Monday, May 28, 2007

Suedbyscotts.com

New feature article in Failure magazine entitled Worm War I - about the ongoing trademark-false advertising-unjust enrichment lawsuit between Scotts Miracle-Gro and TerraCycle Inc.

Sunday, May 27, 2007

Campaign Theme Songs

Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign has garnered more than its share of attention. Most recently she has been soliciting assistance “from the people” in choosing her official campaign song. Among the songs up for consideration are “I’m a Believer” (Smash Mouth), “Rock This Country!” (Shania Twain), “Beautiful Day” (U2) and “Suddenly I See” (KT Turnstall) — plus write-in candidates like “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic” (The Police) and “Are You Gonna Go My Way” (Lenny Kravitz). For Hillary, choosing a campaign song is a delicate proposition, because she needs a song that’s strong and upbeat, and at the same time feminine but not too girlie.

Naturally, people who aren’t fond of Hillary have picked up the torch and offered up their own subversive suggestions — “The Bitch is Back” (Elton John), “Bitch” (The Rolling Stones), and “Don't Go Away Mad (Just Go Away)” (Motley Crue) — being a few representative samples. Of course, it’s easy to pick on Hillary; not only has the conservative media been working overtime (for the past 15 years) to demonize her, there’s no shortage of popular songs demonizing women in general.

That’s why a more interesting and less obvious question is what songs Democrats would choose to assign to the 2008 Republican presidential candidates — including Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney and John McCain — if given the chance. This would appear to be a considerably more challenging proposition, for at least two reasons: Ideally, the songs would remind listeners of the corruption, dishonesty and failure of the past six years of Republican leadership, while at the same time reflecting the personalities (or lack thereof) of our white bread Republican candidates.

Nevertheless, we invite you to offer suggestions, either for individual candidates, or the group as a whole. Feel free to submit them as “comments” below.

Saturday, May 19, 2007

Carter refers to the George W. Bush administration as the "worst in history"

The following quote sounds like a good candidate for Failure magazine's This Day in Failure feature. Today, former President Jimmy Carter was quoted in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette as saying, "I think as far as the adverse impact on the nation and the world, this [George W. Bush] administration has been the worst in history. The overt reversal of America's basic values as expressed by previous administrations, including those of George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan ... has been the most disturbing to me."

While some would argue that the Carter Administration was itself a failure, it's difficult to argue with Carter's assessment. Even die-hard Republicans can't wait to throw Bush under the bus. No doubt, at the next Republican National Convention the Republicans will try to pretend that George W. Bush never existed.

Friday, May 18, 2007

Walter Thomas goes bust in 12 minutes

Walter Thomas (6-5, 375) received more than his share of attention leading up to the 2007 NFL Draft thanks to his size, strength, and natural physical ability. Yet, despite his awesome upside potential Thomas went undrafted, signing as a free agent with the New Orleans Saints. In hindsight, perhaps Thomas should have signed with a northern team, as opposed to one that practices in the humid, Louisiana heat. According to the Saints' official Web site, "the massive lineman lasted less than 15 minutes into the [team's] first practice before leaving the field and not being able to continue in the warm conditions."

"He had a brief career," said Saints head coach Sean Payton. "It was a situation where from a conditioning standpoint he had a long way to go. I think it was 12 or 13 minutes into practice and he was struggling."