Amanda Marcotte resigns from Edwards' blog

Via Pandagon

Regardless, it was creating a situation where I felt that every time I coughed, I was risking the Edwards campaign. No matter what you think about the campaign, I signed on to be a supporter and a tireless employee for them, and if I can’t do the job I was hired to do because Bill Donohue doesn’t have anything better to do with his time than harass me, then I won’t do it. I resigned my position today and they accepted.

There is good news. The main good news is that I don’t have a conflict of interest issue anymore that was preventing me from defending myself against these baseless accusations. So it’s on. The other good news is that the blogosphere has risen as one and protested, loudly, the influence a handful of well-financed right wing shills have on the public discourse.

Click here for the rest.

By the way, I heard of this when someone posted a link to a Kos diary on the subject. So I checked the Edwards blog and found that someone had linked to Pandagon. Required going a bit "out of my way", but as I note at the end of this post, it's something I feel like I have to do.

On a related note, check out this post by lorraine at My Left Wing, entitled "Jesus did not say "Shut your pie hole."
Alternate link for comments

Blogging as a business

There really is a wealth of information, both in the essay and in the comments, in liberalamerican's Blogdom as high school. I may actually need to come back to it a few times to focus on different points.

The essay links to a profile of Atrios/Duncan Black which appeared in the Philadelphia Enquirer.

Black makes a living at this. He takes ads and since January has grossed about $5,000 a month, he says. He has few costs.

Earlier this week, peeder, who used to work as a contractor for Daily Kos, implementing Ajax code for the web site, wrote an essay entitled "Blogging as a business". Here are some excerpts:

Mr. Moulitsas has simultaneously increased his payroll from one to six (so far), gone into book publishing, conventioneering, and large-scale software development (and in the latter case, with only himself as the predicted customer). He succeeded in all of those areas to a very limited extent during the perfect storm and doesn't understand quite how risky they all are and how thin the margins are to mutually cover the risk. He needs to be a big bank to sustain any of these fragile, hits-based enterprises, but only has a little lifestyle venture going.
..
I wish I had better news about all this for him and his now several dependents. And of course he could pull it all (or enough of it) off. But if I were betting, I would say he's got about a 10% chance. Not of success. But of keeping that nice new house 24-36 months from now. The ante in any of these ventures is easily high enough to be ruinous. I've seen it all before.

And as he wakes up to realize his compounding risk level, he won't be able to bet enough on any of these risks to ensure any of them succeed enough to cover the others. He's a blogger, not a businessman.

Peeder's statement notwithstanding--even if Markos is "no businessman", Daily Kos is a business. He owns the brand, and his decisions are made in the interests of *his* bottom line. An excerpt from liberalamerican's diary...

The final piece of this may be the most interesting. Given that kos is a business, this latest move is what public relations people call repositioning. Daily Kos is repositioning itself as the central place for local blogs supporting political candidates. It is a brilliant business move with an election coming up. If the local bloggers buy into this, kos becomes in one stroke a major voice in the Democratic Party.

The $64 question is how much ideological control will kos exercise? His post gives a clue. He said, "Those are sites focused on the races that will determine whether we lose control of Congress, or whether we expand our numbers to Lieberman-proof majorities." In shorthand, kos had gone from Dean to Emanuel. Gone is the 50 state strategy. Gone are the progressive ideas. Instead he will publicize sites for candidates that can win.

Doesn't sound very "people powered" to me, except in that he's tried to use that as his branding. Kinda reminds me of the way Fox News tried to claim the words "fair and balanced" as a sort of trademark. I know all the arguments about how convenient it is to go to Daily Kos--how people don't go to the site for *him* but for the wide variety of offerings that can be found all under one roof. In a way, that keeps reminding me of WalMart. Even as I have become increasingly uncomfortable with the way Markos runs things over the past couple years, I hadn't stopped going there and was reluctant to stop posting there because of the convenience. And because of the chance, albeit small, of being "heard" by a larger audience.

One final point from liberalamerican's essay:

The more diaries you have, the chances are most of those diaries will be read only by a few people, friends, the few who stumble across them, and others. BUT every one of those diaries read reads gets counted as a read for the kos site. So let's assume kos has 500 diaries and each has ten readers--all of a sudden HIS SITE has 5,000 readers.

I'll be damned if I'm going to contribute to the success of his *business*, especially since it is becoming very clear that he does *not* share Howard Dean's belief in fighting in every state for every seat. So at minimun, "No link for you!" Markos. But I want to look at what can be done beyond that, because my own efforts will not be able to make a dent. All I do know is that, a lot of us stopped shopping at WalMart once we realized the cumulative effect of lots of individuals rationalizing that the convenience and prices were worth it. I hope more bloggers can start to consider the way their links to that site support a model of leadership that many of us find anathema--especially those of us who were inspired by Howard telling us "You have the power!"

By the way, I know this post is already kind of long, but while I'm on the topic, I highly recommend checking out this post at If I Ran the Zoo, addressing how "What's at stake here is the egalitarian and democratic nature of the blogosphere."

Alternate link for comments

Introducing Miss Delilah Rose

See the details in Kimmy's comment here.

Welcome to the family, Delilah Rose &hearts!

Alternate link for comments

Sunday Book Salon at Firedoglake

Elizabeth de la Vega will be at FireDogLake to discuss her book, "U.S. v. Bush," which outlines a whole lot of the machinations that led up to the Iraq mess. (Starting at 5. p.m. Eastern, but the thread will be available to read if you're not available in time to live blog.)

Alternate link for comments

Sunday post from Subway

Our dear friend Oscar is very good with words that express his Love of his personal Lord. His Sunday "Word for the Day" and his Saturday Toons are missed in this space, I'm sure.

When I perform in the subway, people often approach me and ask, "Why don't you sing about Jesus?" So I turn them around and have them look at the people on the platform. There's a beautiful Muslim family passing by. A few yards away, a Hasidic man is talking to his wife. A lesbian couple I know walks past and waves and their young son says he saw me on tv. Each time a train leaves, the platform fills again with all different kinds of people who quite frankly don't need to be preached at by the likes of me, The Worlds Best Sinner.

What could I possibly say to a Muslim or Jew or B'hai that would turn them to Jesus anyway? How could I possibly say it in the space between trains? Why would I want to intrude on such personal matters in public?

But I have a secret.

My work over the past 20 odd years has been a ministry. You see, I'm not kidding when I say that Love Is God. Christians I say this to call it a syntax error, but I know better. Ever since I touched the Love that Knows no Comprehension (or when the Radiant Is touched me) it occasionally pours itself into me like a waterfall and I'm forced to give it away in tiny thimbles called "songs." It's a maddening task that seems to be never ending, but it seems if I stop I'll drown in Love. So I pour a thimble or two on a few hundred hearts, knowing that in most cases, folks won't realize what I did to them until after they've left the station. Over time, I've built an underground Cathedral where music helps to heal the investment banker, the school teacher, the immigrant laborer, the Christian, the Muslim, the old Spanish Catholic lady who loves Julio Iglesias...

