jetmissile » politics

Iran Election Crisis: 10 Incredible YouTube Videos

James — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 04:09:28 +0000

Iran Election Crisis: 10 Incredible YouTube Videos

Videos #8 and #9, just break your heart.

Via Mashable

Watershed for Twitter

James — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 04:37:34 +0000

An excellent analysis of Twitter’s “coming of age”.

A great example is this footage of a massive Iranian protest tweeted by @davidwiner and a zillion other people.

The Decline of The Conservative Intellectual

James — Thu, 14 May 2009 03:10:34 +0000

The Decline of The Conservative Intellectual: “Richard Posner has a fascinating read:

My theme is the intellectual decline of conservatism, and it is notable that the policies of the new conservatism are powered largely by emotion and religion and have for the most part weak intellectual groundings. That the policies are weak in conception, have largely failed in execution, and are political flops is therefore unsurprising. The major blows to conservatism, culminating in the election and programs of Obama, have been fourfold: the failure of military force to achieve U.S. foreign policy objectives; the inanity of trying to substitute will for intellect, as in the denial of global warming, the use of religious criteria in the selection of public officials, the neglect of management and expertise in government; a continued preoccupation with abortion; and fiscal incontinence in the form of massive budget deficits, the Medicare drug plan, excessive foreign borrowing, and asset-price inflation.

By the fall of 2008, the face of the Republican Party had become Sarah Palin and Joe the Plumber. Conservative intellectuals had no party.

(Via FiveThirtyEight.com: Electoral Projections Done Right.)

Remote Workers

James — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 06:51:08 +0000

The Pond: “

‘Can I work remote?’

I cringe. It’s Ian and Ian is a senior engineer. He’s a rock. He gets it done. I never have to ask him twice and, after six years, Ian has every right to ask to work remote. But I’m still freaked because my first thought when anyone asks to work remote is, ‘This fine person is a year away from either quitting or being fired.’ Why? Because they’re asking to leave the Pond.

(Via Rands In Repose.)

Teabaggers and Puppetmasters

James — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 09:01:46 +0000

A Sci-fi authors’ take on Teabaggers and Puppetmasters:

An e-mail today, which I suspect is tongue-in-cheek, but which actually is worth making a point about:

Why do the teabaggers and their puppetmasters hate America so much?

Well, in terms of the teabaggers, of course, they don’t hate America. They love America, and no, I’m not being arch and sarcastic. They do. Deal with it. The problem is that as much as they love America, they love an alternate history version of America more, the one in which someone other than Barack Obama won the presidency, the Republicans aren’t the minority in Congress, and where they can not worry overly much about the excesses of big government because at least it’s their big government.

(Via Whatever.)

Obama plans high-speed rail in US

James — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 02:28:11 +0000

If you believe that Federal stimulus spending is a good tool to help kickstart our ailing economy, what better way than with a high-speed rail infrastructure project?

High speed rail has been talked about for over a generation as a “Good Thing”, but the necessary political and financial conditions have never aligned as well as now. Go Obama!

7 Ebert Paragraphs on history, newspapers, and Bill O’Reilly

James — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 05:36:44 +0000

Precious.

A brief, but typically awesome blog post by Roger Ebert; this time on Bill O’Reilly’s recent attack against a newspaper that dropped his column.

Going rogue inside a big company (a la Best Buy)

James — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 02:25:41 +0000

Going rogue inside a big company (a la Best Buy) – (37signals): “How can you apply Getting Real-ish ideas inside a big company? Here’s an idea: Go rogue. Pick something and do it under the radar. Create something in a few weeks that normally takes a few months. Do something in a way that works better than the status quo (or shows the promise of working better), Then you won’t need to convince anyone with words — the results will speak for themselves.”

(Via www.37signals.com.)

Rush is the Least of the Republicans’ Problems

James — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 06:24:01 +0000

Rush is the Least of the Republicans’ Problems

(Via FiveThirtyEight.com.)

you can’t make this stuff up

James — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 07:02:32 +0000

you can’t make this stuff up: “

Breaking news from The Huffington Post:

Three days after receiving $25 billion in federal bailout funds, Bank of America Corp. hosted a conference call with conservative activists and business officials to organize opposition to the U.S. labor community’s top legislative priority.

Participants on the October 17 call — including at least one representative from another bailout recipient, AIG — were urged to persuade their clients to send ‘large contributions’ to groups working against the Employee Free Trade Act (EFCA), as well as to vulnerable Senate Republicans, who could help block passage of the bill.

…Donations of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars to Republican senatorial campaigns were needed, they argued…’If a retailer has not gotten involved in this, if he has not spent money on this election, if he has not sent money to [former Sen.] Norm Coleman and all these other guys, they should be shot. They should be thrown out their goddamn jobs,’ Marcus declared.

Not only are some of the most non-trusted companies in America blatantly trying to buy off Congress, but they’re using our bailout money to do it.

This will ONLY change when elections are citizen funded. Join our strike4change to (1) starve the beast, (2) just say no, or (3) fix this absurd system — now. No money until a candidate commits to citizen funded elections.

“

(Via Laurence Lessig, via Huffington Post.)