Political Commentary

Good News, If You’re A Republican

Here’s an article in Rolling Stone (not exactly a triumphalist Republican magazine) about Moveon.org, explaining why the Democrats will remain electorally impotent for the foreseeable future:

For a political organization that likes to rail against “the consulting class of professional election losers,” MoveOn seems remarkably unconcerned about its own win-loss record. Talk to the group’s leadership and you won’t hear much about the agony of defeat. Wes Boyd — the software entrepreneur who used his fortune from creating the Flying Toaster screen saver to co-found MoveOn — blithely acknowledges the need to produce some electoral wins “in the classical sense.” But he sees the rise of MoveOn’s progressive populism as a moral victory in and of itself…

…Boyd is a whip-smart man with a deep passion for populist democracy. But speaking to him about MoveOn’s constituency is like speaking to someone who spends all day in an Internet chat room and assumes the rest of the world is as psyched as he and his online compatriots are about, say, the Lord of the Rings trilogy. He seems to conflate MoveOn with the rest of America. “We see ourselves as a broad American public,” he says. “We assume that things that resonate with our base resonate with America.”

In fact, there appears to be an almost willful ignorance about who actually composes MoveOn. “We’re pretty light on the demographics,” Boyd says without apology. “It’s funny, when we talk to people in Washington, that’s the first question we’re asked.” He adds with note of self-satisfaction: “We’ve been largely nonresponsive.”

Not to mention non-successful. There’s a term for people who gain “moral victories.” What is it again…? Oh, yeah–“losers.”

Political Commentary

Good News, If You’re A Republican

Here’s an article in Rolling Stone (not exactly a triumphalist Republican magazine) about Moveon.org, explaining why the Democrats will remain electorally impotent for the foreseeable future:

For a political organization that likes to rail against “the consulting class of professional election losers,” MoveOn seems remarkably unconcerned about its own win-loss record. Talk to the group’s leadership and you won’t hear much about the agony of defeat. Wes Boyd — the software entrepreneur who used his fortune from creating the Flying Toaster screen saver to co-found MoveOn — blithely acknowledges the need to produce some electoral wins “in the classical sense.” But he sees the rise of MoveOn’s progressive populism as a moral victory in and of itself…

…Boyd is a whip-smart man with a deep passion for populist democracy. But speaking to him about MoveOn’s constituency is like speaking to someone who spends all day in an Internet chat room and assumes the rest of the world is as psyched as he and his online compatriots are about, say, the Lord of the Rings trilogy. He seems to conflate MoveOn with the rest of America. “We see ourselves as a broad American public,” he says. “We assume that things that resonate with our base resonate with America.”

In fact, there appears to be an almost willful ignorance about who actually composes MoveOn. “We’re pretty light on the demographics,” Boyd says without apology. “It’s funny, when we talk to people in Washington, that’s the first question we’re asked.” He adds with note of self-satisfaction: “We’ve been largely nonresponsive.”

Not to mention non-successful. There’s a term for people who gain “moral victories.” What is it again…? Oh, yeah–“losers.”

Satire

Finally, Uniformity

Iowahawk has the scoop on the latest judicial implications of the Supreme Court’s new legal theories:

“The decision underscores the principle of Federalism by creating uniformity in our notoriously inconsistent state dowry laws,” noted Harvard Law professor Lawrence Tribe. “For example, Iowa grooms are entitled to $300 and a two-night honeymoon trip to the Wisconsin Dells, while just across the border in Missouri, grooms only get $200 and a set of air shocks for their TransAm. Thankfully, the Court has brought some sanity to the situation.”

General

Trouble Over The Pacific

Steve Fossett’s plane seems to be low on fuel:

Moore said fuel sensors in the 13 tanks onboard the single-engine jet differ from readings of how quickly fuel is burning during the flight. Moore said the crew has been forced to assume that 2,600 pounds of the original 18,100 pounds of fuel aboard “disappeared” early in the flight.

Where does 2600 pounds of fuel “disappear” to? Overconsumption early due to a cold engine, or stuck valve?

Humor

Senate Introduces New Parliamentary Rule

March 2, 2005

WASHINGTON DC (APUPI) Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) announced today that, as part of the ongoing modernization of Senate procedures, it will be instituting a new rule of debate, to be known as the Byrd Rule.

“Standards of debate have evolved rapidly in the Internet age, with the plethora of on-line discussion over the past couple decades,” he explained. “On Usenet, there is a seemingly immutable law that any discussion that goes on sufficiently long will eventually introduce some reference or comparison to Adolf Hitler or his political party. Many newsgroups have an unwritten tradition that, at this point, the discussion can be considered to be over, with the person who made the introduction having lost the debate.”

“Accordingly,” he went on, “we are going to make such a rule explicit in the Senate, apply it retroactively to the recent peculiar remarks of the most distinguished and eloquent senior Senator from West Virginia, of whom my esteem is so high as to not be able to find the words to express it, and honor him in perpetuity by naming it after him.”

It’s believed to be the first time that this rule has been applied to a legislative body, though it has long been usefully applied in on-line discussion groups on topics as diverse as geology, meteorology, antique car collecting, and ferret breeding.

Not all were pleased with the new rule. Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) expressed great disappointment at the proposed change, and promised to filibuster against it.

“This is a destruction of the long Senatorial tradition of free expression, and give and take,” he declared, angrily.

“The next thing you know, they’ll be declaring the battle won when an aging and senile Senator rambles on about his little dog Billy. Put simply, it is a blatant attempt by these new Nazis, these little Goebbels, who have taken over our august body, to stifle debate,” he proclaimed.

Space

Mixed Message

Here’s some more on Esther Dyson’s overpriced space entrepreneur conference:

“Nobody’s holding a space conference, so I decided to do one,” she said in an interview. “It’s not that there aren’t space conferences, but nothing as tacky and commercial as we want to be.”

So it wasn’t just hype on the web site. She really is clueless about what’s been going on in this field. This is both disappointing, coming from Freeman’s (for whom my respect is boundless) daughter, and annoying. A lot of us have been in the trenches trying to make this stuff happen for years, even decades. We’ve overpaid our dues, and now we get to deal with an Esther-come-lately.

And she can’t even be bothered to focus on the subject at hand:

The conference, which costs $1,492 to attend, is also aimed at taking on a topic of more immediate potential – a concept called “air taxi.” A growing number of entrepreneurs are looking at using relatively small, inexpensive airplanes to revive and expand the short-hop commuter industry, ferrying people to and from small airports.

That’s an interesting subject, but it has little to do with space technology, and all it will due is further dilute the utility of this one-day conference. I said I’d like to go if I could afford the time and the money, but now I’m thinking that even if I did, I’d get little out of it.

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!