Rebecca reports that MSN Spaces has kicked off Anti, a popular blogger who is critical of the Chinese government.

Scoble has just posted in no uncertain terms his disagreement with his employer. (If Microsoft gives Scoble any guff, he should remind them that this is exactly why companies need to have bloggers.) [Tags: RebeccaMackinnon scoble microsoft china blogging censorship]

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Tad Adelstein lays out Microsoft’s political influence — the raw type that has dollar signs and zeroes — in a specu-factual sort of way. Tom DeLay and Jack Abramoff make appearances.

I still want to know who prompted the investigation of Peter Quinn, the Massacusetts CIO who pushed for the state to use only apps that support open standards. Quinn was investigated for taking junkets, charges that were subsequently found to be baseless. Quinn nevertheless resigned a couple of days ago.

Since the Globe trumpeted the charges, and then piccolo-ed Quinn’s exculpation, I’d think the Globe would want to know who played them like an out of tune violin. (Hmm. Technically, that wasn’t a mixed metaphor, just a failed one.) [Tags: PeterQuinn microsoft massachusetts opendoc bostonGlobe]

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According to a story in the WSJ by Geoffrey A. Fowler and Juying Qin:

“In a rare show of resistance for China’s state-controlled media, many editors of the daily newspaper Beijing News refused to work Thursday after authorities sacked its top editor for leading coverage criticizing the government.”

From what we know, these are heroes. And heroes are so often sparks:

China’s active community of bloggers was quick to report and denounce Mr. Yang’s departure. One Beijing News editor wrote on his Web log, “There is no way to retreat. The butcher has lifted a knife … so let’s just die in a beautiful way.” That posting was later taken down by its host Sina.com, but other bloggers continued to re-post the comments by displaying a graphic image of the original posting.

[Tags: china media]

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The BBC reports on Bush’s reading list:

His reading includes When Trumpets Call: Theodore Roosevelt After the White House by Patricia O’Toole, which is about the former leader’s African safari and his attempt to return to politics after leaving the White House in 1909.

He is also reading Imperial Grunts: The American Military on the Ground – an account of the daily lives of US soldiers as told by Robert Kaplan, who accompanied several units overseas.

He is an “avid reader,” said his spokesman, spreading mirth throughout the land.

So, what would you put on his reading list?

The Best and the Brightest, to understand how even smart people go wrong.

Oedipus Rex, for some insight into his own psychology.

_____??

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Terrific speech by Sen. Boxer last week. [Tags: iraq BarbaraBoxer]

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Note: The kid was a hoaxer. I was a hoaxee. – Dec. 29, 2005

According to SouthCoastToday.com, a senior at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth was visited by the feds after he requested a copy of Mao’s little red book via inter-library loan. The agents said that the book was on a “watch list.” They brought the book with them but would not leave it with the student.

Ah, books on watch lists. Visits by federal agents. University research under the all-comprehending eye of government bureaucrats. Thomas Jefferson would have been proud! [Tags: HomelandSecurity security libraries]

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David Stephenson blogs about the Wired article “Reinventing 911,” saying its discussion of Portland’s distributed emergency system validates his “Smart Mobs for Homeland Security” concept.

We should be definitely suspicious of the telcos’ insistence to Congress that their way of fetching emergency help is the best and only way. It’s so clearly an attempt by the telcos to trade on terrorism to maintain the telco’s unnatural hold on their market. [Tags: 911 terrorism security DavidStephenson]

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Ethan Zuckerman, who, unlike me, is a data-driven guy who happens to have a heart that isn’t stopped by borders, re-considers the disputed-until-ignored Lancet report that said there were about 100,000 more Iraqi deaths during the war than there would have been without the war. Ethan thinks there’s good reason for thinking the report’s methodology and numbers are pretty reliable.

As Ethan says: “It’s hard to have a debate about what to do about the morass we face in Iraq. But it’s lots harder to have it if the numbers we’re working with may be low by a factor of six.”

And I repeat my question: Why doesn’t our government have its own estimate of the number of Iraqi civilians killed? Instead, Bush is relying on media reports. Does he really not give a shit? Or does our government — our government — have a number it doesn’t want to let its citizens know?
[Tags: iraq EthanZuckerman]

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White House officials later said the 30,000 figure was not an official U.S. tally, but the best estimate available based on media reports
LA Times

Why doesn’t our government have its own estimate of how many Iraqis have died? Isn’t that a key piece of information as you’re assessing a war? Or do we really care so little that we don’t bother tracking, counting or estimating dead Iraqi civilians? [Tags: iraq GeorgeBush]

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Now that he’s turned down the appeal for clemency, Governor Schwarzenegger should have to kill Tookie Williams with his own hands.

The death penalty, torture, preemptive war…it’d be good if we Americans could forswear at least one of our barbaric practices. [Tags: TookieWilliams CapitalPunishment schwarzenegger]

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