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Below are the most recent 25 friends' journal entries.

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    Thursday, August 21st, 2008
    jpmassar
         		1:14p
    Electoral College gotcha?
    The national polling has been tending towards McCain lately.
    But what of the only thing that really matters -- Electoral Votes?

    Taking a look at http://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2008/Pres/Maps/Aug21.html
    I see what appears to be a fairly nasty picture for McCain, despite
    his recent gains. (The current tally is Obama 264, McCain 261, Virginia
    tied for 13 EVs)

    Barring some significant further shift (which certainly could happen)
    McCain appears to have a real shot at only 27 additional electoral
    votes (using those states that are indicated as 'barely' one way or
    another): Virginia, Minnesota and New Hampshire, while Obama has a
    shot at 78: Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio, Colorado, Nevada,
    Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota.

    McCain has to win either Virginia or (Minnesota and New Hampshire),
    and not lose electoral votes elsewhere, to win the election.

    Obama can win any one of Nevada, Colorado, Ohio, Virginia,
    North Carolina or Florida if he holds on to NH and MN, or if he
    loses NH he can win any of the above except Nevada.

    Even if you're flipping a fairly biased coin in favor of McCain for
    each state, that's pretty good odds for Obama.

    The only critical state with a viable Vice-Presidential possibility is
    Virginia and its Governor Tim Kaine (Montana has Schweitzer, but
    Montana, while apparently very close, isn't critical). Given the
    current electoral map, and assuming Kaine could increase Obama's
    chances of winning Virginia by some non-trivial amount, will this be
    the deciding factor in Obama's pick?

    The VP pick is going to happen Real Soon, so we won't have long
    before we have a clue one way or another.
    prock
         		12:01p
    Russia/Ossetia/US
    If you look at the reasons why Russia is invading Ossetia, one key factor that doesn't seem to get all that much play is the US plans for a "missle shield" in central Europe. Specifically, by creating a military conflict in Ossetia and forcing the hand of McCain/Obama, they've essentially called out the United States on their bluff that Russia was being "paranoid" in it's concern about the missle shield. In doing so, the've elevated their bargaining position and shown the US was bargaining in bad faith.

    I'm not saying that this was a primary motive of the military action, but it is certainly a useful geo-political side effect from the perspective of Russia.
    rcfox
         		10:39a
    Hillary? / Obama's Attacks / DNC's Attacks / Global Cooling
    Is Hillary going to attempt to win the nomination in Denver next week? I doubt it, but...



    A very, very bad move was made by Obama yesterday. The Obama campaign is running an advertisement that links John McCain to Jack Abramoff. The charge is facetious, but that's not the issue. (McCain has accepted money from Focus on the Family, which Abramoff at one time did lobby for. McCain is associated with Ralph Reed, FoF's leader. I'm not supportive of many of FoF's goals--these include no online gambling--but FoF was burned by Abramoff, too. Abramoff secretly lobbied against a bill that would have made online gambling illegal a few years ago, when FoF wanted it to be illegal.) McCain until yesterday never brought up the issue directly about Bill Ayers and other "mainstream" individuals that Obama considers friends and mentors.

    Now he can, and apparently will. Bill Ayers planted bombs and attempted to blow up the Pentagon and the Capitol. Obama considers Ayers a friend. That will not go over well at all with independent voters (nor most Americans, for that matter). Those ads will come, and there's plenty more besides Ayers. This will play out for weeks during the campaign, and is a disaster for the Obama campaign. Remember Willie Horton? It's that big.

    Michael Tomasky of the Guardian thinks the ad is "lame." Again, I think he misses the point. Which will Joe Sixpack care more about:

    - That a Presidential candidate is friends with individuals who wanted to blow up US buildings; these individual are unrepentant about that.
    - That a Presidential candidate is backed by someone who also employed a lobbyist who was later found to have committed crimes (and where that same Presidential candidate did work to get him arrested).

