Braced for Impact

High Oil Prices Met With Anger Worldwide

Link: High Oil Prices Met With Anger Worldwide.

Does "anger" have an effect on prices? If so, how? And are the measures mentioned in the article -- price freezes, tax cuts -- sustainable? What's the next political move? Business move? Technological move? For whom does this create opportunities and dangers?

WIPO Docs for 2nd IIM

Link: WIPO Docs for 2nd IIM.

An attendee has photographed (imaged?) some of the documents of the WIPO conference and posted them. An example of the power of opening up processes that were previously carried out behind closed doors.

The Al Gore Media Juggernaut Launches?

In this nice long story from The Observer we learn that Mr. Gore is working on putting together a cable news network. Just when you think the world can't get any weirder . . .

The conventional wisdom has it that cable news could become like the tabloid press of the U.K., or Mr. Murdoch’s home of Australia, where eight or nine papers each spin the news based on their own political agendas. It’s a model that leaves it to the public to sort things out based on their own leanings—even if those leanings are, primarily, the desire to see an American flag waving on their TV screen or to be entertained by angry white guys yelling at you. That’s a great market.

"Could become" ??? Oh, I guess the difference is that the only news that even vaguely qualifies as a "liberal" point of view would be The News Hour with Jim Lehrer. And that's not on cable... Maybe this is just them thar liberals (communists!) trying to get their licks in, as noted by Paul Krugman in today's NY Times editorial.

The article contains lots of sound bites from Fox's Brit Hume -- always guaranteed to elevate the discourse. It reminds me why I can't stand to watch cable news anymore -- and to think that I once bought a TV and subscribed to cable for the sole purpose of getting CNN (and, of course, The Weather Channel).

The Soviets had a little proverb about their news outlets that we could learn from. They used to say that "In Pravda ("Truth") there is no truth; and in Izvestiya ("News") there is no news."

Did Bill Clinton ever work up that talk show deal?

The Emerging Majority: Being the Boss is So Hard

The Emerging Majority: Being the Boss is So Hard

Related to the post below on finding the source of The Leak. The best part of this article is not the post itself, but the thoughtful comment left by a reader.

Note to self: look up "vitriol" to assure proper usage if "ray" decides to post a comment here.

Note to epithet-challenged right wing wackos: It's been over a decade since the fall of the Soviet Union, so you guys need to come up with something more up to date than "communist anti-american pricks."

Scottie & Me - White House Briefing - October 8, 2003

Scottie & Me - White House Briefing - October 8, 2003

The ongoing saga of a Washington reporter and his daily tussles with the White House press secretary. This installment asks the question (several times) "did Karl Rove say that Joseph Wilson's wife was fair game?" McClellan takes a page from Ari playbook with "we've been over that" . . .

Somebody needs to step up to the plate and fall on their sword . . . (is that a metaphor foul?)
Here are a couple of ideas about getting to the bottom of who the leakers were:
1) subpoena Novak and actually throw him in the clink until he fesses up.
2) have the President ask the leaker(s) to step forward. This approach is familiar to all of us, starting in kindergarten. Until the leaker confesses, everyone in the White House has to put their heads down on their desks. Or, perhaps the Rumsfeldian/Roman version -- draw lots, then "decimate" (i.e., execute one of every ten) staff until somebody takes responsibility. At that point, ti doesn't matter who the real culprit is -- we'd all know the Prez is serious.

This whole "gee, I don't know if we'll ever get to the bottom of it" stuff from the President doesn't sound like the can-do attitude of the fellow who just asked for another $600 million to look for WMD in Iraq.

Is TIA Really Dead This Time?

MSNBC is reporting that the "Terrorism Information Awareness" program, until recently under the direction of that paragon of democratic integrity, John Poindexter, is finally being officially discontinued. Mostly. Earlier reports of its demise were, in my opinion, so heavily couched with qualifying language that any celebration was premature. I'm not holding my breath that this thing is going to stay dead this time either. It's just going to spread out and be harder to track.

I must observe that this used to be called TOTAL Information Awareness, and the the renaming effort (or did MSNBC just get it wrong?) is totally creepy. (Note to self: find good synonyms for "Orwellian.")

Editorial observation:
Why does MSNBC say:

"Poindexter, who was forced to resign as former President Reagan’s national security adviser over his role in the Iran-Contra scandal, quit DARPA last month under fire over the surveillance program."

instead of fessing up that the guy was freaking convicted of five (!) felonies, including conspiracy and lying to Congress about an unconstitutional governmental black-op, that was in fact a huge affront and threat to the governance of the US?
(Poindexter's convictions were overturned on appeal, prevailing in his argument that his trial was impermissibly tainted by his immunized statements. The witnesses that were tainted were Oliver North and Ronald Reagan.)

