Saturday, November 16, 2002

Will Al Gore Carry the Standard Again? Daniel Schorr, in a brief think piece in the Christian Science Monitor, suggests that former VP Al Gore will decide within a few weeks that he'll face Bush in 2004. Gore, who won the election only to have it stolen out from under him in one of the rankest-smelling political sewer moves in American history, isn't my first choice. He's not liberal enough. But he's better than most other candidates who come quickly to mind. I was encouraged to note that Schorr points out that centrist moves by the Dems didn't do the trick in 2002. "Postelection analysis indicates that Gore may have had a point. 'Me-tooism,' such as Mr. Gephardt's embrace of the war powers resolution, and other Democrats' ambiguity on the subject did not help candidates very much." Exactly what I've been saying. Those who criticize the selection of Nancy Pelosi as minority leader in the House because she's too liberal cite her refusal to give in to Bush's maniacal demand for near-dictatorial powers. Seems those of us who think she was not only voting her conscience but also happened to be right, had some clue what we were talking about after all. I'd love to see Gore -- whom I thought in 2002 and continue to believe has the potential to be one of the best presidents in our history -- take clearer, staked-out positions on some issues. But there's time. 9:19:46 PM    Add your viewpoint [ comments so far]

Aggregator cum Editor...Good Idea. I like the new tack Brent Simmons is taking with NetNewsWire Lite. A seamless news browsing, commentary, blog publishing kind of tool would be way cool. (Actually, Radio already has that set of features; I'm talking about a tool that is independent of the blog technology or server.) Weblog Editing and NetNewsWire I’ve got the basics of weblog editing in NetNewsWire pro working—I’ve been using a Manila site initially, since Manila supports both the Blogger and MetaWeblog APIs. [inessential.com] 12:26:51 PM    Add your viewpoint [ comments so far]

The Famous Archeological Ruins of...Detroit?. Wow. This was an amazing photographic tour and tour de force. It made me sick. Words fail me. Take a look. Detroit's Ruins While searching for information about the new Eminem movie '8 Mile', I discovered this site: The Fabulous Ruins of Detroit. This photo-essay of urban devastation defies words. Observe the current state of the original Ford Model T plant, the former luxury car maker Packard Motors plant, and the Studebaker plant. [Kuro5hin] 12:20:16 PM    Add your viewpoint [ comments so far]

John Robb Nails This One: Wake Up, People! The combination of the Justice Department's "enemies list" (Salon) and Poindexter's DoD sponsored "Information Awareness Office" is truly chilling.  McCarthy and Hoover have returned armed with truly powerful technology and nobody seems to be paying it much attention. [John Robb's Radio Weblog] 10:27:31 AM    Add your viewpoint [ comments so far]

The Economist is Dead Wrong; Pelosi Will Be Good for Dems. I generally respect the coverage of American politics in the British-published The Economist. But they screwed this one up big time. John Robb repeated their mistake because, well, he seems to believe that the way to Democratic resurgence is by out-Republicaning the Republicans. I disagree. The Economist.  Pelosi gets the nod.  "This is a disaster for the Democrats." [John Robb's Radio Weblog] To demonstrate the lack of understanding of the true political reality, The Economist reports, completely incorrectly, that, " In 1996, she voted against welfare reform in the name of the poor (however, it has since helped to slash welfare rolls and reduce black poverty to historic lows)." The last part of this observation is patently absurd. The only way this so-called "welfare reform" had the described effect was by the usual government trickery of redefining "poverty." And of course it slashed welfare roles, but not, as the article implies, by improving the lot of the poor. Rather, it simply declared the poorest of the poor ineligible for welfare. Poof. Rolls reduced. Problem solved. Where do you think many of the homeless who are now America's disgrace came from? The Democrats took a tiny but important step toward winning back the "lunatic fringe left wing San Francisco liberals" whose abandonment of the increasingly centrist party has had more to do with its demise than any other single factor. Us liberals are staying away from the polls or, in cases like mine, voting for real liberal candidates wherever they can be found. Go, Nancy! 10:24:02 AM    Add your viewpoint [ comments so far]

AbiWord Gets Some Well-Deserved Attention. Salon's Andrew Leonard looks at the AbiWord phenomenon and has some useful comments about Open Source and M$ alternatives along the way. AbiWord up. Booms come and busts go, but open-source developers keep improving the alternatives to Microsoft's "standards." [Salon.com] 10:14:59 AM    Add your viewpoint [ comments so far]

The Culture of Free Must Die? One of the weirdest and in some ways most unfortunate side effects of the way the Web evolved is what has been dubbed the "Culture of Free." Web users have rightly come to expect that anything they want should be available for free, including being free of the "scourge" of advertising. But in the aftermath of the Dot Bomb, it has become increasingly clear that only those services that are sustained somehow by cash flow and those run purely as labors of love by very small (often one-person) teams are likely to survive. One approach that has shown some success is two-tier access. This is a situation where some basic services remain free but limiting so that you are encouraged to "upgrade" to a more usable service for which you pay a premium fee. It's not always successful, but it's a way of moving from free and unprofitable undertakings to those that have at least some possibility of success. Yahoo! mail takes such a tack, as seen in this piece: Charging Does Help Yahoo Make A Profit. Meshach writes "The globe and mail has an article about how yahoo is starting to charge for their email service. Payment is not mandatory but if you don't pay ... [Slashdot] ] At the end of the day, this hybrid approach may prove broadly successful. One thing is clear. Surviving online services will fall into one of three categories, if they don't already: Those that operate deliberately for no tangible profit. These include labors of love, information sites run increasingly by folks with an agenda, and commercial branding sites that don't intend to sell you anything. Subscriber or membership sites which generate revenue streams without ads. (As the article above points out, it's really alright to have fewer people in your user base if they're paying. Eyeballs don't write checks.) Ad-supported sites. Contrary to popular belief, Internet advertising is far from dead. It has definitely declined but there are still tens of millions of dollars being spent on online ads and smart folks are figuring out how to make this approach work better. It's definitely here to stay. 10:10:37 AM    Add your viewpoint [ comments so far]

"Let Them Read Books!". Austin Phelps. "Wear the old coat and buy the new book." [Motivational Quotes of the Day] 9:07:22 AM    Add your viewpoint [ comments so far]

© Copyright 2002 Dan Shafer.