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Coolest Judge Ever
What’s that, Your Honor? Did you just quote Billy Madison in your opinion? Or, in the words of the competition judge to Adam Sandler’s title character in the movie “Billy Madison,” after Billy Madison had responded to a question with an answer that sounded superficially reasonable but lacked any substance, “Mr Madison, what you’ve just [...]
The 2006 Democratic Strategy
The Onion is on the case: Democrats Vow Not To Give Up Hopelessness. Congressional Democrats announced that, despite the scandals plaguing the Republican Party and widespread calls for change in Washington, their party will remain true to its hopeless direction. “We are entirely capable of bungling this opportunity to regain control of the House and [...]
Blago’s Bubble
Evidently Illinois’ governor, Rod Blagojevich, doesn’t get out much: Blagojevich says he didn’t realize “The Daily Show” was a comedy spoof of the news when he sat down for an interview that ended up poking fun at the sometimes-puzzled governor. At the very least, isn’t this what politicians have aides for? Here’s the clip from [...]
Buckley on Iraq
I still think the war in Iraq was that the right course of action. While I think the Bush administration has been pretty incompetent in the post-war occupation, the larger question is would the outcome have been more successful given even the best post-war planning or were the initial conditions of the situation such that [...]
Political Role Reversals
From Andrew Sullivan: It will take a generation to undo the damage that Bush has done to conservatism, America’s fiscal health, and the whole idea of limited government. My prediction: we will see huge tax increases soon after Bush leaves the scene. He will insist they are a betrayal of his legacy. They will, in [...]
The White House Gets Pwned By Google
( Business andMatt's Posts andNews and Politics andScience and Technology )
In court papers, Google calls the Bush Administration’s search data request “so uninformed as to be nonsensical” “The very fact that the Government is so uninformed about the value of search and URL information and so dismissive of Google’s interest in protecting it speaks volumes about why the Court should protect Google from this compelled [...]
The University of Illinois Gets a NY Times Article
Check this out, complete with a pic inside the Illini Union! Since the morning the cartoons satirizing the Prophet Muhammad were republished in the student newspaper at the University of Illinois here, response has been swift and split. Muslim students and others held a protest on the main quadrangle on Tuesday, saying they were stunned [...]
When Dicks Pull the Trigger at Inopportune Times
I guess that we should consider ourselves fortunate to live in this time of the bicentennial event of a Vice President shooting someone (the last being Aaron Burr in 1804). These things are rarer than seeing Halley’s Comet! A true spectacle that probably won’t be seen for about seven generations. My nominee for “Caption of [...]
Loving the Leviathan?
Some interesting contrarian food for thought by one of the highest ranking libertarians in the federal system, Alex Kozinski, a judge on the United State Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit: There is, alas, a lingering nostalgia for the vision of the minimalist state as a purer form of government, one that advances everyone’s [...]
Buy An iPod for Your Senator
Looks like others came up with my idea to buy iPods for US Senators to help them see just how stupid some of the proposals by RIAA/MPAA are. IPac is starting a collection: But Senator Stevens, the 82-year old committee chairman from Alaska, surprised the audience by announcing that his daughter had bought him an [...]
Hamas…The Best Thing to Happen to Israel in Years?
Here’s an interesting perspective on the recent Palestinian elections by one of the most original thinkers around, Richard Posner: With Hamas in power, its members are paradoxically much more vulnerable to Israeli military power than they were when Fatah was in power. The Hamas leaders then were scattered and hidden and efforts to fight them [...]
A Rare Moment of Common Sense in the US Senate
As a follow-up to the post about the RIAA/MPAA Broadcast Flag proposal seeking to stifle innovation, it appears that the Senate actually had a moment of enlightenment in the hearings on the bill. Senator John Sununu, a Republican Senator for New Hampshire: “The suggestion is that if we don’t do this, it will stifle creativity. [...]
John Kerry Officially Starts His Bid to Lose in 2008
Normally I’m offering some criticism of Republicans because, let’s face it, they’re the ones in power haven’t done much good for over half a decade in that position, but darned if that Democratic superstar John Kerry isn’t determined to show just how bipartisan incompetence is: Showing the acute political acumen that led him to crushing [...]
The Anti-User Zealot Canadian Politician Loses
To quote Nelson from the Simpsons, “Ha Ha!”. From Boing Boing: The Canadian MP whom copyfighters loved to hate has lost her job and the election. Sam Bulte was the Liberal Party Member of Parliament for Parkdale/High Park [...] and she was embroiled in a scandal when it was revealed that she had financed her [...]
Alberto Gonzalez Will Be At Your Doorstep If You Annoy Me With An Anonymous Comment
Further proof that Congress still has yet to understand the “Internets”. Annoying someone via the Internet is now a federal crime. It’s no joke. Last Thursday, President Bush signed into law a prohibition on posting annoying Web messages or sending annoying e-mail messages without disclosing your true identity. In other words, it’s OK to flame [...]
Your Phone Records Are Available For $110
A rather freaky revelation about just how easy it is to violate your phone privacy: The Chicago Police Department is warning officers their cell phone records are available to anyone — for a price. Dozens of online services are selling lists of cell phone calls, raising security concerns among law enforcement and privacy experts. Criminals [...]
Perfectionism and Politics
Conservative Christians tend to get a lot of flack when they use the “God told me or the Bible says it so their can be no debate” argument. Admittedly, many times the criticisms are deserved as many times what “God” has told people turns out to be just loony or wrong in retrospect. It also [...]
“Those Who Can, Innovate. Those Who Can’t, Lobby.”
That’s the adage that I coined today. Here’s why: AT&T Inc. and BellSouth Corp. are lobbying Capitol Hill for the right to create a two-tiered Internet, where the telecom carriers’ own Internet services would be transmitted faster and more efficiently than those of their competitors. The proposal is certain to provoke a major fight with [...]
Random Tidbits
Via the Club for Growth: Consider this — the Army Corps of Engineers is, in large part, to blame for the levees breaking down in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. Now, thanks to Republican Senator Thad Cochran, part of the funds being used to help pay for Katrina relief — approx. $13 million — will [...]
Headline of the Day Award
From the AP: Bill Clinton to Surprise U.N. Conference. The cat’s kind of out of the bag when the AP is reporting the story, isn’t it?