Bush Approval: Challenging Nixon

Mystery Pollster is a blog on Political Polling. Today's post is about State of the Union polling. This is what to expect: "First, CNN/USAToday/Gallup and perhaps CBS News will conduct instant reaction polls among speech watchers who will express great enthusiasm for the President and his address. Second, the traditional poll of all Americans conducted in the weeks following the speech will show little or no 'bump' in the President's job approval ratings."

Apparently the people that watch are predisposed to like Bush because those that don't like him, simply don't watch. What a surprise. So any poll of those that watched the speech is skewed from the general population.

But the fun statistic is the graph below (click it for full size) showing approval ratings of Presidents Nixon, Clinton, and W. over their presidencies. With current approval ratings at 42%, Bush isn't doing so good. The circled data is Clinton's State of the Union (SOTU) speech.

Theories on Pakistan Attack

The Asia Times has an interesting article speculating on the motivations behind the January bombing in Bajur by the US that killed 18 civilians and no al Qaeda leadership. It's worth a read but here are the concluding paragraphs:

"The Bajur attack is more political than military," said former ISI chief Gul. "On one side it carried a message that they [the Americans] would play their game of 'war on terror' on their terms, and would destroy their enemies, even on Pakistani soil. The killing of Nek Mohammed, Hamza Rabia and the current incident of Bajur are examples.

"However, there is reverse swing [an unexpected angle] in this game," said Gul. "The Americans cannot get any concrete evidence on Iran's nuclear program [that it plans to build nuclear weapons], and without such evidence they will not take the matter to the [United Nations] Security Council. They have been pressing hard on Pakistan to hand over Dr A Q Khan for interrogation because they understand that this is the only way to get evidence on Iran's nuclear program. So apparently they are trying to put Pakistan in a serious quagmire by giving it the option to either bear constant air strikes in Pakistani territory or hand over Dr Khan," Gul maintained.

"At the same time, to further strangulate Musharraf, they are once again beating the drum of democracy. Now there are clear voices from Washington in favor of democracy in Pakistan. I recall a situation in which the late Pakistani premier, Mohammed Khan Junejo, visited the US [in 1986], and when he returned, his attitude towards the late [dictator] General Zia ul-Haq changed. To me, Shaukat Aziz' [present] US visit, given the current situation, is of significance and we will have to see what secret message he brings back with him," Gul said.

Oscar Nom Results

I made my predictions and the nominations came out this morning. I did 5/5 in Picture, Director, and Adapted Screenplay and 4/5 in each of the acting categories and Original Screenplay. I picked 5 for Animated Film and there are only 3 nominations but all were films I picked. I only picked 4 for Documentary and there were 5 nominations, 3/4 I picked.

Interesting that King Kong and Narnia both got nominations in each of the 3 effects categories (sound mixing, sound editing, visual effects) and that Sith didn't get any. In fact Sith only got one nomination for Makeup.

Overall Brokeback Mountain got 8 nominations, Good Night and Good Luck got 7, Crash and Memoirs of a Geisha got 6, Walk the Line and Capote got 5. John Williams was nominated twice for Original Score, for Munich and Memoirs of a Geisha.

I have a lot of films to see:

• A History of Violence
• Hustle & Flow
• Junebug
• Mrs. Henderson Presents
• Transamerica
• Pride & Prejudice
• Tim Burton's Corpse Bride
• Memoirs of a Geisha
• The New World
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
• The Chronicles of Narnia
• War of the Worlds
• Darwin's Nightmare
• Street Fight

UUUHHHGGG-rrrrRRR!

Chewy has a blog!.

Movie Review: Walk the Line

Walk the Line is a biography of Johnny Cash. I've never been a fan of his or his music. This movie didn't change my mind. He had some hits, became an addict, was miserable to everyone that cared about him. Yes his father was a drunk and blamed Johnny for the death of his older brother but that doesn't excuse his behavior. Johnny married and had two daughters but he fell in love with June Carter who he toured with. She helped him get clean and eventually agreed to marry him.

What is impressive in this film are the performances by joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash and Reese Witherspoon as June Carter Cash. They are believable in both their private and their stage personnas. And, it's quite impressive that they did their own singing, in the voices of their characters. They are both guaranteed Oscar nominations tomorrow.

