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October 27, 2004

Curiouser and curiouser

Media largely silent on WSJ report: Bush admin ... [Media Matters for America]

The media has remained largely silent on The Wall Street Journal's October 25 report that President George W. Bush's administration passed up several opportunities to attack and potentially kill terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi before the start of the Iraq war. The Journal article expanded on a March 2 NBC Nightly News report suggesting that the administration passed up chances to attack Zarqawi; the report noted that several former administration officials and military officers have questioned the administration's decision to hold off on such attacks.

This from the pre-emptive strike President. And based on a report from the well-known leftist rag the Wall Street Journal.

And why? The adminstration was afraid attacking Zarqawi would undermine the case for invading Iraq.

So let's get this straight. The president passed up several chances to kill someone we knew was involved in 9/11 because it could interfere with his plan to get rid of someone who wasn't.

Yeah, that's the guy I want in charge.

They *are* out to get you

Via Halley Suite, your most paranoid fantasy described:

The scenario we must be all be prepared for:

If the pre-election internal tracking polls and public opinion polls show the Kerry-Edwards ticket leading in key battleground states, the Bush team will begin to implement their plan to announce an imminent terrorist alert for the West Coast for November 2, sometime during the mid afternoon Pacific Standard Time. At 2:00 PST, the polls in Kentucky and Indiana will be one hour from closing (5:00 PM EST–the polls close in Indiana and Kentucky at 6:00 PM EST). Exit polls in both states will be known to the Bush people by that time and if Kentucky (not likely Indiana) looks too close to call or leaning to Kerry-Edwards, the California plan will be implemented. A Bush problem in Kentucky at 6:00 PM EST would mean that problems could be expected in neighboring states and that plans to declare a state of emergency in California would begin in earnest at 3:00 PM PST.

Jesus, just that anyone could even put enough thought into writing this up really demonstrates what these people are capable of. Read the whole thing and then go buy plastic sheeting and duct tape.

Mass confusion

Interactivist Info Exchange | NYC Sues to Stop Critical Mass Bike Rides

New York City filed a lawsuit today in an effort to stop the monthly Critical Mass ride. They are asking a judge to grant them an injunction enjoining "all other participants in Critical Mass bicycle rides form engaging in conduct that requires a permit without having first obtained such a permit."

This of course begs the question: does riding a bike require a permit? Critical Mass has been a feature in New York City for nearly a decade, but over the last three months the city's commitment to stopping the ride has deepened since they set their sights on riders at the August Critical Mass which coincided with the start of the Republican National Convention.

The cyclists have filed a suit stating their 5th amendment rights are being violated by the city seizing their bikes without having charged them with anything. Apparently the RNC Mass raised CM's profile enough that the city is going to attempt to eliminate it entirely.

I really can't see their case here. Bikes have the same vehicular right to use of city streets as cars. The city is likely going to try to play up the public safety angle via the "blocked ambulance" scare, rare as that might be. And of course cars never get in the way of public rescue vehicles, right?

The hearing on the City's request for an injunction will be held on Wednesday Octoer 27 at 3PM in Judge Pauley's Courtroom, 11D 500 Pearl Street (Near City Hall, opposite Foley Square, south of 100 Center St.) The public will not be able to speak but cyclists are urging everyone to pack the courtroom.

I get it - it's between his ears

Ben Hammersley's Dangerous Precedent: Today's Cartoon

As long as I'm in a dissing mood (definitely a wrong side of the bed morning) is there something I'm missing wrt Hugh Macleod's "cartoons?" Because they're so. Not. Funny. Shit, they're not even droll. Today's example at Ben Hammersley's being a pretty complete case in point.

We've reached a limit.

I've been getting increasingly more annoyed by Gothamist lately, and I wasn't sure why. I didn't know whether it was yet another blog trying for mini-media-mogul status or what.

Reading it in my aggregator this am, I finally got it.

It's the damn first-person plural, aka the Royal We, plus the gratuitous use of the third-person "Gothamist." Add in that it's usually little more than a rehash of the morning papers and some plugs for friends of the writers, and it all adds up to "unsubscribed."

