It's official

Andrea formally got a graphic design job at the Mercury News, the news I couldn't say publicly until today. Congratulations, sweetie!

Yeah, right.

White House gathering inquiry data

Why can't they just admit what everybody already knows? It was Karl Rove. I'll be glad to see that slimeball lose his job. It's too bad people that connected always land feet first, though.

Next up, the Lewinsky-style finger-wagging denial

White House Denies Leaking CIA Agent's ID

Why does George Bush hate America?

White House grapples with allegation

That's right folks, two senior officials blew the cover of a CIA agent to get revenge on her husband for criticizing the government. So basically somebody there broke two laws and obviously has no respect for the First Amendment. But then again, would we expect anything less from an administration that likes to keep public policy secrets, rewrite history and hide facts when they become inconvienent?

Oh, and here's the beauty. The guy's criticism was 100% correct.

A fine whine

Sour Grapes - Why is there no such thing as a good, low-priced California wine?

Finally, someone agrees with me about the state's crappy, overpriced wines.

Like father, like son.

Poll: Bush rating at lowest ever

Nice.

Official moving date

I'll be moving back to the Bay Area to be with my love at the end of October, so I'll be spending a week up there to look for an apartment soon. Andrea and I just realized it's the first whole week we've gotten to spend together since I moved.

In other news, we probably won't be going to Brazil for Thanksgiving as planned. I can't publicly say why now, but it's a good thing. Well, maybe not for Andrea's family, but on the whole, good for Andrea.

Aw, yeah. Let's roll.

Clark Tied With President Bush in Poll

A great day for mail

Here's what I got today:

1) The newest issue of Dwell, the home design magazine.

2) The newest issue of The New Yorker. It's nice and thick. Together, the magazines will make great reading material for my flight to San Jose this weekend.

3) My passport. Soon, I will be a world traveler. Or, at least I would be if the world consisted solely of the Americas. So in that sense, I'll be a New World traveler.

4) My Oct. 7 California recall ballot. It includes some sadly overlooked candidates, including psychologist/farmer Robert C. Newman II and middleweight sumo wrestler Kurt E. "Tachikaze" Rightmyer. Also running are a few notable, shall I coin a term here, "nomonyms." (If there's a real term for a non-celeb who shares a famous name, please let me know). Please, ladies and gentlemen, give a warn welcome to Michael Jackson, Ed Kennedy, Richard Simmons and Robert Dole.

My neighborhood poll location is the nearby Borders, so I have no excuse to vote in this one. I hope they make it really easy for me and put the booths near the computer magazines. Naturally, I'll be casting my ballot for Gary "Whachutalkinbout" Coleman.

RIAA sues 12-year-old girl

Here's the stupidest part of the whole thing: this was a customer that was perfectly willing to pay for online music (they thought they were paying a legitimite service for what turned out to be a link to download a Kazaa variant). In other words, they're suing their very best customers, the kind they'll need if they hope to survive much longer.

Hey kids, don't get fake IDs

Not when you can get real ones!

Bush to seek $87 billion for Iraq effort

squan·der (skwŏn'dәr):

n.
To spend wastefully or extravagantly; dissipate. See synonyms at waste.
To fail to take advantage of; lose a chance for: squandered an opportunity to go to college.

n.
Extravagant expenditure; prodigality.

Repeat a lie long enough, and people start to believe it.

Poll: 70% think Hussein, 9/11 linked

The Bush recovery continues

U.S. companies slash payrolls by 93,000 in August

Fun weekend

Andrea and I spent Labor Day weekend at the beach, on Catalina Island and in Westwood.

Direct boat service from Los Angeles (Marina Del Ray, actually) to the island only recently began, and it's already popular. It's strange that Los Angeles, the biggest city in the West, let alone Southern California, didn't have direct service until recently. Long Beach, Orange County and San Diego had it. But not L.A.

