Politics
jrosenhouse | November 13, 2008As I am sure you are aware, there are still three Senate elections that have yet to be resolved. The Democrats need all three of them to get to the magic sixty. On November 4 I would have considered that very unlikely indeed. But now I'm not so sure.
The big one, from my perspective, is the Franken-Coleman race in Minnesota. Not only is Coleman the emptiest of Republican empty suits, but Franken is an impressive fellow just on his merits. The twittering, halfwit, gossip-mongering, know-nothing, cable-news pundit set have largely dismissed Franken as just a comedian. This should be…
razib | November 13, 2008Well, the title doesn't matter. I think it is a fait accompli. Some Coastal Democrats might be suspicious of the car culture, but they have empathy for the problems which emerge from de-industrialization. Republicans have no credibility or capital. A bailout will happen, but I believe that most people will see that it is going to simply put off the inevitable. Megan McCardle talks about the de-industrialization of the "Other Rustbelt," towns centered around less iconic firms:
Just as the auto industry made (and broke) Detroit, Rochester was the creation of Eastman Kodak. Kodak bonus day…
oracknows | November 13, 2008
The things I do for my readers.
I'm referring to a movie entitled The Beautiful Truth, links to whose website and trailers several of you have e-mailed to me over the last couple of weeks. Maybe it's because the movie is only showing in New York and Los Angeles and hasn't made it out of the media enclaves of those cities out to the rest of us in flyover country, or maybe its release is so limited that I just hadn't heard of it. Certainly that appears to be the case, as the schedule shown at the website lists it as beginning an engagement in New York tomorrow and running through November 20…
drorzel | November 13, 2008Bora's beating the drum for submissions to this year's science blogging anthology. He doesn't seem to be suffering from a lack of submissions, but if you've got something you would like to see re-printed in dead tree form, submit it before December 1. I'm not clear whether this will be going through Lulu again this year, or if they have a regular publisher interested.
It's earlier than I would normally do this sort of thing, but Bora's post got me wondering about what I consider my best posts of the year. This isn't by any means a comprehensive list, just what I came up with in a few minutes…
evolvingthoughts | November 11, 2008
The Greens have sought explanations from Minister Against Broadband Stephen Conroy in the Senate. In particular Green senator Scott Ludlam asked Conroy to take back his claim that what the ALP wants is like what is done in Britain, Sweden, Canada and New Zealand; in these cases the filtering is voluntary and restricted. Moreover, Conroy refused to say what "unwanted content" was defined as, and who would make that determination.
Michael Malone of iiNet called Conroy the "worst minister ever". In the meantime ISPs are being asked to trial the filtering. What effect a bad experience would…
oracknows | November 11, 2008November 4, 2008
11:15 PM EST
A mousy little man sat, shaking his head in his hands, limned against the wall by the flickering blue glow of a flat screen TV. On the television, a huge crowd swelled in Grant Park in Chicago. The excitement was palpable, with a constant dull roar of the crowd that swelled periodically as the crowd thought that they saw the man whom they'd come to see.
The mousy man muttered, "How could this have happened?" He slumped back into his chair. "How?"
On the television, the object of his hatred strode upon the stage in front of the adoring crowd and began to speak.…
clock | November 10, 2008The paranoid secrecy is one of the hallmarks of the Bush Administration. The signs are there that Obama will have the opposite approach. But how exactly?
Here, the staff of the Sunlight Foundation has posted a set of recommendations to Obama and his administration: Open Letter to the Obama Administration on How to Shine Sunlight:
Dear Mr. President-Elect,
In your acceptance speech, you rightfully called on Americans to get ready to work to address the challenges that tomorrow will bring. All of us at Sunlight affirm to pitch in and work harder, and agree that we all have to look after each…
evolvingthoughts | November 10, 2008
The internet filtering debacle raises some more general issues I have with my nation's governments' tendency to censor ideas it doesn't like. Sure, there's the "Won't somebody think of the children" justification, which is a Good Intention (suitable for paving roads), but surely the best bet is to go for the producers of child pornography through legal sanctions and encourage parents to take responsibility for their children's internet habits by using family clean feeds and monitoring their behaviour rather than penalise everybody to suit a few religious interests.
In a democracy, under…
terrasig | November 10, 2008My long absence from home and the blog was followed yesterday by my lying on the floor and going through accumulated mail. These quiet times for "literature review," such as preparing the recycling and walking back from the mailbox, frequently provide me with blog fodder.
So I read with interest yesterday an Oncology Times article by Eric T Rosenthal from late last month on the Congressional appropriation of $4 million USD toward melanoma research:
Following passage by the House and Senate, and signing by President Bush, melanoma joined breast, prostate, and ovarian cancers as the only ones…
gregladen | November 10, 2008The 'lead' held by Republican Senator Norm Colman over Democratic Party Candidate, Radio Talk Show Host, SNL Star, Satirist, Author and Cartologist Al Franken has dropped to 204 points.
You may be wondering how this could happen.