Today I'd like to present some beautiful music written by Sri Chinmoy, performed by musicians from Russia. Folks who think like Pat Robertson think Sri Chinmoy is going to hell for not accepting Christ as his personal savior, so I figured I'd give him some props while he's still around. You can download the entire album here, or if you dialup, you can download individual tracks here.

Music reaches into places in the heart where words cannot reach.

Namaste,

Subway



Alternate link for comments

Open Thread

From floridagal

Outraged. A DLC advocate sure shows their attitude toward the rest of us in the party.

And some links I've found throughout the day...

Undoing Obama: Inside the Coming Effort to Dismantle A Candidate

Meena Chandra In Defense of Subodh

Oscar says he's "Gone fishing"

And thank you to listener for passing along this link: White tiger cubs debut at Argentine zoo (Nice kitties.)

Alternate link for comments

The power of the link, part 2

Part 1 is here.

One thing I just discovered in my search for posts about Blogroll Amnesty Day, is that the main things that were showing up in Google were posts by the Big Boys of Blogging. And they were, of course, saying what a great idea Blogroll Amnesty Day was. It's yet another example of the power of links--the "big boys" have the power to be heard, even when it comes to someone doing a simple Google search to find out what the heck Blogroll Amnesty Day is all about.

Just sayin'...

Alternate link for comments

Ned Lamont liveblogging at Firedoglake

Ned Lamont liveblogging at Firedoglake now. Drop by and say thank you for how hard he worked trying to unseat Lieberman.

Here's a "Howardly" for Ned.

The explanation of the graphic, for anyone who missed this a while back...

It's a capital H. ('Cause Howard is a capital guy)
It's blades of grass(roots) growing out of b@lls of steel, joined by a strong bond.
It's one segment of a strand of Human DNA ('cause Howard approached problems with the mind of a scientist. And, he's the most human politician I've ever known.)
It's the flame he ignited in the Party. (in DFA blue, of course)

Alternate link for comments

The power of the link

The following is from the comments in yesterday's thread, but I think it's important to highlight it...

Every link you give raises the authority of that Blog... And when they link back to you, both of your Blogs authority goes up even more notches on search engines' results.

Do you ever wonder how some of the junk on the right-wing sites manage to make the top of the search engine's lists?

I have said this over and over again:

"LINK DAMNIT!"

In your Blogroll and in your diaries. Shameless links help everyone in the left community.
Connecticut Man1 | Homepage | 02.09.07 - 2:12 pm

Amazing. I know about the importance of linking as far as Google ranking (although apparently the algorithms have been changed to try to thwart Google-bombing, like the "miserable failure" thing. But I *hadn't* thought of that as the reason right wing crap ends up so high when you search for news stories about a Democrat.

Anyway, I just commented at skippy's blog, in response to the great blogroll amnesty program marches on, that...

I'm trying to do something similar, but don't know when I'll find the time to undertake the project in earnest. But if anyone would like to do a link exchange with Howard-Empowered People, please leave me a comment in one of the threads, and I'll get to it sooner than "eventually".

Alternate link for comments

It's what you do with what you've got

Crossposted at My Left Wing, ePluribus Media and Booman Tribune

I'd like to be able to let the blogroll issue go. That would be the more "comfortable" choice. I mean, this is shaping up to be everything I *don't* like to do in my free time. It's not fun to blog about, and it's not "nice". I open myself up to being trashed by people who will just *know* that this is about sour grapes or my nose being out of joint or heaven knows what else. It's the end of a long week, and I'd much rather kick back and relax a bit. Maybe play with my Sims, or watch a movie with the hubby. Or, short of that, work on some new designs that can generate some additional income--not "fun" in the traditional sense, but something I have a better shot at actually benefitting from in a "what's in it for me?" sort of way. This, on the other hand, looks like a great big bowl of no fun.

But I've seen enough arguments for why blogrolls do matter that I really don't feel like "letting this thing go" is an option.

At the end of January, I attended part of the Moving Faith Forward Leadership Retreat of We Believe. At the beginning of that first day, there was an opening prayer, and then a song. The chorus of the song (by Si Kahn) was

It's not just what you're born with
It's what you choose to bear
It's not how big your share is
But how much you can share
And it's not the fights you dreamed of
But those you really fought
It's not what you've been given
It's what you do with what you've got

This afternoon, I was thinking about those lyrics, and the idea of using the gifts one has been given. What are these "gifts" with which the Creator has seen fit to bless me? Well, the most relevant one to this situation would be my experience of being "on the margins" in one way or another. Being interracially married, homeschooling for a while, being the mother of a special needs/gifted child. Not gifts I would have *asked* for, but these experiences have made it a little easier for me to empathize with people who are disenfranchised in one way or another. People who are told by the power structures of society that they just don't matter in the grand scheme of things.

And those are the very people whose needs tend to be brushed aside as inconvenient or embarrassing when a blog like the big orange place becomes more aligned with the establishment. You say your vote didn't count? Sorry, we can't talk about that. People might call us crybabies. We'd better distance ourselves from you and call you a "fraudster". Concerned about issues of race? Gender? GLBT rights? Sorry, you're kind of inconvenient and embarrassing, so it's under-the-bus with you too. (But if you don't support us, and we lose, you are *so* taking the fall for it!)

Many bloggers have already posted about this issue. I agree with much of what others have already said, and linked to some of those thoughts in my earlier post. What I've tried to share here is why this matters to *me*, and why I feel compelled to renew my efforts to explore ways that the "little fish" can band together to make a difference.

Alternate link for comments

Blogrolls

Late last night I finally found out what the "Amnesty Day" was that Maryscott O'Connor of My Left Wing was talking about in this post. Jon Swift explains it here. Apparently, first Atrios/Eschaton declared "Amnesty Day" (you can find Atrios' own words via the Swift link, 'cause I ain't linking to him) and then Markos decided, "What a great idea, I'm gonna do that too!" Both "big time" bloggers dumped their entire blogrolls and then re-added those blogs they considered "worthy". Yep, rather Orwellian use of the word "amnesty". But here's what I wanted to emphasize before heading out to work...

From skippy:

so, in spite of the protestations that it's "nothing personal," it's quite literally the opposite: you cut a blog from your roll, you are stating to your readers that you don't find that blog of any value. that cut blog is no longer your peer.

you may say it doesn't mean that, but actions (and linkage) speak louder than words.
...
any blog that has linked to skippy and has not received a reciprocal blogroll link will now be included on our roll! all you have to do is notify us in our comments section or email us, and we will happily include you! that will show those big shot elitists too good for the little guy blogs! ha!

and we hope to hell we have the longest blog roll in blogtopia!

and yes! we coined that phrase!

