The Caucus Blog: Escape From Camelot
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Every four years, it seems, Democrats try to transform someone into a Kennedy, almost always with disappointing results.
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Tycho:  With PAX coming up this weekend (!!!), we didn't really have time on Friday to invest in Virgil's Wikiscanner - that mystical oracle that takes a raw IP range and then excretes a list of that organization's Wikipedia edits.  This is the pulsing, possibly Martian device that dished up last week's awesome Electronic Arts edits.    I wasn't sure if we should feel sorry for them or not - now that EA is situated in the number two slot, does that make them the scrappy underdog? - but I quickly realized it probably doesn't matter.  They can come right out and say "Yes, we edit it all the time," mischaracterize the nature of the edits, and by the time it's on the second page the events in question never happened.  People don't remember anything these days that isn't on the first page of their feed aggregators. In any case, the entire affair is talking place  on Wikipedia.  Kudzu will grow over the propaganda soon enough.    Though time was indeed in short supply, we did fritter some portion of it pawing through ancient email headers, scraping for filth on old enemies.  Or enemies with whom we have resumed talks.  Or enemies who are now friends!  Even people I hope to make enemies in the future by my careless commentary must fall beneath the scanner's baleful eye.    Like a chugging trawler, we hauled up net after net of treasure onto the deck, sifting it on hands and knees.  I'd never expose it, of course - sparking a desperate arms race to find self-serving commentary is a conflict I'm likely to lose.  And with the deep catalogue of nemeses we've inspired worldwide (and even below the world, in the warrens of the pale Gambrya, where hate is eternal) it's not what I'd call a fabulous scenario.  For us, at least; no doubt, our foes have already begun their malevolent harvest.
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Tycho:  If my earlier experiences with the co-operative campaign had not endured so, there would be no question - fifteen dollars is quite simply not a value that men of reason would associate with the GRAW Map Pack.  But, drawing on that idea, let us move forward as though the powerful fraternal bonds forged in Campaign One were sufficient to assuage price related suffering to some degree.  I realize that this moves our narrative into the realm of fiction.
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"On Tuesday, Cheney, serving in his role as president of the Senate, appeared in the chamber for a photo session. A chance meeting with Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (Vt.), the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, became an argument about Cheney's ties to Halliburton Co., an international energy services corporation, and President Bush's judicial nominees. The exchange ended when Cheney offered some crass advice.  'Fuck yourself,' said the man who is a heartbeat from the presidency."  Wonder what the moral majority has to say about this?  It isn't profanity!  Its a freedom praise!
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The middle of winter generally finds me wondering more than wandering. Oh, I still get out, if only for a Sunday afternoon drive just to make sure it's all still there. If you haven't tried it, take a drive past some of the haunts where you hunkered down in last fall.
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While majoring in scandal in 2007, I still managed to get out and about. As usual, many of my epic moments took place far from the arena, from favorite places like Kentucky and London.
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Comment is free: Priyamvada Gopal:  Rushdie's knighthood is a reward for abandoning the anti-establishment stance he once espoused.
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With all the hoopla over Bush and Kerry, some of you may not have been paying close attention to the other races going on in this loaded US political season. I've read a good dozen or so Senate outlooks, and my blurry eyes and spinning brain kept getting lost in all the numbers and losing track of who, ultimately, was likely to control the Senate on November third. So I made my very own Senate outlook to figure it out (or add further confusion, depending on what you think of my predictions). The bad news is, we probably won't know who controls the Senate on November third. The good news, if you're a Democrat (or a person who loves one), is that my best guess at this point is that when the dust settles, Democrats will probably be in control by the very slimmest possible margin. Shock! But everyone knows the Dems have no chance of taking either house of Congress. I think everyone hasn't been paying attention. Read on for my rundown.
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Today Jonathan Moore  and I headed over to LinuxWorld after lunch to see what kind of cool hardware and Linux hacks they had on the expo floor.  Only $15 to get in the door so I figure why not.  I'm a bit of a privacy freak.  When you're trading some security for liberty there are situations where it *might* be worth it.  In situations of extreme violence having the police by your side might be a good idea.    I think we can all agree that trading liberty for *nothing* isn't worth it. This country was *founded* on liberty after the British were abusing their colonial powers.  Every true American should cherish their liberty and think long and hard about just turning them over for no reason.  ...
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Hang on, the political thrill ride is about to begin. Are you ready? I know I am. And it's gonna be a hoot.