Well, up to today, and depending on which report you read, through the rest of the week, various precincts are double checking the numbers on their vote counts and reporting them to the Secretary of State. The original counts were quick and dirty ... generally pretty accurate and certainly good enough to declare a winner where the percentage difference is five or so…
evolvingthoughts | November 9, 2008
Read this article by Mark Newton. This gets murkier and sillier by the day.
Late addition: From the comments at the linked site:
As a young person ( 22 ) who has been brought up on the internet and as a ALP member myself working for a Labor State Govt. I have told my boss the state MP that I will seriously think about resigning my memberhsiup to the ALP should this pass.
Used to be, the ALP was the party of liberalisation and freedom of expression...
Late late note:
From here, courtesy of Jason Grossman
Later note: It's picking up in the media at last... see ITWire, and now The Age.
jrosenhouse | November 9, 2008I just had an interesting weekend.
On Thursday I found out that one of my favorite political organizations, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, was having a little meet-up for bloggers in Washington D.C. Washington? Gosh, that's just a short ride from my digs in Harrisonburg.
So on Saturday afternoon I hopped into the Jasonmobile and made tracks for Vienna, VA. Got through one more CD of the audiobook version of John Grisham's The Appeal, which I had started during a recent long drive to Kentucky. One of Grisham's better efforts, I must say. I look forward to…
clock | November 9, 2008For the past several weeks before the election when it was already clear that Obama was going to win, I was looking for it and could not find it. During the election night coverage and the days immediately after, on TV, radio, newspapers and blogs I was looking for it and could not find it. Only in the last two days I found two isolated examples of people who "get it" - here and here. What?
The failure of imagination coupled with failure of doing basic math has been missing all along. Everyone is wondering how will the GOP make a come-back, what they need to do to come back, never…
clock | November 9, 2008Scattered thoughts, that is.
----------------------------
On Tuesday night I was teaching. Yup, my BIO101 class for adults. Scheduled for 6-10pm. But it was the mid-term exam day. I made an exam that can be done in two hours. I knew that my students were itchy to get it done and go home to watch the election returns. Many of them are African American as well. I sat there, with the computer on, browser open on TalkingPointsMemo, FiveThirtyEight, CNN.com, FriendFeed...watching as they announced Kantucky and Vermont, refreshing every couple of seconds. At 8pm I kicked the last couple of…
choofnagle | November 8, 2008I am enjoying the news post election, because what was once news media "liberal bias" about Sarah Palin is now simply common sense.
Even more fun is the frank conversation about the conservative movement. Today's Journal has a must read by Mark Lilla on how the very conservatives who valued intellectualism and elites were corrupted by "populist chic." Lilla recalls Jane Mayer's recent article on Palin, noting how conservative intellectuals chose Palin as a candidate that was appealing to the masses. But in so doing, conservative intellectuals mirrored their liberal rivals. Lilla explains…
gregladen | November 8, 2008Obamadog. Barack Obama's first serious mistake since the election.
Many of you heard the question at President Elect Obama's first news conference, which was mainly about the economy, regarding what kind of dog the girls would be getting as per a deal apparently made some time ago. The only safe answer to that question would have been to give the secret signal that cuts the power feed to the cameras, then have the reporter bagged and dragged out of the room and appropriately disciplined. But no, instead, Obama answered the question and he even discussed details ... the dog needs to be…
oracknows | November 8, 2008Seen on the discussion boards of that other repository of antivaccinationist wingnuttery (other than The Huffington Post), Mothering.com, a commenter by the 'nym of naupakamama exults over the possible appointment of antivaccine wingnut Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to run the Environmental Protection Agency:
We could have a strong anti-vaccine voice leading the EPA! I am so excited!
If anyone doubts that the antivaccine fringe views RFK, Jr. as one of their own, the rejoicing going on in antivaccine circles should put those doubts to rest. In more reality-based circles, including very liberal ones…
gregladen | November 8, 2008Minnesota Congressclown Michele Bachmann suddenly likes Barack Hussein Obama, Terrorist Candidate, and is now in bed with all those Anti Americans that worked so hard to get him into office
While we are on the topic ... Dump Michele Bachmann gives us this little gem:
.
drorzel | November 8, 2008SteelyKid was a little bit fussy yesterday, and would only be quiet when carried in the "airplane" position. There are a limited number of ways to pass the time when doing this, so I had the tv on, and while channel-surfing past MSNBC, caught something saying that Obama would be giving his first news conference. That sounded somewhat interesting, so I watched it.
The news conference itself was pretty unremarkable, but the immediate aftermath provided an excellent example of why the only tv news I watch is on Comedy Central. It's not just the mind-boggling self-importance that Timothy Burke…
oracknows | November 7, 2008Geez, it's getting ugly. When FOX News reports this about Palin, you know she was bad:
Of course, it's possible, even likely, that McCain campaign staffers are trying to make Palin the scapegoat for the failure of their candidate and them, but there's abundant other evidence that Palin was pretty ignorant about a great many things--far too ignorant to be a heartbeat away from the Presidency. Regardless of whether this report is true or not, that makes it easy for the knives to come out, now that the election's been lost.