Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Tonight it's Garrison Keillor crying, "Impeach him"

Last night it was Lapham in Harper's, tonight it's Keillor on Salon: "the country is being led by a man who isn't paying attention."

Apple Fantasy Products (Engadget Contest)

Results from Engadget's What Would Jobs Do contest.

New Google Widgets for Mac

Google has three new widgets for Mac users: a quick blogging tool (I'm using it to post this), a Gmail inbox widget, and a search history. Missing from the blooger tool is a quick way to insert links. That makes it less than wonderful. But it is fast and convenient.

Self-referential nattering

Ack! I have only three images on the blog and they all feature Bush. Check me into rehab, please.

Framing and Protecting the Internet (Doc Searls)

Any post that includes the words "Feh!" and "Framing" is going to get my attention. When the topic concerns the nature (socially and generationally, not technologically) of the Internet and how to nurture its best aspects, it will draw me in. I'm sure to be distracted by commerce and my day job before joining this conversation in any useful way. But, at least I've pointed to it. It's the least I can do—and on most days, sadly, the most I can do.

At risk is the internet as a level playing field and equal opportunity connector as companies press for the ability to offer different classes of service. Doc Searls is keying off these observations by Kevin Marks on how different generations view and use the net. (BTW, one of the early proponents of a better, faster, higher quality-of-service—and private— internet back in bubble days was Enron Broadband division, back in the news as Kenny boy's trial gets underway.)

Bush Approval Compared to What? (CBS News)

Bush makes a new personal low in job approval ratings. He's below all recent presidents but one. Nixon's the one.

Monday, February 27, 2006

Calling O'Reilly Out (the upstart!)

For those who don't follow the family feuds...Bill O'Reilly of Fox Snooze has posted a petition to the overlords of MSNBC to replace Keith Olbermann with Phil O'Donahue. OK. Back at ya' Loofa Man. Here's a petition to Roger Ailes, Satrap of the Fox Yap Traps to can Bill for the aforementioned Phil. I signed. Will you?

A Krugman quote of the day (Crook & Liars)

The full column is, of course, behind the ya-gotta-pay barrier. But Crooks and Liars has the money quote:
...more to the point, after years of systematically suggesting that Arabs who didn't attack us are the same as Arabs who did, the administration can't suddenly turn around and say, "But these are good Arabs."

The Case For Impeachment (Lapham, Harpers)

Lewis Lapham takes a serious look at the Conyers case for why we can no longer afford George Bush. Conyers explained why he entered his "futile" resolution on the phone with Lapham:
“To take away the excuse,” he said, “that we didn't know.” So that two or four or ten years from now, if somebody should ask, “Where were you, Conyers, and where was the United States Congress?” when the Bush Administration declared the Constitution inoperative and revoked the license of parliamentary government, none of the company now present can plead ignorance or temporary insanity, can say that “somehow it escaped our notice” that the President was setting himself up as a supreme leader exempt from the rule of law.

Conyers report is available for a donation to the campaign to win back Congress. The more we take this seriously, the more serious we can make it.

Lapham's article is excerpted on the Web. The full piece is in the March 2006 print edition of Harper's Magazine.

What if Microsoft Designed the iPod box?

Technorati tags:

Dave Werner's Amazing Portfolio

From Microsoft's pre-emininent blogger, Scoble, by way of Adobe's Photoshop Product Manager, John Nack a tip about Dave Werner's brilliant web portfolio. Dave shows that he not only knows how to think about design, but even more impressive and practical, knows how to pitch it. Dave is from Portfolio Center, which ranking close behind Jez Graham, is one of the most important cultural landmarks of Atlanta

Report on the Bush bike crash in Scotland

Remember the president who couldn't walk and chew gum at the same time? The current office-holder, it seems, can't pedal, wave, and speak at the same time. News from Scotland yesterday details what happened last July when the president (who is also famous for falling off his couch, his mountain bike, and his Segway) fell off his bike. The police officer he struck was out of work for fourteen weeks.
Jim McDermott (D-WA 7th District): "Not only does he break the law over here on eavesdropping and spying on our own citizens, but it seems he can't even keep to your law when it comes to riding a bike. It's another example of how he can't keep his mind on the things he should be thinking about."

