John Moltz

Dean, Kerry and the Democratic Party

Hear, hear.

Krugman

Where's the Apology?

Krugman asks the essential question:

What has gone wrong with our country that allows this president to get away with such things?

Diebold gets an F

And uses a black pen to turn it into a B!

E-Vote Still Flawed, Experts Say

Computer security experts hired to hack electronic voting machines manufactured by Diebold Election Systems found that flaws in the machines could result in malicious insiders or outsiders stealing an election.

...

William Arbaugh, a University of Maryland assistant professor of computer science who participated in the test, graded the system an "F," "with the possibility of raising it to a 'C' with extra credit -- that is, if they follow the recommendations we gave them."

"I was really surprised with the totality of the problems we found. Just about everywhere we looked we found them," Arbaugh said.

Diebold officials could not be reached directly for comment. But in a press release, the company said Thursday that the study "validates" the Diebold election systems for the primary.

Diebold President Bob Urosevich said in the release that the Raba Technologies report confirmed "the accuracy and security of Maryland's voting procedures and our voting systems as they exist today."

"They took a study that was highly critical of them and claimed victory. I don't understand the continuous need to insist that things are OK," said Avi Rubin, director of the Information Security Institute at Johns Hopkins University and author of an earlier report critical of the Diebold system.

It is precisely the firm's unwillingness to see any problems and its repeated efforts to whitewash them that make this so disturbing.

And, also, the fact that Diebold apparently sucks so badly at what they do.

The Raba researchers concluded that for less than $750 someone could purchase and program a card for this purpose. Furthermore, the red team was able to easily guess the passwords for the smart cards. Even if they could not guess them, they noted, Diebold had written the passwords into its source code, a version of which was leaked on the Internet last January after Diebold failed to secure a company FTP server.

I'm a technologist of some sort, but I don't consider myself a professional programmer and I'm certainly not a security expert, but even I know better than that.

ADDENDUM: It occurs to me that the Bobs need to sit down with Diebold and say "Says here you're supposed to provide 'accurate and secure electronic voting',but that doesn't seem to be happening. So, what is it, exactly, you'd say you do around here?"

In other words, someone should make these ass-clowns re-apply for their job. Don'tcha think, Jimmy B.?

ADDENDUM II: Aw, shoot, I forgot Jimmy B. is on the road. I'll just ask him when he's in town on Sunday.

Where's the big terra tent?

Jerome Doolittle points out another sign of the hypocrisy in the war on terra. Big headlines for Muslims, no headlines for Israelis, white supremacists, or anyone who doesn't fit the "story".

Why don't we have a big tent for the war on terra?

It's their fault! But leave them alone!

Hesiod points out the reason the "it was bad intel!" excuse is so unbelievable.

The last thing the administration wants is to "investigate" the intelligence community for its "intelligence lapse". Getting those guys up in front of a Senate hearing and having them go over their interaction with the White House is not on their agenda.

Again, timing is everything

U.S. Plans Spring offensive in Afghanistan

The Chicago Tribune reported that an offensive was being planned that would involve thousands of American troops and which would go after refuges in Pakistan used by fugitive Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.

In other words, go after Osama bin Laden.

Hmm. Now, pardon me for asking, but...

...why the fuck didn't we do that last year? You know... go after the actual guy who was responsible for 9/11?

Oh, right, I remember. We were doing something else.

Plus, last year would have been too early.

Darwine

Via Inessential:

Darwine is WINE for OS X—running Windows apps without Windows. Holy cow.

Ooooh...

Favorite fantasies

Safire hits two of them (AGAIN!).

At the Brokered Convention

Yes, you know 'em, you love 'em, it's "Dean bolts from the Democratic Party" and "Hillary for President in 2004!"

Just what does someone have to do to prove to these nitwits that neither of these is going to happen?

What the fuck?

Netscape has always been sensationalist with its headlines. I can't tell you how many times I've gotten into Safari to learn "WMD Found!"

So, I was again taken aback by this:

It's 10 AM in New Hampshire! Jesus, you might want to let much of the state wake up before you talk about early leaders! Now read the article which CNN provides a more reasonable headline.

Polls open in New Hampshire

In the tiny town of Dixville Notch, voters went to the polls shortly after midnight Tuesday to cast their ballots, giving retired Gen. Wesley Clark an early lead in the primary tally. He was the only candidate to visit the community.

Of the 15 people casting ballots in the Dixville Notch Democratic primary, eight voted for Clark. (Emphasis mine.)

It's gonna be a Clark landslide!

Timing

Sept. 11 Panel Wants Extension on Report

An independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks says it can't finish its final report before late July, putting it at odds with House leaders who oppose a delay that would push the report's release closer to the November election.

Could get interesting unless, of course, the delay the damn thing until after the election.

Now, why exactly is the administration so afraid of this coming out near the election? I thought they got a perfect "A" in the war on terra.

Don't DO that!

Boone hurts knee, may miss season

Just about had a heart attack.

But you can relax. It's Aaron Boone.

Phew.

Dean on The Daily Show tonight

According to the Horse.

Finally.

David Kay is WAY off-script!

Ex-Arms Hunter Kay Says No WMD Stockpiles in Iraq

In a direct challenge to the Bush administration, which says its invasion of Iraq was justified by the presence of illicit arms, Kay told Reuters in a telephone interview he had concluded there were no Iraqi stockpiles to be found.

