I read his post about Howard Dean on Meet the Press and I agree with his point: one major problem with the President's stance is that it emasculates the U.N.'s credibility, which is not what we want to be doing for a lot of reasons. Too bad Dean didn't make that point in response to Tim Russert's question. Maybe Dean should have Rick Klau on his staff. I've been interested in Howard Dean, even though it goes against my fundamental belief system to get involved in supporting a certfied politician. Still, the more I read from Rick, the more interested I am.
What I like about Rick's most recent post is that, despite the fact that he obviously strongly endorses Dean and wants to see him succeed, he also openly criticizes him. Okay, it's not a big criticism. But it's criticism, and not not blathering, unflinching boosterism.
I'm always skeptical of people who see only good in people that they support, and only bad in those they oppose. I'm waiting for the day when a leader in either the Democratic or Republican party says something critical (not meanspirited, or self-servingly critical to promote some internal agenda, but something honestly critical) about one of their own party members. Yeah, I'll be waiting a long time.
While I'm waiting, maybe Rick will decide to run for office. I'd help him for sure.
I'm sitting in a conference room waiting for a program to start. The room is mostly empty except for the panelists who have the Apple Tibooks open basking in the Wi-Fi. One of them is laughing and pointing on his laptop to the other saying "that Dave Winer...he's so down on Google..."
I have no pithy observations to make yet. But don't worry, I'm not throwing in the towel.
I saw David Weinberger's talk yesterday and it was a showstopper. But more about that later. The panel here is starting and I'm going to try actually listen to what they say.
Later (on Sunday night after I got back to New Orleans): I'm working on my takeaway from SXSW, but publication will have to wait. I want to do it right, and I see that David Weinberger (and no doubt others) have already capsulized most of the presentations that I went to. So more verbiage from me would be pointless. I'll have to do something else...
One thing I realized as I read the SXSW film program just now was that, by leaving early, I will be missing a great promo event by Fluffertrax at the Lucky Lounge on Tuesday evening: The Porn Music Happy Hour. The advertisement says it all. Enjoy delicious delights from Forbidden Fruit while DJ Vayanovich spins the best in porn music.
Man, you just can't get enough high quality porn music, and now it looks like I've missed my golden opportunity.