October 26, 2004

Anger management

The Intensity Gap (washingtonpost.com)

The left, and the moderates, and the centrists, HAVE been galvanized by the Bush administration:

The fervent opposition to President Bush is rational, and its intensity is a direct response to Bush's own efforts to discredit all opposition to his policies. Criticism of Bush comes not simply from the far left or from fans of Michael Moore movies, but also from political moderates, including Republicans, who see Bush's fiscal, social and foreign policies as decidedly immoderate. The passion comes from a conviction that the president would prefer to use the fear of terrorism and cast his opponent as a dangerous appeaser rather than risk the loss of power.

Amen. The salient quality of the Bush adminstration has been its unceasing unwillingness to listen to others and its extremist characterization of the mildest of dissent as akin to the worst treason. It is this pathological level of denial, this neurotic and utter refusal to acknowledge any error, this monochromatic view of the world, that makes it vitally necessary to retire these charlatans from power on November 2nd.

Get me a Big Mac, stat

The New York Times > New York Region > Burgers for the Health Professional

McDonald's has restaurants in several NY area hospitals:

"I am a surgeon, and the food we have here is the food I like," he said, while acknowledging that obesity is a significant health problem.

"It's not the fault of McDonald's,'' he said. "It's the fault of the people eating too much."

When asked his name, however, he would not give it, saying it would be embarrassing to be the brain surgeon in favor of fast food.

Ya think?

On the other hand, it does neatly solve the problem of what to bring to a patient up in the Cardiac Care Unit.

Irish bike corpses

I couldn't help noticing these wounded and dead (well, vandalised is the word I think) bicycles whilst photographing for the untitled umbrella project.

Abandoned bicycles in Dublin. Some of the photos really evoke a strong sense of loneliness.

Sick and brilliant

The Rude Pundit, via chiggins:

So when Rehnquist tries to say he's thinking retirement now, too late for an appointment before the election, and with the potential loss of the Senate even if he wins, Cheney snaps. He pulls the tube out of Rehnquist's neck and whips out his cock. Rehnquist, wide-eyed, now wishing he had chosen death over the horror that is about to happen, gasps for air. "Gonna have to fuck your neck-hole, Bill," Cheney says, slapping his cock around, trying to get an erection, thinking about Mary and her partner 69ing, thinking about dismembered Iraqi children, all the things that usually make him hard. Rehnquist shakes his head. But he doesn't have to worry. Cheney can't get an erection. Sure, he makes a half-hearted attempt to fuck Rehnquist's trachea, but he finally gives up and re-inserts the tube.

Man, that image is worse than goatse.

Blogola

Boing Boing: Coolest Ethernet cable ever, EVER

Boing Boing peripatetic coolwhore Cory Doctorow gets yet another overwhelmingly amazing revolutionary toy:

This one went straight into my shoulder bag, and I don't think I'll ever leave home without it.

Doesn't this imply that this wasn't paid for, but a freebie? If so, why aren't we getting disclaimers for what otherwise amounts to shilling for free schwag - blogola?

October 25, 2004

Can opener

OS X Rootkit - includes Opener script | Adding Understanding

All of the comments I read at Macintouch are at best mis-informed. While the Opener script itself does not "infect" computers as a part of the OSXRK it can be used to exploit machines.

Worth reading, lists better ways to check to see if your Mac's been compromised than the rampant misunderstanding (as he mentions) going on over at Macintouch.

Folks, if you've been owned, all the handwaving "Everything is all right. Do not panic. It's still better than Windoze." noise in the world is not going to get you dis-owned. Shit happens, deal with it.

October 24, 2004

Joel on essays

Best Software Essays of 2004:

I'm editing a new book: a collection of the best software essays published anywhere -- on the web or in print -- during 2004.

Good list. Spend some time and read a few, they're interesting.

October 23, 2004

Trippi == Nader?

Halley's Comment: Trippi At Poptech Conference:

Joe Trippi worries if Kerry wins it could make the Democratic Party continue to be complacent; if he loses it will shake it up and make it face issues that are long overdue.

I hate this argument. This is exactly what Nader was saying at the end of the campaign in 2000 - that it might not be so bad if Gore lost, since it would "galvanize the left." right, and the country can go down the tubes while the left is getting galvanized.

