] Reviewing Clinton's My Life in the June 24, 2004,
] Los Angeles Times, neoconservative Max Boot happily
] concluded that "conservatives like character,
] liberals like cleverness." He's right. But to
] state what should be obvious, the president is not your
] father, your husband, your drinking buddy, or your
] minister. These are important roles, but they are not the
] president's. He has a job to do, and it's a
] difficult one, involving a wide array of complicated
] issues. His responsibility to manage these issues is a
] public one, and the capacity to do so in a competent and
] moral manner is fundamentally unrelated to the private
] virtues of family, friendship, fidelity, charity,
] compassion, and all the rest.

[ Indeed, Yglesias is overstating things a bit here, in my opinion. I don't think they're fundamentally unrelated insofar as truly having personal virtues will guide your hand when acting publicly. But the basic point, that intellect, the ability to grasp vast and complicated issues and the understanding of nuance and detail are more important than thinking someone's a "good guy", is sound. -k]

American Prospect Online - ViewWeb

] Howard Rheingold is on the hunt again. With his last
] book, Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution, in 2001,
] the longtime observer of technology trends made a
] persuasive case that pervasive mobile communications,
] combined with always-on Internet connections, will
] produce new kinds of ad-hoc social groups. Now, he's
] starting to take the leap beyond smart mobs, trying to
] weave some threads out of such seemingly disparate
] developments as Web logs, open-source software
] development, and Google.

[ Rheingold is always a worthwhile read i think... -k]

MSNBC - Howard Rheingold's Latest Connection

] Fans and retailers alike are preparing for the assault of
] the most anticipated DVD of them all: the Star Wars
] Trilogy.

[ You can preorder at amazon, but be forewarned, you'll be recieving the rewritten-history, bullshit-cg-jabba, greedo-shoots-first, its-my-party-and-ill-ruin-my-movies-if-i-want-to versions.

Of course, like the other drones, i'll probly end up getting it, having no other choice. -k

p.s. how did they mention potential best-selling DVD's and not bring up Return of the King regular or EE? Did the LOTR DVD's not sell well? Because I sure have them all.

p.p.s. Leia is hot. ]

'Star Wars' trilogy heads for DVD; fans fan controversy

] "We want to bombard (the Republican sites) with so much
] traffic that nobody can get in," said CrimethInc, a
] member of the so-called Black Hat Hackers Bloc. It's one
] of several groups planning to distribute software tools
] to reload Republican sites over and over again. These
] FloodNet programs are similar to hackers' distributed
] denial-of-service attacks, which overwhelm a server with
] thousands and thousands of simultaneous requests for
] information.

[ These fucksticks again?! Jesus, would someone please deny them their first amendment rights? The article notes that jackass from HOPE too. I feel like JK needs to get on this now, come out strongly against this shit, and call for proscecuting these morons the same way you would any other DDoS attacker. Because if some shit happens, you can bet the wingers will do everything they can to tie such shenanigans directly to the kerry campaign. Take two minutes now to avoid an ugly news cycle later. -k]

Wired News: Hackers Take Aim at GOP

] Liberals in the United States have been losing political
] debates to conservatives for a quarter century. In order
] to start winning again, liberals must answer two simple
] questions: what is conservatism, and what is wrong with
] it? As it happens, the answers to these questions are
] also simple:

[ Worth a read. The author diminishes his argument somewhat by resorting to cheapshot attacks and individual instances of unfounded statements. On the whole though, there's a lot of good stuff in here, so I'm memeing it despite the parts that piss me off. -k]

What Is Conservatism and What Is Wrong with It?

] The GW04 site has handy templates for letters to the
] editor. See the top one on the list:
]
] "New job figures and other recent economic data show that
] America's economy is strong and getting stronger - and
] that the President's jobs and growth plan is working. The
] Labor Department announced that employers added 288,000
] new jobs in April. In total, over 1.1 million jobs have
] been added since August, with 8 consecutive months of
] gains."
]
] Now google that entire phrase, and see the results. About
] 60 newspapers have run that letter...

[ Aahhh, astroturf. Does JK have one of these magic letter makers? Is turfing just a standard practice these days? Seems like every new day gives me a new reason not to bother with local media. Fuckers. -k]

Astroturfing the BC'04 way

] Taken together, the report finds that the Bush programs
] "mark a major shift in the constitutional separation
] of church and state."

The key word here is [CHRISTIAN] church.

Bush's faith-based changes scrutinized

A cool concept, but a little thin on the details. Regardless of whether your are pulling necessities out of a uhaul or or from a fedex box at the campus post office, move-in is teh suck.

[ Not a bad idea. It appears the DormRoomExpress stuff is the same brands you get from Target... so from that standpoint it's not unlike what you'll get anyway. It's not for me. I'd rather be able to choose how to allot even a minimal amount of funding, but I'm picky about things like pillows and lamps. But I imagine for some it would be pretty rad. ...]

If colleges were smart, they would bundle this stuff themselves. ... Colleges can buy in bulk that so that the price, even with the added cost of having it in the the room already, would be competitve with your local Target or Walmart.

[... Agreed, the college could do it and make it easy as hell, but i don't believe for a second that it'd actually be cheaper. -k]

Setting Up the Dorm Remotely

I have nothing but admiration for the fortitude and grit of all Olympic competitors, especially in the more obscure events where there is no pecuniary reward. I also have nothing but respect for what scientists and doctors do. But that doesn't mean I want to watch them in action.

Does anyone care? Even a little?

[ I only really like the winter games. And then, really, primarily the skiing events, since I grew up doing that stuff. Summer games have always bored me. -k]

It's the Olympics, but Do You Really Care?

If DNA is just bits, then why do so many

people flock without fear to "Finding Nemo"

but shy away from Roundup Ready corn?

(Any science book endorsed by Penn Jillette must be good!)

How Protest and Politics Threaten the Biotech Revolution