Anyway, I need to take off for work, but I recommend reading skippy's blog for more on this issue. When I get a chance, I'm going to follow skippy's lead and add more links to our blogroll. I know it doesn't remotely make up for being de-linked by the "big boys", but I'd like us little fish to do everything we can to stick together.

Alternate link for comments

Thursday evening updates

Thank you to jc for posting a link to John Edwards' statement about his employees who have come under fire from right wing extremists.

The tone and the sentiment of some of Amanda Marcotte's and Melissa McEwan's posts personally offended me. It's not how I talk to people, and it's not how I expect the people who work for me to talk to people. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but that kind of intolerant language will not be permitted from anyone on my campaign, whether it's intended as satire, humor, or anything else. But I also believe in giving everyone a fair shake. I've talked to Amanda and Melissa; they have both assured me that it was never their intention to malign anyone's faith, and I take them at their word. We're beginning a great debate about the future of our country, and we can't let it be hijacked. It will take discipline, focus, and courage to build the America we believe in.

Better than it could have been, I guess, but given that the "outrage" came from the likes of Malkin and Donahue, who are well known for their hateful rhetoric, this seems like a missed opportunity. Edwards could have invited Bill Donahue, for example, to commit to modeling the standard of civil, non-hateful speech that he wants Edwards to demand of his employees. After all, didn't that Jesus guy say something about removing the log from your *own* eye first?

And Karen added...

I agree with everyone here on Edwards.

On another subject, I think the bruhaha over Nancy's flight plans is hilarious!

Pelosi said she would be happy to fly on commercial airliners but said the House sergeant-at-arms office urged her to continue Hastert’s practice of using Air Force transport. She said she was informed on her first trip home that her plane would not make it across the country.

“I said well, that’s fine, I’m going commercial,” she told Fox News. “I’m not asking to go on that plane. If you need to take me there for security purposes, you’re going to have to get a plane that goes across the country, because I’m going home to my family.”

I say, "You Go Girl"!! ;)

jc commented Nancy's "scandal" is just another case of fake outrage by the right-wingers. I hope it helps remind Nancy that she's dealing with thugs.

Which is funny, because while I was on my lunch break today, this idear for a new bumper sticker popped into my head...

Alternate link for comments

Why the Edwards situation matters

Chris Bowers has this post at MyDD.

Why The Edwards Situation Means So Much To Me

Go read it. It's good.

Alternate link for comments

Howard gets some front page love at MLW

I wasn't planning to do another post tonight, but couldn't resist when I saw this post on the front page of My Left Wing.

I'll Always Want My Country Back

And I was planning to post a link to it even before I saw that I got a mention in the post. Honest, I was. :)

Alternate link for comments

Fetch me the smelling salts!

This seems to be a big topic in blogtopia

Via Skippy, we have this post from Salon's War Room: Edwards campaign fires bloggers

The right-wing blogosphere has gotten its scalps -- John Edwards has fired the two controversial bloggers he recently hired to do liberal blogger outreach, Salon has learned.

The bloggers, Amanda Marcotte, formerly of Pandagon, and Melissa McEwan, of Shakespeare's Sister, had come under fire from right-wing bloggers for statements they had previously made on their respective blogs. A statement by the Catholic League's Bill Donohue, which called Marcotte and McEwan "anti-Catholic vulgar trash-talking bigots," and an accompanying article on the controversy in the New York Times this morning, put extra pressure on the campaign.

Bloggers using profanity? Fetch me the smelling salts! Not sure where to find them, but maybe you can ask Dick Cheney. As I understand it, he's fond of dropping the "F-bomb" from time to time.

Well, hopefully Salon had inaccurate information, and these two bloggers were not really fired based on complaints from the likes of Donahue. Chris Bowers of MyDD says we should wait to hear from Edwards. Fine, I'm waiting...

Tags: john edwards, 2008 election, democrats

Alternate link for comments

Organizing/Corrective action

As I've mentioned once or twice in the past week, I recently started a temp project that has me at work during what some people call "bankers' hours". The upshot of this is twofold--first of all, I have less time to write up posts about political topics for my own blog. But I've had even less time available for making the rounds to other political blogs. I've tried to keep up on the basic headlines, but have kept my distance from the "meta" discussions that have been popping up. In particular, when I see a post entitled Meta: People are so f***ing moronic on this site, I don't even click.

Until today, when the combination of weather and technical issues at work conspired to give me the day off. And Maryscott O'Connor at My Left Wing frontpaged the diary in question. It's also crossposted at Booman Tribune. I recommend reading the whole thing. The kids are home from school today *again*, so I'm not likely to be able to give this issue the quality of thought and writing that I would like. But I do want to raise the issue.

For anyone who is not aware of this, the owner and proprietor of Daily Kos has recently decided to go for a "cleaner" blogroll, culling some sites that used to be included there. My first thought was, big whoop, my blog was never deemed "worthy" in the first place. But after seeing BostonJoe's remarks on the issue, I believe it is worth closer examination.

I guess I am suggesting that in a community of bloggers, where some power is owed to the number of bloggers that visit a site, ought not the community members have some say in the governance of that site? I know this is a bit of a radical notion, for those who have difficulty looking in any way beyond the concept of private property rights. But does not the power of DailyKos, to some extent, flow from the very people who visit it daily to read and write and think? And if so, ought they not have some say? I am not advocating a democracy here. But suggesting that their might be democratic models of governance which might better serve a community. An elected advisory board, perhaps. A consultive body drawn from the membership. Maybe ombudsman, with some power to consult on important decisions.

My comments here are, to some extent, dictated by Kos' statement. I find it disrespectful, if not indicative of a pervasive attitude of the management. As an anti-war hippie-esque supporter of feminist causes and espouser of an anarchist political philosophy, I have certainly been offended by Kos' statements and general attitude in the past. And as a reader and writer at The Booman Tribune and MyLeftWing, I am certainly chagrined that these blogs have been shunned by the new look blogroll. So hold these items against me if you will. But I ask the above questions in earnest, because I think there are many liberals here with whom I share much in common. And I doubt that I am the only blogger who has thought out these issues in this way. I also view the blogroll issue as more important than Kos himself (if you bother to read the story and thread linked above), because I found those like minds at these other sites through Kos' blogroll. Absent the inclusive blogroll, as it once existed, I would be a less rich person in terms of friends and thoughts.