Catalina is a weird little tourist area. It's part of Los Angeles county, but for obvious geographical reasons, its own little world. I just wonder what living there would be like. And I wonder whether they have DSL there.

And in totally random news, a fly just landed in my halogen lamp, and I can smell it burning.

Bush: Industry To Get Boost

Bush: Industry To Get Boost

"President Bush announced steps to help bring jobs to the nation's hard-pressed manufacturing industry today, beginning with what administration officials said would be increased pressure on China to change currency policies that help Chinese firms undercut U.S. competitors."

That's funny; when Howard Dean said the exact same thing two weeks ago, the GOP wingnuts called it a sign that his extremist views would never get him elected.

New poll says Americans disapprove of federal Commandments order

I'd be curious to know whether all four out of five would be in favor of legally enforcing those same commandments, which include:

- Not taking God's name in vain (death sentence)
- Not committing adultery (death sentence)
- No working on the Sabbath (death sentence)
- Honoring one's parents (cursing them brings death sentence)
- Not coveting neighbor's possessions

Heck, the only ones that actually contribute to our legal system now are the prohibitions against murder, theft and perjury. And enforcing the last one could put a serious damper on the unrestrained capitalism conservatives are so fond of.

White House may speed request for more funding

What? You mean wars cost money? There goes that priceless little theory by Rush Limbaugh and company that Iraq's oil would make this a self-funded war. Oops.

Fair and Balanced

In case you're wondering why I changed the site's tag line, it's a temporary, anti-Fox News move in response to their silly little lawsuit.

And stamps -- he wants lots of stamps.

Unabomber asks government to return bomb, books

Oh, and how could I forget...

Schwarzenegger to Davis: Hasta la vista, baby!

Yahoo! News - Schwarzenegger in Surprise Calif. Recall Race Bid

Yahoo! News - Schwarzenegger in Surprise Calif. Recall Race Bid: "Action film star Arnold Schwarzenegger defied predictions, stunned California and frightened Democrats on Wednesday when he announced he would run for governor in a bid to terminate Governor Gray Davis's political career. "

Ahem.

Arnold Schwarzenegger Auditions For New Role -- 'Governator'

Ah yes

Arnold's gift to headline writers

Schwarzenegger Announces Calif. Gov. Bid

Let's see:

"Davis' total recall"
"Arnold to play the Governator"
"Davis Terminated?"
"Arnold confirms he's The Running Man"
"Davis' Judgement Day"

and that's just off the top of my head.

At any rate, I think Davis might be in trouble.

While we were attacking Iraq...

Iran Closes In on Ability to Build a Nuclear Bomb

Purported al-Qaida message warns U.S. on detainees

Here's why it's hard to take threats like this too seriously: they're already "at war" with us and, presumably, trying their best to attack us again. There's no such thing as going after us "110%."

Never mind

Flip-flop on air marshal schedules

Pennywise and pound foolish

Air marshals pulled from key flights

"The decision to drop coverage on flights that many experts consider to be at the highest risk of attack apparently stems from a policy decision to rework schedules so that air marshals don’t have to incur the expense of staying overnight in hotels."

Discovering Gold

I spent the day going to and strolling Pasadena, courtesy of the new Gold Line extention of the light rail system. They were giving everyone free rides and having mini-celebrations at each stop. Much to my amazment, the trains were standing-room only, each stop was packed and the guy said the wait to get on was three hours earlier in the day. I thought only I was geeky enough to be curious about a mass transit system.

I also used a Border's gift certificate I got for my birthday to buy three Brazilian music CDs, two of which turned out to be pretty cool compilations.

TV images of sons shock many Arabs

Are they kidding? Dead bodies are to Arab TV what freeway car chases are to Los Angeles TV.

Yes, I'll definitely wait until Fall to visit

Phoenix: where candles melt indoors

The crappiest place on Earth?

According to this Disnleyland news site, they're basically shutting down Tomorrowland.