But... but... what about "weapons of mass destruction-related program activities"?! There were a lot of those weren't there?!

WELL, WEREN'T THERE?!

I mean, c'mon! Everyone knows we went to war because of "weapons of mass destruction-related program activities"!

"Had we failed to act," Bush said, "the dictator's weapons of mass destruction programs would continue to this day."

No, no. It's "the dictator's weapons of mass destruction-related program activities would continue to this day." You know... like this.

Get Your Steroids On

Get Your War On #31.

You know what I heard about Afghanistan? I heard reconstruction is in jeopardy because people can't safely drive outside of Kabul on account of all the STEROIDS.

Pathetic Performance By Jennings

I didn't see the whole debate last night, but I saw Peter Jennings' ridiculous question to Wesley Clark about Michael Moore calling Bush a "deserter" at a Clark event. Jennings should try to do more research or, rather, some research before he comes to the debates. If he had he would have known that Moore's claim is not without basis at all and there are a number of unanswered questions about Bush's time in the National Guard.

Michael Moore's site today takes Jennings to task for his lack of investigative fortitude and provides some helpful links even the laziest anchor should be able to click on. (Link via This Modern World.)

I did some brief research into the subject of Bush's military record a while back to address some comments made on Dan Gillmor's site and, from what I could see via online sources, the issue has simply never been resolved. No one can prove Bush did not complete his service appropriately, but no one seems to be able to prove he did, either. Of course, you'd think that if the campaign could prove he had they would do so. To date they've only provided as proof a document that does not have Bush's name on it.

In the end, I tend not to spend a lot of time on this issue because I'm not sure how much his conduct from that long ago matters. What matters is how badly he's screwing this country today. That should be what he's judged on.

But what are we to conclude about Jennings? Was he just too fucking lazy to actually look into the matter? Was he interested in making Clark look like a loose cannon? Or where his cards provided by the RNC?

Make or break moment

Forget the New Hampshire polls. Forget tonight's Democratic debate. Forget the countless other interviews where he's asked about his "bizarre" concession speech.

Dean's real make or break moment will be appearing on David Letterman tonight.

Slyance

I'm trying to think of a good name for how the administration and its buddies pervert the scientific principle to try to push their completely non-scientific agenda. "Slyance" was the best I could come up with and this Wired article is a fine example.

When the American Family Association posted an online poll last month asking its constituents their position on gay marriage, it thought it was engaging in a straightforward exercise.

...

But the AFA never counted on the power of the Internet. And once the URL to the poll escaped its intended audience, everything went haywire.

...

Of course, no such poll can be said to represent an accurate picture of popular opinion. But, clearly, the AFA had hoped Congress would take the numbers it planned to produce as exactly that kind of evidence.

I'm sure you can imagine the press release: "Poll Indicates Opposition to Gay Marriage." And conservatives would have pressed the agenda saying "Polls indicate people hate it when gay people commit to each other!"

Now, in what world should an online poll have any bearing on public policy? That would be a world ruled by slyance, not science.

Cha-ching!

This shouldn't be surprising to anyone but it's worth noting and remembering the dollar cost of this presidency.

Bush May Seek Billions for Iraq After Election

President Bush may seek an additional $40 billion or more for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan next year -- on top of the $400-billion military budget he will send to Congress next month, congressional sources and budget analysts said on Wednesday.

But Bush is unlikely to send the request to Congress until after the November presidential election to minimize any political damage, the sources said.

Much of the damage is already done and simply must be paid for if there's going to be any hope of getting Iraq on its feet.

"Every presidential contender is going to be subject to political demands. But no matter who wins (the election), we're going to see a request," one congressional aide said.

But a president who knows how to work with allies might actually be able to make some headway in gaining help from the UN and other nations.

The only SOTU review you need read

Jerome Doolittle provides what the American public really wants in a review of a State of the Union speech.

Way to be diplomatic, Colin

Powell Confesses Annoyance With French

Is he having trouble learning the language? No, it's the people he doesn't like!

Ever since the United States fought for its independence, the French have been a friend through thick and thin. But sometimes, Secretary of State Colin Powell said Wednesday, they have annoyed him.

Smoooooth, dude. Real statesman-like.

But what did they do to rub the U.S.'s Colin (double entendre (hey, French!) intended) the wrong way?

For instance, Powell said that in the lead-up to the U.S.-led war in Iraq, "the French were adamant that it was not something we should do and they fought to see if they could avoid the war."

Pff! Fucking pussies! "Avoid the war"? Why the fuck would we want to avoid the war?! How annoying!

Well, at least Dick Cheney's mending fences!

Cheney Seeking Support In Terror Fight

After bitter arguments with allies about the war in Iraq, the administration believes that trans-Atlantic relations are improving, especially with nations that didn't back the invasion.

Uh... don't they have this good cop/bad cop thing backwards?

SOTU Challenge

Looks like I owe ePatriots $100 according to South Knox Bubba's calculations.

I personally couldn't stomach watching it so I'll have to trust him!

I'll fork it over ASAP and happily.

A new day

After last night's disappointing showing by my guy, Howard Dean, please read this post on Channeling Cupertino which is a better promo on him as any I could come up with.