    Obama is now attacking McCain for the number of homes he owns. Given that Obama's mansion in Chicago was acquired dubiously through the help of convicted felon Rezko, the saying about "glass houses" is very much on point.



    Meanwhile, we find that the Democratic National Committee (and Obama) have been accusing the Republicans of either going to race-bait or that they have made racial attacks. Yet I haven't seen any evidence of that, though we have seen a Democratic candidate for Congress attack another Democrat for being Jewish and white while running in a predominantly black district. (The race-attacking candidate lost in the primary.)

    But once again we have the DNC using a similar tactic. Ed Morrissey notes that the DNC is attacking Eric Cantor (R-VA) for the crime of...being Jewish. Eric Cantor's fact page on Democrats.org notes the following: "Both Abramoff and Cantor are Jewish...'At a January 2003 fundraiser for Cantor, who had just become chief deputy whip, Abramoff unveiled the Eric Cantor sandwich, ‘a tuna-based stacker,’ which, lamentably, was ‘not quite [the] power lunch befitting’ the only Jewish Republican in the House. Hence a request by Cantor … to switch his eponymous sandwich to roast beef on challah, ‘a deli special that exudes Jewish power.'" Yes, these are quotes from other newspapers but the same charges could be made without the religious overtone. And as Morrissey notes, "Remember all the cries of “racism” when the subject of Jeremiah Wright finally aired?"



    Some good news on the global warming cooling front. There's a new blog that's well worth reading called "Global Warming Politics." (It's not new, but I just found it). It does not, alas, appear to have an RSS feed. Here's a recent post called Cognitive Dissonance that everyone should read.

    Meanwhile, the National Climatic Data Center produced a report called Global Climate Change Impact in the United States. The report has been pulled, and NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency) will first publish the underlying documents showing the alleged facts allowing for the conclusions to be made, have scientific discussions on these "facts," and then issue a report based on the facts. The original document is more of an advocacy document. The NCDC falls under NOAA.

    As I'll note, for the last few years the earth has been cooling, not warming. And there are still no sunspots. Sooner or later (likely later, because it will upset so many on the political left) consensus will dump global warming into the same trash heap as the "new ice age that's coming" of the early 1970s.

    Current Mood: amused
    gunga_galunga
         		10:45a
    Bush cuts & runs
    So it would appear that the Bush administration has come around to the idea of a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq. I wonder what that means for John "100 years" McCain.

    The left is going after a couple of minor gaffes by McCain. First that you need to make $5 million a year to be "rich". Second, he doesn't know how many houses he actually owns. Third, in response to his $5 million a year comment he's now saying you can be rich in lots of different ways.

    They've got a new ad out on the topic. I'm not sure I like it much, though.

    dmorr
         		8:54a
    liberal media watch
    Anyone remember more than one story about how a democrat delayed flights by having their airplane sit on the tarmac for one reason or another? I recall Clinton and Gore both separately getting a ton of media attention over it when it happened to them.

    But when Cheney does it, nary a peep from the "liberal" media.
    patrissimo
         		8:14a
    Bear warning
    Funny sign. I assume BC is British Columbia. Those canadians...

    Current Music: Rebel Music (3 O'Clock Roadblock) - Spearhead
    schmengie
         		8:00a
    morning political dump
    This captures my views nicely

    More mention of the Bradley Effect
    "I thought Obama was on a wave. He wasn't. The polls were, quite simply, wrong. They overstated his strength. After that, I stopped believing exit polls in big states. "Too close to call," Drudge Report claimed every Tuesday, complete with the little flashing siren at the top. My friends in Hillary-land would e-mail, panicked. Not me. I knew.

