Quotes & amp;amp; Notes

by Inlander Staff


58 -- Percentage by which American blog readership increased in 2004, according to the Pew Internet & amp; American Life Project





8 million -- Number of Americans who have created their own blogs, or Web-based diaries





62 -- Percentage of online Americans who don't have a clue what this means: What is this "blog" you speak of?





$34,500 -- How much Enron donated to the campaign coffers of future U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales when he was on the Texas Supreme Court in 2000, according to the New York Daily News. That year, he authored a decision believed to be the energy industry's biggest legal victory ever in Texas. In all, Gonzales took in more than $100,000 from energy firms.





$241,000 -- The amount taxpayers (via the Department of Education) gave Chicago-area radio host Armstrong Williams to support President Bush's "No Child Left Behind" policy on his program. Williams failed to inform his listeners of the arrangement. The White House says it's an isolated incident, but Williams told The Nation's David Corn that he's not the only one.





$500,000 -- Approximate amount the Diocese of Spokane has spent on public relations advice related to its ongoing sex abuse cases and resulting bankruptcy





$11.9 million -- According to the Washington Post, the cost for security that the nearly broke District of Columbia will have to cover in connection with President Bush's inauguration. The White House suggested that the District could use some of its Homeland Security funds for the occasion. Bush won less than 10 percent of the vote in D.C.





$4.7 trillion -- How much, according to Social Security officials' calculations, that the federal government would have to borrow over 40 years (adjusted for inflation) to privatize Social Security, as President Bush wants to do.





Oh, and One Last Thing... "Iraq is heading for civil war and total chaos, and the January 30 election is like putting a ... Band-Aid on a gushing femoral artery."


-- Sgt. Maj. J. David Gallant, an instructor at the Army Military Intelligence Center and School at Fort Huachuca, Ariz.





Publication date: 1/13/04