In my humble opinion, this is the most fully realized edition of a periodical that I have been involved in since the glory days of Mondo 2000 in the early '90s.

Potentially interesting...

New issue of h+, edited by R.U. Sirius, available for free download - Boing Boing

David Ross and Ed Colbert debate the copyright issues surrounding Shepard Fairey's Obama poster. (06:37)

This segment on the Colbert Report is one of the most clued discussions about a copyright matter I've ever seen on TV. If you follow copyleft issues, this is pure candy.

Obama Poster Debate - David Ross and Ed Colbert | February 12th | ColbertNation.com

The intellectual incoherence is stunning. Basically, the political philosophy of the GOP right now seems to consist of snickering at stuff that they think sounds funny. The party of ideas has become the party of Beavis and Butthead.

Complaining about volcano monitoring is extremely idiotic coming from the governor of the state that was hit with the worst natural disaster in recent memory.

What should government do? A Jindal meditation - Paul Krugman Blog - NYTimes.com

A lot of other people have Kathryn Johnston’s blood on their hands too, people with names like Bennett, Gates, Walters, Souder, Tandy, and Meese. They’ve been ratcheting up the war rhetoric of drug prohibition for 30 years.

I would have added Biden to that list.

Most of America is now accustomed to the notion that state agents dressed in battle garb can and will tear down the doors of private homes in the middle of the night for nothing more than mere possession of psychoactive substances. And most of the time, they do it under the full color of law.

If a violent, terrifying, paramilitary-style raid in the middle of the night on someone suspected of a nonviolent, consensual crime isn’t “unreasonable,” I don’t know what would be.

Kathryn Johnston’s death is tragic. But the real tragedy here is that had the cops found a stash of marijuana in her basement that actually did belong to her–say for pain treatment or nausea–her death would have faded quickly from the national news, these tactics would have been deemed by most to be wholly legitimate, and we probably wouldn’t still be talking about her today.

The Agitator » Blog Archive » Tearful Atlanta Cops Express Remorse for Shooting 92-Year-Old Kathryn Johnston, Leaving Her To Bleed to Death in Her Own Home While They Planted Drugs in Her Basement, Then Threatening an Informant So He Would Lie To Cover It All Up

I'm a little bit irked by Obama's claim... it's gratuitous, unappealing boosterism. Yes, America is great and its people are highly inventive. God bless America! But it just happens to be true that, in the case of solar technology and the automobile, the Europeans got there first. Claiming otherwise is both desperate and unnecessary, like copying homework in kindergarten.

America invented everything - The Atlantic Business Channel

The story I kicked off in late October, Tech layoffs: The scorecard, is a real bummer. On it, we're tracking the current layoffs in the tech economy. I hate the story, since each line on the sheet stands for real people who have lost jobs.

So I sent a query out to my Twitter followers: Send me good news. That led to this anti-layoff spreadsheet, the one tracking companies that are hiring. I present it here.

The spreadsheet of sunshine: Who's hiring (updated) | Webware - CNET

The Dow and S&P 500 tumbled to levels not seen in nearly 12 years Monday, as investors continue to worry that the government's efforts to slow the recession won't be sufficient.

CNNMoney.com Market Report - Feb. 23, 2009

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker speaks in New York about the impact of the financial crisis on the U.S. economy.

I don't really agree with him about inflation. Prices are up. Prices for homes are up substantially in Atlanta versus 10 years ago and this is a market that isn't thought to have seen substantial price increases relative to some of the markets at the epicenter of this crisis. But its not just houses. Cars are substantially more expensive than they were ten years ago. For example, I drive a 1998 ford explorer, which is a pretty popular American car. The MSRP in 1998 was 18 to 30 thousand, today it is between 30 and 40 thousand. Thats a 60% increase in price! The price inflation has already been built in, but there hasn't been a simultanous wage inflation - as Volcker notes, the difference was sucked up by the incomes of a small segment of society and not broadly distributed in the economy, and the whole system continued to function by offering unsustainable credit.

I think you have two choices. You can either inflate the currency such that salaries come in line with current prices on a nominal basis, or you can deflate assets until prices come in line with present salaries on a nominal basis. Either way, somebody gets fucked. You are either going to fuck people who own assets, which is what you are currently doing, or you are going to fuck people who own debt. A reasonable compromise would split the difference.

TARP and this anti-foreclosure bill seem to be attempts to get out of this situation without having to make this hard choice. I don't see how thats possible, because it presumes that the present situation is sustainable. Something must give.

Calculated Risk: Volcker Speech: Economy May Suffer for a `Long Time’

Americans understand frugality borne of real or near poverty but are less able to identify with middle class desperation. I do not know how well America would bear up if we had a long period of Japanese style austerity with the big differences we have between the bottom, middle, and top echelons.

naked capitalism: Object Lesson: Consumer Frugality in Japan

Republican politicians on Thursday called for a sweeping new federal law that would require all Internet providers and operators of millions of Wi-Fi access points, even hotels, local coffee shops, and home users, to keep records about users for two years to aid police investigations.

Lamar Smith is at it again.

Opponents of the bill say it's an invasion of privacy, but that's not the case. The government can only access subscriber information as part of a criminal investigation.

Actually, all kinds of people can get access to the information in lots of difference contexts, and thats legally - nothing about breaches.

How many times have we seen TV detectives seek call logs of a suspect in order to determine who he has been talking to? What if the telephone companies simply said to the detectives, "Sorry, we get rid of that information after 24 hours?"

That would be called a payphone.

The police could constantly surveil everything that everyone ever does all the time so that in the event that a crime is committed they can find out what happened. They could require that tracking devices and surveillance systems be installed all over the place. This sort of data retention is a part of that puzzle. The advocates of this sort of practice constantly act as if the next piece of this total surviellance infrastructure that they want to erect is no big deal... It is a big deal and it is an invasion of privacy... in aggregate it is a huge deal and these people have absolutely no idea where they would draw the line.

Our society needs to have a reasonable conception of when it does and does not make sense for the government to force people to collect information specifically for the benefit of litigants. In my view it never makes sense. Litigants should be able to access, with lawful authorization, evidence that naturally exists, but the government should not force wholesale collection of new evidence, targeted at everyone in our society. That is the only reasonable place to draw a line.

Bill proposes ISPs, Wi-Fi keep logs for police | Politics and Law - CNET News