Like I've been saying for years...

High-Tech Votes Can Be Hacked, Scientists Say

I'm all for high-tech voting, but these systems all should have a publicly verifiable paper-trail.

Nice Flash animation

Damage Control, Inc. by Mark Fiore

Cosmonaut scraps wedding in space

Apparently, they had drifted apart

Thanks, folks. I'll be in town all week. Be sure to tip your waitresses.

Happy Birthday to me...

Yes I'm 34, and boy, do I feel old.

Andrea organized a birthday dinner for me in Palo Alto, and I got to see some old friends from the newspaper. The dinner was great -- a little Italian place we'd never heard of -- with an odd mixture of Brazilians and Americans. Concidentally, there was another American with a Brazilian significant. She's from Phoenix, went to ASU and knows a good friend of mine from school. Small planet.

Why Bush's intellectual curiosity matters

Warning in Iraq Report Unread

President Bush and his national security adviser did not entirely read the most authoritative prewar assessment of U.S. intelligence on Iraq, including a State Department claim that an allegation Bush would later use in his State of the Union address was "highly dubious," White House officials said yesterday.

Remember the notion during the '00 campaign that it didn't matter whether Bush was studious, or even smart? Now it seems his so-called leadership -- or the thoughtless, unquestioning self-confidence that passes for it -- got us into an expensive war we didn't need to start.

Car Plows Through Crowd in Santa Monica, Killing 9

Car Plows Through Crowd in Santa Monica, Killing 9

Yes, this is a big story. But 50 reporters (yes, I counted) to cover it? That's more than they had covering the Iraq war!

Breakable

Orbitz blames Oracle for site outage

What he said

War, lies and yellowcake

"My sense is, they really did believe they were going to find WMDs, and that it was therefore okay to lie about it beforehand, because they knew they’d ultimately be vindicated. Of course, they also thought they could just install Ahmed Chalabi as some sort of Presidential Puppetman and retreat into the sunset to a soundtrack of cheering Iraqi throngs. This is what happens when you have CEO’s running a government like a business: no one around them is in a position to tell them that they are living in a fantasy world. And when reality fails to conform to their fantasies, they are perhaps the most shocked of all."

It all depends how you define "intelligence"

President defends intelligence team

No, it's not just about 16 little words

20 Lies About the War

CIA got uranium mention cut in Oct.

CIA got uranium mention cut in Oct.

It gets better and better.

Bush says uranium controversy closed

Sure it is. Of course, even if his PR nightmare were over, he still needs to explain his lies about the aluminum tubes, al-Queda ties and most importantly, weapons of mass destuction. That's why we went to war, remember? Because Iraq was such an imminent threat.

Maybe he's not a goner

Bush Says He Has Faith in CIA Director

Of course, you have to wonder about an agency that failed to see 9-11 and helped start a bogus war in the same administration.

Tenet's a goner

CIA director takes responsibility for incorrect information in State of the Union address

The Republicans are in charge #6

House backs overtime pay changes

Jobless claims rise unexpectedly

Yes, last year's tax cuts are working like magic. Can't wait for the new ones to kick in.

White House backs off claim about uranium buy

Oops, our bad.

The Bush recovery continues...

Jobless Rate Rises to 6.4 Percent; Highest in More Than 9 Years

Like Bush said: he's a uniter, not a divder

Power Moves May Be Uniting Hard-Liners in Iraq and Iran

U.S.: Banned arms evidence in Iraq

Before the Republicans get too excited: "U.S. OFFICIALS said the discoveries were not proof that Iraq had managed to build or obtain banned weapons of mass destruction, as President Bush asserted before the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March. But they said the materials, some of which dated back to the first Gulf War, were compelling proof that Saddam was trying actively to acquire such weapons in defiance of the United Nations."

In other words, inspections and sactions were doing the job.

Labels aim big guns at small file swappers

Telling quote of the article: "Go in the stores and buy the records."