Friday, February 24, 2006

And the biggest rightie of all just fell out

William F. Buckley: "One can't doubt that the American objective in Iraq has failed." Posted today on National Review Online. His conclusion:
Mr. Bush has a very difficult internal problem here because to make the kind of concession that is strategically appropriate requires a mitigation of policies he has several times affirmed in high-flown pronouncements. His challenge is to persuade himself that he can submit to a historical reality without forswearing basic commitments in foreign policy.

He will certainly face the current development as military leaders are expected to do: They are called upon to acknowledge a tactical setback, but to insist on the survival of strategic policies.

Yes, but within their own counsels, different plans have to be made. And the kernel here is the acknowledgment of defeat.

But no... the righties didn't all fall into line

Turns out that Bush is a lamer duck than I would have guessed. He didn't pull the entire right-wing in behind the port contract. He had a sporadic mix of support from across the spectrum-- Rush Limbaugh and Jimmy Carter -- but Republicans from Sue (HELL NO) Myrick to Frist and Hastert all put the brakes on. Result--Bush blinks. Rove signals we don't need to rush into this. What's delicious about all this is that Bush has fallen into a trap that's very much of his own making. By reducing all debate to a visceral, pavlovian set of signals in connecting Saddam to Al Qaeda through no chain of logic or evidence, but merely through relentlessly repeated association of the two names in close proximity, Bush prepared the country to salivate whenever the bell is rung. "Arab" what? "Terror" whoops. Dave Winer says, "It's the Swift Boat logic turned back at the master. It's as if Karl Rove was working for the Dems. I love it because it's funny and it's justice"

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Commies and Righties

Back in the day of the CPUSA (Communist Party, USA) and their fellow travelers, there was an a bit of flip-flopping that went way off any scale that the Rove propagandists could have devised for John Kerry. Anti-fascist to the core, the American commies had to zig hard right in 1939 when Stalin signed a non-aggression pact with Hitler (actually Molotov signed it with Ribbentrop) only to zig hard left again when Hitler invaded the USSR in 1941.

Why bring this up now? Just some background to watch how long it takes the RWUSA (right wing, USA) to assimilate the Bush-United Arab Emirates deal.

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Monday, February 20, 2006

Seize the Backdrop

Bush with Photoshopped Background
New game. Everytime Bush is photographed against a key-phrase backdrop, reach for the Photoshop. It's right on your hard drive.

Matalin: Cheney "worthless" because he's so "Harry-centric"

Elisabeth Bumiler in the NYT gives the Mary Matalin POV "And I said, O.K., this guy is going to be worthless about getting me what I need to help him here,' " she added, speaking of Mr. Cheney. "He's so Harry-centric."

RJ Eskow's President's Day special

On HuffPost, how would today's politicians respond to the question, "Did you chop down that cherry tree?"

Timing issues



Hoist by their own petard.
Oops. It's not just the left hemiblogosphere keeping CHENEY SHOOTS FRIEND IN FACE alive for Week Two. Look who's running it on the cover. While, Cheney's delay in revealing what happened kept the story off last week's Sunday blathercasts and deprived Time and Newsweek of any opportunity to feature it last week, it also enabled a week's worth of digging. And so, despite the urgings of Fox News and other Cheney-Bush cheerleaders to move on, the story enters the Charts for Week 2 at Number One. With a bullet.

Sunday, February 19, 2006

Now that it's over, it's time to start.

Yes, I'm late to the party. How late? In this morning's NYT, Safire explains the jargon of blogging. In other words, the fat lady has sung.

And, since the party's over, the pressure's off. And I may as well jump in. Welcome to my blog.