Bush the liar

The First Casualty, a long article in The New Republic detailing how Bush and his cronies systematically lied to the American people and Congress to justify the Iraq war, is absolutely worth reading. Here's a quote from the article's conclusion:

The Bush administration took office pledging to restore "honor and dignity" to the White House. And it's true: Bush has not gotten caught having sex with an intern or lying about it under oath. But he has engaged in a pattern of deception concerning the most fundamental decisions a government must make. The United States may have been justified in going to war in Iraq--there were, after all, other rationales for doing so--but it was not justified in doing so on the national security grounds that President Bush put forth throughout last fall and winter. He deceived Americans about what was known of the threat from Iraq and deprived Congress of its ability to make an informed decision about whether or not to take the country to war.

Next year, let's all work hard to get rid of Bush; he's shown that he can't be trusted. In my view, falsely leading the country into war and squandering the lives of America's sons and daughters is way better grounds for impeachment than the hounds ever had against Clinton. That's not going to happen, of course, so let's make sure that he's thrown out by such a margin that all the GOP vote-stealing and even a corrupt Supreme Court can't save his sorry ass.

More about Dean

You know that you're close to a candidate when you can look at their tie and read the label.

The Marin Independent-Journal reported on the visit. Best bit (imo):

A strict fiscal conservative, Dean got cheers from the crowd when he called for a balanced budget.

"I love it," Dean said. "Here we are in Marin County - the last bastion of liberalism - hooting and hollering for a balanced budget."

"The truth is, if you want social justice, you need to have a balanced budget," he said. "When the revenues of the state and the federal government fall, that is exactly the time when people who depend on the government need more help."

And yes, we're in their picture, so see if you can spot us (it shouldn't be too hard).

Meeting Howard Dean

We did our first political road trip tonight, and took the kid along. We drove down to Larkspur, in Marin County, to attend a rally with Howard Dean. He got off the ferry from San Francisco, and stood on a low wall and addressed a crowd of about 150 people. We were close to the front of the crowd, about 10 feet away. He gave an abbreviated version of his stump speech, then worked the crowd for a while. We all shook his hand (Sean dug it) and I said to him, "Governor, so far you're the only candidate that hasn't pissed us off!" He laughed, clapped me on both shoulders, and quipped "I've still got plenty of time to do that!" Then he took off in a supporter's minivan to a Mill Valley fundraiser.

The one thing Dean really needs right now (besides your money) is support in the MoveOn.org primary. If he wins that by 50% or more, he'll gain the support of MoveOn's 1.4 million members, and get a tremendous boost in momentum. If you're already a MoveOn member, you'll get an email ballot next week. If you're not a member, we urge you to go to the MoveOn site, sign up (it's free!) and vote in their primary for the Democratic candidate of your choice. Naturally, we'll be voting for Dean. We hope you do, too.

Today's best spam

Best spam I've received recently:

Subject: Dimensional Warp Generator needed hgbp

Greetings,

We need a vendor who can offer immediate supply. I'm offering $5,000 US dollars just for referring a vender which is (Actually RELIABLE in providing the below equipment) Contact details of vendor required, including name and phone #. If they turn out to be reliable in supplying the below equipment I'll immediately pay you $5,000. We prefer to work with vendor in the Boston/New York area.

1. The mind warper generation 4 Dimensional Warp Generator # 52 4350a series wrist watch with z60 or better memory adapter. If in stock the AMD Dimensional Warp Generator module containing the GRC79 induction motor, two I80200 warp stabilizers, 256GB of SRAM, and two Analog Devices isolinear modules, This unit also has a menu driven GUI accessible on the front panel XID display. All in 1 units would be great if reliable models are available
2. The special 23200 or Acme 5X24 series time transducing capacitor with built in temporal displacement. Needed with complete jumper/auxiliary system
3. A reliable crystal Ionizor with unlimited memory backup.

If your vendor turns out to be reliable, I owe you $5,000.

Email his details to me at: info@federalfundingprogram.com

Please do not reply directly back to this email as it will only be bounced back to you.

ladderlnxbrolzggaszr yuvq xsnwn p kspfolweph okupoj p jej c nexzee y qgbvzxbyyjt sw
--_DE39DEE6_--

Future versions of IE

What do the following have in common?

1. New versions of IE/Mac are available, so long as you pay monthly for MSN
2. New versions of IE/Win will be available, so long as you pay for a new OS version

If you answered that what they have in common is that they're tied into the OS, you'd be (a) Microsoft, and (b) wrong. What they both have in common is that they're paid upgrades for IE, the previously-free browser.

Now, I don't have a problem with MS charging for IE, on whatever platform. But they ought to quit the BS about how they're not going to release IE 6/Mac "because browsers are too tied into the OS," when they have released it—it's just been renamed to be MSN/Mac, and it requires paying a monthly fee.