It's really June's life that was much more interesting to me. She was a child star of a performing family. She learned to do comedy because her voice wasn't as strong as her sister's and she managed a successful career. Her personal life wasn't as successful as she divorced twice while it was still something frowned upon. What she saw in Johnny I don't know and I don't think it was shown well in the film. I wish the film had concentrated on her instead of Johnny, her story has much more to it.

Heck of a Job Brownie

The New York Times reports Interior Dept. Report Describes FEMA's Scant Use of Its Help. it lists several failings. An Interior Department staff of 4,400 skilled officers wasn't called till late September. Amtrak offered to help evacuate citizens but the train left almost empty.

"Monday's scheduled hearing, on the search and rescue efforts, is the first of two weeks of hearings by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which hopes to wrap up its investigation by mid-March."

Oscar Nomination Predictions

Oscar nominations come out tomorrow, here are my predictions for them:

Best Picture
Brokeback Mountain
Capote
Crash
Good Night, and Good Luck
Munich

Best Director
Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain
Bennett Miller, Capote
George Clooney, Good Night, and Good Luck
Paul Haggis, Crash
Steven Speilberg, Munich

Best Actor
David Strathairn, Good Night, and Good Luck
Heath Ledger, Brokeback Mountain
Joaquin Phoenix, Walk the Line
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Capote
Russell Crowe, Cinderella Man

Best Actress
Reese Witherspoon, Walk the Line
Felicity Huffman, Transamerica
Judi Dench, Mrs Henderson Presents
Charlize Theron, North Country
Ziyi Zhang, Memoirs of a Geisha

Best Supporting Actor
Don Cheadle, Crash
George Clooney, Syriana
Jake Gyllenhaal, Brokeback Mountain
Matt Dillon, Crash
Paul Giamatti, Cinderella Man

Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams, Junebug
Catherine Keener, Capote
Maria Bello, A History of Violence
Michelle Williams, Brokeback Mountain
Rachel Weisz, The Constant Gardener

Best Original Screenplay
Cinderella Man
Crash
Good Night, and Good Luck
Syriana
The Squid and the Whale

Best Adapted Screenplay
A History of Violence
Brokeback Mountain
Capote
Munich
The Constant Gardener

Best Animated Feature
Chicken Little
Howl's Moving Castle
Madagascar
The Corpse Bride
Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit

Best Documentary Feature
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
Mad, Hot Ballroom
March of the Penguins
Murderball

Movie Review: Brokeback Mountain

Much has been made of "the gay cowboy movie" and in spite of the fact that President Bush hasn't seen it, it seems it will be a favorite come Oscar time, so it was on my list to see. I knew nothing about the plot going into it. I saw it with a friend who had read the 40 page short story it was based it on. She said it was very faithfully adapted.

Ennis (Heath Ledger) and Jack (Jake Gyllenhaal) are two ranch hands who take a job in the summer of 1963 herding sheep on Brokeback Mountain. Basically it's just the two of them up on the mountain, one minding camp while the other watches the sheep. Ennis is the quiet type, barely saying a word, but as the weeks go by Jack gets him to talk a bit. One cold night, Ennis is outside freezing and Jack tells him to join him in the tent. And then they start going at it. Really, to me this was right out of the blue. My friend said it happened on page 3 so I guess that's why. In spite of the fact they both say it was a one time thing and that neither of them is "queer", it happens again.

One day their boss seems them frolilcing outside. The job comes to an end a month early. Whether it's because of an early snow storm or because the boss is discriminating against them isn't clear, just like real discrimination isn't always clear. After a barely uttered "See you around" each go their own way.

Ennis stays in Wyoming and Jack moves to Texas. Each marries and has children and 4 years later Jack writes Ennis saying he'll be in town and asking if he wants to go on a weekend trip to Brokeback. Ennis agrees and as soon as Jack arrives they have a passonate embrass behind a building. Ennis' wife Alma (Michelle Williams) catches a glimpse of it and is devastated. But she doesn't say anything.

We see the relationship remain stagnant over 20 years while the rest of their lives fall apart. Alma divorses Ennis, Lureen (Anne Hathaway) and Jack grow apart, Ennis can't keep a relationship with a waitress going. Jack would like the two of them to get their own ranch, but Ennis tells the story of two men who had their own ranch where he grew up who were the laughing stock of the town, until they were killed. No instead Ennis is content with their fishing trips several times a year. But he's not really.