    California was not too close to call. Neither was Massachusetts, or New Jersey or Pennsylvania or Ohio. I could go on. The point is not that the polls were "wrong," but that people weren't honest with the pollsters. Was it because they didn't want to admit that they weren't voting for the black candidate? Maybe. In California, we call it the "Bradley effect," after the former Los Angeles Mayor who led in every poll for governor (including the exit polls), but lost on the secret ballots. Whatever it was -- or is -- there's certainly reason for Democrats to worry that polls that show this race being too close to call mean that McCain is actually ahead, that he would win if the election were held today."

    When all else fails, blame Foxnews

    dead heat?
    "Our popular vote projection shows a literal tie, with each of Barack Obama and John McCain projected to earn 48.5 percent of the vote, and third-party candidates receiving a collective 3 percent.

    Things get confusing, however, when looking at the electoral college. We project Obama to earn slightly more electoral votes on average. However, we also project John McCain to win the election slightly more often. What accounts for the discrepancy? Obama's wins tend to be larger, and McCain's tend to be smaller. If Obama wins this election by between 7 or 10 points, there are very few high-EV states that he won't be able to put into play; even something like Texas is probably winnable. If McCain were to win by that margin, on the other hand, he would still almost certainly lose New York, he would almost certainly lose Illinois, and he would almost certainly lose California. Those states represent 107 electoral votes that are essentially off-limits to McCain, even on his very best days.

    But when the election is close -- and this is the case that we really care about -- McCain has appeared to develop a slight advantage in the electoral math. There are several states on our map that are colored light pink, meaning that they tip very slightly to the Republicans; these include Colorado, Ohio, Virginia, Florida, Montana and Nevada, in each of which Obama has better than a 25 percent chance of winning, but less than a 50 percent chance. There are a fairly large number of scenarios, then, where Obama comes tantalizingly close to a victory, but loses several different battleground states by mere points or fractions thereof. This dynamic is fairly fluid, however, and if Obama were able to get a toehold somewhere like Colorado or Virginia, it could quickly reverse itself."
    whipartist
         		12:40a
    Losing my ass
    A couple of people have asked me how this is going.

    Changing the angle of the seat helped a lot-- I stopped sliding off of it. (Shush, peanut gallery.) It's uncomfortable with the gel seat in place, but better with it off. Go figure. Some days the plain seat is fine, others it starts getting painful and annoying after ten or fifteen minutes. I do at least 30 minutes of riding while I play a set of sit & gos, then often stop to focus on the endgame of whatever tables are still going.

    I used my rope bondage skills to mount the gamepad on the handlebar of the bike. Having my hands free has made a huge difference, since I can shift my weight around, rest on the bars, etc. I still need to find some way to raise the keyboard, but it's usable the way it is-- I register for four tournaments and then put the keyboard down and start riding.

    I'm currently doing a minimum of one set nearly every day, and sometimes a second set. That's a minimum of half an hour, and sometimes an hour. I find myself looking forward to it, which is well and truly frightening-- exercise has always been something to be endured.

    It seems to be making a difference. Plus, I'm making money.
    walterzuey
         		1:07a
    Time to Get the Abecedary

     
    

    Wednesday, August 20th, 2008
    
  
    patrissimo
    
    		
11:03p

    packed!
     Since I'm driving, I splurged on packing space and filled up an entire rolly bag.  (Normally these days I fit everything in a single backpack).  Also, the ski pass-through (from the trunk to the rear seating area) works perfectly for my didgeridoo!  I told Tovar that's what it was for :).

    And the small amount of space left in the trunk when it is in convertible mode is enough for the rolly bag, which means my valuables can be locked in the trunk, which means I can leave the top down when I stop for gas/food and not worry about the security of my bags.

    I worked out the last two days (heavy weights yesterday, sprinting outdoors today), so I only need to work out once during the trip, and I can just do a bodyweight workout in my room.  (I guess I've gotten obsessive about exercise.)

    There better be some good action at the Commerce!  (Seems very likely).  I hope to see some of y'all at [info]minorninth's housewarming.  And if there's a HtG Sunday morning, I'm there!  Other than that, I'll probably just be a degenerate gambler at the Commerce from Thursday eve through Sunday morning.  If anyone wants to stop by the Commerce and say hi, drop a comment. 
    

