In no particular order:

1. What were Cheney and Pelosi chewing on during the talk? Tic-Tacs? Altoids? I can understand that Cheney needs a constant supply of mints because of his sulfurous breath — he’s actually 40% oil at this point, and has an internal coal fire that’s been smouldering since 1973 — but couldn’t Pelosi have refrained while she’s sitting behind the president?

2. How pathetic is it that after seven years in office, it’s news that Bush actually uttered the phrase “global climate change”? Maybe we can lubricate his jaw enough to say “I made a mistake” by the end of his term. Nah, not gonna happen.

3. During the now-standard despicably-explicit propaganda portion of the spech when the president does shout-outs to ordinary-but-heroic citizens, what political genius decided to have Bush honor two multi-millionaires? Yes, all you need to be is 8 feet tall,incredibly coordinated, and way rich, and you too can be noticed by the president.

4. Why did the standing ovations among the Democrats start from the back and slowly roll forward? If they started in the front, I could see why the back rows would stand in sequence. Do the Dems have eyes in the backs of their heads?

5. When Bush says he’s cut the national deficit in half three years ahead of plan, is there any doubt that he’s hoping we’ll instead hear that he cut the national debt in half? The deficit is simply how much is added to the debt. The debt is still at the obscene, generation-killing height his tax cuts and his war pushed it to. Further, he doesn’t include the massive borrowing from Social Security in his calculation of the deficit. See zfacts for an explanation.

6. How does a coward who used his privileged Daddy to get out of serving his country have the chutzpah to salute the bravery of our troops? Does Bush even recognize his lack of standing on this much issue, much less that he ought to be offering to do KP duty for these folks for the first ten years after he leaves office?

7. Why were the Dem candidates so timid in their responses? There’s no need to give this guy a chance. We already did that and look where it’s gotten us.

8. Why is it suddenly time to balance the budget when the Dems control Congress? The Republican Congress gets to spend like money is no object — tax cuts for the rich, earmarks to curry favor back home, hundreds of billions to lose a war — but as soon as the Dems come into power, it’s suddenly time to make the hard, unpopular decisions.

9. What’s up with our representatives scrambling to get the president’s autograph? Jeez! What next? Are they going to show up with trick-or-treat bags?

10. How great was Jim Webb’s response?

[Tags: politics bush sotu iraq economy chutzpah cheney pelosi]

2 Comments »

The NY Times lets you see how often Bush has used particular words in his various States of the Union. For example, check “climate,” “europe,”africa,””compassion,” “steroids,” “diplomacy,” “debt,” “science,” “equality,” and “dream.” (Don’t bother checking for “Kyoto,” Internet,” or “Chimpy McFlightsuit.” ) [Tags: politics bush]

1 Comment »

I’m ashamed to acknowledge how high-end my computing system is, but I’m throwing myself on your wisdom and your mercy…

I had two LCDs hooked up to my nvidia 8800gtx (from Asus), each at 1280×1024, DVI, set in “span” mode so they functioned as one large desktop. It worked fine. Then yesterday I replaced one of the monitors with an Acer AL2223W wide screen. If I connect the Acer via digital, the Windows Display Property box and the Nvidia prop box both say I’ve set it to 1680×1050, the standard widescreen res. But:

1. The display is fuzzy beyond acceptability.

2, The internal sw of the monitor says it’s in fact set to 1600×1200

3. If I set it to 1600×1200 via the Windows Display Property box, it actually sharpens up quite a bit. Not totally, but a lot. Most other resolutions make it fuzzy again.

4. If I attach the Acer via its analog plug, it’s crisp as overdone toast (in the good sense). Analog works.

I returned the first Acer (after talking with their “support” folks – Asus was far more knowledgeable) but I get exactly the same results. I’ve tested the digital cable and it’s fine.

I’m stumped. Any suggestions about what’s going on? [Tags: nvidia widescreen dual_display 8800gtx acer al2223w spoiled_computer_user]

13 Comments »

JP Rangaswami points to a Wired interview with Josh Madell of Other Music, a NYC music store’s site that’ll sell you songs without restrictions on how you use what you’ve bought. Josh says, for example,:

The nice thing about selling digitally is that the space limitations are much less restrictive than at the physical store, where we constantly have to delete items for space reasons, and also you are never out of stock of an MP3. The thing about iTunes, which is by far the most successful digital store so far, is that despite the cool factor they have been able to hold onto, they are really closer to Best Buy than Other Music in terms of the shopping experience. That’s great for some people, but we feel there is a real need for great indie download shops with a curated selection.

JP also points to a funny Other Music video that’s an ad in the sense of making Other Music look as over-the-top horrible as possible. It is, as RageBoy comments, durn gonzo. [Tags: music drm other_music jp_rangaswami josh_madell digital_rights itunes everything_is_miscellaneous]

3 Comments »

In tonight’s State of the Union address, there are some words and phrases that are bound to appear — “prevail,” “work together,” and “that our military leaders have requested” — and we could play Bingo with them, or take a shot of tequila every time they show up.

Instead, let’s play Negative Bingo in which you are given a card with phrases on it (or perhaps you should be allowed to purchase words the way you can buy search terms at Google) and you lose points for every one that does show up. (Caution: Don’t take a shot every time one of your words is not used.)