It seems the answers to all his problems would be for Ennis to say he's gay, but that's the one thing he can't do. Brokeback Mountain is a film with beautiful scenery, long pauses, tragic supporting characters, and a forbidden love. I've seen a review say this could be about someone not pursuing a love of cabinetmaking, trying to get passed the gay stigma. I think that's going a bit too far. Which is the same way I feel about all the praise this film has generated, I think it goes a bit too far. It's a good film, but I don't see why it's great.

Debate on Climate Shifts to Issue of Irreparable Change

The Washington Post has an article called the Debate on Climate Shifts to Issue of Irreparable Change.

Scientists agree the earth is warming, now the question is, how long do we have to act. There are several events that if they happen will be very difficult if not impossible to correct. The article cites three things: "widespread coral bleaching that could damage the world's fisheries within three decades; dramatic sea level rise by the end of the century that would take tens of thousands of years to reverse; and, within 200 years, a shutdown of the ocean current that moderates temperatures in northern Europe."

NASA said 2005 was the warmest year on record. "It's not something you can adapt to," Hansen said in an interview. "We can't let it go on another 10 years like this. We've got to do something."

No Really the US Budget is in Bad Shape

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is generally a good organization. They say the budget is in good shape to be balanced by 2012. But....The Heritage Foundation says that may be true but the CBO is required by law to make some assumptions which may have an inpact on that prediction.

What are those assumptions? Little things like: no more money for Iraq or Afghanistan or for US Gulf Coast reconstruction. Those things certainly couldn't have a budget impact now could they? So they recomputed the CBO's estimates with corrections for these assumptions. Instead of a balanced budget by 2012 they see a $805 billion deficit in 2015, that's $6,500 per household.

The Heritage Foundation says the problem isn't revenue as much as spending and the real problem is Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. Now I remember the President having a plan to fix Social Security, I hated his plan, but he did offer one. The mechanism the Democrats used to combat the plan was to say Social Security was not broken. I didn't agree with that then and I don't agree with it now.

Bush Hates Science (Again)

The New York Times reports: "The top climate scientist at NASA says the Bush administration has tried to stop him from speaking out since he gave a lecture last month calling for prompt reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases linked to global warming."

Border Security a Joke

Federal authorities have found the largest drug tunnel crossing the US-Mexico border. It's more than 1200 yards long, "made of concrete, the passageway had lighting, electricity, ventilation and a pump to remove water, said Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement."

It had 2 tons of marijuana so it's assumed to have been made by a drug cartel. "More than 20 cross-border tunnels have been uncovered in California and Arizona since 9/11, she added." They attribute the increase in tunnels to tighter border security since 9/11.

What's on My Mac 2

Last July I listed What's On My Mac. I figure it's time for an update. I'm running the lastest version of OS X software, 10.4.4. Unless otherwise noted everything listed is free.

