Thursday, February 01, 2007
I'm not the only one
More from Josh Marshall tonight on the Sabre rattling about Iran: Edge of the Abyss
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
some people just say it better than I ever could
Like the line says, first do no harm. And for the United States as a country, right now, that means doing everything constitutionally, legally and politically possible to limit the president's and even more Vice President Cheney's free hand to shape and execute American foreign policy. Sift it all out and it's that simple. Stop them from doing any more damage. All the rest is commentary and elaboration.Josh Micah Marshall
(Best to read the whole post.)
On the way home I had an idea to create a Website listing each Bush action to disable the separation of powers and the constitution (signing statements, "commander in chief", wiretapping, habeas corpus, torture memo, etc.) using plain english language examples of what the effect each Bush & co. action has had on our constitutional democracy. I even named this imaginary Website: "Dismantling the American Constitutional Democracy" (actually, I think it was catchier than that, I can't remember now.)
Anyway, the idea was to publish a news story, like yesterdays: Bush Directive Increases Sway on Regulation, and then in very plain English, relate what this actually will mean for the average joe and jo-ess.
For example: With this 'directive" President Bush has decided that he is also the decider on what congress has intended laws to mean over the last 231 years. From now on, all the agencies, like the Food and Drug administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, etc., must abide by Bush's understanding of how congress intended to enforce its laws. Which drugs need to be tested? How clean does the air have to be? etc. Bush now believes he can rewrite the rulebook too. How fast can our rules and regulations change? Give it 6 months to a year, and we have a whole new bright and shiny playing field for our corporate citizens. (Ok, I was thinking of making it less partisan and more constitutional, but that is beyond me for tonight.)
Of course I'd have brilliant contributers to actually write said plain english "what this means to you" commentary.
On the way home this evening it seemed like one of those brilliant ideas. I had a lot of energy then. Has someone already done this? - I'd love to see it.
That's about all folks. Not much more to say than that today, and someone else said it for me. Josh: from your blog to God's ears.
Monday, January 29, 2007
New-age pepys-ness with VoodooPad goodness
Ok, this is an experiment, mostly for me, which I am now inflicting on you.
I've been having a grand time playing around with my new toy which is VoodooPad on my Mac (sorry PC users, only for Mac X folk) and having way too much geeky fun. I am sure it can do amazing things that I don't yet do, but if you've ever played around with a wiki even for a little while, you'd glom on to why having a personal system integrated wiki is pretty cool. (It is not integrated enough for my liking, but I guess that is what all the plugins that I do not yet know how to use are for.)
Anyway, to get to the point of why this is an infliction on you dear reader (all 3 of you!) well, it is because I decided to try to track (most) of the articles I read today on my Voodoopad. If this application was truly integrated, I could output from the pad directly into my blog. Perhaps there is a plugin for that, and I just have to find it.
So here goes, most of what I read today, but not work stuff, and not all the random bits that I skimmed. It was an experiment to see what I was reading, and later, to see if VooDooPad helps me find it again. That part of the experiment will have to wait for the future.
Today's reading list for Monday, January 29, 2007
Barbaro Is Euthanized
By DAN GELSTON, AP Sports Writer
Cary Tennis column in Salon.com
WH memo to '08 GOP Senators: "F You."
Into a New World of Librarianship (I wasn't sure if I was all that impressed by this, but oh well.)
Sandy Berman I remember hearing about Sandy during library school, as that would have been about the time of the events in this article. He was (is) a big deal. I'm sure he was a real pill to work with, but with a different management style, things could have worked out amazingly well for the library system. (It did not, they lost a great treasure.)
Ginger~Garlic~Coriander Paste : For Jihva (Allam Vellulli Kottimera Mudda) I think I want to learn to cook everything on this blog.
Book Review BEATRIX POTTER By Nature, an Artist and Children's Author By Elizabeth Hand
Book Review: FLEDGLING By Octavia E. Butler Love at First Bite Humans and vampires try to get along. Reviewed by Ron Charles (A review of the last book by an author whose untimely death saddened me greatly. I just became old and wise enough to enjoy and appreciate Octavia's books.
Silicon Valley Rebounds, Led by Green Technology By LAURIE J. FLYNN
There was a very similar story about these companies I read recently but I have no idea where. Wired? Salon.com? SFGate? One of those anyway. Will be interesting to see if good things happen with these alternative energy companies. (I added them to my (new) companies to watch page on my VooDooPad.
From Google Blog Find and compare local businesses 1/29/2007 08:30:00 PM
Posted by Ronojoy Chakrabarti, Product Manager. I think I've seen these searches before, but here he lists "local" search developments. Interesting. The searches - his list, but I reformatted it to show the actual searches that I did based upon my local preferences:
* Find the location of and driving directions to the Googleplex (or any specific address). Search: 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View CA (Ok, this was his search.)
* Find and compare Mexican restaurants in Alameda, CA search: Mexican restaurants in Alameda, CA
* Get directions to and read reviews about a local eatery / restaurant. search: Chez Panisse Berkeley, CA
* Find movie showtimes for films that are playing in your neighborhood. search: movies San Francisco.