    
  
    gunga_galunga
    
    		
10:30p

    The man is all class
     "His wife is smarter than he is and probably nagging him a lot about doing this, and he found somebody that did something with her mouth other than talk."
    -- Rush Limbaugh, speculating on why John Edwards had an affair 
    

    
  
    gunga_galunga
    
    		
9:40p

    Thanks Barack
     ...for lowering the price of gas by 35 cents!  Sen. McCain told me rising gas prices were Obama's fault, so surely the recent drop should be credited to Obama too, right? 
    

    
  
    wilwheaton

7:04p

    evil and awesome (but mostly awesome)
     
    http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/wwdn/~3/370432852/evil-and-awesom.html
    Way back in April, John Scalzi wrote on his blog:
    

    
  
    Arrangements have been made. Wheels set into motion.
    

  
    At this point, it is inevitable. Unavoidable.
    

  
    Implacable would not be too strong a word.
    

  
    What has begun?
    

  
    I cannot tell you.
    

  
    Suffice to say it is evil. And yet awesome, in its way.
    

  
    And it will be visited upon one of you.
    

    

    Cryptic, but amusing. I know John well enough to know that he's a devilish schemer with a wicked sense of humor. What, I wondered, was he up to, and who, I pondered, was the unsuspecting victim?
    

    Months passed, and then - on my birthday, no less - he wrote:
    

    
  
    Finally. It is done.
    

  
    And it will be visited upon one of you.
    

  
    Soon.
    

  
    Yes, soon.
    

  
    You should prepare yourself.
    

  
    Although nothing can truly prepare you.
    

  
    Because it is evil. Yet awesome.
    

  
    And it is coming.
    

  
    It can be held back no longer.
    

  
    And when it arrives, you will know.
    

  
    And you will tremble before it.
    

  
    BWA HA HA HA HA HAH HA!
    

    

    I had no idea, in April or in July, that I was the intended recipient victim of John's evil, yet awesome scheme.
    

    But more on that in a moment, because some context is in order before we get to the punchline.
    

    I had big plans to road trip up to Vegas with two of my friends and visit Star Trek the Experience one last time before they sent it to the land of wind and ghosts. Unfortunately, gravity and physics had other plans, and I'm not doing much of anything until PAX.
    

    If you've spent any time reading my blog, or if you've read my first two books, you know that The Experience is very special to me, delivering some important perspective when I needed it most:
    

    
  
    Until this moment, all I have been able to remember is the pain that came with Star Trek. I'd forgotten the joy.
    

  
    Star Trek was about sitting next to Brent Spiner, who always made me laugh. It wasn't about the people who made me cry when they booed me offstage at conventions. It was about the awe I felt listening to Patrick Stewart debate the subtle nuances of The Prime Directive with Gene Roddenberry between scenes. It wasn't about the writers who couldn't figure out how to write a believable teenage character. It was about the wonder of walking down those corridors, and pretending that I was on a real spaceship. It was about the pride I felt when I got to wear my first real uniform, go on my first away mission, fire my first phaser, play poker with the other officers in Riker's quarters.
    

  
    Oh my god. Star Trek was wonderful, and I'd forgotten. I have wasted ten years trying to escape something that I love, for all the wrong reasons.
    

    

    I was looking forward to this road trip, because love Star Trek, and I love science fiction, but when I hurt myself, my motivation to play through the pain evaporated. See, I've been feeling some Star Trek fatigue recently. There are a lot of factors, including being dooced from the Vegas con and the return of the alt.wesley.die.die.die morons, but the bottom line is: I feel like all the stuff I didn't like about Trek has started to overwhelm the things I love about it. I haven't written a TNG review for TV Squad in months, because it hasn't been as fun to revisit those first season days as it once was.
    