• Safari - Last time I listed Camino as my browser of choice, I'm backing to using Safari. Camino is good, and does have better ad blocking than Safari, but it's still not at 1.0 (though it is getting closer) and there's another feature that's become more important to me. Safari uses native Cocoa widgets for text, so the standard mac features work. Namely, selecting text and typing Command-Control-d will popup a dictionary definition of the word and while editing, there's automatic spell checking and emacs-like editing keys (particularly important to me for blog entries). If Camino (or Firefox) had that, I might well switch, but really Safari does everything I need of it.
• Aquamacs - If you don't know what Emacs is, you don't care about this. If you do, then Aquamacs is the version you want. It's the most stable and up-to-date (based on the development branch of Emacs) and works well. They are working hard at making it behave like a standard mac application and while they sometimes go too far (they deprecate user preferences in ~/.emacs to be in ~/Library/Application Support/Aquamacs/Preferences.el) it's very configurable (it's still Emacs :). I was previously using CarbonEmacs which is still a fine choice. If you use an emacs on mac, configure the Option key to be meta so, that your fingers don't get confused with the Command (aka Apple) key. Aquamacs comes configured with the standard Comand key bindings working, so Comand-S saves and Comand-C copies, so your fingers don't get confused as you switch applications. Also you'll want this hack to add more emacs keybindings to every cocoa app.
• Quicksilver - This is really a wonderful application and is hard to describe. It's an application launcher with a very flexible plugin system which many powerful plugins. Via a trigger key (usually Command-space) you activate it and via typing can enter a noun, verb and perhaps an object to do things. Nouns can be file names, bookmarks, Address Book entries, iTunes songs, iPhoto albums, Applications, services, users, random text, etc. Verbs are things like run, copy, paste, open, compose email, send IM, append to file, etc. Objects are needed to specify things like what address to send a file to, etc. It's all modular and is really remarkable. One of the great advantages is that it's matching algorithm is very clever, working with a variety of abbreviation techniques and it learns your preferences over time. So after not too long you can do very complicated things with just a few keystrokes. The documentation isn't great so you're left learning by doing, but this basic and intermediate tutorial are quite good and this page on 43 folders hints at some powerful things. The more I use it, the more I new things I learn and more dependent on it I've become. I can now control iTunes (including rating songs) with key strokes without leaving the application I'm using.
• Vienna - This is a free open source RSS newsreader that's clean and works well. I subscribe to about 65 feeds and read them in a 3 panel window. It can open web pages in background tabs or in Safari and feeds recognized in Safari can be automatically subscribed in Vienna via a Safari preference setting. Some memory leaks are being fixed in 2.0.0.2024 which is a beta and 2.0 should release soon.
• Adium X - Until iChat adds support for Yahoo IM I need something else. Adium is the closest thing to Trillian on the mac. It uses libgaim, works very well and there are lots of extras available. I use the Dock theme which can get pictures remotely or from the Address Book. So I have a small dock-like thing on the right of my screen that has pictures of my online buddies. It seems very personal. It can't yet do video chat, I have to use iChat for that but don't use it that often.
• Delicious Library - This is a clever app to help you keep track of your books, DVDs, CDs and Games. It only runs on Mac and won all kinds of awards when it shipped in late 2004. It's a little expensive at $40 but I've enjoyed it. Basically it's a database for your collections but it's very very pretty. It's also easy to enter information into, you give it a name or a UPC code and it looks it up on Amazon and downloads all the info, including a picture, it can even suggest similar items you might be interested in. The really neat hook is that it can use a video camera (I bought an iSight) to scan in UPC codes. I entered 150 DVDs in about an hour.
• Microsoft Office - I can't say I use it too often but I did buy this to open docs people send me. I found the Standard edition online for $257. Many like Entourage which is the included Outlook-like app, but I use Mail.app, iCal.app and AddressBook.app and am very happy. Now there's a free option, NeoOffice/J based on OpenOffice, but I haven't tried it yet.
• iWork - This is the suite from Apple and includes Keynote for presentations and Pages for documents (and it's rumored the next version will contain Numbers). Keynote is very impressive and Pages is ok for a 1.0. Both integrate nicely with iLife and it's interesting to see the different approach from Office. A lot of features are dealing with typography and making things print nicely but I find I need hardcopy less and less. It's $79 from Apple. I'm still using the '05 version but Ihear good thinks about the '06 update.
• iTunes - It's obvious and came with the Mac, but I'd figure I'd list it.
• iPhoto - This is suiting my modest digital photography needs for now. It's part of iLife and came with my Mac. I haven't upgraded to the '06 version yet but probably will.
• Media Players - Certainly QuickTime comes with the Mac and I use it a lot. I have not spent the $30 to upgrade to QuickTime Pro. I use Windows Media Player to play WMA files though it's now been discontinued and Flip4Mac is a third-party plugin for the QuickTime Player that Microsoft is pointing people at to use. Occasionally I use Real Player, usally for NPR audio streams. If I have any other video file that doesn't play VLC will almost certainly play it.
• Audacity - is an audio file editor. I've only recently started using it to create ringtones for my new Verizon RAZR but it seems to work quite well. It's free and open source.
• SilverKeeper - I bought a LaCie d2 drive for backups and this came with it. It works with any drive and is freeware. So far it's been fine.
• Azureus - This is the BitTorrent client I use.
• Cyberduck - This is a GUI-based ftp client. While OSX has a command-line client, this is convenient to use from the finder with drag and drop. The other popular client is Transmit which does have a Quicksilver plugin, but it's $30 and I don't do that much FTP. MacWorld reviewed 3 FTP clients in July 2005.
• Stellarium - is a free star charting program (works on Windows and Linux too). Enter your location and it will draw the stars above you. It's quite pretty and works well.
• Tofu is a small application that displays text in narrow columns, much like a newspaper. If I'm reading a long article I'll sometimes copy the text into Tofu to make it easier to read. It supports the Mac's builtin speach recognition so you can say "Scroll Page Right" to move the page.
• MoinX - I tried a lot of outliners for personal notetaking but found myself drawn back to wanting a wiki. I wanted a python-based one and MoinMoin seems to be the best. This is a prepacked version that's trival to install, though development seems to have stopped on it.
• Google Earth - now runs on the Mac