You'd think after Napster, Kazza and iTunes, the recording industry would get it through their heads that people don't want to "go in the stores." They want their music online. And as someone who just cancelled his subscription to Pressplay, most of the music isn't online, leagally anyway.

Arizona wildfire grows by a third.

Fortunately, the fire is threatening only vacation homes and the UofA.

KensAwesomeCalc, version 2.01

I fixed a rounding bug. After two hours of taking the mathematical approach (adding .5 to the result and truncating) and trying to figure out why I couldn't add a fraction to a decimal, I finally did a Google search and discovered this magical little function in C# called System.Math.Round.

Heh.

Is Bush lying? Depends on what your definition is 'is' is.

Bush Speech Overstated Iraq Report (washingtonpost.com)

Bush did not indicate that the consensus of U.S. intelligence analysts was that Hussein would launch a terrorist attack against the United States only if he thought he could not stop the United States from invading Iraq. The intelligence report had said that the Iraqi president might decide to give chemical or biological agents to terrorists, such as al Qaeda, for use against the United States only as a "last chance to exact vengeance by taking a large number of victims with him." And it said this would be an "extreme step" by Hussein.

A scary statistic for you

"A Fox News poll last week found that almost half of Americans feel that the administration was "intentionally misleading" about Iraq's weapons, but more than two-thirds think the war was justified anyway."

Inside the Beltway

We did just about everything you can do in D.C.: Visited the Smithsonian (we actually went in only the Museum of American History), White House, Capitol building, Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument and Vietnam War Memorial.

I have to say that the WWII memerial going in now really disrupts the flow of the Lincoln to the Washington Monumant. Considering how overdue the WWII memorial is, you'd think they would have had the time for some better planning.

It was pretty awesome to think that so much power is concentrated into such a small geographic area. I know, I know, the power actually comes from scattered votes of the country. But so much decision-making occurs is this small niche of a city. Pretty amazing, if you ask me.

And the train stations are just so cool in the East -- little airport-like malls that overwhelm with size and architectural history.

Off to Baltimore / Washington D.C.

Andrea and I are taking Friday off to visit the Capitol. Will blog.

More Bush lies.

This time, they're about the tax cuts.

Arizona may ignore next orange alert

This ought to do wonders for tourism.

Productive weekend

I finished version 2.0 of my "Awesome Calculator" for work, with changes that include a smaller interface, rounded results, the ability to leave some fields blank, a currency exchange rate converter and automatic copying of results to Windows' clipboard.

I also updated my resume, researched this weekend's trip to Baltimore / Washington D.C. (no, I'm not going to protest) and saw "Finding Nemo," which was excellent.

And best of all, I'm all caught up on my reading.

The results are in!

In the non-daily categories, Andrea won 1st and 2nd place for page design, and I won 2nd place and honorable mention (basically, 3rd place) in technology story. Unfortunately, my archrival from the San Francisco Business Times took 1st.

Full results here.

Liar, liar

Compare what the Bushies said then to what they're saying now.

Isn't anyone else stunned at the sheer audacity of this bunch? Call Clinton a liar, but at least his were about himself -- and didn't get 150 Americans killed.

Our great leader

“Al Qaeda is on the run. Right now, about half of all the top Al Qaeda operatives are either jailed or dead. In either case, they’re not a problem anymore.”

-- George W. Bush
May 5, 2003

Iraq weapons hunt may take years

Of course. They were such an imminent threat that now we can't even find them.

While we were bombing Iraq...

This guy (remember him?) was planning more attacks. Thank goodness Bush & Co. have made the world so much safer.

Bush: Defender of the common man

Some Audience Members Told Not to Wear Ties for Bush Speech

Bomb attacks rock Saudi capital

Ah yes, as we can see here, Al Qaeda is nearly crippled. OK, OK, terrorists, we're leaving.