Why doesn't MS just come clean about how now that they've completed their takeover of the browser market, they want to get back some of their investment?

Set your PVR to record

Rumor says that the video that was taped on the MacMania cruise will be shown on CBS News Sunday Morning this Sunday (June 22). It's likely to feature me talking (for about 10 seconds) on what I name my computers. It's possible (although I'm hoping it doesn't) that it will show me singing karaoke with a bunch of other Mac cruisers.

This piece is subject to being bumped for actual news, of course.

Food blog

Via my old friend Paul Music, it's SauteWednesday, an excellent food blog with stories and links to other food blogs.

When worlds collide

Backup Brain is where we get to talk about politics, technology, and culture, and I saw something today that is a perfect intersection of all of them. If you've been a reader here for a while, you'll know that we're currently supporting Howard Dean for the Democratic nomination for president in 2004. Dean's been the most Net-savvy of the candidates, with lots of email, weblog, text messaging, and Web presence. Dean is officially announcing his candidacy next Monday, and Dean supporters are gathering around the country to watch the announcement and rally in support. On the Dean campaign's official blog, Blog for America, I saw this comment, which cracked me up:

Looks like the Dean speech conflicts with the Steve Jobs keynote at Apple's Worldwide Developer's Conference. Nooooooooooo!

Is that an AD???

If you look up in the top right corner, you'll see something that looks a whole lot like an ad. And while we've never had any problems flogging our own stuff (see the lower-right for examples), I figure I should, just for reputation's sake, explain why we're now plugging someone else's.

If you go to Google and enter "backup," the #2 site you're shown is this one. Consequently, a lot of people come here looking for info about backup. And unsurprisingly, a lot of people leave here empty-handed, because while we may be called "Backup Brain," we don't do a lot of talking about backups.

We've been feeling sorry for these folks for a while, and have thought about linking to Dantz, or to Amazon search results for "Retrospect," but never got around to it. And while Tom wrote the chapter on backup for Read Me First, that info is almost entirely obsolete for Mac users, and completely irrelevant for those on other platforms.

In the meantime, our buddy David Lawrence of OnLine Tonight fame has started a sideline: Ten Quick Steps eBooks and audio files. Given that he has one on backups, that they're only $10, and he offers a 100% satisfaction guarantee, well, we figure that it's a pretty good deal for those folks who come here looking for backup info. And maybe even some of the rest of you, too.

CSS3 browser support guide

The MacEdition Guide to CSS3 Selector Support shows why I said a few days ago that I truly hope that the Tasman rendering engine has a future outside of MSN/Mac. One other thought comes to mind: Damn, I feel sorry for Windows users. On the Mac, we have our choices of pretty darn good browsers, but IE/Win just reeks, and the other Windows browsers aren't that good, either.

JavaScript has left the building

This morning, Robert Scoble called me "the world's foremost JavaScript expert" (wow—thanks!). This afternoon, JavaScript for the WWW, 5th edition: Visual QuickStart Guide was officially finished (by us, at least; Peachpit and the printers still have some work to do). Over 500 pages of JavaScripty goodness, and a big sigh of relief from us. Keep an eye out for it at a bookstore near you next month.

What will we do next, what will we do next...

World's whitest legs

The winner of the 2004 World's Whitest Legs contest can be found here.

This trip was the first time in 25 years or so that my knees have been seen in public. Don't worry, I won't be making a habit of it.

How Bush has failed on domestic security

Interested in seeing how the Bush Administration has blown its response to domestic terrorism? Check out Former Aide Takes Aim at War on Terror, which details how Rand Beers, a widely respected, 30-year intelligence veteran and former special assistant to the president for combating terrorism, quit his National Security Council job and, eight weeks later, joined the Kerry campaign as a volunteer national security adviser. The article vividly shows how the institutional process at the White House fails to protect the country, instead preferring an ideological echo chamber:

Part of that stemmed from his frustration with the culture of the White House. He was loath to discuss it. His wife, Bonnie, a school administrator, was not: "It's a very closed, small, controlled group. This is an administration that determines what it thinks and then sets about to prove it. There's almost a religious kind of certainty. There's no curiosity about opposing points of view. It's very scary. There's kind of a ghost agenda."

Read the whole thing.

Bullfighter

From Deloitte Touche Consulting, it's Bullfighter: Stripping The Bull Out Of Business—A consulting jargon fighter. This sounds wonderful to me. It's freeware, too! My one complaint is that it's Windows-only.

Thinking different about TLDs

When I first saw the .mu domain registry, I thought that it was silly that they were focusing on music and not cats.^*

Now that you can buy .la domains (originally Laos), I find it surprising that the registrars focused on Los Angeles and completely disregarded Louisiana. Why not appeal to both groups?

^*Yes, I know that the current registrar for .mu is here. I also know that it's really the registry for Mauritius. But it still sounds to me like a good TLD for a cat.