New York Times goodness

Being an editorial writer I know that sometimes you have to tread carefully. Not because what you are writing about is not true, but if you word it wrong it may do more damage than good, both for the paper’s reputation, as well as the argument you are trying to make. Naturally, large papers like the New York Times have to be even more careful and usually do not come out as harsh as papers like the one I work for on a regular basis.

But today the Times nailed it:

“It would have been a pleasure to be able to congratulate President Bush on his openness in agreeing to sit down today with the independent commission on the 9/11 attacks and answer questions. Unfortunately, Mr. Bush conditioned his cooperation on stipulations that range from the questionable to the ridiculous.”

“If Mr. Bush or any of his successors have the tragic misfortune to be in command at a time when terrorists strike the country, killing thousands of innocent civilians, they should be expected to cooperate with the official investigations, and to do so in a way that puts their statements on the record and into history.” link

Democrats abandoning Florida?

Traditionally the hopeful president almost always picked a running mate as VP who will ensures he will get votes in the states he himself (no she yet, sadly) isn’t fairing t hat well. Florida, as one of the most important states accounting for 25 electoral votes, has always been considered.

But today it was leaked that the John Kerry campaign is beginning the vetting process for VP consideration. The shortlist so far includes such previously mentioned names as John Edwards (who failed to bring home Southern states, so may not be a good choice) Dick Gephardt, (who may work out, but performed poorly in the primaries overall) but also Gov. Tom Vilsack of Iowa.

This is rather interesting. While there may be more names that will be added to the VP shortlist it may indicate that Kerry would rather go after the Midwest than the South, including Florida. Mathematically he could take the Midwest and not Florida, but still win. Is this an emerging strategy set to defeat Republicans in states that they did not expect heavy campaigning? We’ll see, but it is bound to get interesting.

almighty politics

This is from today’s column by Howard Troxler in the St Pete Times:

“This is not an original thought, but: If our Catholic brothers and sisters wish to deny communion to politicians who support abortion rights, such as U.S. Sen. John Kerry, then surely they also want to deny communion to politicians who support the death penalty, such as our governor (Jeb Bush). After all, both are violations of the church’s admirably consistent belief in the sanctity of life.” link

Damn straight. Also, let’s exclude his brother George W. Bush while we are at it. As governor of Texas he gave the order to kill more people on death row than any governor before. Yet he claims he has a direct line to God. Which god is that? The God of Mammon? I am no big fan of organized religion and strongly believe that everybody should decide on their won, but to hide behind piety like certain politicians do is hardly acceptable.

ANYBODY who claims they have God on their side worries me.

closing comments

I have been getting a lot of spam on this site ranging from gay porn to Viagra ads. (watch my site show up on Google under “gay porn” from now on). There are a lot of sites out there that spam blogs like mine with an automated technique that creates bogus comments in older posts with the intend of linking to their own, often pornographic sites. The idea is that because they are old, the owner of the blog won’t notice.

I do notice but it is simply too tedious to go through 15 or more spam posts a day and delete them. So I have decided to close all comments after a certain amount of time, probably 14 days after the original post date. That way I can keep spamming at a minimum. Since I don’t really get that many comments on older posts anyway, that seems like a good middle ground.

ducking questions is funny

From a press conference Bush gave to the Newspaper Association of America:

“Our intelligence is good. It’s just never perfect, is the problem. We are disrupting some cells here in America. We’re chasing people down. But it is in a big country, Burl. I’m from Texas. It is difficult to stop people coming across the Rio Grande River, whether they be people looking for work or people looking to do harm. And so I can see why people feel that way. And we’ve just got to stay on the offense, is what we’ve got to do.

And what was the other part of the question?

Q You answered it.

THE PRESIDENT: Okay, good. (Laughter.) At least I didn’t duck this one” link

Do I even need to comment on that? Apparently he knows he ducked questions at the recent press conference. He even thinks it’s funny.

new heights in geek-dom

If you look over to the right (you may have to scroll up) you will see a new item in the links column title “Latest photo.” Under it should be a photo.

I am taking those with my brand new Sony Ericsson T610 cell phone (which considering that my Mom has the same phone is really not all that cutting edge anymore. Either that, or my Mom is more cutting edge than we ever assumed, I’ll leave it to you to decide), which can post directly via email to a free service at textamerica.com. My site then grabs the newest one and displays it.

Click on it and you should see all photos taken in an album. I am tweaking the site a bit because it still looks rather ugly, but hopefully it should one day look more like an extension of this site.

Political battlegrounds and polls

Some of my immediate friends have commented on the recent polls that have Bush gain some grounds over Kerry. But just now I read a blog entry that analyzes the data more close, coming up with some very interesting results:

“… Kerry’s favorabilty rating remained unchanged in the battleground states and that persuadable voters were uninclined to drink the Republican Kool-Aid about Kerry flip-flopping, believing Bush, more than Kerry, exhibited that behavior.”

“Note also that Bush’s approval rating in the battleground states is 49 percent, 2 points under his national rating and that his approval rating on the economy in these states is just 41 percent, 3 points under his national rating.” (link)

I really think this guy is onto something. Essentially he says that while Bush may have more votes on total, he lacks them in the areas where they will count most. Because of the Electoral College some areas are worth more than others, which also lead to Bush “getting” the presidency in 2000 when the Supreme Court ruled he had won Florida.

Ironically what got him “elected” last time may cost him his office this time.

Candidates staking out political battleground in Florida

If the 2000 presidential election and recent polls are any indication, Florida will again play a key role this year.
Editorial
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Bush picks U.N. envoy and ambassador to new Iraq

According to today’s New York Times Bush just picked his new man for Iraq.

“John Negroponte is a man of enormous experience and skill,” Mr. Bush said. “Therefore, I’m comfortable in asking him to serve in this very difficult assignment.” link

What I don’t understand is, why does he praises him so much? Won’t that make it even harder to blame and discredit him afterward? They really should have learned from O’Neil, Clarke and Powell. But then again, Bush never makes mistakes, so it has to be right.

Blind patriotism alone does not make a great country

“Anybody is allowed to speak out, but everybody is also allowed to disagree with them. Both are equally patriotic.”
Opinion Column
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Bush?s decisive stance raises election stakes

President Bush gave a press conference Tuesday night answering the criticism he was not visible enough.
News Analysis
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Rice took the stand. Quick ? change your stance.

?You can almost hear tap-dancing while the entire administration
backtracks to issue new statements that contradict ones given mere days ago.?
Opinion Column
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It’s official: Summer is here

We just flipped the switch that officially declares it is Summer: Our air conditioning unit in our condo is now on.

One thing I will never understand is why people around here have their AC running all winter long. Open a window for crying out loud! Don’t you pay for electricity? Judging by our neighbors you’d think people in this country don’t give a fig if resources are wasted… oh wait, they don’t.

Deadline may hamper emerging democracy in Iraq

The deadline of June 30 picked months ago may not be feasible as problems continue in Iraq.
Editorial
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United Nations not a relic of times past

?Some may call this outlook na?ve, but if it is na?vet?, then maybe the world could use more of it.?
An opinion column inspired by the tour of the United Nations we took Saturday
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Holy shit, I am going to New York

My wife woke me out of my “I didn’t sleep properly in days”-coma around 4 this afternoon and said “Want to go to New York?”
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Artificial reefs good for marine life, economy

Ongoing projects establishing artificial reefs in Florida’s coastal waters create new habitats for marine species. Yet, already existing reefs should not be neglected.
Editorial
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Happy Birthday Apple!

Apple Computer Inc. was founded on April 1, 1976.