Movie Review: The Squid and the Whale

As you watch The Squid and the Whale you wonder how autobiographical it is. The story of a family's divorce and the effect on the kids is filled with too much authenticity to be anything but. I found out after seeing the film, Noah Baumbach, the writer-director, was raised in Brooklyn. His father Jonathan Baumbach, was a novelist and film critic and his mother, Georgia Brown, was a critic for the Village Voice, and they did divorce.

In the film, Bernard (Jeff Daniels) and Joan (Laura Linney) Berkman, live in Park Slope Brooklyn, in 1986, with their two sons: Walt (Jesse Eisenberg) who's in high school and younger brother Frank (Owen Kline, son of actors Kevin Kline and Phoebe Cates). Bernard's personality is the strongest in the family. He's a formerly successful writer who thinks way too much of himself. He's frustrated at his inability to get published anymore and is quick to put down others. Walt is unfortunately picking up these traits. Bernie tells him his reading assignments are the lesser works of great authors and that's a function of the education system he's stuck in. Walt of course starts repeating such things. When Walt speaks highly of Kafka's Metamorphosis to a girl in school, she reads it and wants to discuss it with him. Walt describes it as Kafkaesque which she says is self-evident, Kafka wrote it. Walt's left with nothing else, because he's never read it.

We don't know much about Joan at first, aside from the fact that she has difficulty dealing with Bernie. We also know that she's begun writing herself and is having some success at getting published. This only adds to Bernie's frustrations. I found myself siding with Joan on many of the arguments but we learn later that she's made her mistakes and is no saint either.

Early on, Bernard moves 5 subways stops away and they take joint custody of the kids and the cat. I found it very amusing when one of of Walt's friends explains why he hates joint custody vs other custody arrangements. We watch how the children take sides in the various issues. One of Bernies students (Anna Paquin) moves in with him and teenage Walt develops crush for her. Joan starts dating the tennis pro (William Baldwin) who Frank idolizes and Bernie calls a Philistine.

What's sad is neither is a good parent. The children swear, turn violent, plagerize, lie, and each learns to hate one of their parents. Frank, who seems about 12 years old, drinks beer and whiskey and no one seems to care. This is not the ideal family situation. You see them make one mistake after another, but these aren't melodramatic movie mistakes, they are small things that add up.

It's very engaging and the acting is excellent. This is probably Jeff Daniels best role. Laura Linney does her usualy wonderful job and the two kids pull off very difficult roles. The music is awesome. I was humming Hey You for a couple of days after seeing this and any soundtrack that has Schoolhouse Rocks on it is okay in my book.

There's a lot to really like about this film, but there is also unfortunately a flaw. Baumach isn't sure what he wants to say with this story. There isn't so much a story arc as there is a weak wrapup with a nod to Citizen Kane. As Bernie says to his student, there are worse things to draw from, but it doesn't really work. While we've gotten to know these interesting characters well, we don't really see how things turn out for them. Maybe that's the point, but it still left me a little cold.

Specter writes Gonzales

Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) has written a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales with 15 questions he'd like him to address at the Senate hearings scheduled for Feb 6, 2006, about "Wartime Executive Power and the NSA's Surveillance Authority." The 15 questions on the 3 pages are worth a read.

Bush Mine Safety Administrator Walks Out of Senate Hearing

Is there anyone in this administration who doesn't have contempt for Congress? That was my thought after reading Think Progresses report on this case.

On Monday, David Dye, the acting administrator of the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration was testifying before the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on mine safety. He was scheduled for 2 hours of questioning. After an hour he left, even though Arlen Specter (R-PA) said "I can understand your pressing other business. It may well be that some of the senators here have pressing matters, too. We don't think we are imposing too much to keep you here for another hour...That's the committee's request, but you're not under subpoena..."