I'm worried about the future of America, not the Democratic party. I realize it's not that simplistic, but I really believe that enough is at stake that we need to get Bush out. We can hash out the complacency of the Democrats at the midterms.

Of gems and trains

ditto: Ruby on Rails - Faster and Faster:

Now, tell me that Ruby doesn't have a real productivity advantage over Java or C#. As the developers of Ruby on Rails have claimed, you can have a functional web site in less code than a typical J2EE Struts configuration file.

And this is from a Java developer.

As part of my continuing effort to avoid real work by playing with every language I can find, I've been fooling with Ruby (and Rails) lately. It's really a nice language. Very clean, simple, nice OO model. Also, it's true, you can get a lot done in little code, especially with .each iterators and code blocks.

Pew Forum on Bush and "Faith-Based"

The Pew Center has a clearinghouse-type page on Faith-Based Initiatives and the Bush Administration. A good list of resources.

October 20, 2004

If you're not doing anything illegal...

ACLU rejects grants over terror language:

The American Civil Liberties Union has rejected $1.15 million from the Ford and Rockefeller foundations, saying their effort to ensure that none of their money inadvertently underwrites terrorism or other unacceptable activities is a threat to civil liberties.

I have a bad feeling about this, that it's going to get distorted into the ACLU sympathizing with terrorists. I can see why they're doing it -- it's too broad of a catchall and limits the ACLU's speech too much -- but this is the kind of thing that the wingnuts love to twist into yet another "dissent is treason" squib.

The pits

Horrible-looking pitting on a Powerbook. You must have some pretty acidic skin to get pitting like this.

The view from the bleachers

Jeff Jarvis on oppressive sportscasters:

That's what we need: coverage from the stands, from the fan's eyes, not from the dehumidified, dehumanized confines of a broadcast booth.

Yeah, cause when I watch a baseball game, am I interested in what's happening in the game itself? Nope, the real interest is in the drunken debris-throwing yahoos in the stands. Citizens' baseball, I call it. And call it, and call it and call it. Ad nauseam.

Dan Gillmor got it wrong. This isn't "We" Media, it's "Me" Media.

Wait, no! Let's podcast baseball games! So what that I probably won't hear the game till 2 days later? I'm not really interested in the game, I'm much more interested in what some blogger has to say about it! After all, we need to fact-check televised baseball games, damnit.

You can't trust anyone

Remember those poor, beset doctors plagued by rapacious lawyers that the Bush administration warned us about? Well, they're just greedy bastards now too! Can you imagine that the morons think there's a possible public health crisis and they want funding to deal with the flu vaccine fuckup:

But the Department of Health and Human Services dismissed complaints about inadequate emergency room funding. Spokesman Tony Jewell called it "unfortunate" that ACEP would "make a money grab. That's what this is."

Jesus, at this rate, all some Al Qaeda guy has to do is sneeze on the subway and it's all over.

BK Deluxe

The Voice gets off a good one in a story on Burger King withdrawing their ads from Sinclair "Broadcasting" on Glorious Propaganda Day:

This is believed to be the first time the fast-food giant has come out publicly against whoppers.

Meantime, Sinclair uses the usual Repub up-is-down strategies (" I NEVER said that! We NEVER said that! Show me where we said that!" "Here." "That's not what we meant.") to attempt to get the Plavix out of the business bloodstream. Perhaps they can apply for federal disaster relief.

October 19, 2004

A queeg-like way of being

If you'd like to get very very scared, read this very interesting Nielsen Hayden entry about the Suskind piece in Sunday's NYT magazine:

What he's put his faith in is George W. Bush, which is not the same thing as saying he believes in himself. He can't believe in himself; he knows he doesn't know anything. But instead of seeking more information and better counsel, he's abandoned the frustrations of dealing with the factual, external universe. He's now basing everything on the instincts of George W. Bush. That's where the smirk comes from.

He's certain he's right. So was every dotcom investor. So is every blackjack player in Las Vegas.

Pause, then. Some of you already think this must be hyperbole, and that Bush can't explicitly, literally, concretely have given up on external data and the reasoned analysis thereof.

Unfortunately, that's what Suskind is saying.