The Big Orange, as your community is often referred to at these "lesser blogs," is certainly a powerful place in the blogosphere. But I'd like to think that your lesser blog partners are important too - and that the blogging phenomenon, in general, is worthy of discussing the above issues.

As I mentioned above, I agree that the issue is worth discussing. "Big Orange" has been seen as enough of a force in the blogosphere that big name politicians and candidates post diaries there. But the blog would not be what it is were it not for the diverse voices posting there. The whole netroots/blogosphere political phenomenon is, in my mind, supposed to be about ordinary people saying "We have the power" once again.

Hmm...where have we heard those words before? Yep, the man this blog is named after. And one of the things many of us find so endearing about Howard Dean is the frequency with which the words, "No, thank you! come out of his mouth. He doesn't let the admiration he receives from some of us go to his head. He recognizes that the Democratic party has only been able to achieve recent successes because of all of us chipping in and doing what we can, from where we are. It's not about "rock stars", it's about lots of people doing the hard work every day, united by a common vision/dream of creating an America where no one is left behind.

Anyway, there's something terribly ironic about the the site that has come to represent "the Democratic netroots" (at least in the minds of many in the media and the politicians who see it as enough of a force to be reckoned with/sucked up to) is run in such a freaking autocratic way.

I have no expectation that anything can be done to change the way someone else's site is run, but I do see a need for progressives to band together online to create a force to be reckoned with outside of that "It's my blog, I call the shots, you are here at my pleasure and are to play by my rules" environment.

Alternate link for comments

Diamonds

Last night I linked to this diary at about the history of "blood diamonds" at Booman Tribune. This is something I'd never known before...

The poverty caused by the depression in the 1930s and World War II in the forties severely depressed the diamond market. Oppenheimer's son Harry took over De Beers and went to America to hire an ad company to help them sell more diamonds. He hired N.W. Ayer to launch a marketing campaign, which garnered De Beers the world-famous slogan "A Diamond is Forever." As the article linked above states:

The goal behind the marketing campaign was to ensure that women kept their diamonds literally forever. The goal was to prevent a secondary market for diamonds by persuading women that diamonds should be untouched by another woman to really have any meaning. This allowed De Beers to maintain control of the diamond trade at wholesale level and retailers to sell diamonds at a high price without competition from secondary markets. [...] It was this marketing campaign that made diamond wedding and engagement rings so popular, and pushed diamonds to become the number one coveted gem by women.

As I noted last night, Demetrius recently commented that the diamond ads have gotten obnoxious in their frequency these days. Then he remembered, "Oh, that's right, Valentine's Day is coming..."

It's amazing to me that the diamond people were able to pull off a marketing coup of such proportions. The whole "two months salary" recommendation, for example.

There was something on Saturday Night Live some years ago, mentioning that recommendation, and then the commentator added, "and the American Crack Association recommends that you spend 100% of your salary on crack".

Alternate link for comments

Russ Feingold needs our help

Via Firedoglake:

Because Russ Asked You To…

Yesterday, I put out a plea to contact your elected representatives and tell them how you feel about escalation. I'm asking you to take it a step further. If my plea isn't enough, then consider this – do it because Sen. Russ Feingold is asking you to make the call, send the fax, set up a meeting — whatever it takes to get your elected officials to hear what you have to say on the mess that is Iraq.

And do it today.

Yesterday evening, I was on a conference call with several other bloggers and Sen. Feingold, and he made a passionate statement against the mess in Iraq — and for all of us standing up and telling our elected representatives that we have had enough. Enough. Sen. Feingold's office was nice enough to send a partial transcript of the Senator's remarks, and I wanted to share that with you:

Click here for Feingold's remarks, and here for a video of his appearance on Countdown with Keith Olbermann last night.

Alternate link for comments

It is effing cold outside!

Need to take off for work, so will make quick, but here's what I found from a quick Google search for an image to represent how damn cold it is this week.

The kids have another day off from school, as Demetrius noted last night...

Kids are off school again tomorrow. That's thrown a monkey wrench in what I thought my plans were. WATBs at the School Board think 9 degrees is too cold for them. When *I* was a kid we had to walk 10 miles to school... at ABSOLUTE ZERO... uphill in *both* directions! Then we had to build the school itself out of ice blocks before the bell rang!

By the way, haven't had much time to spend on setting it up, but I found a new place to do t-shirts in addition to Cafe Press and Zazzle, for anyone who's interested.

Time to bundle up and head out. Have a great day, everyone. Stay warm!

Alternate link for comments

Open Thread

Click for some Monty Python sketches.

Update: Just catching up on the blogs after a day at work and wanted to point this out to anyone who hasn't seen it:

Snickers Superbowl Web site promotes violence against gays and lesbians. Bears & Colts players react in disgust, on camera, to gays.

AmericaBlog has posted updates throughout the day. I gather that the offending web page has been pulled down, but so far I'm not aware that the company has made a statement.

Alternate link for comments

The Al Gore Macarena

From Renee--this came about as a result of a discussion in the previous thread. Noting that Al Gore is up for an Oscar and the Nobel Peace Prize, why not think big and try for a Grammy with An Inconvenient Truth: The Musical. Cat said that it would have to include the Macarena...


Hmm...

(click for midi accompaniment)

Global warming! Watch the icecaps meltaway-a
Soon'll be so hot we won't even have a praya
They all tell me, Try to sell me
Movie with Al Gore on the big screen
Just released on DVD
So I can buy and take it home with me

(refrain 2x)
'Til the Earth in the fuego meltaway-a
6 miles per gallon in a Hummer driveaway-a
So little Georgie Bush he can believe that he's a playa
Eeeeh Meltaway-a!
AiiGH!

Now don't you worry BushBoy tells me
Oil addiction's bad as nicotine-o
Didn't want him. Didn't elect him.
Knew he was no good so I... *AAaarrGH!*
Now, come on, what was Kerry supposed to do?
It's not like he had 14 million dollars he could contest the... Ohhh. Nevermind.

(refrain 2x)
(Claps) AiiGH! AiiGH!
(Keys)
(refrain 2x)

Find a solution 'fore the icecaps meltawaya
Maybe elect a president who oil companies won't sway-a
Come join me. Work with me.
Carpool all your friends to the polls to vote for me.

(Refrain 5x)

For anyone who might not get the Macarena reference, it's from the 1996 Democratic National Convention...

But when he began, Gore also spoofed his reputation for stiff self-control and the delegates' daily Macarena dance session, offering to do "the Al Gore version of the Macarena."

Gore stood ramrod still, his face deadpan.

"Would you like to see it again?" he asked.

Alternate link for comments

Gratuitous Puppy Bowl Post

From my Puplinks web site. Click one of the images below for a printable poster (PDF) or visit our Cafe Press store for merchandise featuring these designs and others.

