My friend Alyson’s in Boston as part of the California Delegation to the Democratic Party Convention.
She sent this from the floor:
Today was the first official day of the convention and I’ve only been on the floor for about an hour. Imagine a huge arena with vast numbers of people moving all the time. There is [...]
Back in February, my old boss Joel Rogers endorsed John Edwards in the Wisconsin Primaries. Joel’s a hard working, pragmatic progressive, whose opinions I respect.
So, I was happy when I heard Kerry’s selected Edwards as his Vice Presidential Candidate.
Maybe we’ll see Joel become Kerry’s Secretary of Labor.
At last, a week late, my notes.
Bruce Sterling does not worry about a Vingean Singularity that renders humankind a powerless annoyance to transcendent artificial intelligences. Instead he worries about plain old human-driven technological change and nasty WMDs.
Cynthia and I drove up to the City to hear Bruce Sterling’s lecture for the Long Now Foundation at [...]
It’s Emmy nomination season and each issue of Daily Variety arrives stiff from inserts and wraparound covers promoting TV shows with the classic line: “for your consideration.”
Warner Brothers took things further with last friday’s issue, which came today because I don’t pay for same-day delivery, and the mail was held up because of the funeral [...]
Peter Levine’s comments on Libertarianism ring true for me, out here in California, land of the Homeowners’ Association and little boxes made of ticky tacky.
I mentioned an example in my last post, but let me spell it out a little more. In some metropolitan areas, there’s a stark contrast between neat, safe, prosperous private communities [...]
Margaret Cho remembers how Elvis Costello could do subversion:
Elvis has always been political. Once on Saturday Night Live, as a last minute replacement for The Sex Pistols, he awkwardly but gracefully - the Elvis way of doing things - stopped the performance of a second song, “Less Than Zero,” to play the song they told [...]
Let me get my juvenile gloating out of the way. <nelson>Har, har</nelson> Thank you.
Look at Michael Moore’s Palm O’Gold at Cannes this way. So many people win:
Moore got more publicity.
Quentin Tarantino, chair of this year’s jury, got to throw a huge bomb.
The chattering classes on the Right have been fed raw meat, and can now [...]
MoveOn, via the Hindustan Times, reports that the GOP used some Indian call centers for some work in 2002.
I bet the folks working at those call centers must had had a laugh, especially if they were push-polling.
I’m surprised that Blame India Watch didn’t pick up on this one. And I would had passed on the [...]
In Sergio Arau’s satire A Day Without a Mexican, the state of California is plunged into crisis when an unknown agency raptures the state’s Latino population away, leaving the world’s fifth largest economy short a third of its population, and forcing anti-immigrant politicos and talk show hosts to don leaf blowers.
A billboard in LA for [...]
I’ve been thinking about how myself and others on the Left treat our fellows who believe in God since the issue came to the fore last week (see Patrick Nielsen Hayden here and here, The Right Christians, and The Blogger formerly known as Calpundit.)
I’m agnostic. From what I understand from biology, physics and math, I [...]
Well the FCC’s jihad on naughtiness isn’t going to win them any friends among the Cuban ex-pats. The Federales want to fine a Spanish-Language station from Miami who managed to get Cuban dictator and former MLB pitching prospect Fidel Castro on the phone, then harangue him on-air.
There’s apparently a rule prohibiting the use someone’s voice [...]
The older I get, the less I like direct democracy.
Consider the bill passed yesterday by the US House that provides for special elections within 45 days in case the Congress is decimated by some catastrophe.
James Sensenbrenner (R, WI,) never a friend of individual rights, and a backer of the bill says it’s important to “preserve [...]
Dammit, I forgot the MoveOn Bakesale for Democracy happens tomorrow. If you want to sponsor a bake sale, you’ll find the Tiptree Award HOWTO useful.
Membership in the Nation’s Book Club ™ is manditory for all citizens over the age of 18.
Damn, there goes the free wifi and cheap refills at my favorite coffee house.
The reactions to a bait and switch on Live Journal are funnier than the original prank.
EFF announces key escrow plan.
If they are good enough for Jack [...]
Gary Farber took that Libertarian Purity test, and like me, found it wanting, but he took the time to write about its shortcomings.