I would hate the Washington Dems to get out of this whole thing and not get the message, but I'm glad we have several strong candidates. One of them is going to be the next president of the United States.

Wow, indeed

Kerry, then Edwards, then Dean according to Daily Kos.

So, we can look forward to a lot of Kerry attacks in the coming weeks and, inevitably, a Maureen Dowd column about his hair. Well, he's still in my top three.

But, a slow start for Mr. Money Bags. It seems to be that when people bail from other candidates they don't move over to Dean, at least in Iowa where the war was not as much of an issue. This will certainly look different in other states. But I doubt it'll get down to Dean and Clark now - perhaps Dean and Kerry. Needless to say, I think the Dr. will do better than this.

You've got to think Gephardt is done. Fourth is not so good in Iowa for him.

Turning words into action

This idea rocks. (Permalink may not be working, but it's the SOTU challenge post. Link via Atrios.)

I'm down for the same phrases and amounts, but I'll be donating to the Democrats' ePatriots fund (linked on the left), to elect whichever Democrat wins the primary.

Also, I haven't forgotten about the Quarterly Karma drawing. I'm evaluating options for the prize and will post later this week.

Strong showing

You know I'm for Dean, but more importantly I'm for a strong Democrat. Hence, I think the horse-race going on in Iowa is great. The Kerry campaign has finally, seemingly, gotten its head out of its ass and even Edwards has shown signs of contending.

Hesiod notes this also means the Bush campaign doesn't know who to concentrate on.

Remember when everyone was talking about how this was such a weak field? No one's saying that any more and its because Dean, for what people liked about him and what they didn't like, has made people think about what they want. Around Tacoma I see Dean placards, Kerry bumper stickers and little old women in grocery stores with Clark pins. Maybe that's because our caucus isn't that far off (Feb. 7th) but you get a sense that people are more into this and more passionate about "their guy".

And that's good.

Calling all political reporters!

Hey, campaign reporters! You want preznit give you turkee*? Sure you do! So, read up on the latest White House script for reporters! (Link via the Dean campaign blog.)

There, you'll learn GOP-favored phrases to use when talking about Dean, such as "Mainstream political observer Ann Coulter had this comment ..." and "Did I mention how red and splotchy his face is when he flies into a psychotic, irrational rage for no reason?" and "He wants to take away your grenade launcher!"

Don't be left covering the cat stuck in the tree! Act now!

*The phrase "preznit give me turkee" may be a registered trademark of Atrios. Void where prohibited by law.

Shy?

In two separate articles Nedra calls Judy Dean his "campaign-shy wife."

Dean's Wife Makes Speaking Debut in Iowa

Dean Gets Support From Jimmy Carter, Wife

Is she afraid of public speaking? Does political intrigue give her hives? Or maybe she's got something else to do.

Judy Dean, known professionally as Judith Steinberg, prefers to stay out of politics. She told the crowd that she hasn't been able to come to Iowa as much as she'd like because she has a son in high school, a daughter in college and patients who depend on her daily.

But Nedra knows it's really because she's shy. And then there's this:

A physician who has eschewed the political trail, Judy Dean was a surprise guest who gave her husband a chance to soften his image as a candidate of outrage railing against Washington insiders.

Duh? Actually, Nedra, you nitwit, she was there to put an end to all the crap from the likes of Maureen Dowd about their "disturbing" relationship. "Why isn't she following him around like a trained golden retriever?! What kind of marriage is this?!"

They complain about Hillary being too involved and they complain about Judy Dean being not involved enough. See, what women are supposed to do is follow their husbands around and get up on stage and perform like sock puppets. THAT'S what the voters want.

Well, it's at least what the columnists want.

RETRACTION: OK, according to this post on Daily Kos, Judy Dean was clearly uncomfortable speaking to the crowd, so Nedra's probably right. It might have helped if she had mentioned what leads one to that conclusion, but I will humbly grant her the point. Which means the article was actually balanced. Go, Nedra! I stand by my shot at Dowd and the rest of the "where's Judy?" crowd, though.

Krugman

Who Gets It?

The real division in the race for the Democratic nomination is between those who are willing to question not just the policies but also the honesty and the motives of the people running our country, and those who aren't.

Bush has gotten a free pass his whole life, which is really my basic complaint about the man. I resent someone who was granted every opportunity in life and then tries to demolish opportunites for others.

After the 2000 election, Democrats were eager to "make nice" and avoid being tagged as bitter. When 9/11 happened, they were eager to present a united front and not divide the nation.

Those were noble goals, but it should have stopped there. They neglected their responsibility to be the opposition party and provide the only check on the Bush administration there can now be. The Iraq war resolution was the Washington Democrats' bridge too far.

I support Dean, but I'm excited about Clark's ability to show strength in this race. We don't need someone who's going to talk about their record of working with the president. We need someone who's going to swing back when swung at. In the end, I don't care who it is - I will support any of them. The winner just better be primed and itching for a fight.

Biden clueless on Dean

Watching Joe Biden on the Daily Show from last night.

The low point came when he was talking about Dean:

I don't think any Democrat can get elected president angry. I mean, you have to have a message of hope, you have to convince people that you really, truly have an answer, that you think things can get better. It just doesn't work.