Alternate link for comments

Jock Cooper's "Fractal Recursions"

There are 29 Fractal Animations at Jock Cooper's website available for free download. If you download all of them to your computer, then "select all" and play in your favorite media player, as I did this week, you will enjoy an enormous treasure of mind blowing digital artistry. I know it's a little work for a Sunday Morning, but it will be well worth the effort.

(Hint: Best viewed in "Full Screen" mode.)

Enjoy!

by Subway Serenade

Alternate link for comments

Puppy Bowl!

I can't help myself--everywhere I look on the internets (well, the bloggy part of the internets, at least) I'm seeing posts about the Super Bowl. And I. just. don't. care.

Seriously, to care any less than I already do, I would probably need special equipment. But, not wanting to be left out of the fun completely, I thought I would post about the Puppy Bowl.

No, not that kind of bowl. I kid. This kind of Bowl...

Animal Planet has reinvented the Big Game with the cutest, fuzziest and - at times- fiercest players on the field. When we say "rookie" we aren't kidding - some of these athletes are just nine weeks old. From bulldogs to boxers and everything in between, it's a fantastic team playing in a spectacular brand-new stadium. Join us for tackles, fumbles and fouls on the third annual Animal Planet Puppy Bowl premiering Sunday, February 4, 3-6 p.m. ET with encore presentations at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. ET only on Animal Planet.

Click here for more.

Alternate link for comments

"What I Wanna Know..."

Crossposted at My Left Wing, Booman Tribune, ePluribus Media, and Daily Kos

I just found a diary floridagal linked a while ago, which includes a link to Howard Dean's famous "What I wanna know..." speech. Here's the direct link to download the Quicktime movie.

From the diary...

"Howard Dean speaks at the California Democratic Convention in Sacramento, CA on March 15, 2003. This speech was videotaped and edited by Eric Predoehl with the help of an anonymous camera operator.

March 15, 2003. Just over four years ago. At the time, I hadn't even heard of Howard Dean, and would only gradually learn enough to become excited about his campaign over the next couple months. The Sleepless Summer tour was still months away.

I'm posting this for two reasons. First, it's always good to have an opporutunity to hear Howard Dean speaking those words so many of us were longing to hear from our elected leaders. But secondly, it puts into perspective just how far away the primaries for the 2008 presidential election are at this point. Anything can happen between now and then. Maybe Al Gore will decide to throw his hat in the ring after all. Or maybe someone previously unknown, or not well known, will surface and capture our imagination.

It really is too soon to tell what the political landscape will look like as we approach primary season. I know that, with 24 hour news channels, the media outlets feel compelled to try to build up the whole "horse race" of it. But I can choose not to let them define my reality.

Alternate link for comments

Saturday Schadenfreude

Forgive me if I enjoy this just a little bit too much...

On Tuesday, President Bush popped in for a surprise visit to the Sterling Family Restaurant, a homey diner in Peoria, Ill. It’s a scene that has been played out many times before by this White House and others: a president mingling among regular Americans, who, no matter what they might think of his policies, are usually humbled and shocked to see the leader of the free world standing 10 feet in front of them.

But on Tuesday, the surprise was on Bush. In town to deliver remarks on the economy, the president walked into the diner, where he was greeted with what can only be described as a sedate reception. No one rushed to shake his hand. There were no audible gasps or yelps of excitement that usually accompany visits like this. Last summer, a woman nearly fainted when Bush made an unscheduled visit for some donut holes at the legendary Lou Mitchell’s Restaurant in Chicago. In Peoria this week, many patrons found their pancakes more interesting. Except for the click of news cameras and the clang of a dish from the kitchen, the quiet was deafening.

“Sorry to interrupt you,” Bush said to a group of women, who were sitting in a booth with their young kids. “How’s the service?” As Bush signed a few autographs and shook hands, a man sitting at the counter lit a cigarette and asked for more coffee. Another woman, eyeing Bush and his entourage, sighed heavily and went back to her paper. She was reading the obituaries. “Sorry to interrupt your breakfast,” a White House aide told her. “No problem,” she huffed, in a not-so-friendly way. “Life goes on, I guess.”

But, uh, don't let it happen again, okay George? (Click here for the rest of the article.)

And click here for the latest update from Kimmy.

Alternate link for comments

Subway is famous!

The Brooklyn Paper / Craig Dilger

From the comments

Hey

I made the front page of the local paper. The story is about a renovation of the station I was playing, but it's a pretty good pic.

Subway Serenade

P.S. Don't forget Subway has a "virtual guitar case" on his web site.

Alternate link for comments

DNC Winter Meeting

As I've been doing my after work scan of the news stories of the day, I was reminded that the DNC 2007 Winter Meeting is under way. Click here to see the photos at Democrats.org. And click here for posts and stories about the winter meeting.


Alternate link for comments

Another reason to keep the media accountable

From a diary I just linked in the comments. I'm running late, but this has to be said. Tyra Banks was subjected to headlines calling her things like "America's Next Top Waddle" due to pictures taken of her swimsuit while vacationing in Australia. Having retired from modeling, she is now 5'10 and 161 pounds. Nobody with those proportions could be described as "waddling", unless she was in actuality a giant duck. She responded, in part:

Luckily, I'm strong enough and I have a good enough support system," Banks, 33, says. "I love my Mama, and she has helped me to be a strong woman so I can overcome these kinds of attacks, but if I had a lower self-esteem, I would probably be starving myself right now. That's exactly what is happening to other women all over this country."

How many people (in the general populace) never heard that the Terri Shiavo, the right wing icon of the "right to life" last year, was in that coma as a result of her bulimia?

We can't just let it slide when the media does this. I know I do try to tune it out because there's only so much ugliness one can take. But we have to call media outlets whenever they use that kind of hate speech based on people's physical appearance. We have to do this for our daughters.

Alternate link for comments

Happy Groundhog Day

This is a picture of "Buckeye Chuck" courtesy of the web site of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.

He's Ohio's "official" groundhog. See Groundhog Central here, for a list of more groundhogs of renown--the most famous being "Punxatawney Phil".

More about Buckeye Chuck at Ohio History Central:

From late September until early April, Buckeye Chuck spends his time hibernating. On February 2, against his will, Chuck emerges from his sleep to predict the weather.

Dang. Poor Chuck. I hate it when I have to emerge from my sleep against my will, so I kinda feel for him, you know?

In fact, I need to do that in the morning to go to work, so I'm signing off for now. Have a great day, everyone.

Alternate link for comments

Lonely Activists

Click the image above to see a larger version

We activists certainly lost a great mentor with the passing of Molly Ivins. Her syndicated column was a breath of fresh air in our local Rockford IL paper. As I stood on a street corner with my peace signs, I knew that Molly appreciated my efforts. We never draw anyone famous to our rallies, just teachers, farmers, mothers and librarians.