Cool software alert

This neat little Winamp add-on, EvilLyrics, uses Google to automatically look up the lyrics of any song you're listening to. It actually works, even on my obscure Brazillian music.

Sweet vindication

Both Andrea and I won two awards each from the Peninsula Press Club for work we did at the Business Journal last year, only weeks before getting laid off. Believe me, I'm making sure all of my old editors know.

This will be Andrea's second straight double-win from the PPC.

I'm glad somebody said this

Byrd blasts Bush for 'flamboyant showmanship' with carrier speech

Now more than ever, I wish this man were my senator.

My favorite parts:

"Last week, the White House had said that such a landing was necessary because the carrier would have been too far out for a helicopter landing. In fact, the carrier was close enough to the California coast for a helicopter landing."

And

"Byrd, who has been a persistent and vocal critic of Bush's policies toward Iraq, said a "salute" to America's warriors was appropriate, but he added, "I do question the motives of a desk-bound president who assumes the garb of a warrior for the purposes of a speech."

Osama victorious

U.S. to end operations in S. Arabia

I'm back!

I didn't realize I was even down until a few people asked me what happened to the site. I renewed my domain name, and because of a weird corporate buyout of my former registrar, it was counted as a transfer and I had to reset my URL forwarding and DNS services.

Anyway, that's taken care of.

I had a really long weekend of journalism workshops, old friends and driving. I got to see Robert and Sarah from the Business Journal for the Poytner Institute's National Writer's Conference -- which, by the way, should have been called a regional conference, since there was another one somewhere that day. And today, I saw former OCBJ collegues Alex and Ludmilla at the L.A. Times book festival at UCLA. It was huge.

And then I took a really long nap.

Attention Pressplay members!

Think twice before downloading the latest Internet Explorer security fix. It causes a Javascript error in the Windows Media Player plugin that makes the service inaccessible. Pressplay tech support just confirmed that it's "working with Microsoft" on the issue. Amazingly, Microsoft is a Pressplay affiliate.

After another Windows hotfix slowed mine and everyone else's PC, I'm starting to wonder whether the "auto update" feature of Windows XP is such a good idea.

Fox News strikes again

AP Wire | 04/23/2003 | Media, military investigated for taking art, artifacts, cash from Iraq

So far, only Benjamin James Johnson, who worked as an engineer for Fox News Channel, has been charged.

The dark side of OTC Claritan

And perhaps, another indictment of health care system that doesn't give consumers incentives to cut costs.

CNN.com - The Claritin over-the-counter dilemma - Apr. 23, 2003

New SARS travel warning issued

New SARS travel warning issued

Responding to the global spread of the deadly SARS virus, the World Health Organization on Wednesday urged against travel to Beijing, China’s Shanxi province and Toronto, Canada’s business capital.

For the record, I've always urged against travel to Toronto.

Rise of the machines

The Unmanned Army

Yes, "The Terminator" was a prophecy.

Hey, check out my new site

To feed my interest in the design aspects of technology, my new site, "Design-Nerd" is finally up. This is where I'll herald all the cool -- and aesthetically pleasing -- gadgets I see. It's not finished (the logo has to be changed, for instance, because the domain name I was hoping would expire soon got renewed), but I'm eager to get early feedback.

I'm rich!

For the first time in as long as I can remember, I have a positive net worth (assuming my car is worth exactly what I owe on the loan). Woo-hoo!

Another bogus war story debunked

CNN.com - Media fooled over helmet escape

Interesting

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad to see Sadam gone, as are millions of Iraqi's. But it's starting to look like "Wag the Dog" wasn't such a farce after all. I sincerely hope this Web site is a hoax.

The photographs tell the story...

We win!

We came on strong and spanked them. In the words of the great 70s band Queen: "We are the champions..."

Gonna be a rumble tonight

And I'm not talking about Iraq.

Because of a first-place tie, my bowling team faces a bowl-off tonight between Pin Heads and the Lucky Strikes (I'm a Pin-Head) for the IBD league championship. Now I wish I'd bought my own ball.

