-
LinkedIn members who work in the energy sector will have the option to receive relevant, targeted Times stories, on NYTimes.com, which cover the energy business.
-
Interesting take by Roll Call cartoonist R.J. Matson.
-
There are wrong ways to dismiss someone. But is there really a right way to do it?
-
The GOP wants you to help it figure out its party platform. Today, the Republican Platform Committee launched a site to gather comments and policy suggestions directly from the party faithful (and anyone else willing to give up their e-mail address).
-
Fannie has been able to purchase political immunity for decades by disguising its vast profit-making machine in the cloak of “affordable housing.” To be more precise, Fan and Fred have been protected by an alliance of Capitol Hill and Wall Street.
-
Using Frankie Valli’s 1960s love song, “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You,” as the soundtrack, the campaign on Tuesday took a direct aim in a new Web video at what it called the media’s “bizarre fascination with Barack Obama.”
-
In a nation that holds itself up as a citadel of free enterprise, the government has transformed from a reliable guarantor into effectively the only lender for millions of Americans engaged in the largest transactions of their lives.
-
He has been making a series of verbal slips—invariably described as “gaffes”—which are starting to ricochet from liberal blogs to the mainstream media. And fairly or not, some critics are suggesting the 71-year-old Republican candidate is showing his
-
What makes this more than a gimmick is that by prompting a vote on the favorite audio track, folks are motivated to watch the video not once, but twice. Steve Schmidt’s reputation for hammering a message home through repetition is well-earned.
-
Military commanders had only to read the law to see that Congress wasn’t serious about protecting gay service members. The law’s text is a tissue of barely disguised bigotry.
links for 2008-07-24
July 23rd, 2008 · by Jonathan Rick
→ No CommentsTags: Uncategorized
links for 2008-07-23
July 22nd, 2008 · by Jonathan Rick
-
This fall, San Francisco will test 6,000 of its 24,000 metered parking spaces in the nation’s most ambitious trial of a wireless sensor network that will announce which of the spaces are free at any moment.
-
Ron Fournier is a main engine in a high-stakes experiment at the 162-year old wire to move from its signature neutral and detached tone to an aggressive, plain-spoken style of writing that Fournier often describes as “cutting through the clutter.”
→ No CommentsTags: Uncategorized
links for 2008-07-22
July 21st, 2008 · by Jonathan Rick
-
McCain mastered the art of political triangulation to become perhaps the Senate’s most influential member.
-
As we near the major party conventions, here are a few questions for presumptive GOP nominee John McCain.
-
By presenting a mad or contemptible partisan sentiment as a mainstream one, the New Yorker seems to have unwittingly reiterated the misconception it meant to lampoon.
-
It was in Ohio the other day when a supporter neatly summed up the obstacle lying between John McCain and the White House. “When,” the young man implored, “are you going to go out and say, ‘Read my lips. I am not the third term of Bush’?”
-
The prosecution for genocide is a historic step that also creates an opportunity in Sudan, particularly if China can now be induced and shamed into suspending the transfer of weapons used to slaughter civilians in Darfur.
-
It’s one thing for a conservative to admire T. R.’s style and gallantry, the charge up San Juan Hill, the rounding up of crooks in the Badlands. It’s something else for a conservative to identify Roosevelt as a fellow reformer.
-
I searched Google for “obama healthcare” and “mccain healthcare.” I was shocked by what I found.
-
Like a modern general addressing his modern army in what Erickson terms the “Freedom Revolution,” he was precise and direct in how the activists in the room could make an immediate difference.
-
Less than a week after publishing an op-ed on Iraq by Barack Obama, the New York Times has rejected a rebuttal op-ed by John McCain.
→ No CommentsTags: Uncategorized
links for 2008-07-19
July 18th, 2008 · by Jonathan Rick
-
Israel will almost surely attack Iran’s nuclear sites in the next four to seven months. And if the attack fails, the Middle East will almost certainly face a nuclear war.
-
For the first few months of the campaign, the question about Obama was: Who is he? The question now is: Who does he think he is? We are getting to know. Redeemer of our uninvolved, uninformed lives. Lord of the seas. And more.
-
Behind the e-mail messages is a tight-knit group of aides supported by a huge 300-person foreign policy campaign bureaucracy, organized like a mini State Department, to assist a candidate whose limited national security experience remains a concern.
