More heat over fired U.S. attorneys

One Republican, Sen. John Sununu of New Hampshire, has publicly urged Bush to fire Gonzales. Another GOP lawmaker, this one in the House and not ready to speak out publicly, said Thursday he planned to call next week for Gonzales to step down. And Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., said Thursday that Gonzales had lost the confidence of Congress.

Other Republican lawmakers are trying to quell the uproar until they hear from Gonzales and his aides.

...

Bush on Wednesday defended the firings but criticized how they were explained to Congress. The president said he still had confidence in the attorney general but implied that his support was conditioned on Gonzales patching things up with lawmakers.

So it looks like Gonzales won't be fired today. I give him one or two weeks, tops.

Source: MSNBC.com

Doomed

As if having to download a separate application to read the newspaper wasn't enough of a hassle, The New York Times now wants users of its experimental Reader software (which I've slammed here before) to pay for the hassle. Thanks, but I'll continue reading it for free on the Web.

I've always praised the Times for its cutting-edge use of the Web, but this is a major step backwards. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Source: Poynter Online

Generic drugs, brand-name prices

The Freakonomics Blog examines the wide price disparities among generic drugs from retailer to retailer. It uses the generic equivalent of Prozac as an example; the price for 90 tablets ranges from $117 at Walgreens to $12 at Costco.

I can vouch for Costco's low prices, at least when it comes to the generic Claratin D. The allergy drug averages about $1 or so per pill (for the 24-hour dosage) at most stores and 33 cents at Costco.

The typical price seems to have actually increased a little over the last year, since stores stopped selling it on shelves (the drug can be used to make meth, so the rest of us suffer -- but that's another rant). My theory: comparison shopping has become more cumbersome.

Anyway, I didn't realize prices swung that wildly for other drugs, too.

By the way, if you haven't read the book Freakonomics, you should. It's a fascinating and thought-provoking read.

Source: Freakonomics Blog

Gonzo is gone gone...

Sen. John Sununu of New Hampshire on Wednesday became the first Republican in Congress to call for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' dismissal, hours after President Bush expressed confidence in his embattled Cabinet officer.

"I think the president should replace him," Sununu said in an interview with The Associated Press.

And according to the story, several others are equivocating.

The only question is whether the "resignation" will come tomorrow or Friday. I'm betting Friday afternoon (because nobody reads news between noon Friday and 7 a.m. Monday).

Either way, good riddance. Lets hope he's replaced by someone who respects the rule of law and actually gives a damn about the U.S. Constitution. 

Source: MSNBC

Clueless

 San Francisco Chronicle columnist David Lazarous proposes trying to extract licensing fees from sites that link to newspaper stories.

If newspapers aren't going to collectively reach into the pockets of online readers, they should at least focus their attention on other Internet players that are profiting from newspapers' content.

First off, there are the aggregators, sites like the Drudge Report and Huffington Post that pull together stories from a wide array of media sources (and charge advertisers a fee to appear beside links to content that they had nothing to do with creating).

This is not only impractical -- hyperlinking isn't just a feature of the Web, but its very structure -- it's business suicide. Why would you purposely drive away all the potential advertising?

Newspapers need to get over the idea that people are going to pay for content online. With a few notable exceptions -- The Wall Street Journal and maybe The New York Times -- they just aren't. Sad but true. Instead, newspapers need to focus their energies on getting advertisers online.

Google, which in many ways is far more useful than the typical local newspaper, doesn't charge subscription fees and somehow manages to rake in the dough. Why can't newspapers?

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

There is hope...

It appears that reading -- as in books, not text messaging or blogs -- is on the rebound. Better still, says this story in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the writing quality is improving, too, at least for teen lit.

Like a lot of teens, Leslie Cornaby has a crowded schedule -- her days crammed with homework, hobbies and an array of techno diversions. When she's not checking e-mail, she's cruising YouTube or scrolling her iPod to tunes by Pink or Christina Aguilera.

She's also reading -- just for the glorious fun of it -- and says, "Most of my friends are readers, too."

The Shorecrest High School sophomore may not realize it, but she's enjoying the fruits of one of the most fertile periods in the history of young adult literature.

Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer