Thanks to prompting from the ever-more-amazing Sunlight Foundation, the US Congress’ site will provide legislative documents with permanent URLs. That means you can link to them and have some confidence that the links will work tomorrow, which means discussion can more easily more forward. Unique IDs accrete meaning.

[Tags: democracy congress everything_is_miscellaneous sunlight_foundation ]

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If you love the Internet, you ought to vote for Obama.

Yes, I know I’ve shocked you with that opinion. You can find more shocks of this sort at Tech for Obama.

[Tags: politics obama ]

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It’s only going to continue to go downhill. McCain’s going to get more distracted and muddled. Palin‘s just going to get nastier and nastier.

From here to November, the McCain campaign’s got nothing left except personal attacks. It’s bad for our democracy. We know everything we need to know to make up our minds. Let’s just vote now.

[Tags: politics obama mccain ]

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It must be puzzling to McCain supporters why Obamites have seized on McCain’s statement, ‘”You know who voted for it? You might never know! That one.” I’m not sure why it strikes me as particularly revelatory. But it does.

It was the epitome of finger-pointing, of course. But it also seemed to express McCain’s peevishness that his accusations aren’t sticking. “I’ve been telling you over and over that this guy is no good, but no one is listening. People keep attacking me, but he’s the one, not me.”

And, of course, we Obamacists heard it in the context of McCain’s unwillingness to look Obama in the eye. Last night, he couldn’t say his name. I can only assume that McCain is genuinely dismayed that someone with so little experience may deprive him of the narrative he’s been yearning to complete: POW to Senator who embodies the lessons he learned (love democracy, recognize who your real enemies are, treat everyone else with respect) to President. But fate has put an unworthy opponent across from him. In my unsupported view, McCain honestly thought that in choosing Palin, he was choosing the equivalent of Obama: Young, fresh, inexperienced, likable, glamorous. And McCain can’t stand it. He can’t look at the charming poser lest he himself fall under his spell, and he can’t even say his name. It’s not simple contempt for Obama. It’s fury that his narrative his been interrupted…and, one must conclude, contempt for the country of fools who prefer the celebrity pretender to the grizzled warrior, maverick, and man of honor.

Of course, I am 100% making this up.

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[Tags: politics election register ]

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I’m in Berlin, so I’d have to get up at 3AM to watch the debate tonight, which I’m unlikely to do since tomorrow is a work day. But, I expect Palin will do better than expected, although not better than we’re expecting to expect her to do. And the media will seize on some stumbles by Biden so they can avoid the appearance of piling on Palin. In fact, we’re already seeing some gaffe inflation.

A gaffe used to be not just a mistake but one that really hurts a candidate’s standing. Biden’s thinking that FDR presided over the 1929 crash and that folks had TVs back then is a little bit of dumbness about history, but not a true gaffe because it doesn’t reveal a reason to give up your vote for him. McCain talking about the Iraq-Pakistan border is more of one, but since no one believes McCain is that ill-informed, we instead chalk it up to a mere momentary slip of the brain. No, a true gaffe is genuinely not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is or being able to name only a single Supreme Court case you disagree with.

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But, because the media are afraid that they look like they’re going after Palin — AKA Doing Their Job — I expect any small error or misstep made by Biden tonight to be elevated to full gaffe level.

Too bad. It used to be a useful term. I hate to lose it just because the media want to appear balanced in an unbalanced contest.

[Tags: politics biden palin gaffes ]

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Sounds at the end like the room may be laughing at the reporter…

[Tags: politics media obama mccain fox_news ]

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I’m a little confused by Sarah Palin’s joshing that she’s been listening to Biden’s speeches in the Senate since she was in second grade, especially with John “26 Years in the Senate” McCain standing right next to her.

What’s next, comb-over jokes?

[Tags: politics sarah_palin mccain biden ]

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From Greg Mankiw‘s blog:

From a freshman physics quiz given at Princeton a few days ago:

Problem 1. A famous thought experiment in economics involves dealing with a financial crisis by dropping money from a helicopter.

Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve Chairman and former Princeton Economics Professor, decides to try this out over his old hometown. With his helicopter flying 1.0×10^1 m above the center of Fine Tower and in the direction of Nassau Hall, Ben gently releases a briefcase containing $1 million. Using the information that (i) Fine Tower is 6.0 × 10^1 m high, (ii) Nassau Hall is 1.5 × 10^1 m high and (iii) the centers of the two buildings are 3.0 × 10^2 m apart, and ignoring air resistance as you normally would:

a. [2 pts] How fast should Ben’s helicopter fly so that the briefcase lands in the center of the roof of Nassau Hall?

b. [1 pt] How long is the briefcase in the air?

c. [1 pt] How fast is the briefcase moving when it hits the roof of Nassau Hall?

d. [1 pt] How much faster would the financial relief have reached Nassau Hall if the briefcase had contained $2 million instead?

Thanks to Princeton Professor Shivaji Sondhi for sending this along.

Greg is an economics professor at Harvard.

[Tags: bailout physics economics humor ]

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Here’s a contest idea from my brother Andy. Submit your entries as comments. Prize: Nothing at all.

Top Ten Reasons Sarah Palin Cancels the VP Debate

Suspicious Russian tourists spotted across the Bering strait in Dezhnevo

Wrasslin’ a bear

Learns Tina Fey will be watching

When taken on tour of White House by McCain handlers, is “inadvertently” locked in Cheney’s man-sized safe

Schedule for memorizing state capitals thrown off by need for new schedule to memorize states

Speechless after finally looking up what “MILF” stands for

On deadline to finish her book, “Namin’ Your Baby the Alaskan Way”

Not yet confident how to work in those hilarious hair-plug zingers

No matter how hard she scrubs, she can’t get Kissinger’s moral stank off of her

Stuck in traffic on the Bridge to Nowhere

[Tags: politics sarah_palin debates humor ]

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