Via Mark Kleiman, an interview with Wesley Clark. Kleiman plucked the best answer from the interview, and I’ll follow his lead:

Any revolutionary ideas? A $2 gas tax? Privatize Social Security? Buy Canada?
In the 19th century, we were motivated by manifest destiny. In the 20th century, it was the idea that it was our duty to contain the spread of Communism and keep open the door for freedom. Today there is no substantial challenge to American ideals. The question is this: Where can we, with all our wealth and capabilities, lead mankind?

I love this answer because it properly estimates our place in the world right now. I’m tired of an administration that leads by fear. Terrorism is a danger to the lives of Americans and to people all over the world, but it’s not a challenge to our civilization. Nor are autocratic, creaky, Islamic regimes. In announcing our war with Iraq, our President told us, “I will not leave the American people at the mercy of the Iraqi dictator and his weapons.” I’ve had it with the fearmongering. Regardless of what the right course of action was with regard to Iraq, we were never at the mercy of Saddam Hussein.

Via Anil Dash’s sidebar, this excellent weblog entry explaining the big picture benefits of the productivity gains that are causing so much economic dislocation right now.

I noticed an interesting item today at the Gothamist mulling over the fact that President Bush gave an exclusive interview to the Sun, a raunchy British tabloid that happens to be owned by Rupert Murdoch. That’s what I call disgracing the office.

First we started bulldozing trees, now we’re destroying civilian homes in the Sunni Triangle, which is looking more and more like the West Bank. I thought our job was to liberate Iraq? Once again we see the application of a policy (and accompanying tactics) that are guaranteed to shove us more toward failure rather than success.

Not only is fraud a risk with electronic voting machines, but bugs are as well.

Ed Cone: The Marketing of a President. Cone’s article covers the use of the Web in campaigning, mostly by the Dean campaign. He’s also posting additional information about the story at his weblog.

So, I’ve discovered that I’m going to have a lot of free time on my hands in the near future. That means it’s job hunting season again. Interestingly, I started my current (soon to be former) job in February, 2002. The one before that I started at in January 2000. I’ll be looking for a similar start date in early 2004. I’m a Java developer with more Web experience than you can shake a stick at. Here’s a link to my resume. Any leads are much appreciated.

If you’ve never visited the Wikipedia, you owe it to yourself to check it out. Not just because the volume of reference information contained within is staggering, but also because it illustrates how a Wiki tool can be used to best effect. I’ve been reading a biography of Louis XI of France (which I’ll write more about later), and had some questions about some of the people and places mentioned, and Wikipedia has been amazing in answering those questions and in leading in other directions I didn’t even know I was interested in.

Following the microfad of checking out your site’s dispensation in the SurfControl database, I discovered that rc3.org is classified as news. I guess I should be flattered …

How big a role does Dick Cheney play in this administration? The former British ambassador to the United States refers to talking about war planning with “Dick Cheney and the Pentagon.” That’s deeply disturbing. Juan Cole further discusses the implications.

Update: via Brad DeLong, a link to an old Suck article assessing Dick Cheney’s military acumen.