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Politics, open government, and safe streets. And the constant incursion of cycling.

Month: May 2009 Page 3 of 6

Tears of a Clown

By

On May 21, 2009

In Politics

Josh Marshall on Cheney:

By any standard the guy is a monumental failure — and not one whose mistakes stem in some Lyndon Johnson fashion from tragic overreach, but just a fool who damaged his country through his own gullibility, paranoia and bad judgment. Whatever else you can say about the Cheney story it ain’t Shakespearean.

So as we see the big reporters trying to put him on some sort of equal footing with President Obama today, let’s remember that the great majority of Americans see Dick Cheney, accurately, as a clown. And mockery isn’t just the most effective but also the most morally apt response to the man.

Midweek Makeover: What Might Have Been

By

On May 20, 2009

In Music

The Beach Boys’ God Only Knows is – if there is ever such a thing – the perfect song.  Lyrically, harmonically, emotionally – everything is just right.  So much so that I just can’t listen to a cover without wanting to turn it off and listen to the original instead.  But the original almost wasn’t the original.  Turns out that Brian Wilson was originally slated to sing lead, instead of his brother Carl.  According to Brian, his singing lead had been in the cards for a while, and there are even recordings with him in lead:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BC_UILNwWrc[/youtube]

It’s interesting.  Same voices, same space , but different roles that resulted in a very different song, I think.  Not worse, not better.  Different in a way that makes me wonder about the choice.  But maybe I just say that because it was Carl Wilson’s lead that I’ve been living with:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDfH_J4MAUQ[/youtube]

God only knows.

Today’s View

By

On May 19, 2009

In Personal, Policy, Politics, Travel

San Francisco City hall – the home of some good old-fashioned American values.

(h/t to James Young, for the inspiration)

Not “rooted in American values”?

By

On May 19, 2009

In Law, Policy, Politics

I want to know what idiotic “senior administration official” made this statement in the context of justifying the new Obama military tribunals:

One of the senior administration officials said that although federal courts bar many kinds of hearsay evidence, “the hearsay rule is not one of those things that is rooted in American values.”

This is such an incredibly stupid statement I don’t know where to start.   If one were asked to name off a few of the core foundations of the jurisprudence underlying the American justice system, the principles of hearsay rule would be among them, along with the right to face your accuser and trial by jury.  It doesn’t get any more American than that.  Unless, I suppose, you’re talking about lynching.

Still Don’t Get It

By

On May 18, 2009

In Society

Really, no way to accurately convey the dead-on observations of Rushkoff other than lifting his BB post wholesale:

It’s not that the irony of an economics reporter – “the chief eyes and ears on the Federal Reserve for the past six years” – falling prey to the very phenomena he was reporting on was lost on the Times; that’s what the article was about. Rather, it’s the way the magazine has chosen to embrace the values of the population it failed: instead of reporting accurately on what happened while it was happening, the magazine (and the papers’) reporters simply excuse everyone’s short-sighted greed by admitting they did it themselves. Hell, if it can happen to the economics guy at the Times, then it really is excusable, and the government should restructure or repackage and let us stay in these giant houses we couldn’t afford. At the expense of those who made smarter, non-NY decisions.

But the missed opportunity here was that by dedicating an entire issue to Dilemmas of Debt, the NYTimes put itself in a position to explain debt. To help people understand what really happened, and to think about it more deeply. They could have done a piece on central bank-issued currency, on the bias of currency, on the workings of a debt-driven economy, or on the hundreds of alternative value-driven currencies now on the horizon. They could have looked at how debt itself functions, or how it influences societies who use it as the basis for their economy. They could have at least help readers consider the possibility that debt itself is not a pre-existing condition of the universe. It is an invention.

Remember this.

Shock and

By

On May 18, 2009

In Personal, Society

awe.

Wolfram Alpha Launches at 8pm EDT

By

On May 15, 2009

In Distribution, Society, Tech

Check it here.

(What’s Wolfram Alpha?)

Hope

By

On May 15, 2009

In Personal, Politics

Robots: Delinking Humans from Violence – Resulting in More Violence?

By

On May 14, 2009

In Society

Picked this up from the Ignite DC attendees – P.W. Singer on the effect of more robots in war:

Government Support for Journalism

By

On May 14, 2009

In Distribution, Law, Policy

Had the good fortune to spend some time this week talking and thinking about the future of traditional media.  There is, as you’ve probably heard, a fair amount of support for various modes of government action.  Within that context, I think Dan Gillmor’s got a post worth reading:

But as people decry or laugh off a bailout of newspapers, as the New York Times’ David Carr did yesterday in his column, they should remember that government has never entirely lacked financial influence — and it doesn’t lack it now — over the journalism business.

Governments play major roles in the success or failure of all kinds of business. How corporations do business, and which ones pay which taxes, are decided by lawmakers. But journalism organizations have enjoyed their share of special treatment — and we should be glad, based on our nation’s early history, that they did.

Gillmor goes on with a brief history lesson on the very real ways that government lent a helping financial hand to the press over the years.  He does come out against direct subsidies, and suggests where money might best be spent.  Check it out.

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