] Several months ago, my husband and I received two rebate
] checks simply for having children, all part of the Jobs
] and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003, an
] economy-stimulating incentive. Congress approved this
] quickie tax cut so we'd all go out and buy Pottery Barn
] lamps and Gap boot-cut trousers and then presumably the
] economy, and we, would be saved. Instead, I cashed the
] checks, paid off some bills, and then tucked my dignity
] under my arm and went to file for food stamps.

We've all ready plenty of stories about how the economy sucks, but this article strikes a chord because the author has such a great command of imagery. I suggest you read it simply because of the clear picture that she is able to paint.

Falling down

Are blogs the next White Man's Club? This article focuses on how the Dean Campaign has become self-aware that despite the fact that they have garnered incredible support... despite the fact that Howard Dean has a lot of appeal to minorities, the people showing up at the support meetings are DOMINANTLY white. Anecdotally speaking,
there are stories of there being one black person at a meeting.

Is having the time to look up political candidate web pages a luxury of whites? More like a luxury of the white collar worker. Most of the people that I know who go to the library for their internet access couldn't care less about politics, white or not, but they all do share one thing in common - they can't afford a computer and internet access at home.

"PLEASE stop having Meetups at cute white middle-class cafes where everyone looks like you! Each meetup should be scheduled in a place where the people walking by and wondering what's going on are from demographic groups that are harder to reach -- namely, either minorities or the elderly. EVERY retirement home has a meeting room. Have your meetups THERE. Is it sexy? No, but it will reach a group that is eager to be a part of the process. Have your meetups in restaurants in the Hispanic part of town or whatever other group you need to reach. Make the Meetup ITSELF work for you, instead of going there and THEN talking about what to do ...!"

Josh's post illustrates how astute many of Dean's supporters are about what it will take to get their man into the White House next year. Even though Dean is now thought of as the Democratic front-runner, many in his online community are constantly chiding each other not to become complacent about the task ahead. The danger that supporters appear most wary of is "preaching to the choir" -- bringing the pro-Dean message only to folks who are already inclined to accept it. Indeed, Richard Hoefer calls this the biggest pitfall of Dean's blog strategy. "I've been at odds with Dean for America because I criticize them for being too blog-centric," he says. "I think they preach to the converted, and it bugs me because I think they're missing the boat. I think Dean has incredible appeal to blacks, Latinos, minorities -- but the message hasn't gotten out there yet because they have been too focused on the blog."

Dean's army goes offline

] Abortion Doc's Killer Expects 'Reward in Heaven' After
] Execution

I'm sure he'll get his wish.

] Abortion-rights groups worry that Hill's execution will trigger
] reprisals by those who share his steadfast belief that violence to
] stop abortion is justified. Several Florida officials connected to
] the case received threatening letters last week, accompanied by
] rifle bullets.

Nothing makes your point like a bullet, i guess.

FOXNews.com

Oh, how I wish I were in the Bay Area just so I could go see this... sure, it may be depressing for some, but I think that some of our San Francisco memers should post a review for us!

To the kitschy annals of dot-com nostalgia, add the endearing farce of Rentalpuppy.com, a saga that starts and ends at Starbucks, with $50 million vanishing in between. Consultants, V.C.s, investment bankers and the dot-commers themselves are chewed up and sung out in a giddy production, the kind of show where "Norton anti-virus" is earnestly invoked in a lovers' duet.

Based in a SOMA loft with all the necessary office distractions, like foosball, air hockey, cellphones ringing to the tune of "Baby Got Back," Rental Puppy, as a company, seems to be mostly about office workers IM-ing their friends all morning before going out for a high-tech burrito, while they wait to vest. "I'm vesting. I'm vesting. Just four more years, then I'll be resting."

The real villain here isn't the hapless dot-commers themselves, whose main crime is just getting caught up in it all -- and, hey, who wasn't? -- but rather a nefarious investment banker from Stevenson Roberts, whose sterling credentials include sitting on the board of Enron and WorldCom, and the V.C.s so sexist that they have to have everything a woman says repeated to them by a man so that they can hear it.

It's never too early for dot-com nostalgia

] JENIN, West Bank, Aug. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- In response to
] the email received today from the Motion Picture
] Association of America (MPAA) to Earthstation 5 for
] copyright violations for streaming FIRST RUN movies over
] the internet for FREE, this is our official response!
] Earthstation 5 is at war with the Motion Picture
] Association of America (MPAA) and the Record Association
] of America (RIAA), and to make our point very clear that
] their governing laws and policys have absolutely no
] meaning to us here in Palestine, we will continue to add
] even more movies for FREE.

Dare I make a suicide bomber joke?

PRWire | Earthstation 5 Declares War on MPAA

] Police in Florida are creating a counterterrorism
] database designed to give law enforcement agencies around
] the country a powerful new tool to analyze billions of
] records about both criminals and ordinary Americans.

Mini-TIA?

The problem with systems like this is not so much the information they have but the sort of questions you are allowed to ask them.

Asking who has brown hair and a red truck within a 20 mile radius, in the context where this is a suspect description in a murder, is a standard question that police ask all the time. Having this information more readily available is probably a good thing (unless you're an anarchist).

