Stick a fork in Dole. I mean McCain. He’s done. The Village, through its Dean, has spoken:

When, on the first day of the trip, Obama stepped onto a basketball court at the air base in Kuwait and sent his first three-point shot cleanly through the basket, you knew that the gods had decided to favor him.

Yes, indeed. “The gods….” Who could Broder be thinking of?

Anyhow, since the press now picks our Presidents for us, has since at least 2000, the election is now officially in the bag. The better news?  Read more 

Susie has tips.  Read more 

McClatchy reports:

What happened: Obama on Wednesday was speaking to reporters in Israel when he tried to boast about what he’d done to protect Israel.

“Just this past week, we passed out of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee — which is my committee — a bill to call for divestment from Iran as a way of ratcheting up the pressure to ensure that they don’t obtain a nuclear weapon,” Obama said.

Why that’s wrong: Obama is not a member of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee.

Ironically, a man who traveled with Obama to the Mideast this week, Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., is a member of the committee. He was one of the “no” votes when the committee passed the bill July 17 on a vote of 19-2.

Penalty: Perhaps Obama was thinking that as the presumptive leader of his party, all of the Senate committees are his, as President Lyndon Johnson once quipped, when told he was heading toward the wrong military helicopter, that they all were his.

Yeah, McCain is Dole, so McCain is toast, and none of it matters.  Read more 

AP:

The head of a prominent cancer research institute issued an unprecedented warning to his faculty and staff Wednesday: Limit cell phone use because of the possible risk of cancer.

The warning from Dr. Ronald B. Herberman, director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, is contrary to numerous studies that don’t find a link between cancer and cell phone use, and a public lack of worry by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Herberman is basing his alarm on early unpublished data. He says it takes too long to get answers from science and he believes people should take action now — especially when it comes to children.

In the memo he sent to about 3,000 faculty and staff Wednesday, he says children should use cell phones only for emergencies because their brains are still developing.

Adults should keep the phone away from the head and use the speakerphone or a wireless headset, he says. He even warns against using cell phones in public places like a bus because it exposes others to the phone’s electromagnetic fields.

Actually, people shouldn’t be using cell phones in confined public spaces like buses out of common courtesy, never mind the medical risk that lambert might be sitting next to you and go for your throat, maddened beyond endurance as you yammer about your trade secrets or sex life or anal leakage issues or whatever. “Hi, I’m on the train!” This means you, Ashley.

A driving force behind the memo was Devra Lee Davis, the director of the university’s center for environmental oncology.

“The question is do you want to play Russian roulette with your brain,” she said in an interview from her cell phone while using the hands-free speaker phone as recommended. “I don’t know that cell phones are dangerous. But I don’t know that they are safe.”

Obviously, another reason for universal health care. Why?  Read more 

The great Edward Tufte’s 1974 work, Data Analysis for Politics and Policy, PDF files.  Read more 

Anders Albrechtslund!

The panopticon model is indeed a strong framework for discussing surveillance theoretically, and in many cases it is a fitting one. Therefore, I am not suggesting a change of directions or something similar within surveillance studies, but rather an expansion of the field of study. The many excellent theoretical, conceptual and methodological approaches are useful and necessary point of departures for any student of surveillance – and in the context of online social networking. However, if we want to better understand this and other related practices, it is necessary to challenge the hierarchical conception of surveillance.  Read more 

It scarcely seems possible — look how the media barons have managed to extend copyright law to what, now? 70 years? — but a geek can dream. From Search Engine Land:

But in a very provocative argument, based on recent cases, the PatentlyO law blog argues that new rules and tests imposed by courts (though not yet the US Supreme Court) could effectively eliminate software patents.

The article uses Google PageRank as the example, but the logic would equally apply to all software patents. Here’s the critical summary of the new rules:

In a series of cases including In re Nuijten, In re Comiskey and In re Bilski, the Patent and Trademark Office has argued in favor of imposing new restrictions on the scope of patentable subject matter set forth by Congress in §101 of the Patent Act. In the most recent of these three—the currently pending en banc Bilski appeal—the Office takes the position that process inventions generally are unpatentable unless they “result in a physical transformation of an article” or are “tied to a particular machine.”

Software essentially wouldn’t qualify under these tests. It wasn’t until the 1981 that software could be patented at all. Prior to that the US Patent & Trademark Office refused to offer patent protection to “mathematical algorithms” (computer software).

It’s important to note that none of the cases discussed above are US Supreme Court cases and thus not ultimately determinative of whether software patent protections will be effectively voided. I would imagine that the Supreme Court would not go as far as the Patently O article implies. However the Court does seem quite willing to restrict the scope of patent protection and has done so recently, for example, in the case of Quanta Computer, Inc. v. LG Electronics, Inc., decided in June of this year.

As the article suggests, the combined impact of these cases may be radical and effectively void all or most software and algorithm patents. That would be a very mixed blessing for everyone.

