention with my work.

Today we got an e-mail in the newsroom from The Nation, America's oldest weekly news magazine and one of the most popular, letting us know that my most recent column, "Bushisms Stupify Columnist," would be republished on their website.

She wrote:

Dear John:
We’re writing to let you know that The Nation, America's oldest weekly magazine, has linked to one of your articles, "'Bushisms' Stupefy Columnist,” from our new student webpage at
www.thenation.com/student.

We will be maintaining a daily newsfeed that highlights student journalism and events taking place on campuses across the country.

...

Best regards,
Habiba Alcindor
__________
Habiba Alcindor
Communications Coordinator
The Nation


And sure enough, when I got home and looked it up, there I was:


I'm just kinda like, "Wow." I always am when this happens. I never really ever set out to get people's attention like that, and when it happens I'm just blindsided by it.

UPDATE: I just got a response to the e-mail I sent them thanking them for their compliments. She wrote me back, saying:

Your column was funny and I liked the approach you took of assembling the bushisms into a fictitious interview-- it added a new twist. A good piece to capture the impeachy mood of our web visitors.
Cheers,
Habiba
__________
Habiba Alcindor
Communications Coordinator
The Nation

I like the word 'impeachy,' I'm gonna have to use that someday.

And to think, all I was gonna do was come home today and say "Best. Headline. EVER!" Beacuse it really was. It even beat out my former favorite headlines, "No 'gay agenda' hiding in closet," and "Pasta now credible creator."

Sigh, I hate for him to be kinda riding the coattails of this fun stuff, but I just wanna say as an aside that I LOVE Eric Moore's cartoons. He is absolutely hilarious. Todays "Tailybones" had to be one of the funniest things ever, check it out:


Alright, I guess that's about enough. Time to get back to work I suppose. Until later, all.

Monday, March 13, 2006

March Madness!

Check out this March Madness tournament of the "biggest threats to progressive values" and find out who the real axis of evil is.

Hat Tip to R.Neal

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Apparently nobody likes him

More than half of Tennesseans don't want another Bush in '08

This result comes from a recent MTSU-led public opinion poll conducted by phone to 626 random people in the state.

Here's some other stats from the poll:

-Bush's TN approval rating: 42%. This time last year his approval rating was 55%.
-58% of Tennesseans don't want the Bush leadership style in the next president
-Only 35% of Tennesseans want a Bush-like president in '08
-One fourth rate the war in Iraq as the number one problem for the country (a problem which Bush created from nothing). The economy (another Bush created problem) came in second at 12%
-Only 31% of Tennesseans are satisfied with the direction the nation is headed in. 63% are dissatisfied.
-Bush has even lost support among evangelical Christians, falling from 62% last year to 48% this year.

Wow, when you lose your base in the Bible Belt, you must be doing something wrong. I sure hope for his sake the interim elections go well for the Republicans, or these last two years of his are gonna be a nightmare.

-Hat tip to Michael Silence

Monday, March 06, 2006

Creepy

State bill proposes Christianity be Missouri's official religion

Now, I know I should cut them some slack, what with most politicians being inherently dumber than the average citizen anyway combined with being from Missouri and therefore not being educated enough to be able to read the Bill of Rights, but this is damned scary.