9/29/04 - Links bitches, links - Japanese baseball, Ohio hates democracy (or at least Democrats), the Late Show

- Here's a shocker. No Child Left Behind is leaving children behind (WNYC)

- The New York Times asks NBC "What were you thinking?" when they tapped Conan to succeed Leno in 2009, then proceeds to answer its own question.

- Speaking of which, The Daily Show Blog ponders what effect Conan's Late Night deal will have on Jon Stewart.

- In response to Bill O'Reilly's repeated jabs that The Daily Show's viewers were "stoned slackers", Comedy Central did a little research and found that TDS viewers were more likely to have completed four years of college. (Yahoo News)
But doesn't that make them more likely to be "stoned slackers"?

Now, I can see that a response to this might be that the execs at Comedy Central, of all places, should have a better sense of humor and accept O'Reilly's comments for what they were, a joke. But to be fair to Comedy Central, we all know easy, if not completely accurate, labels like "stoned slackers" have a way of sticking and it could seriously affect their ad revenue. After all, the dude down the hall who has some of that great Hawaiian shit isn't buying 30 second spots on Comedy Central any time soon.

- Japanese baseball playes strike, but very politely. (Slate)
The good news is that Japanese baseball is not contracting, and actually adding a team. The bad news is that the new parent company, Rakuten, merely wants a team as a walking billboard and has no local ties. Still, that's one step forward, one step backward, and by Japanese baseball standards, it's progress.

- Ohio hates our freedoms.
Now, that newly registered Dems are outnumbering GOPers, that Ohio is one of the most hotly contested states in this year's elections, and that the Ohio Sec of State is a Reep are mere coincidences. Or so we hope at least.

- Finally, more 2004 RNC fun from the Village Voice: Convention Detention
Bloomy and NYPD keep the streets safe for Republicans by arresting bystanders and confiscating... sandwiches.