Author: swanksalot

A few interesting links for September 9th through September 10th:

• Creative Commons – My photos are licensed (mostly) under the following restrictions, is it really so hard to link to my when using my photos?
  "Attribution. You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).
  Share Alike. If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one.
  For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work. The best way to do this is with a link to this web page"
• Plastic Bag Ban in Westport Connecticut – more plastic bag bans, this time in Westport Connecticut.
  (plus this post used my photo)
• Obama is RESTful » Idol Hands: Days in the Life of an Alpha Geek – "I spent some time this morning examining the technology policies of Barack Obama and John McCain. Policies aside, I was immediately struck by the differences between their web sites. So what do the two sites say about the candidates?

  Two Different Platforms
  The candidates’ platforms could not be more different: JohnMcCain(.com) relies on corporate backing for his web site, which runs on Microsoft Internet Information Server and uses ASP. Barack Obama, in contrast, relies on widespread contributions from the community, in the form of open-source web technologies (PHP and Apache)."

Some additional reading September 6th from 17:26 to 21:05:

• Why they won't let Sarah Palin talk to us – Disarranging Mine – "Anyway, I think I know the real reason they don't want Sarah Palin talking to the press. It's their design that if she's not sitting in front of a camera giving spontaneous, unprepared answers to a reporter's questions for the whole world to hear, we, the voters, just won't focus on the issues. Out of sight, out of mind. And with issues out of the public discussion, it'll come down to personalities. And while everyone says they don't want an election based on personalities, I believe the McCain/Palin campaign really does. I think they think they've got a winner with her personality."

  Elections shouldn't have (much) to do with personality, but the McCain team is implying that's all they've got.

• Restaurant Rapid City SD South Dakota + Fine Dining – City Guide – Hmm, at least I see some craft beers at one of these places

Some additional reading September 6th from 00:14 to 14:20:

• Gapers Block: A/C, Art + Culture = Cool – My photo of Mary Broggers Haymarket Riot Memorial featured at Gapers Block A/C yesterday…
• A tangled Web at the RNC – Clicked – msnbc.com – I can name one piece of legislation Obama's had a hand in and, at least on the Internet, it is part of a relatively famous story. What's more, it actually came up last night at the Republican National Convention, apparently completely unnoticed in the glare of Palin's performance: The Coburn-Obama Transparency Bill a.k.a. The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006.

  Carly Fiorina, former Hewlett-Packard chairwoman and vociferous McCain advocate mentioned this in her address to the convention: "In his first year in office, he [McCain] will subject every government agency to a top to bottom review and post the results on the Internet for all Americans to see."

Some additional reading September 5th from 11:41 to 22:26:

• Bill Moyers Journal . ANDREW BACEVICH – "Ronald Reagan as the "modern prophet of profligacy. The politician who gave moral sanction to the empire of consumption."
  and
  "There is nothing in the preamble to the Constitution which defines the purpose of the United States of America as remaking the world in our image, which I view as a fool's errand. There is nothing in the preamble of the Constitution that ever imagined that we would embark upon an effort, as President Bush has defined it, to transform the Greater Middle East. This region of the world that incorporates something in order of 1.4 billion people."
• Talking Points Memo | Green Lawn Mystery Solved! – "one of the tech geeks charged with setting up the audio/visual bells and whistles for the evening was tasked with getting pictures of Walter Reed Army Medical Center but goofed and got this instead. At first I thought, No, that's ridiculous. This is a major political party with big time professionals putting this together. Nothing is left to chance. I mean, is this the RNC or a scene out Spinal Tap or Waiting for Guffman? I still have a bit of a hard time believing they're quite that incompetent. But when you figure in what appears to be the utter lack of any logic for this school being behind McCain and the fact that it has 'Walter Reed' in its name, I'm really not sure you can discount this possibility."

A few interesting links for September 4th through September 5th:

• Austinist: Las Manitas Closed Forever – That's a real shame, I've eaten at this place hundreds of times.
• Thursday Night Convention Speeches Live Blog – " What does this line mean?: "I fell in love with my country when I was a prisoner in someone else's." Did he really not love his country before that? Sure sounds that way. Most Americans I know love their country. A lot. Even without being a prisoner in someone else's."
• No Shame – "One of the most enduring taboos in American politics, the airing of graphic images from the September 11 attacks in a partisan context, died today. It was nearly seven years old.
  The informal prohibition, which had been occasionally threatened by political ads in recent years, was pronounced dead at approximately 7:40 CST, when a video aired before delegates at the Republican National Convention included slow-motion footage of a plane striking the World Trade Center, the towers' subsequent collapse, and smoke emerging from the Pentagon.

  The September 11 precedent was one of the few surviving campaign-season taboos. It is survived by direct comparisons of one's opponents to Hitler."
  yes, and they cheered 9-11, keep it classy, RNC

• Brendan Calling » Blog Archive » Thin-Skinned at McCain HQ – transcript of a hilarious phone call to McCain HQ
  "And I went down the list I posted here and here going through the achievements of giants like Franklin and Paine and the medals doled out by pipsqueaks like George H.W. and George W.

  “I think it’s pretty clear that our country was founded by community organizers,” I said, “and Mrs. Palin denigrates their memory and their patriotism by saying things like ‘community organizers have no real responsibilities.’ That’s bad enough, but even worse she’s disrespecting both a sitting president and his father. So why should I vote for someone like that, who looks down on the things my neighbors and I do for out community?"

