ambivalent bits

The Dean Campaign Was Killed One Year Ago:
And what about the scream as we all heard it? In the room, the so-called scream couldn't really be heard at all. Again, he was yelling along with the crowd. [link and reminder via Scripting News]

The Conservative New Deal:
The campaign is potentially self-fulfilling: persuade enough people that Social Security is going bankrupt, and it will lose public support. Then Congress will be forced to act. And thanks to such unceasing alarums, many, and perhaps most, people today think the program is in serious financial trouble. The politics of fear continues!

Have we been taken over by a cult?
It does say something about how fragile our Democracy is. You do have to wonder what a Democracy is when it comes down to a few men in the Pentagon and a few men in the White House having their way.

Mothers who blog about kids:
The world's most thankless occupation, parenthood, has never inspired so much copy. Including photos and thoughts from Heather Armstrong of Dooce.

The Speech That Wasn't What It Seemed:
Foreign governments and commentators are reacting with alarm, skepticism and defiance to President Bush's inaugural address, in which he promised to draw sharp distinctions between nations based on 'oppression, which is always wrong, and freedom, which is eternally right.' . .

D.C. Settles w/Mass Arrest Victims:
“What do you pay people for taking away their liberty for 24 hours, 36 hours? . . . I think we're probably looking at the city paying out another huge amount of money.”

Secret Unit Expands Rumsfeld's Domain:
Pentagon officials said they established the Strategic Support Branch using “reprogrammed” funds, without explicit congressional authority or appropriation.

Blogger Influence Raises Ethical Questions:
“It seems pretty clear to me that having some kind of standard contributes to an individual blogger's own credibility,” Rebecca Blood said.

Academics give lessons on blogs:
Blogs are giving departments, staff and students the freedom and informality of tone impossible in scholarly journals or even the student newspaper. Law professors, take note!

WMDuh!
We only cover things around the clock every day for four or five straight months when it's fun.

FCC Chairman Powell to step down:
As head of the five-member FCC board, Powell pushed to establish more free-market principles in federal policy on communications. Good riddance, except if the devil you know...

Former judge charged with indecent exposure:
Last year, a court reporter who worked for Thompson was fired after she said she saw the judge masturbate and use the penis pump during hearings.

Bush to Seek Cuts In Medicare, Benefits:
... new budget that would carve “savings” from Medicaid and other benefit programs. See als: Starve the Beast

Pentagon reveals rejected chemical weapons:
Most bizarre among the plans was one for the development of an “aphrodisiac” chemical weapon that would make enemy soldiers sexually irresistible to each other.

Not One Dime Day:
Since our leaders don't have the moral courage to speak out against the war in Iraq, Inauguration Day, Thursday, January 20th, 2005 is “Not One Damn Dime Day” in America.

Practical plan to end poverty:
Each month more than 150,000 African children die of malaria; that's about the death toll of the Asian disaster. Yet those deaths do not sear the public's mind.

Inauguration is field day for scalpers:
If it does not seem quite right, selling access to American history, get over it. This message obviously brought to you by the Republican National Commitee.

Dean still has the power:
“I'm not much of a Zen person,” Dean says, “but I've learned that the best way to gain power is to give it away.”

Judges' new leeway in passing sentence may change little:
Under the federal system that was considered mandatory, judges sentenced defendants within the guidelines only about 65 percent of the time.

Chemistry Student's Dream:
Elements is a cool and searchable periodic table of elements with lots of useful information on atoms.

Bring em on dead or alive:
“I speak plainly sometimes, but you've got to be mindful of the consequences of the words.” It's so great having such an obviously brilliant president.

Privatization cannot be explained...
... it must be experienced, and that experience is not some cold, soulless experience of “hard evidence,” but of something deeper: an experience of faith.

19-yr-old Mac Publisher Needs Legal Aid:
The 19-year-old publisher of a Web site facing a lawsuit over an article about a top-secret $499 Apple computer said Friday he can't afford to defend himself. [link via Scripting News]

Britain's Privatization Disaster:
Privatizing social security has been tried before, and it didn't work so well.

Bungie Gives Away Marathon:
The first FPS (First Person Shooter) I ever played is now free for download to all!

Men more likely to buy cellphones as fashion accessories.

SCOTUS Invalidates Federal Sentencing Guidelines:
“...Ours, of course, is not the last word: The ball now lies in Congress' court,”

Apple Goes Budget Friendly:
A roundup of opinions on whether the new iPod shuffle and Mac mini will boost Apple's pc market share.

Apple Profit More Than Quadruples:
...thanks to skyrocketing sales of its iPod digital music players and strong demand for its PowerBook notebook PCs.

Do Bloggers Have A Reporter's Privilege?
[P]eople who want to leak information to the public will be able to provide it, not only to mainstream reporters, but to anyone with access to the public. And they can use anonymity technology and techniques to hide their identity.

Apple Can't Strongarm Bloggers:
“Is corporate paranoia really more important than the First Amendment?”

Wikipedia Family Expands:
See Wiktionary, Wikibooks, Wikiquote, Wikisource, Wikispecies, Wikicommons, and Wikinews.

CopyLeft Commies Propaganda:
If you believe in the possibility of incentives other than money, you're a commie, for sure!

D.C. Restaurant Week:
Get a great meal at a swanky restaurant for $30 or less, this week only!

Bill Frist Cares:
“Get some devastation in the back.”

Is Bush In Poor Health?
Speculation that the “bulge” was a LifeVest wearable defibrillator.

Make Firefox Faster:
only useful for broadband users, so if you're still on dial-up you can just skip this one for now.