-
If the initial rapprochement between the two men seemed a tad forced after Mr. Romney pulled out of the race last winter, something approaching warmth seems to be entering their relationship now.
→ No CommentsTags: Uncategorized
links for 2008-07-18
July 17th, 2008 · by Jonathan Rick
-
The Google Adwords “buy your rivals” strategy can be a very effective way of putting your message in front of Internet users who wouldn’t necessarily think about your brand, product, service, candidate, issue, argument, party, or even your party’s
-
As the frank worked its way down the row, some joker would occasionally palm the dog and when the empty roll reached the guy who ordered it, he would angrily refuse to pay. Shouting would then ensue.
-
The new iPhone’s brighter screen, GPS and 3G connectivity are nice, but you know what’s nicer? Not running out of batteries halfway through the friggin’ day.
-
Perhaps you too have a VHS tape (or stack of them) that you want to transfer to DVD. If so, this column might help you out.
→ No CommentsTags: Uncategorized
links for 2008-07-17
July 16th, 2008 · by Jonathan Rick
-
And their best yet, I’d say.
-
I would be skeptical of Internet regulation on the best day, and downright hostile on any other. I do not believe the imposition of a new regulatory regime is the cure to the perceived ills of either the state of broadband or the state of my party.
-
By understanding and implementing online/political strategy, we at Engage propose that a more honest, responsive and democratic government will follow.
-
John McCain’s campaign published a side-by-side comparison of Barack Obama’s Iraq War policy Web pages on Tuesday using a new automated online tracking service called Versionista.
→ No CommentsTags: Uncategorized
links for 2008-07-16
July 15th, 2008 · by Jonathan Rick
-
“I can remember, as governor, I stayed in touch with all kinds of people around the country, firing off e-mails at all times of the day to stay in touch with my pals … There’s no better way to communicate with them than through e-mail.”
-
McCain’s computer illiteracy doesn’t reflect a lack of curiosity–it reflects a lack of necessity.
-
We’re excited to announce that Twitter has acquired Summize—an extraordinary search tool and an amazing group of engineers. All five Summize engineers will move to San Francisco, CA and take jobs at Twitter, Inc.
-
When it comes to presidential politics, you either are or you aren’t. And Barack Obama aren’t. If you can’t grasp the simple math of that statement, you don’t know much about elections in this country. It’s not about the war, or the economy, or the falter
-
Should criminals have equal access to scarce medical treatments?
-
Google Trends says the Heritage Foundation is winning the battle for traffic among prominent Think Tank Web sites, followed by the Cato Institute, Brookings and then the Center for American Progress.
-
Five years ago, Joe Trippi told Mathew Gross, one of the bloggers then working in obscurity on the Howard Dean campaign, to “start an ‘Ask the Dean Campaign’ thread over at the Smirking Chimp,” a heavily trafficked forum for Democratic activists.
-
“In no part of the Constitution is more wisdom to be found,” James Madison wrote in 1793, “than in that clause which asks the president to give Congress a courtesy call whenever he’s picked a new country to invade.”
→ No CommentsTags: Uncategorized
July 15th, 2008 · by Jonathan Rick
Published in the Spectator (Hamilton College), April 30, 2004.
To Torture or Not to Torture?
By Jonathan Rick
We know the general location, we know it will happen in the next 24 hours, and we’re confident the person we’ve nabbed knows what, where and when.1 The question before us: to torture or not to torture?
Although we’ve now heard Attorney General-nominee Alberto Gonzales condemn the practice, seen Specialist Charles Granger sentenced to 10 years for committing it, and read half a dozen new books highlighting the route from Gonzales’ keyboard to Granger’s fists, it seems we are no closer to an answer. We urgently need one, but the very subject makes us wince and demur, insulated by the cliché, “Out of sight, out of mind.” Of course, this only perpetuates the problem, for without the check of a national debate, government defaults to its worst instincts. Here, then, is a modest start in addressing today’s moral imperative.
