TIME Magazine: The Case Against Him

As usual, Kinsley hits it right on the nose:

Against a backdrop of great events, even a mediocrity can seem great for a while. After Sept. 11, there was certainly a great flurry of activity. War on terrorism was declared. An actual war was started in Iraq and still goes on. A Department of Homeland Security was founded. Various American freedoms have been suspended. More than $100 billion has been spent. At the rate things are going, the toll of American lives lost responding to 9/11 may exceed the toll of 9/11 itself. The toll of innocent foreigners is higher already.

But what has it all amounted to? As the most powerful nation in the world, we have managed to track down and kill a few members of al-Qaeda. No more airliners have been flown into skyscrapers in the three years since 9/11, but then that was true in the three years before 9/11 as well. Are we safer from terrorism than we were before?

Bush invites McCaininto 527 'court action'

One problem with Bush's complaint: MoveOn isn't a 527, but a fully regulated political action committee. That means they disclose their sources of funding and are subjected to donation limits. Running a non-affiliated negative ad doesn't make you a 527.

Not again...

Hoodwinked - Why is Florida's voting system is so corrupt?

Bush Urges Muting of Ads

As usual, Bush misses the point. Negative ads are not the problem -- it's called "free speech" and "debate." I'm sure Bush would much prefer a race in which his lousy record was off-limits. But that's not how the free market of ideas works.

The problem with the Swift Boat Liars Club ads is that they're plain, on-their-face false. They're a cheap smear, and Bush should condemn them. Do MoveOn and Micheal Moore take cheap shots against Bush? Of course they do -- and Kerry has criticized them when the situation called for it. Why can't Bush do the right thing?

That's right, folks, no connection

Bush Campaign Lawyer Is Advising Swift Boat Group, AP Reports

Freedom? Iraqi coach disputes Bush's claims

The president may want to reconsider that rumored Olypics photo-op.

Hardcore karaoke

Last weekend Andrea, I and some friends spent our evening here, singing cheesey songs to a live audience of about 30-or-so people and an Internet audience of about 12 people.

The cyber element was a weird twist to the whole karaoke experience -- you can read comments from a dedicated chat room as you're singing, and after you're done, can use the in-house terminal to defend your performance. Some of our friends were still there when I got home, so naturally, I hazed them online. After the bar closes, the Web site replays past performances, so we got to watch ourselves the next day.

Who would have imagined this 10 years ago?

Scumbags

Bush, his familyhave many ties to Swift Boat vets: "The veterans%27 group behind the controversial TV ads that question Sen. John Kerry's Vietnam war record has extensive ties to President Bush and his family, other high-profile Texas politicians and Bush's chief political aide -- ties that have raised questions about possible illegal coordination between Bush's re-election campaign and the group."

And I thought I was a Stars Wars freak

Welcome to H-Wing.Com!

Since you're here, I'll assume you're interested in checking out my 1995 Honda Civic del sol, the sporty roadster I've turned into an earth-bound version of a Star Wars starfighter.

Nobody Killed Kenny

I love it when people sign me up for conservative newsletters. It's so funny -- and original.

The Bush recovery continues!

Job Growth Meager, Markets Stunned

Another good point about SUVs

The law is rarely enforced, but most are illegal on California's residential streets.

Worse yet, the rest of us are subsidizing SUV drivers and the damage they do to the streets -- both in taxes and damage to our own vehicles.

Rumsfeld to be rebuked

But how can this be? Bush said he was doing a "superb" job.

Kerry's speech

I'm watching it now via the Internet, so I can't say how good it was yet. But NBC's news team seemed to like it.

And you gotta love that opening line.

Drudge posts fake photos

This is why the right-wind gossipmonger will never be the real journalist he so deperately wants to be.

His Photoshop retouching may seem a trivial thing, but it shows a couple of pretty big things about the Drudge-packer:

1) He steals other people's work without credit or payment. Yes, this from the same group that lambastes the poor for being lazy and dishonest.

2) He doesn't value truth, and is willing to post false photos as news. This is a big journalistic no-no. Concepts like bias, balance and fairness are subject to interpretation, but posting fake photos is a cut-and-dry issue. If he knowingly posts fake photos over trivial stories, how can we trust his so-called scoops? How many other fake photos has he posted?

3) He's stupid. If you're going to flip a photo and change the color of the traffic light, remember to also change the color of the cross-street light. That way, the photo doesn't show green lights in all directions. Also move around some of the other objects, or change the color of one of the cars.

What a chump.

UPDATE: Apparently he's taken the photo off the site. No correction. No apology.
DEVELOPING...

Why do Republicans hate America?

Sen. Shelby the subject of probe on 9/11 intelligence leak

Memo to Ann Coulter, and for that matter, Investor's Business Daily's editorial writers: of you're looking to call someone a traitor or accuse them of sedition, here's as example of something that actually fits the definition.

Birthday musings

A few milestones passed this week, and with a few big work deadlines past me, I can finally write about them.

July 15 was the second anniversary of my getting laid off from the Business Journal. As devastating as it was at the time, I’m happy to report that I’m better off financially and career-wise now than I was the day before the layoff.

As of this month, I’m free of long-term credit card debt, which was about $12,000 two years ago. And I have built up the recommended emergency savings of about four months worth of expenses vs. no savings at all two years ago. Now I can focus on saving for a home and retirement investing. I was laid off from a weekly, local newspaper with a sub-10,000 circulation. Now I work for a national daily with a circulation of almost 300,000. I’m making less money than I was — which kind of sucks in this housing market — but I’m better exposed and poised for bigger positions than I was before. And it’s nice to have tech firms scrambling to get MY attention for a change.

July 19 was my birthday, and I’m officially kicked out of the 18-34 age group. Which is probably appropriate, since I don’t watch much TV anymore or throw around money. I can see why advertisers don’t like old people. One of Andrea’s gifts was a computer game, if you can believe that. It’s the first PC-related gift she’s ever bought me.

And July 20 is the 35th anniversary of the moon landing. Still no rocket car. Sigh.

How to stop this page from popping out IE's sidebar

Select Internet Explorer's "Options" menu and click the security tab. Click "resticted sites," and add "http://*.tripod.com" to the list. Disable Javascript in the restricted zone if it's not already.

The other option, of course, is to switch to FireFox, which is quite good these days.

Sorry it's come to this, but I figured Tripod would disable the "feature" once they realized how annoying and useless it is.

We make pasta! Here's a picture of our homemade pasta-making adventure, as I test Blogger's new photo-posting tool.