    The thing is . . . maybe I'm taking the whole thing a little too seriously. I mean, honestly, why in the world should I give a shit about some random Internet guy who is obviously stuck in 1990? Sure, it's upsetting that I was the only series regular to be excluded from the biggest Star Trek convention of the year, but it's not like I don't have other things to do with my time, and other conventions to attend.
    

    A tangible reminder to not take this stuff too seriously arrived at my doorstep recently. It was, as promised, evil and awesome:
    

    So. Fucking. Awesome.
    

    (More images at Flickr)
    

    For those of you who are scratching your heads right now, that is, in fact, an authentic black velvet Wesley Crusher painting. It was sent anonymously, and all of my friends (truthfully, it turns out) said they had nothing to do with it (I guess I should have asked John's co-conspirator, our mutual friend Burns! if he was involved) so I didn't say anything publicly about it while I attempted to uncover the identity of my mysterious benefactor.
    

    This morning, I sent John an e-mail with some of the awesome comments on yesterday's post about Zoe's Tale. In the ensuing conversation, he outed himself as the evil genius behind this particular artistic scheme.
    

    For the last few months, I've been focused on the pain that came with Star Trek. I'd forgotten the joy.
    

    Star Trek isn't about petty grudges or anonymous insults from emotionally stunted people who are stuck in 1990. It is something I did twenty years ago, that inspired a generation of kids to pursue science and engineering. Star Trek is a fantastically entertaining show, even when it's really, really awful, and I can feel proud of being part of it, without letting it define the beginning and end of my creative life.
    

    Without knowing that I needed a reminder not to take this stuff so seriously, without knowing - in April, when the wheels were set into motion - that around the beginning of August I'd be feeling pretty lousy about getting cut from the show I look forward to attending every year, John did what good friends do: pick you up when you're down, and provide reality checks when you need them the most.
    

    Star Trek is something that I shouldn't take as seriously as I've taken it lately. I'd given idiots way too much control over how I felt about it, and how I felt about that part of my life where Star Trek and me intersect. I'd lost perspective, and it took a velvet Wesley Crusher to bring it back.
    

    It hangs behind me in my office now, evil and awesome, a reminder to remember the joy, and not take things so damn seriously.
    


    
 

     
    

    
  
    evwhore
    
    		
5:16p

    My mind is in the gutter
     I initially misread the title of this Slashdot item.  That would be a story about a particular type of photographer. 
    

    
  
    whipartist
    
    		
4:52p

    

    
  
    patrissimo
    
    		
3:56p

    7am day 2
     adrafinil kept me up until 12:30 last night, and I woke at 5am with the sniffles (Shannon is sick and I'm fighting it), so I only got 6 hours.  Got up at 7:45 with tovar.  I think I'm going to shoot for 7:15 or 7:30, as I think it would be a lot easier and I'll only occasionally get woken up early.

    Had 3 cups of tea, the last at noon, then stopped - I'm trying to keep my caffeine early in the day.  Was fairly productive, surprisingly enough.  Yay caffeine and being naturally energetic.  The short sleep may well be a good thing, as it will help me move my bedtime earlier and consolidate my sleep.

    My poker trip will go well with the schedule change.  While poker is generally a late night activity, I also get to set my own schedule, and it is a very self-energizing activity - it is very easy to do while tired.  So while I may be sad to leave good games at 11pm for bed (or may fail my saving throw and stay up), I think it will work out well.  As I said to Shannon "it's a great place to be tired - there is no one to grump at!". Which I guess says soMething about me that I only grump at my friends, whereas a lot of gamblers use the dealer as someone to vent at, which is totally unnatural to me. 
    

    
  
    patrissimo
    
    		
3:46p

    misc
     I remembered this morning that my last few weeks of tiredness corresponded somewhat with my quitting 5htp (a supplement that is a precursor to serotonin) a month or two ago.  So it is possible that part of my poorer-than-usual sleep lately is that my brain is adjusting to that.