We should first remember that this hypothetical represents an emergency, and since emergencies distort context, they make it tortuous to retain a fully rational resolution. Similarly, emergencies are emergencies—people do not live in lifeboats—so such context should not form the basis for formulating official policy
Nonetheless, torture advocates argue that the end justifies the means, which amounts to an often obvious but equally precarious utilitarian calculus: had we, say, captured a 20th 9/11 hijacker on 9/10, many would have doubtless approved his torture to elicit information. Advocates also argue that once we determine a suspect knows something, he thereby becomes a threat and forfeits his rights. Playing Col. Nathan R. Jessup in A Few Good Men (1992), Jack Nicholson memorably crystallized the point: “[W]e live in a world that has walls, and those walls need to be guarded by men with guns. Who’s gonna do it? You?. . . . [D]eep down in places you don’t talk about at parties, you want me on that wall. You need me on that wall.” Thus, torture is a “necessary evil,”2 made particularly imperative by a post-9/11—and now post-3/11 (Madrid)—world.
Of course, governments have always used the excuse of an emergency to broaden their powers. Referring to the French Revolution, Robespierre declared that one cannot “expect to make an omelet without breaking eggs.” The Soviets alleged that their purges were “temporary.” The Nazis said extraordinary times necessitated extraordinary measures. And, in the same way, 45 days after 9/11, in government’s characteristic distortion of words, Congress adopted the so-called Patriot Act (which in the heat of the moment many of the lawmakers voting for it did not even read, in whole or in part). Then, 13 months later, the Bush administration floated a second Patriot Act. Such is the pattern of and path toward despotism.
And yet, the renowned civil libertarian, Alan Dershowitz, is perhaps torture’s most famous advocate. Dershowitz favors restricting the practice to “imminent” and “large-scale” circumstances.3 But, again, by such seemingly small steps we creep further toward the Rubicon: since we have already surrendered such power, a precedent has been established, and the rest is only a matter of details and time.
Indeed, once we legitimate torture to save New York City, it becomes much easier to legitimate its use to save “just” Manhattan. And then “just” Times Square. And then “just” the World Trade Center. Before we let a judge issue what Deroshowitz terms “torture warrants” on a case-by-case basis, we need to define our criteria precisely. Are they to save a million people? A thousand? A hundred? The President? Members of the Cabinet? Senators? Only in cases involving a “weapon of mass destruction”?
Similarly, if torture makes terrorists sing, as it often does in foreign countries,4 why shouldn’t we use it against potential terrorists? And then to break child pornography rings and to catch rapists?5 And then against drug dealers and prostitutes? After reading of endless abuses by government officials using forfeiture, I.R.S. audits, graft, payoffs, kickbacks and the like, it is naïve to think that once we collectively sanction torture, that torture would somehow be exempt from the temptress of absolute power.6 Do not say it cannot happen in America. It already has.
1 This is the “ticking-bomb” hypothetical, which Michael Walzer described in “Political Action: The Problem of Dirty Hands,” Philosophy and Public Affairs 2, 1973, 166–67, and Alan Dershowitz popularized in Why Terrorism Works: Understanding the Threat, Responding to the Challenge (2002). But as Arthur Silber of the LightofReason blog notes, we should modify this Hollywood fantasy. Arthur Silber, “Some Additional Thoughts on Torture—and Some Observations from Hannah Arendt,” LightofReason.com, March 15, 2003.
For instance, has the suspect confessed to knowledge and refuses to spill it, or does he profess not to know anything when we believe he does?
Postscript (12/10/05): The conservative analyst Andrew Sullivan adds, “In practice, of course, the likelihood of such a scenario is extraordinarily remote. Uncovering a terrorist plot is hard enough; capturing a conspirator involved in that plot is even harder; and realizing in advance that the person knows the whereabouts of the bomb is nearly impossible.” Andrew Sullivan, “The Abolition of Torture,” New Republic, December 19, 2005.
2 The term “necessary evil” is contradictory. Explains psychotherapist Michael Hurd: “[T]here are no necessary evils. If something is truly evil, there’s no way it can be necessary, and if it is truly necessary to the well-being of a rational man’s life, it’s not evil, but good.” Michael J. Hurd, “Neither Noble Nor Peaceful,” DrHurd.com December 13, 2002.
3 Alan Dershowitz, “Is There a Torturous Road to Justice?,” Los Angeles Times, November 8, 2001.
4 Alasdair Palmer, “The U.S. May Use Torture Against Terrorism,” Daily Telegraph (United Kingdom), December 15, 2002.
6 This is a slippery-slope argument, the philosophy of which Eugene Volokh and David Newman defend in “In Defense of the Slippery Slope,” Legal Affairs, March-April 2003.
