How many Americans would agree with this statement, made by White House press secretary Scott McClellan in a briefing session? But we already know that what we have learned on the ground since the war only reconfirms what we knew before the war, that Iraq was a gathering threat and that the decision that the President of the United States made was the right decision.
Brad DeLong: Deficit Coverage: ‘What’s Missing?’
Subversion, the new open source version control system, is finally nearing a 1.0 release. If things go well, in 15 years we won’t be using CVS any more!
I watched the Super Bowl. I saw the tawdry staged event at the end of half time. I replayed it several times on the Tivo, a few times in slow motion. Needless to say, I was amused rather than offended, and my main reaction was that the whole thing was utterly pathetic. The other night I was watching the local news, where the anchor was made to grovel before the viewing public and beg for forgiveness for transmitting filth into their homes or whatever. Also pathetic. All this is just a lead into this brilliant letter to the editors of the Boston Globe, comparing CBS’ decision to refuse MoveOn.org’s ad about the dangers of the deficit when they were willing to accept the MTV halftime show. It also leaves out the fact that CBS showed plenty of other advocacy ads, advocating not smoking and not using drugs. I agree with the writer that CBS has no clue whatsoever where the line should be. ...
Brad DeLong combines criticism of the federal budget and press coverage of the federal budget in one nifty item.
Steven Berlin Johnson has a good post on the causes of the Dean campaign’s recent troubles. Basically, his point is that it’s stupid to blame the Internet, social software, or any of the things that people thought were great and innovative about Dean just a few weeks ago. People knew all along that all of that innovation was necessary to combat Dean’s inherent weaknesses as a candidate. As it turns out, they didn’t go as far as Dean supporters would have liked in combatting them. Frankly, I hope that every Democratic candidate in the future learns the many positive lessons from the Dean campaign. I honestly think it’s too late for a Dean comeback at this point, but the Democratic party owes Dean a huge debt of gratitude for showing other politicians the way forward. ...
My signed email experiment has hit a bit of a snag. I got Enigmail configured properly and it will sign and encrypt messages for me, but for some reason it insists upon always rewrapping my messages when it signs them, and it does a poor job of it. Sadly, I find this so offensive aesthetically that I can’t use it in good conscience. There’s probably a way around this problem, I just have to dig it up. Update: Here’s the answer. Time for more experimentation. ...
Via the business2blog, this list of popular hits from my college years. Oh wait, it’s actually a list of the 50 most common used CDs. I weep when I think of how many of these CDs I or my roommates owned and listened to over and over again. Or listened to one track from over and over again anyway.
Hanan Cohen sent me a link to this BBC story about human experimentation in North Korea. Defectors and human rights activists are reporting that political prisoners were (and probably are) the subjects of chemical weapons tests in specially made gas chambers.
The New York Times ran a front page story looking back on the claims from Colin Powell’s speech before the United Nations this time last year. I tried to do the same thing last May. Their story is much longer and is based on interviews with real people rather than searches of Google News, so you probably ought to read it.