Go check out Eminem's latest video. It's a little large, (otherwise I'd throw it up on my site) but well worth the effort. Last year when I saw Kid Rock prancing around in an American flag poncho, I was annoyed at the ignorance and idiocy shown to all the world during the Superbowl. (Janet's display, by contrast, seemed tame.). But when I saw this video, I was proud to be an American.

More people are fighting back.

update:

update2:

I voted early this year, because I felt it was important to be able to go to another state to help others vote.

This political year, many are saying, is the most important in a generation. They are mistaken. Unfortunately, the last cycle was more important, if only because we had a chance to prevent the last four years from ever taking place. We had an opportunity to continue to grow the economy, shrink the debt, help America's workers and improve health care. Instead, by the barest of margins, Americans voted for to roll back worker protections, shift the tax burden from wealth to work, propose weaker environmental rules and fail to make any dent in the nation's health care crisis. "What!" you say? "Surely, Americans didn't vote to do all of that!"

And yet, the sad truth is, many of us did. The choice has only become starker in the intervening four years. This time, we'll hear no excuses about the Democratic and Republican tickets being similar. We won't hear true progressives urging moderation. Instead, many who slept through the last election have this time awakened to find a darker, fear-filled world promoted by the current White House.

We need to vote for our hopes, not our fears. Voting on November 2 is important because we can either continue to slide backward, or we can move forward on a new path, one that appeals to the best of all Americans. Instead of cowering in fear, we can be triumphant in our abilities. We are the number one country in the world. We deserve the best health care, the best job market, the greatest standard of living for all of our citizens. To say "we're good enough" isn't American: it's defeatist. To say "we're secure enough" isn't pragmatic, it's the politics of fear.

On November 2, those of us who haven't voted already will have a chance to replace the current administration with one that can actually move us forward. I hope everyone takes that step forward.

Every election, you'll hear some voices on the wings saying "if we don't win, I'll move to country X". Well, I have news for you. I don't care if they attempt to steal the election again. This is my country and I'm not going to move out or give up just because a small deluded minority succeeded in throwing away the will of the people. I'll stay. I'll fight. We've let the conservatives run this country into the ground over the past few years and it's time to make a stand. That's why I voted early: to help others fight back against an agenda of fear and delusion. Every single voter I talk to over the next few days will be another push for change. Every person I call, every door I knock, will have an impact. This time, we're going to win.

The George Bush Dead Letter Office is amazing. Go check it out.

hint: georgewbush.org is not a pro-bush site!

Consumer Confidence dropped to the lowest level since March in the latest survey.

Bad news for Bush.

The number was 92.8, for the record. The street expected 94. Evidently, every incumbent President with a number below 99 has lost re-election. That's huge.

First, you have to be logged in to comment on articles. Got it? It will now say so to remind people, but that's how it is.

Second, if you run a web hosting company that sells an array of hosting packages, put the pricing on-line. Because, if you don't, users will be forced to fill out your stupid form just to see how much it costs to get a site hosted. Which will then lead them to realize that you can't even code your form properly, resulting in this:

Yeah, that's probably not the best way to attract potential customers. Even better, Blue Gecko doesn't have an e-mail address on its website, so one has to call, long-distance, to say the web form is broken. The coup de grace? No one answered the phone. It said "press one for emergencies", or "press two for support". I pressed two. I waited. And waited. The phone rang and rang. Seconds before I hung up, an archaic voicemail messages popped on. I said my name and said the form was broken.

Guess I won't be using Blue Gecko to host my site. Idiots. Hell, even the guys running my work site under attack have an IRC line available to tell them if something is broken. And they have quotes on their website. Sheesh.

I just got my free Wired cd that is authored under a creative commons license.

Then I ripped it to ogg vorbis for playback.

Followed by a post on my weblog.

Did I mention my work webserver is under a DDoS-attack?

Yes, it's a very techy morning.

I just voted for Kerry/Edwards!

To be precise, I filled out my absentee ballot and threw it in the mail. Hooray!

I encourage all Democratic voters to vote early, because you can then help out on Election Day, November 2, and avoid wasting time in line. If a greater number of us vote this week, the more likely there will be far larger numbers of us on Tuesday who can encourage others to vote.