Read the rest, it's an intelligent, thoughtful and frightening take.

October 17, 2004

Teachers tossed from Bush sycophant-fest

Teachers' T-Shirts Bring Bush Speech Ouster
3 teachers get threatened with arrest and ejected from a Bush rally for wearing dangerous t-shirts:

The women got past the first and second checkpoints and were allowed into the Jackson County fairgrounds, but were asked to leave and then escorted out of the event by campaign officials who allegedly told them their T-shirts were "obscene."

Which t-shirts, incidentally, carried the highly inflammatory message "Protect our civil liberties." You just can't let that sort of untrammeled, hateful vitriol rage unchecked. Next they'll be saying things like "Love one another."

October 16, 2004

Jeanne nails it.

Body and Soul:

Jon Stewart went on Crossfire to fight for Tucker Carlson's honor. Which is probably more than he ever did.

Sheer genius.

October 15, 2004

Where I've been

I haven't posted much in a while, and for a number of reasons.

First, I was just discharged once again from the hospital yesterday. The long-time reader may recall an incident once before where I got a massive strep infection through a skin break and was in the sickhaus for a week. This time it was a bacterial infection which snuck in through some cracked dry skin on my heel. I was in for a much shorter period this time - on Sunday when my fever soared to a toasty 105.3 and I had uncontrollable chills under 3 blankets, we headed right for the hospital rather than seeing if Advil'd work. So hours after the fever set in, I was getting IV antibiotics. I've also had some additional health issues lately which have been a source of some stress. I'm home now and the infection appears to be on the run.

Secondly, I'm just in a general period right now of trying to assess my priorities, chief among them my involvement in the ever changing world of tech. When I left my job at the Times about 5 years ago to work at Oxygen, the promise of the web seemed like a relief from the endless jobs building yet another corporate database interface. You know what happened next. I'm not saying that it's entirely dead yet, but it becomes more and more difficult to see any of this as "alternative" in any way when it's obvious to me that blogging is the next technology to go "mainstream." (see also Denton, Nick.) I don't necessarily think this is bad. I don't even know if it's even preventable. What I'm trying to determine is how much of it I'm interested in putting up with. Increasingly my interests are leaning towards my family, given what I've been through lately. The idea of working 50-60 hour weeks for companies redefining the word "sweatshop" and dependent on a nation of 20 year old kool-aid drinkers seems less appealing. Yet on the other hand I have that family, and that mortgage, and need to make a living. So it's a struggle. I have no answers as of yet. Maybe never will.

As for blogging. I just don't know. In some ways I think that the technological advances that made blogging possible also contained the seeds of its doom by assimilation. You can already see it starting to shake out. Technorati is Webtrends is Nielsen - it's ratings for blogs. Six Apart is ruthlessly corporate. Podcasting is trying to be a combination of NPR and ham radio, at least in its DIY aspect. I'm still finding some interesting subcultures - there's a number of political, library-related and food-related blogs I've really been enjoying lately. Maybe that's where the promise of blogs still lies. I read the kind of stuff Jeff Jarvis wants for blogging and it makes me remember why I especially dislike media business people so much. Whenever a businessman starts talking about populism, look for the snake oil bottle. In the seventies, one of the record labels advertised how radical their product was with the slogan "The Man can't bust our MUSIC!" Which music was of course being sold you courtesy of The Man. Blogging is starting to seem like "The Man can't bust our MEDIA!" A lot of people and companies now want to be The Man rather than the MUSIC, but they want you to still think that blogging is rev-O-lutionary.

I may continue here, I may not (although, damnit, I did just renew the domain). There are a few people whose support have made me continue - Ed Heil, Michael Hall, Karel, and Luke Melia come to mind - and I'd hate to lose that conversation. But for now, that's kind of where I am coming from.

He-man internet moguls club

Scripting News: 10/15/2004:
Evangelism 101
Don't tell the girl you want girls.
Tell her you want her.
Would the meaning of this really be very different if it had read:
Don't tell the customer you want customers.
Tell them you want them
.
Instead of this silly, sexist "lover man" stuff? Hey, if you put it my way, women could actually relate to it!

"Persecution of men by internet harridans" hue and cry in 5..4..3..2..1