Biden admitted that he'd never met Dean and he's clearly never heard him speak or even been to his damn web site. The guy is all about optimism and empowerment. Go read the weblog a little. Maybe the Washington Democrats should fucking listen to Dean for five minutes.

WOW!

Bush Booed at Martin Luther King Gravesite

WHAT? Our pop-u-lar wartime preznit... booed? By, like, actual booers? From, like, the Boer war?!

Of course, this story is from the commie-loving Reuters organization and not the good ol' Murican AP, but, still...

Well, I have to say, congratulations to those who got a "first amendment zone" close enough to have their voices heard and thanks to Reuters for reporting it.

And, if you can handle severe doses of cognitive dissonance, try to reconcile these two statements from Bush:

"I'm really not worthy to stand here, when I think about the fact that ... this is the very place where Martin Luther King stood, as well, some 42 years ago."

And...

"No President has ever done more for human rights than I have."

It's about time!

White House: Give Industry Greater Voice

The Bush administration is proposing a new presidential council to give U.S. companies a greater voice in government decisions and making other recommendations aimed at bolstering the ailing manufacturing sector.

That's what's wrong with this country! Industry just doesn't have a voice! When will someone stand up for them!

Idiotic shenanigans

An emailer to Atrios notes a poll on the Senate Republican Conference's web site asking if we were safer now that Saddam was caught was rigged after they realized they weren't getting the answer they wanted. Now it's just gone.

Look, online polls are completely stupid and statistically meaningless but if you're going to do one then do it honestly and just admit that it's a piece of crap simply designed to get people to come to the site.

Bubble boy to get actual bubble?

Tests Show D.C. Still Vulnerable From Air

One such intercept of a wayward plane occurred over the White House late last year.

Why wouldn't I put it past them to put a bubble over it? Maybe it's all that weird digging that went on under Cheney's house.

Wrong again!

HOMER: Don't you get tired of being wrong all the time?

MARGE: [long pause] Sometimes.

Remember that faulty startup page I experienced the other day? Well, I see on Daily Kos, there never even were any chemicals in those shells. Whoops-a-daisy!

Perhaps they were just full of rich, creamy butter and were part of Iraq's insidious weapons of mass cholesterol program.

"Our intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had the materials to produce as many as 500,000 donuts, Ho-Hos and Ring Dings."

Bad advice

Just getting around to watching Monday night's Daily Show which featured this gem:

But now very clearly we see Bush's problem. His two top aides are Rove and Cheney. Now, the idea is to have one angel, one devil. Two devils? No. Your advice is going to skew too evil.

Required Reading

Krugman reveals The Awful Truth.

So far administration officials have attacked Mr. O'Neill's character but haven't refuted any of his facts.

As a matter of fact, Bush himself confirmed O'Neill's contention that the Iraq war was planned from day one of his administration (link via Pandagon).

Krugman sums up nicely.

More important, having a few months of good news doesn't excuse a consistent pattern of dishonest, irresponsible leadership. And that pattern keeps getting harder to deny.

Also good is an Eric Boehlert piece on Salon about the "Dean is angry and has a big mouth" spin (link via Daily Kos).

As the Times conceded in its obligatory Dean-is-angry article, nobody has seen him explode during this entire campaign. (The Times did manage to detail, secondhand, how years ago as governor, Dean once slammed his fist on a table.)

...

It's the press, egged on by Republican spin and eager to play the role of hardheaded analyst, that has latched onto this notion that Dean is too passionate to be president.

Nedra almost writes a good one

Dean Feels Heat From Rivals, Shoots Back

"Who was the first one who stood up against George Bush? Now everybody is 'Oh yes, I was against George Bush," Dean said in a mocking tone of voice.

First off, close that internal quote.

Second, why the addition of "in a mocking tone of voice"?

Clearly, even without that clause, the reader knows Dean is mocking the other candidates. Usually in journalism you try not to add any unnecessary verbiage.

But Dean is a meany. Nedra has to let people know that. See? He's mocking them. Isn't he mean?

It's Nedra's second "Dean is a meany" story in a row. At least she's gotten off "Dean is a hypocrite" for a little while.

Some Apple notes

An iPod disaster was averted yesterday by a handy solution on the Apple message boards.

Walking across the street, I dropped my iPod from about chest height. As I screamed "Nooooooooooooo!" in slow motion, it bounced twice and came to rest, dinged on two corners. It still showed the last song played on the screen so I thought it weathered its first accident with nothing but cosmetic damage.

But when we got back into the car and I went to start it up again, it wouldn't respond.

Oh, nooooooooo...

I did have a glimmer of hope since I knew the unit wasn't totally dead. When I got home, I found it connected to iTunes fine, it was just the buttons that didn't seemt to work. Checking the message boards I found the suggestion to see if the white plastic part was misaligned from the silver backing. To my surprise I noticed it was slightly misaligned. I applied pressure in opposite directions and POP! The front and back audibly came back into alignment!

That's why Apple's message boards are the first thing I check.

On Saturday I stopped into the University Village Apple Store and picked up an Apple professional keyboard. It's quite nice - I really like the feel of the keys. I'm working on getting my 400 MHz Power Mac G4 to be more serviceable (particularly with iPhoto) and ordered an extra 512 MB of RAM for it from MacMall. A processor upgrade to 1 GHz may follow, depending on the results.

