Tuesday, July 29, 2003

Sean Gallagher says Sun must take Java open source. Actually, Sean’s been saying that for a long time, but now Larry Lessig has visited the beleaguered company and dispensed his own wisdom on the subject. 5:44:38 PM    comment []

The Wall Street Journal editorial page sneers: “The textile lobby opens a new protectionist front” (pay site).   Too late.   News & Record: “Financier Wilbur Ross won a six-hour bidding battle for bankrupt Burlington Industries…Burlington, once the world's largest textile company with 80,000 employees and 149 plants, currently has about 7,000 workers and 10 plants.” 5:39:00 PM    comment []

The filing deadline to run for mayor of Greensboro is this week. After some consideration I have decided not to run.   I’m disappointed. This town needs some fresh leadership, and I think I could help provide it. But with two young kids and a demanding job, I can’t commit at this point to a full-time part-time job as mayor.   In some ways, this would have been a good year to run. The incumbent is beatable, the challengers unimpressive, and the heavy hitters (Yvonne Johnson in particular) are sitting out this race but may run next time.   Me, too.   If I do run in two years, I won’t make the decision at the last minute. And I’ll be using this weblog to help me figure it out along the way. Stay tuned. 2:08:06 PM    comment []

Heard at a lunch meeting in Greensboro:   “Reverend, could you bless this food for us?”   “No, I don't have that power, but I’ll ask someone who does. Let us bow our heads…” 1:53:40 PM    comment []

Howard Dean is raising real money through weblogs.   “Something remarkable happened with the Dean campaign this weekend,” comments a reader of this page, noting that Dean trumped Dick Cheney’s $2,000 per plate lunch fundraiser by garnering $53 per head from 9,621 contributors.   I bet Bush could raise millions via weblogs. John Edwards might, too. But you gotta play to win, fellas, and Dean is ahead of the game. 10:40:13 AM    comment []

Christopher Lydon has posted an audio interview with Elaine Scarry, who incidentally was one of my wife’s favorite professors in college. 10:26:06 AM    comment []

Joe Conason is onto the “we fudged, so sue us” meme offered by some Iraq hawks, an argument first identified here last week after reading the original Steven Den Beste weblog post that was the basis for his subsequent WSJ online piece. Josh Marshall was onto it a few days later re a Charles Krauthammer column.   A lot of folks saw Iraq all along as part of a war that began on 9/11, and I think that many of them will embrace the “so sue me” defense.   What makes it a dangerous strategy for Bush is that some portion of the electorate will be less sanguine about cooking the intelligence, even if they support(ed) the war in general terms. If this second group is large enough – and if the reconstruction of Iraq and the prosecution of the wider war languish – next year’s election will be more interesting.   A key for the Democrats will be to appeal to the people who are troubled by cooked intel, without rooting for the war to go badly. 10:12:15 AM    comment []