7 Alan Dershowitz, “Is There a Torturous Road to Justice?,” Los Angeles Times, November 8, 2001.
8 Michael Ignatieff, “Lesser Evils,” New York Times Magazine, May 2, 2004. <http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/02/magazine/02TERROR.html>
10 Christopher Hitchens, “Prison Mutiny,” Slate, May 4, 2004. <http://slate.msn.com/id/2099888/>
11 Michael Ignatieff, “Lesser Evils,” New York Times Magazine, May 2, 2004. <http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/02/magazine/02TERROR.html>
→ No CommentsTags: Uncategorized
links for 2008-07-15
July 14th, 2008 · by Jonathan Rick
-
Arab states are awash in oil money. Will it destroy them?
-
But are we safe? As Al Qaeda and the Taliban surge this summer, that single question is even more urgent than the moral and legal issues attending torture.
-
A look at how Republicans are playing catch-up to Democrats when it comes to online fund-raising.
→ No CommentsTags: Uncategorized
links for 2008-07-12
July 11th, 2008 · by Jonathan Rick
-
Kim Strassel documents the growing success of the transparency movement.
-
It’s critical that we retain the right to record, videotape or photograph the police while they’re on duty. Not only for symbolic reasons, but also as an important check on police excesses.
-
If we’ve learned anything from the dreary wars over politically correct language in America, it’s that purging ugly words from the lexicon hardly makes the ugly ideas they represent go away.
-
The death and life of the American newspaper.
-
Under the Essential Air Service program, created in 1978, the federal government provides subsidies of about $100 million a year to the airlines, to ensure that communities in rural and remove areas would be linked to the nation’s air system.
-
PhRMA and its think tank allies coordinate their response to Michael Moore’s propaganda.
-
Blackstone Group CEO, Steve Schwarzman, has received some bad press lately, much of which was preventable.
-
One experienced publishing veteran suggests that Mr. Hitchens will likely earn more than $1 million on this book.
-
Why do they hate Him?
-
While aggressive evictions are reducing the number of rent-stabilized apartments in New York, Rep. Charlie Rangel is enjoying four of them, including three adjacent units on the 16th floor overlooking Upper Manhattan.
-
There’s a battle raging behind the scenes in Washington these days about our most fundamental right: The freedom of speech.
-
And so the innocent languish, as did Betancourt, until some local power, inexplicably under the sway of the Bush notion of hard power, gets it done—often with the support of the American military.
-
All the genocides of the last 100 years have cost only 10 million to 12 million lives. In contrast, every year we lose almost 10 million children under the age of 5 from diseases and malnutrition attributable to poverty. Make that the priority, not Darfur
-
Former Republican Operatives Turn to Blogging in Attempt to Rebuild Party - Walter Alarkon, The HillFor Jon Henke, Patrick Ruffini and Soren Dayton, the 2008 GOP presidential primaries settled little. Believing that their party needs to rebuild whether or not Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) wins the White House, they have started a blog, the Next Right.
→ No CommentsTags: Uncategorized
links for 2008-07-11
July 10th, 2008 · by Jonathan Rick
-
In a world where communication avenues and opportunities are simultaneously more available and more clogged than ever, busting through the chattering masses in order to make your work rise to the top is almost as important as the quality of your work itse
-
The arguments over D.C. voting rights always centered on two questions: Does the Constitution allow the District to have a seat in Congress? And why should Republicans consent to creating a seat that would be Democratic from now until at least the end of
-
Blogs are very important these days. Even Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has one. The invention of the Web log, we are told, is as transformative as Gutenberg’s press, and has shoved journalism into a reformation, perhaps a revolution.
-
In 2006, owing to lush overtime earnings, 284 WMATA bus and train operators took home more than $100K each. What’s worse, the system is unlikely to change.
-
As much as journalists like to pretend that editors shape newspapers, the real power has always belonged to publishers.
-
When Gina Gray took over as the public affairs director at Arlington National Cemetery about three months ago, she discovered that cemetery officials were attempting to impose new limits on media coverage of funerals of the Iraq war dead.
-
Nuclear energy is the cleanest and best option for America’s electric power supply, yet it has been stalled by decades of unproductive debate.
-
In his easy-to-read, simple-sentence style, John Stossel debunks the myths of ethanol. Bonus points for quoting my favorite energy expert, Cato’s Jerry Taylor.
-
With Hillary running for president, Carl Bernstein gives readers another perspective on her personal and public life. In chapter one of his new book, A Woman in Charge, he writes about her family. Here’s an excerpt.