Has the integer been patented yet? Why not?  Read more 

It never ends, does it? McClatchy:

A key e-mail that [California Senator Barbara] Boxer wants disclosed is an EPA document that describes how global warming endangers public health and welfare. [Global warming whistleblower Jason] Burnett sent the e-mail to the White House in December. He said Tuesday that he sent it only after making last-minute checks that the agency was ready to release it and the White House Office of Management and Budget was ready to receive it.

The White House asked Burnett to withdraw the e-mail, but he refused. The OMB then declined to open it. By not officially receiving the e-mail, the OMB ensured that it couldn’t be made public.

Well, that’s a new one. What next?  Read more 

It’s happening! It’s really happening!

 Read more 

but do have the money. Times:

For a fee, Mr. Paque, who lives in San Francisco, will build an organic garden in your backyard, weed it weekly and even harvest the bounty, gently placing a box of vegetables on the back porch when he leaves.

Call them the lazy locavores — city dwellers who insist on eating food grown close to home but have no inclination to get their hands dirty. Mr. Paque is typical of a new breed of business owner serving their needs.

“The highest form of luxury is now growing it yourself or paying other people to grow it for you,” said Corby Kummer, the food columnist and book author. “This has become fashion.”

Corrente — Fashion forward!  Read more 

Remember the summer of 2001, when the Village was consumed with the story of Chandra Levy’s disappearance? In a fantastically excellent allocation of precious editorial resources, paper, and bits on the Intertubes, Pravda on the Potomac is running a million-part series reliving those great days.

In the fall of 2001, we got 9/11 — though WaPo’s hair had been on fire about Chandra Levy. (She was an intern. She worked for a Democrat.) Seven years later, WaPo’s thinning hair is all on fire about Chandra Levy again, so all we can hope is that our Autumn Surprise isn’t nearly as lethal as 9/11 was.

Can anyone seriously say that WaPo believes in a business model where the press actually does any reporting?  Read more 

Massive takedown of Don Fowler’s fatiguing and irritating letter demanding that Clinton supporters crawl out from under the bus, checks in hand.

“Someone check that letter for Bob Shrum’s fingerprints.” Ouch!  Read more 

BooMan:

A team of Reed at Defense and Hagel at State could be a potent and effective one, and progressives should not automatically sneeze at it just because Chuck Hagel is an economic and social conservative.

Yeah, and those Christian Reconstruction ties? The lunatic abortion stance? So fucking what? We’ve got a movement to, uh, move here!

No, I probably won’t sneeze. I’ll be able to hold back.  Read more 

Here:

The U.S. Department of Health [sic] and Human Services is poised to put in place new barriers to accessing common forms of contraception like birth control pills, emergency contraception and IUDs by labeling them “abortion.” These proposed regulations set to be released next week will allow healthcare providers to refuse to provide contraception to women who need it. We can’t let them get away with this underhanded move to undermine women’s health and that’s why I am sounding the alarm.

Do they have moves that are not underhanded?

These rules pose a serious threat to providers and uninsured and low-income Americans seeking care. They could prevent providers of federally-funded family planning services, like Medicaid and Title X, from guaranteeing their patients access to the full range of comprehensive family planning services. They’ll also build significant barriers to counseling, education, contraception and preventive health services for those who need it most: low-income and uninsured women and men.

The regulations could even invalidate state laws that currently ensure access to contraception for many Americans. In fact, they describe New York and California’s laws requiring prescription drug insurance plans to provide coverage for contraceptives as part of “the problem.” These rules would even interfere with New York State law that ensures survivors of sexual assault and rape receive emergency contraception in hospital emergency rooms.

When I learned about these proposed rules, I immediately joined with Senator Murray to call on the Bush administration to stop these dangerous plans. I am joining with New York family planning and healthcare advocates to spread the word. Now is the time to raise our voices. I will continue to press HHS and I hope you will join me.

Good for her. Sheesh, at least somebody’s watching out for this kind of thing. I suggest you sign the petition — especially if you think that the misogyny shown online during the primaries isn’t a good sign for how women and girls are going to be treated:  Read more 

Not a pretty sight, the cleanup, after the Unity Pony dropped another steaming load down in Austin. Pravda on the Potomac did a post mortem — and how appropriate that phrase is, eh? BTD sums up:

I have long been (at one time my view was pretty universally held in the Netroots) an advocate of a politics of contrast and definition and for negative branding of the Republican Party. Obama’s Post Partisan Unity Schtick utterly rejects these approaches.

And demonstrating that the unwillingness to fight was not merely stylistic, but substantive as well for Obama, he did a 180 on FISA Capitulation. But the fact that Obama is practicing a brand of politics that the Netroots once vehemently disagreed with, including the adoption of blatant Hoyerism on FISA, is no longer of importance to the Netroots.

Personally, I do not see how the Netroots regains its previous focus. No doubt that many bloggers will transition into the Media and do quite well for themselves. They may even win a substantive argument or two. But the idea of Fighting Dems, of politics of contrast, of negative branding - that is over. And not a shot was fired by the Netroots in the battle.

