On Cheney on Torture

In honor of Dick Cheney’s recent cheerleading for torture, I refer you to some interesting reading on the subject: Bob Cesca makes a compelling argument that Cheney wants everyone to focus on the rights and wrongs of torture so nobody will bother going the next step to the reasons why he and Bush were so

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Windows “Checks” Performance

Late in the installation process for Microsoft Windows Vista, the system displays the following message:

Please wait while Windows checks your computer's performance.

It then proceeds to display, at a leisurely clip, a series of Vista’s exciting new features while, presumably, Windows is doing something useful. At the same time, the person (me) wanting to use the computer is prevented from doing anything useful with it.

While observing this, it occurred to me that the word “check” has more than one definition. I think this is the one Microsoft intended:

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Good-bye, Karl Rove!

Karl Rove is the unelected agent responsible for much of the mess our country is currently in. It was his advice and guidance that put W in the White House and led to the countless disasters that constitute W’s Presidency. And he did those things by exploiting fear, rank partisanship and divisiveness. When the list

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Is Joe the Plumber a winner?

Many pundits declared “Joe the Plumber” the winner of last night’s debate between Barack Obama and John McCain. If suddenly becoming famous counts as winning, then they’re right. But beyond that, it’s not so clear how much of a winner he really is.

He claims to like McCain and dislike Obama, especially the latter’s tax plan, but:

  • He admits to making far less than $250,000 per year right now, which means that Obama’s tax plan would be far better for him than McCain’s.

Is Joe the Plumber a winner? Read More »

Glassbooth

In my previous post, I mentioned Project Vote Smart. Another useful site for voters is Glassbooth. Glassbooth lets you compare the presidential candidates against your views on those issues most important to you. Check it out!

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Project Vote Smart

James Madison wrote “A people that mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power that knowledge brings.” For those voters who want more and better information than what can be gleaned from TV commercials, check out Project Vote Smart (http://votesmart.org or 1-888-VOTE-SMART). Vote Smart provides a wealth of unbiased information about federal and state political candidates. The service is free.

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Experience? Good or bad?

One of Hillary Clinton’s mantras during her primary campaign against Barack Obama was her claim of being more experienced in governing. If that claim is worth anything, then why was her campaign so dysfunctional as compared to his?

Many others are offering their analyses of “What went wrong,” but I’ll mention a few obvious ones:

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His lips are moving…

On tonight’s NBC nightly news, Richard Engel asked President Bush about the impact of requiring extra tours of duty from our soldiers. Bush answered by stating that those soldiers volunteered for those extra tours.

Later in the show, Jim Miklasewski reported on the large number of soldiers who have been forced to delay their exits from military service by stop-loss orders, which force them to stay for additional tours after they should have been done with their service. At least 58,000 men and women have had their military careers extended by stop-loss orders.

Incredible.

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Poor Design, Wasted Time

One of my pet peeves is poor web site design and implementation. Here’s one example of screwing it up multiple ways. The Entertainment book offers 2-for-1 dining coupons and other types of discounts. I’ve purchased the book in past years, although I tried something else last year. Entertainment is now offering their 2008 books at a reduced price, so I decided to buy one. Most online purchases are easily done in a couple minutes. Not so here.

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