-
I have been called on a number of occasions, as have many other journalists on the right and left who have asked critical questions of McCain or of his aides.
-
Drudge’s number of unique visitors is regularly touted but what is more important, in terms of his ability to drives news cycles, is that every reporter and editor who covers politics is checking the site multiple times a day.
-
Two points here: (1) The problem of designing an effective political organization cannot be solved, it can only be finessed; (2) Every administration over-corrects the flaws of the last.
→ No CommentsTags: Uncategorized
links for 2008-07-10
July 9th, 2008 · by Jonathan Rick
-
Helms realized early on that it looked better to position yourself as a foe of big government than as a defender of state-created privileges.
-
Payne created downforeveryoneorjustme.com, as in, “Down for everyone, or just me?” It lets visitors type in a Web address and see whether a site is generally inaccessible or whether the problem is with their own connection.
-
The 32-year-old Castro was refused a meeting with President Dwight Eisenhower, and after leaving the United States, he returned to Cuba and joined forces with the Soviet Union and Nikita Khrushchev.
-
Poor people who want public benefits must give up their privacy. Investigators from the San Diego district attorney’s office make unannounced visits to the homes of people applying for welfare, poking around in garbage cans, medicine chests and laundry.
-
Tom DeLay fell from grace not because he was a Christian—a cheap and offensive rationalization—but because he was a politician in the worst sense, betraying principles for power.
-
When it comes to lobbying, Google does not intend to repeat the mistake that its rival Microsoft made a decade ago.
-
The Sopranos creator David Chase turned us all into Tony’s shrink, then duped us into believing he could be saved. It took us eight seasons to figure out we’d been had.
-
The museum in Russia has mounted an unusual exhibit of the different ways that students have cheated over the years in Russia. An article in the Chronicle of Higher Education highlights some of the exhibit’s more ingenious items.
→ No CommentsTags: Uncategorized
links for 2008-07-09
July 8th, 2008 · by Jonathan Rick
-
The real reason for Wesley Clark’s ill-advised comments about John McCain’s military record
-
David Addington and John Yoo testify on the Hill
-
Some supporters of Hillary Clinton believe that sexism colored news coverage of her presidential campaign.
-
With one company now the world’s chief gateway to information, some critics are hatching ways to fight its influence
-
In the two years since it was introduced, Yahoo Answers has become second in popularity only to Wikipedia as a reference site.
-
Think Bush’s warrantless NSA surveillance is bad? Wait till you hear what the British government does.
-
Jesse Helms may have done some good things, but “we should not gloss over the repugnant aspects of his record. Helms began his career as a segregationist, and he never really repented.”
-
In these posts she discusses various SEO topics like page titles, keyword usage, and the actual content found on a site. Further, she does look at a campaign’s search marketing efforts, if any, and use of social media.
-
You go out to eat in Boston and there’s a good chance your waiter can name several characters from Dostoyevsky. In Washington, your waiter can’t name any characters from Dostoyevsky. In New York, your waiter *is* a character from Dostoyevsky.
-
The difficulties and dangers of the eradication program.
-
No one claims that Beckham is the finest soccer player on the planet. What one may say, however, is that he has made the best of his abilities, including the world’s deadliest cross of a soccer ball for the last decade.
-
The Washington Post’s TV critic has an unhealthy obsession with Seinfeld.
-
Wansoo Im, an adjunct professor of urban planning at Rutgers, has cured one of Manhattan’s oldest civic ills—the difficulty of finding a public rest room—by applying one of the coolest new tools on the Internet: Google Maps.
-
We need a Truth Commission, with subpoena power, to investigate the abuses in the aftermath of 9/11.
→ No CommentsTags: Uncategorized
links for 2008-07-08
July 7th, 2008 · by Jonathan Rick
-
Photos from the U.S. Olympic trials last week in Omaha.
-
The challenge with the right isn’t activism. The challenge is unifying it.
-
Speedo’s LZR Racer swimsuit is causing the biggest splash in and out of the pool. Since the rubbery full-body corset was introduced in February, swimmers wearing it have set a stunning 38 world records.
