Don’t buy a Bulgarian football club

I know it’s on your to-do list, but I wouldn’t recommend it.  I also know you read the Sofia Echo, so you’ve seen this already:
Holding the presidency of a football club can be hazardous – even deadly – in Bulgaria. Dozens of examples over the past 19 years attest to this. The latest is that [...]

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Gagner épique!

A comfortable four years removed from my last French class, I’m not even sure that translates right.  But consider it your cheap setup for election year zydeco:

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Theatre at its finest

This is an actual title of a play:
“The Communist Dracula Pageant – by Americans, for Americans; a play about the Romanian Revolution of 1989 with hallucinations, phosphorescence, and bears.”
Need photographic evidence?

It’s worth checking out if you’re in Boston.  The review is decent, although the critic “honestly can’t tell you just what the bears are for.”  [...]

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Pitch-perfect campaigning (with lots of hidden music videos)

As we recently discussed, the Obama team has perfected the zeitgeist campaign.  Some of it is intentional, (the text messages, the basketball,) while the rest (the internet memes) just sorta happens.  Music is another important element of this.  Everyone knows Republicans make poor DJs, and Senator Obama has collected an impressive variety of musical endorsements.
Democrats [...]

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…and you can vote however you like

The kids are doing recent first time voter TI proud.

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Warhol’s nightmare

Everyone gets their quarter of an hour:
“Move over, Sanjaya, and tell William Hung the news: Joe the Plumber is being pursued for a major record deal and could come out with a country album as early as Inauguration Day.”
Politico reports that Joe/Sam the not-plumber/tax evader has signed with a Nashville PR firm for “a shift [...]

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Running the modern campaign

Slate’s technology writer Farhad Manjoo assembled some evidence supporting Senator Obama’s text message campaign.  According to Green and Gerber, (shameless book pitch,) text messages deliver the effectiveness of canvassing at low low prices!  Text messages, tailored to the recipient’s neighborhood and delivered in a casual “hello from Barack” style, give supporters friendly, personalized information about [...]

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In Soviet Russia, finish this joke

It takes a lot to upstage new Bond girl Olga Kurylenko.
A small Russian communist party has just done it.  Anyone who tops this by close-of-business Tuesday, I promise I will Paypal you $1:
“In the name of all communists we appeal to you, Olga Kurylenko, wanton daughter of unclean Ukraine and deserter of the Slavic world. [...]

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Eagles, take flight!

Stephen Colbert is legitimately running the GOP.  Witness:

“The next generation of the Republican Party. The Young Eagles provide the GOP with the financial resources to compete in national, state, and local elections, while affording members the opportunity to interact and network with Republican Party officials, pundits, enthusiasts, and donors as well as business leaders and [...]

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Luzhkov’s ambitions

Today’s New York Times ran an excellent profile of Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov.  The Ed-Koch-lookin Luzhkov was a founder of Putin’s ruling United Russia Party, and is extremely popular.  Re-elected with 69% and 75% in his last two elections, Luzhkov is first and foremost a builder, apartments, highways, memorials, you name it.  Matching his party, [...]

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