Also at the Apple Store, I picked up a copy of Halo. It wasn't until the drive home that I realized that I had just shattered a 10-year streak of not putting any money into Microsoft's coffers!

Ah, well. So far it's an incredible game and I don't regret it at all.

This democracy brought to you by by Microsoft

Hey, kids! Who wants to vote via the Internet?!

Well, no one in their right mind for starters, and maybe that's why you can only vote via the Internet if you're running Windows!

Yep, check out the government's home page for online voting (link via Macintouch).

In 2004, you can take part in an exciting new initiative called SERVE (Secure Electronic Registration and Voting Experiment), which will let eligible U.S. citizens vote from any Windows-based computer with Internet access, anywhere in the world!

Yay! Go democracy!

And you Macintosh and Linux users can just go back to mother Russia!

What's wrong with my startup page?

Well, it might be "insufficient data." The "WMDs" were buried ten years ago and are pretty much utterly useless at this point.

But, you know... people don't need details like that. They just need to think we did find WMD.

Republican Doesn't Like Dean

And the AP's Nedra Pickler feels this is newsworthy.

Iowa Voter Blasts Dean for Knocking Bush

Ungerer spoke after Dean extended his regular invitation for the audience to make comments, pose questions and offer "rude remarks."

Ungerer, who said he was a registered Republican who voted for Bush but sometimes supports Democratic candidates, left after the exchange.

If anyone could get close enough to Bush to give him a hard time, do you think Nedra or anyone else at the AP would report it?

Well, we'll never know.

Whoops!

Bush Slams Democratic Hopefuls on Taxes

President Bush took a swipe Saturday at Democratic candidates who want to roll back the tax cuts he enacted, saying the reductions have fueled a broad economic recovery.

He may have spoken too soon.

Fresh doubts emerge on US economy after weak jobs report (link via This Modern World)

Dean bribed with "package" full of "coke"

Dean Accepted Special-Interest Money

Well, OK, the AP doesn't really know that he was bribed. Actually, according to the article, Dean didn't do anything illegal at all.

But in a 1993 letter to Dean, Primmer wrote that two insurers were sending a gift to the governor, described only as a "package," after Dean met with them to discuss the bill that would provide new tax breaks.

"We don't know it was coke," AP reporter John Solomon said, "but, really, what else could it have been?

"Still, we took out the reference to 'coke' because we haven't yet received word that it was actually coke that the insurers sent to the governor. But our best guess indicates it was the purest Columbian crank. I think in Vermont they call it 'the other snow'."

I'm glad the AP is on top of this. God knows we don't want our elected officials trying to get corporations to donate to charities.

Dean spokesman Carson replied: "As Governor he started a charity that provided hundreds of computers to the poorest kids in the state and he's not going to make any apologies for that."

What about the coke?!

From your children's pockets to theirs

Funding, Technical Hurdles Seen For Bush Space Plan

Over a decade of NASA's motto of "better, faster, cheaper" out the window. The phrase "spending like a drunken sailor" doesn't even begin to scratch the surface.

In The Case For Mars, Robert Zubrin outlines a vastly cheaper means of getting to Mars that wouldn't require NASA to scrap all of its science programs and would give business to space contractors but wouldn't be a giant giveaway to them.

Zubrin even specifically lays out how much more expensive the two contractor-driven options (heavy lifting to and assembly in near Earth orbit being one and Bush's moon base being the other) are. There's no need for either of these plans, other than lining the pockets of corporate America.

What's ironic is that Zubrin's complaint about the contractor-driven options is that they were so expensive they prevented NASA from being able to generate the political will to get them budgeted. Bush probably isn't able to generate that will either and probably doesn't even mean to try.

A senior Senate Republican aide said the plan gives Bush a "big bold idea" to run on for re-election. But would the Republican-led Congress fund it?

"Unlikely," said the aide, asking not to be identified by name. "But the president doesn't have to get this through Congress this year. He just needs to put it on the table as part of the agenda for his second term."

This entire administration seems built on the idea that Americans have short attention spans. It's sad that it so often works.

But while Bush doesn't have to push for this plan if he gets elected, its "private industry give-away" nature is a perfect fit for his agenda.

Apple and letting users be users

Steve Gillmor on the difference between Jobs and Gates, as exhibited in their recent announcements of home music products:

The GarageBand move is more than a little reminiscent of the arc the Beatles rode in the '60s.

...

The Fab Four (with George Martin's assistance) broke the back of the record business's lock on the creative process of the day. They wrote, performed, recorded, filmed and marketed their material—and leveraged each new wave of success to bootstrap themselves into more and more control over each stage of the business process.

At CES, Gates showed what he hopes is an iPod killer, the Portable Media Center. It is only a prototype, but a raft of hardware partners promise to deliver products in the second half of the year. But Microsoft's DRM model tends to limit (rather than inspire) the kind of next-gen content made possible by the iPod platform of tools and add-ons.

...

Users are converged. Jobs may see it. Gates may not.

The ability to use GarageBand to create your own songs, turn them into MP3s and listen to them on your iPod or play them for others, is the same empowerment (for lack of a better word) that iMovie has made possible in video. The same empowerment that made things like the MoveOn.org Bush in 30 Seconds spots possible. It's a user-driven solution - letting users be as creative as they want to be - not a corporate-driven solution that's more concerned with stopping the few people who might abuse the system in the record industry's eyes.