    On another note, as books accumulate on my kindle, I am really noticing the lack of folders, tags, or other ways to organize my collection.  Hopefully they will fix that soon.

    I'm looking forward to my trip to LA to spend some time relaxing at the poker table and spending quality time with myself.  Poker is a good place to practice mindfulness, and I'm also planning to get some work done on my laptop in the mornings.  I've downloaded some audiobooks for the drive.  Top down, going 95, and blasting SF stories and productivity audiobooks - that's how I'm gonna roll :).

    I think I'm going to pitch the Seasteading book to publishers.  The structure of an editor and a deadline will be really motivating to me.  If I can't get a big publisher to bite, I've had a couple offers from friends who do small-scale publishing, which would be less ego gratifying and of course provide less marketing and distribution muscle, but would still provide the structure and motivation. 
    

    
  
    prock
    
    		
2:48p

    small seeds
     I never knew this before, but then I wasn't really aware of much when it happened.  Aparently, one of the many seeds of the evangelical movement was the 1971 Green v. Connally ruling which said charitable organizations couldn't discrminate based on race.  This meant that places like Bob Jones Univeristy lost it's tax exempt status.

    Aparently, some guy Teri Gross was talking to today thinks this ruling played a more significant role in coalescing the evangelical right movement than Roe v. Wade.

    Me?  I never knew what the big deal about BJU was till now. 
    

    
  
    wilwheaton

3:56p

    privacy is a fundamental human right
     
    http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/wwdn/~3/370301880/privacy-is-a-fu.html
    Bruce Schneier writes another thoughtful and insightful essay on privacy:
    

    
  
    Privacy protects us from abuses by those in power, even if we're doing nothing wrong at the time of surveillance.
    

  
    We do nothing wrong when we make love or go to the bathroom. We are not deliberately hiding anything when we seek out private places for reflection or conversation. We keep private journals, sing in the privacy of the shower, and write letters to secret lovers and then burn them. Privacy is a basic human need.
    

  
    [...]
    

  
    [I]f we are observed in all matters, we are constantly under threat of correction, judgment, criticism, even plagiarism of our own uniqueness. We become children, fettered under watchful eyes, constantly fearful that -- either now or in the uncertain future -- patterns we leave behind will be brought back to implicate us, by whatever authority has now become focused upon our once-private and innocent acts. We lose our individuality, because everything we do is observable and recordable.
    

  
    [...]
    

  
    How many of us have paused during conversation in the past four-and-a-half years, suddenly aware that we might be eavesdropped on? Probably it was a phone conversation, although maybe it was an e-mail or instant-message exchange or a conversation in a public place. Maybe the topic was terrorism, or politics, or Islam. We stop suddenly, momentarily afraid that our words might be taken out of context, then we laugh at our paranoia and go on. But our demeanor has changed, and our words are subtly altered.
    

  
    This is the loss of freedom we face when our privacy is taken from us. This is life in former East Germany, or life in Saddam Hussein's Iraq. And it's our future as we allow an ever-intrusive eye into our personal, private lives.
    

    

    I reject the notion that we have to choose between privacy and security, and I agree with the oft-repeated quote about the foolishness of sacrificing the former in pursuit of the latter.
    

    
  O UJXUY QAFCQ RFZUJ SLGNT U
    

    

    We deserve privacy, and we don't have to give it up to have security. They work very well together. Encoding messages for my friends and family is fun, but I sure don't want to feel like I have to do it all the time, just because I can't trust my government - and, increasingly, my neighbors - to leave me alone.
    


    
 

     
    

    
  
    patrissimo
    
    		
1:20p

    Didgeridoo apnea video
     I went looking for sources of info beyond the original study - ideally people who have actually tried the didge for apnea.  Found very little, but I did find this entertaining video about the study.  "And now, a television first.  Didgeridoo playing as seen...from the inside!" (through a bronchoscope).  As I suspected, circular breathing is part of the key - it exercises the muscles that fight apnea.