Think Progress's description was "Unfortunately, David Dye has a busy schedule. After an hour of questioning, Dye announced he had 'some really pressing matters' to attend to, and asked to leave the hearing." Makes it sound pretty bad. But I also give Think Progress credit for pointing to the video of the event. If you watch that, you hear Mr. Dye say: "We've still got a mine fire going, we have a rescue team, that's in the Sago mine and another mine fire that no one has heard of burning in Colorado. We have really urgent matters that we need to go back to attend. We've been diverted dealing with these matters, we were happy to prepare for this meeting but we really need to get back and attend those. There's 15,000 mines in the US and we've got some really pressing matters."

Seems a little different when you hear that doesn't it? I'm not sure what to think. If those are really out of the ordinary they seem more pressing then questions from a senator on past events; they could wait a week no problem. Or is it the case that with 15,000 mines there's always stuff going on and the head of the agency isn't needed to deal with it? Or is it the case that the $2.8 million removed from the agency's budget over the last 10 years (not keeping up with inflation) causing the loss of 183 staff members, really has made the agency incapable of dealing with such events? Then again, it is Congress that makes the budget and this is the appropriations committee. I don't know.

The Firefly Season 2

Ok, this one seems like a stretch, but if you were a fan of Firefly (and you should be), a group is trying to get a Season 2 made. They have a survey to figure out if you'd be willing to pay for alternative ways of distributing the season (DVDs, pay-per-view, downloads ala iTunes, etc.).

Bush's CIA

Andrew Sullivan in The Daily Dish writes about Bush's CIA. More on the torture case of Lewis Welshofer. The defense was "following orders". Didn't the Nuremberg Trials put that one to rest? And apparently the government is more willing to convict someone in the military then put into public record the actions of the CIA with detainees. When will this end?

Documents Show Katrina Warnings Ignored

So in case you haven't been following this lately. The cause of levee failure was that they were badly designed and constructed by the Army Corp of Engineers. Today it comes out that 2 days before Katrina hit New Orleans, Homeland Security agencies overseen by Brown and Chertoff forecasted the possibility of a breach and included damage estimates. Apparently due to the design flaws they probably couldn't have prevented the breaches but they most certainly could have improved FEMA's anemic response.

Now why this is such a big deal I don't know. I heard media warnings that the levee might break before the storm hit. It's not like people didn't say this before every big storm that hit New Orleans. I already knew that Bush's statement that no one could have predicted the failure was wrong.

What an Idiot

CNN writes: Original 'Survivor' guilty of tax dodge He didn't pay taxes on the $1 million he won or on $327,000 he earned as a radio show host or on $28,000 he earned from rental property. Did he think the government would be voted off before he had to pay? "Hatch, 44, faces up to 13 years in prison and a fine of $600,000. Sentencing was scheduled for April 28."

Toy Review: Verizon RAZR Cell Phone

It was time for a new mobile phone. I still like Verizon's coverage better than the others and basically just want a small phone. I choose the new RAZR. I got a $100 tradein (it's been almost 2 years) and there's a $100 mail in rebate, so only $150 for the phone and car charger.

The phone is a little taller and wider than my last phone but it's a LOT thinner. This is nice, it fits easily in a shirt pocket, or in the same pocket as my wallet (not with keys). Battery life seems good, I've only gotten it down to about 50% after a couple of days. The phone has a camera, bluetooth, speaker phone, voice dial, etc. Sound quality seems fine, which is really the most important thing. Overall at this level, it's been a fine phone.

A nice thing about the phone is that the connector is a standard mini-USB connector. So you can charge it from a laptop with just a USB-mini-USB connector (available with many digital cameras). It of course comes with a charger that connects to it as well. Hopefully future phones will do this too and we can stop buying new accessories with each phone.