Thank You, Citizen, For Underwriting My Beach House

In the wake of Isabel, we get to examine once again the fragility of many of our systems. (Electric power in the DC area is still off for many residents -- mine was only down for 12 hours.) In the rush to put reporters in harm's way, the TV stations sent their fearless correspondents to the Outer Banks of N. Carolina. The "OBX" are a favorite vacation spot for lots of easterners. I am constantly amazed by the number of SUVs in No. Virginia that sport OBX stickers on their back windows....

These barriers islands are fragile, shifting, and waaayyy overbuilt. It is a huge, expensive effort to keep them from migrating, which is what barrier islands do. Luckily, Sergeant Silt of the US Army Corps of Engineers is on hand. I will let the reader ruminate on the heroic futility of keeping sandy beaches from washing into the ocean.

Watching the storm beat the living shit out of the houses on those islands, one's thoughts may run along the lines of "gee, hope they've got insurance." And indeed they do. However, you wouldn't catch any of those steely-eyed actuaries in the insurance business selling flood insurance to a "foolish man who built his house upon sand." (To quote one well-known 2000 year old source...) No way. Only the US taxpayer could be called upon to underwrite such a venture. Enter FEMA, and the federal flood insurance program. This huge, unsustainable boondoggle allows you and me (US readers only) to bear the risks for what no company in the business will -- building multi-million dollar houses in unstable, flood-prone, ecologically sensitive areas. Makes perfect sense.

We will all be bearing even more of the burden in pretty short order. Although these guys say Isabel isn't a problem, AIG says she is (at least for the weaker insurance companies). I think that we are going to be seeing lots more "weaker" companies. Check out Bruce Sterling's Viridian Mailing List for some timeless observations on why the world is becoming uninsurable.

Well, except for what you and I insure.

Outsource (and I mean OUT) Your Campaign Drudge Work!

What I love about the Web -- I got this from Joi Ito who got it from David Weinberger and Michael O'Connor Clarke.

India's Business Standard newspaper reported [back in January (?)] on the RNC's 'smart' use of campaign funds - using low-paid sweatshop call centre workers in Noida, India to call up Americans and pump them for campaign funds to support the Bush re-election campaign.

The Republicans deny it, including this remarkable assertion that, rather than the RNC, the company "could be referring to some other Republican Party entity or conservative organization."

Oh yeah, one of those other "Republican Parties." That Indian magazine must not be fair and balanced. Certainly no American rag would publish such an unsubstantiated tissue of ... whatever.

The rebuttal also says

"A check of Federal Election Commission disclosure reports through July 22 by WorldNetDaily confirm neither HCL Technologies nor eServe received disbursements from the RNC."

Gee, if their call center is off-shore, who knows where the bank account is, or whose name it's under....
Another great thing about the web is that we can finally have some kind of long-term memory for the media. This stuff can resurface over and over, under god-knows-what circumstances.

Recall Timeout -- 9th Circuit Kicks it up a notch

Well, the 9th Circuit decision certainly increases the dramatic interest. If I were a California Demo I wouldn't count any chickens . . . the 9th Circuit's batting average in the Supreme Court is not that great. Seems like the supremes treat the 9th like every decision comes with a presumption of reversability....

In an expression of the kind of principled reasoning that makes this country great, we have this gem from Attorney Charles Diamond, who represents Sacramento recall leader Ted Costa:

"The fight has just begun," Diamond told Reuters. "If (punch cards) were good enough to elect our president we don't see why not they're not good enough to elect our Governor."

(Apparently without a trace of irony..... )

The reason I post stuff like this is because I think that the rest of the states are starting to look more like California every day. Although many lack the enabling mobocracy legislation, there are other ways to break the political system. See also, Texas redistricting....

On the offensive vs. the RIAA

There's a new lawsuit in California that alleges that the RIAA amnesty program is "unlawful, unfair and deceptive."

Anyone have a link to the complaint?

This is a nice start, because it seems to call bullshit on whether RIAA would ever have standing to bring a lawsuit, and therefore whether its offer to absolve you file-sharing scofflaws is worth anything. Kind of like paying "Joey the Lip" protection money, and then finding it's his cousin Lefty who can and actually will break your knees.

Ira Rothken, the attorney who filed the suit, seems to have represented MP3Board in an earlier tussle with RIAA.

It's a nice start, but a far cry from the groundswell of litigation and outrage it will take to make RIAA stop. Federal statutes are really good for that sort of thing.