Archive for January, 2008

An op-ed by Caroline Kennedy titled “A President Like My Father” will run in tomorrow’s New York Times.

This is important for the following reasons:

First, it reinfuses comparisons between Obama and JFK into the national debate. Perhaps we will even see legendary speech writer Ted Sorenson commenting on his perception of the commonality between the two inspiring leaders. In fact, Obama is the only Presidential candidate Sorenson has ever compared to his old boss. Sorenson has been described as JFK’s twin soul.

Second, Bill Clinton has an almost creepy fettish for all things JFK. He wanted to run when he was younger, because Kennedy did. He fostered lore that his handshake with Kennedy was the passing of a magical torch from one leader to the next. His enormously petty behavior in South Carolina will lead some pundits to mention, hopefully repeatedly, that Bill Clinton has tarnished his legacy by engaging in the kind of classless, unpresidential rhetoric that cheapens the American civic faith, and fractures the party. It will become clear that Bill Clinton is purposefully harming the party in a gamble to help Hillary. His already-short-fuse could be further shaved down, leading to even more gaffes/hateful bursts in the coming week.

Third, think of how much it would have done to undermine the comparisons between JFK and Obama had Kennedy’s daughter endorsed the Hillary Clinton Industrial Complex.

Fourth, it reminds America that Teddy Kennedy hasn’t yet endorsed, and puts greater pressure on him to make his endorsement, which is rumored to favor Obama. The Clinton’s worked him hard to at least stay quiet, but perhaps the increased scrutiny and a few glasses of Scotch will serve as a lubricant of sorts for getting Senator Kennedy to make his private preferences public.

Update: Thanks to my friend Nick for directing me to Andrew Sullivan’s commentary on Caroline Kennedy’s endorsement.

Update 2: Time reports, Teddy is Ready!!

*Disclaimer: Please note that the author is too blinded by his loyalty and devotion to Senator Obama to even be in the neighborhood of the ballpark of being objective or reasonable.

An op-ed by Caroline Kennedy titled “A President Like My Father” will run in tomorrow’s New York Times.

This is important for the following reasons:

First, it reinfuses comparisons between Obama and JFK into the national debate. Perhaps we will even see legendary speech writer Ted Sorenson commenting on his perception of the commonality between the two inspiring leaders. In fact, Obama is the only Presidential candidate Sorenson has ever compared to his old boss. Sorenson has been described as JFK’s twin soul.

Second, Bill Clinton has an almost creepy fettish for all things JFK. He wanted to run when he was younger, because Kennedy did. He fostered lore that his handshake with Kennedy was the passing of a magical torch from one leader to the next. His enormously petty behavior in South Carolina will lead some pundits to mention, hopefully repeatedly, that Bill Clinton has tarnished his legacy by engaging in the kind of classless, unpresidential rhetoric that cheapens the American civic faith, and fractures the party. It will become clear that Bill Clinton is purposefully harming the party in a gamble to help Hillary. His already-short-fuse could be further shaved down, leading to even more gaffes/hateful bursts in the coming week.

Third, think of how much it would have done to undermine the comparisons between JFK and Obama had Kennedy’s daughter endorsed the Hillary Clinton Industrial Complex.

Fourth, it reminds America that Teddy Kennedy hasn’t yet endorsed, and puts greater pressure on him to make his endorsement, which is rumored to favor Obama. The Clinton’s worked him hard to at least stay quiet, but perhaps the increased scrutiny and a few glasses of Scotch will serve as a lubricant of sorts for getting Senator Kennedy to make his private preferences public.

Update: Thanks to my friend Nick for directing me to Andrew Sullivan’s commentary on Caroline Kennedy’s endorsement.

Update 2: Time reports, Teddy is Ready!!

*Disclaimer: Please note that the author is too blinded by his loyalty and devotion to Senator Obama to even be in the neighborhood of the ballpark of being objective or reasonable.

We’ve all seen those awesome scenes in movies like The Matrix: Reloaded or Minority Report where people are just tapping away at massive touch screens. Apparently that type of technology isn’t as far away as I used to think. Even though I saw something similar to this from Microsoft nearly a year ago, Mr. Jeff Han appears to be a bit more anxious to actually produce a finished product within the new few years. I also give Han more credit for actually working fluidly with his product the entire time he is describing it.