Disgraceful

The Iraq war may well go down as the low point in U.S. foreign policy.

Powell Refutes Think-Tank Report on Iraq

Secretary of State Colin Powell acknowledged Thursday that he had seen no "smoking gun, concrete evidence" of ties between Saddam Hussein and the al-Qaida terror network, but insisted that Iraq had had dangerous weapons and needed to be disarmed by force.

We don't actually have any proof of that either but...

So, how did we get to the point were we went to war for, as Kos says, nothing?

Three experts at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said in a report Thursday that the Bush administration systematically misrepresented a weapons threat from Iraq, and U.S. strategy should be revised to eliminate the policy of unilateral preventive war.

According to CNN's report (Powell on WMD existence: 'This game is still unfolding')...

...the report says that the "dramatic shift between prior intelligence assessments and the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), together with the creation of an independent intelligence entity at the Pentagon and other steps, suggest that the intelligence community began to be unduly influenced by policymakers' views sometime in 2002."

"We found nothing," Cirincione said. "There are no large stockpiles of weapons. There hasn't actually been a find of a single weapon, a single weapons agent, nothing like the programs that the administration believe existed."

...

"We don't know what happened in the offices of the administration, but there's a lot of evidence that points to" intelligence assessors being pressured by their bosses.

Disgraceful.

ADDENDUM: That reference to a "the creation of an independent intelligence entity at the Pentagon" may explain David Brooks' attempt to deny neocons exist.

3 = 7!

According to the AP's Ron Fournier, anyway!

Dean Adjusts Strategy As Race Tightens

A critic of Vice President Dick Cheney's secret energy task force, Dean had an energy panel that met in secret.

Well, Dean did release the names of the attendees, which Cheney has refused to do. But, let's just pretend the two are equal! Readers don't need to know that detail!

A critic of Bush's homeland security record, Dean was warned repeatedly as governor about security lapses at his state's nuclear power plant.

Which was not, actually, Dean's responsibility. It was the responsibility of Federal government. And Bush is responsible for homeland security. But... whatever! You know?! 3 is really just the same thing as 7 in that they're both positive integers!

Clark spokesman Chris Lehane noted Dean aides were caught plotting by telephone this week to portray Clark as indecisive on the war and other issues.

Horrors! Well, thank goodness none of the other candidates are stooping so low as to attack Dean!

The iPod mini

As I noted over on Eat Your Vegetables earlier, I think at $50 more than flash memory-based MP3 players and $50 less than the base iPod, the iPod mini is priced reasonably.

Despite all the whining (I'm not talking about you, Lane, I'm talking about others).

Now John Gruber has weighed in and notes that it's really a nice piece of engineering and, because of its size, a slightly different product than the "traditional" iPod.

I like Chris Breen quite a lot but, Chris, you were apparently out to lunch when the memo went around that explained that there is no iPod priced lower than the iPod mini.

The major complaint to date has been the iPod's price. Its capacity has not been an issue since the original 5 GB model came out. Here we have a model that costs less, has enough capacity to keep listening to fresh music for three days straight, and is significantly smaller.

The problem with the Cube was... it was the Cube. It was not expandable like the Power Mac and it was expensive compared to the iMac. The iPod mini is at the bottom of the line. And it's at the bottom of the line that everyone wants to buy.

This has got to be one of those instances that drives Apple absolutely batty. If the rumor sites hadn't been predicting $100 iPods for weeks, $249 probably wouldn't have gotten applause, but it probably wouldn't have "sucked the air out of the room".

ADDENDUM: Jonathan Crowe has a good post about the same issue. He notes the Rio 4 GB device is the exact same price as the iPod mini.

Which one looks better? Which one has a better interface?

Apple's offering a better device... at the same price.

Since when do Apple customers not have to pay a premium?!

But we're so much safer...

...since Saddam got caught.

U.S.Quietly Looked for Dirty Bomb Over New Year's

That's what I said!

Following my advice of October 17th (HA! RIGHT!), it looks like Dean is considering paring his repeal of Bush's tax cuts with a middle-class relief package.

Dean may support middle-class tax cut (link via Counterspin Central)

But privately, Dean's economic team has been urging Dean for weeks to pair his proposal for repealing the Bush tax cuts with tax relief for the middle class.

What's the difference between most of the candidates saying "I'd repeal all of Bush's tax cut except the middle class part" and saying "I'd repeal all of Bush's tax cut and enact my own tax cut for the middle class"?

With the former, you're accepting that you like part of Bush's plan. You're following the pattern of Democrats in Congress of meeting Bush half way. With the latter, you're able to say "I don't like any of what Bush has done. Here's how I'd provide tax relief."

Yes, Dean's eventual proposal may end up being effectively the same thing as that of the other candidates, but the reason, kiddies, the Democrats are currently wandering in the desert of politics is not because their beliefs are not shared by the majority of voters in this country. They are.

