All I want for Fitzmas...

As a followup to my post Friday, from truthout.org:

How Accurate Was the 'Rove Indicted' Story?

On Saturday afternoon, we ran a breaking story titled, "Karl Rove Indicted on Charges of Perjury, Lying to Investigators." We assumed that we were well ahead of the mainstream media and that we would be subsequently questioned. Right on both counts.

What everyone is asking right now is how accurate is the story? Has Rove in fact been indicted? The story is accurate, and Karl Rove's attorneys have been served with an indictment.

In short, we had two sources close to the Fitzgerald investigation who were explicit about the information that we published, and a former high-ranking state department official who reported communication with a source who had "direct knowledge" of the meeting at Patton Boggs. In both instances, substantial detail was provided and matched.

We had confirmation. We ran the story.

I'm waiting, waiting, waiting... for the dominos to fall.

pen for hire...

Many of my writer friends will recognize this. It is a pretty standard boilerplate legal agreement for freelance writing (with a few minor edits ;>), from a publication who contacted me today and wanted to have me do a rather involved one-day turnaround news/analysis piece. There's nothing too unusual here -- basically, they own any and all current and future rights to whatever I do for them under the terms of the contract. And this kind of work pays well, about $.75/word (especially when it's a new pub I haven't worked for before, and they're asking me to drop everything else for them ;>). And I can say truthfully that this work isn't "my" writing, the Work from the heart, from the soul. But you know, especially when reading through a contract like this prior to signing it, it still sometimes feels like selling my children for medical experiments. There's always that tension between the creative act, and "selling" a "product." Hmmph.
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Men In Black, please ignore

My son just drew up a 5-panel cartoon on the topic of "George Bush's punishment," in which said individual says lots of "blah blahs" and ends up somehow getting hit in the stomach with an arrow. My beamish boy was very clear that "this is just a joke." He's been watching my Lovely Housemate's Weird Al video DVD while most of the house was out working out this afternoon, so there's possibly a "temporary insanity" thing going on. I'm not sure whether to be proud or not, but Mr. Sekret Serviceman, he's just a kid, and this is PARODY, right, as in protected under the 1st Amendment. Which is still in force last time I checked, right? Oh, not any more? Whoops, better pack the kid a Guantanamo bag. That's PARODY, too, of course. Right?

big money

All of my geekly programmer peeps who do open source, check this out. Let's hear it for robber barons who gt a conscience late in life.

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Mellon Foundation Announces Awards for Open Source Software

PRINCETON, N.J., May 16 /PRNewswire/ -- The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is pleased to announce today a Call for Nominations for the 2006 Mellon Awards for Technology Collaboration (MATC). These awards, to be bestowed for the first time at an international technology conference in the Fall of 2006, will recognize not-for-profit organizations that have demonstrated exceptional leadership in the collaborative development of open-source software through the contribution of substantial, self-funded organizational resources to the open-source project for which they are nominated. The nomination period ends August 15, 2006.
MATC awards will be made at two levels -- $25,000 and $100,000 -- for significant contributions to collaborative, open-source software development that serves one of the Foundation's traditional constituencies. The level of the award will depend on the scale and significance of the nominated project. Any U.S. or foreign organization that meets the Foundation's legal criteria for receiving grants and its strict standards for excellence is eligible for consideration. The Board of Trustees of the Mellon Foundation has authorized multiple awards at each level.
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