Here's the DNC's Early Voting Center which breaks it down by state. Even if you live in a state that doesn't have early voting, many states will allow you to vote absentee simply because you'll be away on the day of the election. Like D.C., for instance, or Virginia. You can still request an absentee ballot from most states today, and some states give you until the 30th to vote absentee. Utah residents are already out of luck, unfortunately.

So go vote early! And when you do, add your voice to mine in calling for a fresh start.

Simply hilarious.

Why aren't I paid on an hourly steak rate?

Someone tell me how to pronounce Al Qaqaa. Getting President Bush to say it is a different matter...but I'm sure we're on a collision course for wackiness.

Netflix rocks. I can't wait for them to start integrating with TiVo so that I don't have to physically return movies. Until then, though, they provide a great service. At a great price. At least, until I received this e-mail today:

Since our price increase in June, some of our members have expressed concerns about the new pricing. We've listened to this feedback and are pleased to inform you that we're lowering the price of your Netflix 3-at-a-time program from $21.99 per month to 17.99 per month.

Whoa. A company lowering their price based on consumer "feedback"? That's incredible. Mind-boggling. I'm now a huge fan. You should be too.

That other paper has an excellent story today about looted explosives in Iraq. It seems the U.S. dropped to ball, big-time, on this. Score one for the other paper.

Check out JMM for more details.

If someone had told me we'd bring Deon out of retirement, and that he'd have two interceptions, one of them for a touchdown, I'd have said that would be good for a year. But in one game? Today's Raven game was ridiculous, down to the -0 yards of offense for the entire second half.

I'm just happy we won. Even if it took 5 turnovers to do it.

Um, this is off-base.

I'm not one to think my alma-mater is the "most-wired" campus in America. Hell, I had to move heaven and earth to stream audio over the network a few years back. But with that said, there are several items on this list which are simply false:

1. Can students access e-mail away from school?
2. Does the school provide Web pages?
3. Does the school stream audio or video of any courses?
4. Does the school stream its campus radio or TV stations?
5. Does the school offer courses in emerging technologies?

All of the above were listed as false, when in fact, they are true. If we discount these, Williams would only have five items not checked. That's exactly the same as #25 Suffolk University. Except, of course, that items like "Do students have access to Usenet newsgroups?" shouldn't be on the list. Or really, "Are students required to own a computer?" Now we're down to three, namely, whether students can get a discount on computers, if tuition covers the cost of a computer, and whether the school supports handhelds. I admit, the first two would make Williams more wired than it currently is. The third is nebulous: why should a school of 2,000 students "support" handhelds? What type? PocketPC? Palm? Treos? Smartphones? It's a silly item on a "most-connected" list because, after all, handhelds are wireless. Next thing you know, they'll be demanding the school support cell-phones or some such nonsense. Sure, phones help people stay in touch, but they aren't an indication of the level of a collegiate network.

The distinction between a campus network and a wireless phone system/pdas is a large one that Forbes doesn't seem to grasp. But as to why they simply lied about the five questions above...well, I don't know. But when you build a damn Center for Technology you'd think someone at the school would press their case. Annoying, to say the least.

I'm going to Arizona for the election. Where are you going?

The red line was singletracking today, between Dupont and Union Station. What will it take for the government to pony up more money to fix the Metro system?

Thankfully, my trusty green line was unaffected. So I only had to endure the madness for one stop.

So Tenet has now said Iraq was wrong. Wow.

You just have to wonder why the administration continues to peddle the obvious lie that invading a country with no ties to terrorism was part of the War on Terror? Or that they've made any mistakes at all? Contrast that hubris with what Tenet said at the end of his speech:

"Demographics and distribution trends are something we also need to keep an eye on," Tenet said. "The developed world is not reproducing at levels to maintain its position, while developing nations who cannot afford it, mostly Muslim ones, are exploding."

Tenet said a developing nation's low per capita income, high unemployment among young men and high infant mortality rate strongly increase its likelihood of becoming a "terrorist safe haven."

"In 2010, 100 million people outside of Africa will be infected with HIV," Tenet said. "The secondary implications of this are staggering."

He said the work of public health officers, missionaries and literacy teachers in third world nations are crucial to the war on terrorism, because terrorists build supporters by spinning poverty as a form of humiliation caused by wealthy nations like the United States.

