Blog PoliAnna » 2008

With Jim Webb’s name floating high as a possible Obama running mate, there has been a left wing ecstasy reminiscent of Michael Moore’s dreamy eyed endorsement of Wesley Clark in 04. Wow, we finally have actual General to throw at them, so now who’s really tougher?

Like Clark, Webb isn’t all guns and roses. Much concern has be expressed about his fitness and potential vulnerabilities. Kathy G stated the case against Webb well yesterday on the Yglesias blog. It’s not just his brashness on the campaign trail, or that taking him out of a Red State Senate seat would be strategically stupid, but it’s also his “wingnutty” Republican recent past.

The Senate coalition argument strikes me as the strongest. However brash he may be, veeps and running mates play the roll of attach dog (think Cheney and Agnew) in the modern presidential beauty contest, and Webb does this very well. And in a related matter, he gets major points for standing up for our troops while sticking it to McCain, Bush and Co. on the GI Bill.

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— David V
4:49 pm

5/16/2008

Scoring 270

Is Paul Maslin talking about electoral votes or bowling?
Because I think Obama could get to 270 electoral votes, but there’s no way he could bowl it.

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— David V
10:38 am

Even More Distance from Bush

Jamie Rubin writes in today’s Washington Post on the hypocrisy of McCain’s harsh criticism of Obama. It seems Ol’ Straight Talk advocated negotiating with Hamas after their electoral victory two years ago.

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— David V
9:36 am

5/15/2008

HT 4

The Edwards endorsement does seem like the beginning of the end for Hillary. Here’s how it will probably play out:

Obama will get the nomination by the end of this month, but Hillary will not give up in anyway. It will become apparent that she is in fact a Terminator sent from the future. She will brutally kill John Edwards and Ted Kennedy with an electromagnetic health care policy pulse wave, which sucks the air and blood out of its victims causing a slow and cinematic asphyxiation.

Suddenly, as she’s about to terminate the one candidate who would have eventually saved the future by restoring hope, Arnold Schwarzenegger crashes through a wall. It turns out that he really is a terminator from the future sent back not to save Kalyfornia, but to stop HT 4 (Hillary Terminator) from destroying the future of hope.

In the ensuing fight, they crash through walls, overturn trucks on highways and destroy highway ramps and airplanes. Just as it looks like HT 4 is about to terminate the Gubernator by retroactively revoking his citizenship (through a wireless interface with Teledyne Cybernetic Systems), Barack Obama appears and saves him by hacking into the democratic donor database and terminating her funding. She immediately shuts down and Judgment Day is forestalled, but not permanently prevented. We know she will be back.

Really sent from the future?

Can she be stopped?

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— David V
11:54 am

Still Going…

Bush’s not so veiled attack on Obama yesterday serves as good reminder of the divisive and heinous essence of his tenure. Obama has repeatedly said that he would negotiate with our enemies. He has not said he would appease terrorists. He has also said that he would go into Pakistan (”Pokistan”) and get Bin Laden.

So after a disastrous foreign policy driven by ideology, incompetence, distortion, and secrecy, the great divider yesterday did what he does - distorted and attacked. As McCain tries to distances himself from Bush, keep in mind that:

Ronald Reagan traded arms for hostages with terrorists;

The blundering of the Iraq War is the biggest foreign policy disaster since Viet Nam. This statement doesn’t even need any backup; and

Bush’s corrosive foreign policy, which has shunned negotiation, international institutions (like the United Nations and the Geneva Convention) has done great damage to America’s credibility, influence and prestige in the world.

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— David V
11:23 am

5/13/2008

zune v. pod

Ipods are cool and sleek. A timeline of the history of design in the store Design Within Reach has the pod as the pinnacle of the evolution of design. And they sure are popular. But I’ve felt for a while that ipod’s market dominance is more a result of marketing than quality. In fact, in concert with itunes online music distribution, Apple has approached monopolistic dominance in the emerging digital music market. There’s got to be better value for the money.

One of the big problems I have with the mighty pod is directly related to its market dominance. And it bugs me is that almost no one talks about this. A given ipod can only be used with a certain number (3 maybe) of registered computers (that is without some kind of funky and unauthorized software), and even more striking is that music files can’t be transfered from an ipod to a computer. Music can only go from computer to ipod. Once again, that’s unless unauthorized software is used. This is certainly purposefully designed to maintain Apple’s hegemony on digital music distribution which approaches vertical integration. Functionally, this is a major limitation and I’m amazed that there hasn’t been more open criticism. Maybe Microsoft should re-edit the Hillaried re-edit of the famous Orwellian Apple commercial - placing Ipod in the screen where Hillary was.

So I’ve pulled the trigger and ordered the Zune. Both the 80 gig Zune and 80 gig Ipod cost around $249. The Zune gets slightly better average user and reviewer ratings on cnet than the pod. I’m pretty sure that Zune doesn’t have a closed file transfer system like ipod. My major concern is how difficult it may prove to be to import my itunes catalogue into the zune software. I will keep you posted.

Zune also has two cool features that ipod doesn’t: FM radio, and wireless synching and sharing (which probably can be used with any computer).

So to paraphrase a political maxim, when the revolution becomes the orthodoxy, even Microsoft can become the rebel. I wonder how Chuck Berry feels about this…

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— David V
9:11 am

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5/28/2008

Webbmania or phobia?

5/16/2008

Scoring 270

Even More Distance from Bush

5/15/2008

HT 4

Still Going…

5/13/2008

zune v. pod