10 Government Hacks By Tim O'Reilly on January 29, 2007 (I didn't have the patience for the actual speech, I think it was taking way too long to download. For another time.)
Our Little Churchills Glenn Greenwald - best blog writing of the day. His posts are consistently amazing. Scary times.
The Unraveling of Dick Cheney By Dan Froomkin Special to washingtonpost.com Monday, January 29, 2007; 12:18 PM (What in the world do we do when our leaders seem to belong in the looney bin?)
Bush Directive Increases Sway on Regulation Be afraid, be very very afraid. Scariest article I read all day.
Law Firms: “The Last Vestige of the Medieval Guild System
Posted by Peter Lattman
This is a link to the WSJ law blog post about the speech. The comments are interesting too. The article is titled "Cisco General Counsel on State of Technology in the Law" but half way down is a critique of the big law firm model.
Hmm, this was a lot of work for basically a list of links I could have done from del.icio.us. Ah well, interesting anyway.
Happy reading....
Update: had to fix some odd link issues - blogger beta is still really beta-ish. Going to have to hand-code all links from now on.... Unless I change platforms, that is.
I've been having a grand time playing around with my new toy which is VoodooPad on my Mac (sorry PC users, only for Mac X folk) and having way too much geeky fun. I am sure it can do amazing things that I don't yet do, but if you've ever played around with a wiki even for a little while, you'd glom on to why having a personal system integrated wiki is pretty cool. (It is not integrated enough for my liking, but I guess that is what all the plugins that I do not yet know how to use are for.)
Anyway, to get to the point of why this is an infliction on you dear reader (all 3 of you!) well, it is because I decided to try to track (most) of the articles I read today on my Voodoopad. If this application was truly integrated, I could output from the pad directly into my blog. Perhaps there is a plugin for that, and I just have to find it.
So here goes, most of what I read today, but not work stuff, and not all the random bits that I skimmed. It was an experiment to see what I was reading, and later, to see if VooDooPad helps me find it again. That part of the experiment will have to wait for the future.
Today's reading list for Monday, January 29, 2007
Barbaro Is Euthanized
By DAN GELSTON, AP Sports Writer
Cary Tennis column in Salon.com
WH memo to '08 GOP Senators: "F You."
Into a New World of Librarianship (I wasn't sure if I was all that impressed by this, but oh well.)
Sandy Berman I remember hearing about Sandy during library school, as that would have been about the time of the events in this article. He was (is) a big deal. I'm sure he was a real pill to work with, but with a different management style, things could have worked out amazingly well for the library system. (It did not, they lost a great treasure.)
Ginger~Garlic~Coriander Paste : For Jihva (Allam Vellulli Kottimera Mudda) I think I want to learn to cook everything on this blog.
Book Review BEATRIX POTTER By Nature, an Artist and Children's Author By Elizabeth Hand
Book Review: FLEDGLING By Octavia E. Butler Love at First Bite Humans and vampires try to get along. Reviewed by Ron Charles (A review of the last book by an author whose untimely death saddened me greatly. I just became old and wise enough to enjoy and appreciate Octavia's books.
Silicon Valley Rebounds, Led by Green Technology By LAURIE J. FLYNN
There was a very similar story about these companies I read recently but I have no idea where. Wired? Salon.com? SFGate? One of those anyway. Will be interesting to see if good things happen with these alternative energy companies. (I added them to my (new) companies to watch page on my VooDooPad.
From Google Blog Find and compare local businesses 1/29/2007 08:30:00 PM
Posted by Ronojoy Chakrabarti, Product Manager. I think I've seen these searches before, but here he lists "local" search developments. Interesting. The searches - his list, but I reformatted it to show the actual searches that I did based upon my local preferences:
* Find the location of and driving directions to the Googleplex (or any specific address). Search: 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View CA (Ok, this was his search.)
* Find and compare Mexican restaurants in Alameda, CA search: Mexican restaurants in Alameda, CA
* Get directions to and read reviews about a local eatery / restaurant. search: Chez Panisse Berkeley, CA
* Find movie showtimes for films that are playing in your neighborhood. search: movies San Francisco.
10 Government Hacks By Tim O'Reilly on January 29, 2007 (I didn't have the patience for the actual speech, I think it was taking way too long to download. For another time.)
Our Little Churchills Glenn Greenwald - best blog writing of the day. His posts are consistently amazing. Scary times.
The Unraveling of Dick Cheney By Dan Froomkin Special to washingtonpost.com Monday, January 29, 2007; 12:18 PM (What in the world do we do when our leaders seem to belong in the looney bin?)
Bush Directive Increases Sway on Regulation Be afraid, be very very afraid. Scariest article I read all day.
Law Firms: “The Last Vestige of the Medieval Guild System
Posted by Peter Lattman
This is a link to the WSJ law blog post about the speech. The comments are interesting too. The article is titled "Cisco General Counsel on State of Technology in the Law" but half way down is a critique of the big law firm model.
Hmm, this was a lot of work for basically a list of links I could have done from del.icio.us. Ah well, interesting anyway.
Happy reading....
Update: had to fix some odd link issues - blogger beta is still really beta-ish. Going to have to hand-code all links from now on.... Unless I change platforms, that is.
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