I do not think it is possible to go back to arguing for a contrast approach after you have unquestioningly cheered on the candidate who stood for the exact opposite of it. The Netroots has been coopted. It is now an effective cheering section for the Democratic Party. But little else.

They folded like deck chairs.  Read more 

You want to talk about the horserace? Have at it!  Read more 

Great series from the Miami Herald on the mortgage industry:

Gary Kafka, former body builder with a long rap sheet and violent past, wrote millions of dollars in mortgages in South Florida without ever applying for a state license.

Fresh out of prison after serving time for bank fraud, he never went through a criminal background check before selling loans. He never took a competency exam.

He never had to.

More than half the mortgage professionals registered in Florida — 120,563 — entered the industry this decade without being licensed by the state, The Miami Herald found.  Read more 

Cannonfire.  Read more 

[This series of comments is well worth discussing as a corrective to the bright shiny objects of campaign coverage dangled in front of us daily by our betters in the Village. I think the interchange so interesting and provocative that I’m going to call it out as a post. — lambert]

Commenting on Obama’s unprecedented tour of the war zones, bringiton writes:

On both fronts, Iraq and Afghanistan, this trip has moved Obama from a “presumptive nominee” to the foremost advocate of a rational approach to America’s problems there, moved him ahead of not just John McCain but also George Bush in his standing as a world leader….

The political power, indeed the voice of government as expressed by the people, has already shifted in America; we are witness to a slow-motion coup d’etat, a transfer of power well in advance of the formal election and one that is being done peacefully. This is extraordinary, unprecedented as Lambert observes, and well worth reportage.

Further, bringiton writes:

The monster of an Imperial Presidency conceived by Nixon and embodied by the Unitary Executive of Cheney and Bush is about to turn on its creators; there will be revenge, and it will not be pretty.

It remains to be seen what all will be done with it under the hand of its new master Obama, who is a clever lad and quickly realized that he did not need to wait for an election to take hold of the remote control, but compared to McCain it simply cannot be as bad. This particular maneuver, outflanking and turning back the imperialist adventurism of Iraq and vowing to start cleaning up the absolute debacle that is Afghanistan, appears to me to be a useful employment of power and one about which I am going to remain optimistic until I am shown otherwise.

Discuss.  Read more 

Out of the garden into the lawn:

It’s been raining today, which accounts for the extraordinary greenness of the world. I know I should sulfur all the leaves again, but they’re so lovely to look at, I can’t bear to.

And here are the scarlet runners, with lowest-tech bamboo and string trellis-work being twined around and about:  Read more 

This time, foreign journalists:

Although Obama portrays himself as the best candidate to engage the rest of the world and restore America’s image abroad, and many Americans support him for that reason, so far he has almost completely refused to answer questions from foreign journalists. When the press plane leaves tonight for his trip, there will be, as far as I know, no foreign media aboard. The Obama campaign has refused multiple requests from international reporters to travel with the candidate.

As the campaign has progressed, access has become more difficult for foreign correspondents. E-mail inquiries get no reply, phone calls are not returned. My colleagues and I know: We are last in line. We don’t matter.

Incroyable. Unwahrscheinlich.  Read more 

Maybe my memory is failing, but I can’t call to mind an example that’s similar to Obama’s foreign tour — especially to a war zone. Politics stops at the water’s edge, and all that. Did Kerry do this? Gore? Clinton? Bush? Dole? Bush?  Read more 

‘No Values Voters’ Looking To Support Most Evil Candidate  Read more 

… there is absolutely no mention of two alternative solutions to buying tomatoes supplied from the contaminated corporate food chain: growing your own, and buying local. How odd. Or not:

The tomato scare may be over, but it has taken a toll — it’s cost the industry an estimated $100 million and left millions of people with a new wariness about the safety of everyday [that is, corporate] foods.

An Associated Press-Ipsos poll finds that nearly half of consumers have changed their eating and buying habits [but never growing habits] in the past six months because they’re afraid they could get sick by eating contaminated food.

They also overwhelmingly support setting up a better system to trace produce in an outbreak back to the source, the poll found.

The people who feel that way include the growers.

Now shut the fuck up and buy more square-shaped, cardboard-tasting tomatoes produced by a system so brutal to its workers and so uncaring for its consumers that it “produces” the following scenario, as the night the day:  Read more 

Oh, well:

[Der Speigel] quoted Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki as saying that he backed a proposal by presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq within 16 months.

A spokesman for al-Maliki said his remarks “were misunderstood, mistranslated and not conveyed accurately.”

Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the possibility of troop withdrawal was based on the continuance of security improvements, echoing statements that the White House made Friday after a meeting between al-Maliki and U.S. President Bush.

In the magazine interview, Al-Maliki said his remarks did not indicate that he was endorsing Obama over presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain.

“Who they choose as their president is the Americans’ business. But it’s the business of Iraqis to say what they want. And that’s where the people and the government are in general agreement: The tenure of the coalition troops in Iraq should be limited,” he said.

Well, I still think we need the bases, as would any serious person.  Read more