For example, here are some terms unlikely to show up in the mouth of the Great Decider tonight:

“Victory parade” “As I was reading in the Koran recently…”

“Abu Ghraib” “Raise taxes” and “to pay for” in the same sentence

“The right of women to…” “Osama Bin Laden”

“Maimed” “Thanks to Al Gore…”

Any admission of error expressed in the active voice

The terms have to have some likelihood of showing up, so you don’t get credit for Bush not using the phrases “prolapsed anus” or “I’m sorry.” In fact, different terms should be worth different amounts. A negative words market perhaps?

Anyway, what words would you put on your negative bingo card?

No need to believe me on this—much less to care—but I think I was one of the inventors of the sort of phrase-bingo people play at speeches like this. In the early 1990s, when I was at Interleaf, I created phrase bingo cards for a company meeting. I even wrote a Lisp script to generate them, which for me was like programming the lunar lander. I thought it was a new idea then, although I’m sure its eventual success was due to someone else inventing it earlier or afterwards. Anyone know the history of this epiphenomenon? [Tags: does politics bush humor bingo]

2 Comments »

Jessamyn reports on the Jackson County Library Information blog, where you can read about the indefinite closing of all fifteen branches of this Oregon county’s library system. The reasons are complex, but it comes down to the need to cut lots of services as the county reduces its budget by $23 milllion. Libraries are apparently a “nice to have,” not a “must have,” in Jackson County. (It doesn’t help that a previous ballot measure removed the special levy for libraries.) [Tags: libraries everything_is_miscellaneous ]

1 Comment »

Politicopia, a wiki for Utah citizens, is up. It’ll be very interesting to see if Utapians make use of it. (If not, some other site will arise.)

By the way, the Wall Street Journal has an article on the parties’ embrace of online activism. It says the Republicans are only a little behind the Democratics in this regard. [Tags: politics utah politicopia democracy everything_is_miscellaneous]

2 Comments »

Now that Hillary has announced that her campaign is a “conversation,” Todd Ziegler rounds up the conversational elements of her site.

Political campaigns are perhaps the most corrosive of genuine conversations because campaigns make run-of-the-mill control freaks look like drunken libertines. Their idea of a great conversation is generally the sort of Bush town hall meeting where citizens are frisked for ideas before entering. The best hope for a conversational campaign is one that brings supporters together and then gets out of the way. But campaigns want to be at the center of every conversation.

For example, Todd wonders why campaigns have abandoned MeetUp.com for house parties. Part of the answer is that campaigns want to have more control over the meetings’ data and governance, and that’s not totally illegitimate; MeetUp.com is a civic-minded group (bless ’em), but it’s still a private company.

But campaigns generally are not re-creating MeetUp. They’re replacing meetups with house parties. That’s what the Kerry campaign did, and I could never convince Zack Exley (who’s also civic-minded, bless him), who was in charge of Kerry’s Internet campaign, that house parties are fundamentally different than the Meetups that fueled the Dean campaign.

First, and most obviously, house parties traditionally are traditionally fund raisers. Dean Meetups were not. The house party message is clear: Have a nice chat while you take out your checkbook.

Second, campaigns generally assume more ownership of house parties than Meetups. At times, the Dean campaign provided some topic they thought the group might want to talk about. A couple of times, Dean addressed the Meetups via TV. But there’s a real difference in feeling between that and arriving at a friend’s house and being dealt the official house party “kit” materials.

Third, and most important, house parties are in private spaces. Meetups were in public spaces. A house party is put on for the attendees. The host has an obligation to make sure it goes well. But a Meetup in a bar or a restaurant is an empty space within which we are trusted to figure out what to do…what to do during the Meetup and what to do to take our country back (as Deaniacs put it). House parties are parties with guests. Meetups are meetings among citizens.

It’s a subtle difference, and I can’t quite articulate it. But I’ve been to house parties and to Meetups, and the difference is very real. [Tags: politics hillary_clinton meetup campaigns marketing conversations everything_is_miscellaneous ]

1 Comment »

Yeah, I know Gutenberg died in 1468, but you know what I mean. Anyway, the Nieman Foundation has posted an amazing report, with tons of articles about the future of newspapers, by some very smart people (including RMack and Ethanz of GlobalVoices and Craig Newmark). Also, lots of folks from the newspaper side of life. I have only begun to poke around in it. It’s riches given to us for nothin’.

Thanks, Nieman! [Tags: news media nieman ethan_zuckerman rebecca_mackinnon craig_newmark everything_is_miscellaneous]

Be the first to comment »

I’ve been using SimplyHeadlines for the past few weeks and like enough that I continue to use it. It aggregates news feeds and the results of customized queries (mine are for my name, “taxonomy” and “folksonomy”), and puts these into an email I receive each morning. It also lets you know what your registered friends are reading, but I have no friends, which is all that I deserve.

SimplyHeadlines now has a beta program that enables bloggers to offer their readers a customized aggregation of news and sites. It’s free. They promise not to spam anyone. You can customize it as you like. There are no ads. I don’t make anything out of your signing up; I’m not affiliated with them in any way. I offer it to you as an experiment.

If you’re interested, click here for the form…

[Tags: news aggregators media simplyheadlines everything_is_miscellaneous ]

Be the first to comment »