Here and There

And it’s only Monday…

Everyone (this blogger included) is digging into the whole foray of Wes Clark’s comment that getting shot down in an airplane doesn’t qualify you to be president.

The right, predictably, pounced, and the left pounced back. But what the left failed to see is that the opposition already defined this argument as an attack on John McCain’s military service. Period. End of story. From there, every utterance by the left is seen as piling on.

As much as this situation utterly sucks, it’s the reality. This society is as unintellectual as they come. It’s a nation of nitwits (comprising the right-wing and the media, not mutually exclusive, and more than just occasionally, the left) and this kind of shit sticks in people’s minds.

Clark attacked what cannot be attacked, what is “sacred.” That’s the narrative, and it’s much too late to do anything about it.

As much as some of us want and are looking forward to the change promised by our candidate, we don’t have it yet.

Obama was wise to denounce the remarks. Besides allowing himself to avoid entering the fray, it’s in keeping with his message about a different kind of campaign.

Wow, I’m a fucking idiot, but I honestly haven’t thought about the prospect of Colin Powell as vice president, for either candidate.

If McCain snatches him up (unlikely, as Powell has signaled stronger support for Obama), the election may be over. If Obama taps him, however, it might not be to his benefit. Sadly, a ticket with two black men, however lightly skinned, could sink like lead. I have a cynical feeling they’d do a lot worse than Obama would on his own.

If somehow we were to avoid such a repuational shit-stain, I would really, really like the idea.

Listening to Obama’s speech in Independence, Missouri, and thankfully, he denounced, rejected, took a big dump on Wesley Clark’s asinine impugning of McCain’s military service record.

Some polls are showing a tightening race, both on the state and national levels.

This makes sense when you consider the almost mandatory shift to the center that occurs once primary battles are over.

We’ve seen it happen in Obama, surely. But not so much McCain. McCain’s rightward shift, while based on a plausible idea, will baffle me to no end (unless, miracle of miracles, he wins in November) considering the collective wisdom that the prize lies in the middle.

On Obama’s much-criticized policy shifts, I want to list the ones I’m aware of, and give a simple yay or nay:

• Iran: simply, he needs Jews to vote for him, so eh
• Public financing: excited yay
• Death penalty: nay, but also, whatever
• FISA: big bad NAY
• Second amendment: eh, yay

Two yays, two nays, and an “eh.” Zero-sum. Not bad. I saw this shift coming. It’s just the FISA one I can’t let go, especially considering that, as recently as last week, he said he would do what he could to strip the bill of telecom immunity.

With the most negative traction on McCain recently being his ignorance of technology, the poll-tightening is not surprising.

I expect people to slowly stop paying attention, at least on the fevered levels we’ve seen coming out of the primaries. And rightly so: the electorate stands every chance of growing bored and disillusioned if the candidates continue to hog the spotlight.

Okay, okay, in the last couple of days, I’ve started seeing a lot more stories about these people, mostly women, who’re organizing to show their “unsupport” of Barack Obama. These people are Democrats, Clinton supporters miffed by “sexism”* in the media, and are so outraged that they’ve decided to vote for John McCain.

Rarely do I witness stupidity on this level (shocking, no?). It’s even coming from some superdelegates (can we just call these people Liebermen?).

WTF are these people thinking? I understand the bitterness of defeat, but what is this about? Them? Their candidate? Or, call me crazy, the country? How can you realistically support Hillary Clinton on the merits of her positions, and then switch to the ideologically polar McCain?

These people basically disgust me, as they seem to be in it for themselves and some warped notion of novelty. Look, when we elect a female president, I’ll be on the front lines of the celebration. But electing her shouldn’t be founded on the fact of her being a woman.

Ditto the first black president.

My paraphrase of Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg’s words about Steve Jobs.

(A possibly recurring post)

Been running Firefox 3 since its June 17 release, and I’m pleased to report no significant glitches. Errors I have seen (two, I think) were corrected with a simple refresh.

Right now, one of my favorite features is how, when you’ve got enough open tabs that they crowd the tab bar and some are pushed “off screen” to the left or right, if you’ve got a trackpad that scrolls left and right, you can place your cursor over the tab bar and move left and right, bringing up the tabs that fell off.

It’s much more elegant than clicking a left or right arrow button, which, by the way, is still there.

John Cole draws analogies to Roe v. Wade. I’m no scholar of the court, but that seems fitting.

I’ve been trying to wrap my head around what it will mean since I first saw the headline this morning. Okay, it is now absolutely legal to keep firearms in your home as a means to self-defense. I’m fine with that. Should someone intrude or invade your privacy, I guess you should have the right to blow holes in their kneecaps. I’m not too terribly concerned with that.

And, considering thugs who already carry guns around in public, no law will abate such behavior, criminal or not. Thugz will be thugz, yo.

What I am concerned with (again, on a kneejerk basis) is the wanton recklessness this could lead to.

Could it really get worse than it already is?, you ask.

Yes, I fear.

I am afraid of the slippery slope leading from “self-defense,” in the “home,” to the use of firearms anywhere one so chooses. Someone cuts you off in traffic? Bam! They’re dead, or at least hurt bad. Someone picks up your newspaper by accident (antiquated example?), sorry, suckah! Boss fires you for what you consider to be no real reason at all? “Fire” his ass, just like that!

I know, i know, these things already happen. I guess I just worry about a more-permissive atmosphere for them to happen in. I worry about the spread of guns. I worry about increased usage.

Tell me, should I quit worrying?

This story, by Wired.com’s Ryan Singel*, describes an analysis of contributions from U.S. telecommunications’ PACs to representatives, and how the money may correlate to those reps votes on the recent FISA renewal act now in the Senate.

Singel points out that 40 percent more money went to the 94 Democrats who now support the bill (as opposed to their opposition to the original bill, which went before the House three months ago). Also, in total, meaning when you include Republican reps who, naturally, support warrantless wiretapping and, perhaps more importantly, immunity for the telecoms from prosecution, the PAC money to those voting in favor of the new bill is nearly double that going to members of Congress who voted against it.

This is slightly complicated, but very, very sickening.

Honestly? Screw campaign finance reform. How about legislative finance reform? How about Larry Lessig, and others like him, who are pushing to keep special interest money out of politics altogether?

Members of Congress are charged with representing their constituents. Since when are AT&T, Verizon, and the like constituents of anyone?

* Singel is a colleague of mine.

Just maybe not kickin’.

None other than the Orange County Register.

Thx: Bill Walsh.

Pretty poignant essay on the legacy of George Carlin. By Jerry Seinfeld.

Barbara Boxer, holding Bush’s (and by extension, all capitulating House Democrats’) balls to the fire on FISA:

“The Bush Administration trampled on the Constitution, and we are not doing anything in this bill to provide accountability.”

Read this now. The newspaper in its printed form may be on a slow-bleed track to certain death, but the need for clean copy may never die.

Get ready for a fuckload of motherfucking headlines with tons of goddam cuss words in them today, tomorrow, and the coming days. Weeks, perhaps.

That’s all. Back to work.