Wednesday, August 13, 2003

Sappy trails    Maureen Dowd: Blah Blah Blog.   In a lame attempt to be hip, pols are posting soggy, foggy, bloggy musings on the Internet. Inspired by Howard Dean's success in fund-raising and mobilizing on the Web, candidates are crowding into the blogosphere — spewing out canned meanderings in a genre invented by unstructured exhibitionists.   It could be amusing if the pols posted unblushing, unedited diaries of what they were really thinking, as real bloggers do. John Kerry would mutter about that hot-dog Dean stealing his New England base, and Dr. Dean would growl about that wimp Kerry aping all his Internet gimmicks. But no such luck.   Instead, we have Travels with Tom, Tom Daschle's new blog recounting his annual August pilgrimage around South Dakota. Trying to sound uninhibited, he says he has "no schedule and no staff" and promises readers "amazing experiences" with "fascinating people."   Not a deep piece, but not a bad one, either.   Thanks to Allan Karl for the link. [Doc Searls Weblog] 9:14:32 AM

The Neo-Con conspiracy. Bob Barr has written an eye-opening piece on the agenda of the Neo-conservatives (which include Cheny, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, et al).  Fascinating and scary.  You'll find it at Creative Loafing. 8:18:19 AM

Abuse of Power Using law enforcement to acquire political gains is wrong.  Ask some of Nixon's aides who served time behind bars. Justice Dept. Rejected Idea of Joining Texas Dispute. The office of Representative Tom DeLay, the House majority leader, pressed the department in May to see whether federal officials could intervene in the state's redistricting standoff. By Eric Lichtblau. [New York Times: Politics] 5:49:36 AM