It's marketing. And what's marketing? It's 40% personality, 40% packaging and 20% substance. Democrats are trying to make it on the 20% alone. It can't be done when the other side has mastered the 80%

This is what makes Dean more electable than any of the other candidates and his willingness to reconsider his stance on the tax cuts and try to re-define it on his own terms in the general election is a perfect example of how he "gets it" and the other candidates don't.

Grabby-grabby

Bush Grabs New Power for FBI

While the nation was distracted last month by images of Saddam Hussein's spider hole and dental exam, President George W. Bush quietly signed into law a new bill that gives the FBI increased surveillance powers and dramatically expands the reach of the USA Patriot Act.

...

Bush signed the bill on Dec. 13, a Saturday, which was the same day the U.S. military captured Saddam Hussein.

Mmm. Yeah.

So, which waited? Signing the bill or capturing Saddam?

Whew

I spent the morning covering the Apple keynote on CARS and then went out for some cross-country skiing, right from my front door. It's still coming down here in Tacoma, but is expected to turn to rain around 5 pm.

Class warfare

U.S. Offers Tips On Avoiding OT Pay

The Labor Department is giving employers tips on how to avoid paying overtime to some of the 1.3 million low-income workers who would become eligible under new rules expected to be finalized early this year.

Is anyone surprised by this shit anymore?

I know I'm not.

Now, the first two options listed are perfectly fine. Keep a 40 hour work week or increase the person's salary so they're exempt from overtime pay requirements. It's the third one that's egregious and will, of course, be the one your Wal-Mart types will use.

Making a "payroll adjustment" that results "in virtually no, or only a minimal increase in labor costs," the department said. Workers' annual pay would be converted to an hourly rate and cut, with overtime added in to equal the former salary.

Essentially, employees would be working more hours for the same pay.

Mumbo-jumbo, presto-change-o, allakazam! Back to work, suckers!

"We're not saying anybody should do any of this," said Labor Department spokesman Ed Frank.

Thanks, Ed! I'm sure all those people who have to work for free will feel a lot better about it now!

Speak slowly. He's with the AP.

I know this will go over the head of your average AP reporter, but Chris at Interesting Times pulled a good soundbyte from the comments at Daily Kos that the Dean people should pick up on.

...the Bush administration stuck $300 dollars in your front pocket while taking $500 dollars or more out of your back pocket and hoped you wouldn't notice.

While that may cause some head-scratching by Calvin Woodward, it's simple enough to get the message out.

I'll do it this afternooooooon!

Since Lane suggested I might blog about tomorrow's Apple keynote, I suppose I probably should. I mean, Apple is the crunchy cluster in the cereal that is this weblog.

It might also be considered a crunchberry, if you're more a Cap'n Crunch type than a Honey Bunches of Oats type.

Of course, I will be blogging the keynote Crazy Apple Rumors-style tomorrow (LIVE from the University of Washington Tacoma library! Stop on by if you're around!), but that's hardly measured speculation. So, as a respected Apple pundit (COUGH!), what are my thoughts on what Apple might unveil tomorrow?

I think speed-bumps in the G5s and a G5-based Xserve are fairly certain. I'd put some good money on those. But everything else is mere speculation.

Cheaper iPods have been talked about perhaps the most. It is a possibility, but I have to wonder about the completely bad timing of coming out with the ultimate stocking stuffer two weeks after the Christmas shopping season ended. I haven't priced out 2 GB and 4 GB hard drives so I don't know if it's even possible to put together a $100 iPod. John Gruber, of course, has effectively put down the idea of a flash memory-based device, while making an attractive argument that the only place left for Apple to go with the iPod is down (who has a music collection larger than 40 GB?).

Dori's noted some set-top box speculation and, if you read my comments on her post, you'll note I'm very sceptical (as are Dori and Tom). I just don't see how you can get a 120 GB hard drive and a SuperDrive into a $400 machine, along with a bunch of other components and a Mac OS Lite operating system and new versions of iTunes and iPhoto and... It just reads like someone's fantasy device.

What would I like? I'd like an iPod-based system that replaces my stereo. I never play CDs any more since I have my iPod hooked up to my tuner (which is now over 20 years old!). I could use a tuner and high quality speaker combination that can take an iPod's input and accepts streaming from iTunes. It doesn't need to be a TiVo and connect to my toaster.

Tom Yager hopes to see a new version of AppleWorks. That's on the top of my list as well, as it is the lurching troglodyte of the Apple pantheon of software. Either cut it or update it already.

Apart from that, I hope to be surprised by the fine folks in Cupertino.

Nnnnnnnnnedra!

Kos has a bone to pick with Nedra Pickler, and he's got her email address.

The problem with parsing quotes the way she did is that they end up in the parlance of the laziest of the press corp. "Hey, Dean didn't mention Kucinich and Braun! Liar!" When douche bags on Town Hall will just make up things that Dean supposedly did, why would you think others would not just take Pickler's article at face value?

Frankly, I have to say that this is the fairest of the articles I've read by Nedra, but that's not really saying much.

I didn't see the debate (I was off skiing! Shoop-shoop!), but I liked this moment by Dean (as described by the great Pickler):

A portion of the debate format gave each contender a chance to pose a question to a rival, and many of them used their turn to press Dean.

The front-runner used his question to ask the other Democrats on stage to say whether they would pledge to support the eventual nominee, then raised his hand to show that he would.