However, if you run a correlation which shows that people who have brown hair and red trucks are 30 percent more likely to commit murders then average, and subsiquently decide to submit people fitting that profile to additional scrutiny at airport security, you've crossed into pre-crime, and that is where the policy debate lies.

This question is going to continue to be raised. Poindexter, for all his faults, is a leader. He is way ahead of the curve. We'll see a lot more of this over the next 20 years from all kinds of directions, just as we are seeing similar techniques used in unrelated fields (Customer Relationship Management).

Objective research into the effectiveness of pre-crime, and the impact of it upon innocents, is sorely needed. Unfortunately, finding objective researchers is going to be damn near impossible. On the one side we've got arms dealers and drug smugglers, and on the other side we've got civil liberties advocates. Much like the studies on RF related cancer, the truth is probably only going to be found somewhere in the dialog between them, in an environment where both sides are given the resources they need to do the studies they want to do, and there is absolutely no political pressure to rush things into application.

U.S. Backs Florida's New Counterterrorism Database (TechNews.com)

] The game was up on 25 July, as the Las Vegas
] Review-Journal finally reported what we'd been telling
] readers all along:
]
] The Hunting for Bambi video that has been sweeping the
] media in the past week or so is a hoax, city of Las Vegas
] officials said Thursday.

well crud. I am two for two on the latest internet jokes. Oh well... time moves on.

Snopes: 'Hunting for Bambi' confirmed as hoax

] The reason these net people get away with all kinds of
] stuff is that they work for no one. They put stuff up
] with no restraints. This, of course, is dangerous, but
] it symbolizes what the Internet is becoming.

Becoming? I guess Bill thinks the free press (free expression?) is a dangerous thing..

] So all over the country, we have people posting the most
] vile stuff imaginable, hiding behind high tech
] capabilities. Sometimes the violators are punished, but
] most are not. We have now have teenagers ruining the
] reputations of their peers in schools on the Internet.
] Ideologues accusing public officials of the worst things
] imaginable. And creeps gossiping about celebrities in
] the crudest of ways.

How is this the fault of the Internet? Would Bill have us start to place limits on speech on the net?

Bill is angry about "word of mouth". "Word of mouth" pre-dates the Internet by thousands years. Its just grown more powerful and attained further reach due to the recent advances of information technology. Much in the same way it did because of the telephone, mail service, etc.. If this is a bad thing, then our human ability to communicate is a bad thing..

Do we need to return to the old arguments about "right to reply" and "equal time"? Europe seems happy to do so.. A mistake we made in the US for awhile, before we came to the conclusion that the entire concept was flawed..

] The Internet has become a sewer of slander and libel,
] an unpatrolled polluted waterway, where just about
] anything goes. For example, the guy who raped and
] murdered a 10-year old in Massachusetts says he got
] the idea from the NAMBLA Web site that he accessed from
] the Boston public library. The ACLU's defending NAMBLA
] in that civil lawsuit.

Is NAMBLA the problem? Or the web? Oh! Its the web! Thanks for clearing that up Bill!

Oh yeah, and the ACLU is also bad.. Couldn't have one of his rants without shit talking the association who's mission it is to protect our civil liberties..

See a common thread here? A gross mis-understanding of what freedom of speech means? Its not freedom of speech if only the people you think should be allowed to talk, can talk.

] So which is the bigger threat to America? The big
] companies or the criminals at the computer?
] Interesting question.

Take note, what brought this on was someone saying something about Bill that Bill didn't like. As the story goes.. The San Francisco Chronicle posts a story with an error, blogs link to story, Bill gets pissed at blogs. Now we have this Talking Point's memo, where he is pretty much suggesting that speech on the net should have limits. This is bullshit of the highest order.

Bill seems to think that the only speaking should be done from the top of the ivory tower.. An opinion that seems to be common in the big media circles..

This guy is really dangerous.

FOXNews.com | Bill O'Reilly still an idiot

] Baghdad was hectic when two blogging friends e-mailed me
] to suggest that I track down "Salam Pax." I had no idea
] who or what they were talking about. I could have handed
] over the job of sorting out this Salam Pax thing to my
] interpreter—he was a clever and funny Iraqi who never
] failed to provide what I needed, whether it was
] interviews or pizza—but I let it pass. I thought I had
] better things to do.

... and it turns out that Iraqi interpreter was Salam Pax.

Salam Pax Is Real - How do I know Baghdad's famous blogger exists? He worked for me. By Peter Maass

] Ever since the invention of the printing press,
] governments have tried to make an ally out of owners of
] the means of information distribution. That's as old a
] story as when the powers that be tried to suppress
] Gutenberg's Bible. Not because they didn't believe in
] the Bible, but because they didn't believe everyone
] should be able to get one. This is a 600-year-old
] story. It's not a new story. But it's news to the United
] States that one side should get this close to that goal.

Strong words from Reed Hundt about the new FCC media ownership rule changes. Ted Turner has also come out strongly opposed to this in recent days. Basically the deal is that soon all the TV will be owned by Fox in the same way that all the radio stations are owned by Clear Channel.

[IP] Former FCC chairman: Deregulation is a right-wing power grab