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My rÃÂ¿sumÃÂ¿ is pretty short when it comes to endurance events. There was that 23- hour nonstop drive from New Hampshire to South Carolina back in 1987, and I vaguely remember a St. Patrick's Day drinking contest at the University of Maryland that lasted quite a while (thanks, Norman).
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I spent much of this afternoon in a mandatory (for poll workers) four hour training class on the Hart InterCivic eSlate voting system, soon to be in use in elections in my home county. (Hart InterCivic is a privately held firm out of Houston, specializing in election equipment and in software products for county records offices). Contrary to my previous impression, the machines are not touch screen machines, although they share some similarities.  I went into the class skeptical; I have been a critic of what I percieve as an unseemly rush to adopt insecure electronic voting systems. I emerged guardedly optimistic; the systems appear, from what I can tell, to be reasonably secure against vote manipulation by people who are not part of the election staff, and they appear to provide approximately the same level of security against election office malfeasance that paper ballots do. At the end of the day, if the election staff wants to tamper, they can; but that was true with paper ballots as well. That risk can be mitigated by election office procedures intended to mitigate it; in San Mateo County's case, those procedures have in some important regards not yet been established, as I will discuss below.
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Don't arch your brow. It isn't as scandalous as you thoughtÂ
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You can do a pretty good job of following the politics leading up to Tuesday's New Hampshire primary from television in rain-soaked California. CNN has an excellent program running all afternoon called The Ballot Bowl. The format is really simple. They have cameras following the candidates and they're broadcasting their town hall stump speeches. They're authentic, based on my experience in the campaign for the 2004 New Hampshire primary. The NY Times has an excellent resource (no RSS feed apparently) that lists the candidates' schedules. It's also possible to import the schedule into Google Calendar as an overlay. ABCNews is hosting two 90-minute debates, one for each party, tonight starting at 4PM Pacific. Tomorrow Fox News is hosting a controversial Republican debate, which the Republican Party has withdrawn from because they won't let Ron Paul participate. He's polling third among the Republican candidates in New Hampshire. For once the Republicans got it right.  In the very limited time betw Iowa and New Hampshire there's a lot of action and drama. Romney all of a sudden is shamlessly the candidate for change. There was an Ahmadinejad moment when I thought for sure he was doing parody, but he was serious. He's changed his attire, but his pitch is still the sleazy VP-Sales who got promoted to CEO. Change change change, I can change too, just watch. Please die now. I don't think anyone stands for Romney.  Giuliani and Thompson are still nowhere to be seen. Edwards is doing a good job of keeping the game on. McCain is earnest and honest, but he's old and small and tired.  Obama has the aura of a front-runner and Hillary seems to believe that if only Iraq were still the big issue she would be where Obama is. Even so, according to recent polls she's likely to win New Hampshire. A lot of my friends on Twitter dismiss Huckabee, and to be clear, I could not vote for a Republican this year, no matter who their candidate is, but he is a fantastic American personality. Elections are all about feelings, not policies or positions or even records as the pundits insist. Who you vote for is a function of how you feel about the country and the world in relation to yourself. The candidate who comes closest to validating your feelings is the person you vote for. I think we'll tire of Obama quickly, and we're already tired of HIllary. I think the rational choice for each party, although many disagree, is Edwards and Huckabee because each of them tap into the well of frustration Americans feel about everything. But my guess, which will probably certainly turn out wrong, is that the Dems will nominate Obama and the Reps will nominate Huckabee, and Huck will win.  PS: After writing this, I wonder if George Lakoff would agree. I think I've just used a very Lakoffish process, unwittingly.  PPS: I went to UW-Madison. Bucky Badger is the school mascot. Our favorite cheer and T-shirt said Fuck em Bucky! It occurred to me the same slogan would work for Huckabee. PPPS: Obama? Yo mama!
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Cheney disagrees with Bush. Log Cabin fights for âUnity Platformâ. These are pebbles in the ocean. The Republicans swarming into Manhattan this week are bringing a cynical message.
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For months it was all the rage on the campaign trail. Day after day, stop after stop, the war was the focus of all things presidential. Now it's little more than a distant echo in most stump speeches. Democrats are generally saying little more than, "We should get out as soon as we can." Republicans hard mention it.
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Q I think the MisFits Trail Challenge is a great idea. This is without a doubt the best time to be outside in D.C. My question/request is for Metro/public transportation-accessible hikes. Any ideas?