Thank you Molly for knowing our efforts were worthwhile. We will carry on for you in IL, VT, OH, WA, NH, and the rest of the small places around America.

Remembering Molly Ivins
John Nichols Washington Correspondent, The Nation

Molly Ivins always said she wanted to write a book about the lonely experience of East Texas civil rights campaigners to be titled No One Famous Ever Came. While the television screens and newspapers told the stories of the marches, the legal battles and the victories of campaigns against segregation in Alabama and Mississippi, Ivins recalled, the foes of Jim Crow laws in the region where she came of age in the 1950s and '60s often labored in obscurity without any hope that they would be joined on the picket lines by Nobel Peace Prize winners, folk singers, Hollywood stars or senators.

And Ivins loved those righteous strugglers all the more for their willingness to carry on.

The warmest-hearted populist ever to pick up a pen with the purpose of calling the rabble to the battlements, Ivins understood that change came only when some citizen in some off-the-map town passed a petition, called a Congressman or cast an angry vote to throw the bums out. -------

Her readers cheered that November 9, 2006, column, as they did everything Molly wrote. And the cheers came loudest from those distant corners of Kansas and Mississippi where, often, her words were the only dissents that appeared in the local papers during the long period of diminished discourse following 9/11. For the liberal faithful in Boise and Biloxi and Beaumont, she was a lifeline--

For the people in the places where no one famous ever came, Molly Ivins arrived a couple of times a week in the form of columns that told the local rabble-rousers that they were the true patriots, that they damn well better keep pitching fits about the war and the Patriot Act and economic inequality, and that they should never apologize for defending "those highest and best American ideas" contained in the Bill of Rights---

She also told them, even when she was battling cancer and Karl Rove, that they should relish the lucky break of their consciences and their conflicts. Speaking truth to power is the best job in any democracy, she explained. It took her to towns across this great yet battered land to say: "So keep fightin' for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't you forget to have fun doin' it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin' ass and celebratin/ the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was."

P.S. from Renee: Thanks to floridagal for pointing us to Howard Dean's remarks about Molly Ivins (I looked myself, but hadn't been able to find them). And be sure to see Charlie's comment here.

Also, this post at Firedoglake has links to all the posts they have done on "Traitorgate" (the Valerie Plame leak).

And puddle has a Tanner update on her blog.

Alternate link for comments

"Whitey Gras"

From last night's Daily Show. Larry Wilmore, the "Daily Show Senior Black Historian", offers some thoughts on Black History Month.

Larry Wilmore: Okay, first of all Jon, relax. It's not Black History Month yet. We all have, oh, about 45 minutes to blow off some steam before we bow our heads in solemn reverence for Harriet Tubman and the Tuskegee Airmen.

Jon Stewart: Larry, I don't think you should undersell the contributions of the Underground Road and Black pilots in World War II--I think it's obviously worth taking time to commemorate these achievements.

Larry Wilmore: Don't let me stop you.

Jon Stewart: Larry, I feel stupid. Don't you feel that Black History Month serves a purpose?

Larry Wilmore: Yes...the purpose of making up for centuries of oppression with 28 days of trivia. You know, I'd rather we got casinos.

Jon Stewart: Larry, perhaps I'm not in a great position here, but I don't think it's trivia. I think it's important.

Larry Wilmore: Okay, name the important stuff.

Jon Stewart: Well, like you were saying... Harriet Tubman. And the...Tuskegee Airmen.

Larry Willmore: Okay....

Jon Stewart: ...and the...fellow who invented the peanut. And the heart...operation man.

Larry Wilmore: Right, okay. Now we're at February 5. By the 8th we'll be down to the Wayans brothers. And not even the famous ones--Zeppo!

Jon Stewart: Larry, what are you suggesting that we do?

Larry Wilmore: Let's be honest. Black History Month is a drag, okay? White people have to pretend to care about Black people, Black people have to pretend to care about history. It's a lose-lose, okay? I'm suggesting the real celebration should be tonight--Black History Month Eve. We've got 43 more minutes, so all the party people need to get on the dance floor!

Jon Stewart: What are you talking about?!
Larry Willmore: Jon, let's do what the Catholics do with Lent. Before it starts, we'll throw a huge party with a bunch of parades! I don't know, we'll call it--"Whitey Gras".

Jon Stewart: What would people do at this "Whitey Gras"?

Larry Willmore: Well, hopefully, show us their t*ts! And not the National Geographic type--believe me, we'll get our fill of that next month!

Hopefully no one finds this terribly offensive. It's just that it made *me* laugh out loud, and maybe some others who don't have cable or can't view videos will enjoy it too. There's been a lot of sadness and anxiety lately, and it felt really good to laugh.

Alternate link for comments

Troop surge to be double what Bush claimed

Just saw this story on AmericaBlog:

BREAKING: Bush "surge" likely sending DOUBLE the number of troops to Iraq - 35,000 to 48,000 - NOT 21,000

That post references this entry on DefenseTech.org

President Bush and his new military chiefs have been saying for nearly a month that they would "surge" an additional 21,500 troops to Iraq, in a last, grand push to quell the violence in Baghdad and in Anbar Province. But a new study by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office says the real troop increase could be as high as 48,000 -- more than double the number the President initially said.

Can we *please* impeach him now?

Alternate link for comments

Blogger trouble

Demetrius tried to access this blog this morning and got an error message. I tried opening the page from my phone and got the same thing. Tried checking two of my other blogs, and they wouldn't open either. I checked out the Blogger Help group and the problem seems to be affecting a *lot* of blogs, but not all of them. Here's one message that jives with what I got:

The message is "We're sorry, but we were unable to complete your request" and a code: bx-vjhbsj.

Just FYI to anyone else having trouble with a Blogger account. I'll update if I learn anything else.

If anyone knows the e-mail address for Blogger help, please share it. It seems to be a well-kept secret.

By the way, I was able to view my blogs again by going into the template and clicking "save changes". Once I discovered that my blogs weren't showing up if you tried to view them, but did show up if I logged into my dashboard, I figured I should save me template code to a text file offline "just in case". Anyway, after I clicked "save changes" (even though I had not actually *made* any changes) I was able to get this blog to work. Tried the same thing with my other blogs, but still got the error message. After refreshing a couple times, those blogs showed up again as well.

Alternate link for comments

Hope

Thought these would be some good lyrics to share in a late night open thread. From the Dixie Chicks album "Taking the Long Way"

Sunday morning, I heard the preacher say
Thou shall not kill
I don't wanna, hear nothin' else, about killin'
And that it's God's will
Cuz our children are watching us
They put their trust in us
They're gonna be like us
So let's learn from our history
And do it differently

CHORUS:
I hope
For more love, more joy and laughter
I hope
We'll have more than we'll ever need
I hope
We'll have more happy ever afters
I hope
We can all live more fearlessly
And we can lose all the pain and misery
I hope, I hope

For anyone looking for updates, Kimmy checked in again here.