-
There isn’t much about Cindy’s life lately that can be called private. Talking with her, one gets the sense that if there is anything about her marriage that she would change, it might be to reclaim the privacy that she has lost as the wife of the presump
-
By a “nudge” Thaler and Sunstein mean a policy intervention into choice architecture that is easy and inexpensive to avoid and that alters people’s behavior in a predictable way without forbidding any options or significantly changing an individual’s econ
-
To support their competing conclusions on the legal issue, different members of the Supreme Court invoked work by each of us on the deterrent effects of the death penalty. Unfortunately, they misread the evidence.
-
Where is it written that any industry must spend money to subvert its business model? Since when must any company plow scarce resources into helping consumers avoid its products?
-
Torres is now 41 and the mother of a 2-year-old daughter.. She broke her first of three world records in 1982, at 14, and she has retired from swimming and come back three times, her latest effort built on an obsessive attention to her aging body.
-
Thanks to Internet search monitoring, we can now investigate private morals. If we can’t do it household by household, we can do it community by community. This has a direct bearing on obscenity law. It’s turning hypocrisy into a verifiable legal issue.
-
Whenever Tom Palmer sees somebody sporting a Che Guevara T-shirt, he likes to ask, “That’s a great T-shirt; do you have the entire collection? … You know, Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Pol Pot…”
-
I’m wondering about the president using federal funding to coerce schools into requiring community service for middle and high school students.
-
McCain’s campaign is once again a swirl of competing spheres of influence, clusters of friends, consultants and media advisers who represent a matrix of clashing ambitions and festering feuds.
-
If the voters of Minnesota would rather be represented by a hack like Norm Coleman than laugh off a few jokes that didn’t work from Al Franken, then they should stop complaining about being stuck with professional politicians.
-
Marcus Brauchli was named executive editor of the Washington Post yesterday, returning him to the top ranks of American journalism less than three months after Rupert Murdoch forced him out as the Wall Street Journal’s editor.
→ No CommentsTags: Uncategorized
links for 2008-07-07
July 6th, 2008 · by Jonathan Rick
-
In a sign that he wants to reach out to pro-life voters, Barack Obama has told a Christian magazine that he would be against overly broad exceptions to the prohibition on late-term abortions.
-
“Do you know what bought me all this?” he asked, waving his hand in the general direction of his prosperity. “Not my political ideas … First and foremost I’m a businessman. My first goal is to attract the largest possible audience.”
-
We are not shocked when a candidate moves to the center for the general election. But Mr. Obama’s shifts are striking because he was the candidate who proposed to change the face of politics, the man of passionate convictions who did not play old politi
-
Dan Schnur, McCain’s former communications chief, said, “Besides his convention speech, the only time I would even put him behind a podium at all between now and the end of the campaign is when he’s announcing a policy position.”
-
If Google had really wanted to do something path-breaking about its day care crisis, it would have spent less time creating elitist day care centers and more time figuring out how to “scale” day care for everybody no matter what their salaries.
-
No mourning here.
-
His greatest weakness as a writer is his need to put himself at the center of attention, to win every argument, to walk away from every encounter having gotten the better of someone else. And yet the same impulse is essential to his
-
Has anyone ever won their celebrity divorce, if not in a courtroom, then at least in the court of public opinion?
-
Patrick Ruffini is one of the most Web-savvy people in politics.
-
When levels of violence were horrifyingly high, Bush and McCain said that things were going so badly that if we left, the consequences would be tragic. Today they say that things are going so well that if we leave, the consequences would be tragic.
-
Twitter may still fail and go the way of Friendster, but I still dig the elegance behind the initial model, and I hope its putative successor doesn’t lose sight of that.
-
In near darkness, one of the greatest tennis matches ever played concluded in the Wimbledon final Sunday with Roger Federer hitting a short forehand into the net and with a victorious Rafael Nadal flat on his back with camera flashes illuminating his drai
→ No CommentsTags: Uncategorized
links for 2008-07-04
July 3rd, 2008 · by Jonathan Rick
-
Five weeks ago, my boss casually mentioned that he was giving me until August 5 to attract 10,000 fans to the Vanity Fair Facebook page. It was an onerous and epic assignment, and I responded to it the way any sensible person would.
-
This is the guy who took Arnold from less than a sure thing to a 20-point winner in 2006, who ran the confirmation processes for Justices Roberts and Alito, and and who was the Bush operative most responsible for defining John Kerry.
-
(1) There is too much noise on FriendFeed. (2) I have no desire to recreate my Twitter network on FriendFeed. (3) For whatever reason I don’t like the FriendFeed user experience.
