In an especially biting rant on the ease in which the vast majority of Americans can be lulled into sleep by such trivial pursuits, while the financial markets and government institutions slowly collapse under the weight of their own corruption, Jim Kunstler saidbest:
Of course, all that creates a problem for the masses of human beings who theoretically support themselves by working to produce new things of value to be bought and sold. But let them watch Nascar! Let’s take whatever little remains of our tax revenues (or bonding ability) and build a dozen more speedway ovals around the country, and tweak the stock car engines so those suckers can run on ethanol, and shower the fans with Little Debbie snack cakes as they count the laps. Bring on Britney Spears or Paris Hilton at half-time (do they have half-time in Nascar?) and let Justin Timberlake cut their hearts out on the hood of a Dodge Avenger. Believe me, the public will be so deliriously entranced by the spectacle, they won’t notice anything else going on in the background of our nation.
This is how America enters the Long Emergency — in a Nascar rapture, with Jesus directing the pit crews and the Holy Ghost working the barbeque concession.
To wit, Michael Vick’s plea is the top story (old news) on the day in which Alberto Gonzales resigns to spend more time with his lawyer (big, big new news). Wake up, America.
On the joy of making technology do a delightful dance, Dave Winer saidbest:
This is one of those rare moments, when something works, and now my use of computers reaches a plateau that makes total sense. I call this feeling Living In The Future. It’s the nicest feeling technology can deliver, and it’s one important reason I like playing with these toys.
Ah, the future. It’s about time.
What did Dave do? He simply integrated three disparate technologies, from three different companies, so that he can take a picture on his iPhone, upload it to Flickr, then post it to Twitter, which when combined alerts anyone who cares of a new photograph almost the instant he snapped it. He can now capture and share a moment, any moment, as it happens. And soon, you will be able to do it too.
Interestingly, not a single company could have done this on its own, not because its hard to do but because it’s not foundational to their business. However, each of the three companies (all big favorites of mine) had the foresight to expose their interfaces and leverage existing standards to make it possible for one man to stitch it all together.
But possible isn’t enough on its own. Delightful is what makes it and us dance. Dave continues:
If you want to make a product that people use then you have to pay attention to their experience when they use it. The better you are at understanding, the better your product will become over time.
I followed his blog and twitter as he developed it. I watched as he quickly responded to feedback, and relentlessly improved the service. This is no accident, and certainly no small feat, but the work of a brilliant man in the right place at the right time. I can’t wait to use it, expect to do so on a daily basis, and believe we all will in due time…
On the monumental misjudgment that is George W. Bush’s War on Terror for oil in Iraq, and the fact that we will be dealing with his failures for many years to come, Digby saidbest:
The world is running out of oil and the US government wanted to insure that they had a permanent beachhead in the biggest oil rich region in the world. What a good idea to turn it into an anarchic free fire zone in the process. But as Henley and Drum both point out, it will probably end eventually.
I wonder what would have happened if they’d spent the trillion or two (by the time it’s all done) on alternative energy instead.
Not only has Bush failed to get the oil, he’s also squandered our national treasure and tarnished our prestige. His last remaining chance at vindication is to wait until one of the many Iraqi factions vanquishes the others, so that he too can declare victory. If we leave now, there is no glory for Bush. Is it any wonder he will not end this war? This is all about Bush now, we are all just pawns in the game…
So don’t ever let anyone say there is no difference between the two parties. The Dems are flawed to be sure, but the Republicans have consistently held this man in high esteem, pronouncing him a visionary and a great leader (and now cleverly punt that final judgment down the road so that ‘history’ may decide once and for all).
But we don’t need to wait for some mythical or mystical date in the future, only Bush does. The rest of us can plainly see that he, his administration, and his Republican party have completely and entirely lost it all. They stood behind him and cheered, even as it became abundantly clear he had blown it. We are much worse off then when he started, and have since lost seven years of money and enterprising effort to chart a more prudent course.
America will recover, as she always does, and soon shine more brightly than ever before.
Let us make sure that Bush and his Grand old Republican Party do not.
On Rudy Giuliani’s groundless and shameless claims that he alone can save us from the terrorists and win the War on Terror (or as he prefers it, the Terrorist’s War on Us™), and the fact that we must begin to challenge him and his ‘facts’ openly and forcefully, Anonymous Liberal saidbest:
Giuliani is the Republican frontrunner and his claim to expertise in this area is the central rationale for his candidacy. It’s well past time to start tearing that image down. The Republican candidates are all attacking Hillary, Obama, and Edwards already, building narratives about them and planting the seeds of general election themes. It’s silly to allow Giuliani free reign to construct his public image as a seasoned terrorism expert, particularly when lack of such experience will almost surely be a major attack theme used against whomever manages to win the Democratic nomination. Giuliani is no more an expert on terrorism than Ray Nagin is an expert climatologist or the mayor of Tokyo is an expert seismologist.
Republicans almost always craft an identity to directly cover up (or at least get out in front of) their obvious flaws. Wisely, they then invest heavily in embedding that narrative into our collective psyche, building enough brand equity to withstand and a familiar refrain to combat our feeble future attacks. We never build a competing narrative, therefore there is no sustaining attack, and certainly no lasting damage, which leaves us lamenting the fact that the world cannot see the obvious truth…
Rudy is yet another Republican farce, a caricature of himself and his party’s wet dreams. We have already allowed him to march forward with his charade, but it is a house of cards, the truth of which will be so easy to uncover and dismantle with a concentrated and sustained effort to paint his true picture.
So let’s stop complaining and get to work.
On the subject of George W. Bush’s recent speech comparing the Vietnam war with his war in Iraq, and suggesting in vain (yes, both meanings apply here) that leaving too soon was the error in the first just as it would be in the second, Josh Marshall saidbest:
We can debate the ways to fix things. But let’s not deny that Bush’s folly was an unforced error, a foreign policy catastrophe of truly unique proportions in the annals of American history.
This man is a farce and a disgrace. Need (more) proof? He willfully continues to destroy the entire country of Iraq, and both morally and financially bankrupts his own in the process, all in an embarrassingly futile attempt to deny these simple truths: the war is lost, his policies have backfired in the worst possible way, and perhaps more importantly to him, his legacy is now in shambles.