Alternate link for comments

In honor of Molly Ivins

Photo we took of Molly when she spoke at DeanFest in 2005

I was saddened to learn that Molly Ivins died today. I'm sure that much will be written in tribute to her, but the best thing I can think to do right now is to post her recent words about Bush's proposed escalation in Iraq. May we all continue to fight the good fight in Molly's honor.

A surge is not acceptable to the people in this country -- we have voted overwhelmingly against this war in polls (about 80 percent of the public is against escalation, and a recent Military Times poll shows only 38 percent of active military want more troops sent) and at the polls. We know this is wrong. The people understand, the people have the right to make this decision, and the people have the obligation to make sure our will is implemented.

Congress must work for the people in the resolution of this fiasco. Ted Kennedy's proposal to control the money and tighten oversight is a welcome first step. And if Republicans want to continue to rubber-stamp this administration's idiotic "plans" and go against the will of the people, they should be thrown out as soon as possible, to join their recent colleagues.
...
We are the people who run this country. We are the deciders. And every single day, every single one of us needs to step outside and take some action to help stop this war. Raise hell. Think of something to make the ridiculous look ridiculous. Make our troops know we're for them and trying to get them out of there. Hit the streets to protest Bush's proposed surge. If you can, go to the peace march in Washington on January 27. We need people in the streets, banging pots and pans and demanding, "Stop it, now!"

Click here for the rest.

Alternate link for comments

Wednesday evening links

I'm starting a new fulltime project next week, but I had a half day of training today and will have a full day on Friday. Anyway, I haven't had time to read and fully digest the stories of the day, but will post some of the links that stood out to me. Feel free to post links of your own in the comments, or to post excerpts from the articles I link if there's something you think merits extra attention.

Big Brother is Watching You. Yes, YOU.

B-B-B-Bye-den Apparently he's been committing some verbal gaffes. But we should give him the benefit of the doubt, right? Since he's so quick to come to Howard Dean's defense when need be. Oh wait...

No, that was not an important story to link to. Pure schadenfreude. Sorry. I'll be sure to add some more useful/worthwhile links to counterbalance that.

Update: Working my way around the tubes, I see that this has actually gotten quite a bit of attention, and Obama has responded. So I'm posting Biden's actual remark and Barack Obama's response:

Joe Biden (D-MBNA)

“I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,” he said. “I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”

Barack Obama (via Digby)

I didn't take Senator Biden's comments personally, but obviously they are historically inaccurate. After all, we've had presidential candidates like Jesse jackson, Shirley Chisholm, Carol Mosely Braun and Al Sharpton. They gave a voice to many important issues through their campaigns and no one would call them inarticulate.

Once again, if you want updates on the Scooter Libby trial, you'll want to check out today's posts at Firedoglake.

From Rep. Louise Slaughter: Slaughter Condemns Military Equipment Shortages as Waste Persists

Via AmericaBlog: Senate agrees to minimum wage increase, Republicans force even more tax cuts for business

Here's a Kos diary by John Conyers: Congress Is No Longer Silent

Today marks the first hearing I will conduct in the Judiciary Committee since taking over as Chairman and this feels like a momentous occasion.

Our country has been run, far too long, by an Administration that seeks to rule in secrecy. The Bush White House has ignored our founding fathers’ separation of powers, claiming an ever increasing scope of authority in direct conflict with the constitution.

For the past six years Congress has been silent, watching idly as its powers are usurped.

No longer.

Click here for the rest.

Here's a Kos diary that says Clark is running. Doesn't seem official yet, but apparently it will be official on Friday.

Via Booman Tribune: Feingold's Iraq Redeployment Act of 2007

Alternate link for comments

Kimmy update

Last night got a new message from Kimmy via MySpace. She has been diagnosed with gestational diabetes (which I think she told us in the comments earlier). She's supposed to go in to see the doctor again tomorrow, and she hopes they induce labor at that time. Because of the baby's size, it may be a c-section. (Kimmy notes that the idea of a big baby doesn't phase her, since Mina was 10 pounds.

Light a candle for Kimmy here, if you wish.

Alternate link for comments

Olbermann on Bush's SOTU claims of thwarting terrorism

Keith Olbermann did another special comment on tonight's Countdown--this one on the counter-terror claims Bush made in his State of the Union speech

I am indebted to David Swanson, press secretary for Dennis Kucinich’s 2004 presidential campaign, who has blogged about the dubious 96 words in Mr. Bush’s address this year and who has concluded that of the four counter-terror claims the president made, he went 0-for-4.

Click here for more. Update: Crooks and Liars has the video (Thanks for the link, jc.)

Different topic, but worth front-paging. Sadly, Molly Ivins seems to be losing her fight with cancer. Light a candle for her here. And read her excellent Stand up against the surge piece here.

Photo we took of Molly when she spoke at DeanFest in 2005

Alternate link for comments

Just *too* easy...

From the department of, "Sometimes, they make it *too* easy...", Alan brings us this from Political Wire:

President Bush's critics couldn't have planned it better themselves. According to Washington Wire, the White House has a new executive pastry chef, Bill Yosses, who also happens to be the author of Desserts for Dummies.

Obligatory jab--I imagine a book about preparing desserts for dummies would include some certain cautions, such as, "When making a fruit salad, be sure to cut grapes in quarters so as to avoid a choking hazard."

Alternate link for comments

King George is at it again

From a story in today's New York Times

President Bush has signed a directive that gives the White House much greater control over the rules and policy statements that the government develops to protect public health, safety, the environment, civil rights and privacy.

In an executive order published last week in the Federal Register, Mr. Bush said that each agency must have a regulatory policy office run by a political appointee, to supervise the development of rules and documents providing guidance to regulated industries. The White House will thus have a gatekeeper in each agency to analyze the costs and the benefits of new rules and to make sure the agencies carry out the president’s priorities.

Check out Digby for some commentary on this story.

Alternate link for comments

Barbaro captured our hearts

SEPTEMBER 19, 2006

Jockey Edgar Prado visits with Barbaro with Dr. Dean Richardson. Photos by Kathy Freeborn.

Upon hearing the sad news that Barbaro had been euthanized, I remembered an article I'd read a while back about why his story captivated people the way it did. I'm going to try to find that specific article, but in the meantime, I'll share this column from the Seattle Post Intelligencer:

Why all the fuss about Barbaro? He was only a horse. Or was he?

