Friday, February 28, 2003

Seeing as the Pledge of Allegiance court case was in the news again today, I thought I'd post a link to this Letter to the Editor that Mediaburn received and posted back in October. It was written by a local reader from Mesa, Arizona. As a personal comment, in light of the rising popularity of weblogs and electronic publishing, I do like the author's reference to Ben Franklin and the freedom of the press. His comments on how divided we've become as a country are also noteworthy. - Gary Santoro 11:51:37 PM

Salon.com - still in the biz for another season? 7:08:36 PM

"Thrashing toward self-destruction". In a stinging letter of resignation, senior U.S. diplomat Brady Kiesling says the Bush administration has squandered U.S. legitimacy through a "swaggering and contemptuous" approach to foreign policy. [Salon.com] 6:54:04 PM

Email received from DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade in Africa): Dear DATA friends, Thanks to your work, the President has taken a major step on AIDS - through his announcement in the State of the Union and his increased resources for AIDS in the 2004 budget. NOW we have to get Congress to follow. Key decisions are being made in the next week - perhaps by Wednesday - and we need your help once again! The President's announcement called for $15bn over the next 5 years. That's $3bn a year. He also outlined an ambitious and focused proposal to help 14 specific countries mainly in Africa. This is a great breakthrough and we should complement his vision with expanded support for other countries facing widespread pandemics. The Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria can spread resources to a range of threatened countries and leverage extra cash from other donor nations in Europe and elsewhere. Legislation is evolving in Congress that we hope will incorporate around $3bn for global AIDS in 2004 with full funding of the President's policy in the 14 countries, expanded funding of the President's support for the Global Fund for AIDS TB and Malaria, and provisions for deeper debt relief for countries with public health emergencies such as AIDS. Such legislation would be an historic tribute to the President, this Congress and the Heart of America. Please contact your representatives NOW, BEFORE WEDNESDAY, asking for: - quick action on a global AIDS bill for $3bn in 2004, - full funding of the President's policy in the 14 countries, - expanded funding of the President's support for the Global Fund for AIDS TB and Malaria - deeper debt relief for countries with public health emergencies such as AIDS We are particularly interested in support focused towards Chairman Lugar from Indiana, 202-224-4814, Senator_lugar@lugar.senate.gov Senator Frist from Tennessee, 202-224-3344, Senator_frist@frist.senate.gov Chairman Hyde from Illinois, 202-225-4561, HIRC@mail.house.gov Speaker Hastert from Illinois, 202-225-2976, dhastert@mail.house.gov but if you don't live in one of their states or districts, ALL of your politicians need to hear your voice (call the Capitol Switchboard, 202-224-3121). Remember: We know how to beat AIDS, we know the programs to stop the spread of AIDS, we have the drugs which can stop people from dying of AIDS, we know this money can be well spent. ALL THAT AFRICA NEEDS IS YOU! Your leadership now matters more than ever. Until the lawmakers sign the check, and we make programs on the ground effective, saving lives, securing stability, your work, our work, is not done. We've taken the first step together-now is the time to take another important step towards successfully fighting this epidemic. 5:21:19 PM

Harvard Crimson on weblogs. This morning, the Crimson, Harvard's student newspaper, has an article about what we're doing with weblogs. The author, a freshman named Sam J Lin, interviewed John Palfrey, Matthew Yglesias and myself. One factual error -- we don't need to install servers all over the campus, the one server we already have can do about 1000 weblogs, so it'll be a while before we need more hardware. I loved the closing paragraph, the author of the piece has a weblog, so he's a believer (I added him to the directory) but his editor must have insisted that he get a negative spin on it. Matthew of course, immediately blogged it, demonstrating the power of the medium. I wouldn't be surprised if Sam blogged it too. (Postscript: he did.) Now of course I have to wonder -- does the Crimson have an RSS feed? [Scripting News] 12:59:19 PM

VERY interesting 2 part interview with Marc Canter: Back to Blogging, and More. Back in town after a few blissful days off. Lotsa stuff happening. I have to point right away to a... [Dan Gillmor's eJournal] 12:24:44 AM