• Can The Dems Throw A Hissy Fit by dday… – "Let's see if the media will react to a Democratic hissy fit. Because there's ample opportunity. Roland Martin laid this out immediately. Community organizers, which were part of George H.W. Bush's thousand points of light, provide comfort, help save jobs, create opportunity. In a nation ripped asunder by right-wing policies, they are often the last line of defense. Leaders of this nation like Martin Luther King, Cesar Chavez, Susan B. Anthony, even Thomas Paine and Sam Adams, were community organizers. …Jesus was a community organizer and Pilate was a governor.

  In the largely white confines of the Republican National Convention, the phrase is a slur, like "ghetto hustler," but lots and lots of people today derive great benefit from community groups, including church groups, and the help they provide ordinary people. …Think bake sale."

• The professionals speak about the OKC Thunder logo – Clay Bennett is an ignoramus as well as a liar. Horrible graphic design, horrible name. I hope the team flounders for twenty years, never once making the playoffs. Oklahoma City Thunder? Lame.
• Joe Biden says Barack Obama might pursue criminal charges against Bush administration if elected | – ""If there has been a basis upon which you can pursue someone for a criminal violation, they will be pursued – not out of vengeance, not out of retribution, out of the need to preserve the notion that no one, no attorney general, no president — no one is above the law."

  Obama sounded a similar note in April, vowing that if elected, he would ask his attorney general to initiate a prompt review of Bush-era actions to distinguish between possible "genuine crimes" and "really bad policies".

• Rudy 9-11 is a Megalomaniac – "Confirmed: Rudy ran way long in his convention speech, forcing planners to nix a planned soft-focus bio video of Palin that was set to run before she spoke.

  You can view the Palin vid here."
  But I don't know why you'd want to, unless you are a masochist.

• TheHill.com – Westmoreland calls Obama ‘uppity' – "Georgia Republican Rep. Lynn Westmoreland used the racially-tinged term "uppity" to describe Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama Thursday.

  Westmoreland was discussing vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin's speech with reporters outside the House chamber and was asked to compare her with Michelle Obama.

  "Just from what little I’ve seen of her and Mr. Obama, Sen. Obama, they're a member of an elitist-class individual that thinks that they're uppity," Westmoreland said.

  Asked to clarify that he used the word “uppity,” Westmoreland said, “Uppity, yeah.”

• Sarah Palin Bush Cheney Rove’s speech last night – "The talking heads on my tv are telling me Sarah Palin was very funny last night, and I have to agree. The funniest line in Palin’s speech was when she said something like “Let me tell you exactly what the mayor of a small town does,” and then she didn’t."
• Romney Gore Jet – Mittens is a liar:
  "ThinkProgress contacted Gore spokesperson Kalee Kreider, who replied, “Gore doesn’t own a jet.”
• Media Matters – The sun ain't gonna shine anymore … – "Speaking of imputing non-existent feelings on liberal voters, Ron Fournier's bureau pushed this story out on Tuesday:

  Many liberals are belittling the choice [of Sarah Palin], suggesting that as a mother of five children — including an infant with Down syndrome — she has neither the time nor the experience to become vice president.

  Atrios challenged the reporter, Tom Raum, to name one liberal who suggested any such thing. So far as I'm aware, Raum has not. But MoveOn has started another campaign based on that story as well. Have a look."

• Media Matters – ABC, CBS aired no analysis from Dems during Day 2 of RNC coverage, despite airing analysis by Republicans during Day 2 of DNC coverage – Librul Media, my arse.
  "Neither ABC nor CBS aired analysis from Democrats, Democratic strategists, or progressive media figures during their live coverage of the second day of the Republican National Convention on September 2 (the first day of the networks' live coverage of the convention). By contrast, both networks aired analysis from Republicans and conservatives, as well as from Democrats and progressives, during coverage of the second day of the Democratic National Convention on August 26."

Some additional reading September 3rd from 22:16 to 23:02:

• That’s it – They are trying to lose – "You know what’s fun? Googling ”McCain doesn’t know”. I first picked up that this was a tactic when McCain claimed he didn’t know if condoms could prevent the transmission of HIV. At what point, I realized that if you asked him, “Will this apple I’m holding fall to the ground should I let it go?”, he might plead ignorance while wondering to himself, “Fuck, are the fundies now denying the theory of gravity? Is that why I’m getting this question?”
• Keep Streaming Videos, the Tubes Are Fine: Report Finds – "Pay no attention to rumors that the internet is getting full: the internet can eat 50 eggs.

  In fact, over the last 12 months, international net bandwidth in backbone grew 62 percent, while internet traffic grew only 53 percent and filled only 43 percent of the tubes' capacity at peak times, according to a new report released by bandwidth-monitoring firm TeleGeography."

Some additional reading September 3rd from 19:21 to 19:26:

• Media Matters – Gimme that old-time religion … – "reading between the lines, didn't Lieberman address the Republican convention — shortly after the sitting Republican president — and call the Republican Party a bunch of corrupt, cheating, tax-wasting do-nothings? That seems awful juicy to me. Reporters should ask other Republicans if they agree with Lieberman, and if not, if they still want him by McCain's side this fall. They should also ask Lieberman to expand those critiques, and why, if he believes them, he is still supporting the Republican presidential ticket in November. (Also, by "taken on," he means what exactly?)"
• Salon Newsreal | A joke too bad to print? – "Though no tape of McCain's quip has yet emerged, this is what he reportedly said:

  "Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly?
  Because her father is Janet Reno."
  The joke may be crude, but it pales in comparison with the published details surrounding the presidential sex scandal. McCain's two-liner conveys some interesting insights into what he considers humorous (lesbianism, a young woman's physical appearance), particularly since it was delivered to a Republican crowd. Remember, this is the party that champions pro-family values."

  Keep it classy, John McCain. Of course that was the old, maverick McCain, and he would never say such a thing now without approval of Karl Rove and Rush Limbaugh.