-
How does it feel to be “aggressively interrogated”? Christopher Hitchens found out for himself, submitting to a brutal waterboarding session in an effort to understand the human cost of America’s use of harsh tactics at Guantánamo and elsewhere.
-
The author undergoes the controversial drowning technique, at the hands of men who once trained American soldiers to resist—not inflict—it.
→ No CommentsTags: Uncategorized
links for 2008-07-03
July 2nd, 2008 · by Jonathan Rick
-
A look at the American political landscape according to statistics on the Facebook user population.
→ No CommentsTags: Uncategorized
links for 2008-07-02
July 1st, 2008 · by Jonathan Rick
-
When John McCain, 71, wanted Barack Obama, 46, to join him at a series of town hall meetings, he dispatched a messenger to hand-deliver the invitation. “You know, you could have just e-mailed this,” Obama press secretary Bill Burton told the messenger.
-
For the first time, Israel has agreed to exchange live terrorists simply for dead men, to be brought back to Israel for mourning and burial and to bring definitive closure for the families.
-
The Iraqi oil ministry is close to awarding contracts to service its oil fields to some of the largest Western oil companies. While relatively small, these contracts could serve as a foot in the door for much more lucrative licenses to explore widely.
-
How best can the government finance and direct basic research without stifling something as mercurial as the spirit of invention?
-
Americans pay, on average, 49 cents per gallon in gasoline taxes, according to the Lundberg Survey released last week. That includes federal, state and local charges.
-
Australian and U.S. swimmers and others wearing the Speedo LZR Racer suit have set 38 world records since its introduction in February. Australian Libby Lenton said it made her feel she was swimming downhill.
-
Scholar looks for first link in e-mail chain about Obama.
-
As a conservative evangelical, I am offended by James Dobson’s dishonest critique of Barack Obama’s theology.
-
That’s how much we forked over for the privilege of dining with Warren Buffett on June 25.
-
The best solution to the multiple woes of Windows is starting over. Completely. Now.
-
Bobby Jindal announced that he had “clearly made a mistake by telling the legislature that I would allow them to handle their own affairs.” And “as with all mistakes, you can either correct them or compound them—I am choosing to correct my mistake now.”
→ No CommentsTags: Uncategorized
links for 2008-07-01
June 30th, 2008 · by Jonathan Rick
-
Earmarxist Don Young Named American Taxpayer Hero - Robert Bluey, Redstate
Why on earth would Americans for Tax Reform, the American Shareholders Association, the Alliance for Worker Freedom and the 60 Plus Association came Congressman Don Young a “Hero of the American Taxpayer”?
-
Right Watch: Don Young Is a Hero? - Jon Henke, Next Right
Is there anybody the right will not decorate and applaud so long as they vote for tax cuts?
-
How Would Obama Withdraw from Iraq? - George Packer, New Yorker
The same pragmatism that prompted him last month to forgo public financing of his campaign will surely lead him, if he becomes President, to recalibrate his stance on Iraq.
-
Google’s Fight to Socialize Broadband - Erick Erickson, Redstate
Through a host of third party organizations, Google is at the center of a spider web of entangled left wing interests hiding behind feel good notions like “net neutrality” that have evolved into socialized broadband.
-
Civil Rights and the Conservative Movement - William Voegeli, RealClearPolitics
The troubling incongruity is not conservatives’ initial tolerance of segregation for the sake of limited government, but the later, tacit admission that America did well to expand the purview of the federal government in order to end Jim Crow.
→ No CommentsTags: Uncategorized
links for 2008-06-30
June 29th, 2008 · by Jonathan Rick
-
No more should users see jarringly incorrect declarations such as “Debbie changed their profile picture.” Users who haven’t specified their gender in their Facebook profiles will be asked to do so in the coming weeks.
-
In the 2008 race, the first in which campaigns are feeling the full force of the changes wrought by the Web, the most attention-grabbing attacks are increasingly coming from people outside the political world.
→ No CommentsTags: Uncategorized
links for 2008-06-29
June 28th, 2008 · by Jonathan Rick
-
Jim Webb combines autobiography with iconoclastic opinion.
→ No CommentsTags: Uncategorized
links for 2008-06-28
June 27th, 2008 · by Jonathan Rick
-
The Secret of My.BarackObama.com? E-Groups! - Patrick Ruffini, TechPresident
My.BarackObama.com works because it harkens back to the early days of the Web, to the primary way that the online grassroots connected with each other before blogs: E-mail groups.