Hmm. Instead of focusing on the old paradigm of state-sponsored terrorism, Tenet is pointing to a new model in which economics and public health matter more to creating environments that prevent terror. Would that the current administration pay attention...

Apparently, I'm now too old to be drafted. Hooray!

The New Republic finally endorses Kerry. Big surprise, eh? Well, I'm just happy they stopped muttering about Joe Lieberman. Of course, being TNR, they had to get in a gratuitous swipe at Howard Dean:

On foreign policy, Kerry's record is less impressive. His vote against the 1991 Gulf war suggested a tendency to see all American military action through the distorting prism of Vietnam. And his behavior in the current Iraq debate has not been exemplary. To be fair, his position has been more consistent than his detractors give him credit for. Republicans mock him for "voting for the war" before opposing it. But Bush himself urged congressional authorization for war as a way to force U.N. inspectors back into Iraq and to disarm Saddam Hussein peacefully. It was reasonable to believe that only a credible U.S. threat of force would produce an intrusive new inspections regime (which it did). And Kerry is right that, if Bush had allowed those inspections to continue, they would have eventually revealed that Saddam lacked weapons of mass destruction and eviscerated the rationale for war.

Kerry's greater failure was his vote against the $87 billion supplemental to equip American troops and rebuild Iraq. He was right to support funding the supplemental by repealing part of the tax cut (particularly since Bush officials like Paul Wolfowitz had shamelessly suggested that the war would cost America virtually nothing). But, once that effort failed, he should have supported the legislation anyway, as Senator Joseph Biden did. Building "firehouses in Baghdad"--a notion Kerry has repeatedly mocked--is not only something we owe the Iraqi people, it stems from the fundamentally liberal premise that social development can help defeat fanaticism. Abandoning that principle under pressure from Howard Dean is the most disturbing thing Kerry has done in this campaign.

Need I mention, again, that Dean supported the first gulf war, and was against the second? The exact opposite of Kerry's position both times. So you'll forgive me if "pressure from Howard Dean" caused me any concern. I will support Kerry wholeheartedly, but to suggest that Dean, who was right on Iraq both times, over the course of a decade, pushed Kerry away from a "principle" is ludicrous. TNR just cannot admit they made a mistake vis-a-vis Iraq. Oh, wait, they already did.

Today is Brad's birthday. Hooray!

Unlike Helena's birthday, Brad demands attention and gifts, preferably of an imported variety for both. However, I have never had the inclination to purchase a giant gray elephant for him. That privilege has been reserved.

In Brad's case, I've found that shiny design oriented gifts work best. I was dismayed to see that Logitech offered a newer, shiner version of the item I had already given him. Then, after further review, I realized that the newer version was cheaper, used proprietary RF technology and had a smaller less cool mouse. Plus, there was no bluetooth hub! Brad always prefers more expensive items, especially if they're technologically superior. So now I am assuaged.

Anyway, Happy Birthday Brad!

Work has been extremely busy lately, with server crashes, design decisions and motherboard madness taking up large chunks of my time. Pile on the additional coding and you have a recipe for less posts from me on the blog.

Considering I still have more coding to do, I'd like to ask all the people who have access to try to post as often as possible, and in turn, I'll try to get the additional features up as quickly as possible.

In the interim, everyone who thinks a draft is a bad idea should head over here and sign this petition. Normally, as I've said in the past, I hate petitions. I think they do little good and act as only a salve for people's consciences. In this case, however, I think the six-degrees-of-separation map is cool enough by itself to warrant asking people to sign up.

I'll also point people over to the new John Kerry interview on Rolling Stone which points out that Kerry would scrap the silly color-coded system:

What do you think of the color-coded terror alerts the Department of Homeland Security issues?

I think Americans, sadly, laugh at it. They don't know what to do.

Will you continue that program?

No. I'm going to find some more thoughtful way of alerting America. If we have to alert America, I think the most important thing to do is alert law enforcement more effectively across the country. Law enforcement doesn't have even a single, unified watch list yet. They still have separate watch lists, with different names and different people. This is the single, simplest, most important thing the Department of Homeland Security was supposed to do, and they haven't done it.

Common sense. Good to see it in a President.

And finally, your daily dose of sleaze.