Barbaro became a beloved pet for millions of us, and we loved him as if he were part of the family. We cheered when he passed another milestone in his recovery and agonized over his setbacks. Now that he's gone, we're left with a sadness we didn't expect and can't really explain.

Click here for the rest.

Here's an article from Slate:
Remembering Barbaro How America fell in love with a horse.

Light a candle in memory of Barbaro.

Alternate link for comments

Monday again already?

Ari Fleischer is scheduled to testify today. Check in at Firedoglake for the play-by-play.

jc has some new Al Gore designs. (Demetrius, as I mentioned earlier, has put up a lot of new designs lately, not many of them being political.)

Finally, via AmericaBlog, I just learned about a new web site called The Real McCain.

It isn't pretty. Please watch this video. It's a trailer for an upcoming film on John McCain, and it's simply devastating. It's all his own words. Then his other words that contradict his words. Again, and again, and again.

Alternate link for comments

Open Thread

It's been a while since we've had a baby panda update, hasn't it? Here's the latest picture of Mei Lan.


And, since one can't really *be* off topic in an open thread, here's a new design by Demetrius.

Other new (mostly nonpolitical) designs here.

Alternate link for comments

Douglas Adams on "many to many" communication

This is a fairly lengthy excerpt from a speech by Douglas Adams, but I don't think I can leave any out and give a complete enough picture. It's something I've been thinking about lately, and thought it would be a good thing to share, especially as we try to figure out how to "be the media" rather than being content to let the media talk at us and define reality for us. (Emphases mine.)

Traditionally, we have a bunch of different ways in which we communicate with each other. One way is one-to-one; we talk to each other, have a conversation. Another is one-to-many, which I'm doing at the moment, or someone could stand up and sing a song, or announce we've got to go to war. Then we have many-to-one communication; we have a pretty patchy, clunky, not-really-working version we call democracy, but in a more primitive state I would stand up and say, 'OK, we're going to go to war' and some may shout back 'No we're not!'—and then we have many-to-many communication in the argument that breaks out afterwards!

In this century (and the previous century) we modelled one-to-one communications in the telephone, which I assume we are all familiar with. We have one-to-many communication—boy do we have an awful lot of that; broadcasting, publishing, journalism, etc.—we get information poured at us from all over the place and it's completely indiscriminate as to where it might land. It's curious, but we don't have to go very far back in our history until we find that all the information that reached us was relevant to us and therefore anything that happened, any news, whether it was about something that's actually happened to us, in the next house, or in the next village, within the boundary or within our horizon, it happened in our world and if we reacted to it the world reacted back. It was all relevant to us, so for example, if somebody had a terrible accident we could crowd round and really help.

Nowadays, because of the plethora of one-to-many communication we have, if a plane crashes in India we may get terribly anxious about it but our anxiety doesn't have any impact. We're not very well able to distinguish between a terrible emergency that's happened to somebody a world away and something that's happened to someone round the corner. We can't really distinguish between them any more, which is why we get terribly upset by something that has happened to somebody in a soap opera that comes out of Hollywood and maybe less concerned when it's happened to our sister. We've all become twisted and disconnected and it's not surprising that we feel very stressed and alienated in the world because the world impacts on us but we don't impact the world. Then there's many-to-one; we have that, but not very well yet and there's not much of it about. Essentially, our democratic systems are a model of that and though they're not very good, they will improve dramatically.

But the fourth, the many-to-many, we didn't have at all before the coming of the Internet, which, of course, runs on fibre-optics. It's communication between us that forms the fourth age of sand. Take what I said earlier about the world not reacting to us when we react to it; I remember the first moment, a few years ago, at which I began to take the Internet seriously. It was a very, very silly thing. There was a guy, a computer research student at Carnegie Mellon, who liked to drink Dr Pepper Light. There was a drinks machine a couple of storeys away from him, where he used to regularly go and get his Dr Pepper, but the machine was often out of stock, so he had quite a few wasted journeys.

Eventually he figured out, 'Hang on, there's a chip in there and I'm on a computer and there's a network running around the building, so why don't I just put the drinks machine on the network, then I can poll it from my terminal whenever I want and tell if I'm going to have a wasted journey or not?' So he connected the machine to the local network, but the local net was part of the Internet—so suddenly anyone in the world could see what was happening with this drinks machine.

Now that may not be vital information but it turned out to be curiously fascinating; everyone started to know what was happening with the drinks machine. It began to develop, because in the chip in the machine didn't just say, 'The slot which has Dr Pepper Light is empty' but had all sorts of information; it said, 'There are 7 Cokes and 3 Diet Cokes, the temperature they are stored at is this and the last time they were loaded was that'. There was a lot of information in there, and there was one really fabulous piece of information: it turned out that if someone had put their 50 cents in and not pressed the button, i.e. if the machine was pregnant, then you could, from your computer terminal wherever you were in the world, log on to the drinks machine and drop that can! Somebody could be walking down the corridor when suddenly, 'bang!' — there was a Coca-Cola can! What caused that? — well obviously somebody 5,000 miles away!

Now that was a very, very silly, but fascinating, story and what it said to me was that this was the first time that we could reach back into the world. It may not be terribly important that from 5,000 miles away you can reach into a University corridor and drop a Coca-Cola can but it's the first shot in the war of bringing to us a whole new way of communicating.

Click here for the full speech, which was given by Douglas Adams in 1998.

By the way, I've crossposted my thoughts about Hillary and the media at Daily Kos, Booman Tribune, My Left Wing, and ePluribus Media, in case anyone would like to check out some of the responses.

Alternate link for comments

Bloggers on the radio

Just saw this posted at Firedoglake and wanted to give a heads-up for anyone who might be interested:

Catch Firedoglake's Jane Hamsher and Marcy Wheeler, author of "Anatomy of Deceit," streaming on Cynthia Black's radio show here as they discuss the Libby trial. This runs today at 2:00 PM EST/11:00 AM PST.)

Alternate link for comments

Astral music for a Sunday morning

By Subway


I found this by accident and thought I'd share. This is the type of stretching of the boundaries of awareness that I'm so excited about. Here are some of the free tracks from his website.

Inner Planes

Music for Healing

Music for Ascension

As you rise to this beautiful Sunday Morning, enjoy these wonderful musical treasures.

Namaste.



***
(Side note. I know the picture is large, but the artwork is so unique I just had to highlight it.)

Note from Renee: Here's a link to Oscar's Word for the Week.

Alternate link for comments

My President

On my way to bed, but didn't feel like leaving the Hillary post up for Sunday morning.

I want to vote my hopes, not my fears in 2008. So I leave you with this picture of Al Gore, the man who should have been president, and who still should become our president. Someone who, in the wake of Katrina, did what he could as a private citizen to help these people.

This is *my* president.



Alternate link for comments