As I’ve complained about in the past, the RIAA is just a bunch of goofs who want to scrounge up more money rather than produce quality music for the consumer. I have to give credit to The Overdub Tampering Committee. Instead of being a huge whiny ass like Lars Ulrich of Metallica (and his posse) was when Napster was in its hey-day, this group of annoyed musicians have been recording alternate versions of various songs and uploading them for others to download without anyone being the wiser. This is the type of hilarious tom-foolery that our world needs more of. No one is hurt, and it teaches a lesson to those obtaining music through sketchy means.

If any of you have been on a college campus, you’ll be the first to attest that it only takes a few tech-heads to bog down a computer network that is used by thousands. According to research, sometimes only 5% of the users on a network can be responsible for upwards of 50% of the total bandwidth! Time-Warner is “banking” on that information to test out a new pricing structure. Although, as one of those that can use more than their fair share of bandwidth from time to time I’m a bit sad to see this, it makes complete sense, and hopefully it drives down the cost for those that barely use any bandwidth at all.

Like the idea of a hybrid vehicle, but still not happy with using gasoline? No problem, just use some compressed air instead! I doubt this will make it to market in the US anytime soon (The highly compressed air means you need expensive pressure vessels, and have the potential for nasty explosions), but at least it is another novel idea on the way towards green vehicles.

Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

As for the fun portion of my post, I wanted to point everyone in the direction of one of the best sources of dark humor I’ve seen in a long time: Cyanide & Happiness. I’ve never been one to sit down and read comics, but I just can’t stop laughing when I see these. For those that are more into video games, I suggest Penny Arcade.

“The purification of politics is an iridescent dream. Politics is a battle for supremacy. The Decalogue and the Golden Rule have no place in a political campaign. The object is success.”
-Senator John Ingalls, 1890

This is too crazy to say out loud, but not too crazy to blog about!

John McCain was “ratfucked” in South Carolina in 2000 by Duyba’s boys with a whisper campaign about McCain having a black child. I wont go into this shameful attack, his failure to adequately respond, or any substantive discussion of this tactic, but it’s safe to say it damaged him in SC and it left McCain and several of his wealthy backers burnt.

Now pundits are reminding everyone about how foolish South Carolina was to fall for that tactic, and how guilty South Carolinians should feel about it. This narrative is followed closely by mailings attacking McCain’s military service.

The one bit of McCain’s bio most voters remember is that he was a prisoner of war and he was tortured. This attack is so over the top, I can’t imagine it gaining any traction. If anything, it should back fire and ensure that lots of veterans show up to vote for McCain. I consider the attack a strong net positive for McCain in South Carolina. I think all of the other campaigns are too smart to attack him this way; it’s terrible politics.

This leaves me to conclude it is either: 1) another campaign being even more stupid than evil; 2) a group of nut jobs who just hate McCain; or 3) an incredibly savvy, unscrupulous McCain supporter or part of the McCain campaign.

Keep in mind, even if McCain has unwavering integrity, it isn’t necessarily shared by all of his supporters.

Odds are it’s #1 or #2, but wouldn’t it be fascinating if it was #3. Historically, candidates that have been burnt by sketchy politics often have an easier time justifying it in their future campaigns. In the world of high stakes professional politics, the obvious answer isn’t always the right answer answer. When you consider the confluence of 1) pundit’s reminders of South Carolina’s 2000 mistake; 2) high number of veterans potentially voting in the primary; 3) McCain’s stature; 4) SC’s collective memory that he was tortured; 5) stakes this high; and 6) the implausibility of the attack itself and it’s built in high-back fire potential — I don’t think we can completely rule out the possibility of this being a self-inflicted dirty trick. This is just too smart of a play.

I realize this is a long shot, but it’s easier than doing actual research. Does anybody know anything about the Democratic primary race for the Senate seat in Minnesota between Al Franken and some other guy? I’ve always liked Al Franken, and haven’t found him nearly as aggravating or polarizing as a lot of other people do (by “a lot of other people” I mainly just mean my mom and dad, whom I tend to use as my barometer for what mainstream middle America is thinking, which may or may not shed light on why I’m so bad at predicting what mainstream middle America will do). But at the same time, I don’t want to see Franken win a Senate seat instead of some guy who is a much better candidate. So, you know, bring me some information, okay?