-
The Central Committee Is in Session - Jesse Walker, Reason
The trouble with the Federal Communications Commission.
-
Dumb Laws - Andrew Roth, Club for Growth
We’re launching a new blog series today that is plainly, but appropriately, called, Dumb Laws.
-
Service From Google Gives Crucial Data to Ad Buyers - Stephanie Clifford, New York Times
Google announced Ad Planner on Tuesday through a blog post. The service will allow media buyers to identify sites where their display advertisements might work best, judged on criteria like demographics and traffic.
-
New Guards: Old Infrastructure, New Game - Jon Henke, Next Right
How many right-of-center organizations have tapped into the top talent of the blogosphere? There are some bloggers who have demonstrated an ability to build an audience and move the needle, but those unique, proven talents are often passed over.
→ No CommentsTags: Uncategorized
links for 2008-06-27
June 26th, 2008 · by Jonathan Rick
-
Senator McCain Proposes a $300 Million Prize for a “Super” Car Battery - Newt Gingrich, Human EventsPrizes are the essence of the American way. Rather than bloated, bureaucratic government programs that are black holes for tax dollars, prizes unleash the creative, entrepreneurial spirit that built this country.
-
Though his hidden hand is often merely suspected–in signing statements, torture policy and other brazen assertions of executive power–David Addington’s unbridled hostility was live and unfiltered yesterday.
→ No CommentsTags: Uncategorized
links for 2008-06-26
June 25th, 2008 · by Jonathan Rick
-
Back in the Senate, Hillary swung open the door of her private office and found two of her legislative assistants in T-shirts, caps and sunglasses playing at a ping-pong table while the rest of the staff cheered them on.
-
The reformist image of Gov. Bobby Jindal, considered by Republicans a top potential vice-presidential choice, has recently taken a beating after Jindal refused to veto a sizable pay increase that Louisiana legislators voted for themselves this month.
-
The strain of the attacks from his former friends and colleagues showed in the puffy bags under his eyes, but McClellan dispatched with ease the ad hominem attacks.
-
Justice Department officials illegally used “political or ideological” factors in elite recruiting programs in recent years, tapping law school graduates with conservative credentials over more qualified candidates with liberal-sounding resumes.
-
Six years after its start, Google News appears to be stuck in neutral and struggling to keep up with rivals.
-
Most talk about internet privacy involves either government spying or hackers using “Trojan horses” to steal your credit card information. Stories such as the YouTube divorce show that the Internet’s challenge to privacy is broader.
-
Neither Obama nor McCain has ever run a business. Neither one has ever really engaged in the game of capitalism, worried about meeting a payroll, or taken a real risk with money.
→ No CommentsTags: Uncategorized
links for 2008-06-25
June 24th, 2008 · by Jonathan Rick
-
The press and McCain share a bond, a fraternal order forged during the endless bull sessions on the “Straight Talk Express” bus in 2000, when the candidate and those covering him became buddy-roo, fellow vaudevillians.
-
While the justices cannot bring down gas prices or bring home the troops, their decisions in the coming years will affect just about everything else.
-
The icon of the tech world will focus on philanthropy as the company he founded faces turbulent seas.
-
Since Patrick founded the company in 2007, Engage has grown from a scrappy upstart to a real contender in the technopolitical space. With Mindy’s addition to the team, we’re deepening our reservoir of experience at the highest levels of national polit
-
This spring, her Wall Street Journal column, “Declarations,” has generated more Internet traffic for Rupert Murdoch than any other regularly scheduled feature in the paper.
-
Last night, reason won three first place awards, five seconds, and three honorable mentions at the 50th annual Southern California Journalism Awards.
-
As a maverick Senator, he took pride in just saying no to everyone’s wish list. But as a presidential contender, he’s become a tax cutter and defender of home mortgages. The inside story of how the candidate is shaping his plan to fix the economy.
-
I can’t fathom a president who doesn’t have the everyday understanding of what it means to hear “You’ve Got Mail” or doesn’t have the frame of reference to laugh at the unending spam in our inboxes.
-
The leader of the free world doesn’t do diplomacy via e-mail or IM; he doesn’t blog executive orders; and he doesn’t negotiate with lawmakers in bytes and pixels.
-
2. You are receiving this automatic notification because I am out of the office. If I were in, chances are you wouldn’t have received anything at all.