    BTW, this LA Outback store is doing an awesome job of cashing in on the study.  I and many of the bloggers I found discovered the study through their gmail ads.  And this video was uploaded by LA Outback.  I bet they've sold lots of extra didges this way, which is awesome.  They are profiting from spreading the word. 
    

    
  
    prock
    
    		
12:51p

    McCain doesn't understand the internet
     [info]markgritter does a better job discussing McCain's backwards looking, protectionist, pork barrel technology policy than I ever could. 
    

    
  
    gunga_galunga
    
    		
1:47p

    

    
  
    markgritter
    
    		
12:44p

    McCain on Technology
     John McCain's campaign finally posted a technology policy.  McCain, as usual, is good on the rhetoric:


    John McCain Will Preserve Consumer Freedoms. John McCain will focus on policies that leave consumers free to access the content they choose; free to use the applications and services they choose; free to attach devices they choose, if they do not harm the network; and free to chose [sic] among broadband service providers.


    What's profoundly missing from this list is freedom to publish content.

    The FCC released its opinion and order today on Comcast's reset-spoofing attack on BitTorrent.  (Sorry, I just can't call it "network management" with a straight face, particularly since Comcast changed its story about what it was doing three or four times as the truth emerged.)  This result ---announced earlier--- protects consumers' ability to "use the applications and services they choose".

    But McCain's policy immediately goes on to say:


    John McCain does not believe in prescriptive regulation like “net-neutrality,” but rather he believes that an open marketplace with a variety of consumer choices is the best deterrent against unfair practices. 


    Am I unfair in reading this as opposition to rulings of the sort handed down by the FCC?  It sure sounds like a "prescriptive regulation" to me.  McCain is profoundly out of touch about the level of consumer choice available.  McCain has not, to my knowledge, made any public statement about the FCC decision, but his ally FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell has had plenty to say in opposition.

    As Larry Lessig points out in this (nakedly partisan) presentation, McCain has been chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation for 7 of the past 10 years--- an era in which the U.S. has fallen behind in broadband penetration and undergone substantial consolidation in telecommunications.  Why does France, a profoundly more socialist economy, have better and cheaper consumer Internet access than anywhere in the U.S.?

    McCain's solution:  


    John McCain will establish a “People Connect Program” that rewards companies that offer high-speed Internet access services to low income customers by allowing these companies offset [sic] their tax liability for the cost of this service. 


    (Two typos so far, guess this received a lot of attention from the campaign.)  From a budget hawk, an $8 billion corporate handout seems a bit much.  And we all know that however much John McCain might disagree with particular tax cuts, he's unwilling to let them expire later because that would be "raising taxes".  

    To be fair, McCain has supported overturning state bans on municipal networking projects; his 2005 bill went nowhere, though, and later versions have watered-down language permitting only public/private partnerships, not completely-public infrastructure development.

    The technology policy touts other aspects of McCain's legislative history:

    He championed laws that penalized fraudulent marketing practices, protected kids from harmful Internet content, secured consumer privacy, and sought to minimize spam.


    McCain's support of the unconstitutional Child Online Protection Act is nothing to boast about.   (What happened to "free to access the content they choose"?  Betcha he's not a fan of online gambling either.)  Claiming credit for "championing" the utterly ineffective CAN-SPAM Act is also less than straight talk.  McCain likes to talk a lot about ineffective government programs, but still wants to claim credit for ineffective laws. 
    

    
  
    patrissimo
    
    		
9:54a

    Shoulder recovery, continued
     My PT yesterday: "I've never seen anyone able to do handstand pushups so soon after a shoulder injury!" 
    

    
  
    patrissimo
    
    		
9:46a

    This American Life on subprime
     An accessible introduction to the roots of the recent financial crisis (via scholarjeff). 
    


    

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