All others followed suit — Gephardt, Edwards, Lieberman, Sen. John Kerry, Rep. Dennis Kucinich and former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun.

The moment echoed an earlier debate, when a moderator asked all Democratic rivals to indicate whether they thought Dean could defeat Bush. Only Dean raised his hand that time.

ADDENDUM: (Wanted to say this earlier but I was pressed for time) Obviously it's easy for Dean to be magnaminous when he's beating the tar out of them, but this does put down his previous statements about "not knowing" where his supporters will go if he doesn't get the nomination. Any suggestion that Dean would become a third-party candidate was laughable and that should be coming clear even to the most lame-brained conservative pundits (Safire, I'm looking in your direction). Can we put to bed the idea that Dean's "tearing the party apart", please?

Yes, fuck the AP

As Atrios says.

In fact, their taxes did go down. But Dean went on to explain what he really meant -- that most people are worse off because college tuition, health care premiums, property taxes and other state and local taxes or fees have gone up by more than Americans have saved under the Bush tax cuts.

But the head scratching did not end there.

In other words, "I'm too stupid to understand that 0 + 2 - 2 = 0, not 2 like Bush said. And that makes me scratch my head."

The thing that really chaps my ass is that every single thing the AP has been harping on Dean about incessantly, misleadingly and even erroneously, are questions that it would be really fucking nice if someone asked about Bush.

Dean's goofy on taxes! (But we'll let Bush talk about "average" taxes all he wants without explaining that the tax reduction on the high end so badly skews the numbers, the "average" American hardly saw squat.)

Dean didn't protect the nuclear plant in his state! (We'll neglect to mention up top it was the Federal government's responsibility and we'll also not mention anything about the poor state of port safety in this country and the other other things the administration's not fixing.)

Dean said capturing Saddam didn't make us safer! (It didn't, but we're going to somehow score this as a win in Bush's column even though the basis for the entire war was a lie.)

In each and every case, the administration has had policies that were either duplicitous or pulled summarily out of their asses. But the AP is determined to ignore that and go after Dean.

Remember, everyone reported "fuzzy math". No one reported Gore was right.

I'm not nukular engineer, but...

...isn't this AP lede a tad misleading?

Dean Was Warned on Lax Vt. Security

Presidential hopeful Howard Dean, who accuses President Bush of being weak on homeland security, was warned repeatedly as Vermont governor about security lapses at his state's nuclear power plant and was told the state was ill-prepared for a disaster at its most attractive terrorist target.

Sounds bad, right? What was Dean doing? Well, keep reading.

The NRC has primary responsibility for safety at Vermont Yankee. But Vermont laws required an active state role by creating a panel to review security and performance and requiring plant operators to set aside money for the state to use in the event of a nuclear disaster.

"...in the event of a nuclear disaster." In other words, the Federal government was responsible for security and Vermont is responsible for cleaning up the mess if something bad happened. Dean also responded to these issues. What is it exactly that we're supposed to be knocking Dean for here? Frankly, it sounds like he let the disaster preparedness issue go for longer than he probably should have, but you can't blame him for the Federal government's failure to make the plant safe.

Also, see this post on Daily Kos for the current state of security across the nation. Is Dean wrong to criticize the Bush administration? Is he hypocritical if he put off but eventually did respond to the security issues?

Hard to argue with

Dean Cites Terror Alert As Vindication

Democratic presidential hopeful Howard Dean on Friday cited the higher terror alert and the number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq in arguing that he was right to say Saddam Hussein's capture didn't make America safer.

Of course, I'm sure the pro-war crowd will attack him for wanting people to be in danger or some such nonsense.

Unelectable.

CNN/Time polls Dean just 5% behind Bush.

And here's the kicker:

Just to put that into perspective: in April of 1992, Bill Clinton trailed George H.W. Bush by 20 points.

Yeah, one of these people is unelectable.

Happy New Year

It's snowing again here in Tacoma, for a nigh-unprecedented second time this week. What a great way to start the year. Here's hoping for good things.

On Bush's watch

Senators Question Terror Money Block

In one case, AP reported that the United Nations and European Union in 2001, before the Sept. 11 suicide hijackings, had ordered their members to freeze the assets of several high-ranking al-Qaida leaders, including bin Laden's brother-in-law and a security coordinator. OFAC did not.

Why? Disregard for international organizations? Concerned about pissing off the administration's great friends in Saudi Arabia? Did they just fuck up? If they fucked up, why haven't they lost their jobs?

Un-Free Republic

Not that this is in any way surprising, but this story on kuro5hin provides some examples of what the moderators at the Free Republic's web site consider an "inappropriate" post.

That would be anything that disagrees with any part of any anti-left screed, even if it's just a factual correction.

Nice.

Wow

OmniWeb 5 looks wicked boss. (Link via Hack The Planet.)

Even though I like Safari, I've got to give that a try. I think I'd would even I wasn't eligible for the upgrade price.

Mike Matas, who's linked to over on the left, is a high school student who contracts for Omni. Omni's president told me Mike walked right up to Steve Jobs at Macworld and told him Omni was going to kick Apple's butt in web browsers.

Keep an eye on that kid.

(Disclaimer: Omni Group has been an advertiser on CARS in the past and they treated me to dinner at their offices once.)

(Don't accuse ME of being like George Will.)