SOTU = pure genius

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Wednesday February 01, 2006 · 8:46 AM PST

2006/02/01 · 08:46

I finally had a chance to read the SOTU speech more closely. Actually, I
lie: I read some analyses of it. Fortunately, the president's brilliance
shines through even without his marvelous rearrangements of grammar.

I am delighted that the President is continuing his support of alternative
technologies. In today's hydrogen-fuelled age, it is hardly imaginable
that a scant few years ago, the hydrogen-powered car was but a President's
dream. The burst of innovation in this technology that we are all now so
familiar with -- the headlines, the sprouting up of hydrogen plants, the
Nobel prize for for the hydrogen-powered combustion engine -- it is easy
to take all this for granted, and many young children today may not
realise that this, just like our Mars biodome, is entirely down to one
man's vision.
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Santorum: who will give him the biggest spanking?

SweetPotato

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Tuesday January 31, 2006 · 1:12 PM PST

2006/01/31 · 13:12

Scienceblogs has some discussion on whether scientists should go after Santorum's "scalp", as a trophy of the defeat of Intelligent Design and Santorum's past support for that creationist cause (he wrote a preface to a book on ID).

Readers of Dan Savage, on the other hand, may be familiar with Dan's competition to define the word "Santorum" in association with a sex act. The winning definition being "the frothy mix of lube and...." ...well, follow the link (or read the poll).

What do YOU think? Which frame puts Santorum in the worse light -- Creationist or Froth? Or just plain Republican?

Craig Murray, torture memos and the US-Uzbek connection on Democracy Now

SweetPotato

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Friday January 20, 2006 · 9:56 PM PST

2006/01/20 · 21:56

Check out the January 19th episode of Democracy Now. It features an hour-long interview with Craig Murray, the former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan, fired after he protested complicity with Uzbekistan torturers (diaried here by kos). He's eloquent, outlining (for example) the "fabric of deceipt" that launders bogus evidence from torture chambers, allowing the likes of Condi Rice and Tony Blair to quote it with perfect deniability.

See below the fold for more revelations from Murray (warning: some are horrific).
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Let's all be good little Stepford Wives for Kos

SweetPotato

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Friday November 04, 2005 · 2:20 PM PST

2005/11/04 · 14:20

Nice to see kos is chiding his users for not falling into line with his grand vision for the site.
Call me an old-school Internet anarchist, nostalgic for the gentle hacker etiquette of Usenet post retraction, but I do find this one of the saddest aspects of the blogosphere..... the frankly undemocratic attitude of the local despots, who apparently would be quite happy for us all to turn into nice little automata: virtual Stepford Wives staying on the approved topics, using the approved language, tagging using the approved tags (must be political, unless relating to White Sox).... generally numbing our creativity with top-down authoritarian Botox.

Ah well. If you feel rebellious, why not create a diary entry using Kos-styled "bullshit tags" like "Botox" or "Automaton". If not, I'll get my coat and leave quietly. And if some Trusted User edits away the tags on this story just because I'm not a good enough little automaton, then I guess we'll really know how the blogosphere operates.
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The reasons for Washington's sloth

SweetPotato

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Sunday September 04, 2005 · 10:10 PM PDT

2005/09/04 · 22:10

Peter Preston, writing in the Guardian, points out some of the deeper reasons for Washington's sloth over Katrina:

Cheney, a supposed foe of bureaucracy, has steered his pupil in weird directions here - including the creation of a monstrous homeland security department, run by counter-terrorist hands, that has all but swallowed up poor Fema, the designated disasters agency.......
Blame Bush? Naturally. This shambles is on his watch. But don't fail to ask the more difficult questions either. Does free-market scorn for public services and its salary structure make for third-rate public servants? Do election-related democratic upheavals of administrative tenure every four years bring expertise or confusion? Does our solitary superpower boast a superpowered administrative engine - or an old banger in need of total refurbishment?

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