Last Refuge of a Scoundrel

An excellent editorial by Baltimore City Paper.

In case you haven't gotten it yet, here it is in a nutshell. Criticizing the president is not the same thing as criticizing the troops. Criticizing the president is not the same as criticizing America. And criticizing the president is not "giving aid and comfort to the enemy," which is the classic definition of treason, a federal crime that earns felons the death penalty.

This can't be good.

Major Threat Seen in L.A. Quake Fault

Why does Fox News hate America?

Pentagon Says Geraldo Rivera Will Be Removed From Iraq

"At one point, he actually revealed the time of an attack prior to its occurrence," Lt. Mark Kitchens, a spokesman at Central Command, said yesterday morning. Lieutenant Kitchens added that Mr. Rivera had been escorted to Kuwait.

Navy's floating hospital treats Iraqis

Want federal health care? Join the Iraqi army.

Among the ship’s 62 doctors — mostly Navy physicians from the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland — are two neurosurgeons, a plastic surgeon and a pediatrician. Heart surgery and organ transplants are the only procedures that can’t be performed on board.

Well, what do you know? Diplomacy does matter.

Missteps with Turkey prove costly

Still #1

But barely. We lost two games to tie for 1st, in which the number of total points determines the winner. We have an ever-so-slight lead.

Good news for Andrea, too. She's gotten the Ok from everyone she needs to do the cross-training in editorial. So let's hope she's doing real graphic design soon.

12 U.S. troops presumed captured

12 U.S. troops presumed captured

On CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Rumsfeld said that if those are coalition soldiers being shown on the Al-Jazeera TV footage, “those pictures are a violation of the Geneva Convention.”

If the Iraqi's killed soldiers execution style, then someone's getting tried for war crimes. But as far as showing them on TV, I don't see the difference between an Iraqi state-run TV showing these images, and the U.S. military letting CNN and others show Iraqi POWs yesterday.

Shockingand awesome

Shock and awe, not to be confused with Chaka Kahn, has begun.

Unauthorized Entry - The Bush Doctrine: War without anyone's permission. By Michael Kinsley

Exactly.

War blogging

System note:

It looks like there's been a burst of commenting activity on the YACCS system, so comments may be down for awhile.

I report ... you decide

I hate to admit this -- because I hate Fox News and its smug pretense of balance and fairness -- but they're doing the best war coverage so far.

And I have to admit that it's a little weird watching Internet-quality video on my TV. I hope those videophones everyone's using gets better fast.

Bowling victory

Yes! Three straight wins tonight puts us solidly in 1st place again.

Where's the war we ordered?

It's at least four minutes behind schedule.

This means war

Well, it looks like we're going. Andrea is all freaked out, but I have to admit I enjoy watching round-the-clock war coverage. It reminds me of college, when my roommates and I refused to take the Christmas tree down until the troops came home. That's right, our tree was still up Jan. 16 (or whenever Gulf War I started) and was a fire hazard by the time it came down.

I went to San Jose last weekend and had a really good time in San Francisco. We got caught in the middle of the war protests (though people were also protesting capitalism, heterosexuality, our South Korean military presence and, for some reason, the Gap). Old Navy lowered the metal "night bars" as shoppers watched the protesters from inside. Andrea and were in the middle of things until we wisely decided to go across the street and watch the ordeal from the second story of Virgin Megastore.

Andrea has the OK for cross-training from every person she needs it from except the union leader from editorial. The editorial department, where she'd like to get training, has a different union than the one representing her department, complicating the process. Neither union wants to be the one to pay her salary during the training. God forbid she try to improve her value to the newspaper and fulfill one of the editor's big pushes. I like unions, but I hate hate HATE bureaucracy.

We're No. 2!

My bowling team is back in 2nd place (tied for 2nd, actually) after winning two of tonight's three games.