While the RAZR comes from Motorola, Verizon is trying to standardize the interface across all their phones. The RAZR has the standard Verizon UI. It's kinda ugly with red bars across the top and bottom of the screen but it's mostly pretty usable. I haven't done any of the connect to the net, download ringtones or pics that I think they charge extra money for. The problem is, this UI is installed on top of the Motorola UI and there are some bugs. There's no Vibrate Then Ring support, which is annoying, you choose vibe or ring. There's a calendar bug that after you have about 60 entries, the calendar is unusable. There's no way to unassign a speed dial number, you move the number to another location. The phone comes with about 25 ringtones and they are ok. I could find a few that wouldn't embarrass me in public. The UI seems inconsistent in that some functions move across several keys in different places. E.g, editing some options is done with the left soft key sometimes and with the select (middle of the directional pad) key in other places. Going back is sometime a soft key and sometimes the Clr key. You can configure the down button to go directly to various functions but the left, right and up buttons are hard coded to various Verizon features, even though I never use them.

Now the real stuff. A nice feature is the bluetooth support. Verizon only supports connecting a bluetooth headphone, in fact, they've tried to disable using the bluetooth for anything else. But they screwed up and left what's known as OBEX support enabled. So after downloading a single file for my mac to teach iSync about the RAZR I can connect my mac to my phone. iSync is a program that comes with the mac to sync Address Book and Calendar information. I created a Phone group in Address Book and put 65 contacts in it. I used iSync once and all these contacts and month's worth of calendar entries were copied to my phone. That was fantastic. The only problem was that all the phone numbers (and email addresses) got assigned random speed dial numbers and with the poor design of the UI it was a pain to reassign them. Of course after a week I learned about the above mentioned calendar bug and have to stop doing that (a failed sync deleted iCal events from my mac). Still, having contact info sync'ed between the mac and the phone is wonderful.

You can also use the bluetooth support to copy files to the phone. These include pictures, ringtones, video clips. I'm one of the few mac users I know that actually uses Address Book and I also have associated pictures with contacts so I see their faces in email and IM. I put the pics on the phone and when someone calls me, their picture will appear on the outside display, cute. After copying them to the phone I had to associate their contact with the pic, which was tedious but not difficult. I also started creating some ringtones. All you need is an mp3 file. I took clips from songs I have in iTunes, used the free program Audacity to trim the clips to something short and copied them to the phone. I'm very happy with this.

So I like the phone but now my delimma. Verizon will fix the various bugs in a software update this quarter, but that update will also disable the OBEX support. This is so annoying. In order to encourage me to use their services, which I won't anyway, they've disabled my favorite functions of the phone. Really, why shouldn't I be able to keep the address book and calender on my computer and phone in sync? Why shouldn't I be able to take my music, which I've paid for, and use it as ringtones. Why shouldn't I be able to put my pictures on my phone for free? Verizon, please start treating your customers with respect. I know Verizon has every right to do this and my option is to take my business elsewhere. My problem is that even crippled, I think the RAZR is the best phone for me. It could just be so much better.

College Sophomore Stumps Bush

Think Progress reports that a College Sophomore Stumps President Bush. Bush was taking questions as Kansas State. Tiffany Cooper, a sophmore, asked "Recently 12.7 billion dollars was cut from education. I was just wondering how is that supposed to help our futures?". Slam. Bush's response should be read to be believed.

After asking her to repeat herself and being dismayed at the thought, he basically said no we didn't, we just cut inefficiencies and the same number of people will get loans and more will get Pell Grants. Of course Think Progress points to reports that this is just false. Fewer people get loans, get less, and get fewer grants. Todays Boston Globe has an article that says Researchers in nearly every field are finding it harder to win competitive grants from the NIH, the NSF, and other research agencies. The article cites some raises in budgets but say they don't keep up with inflation, call that a cut if you want, I will.

But here's my favorite part of Bush's answer. He ends by saying: "But I think i’m right on this. I will check when I get back to Washington, but thank you for your question." He didn't say he'd have someone get back to her. So I really want someone in Scott McClellan's press briefing to followup and see if Bush did check and what he found. Think it will happen? Nah, me neither.

War On Terror Results

The Daily Kos, which I usually find a bit too biased has a very factual article on
The Real Truth About Bush's "War On Terror". It's well worth a read. It analyses some data from the MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base.

The article says the number of terrorist attacks by year has increased as well as the number of fatalities. Looking at the database I see that it includes much more than just al Qaeda or other fundamentalist Muslim acts; that may or not be what you want to compare.

The article then goes on to point out errors (or lies) in Bush administration claims. In 2002 they claimed 62 cases of international terrorism were prosecuted. Turns out the real number was 1. 60 of those cited were middle eastern students cheating on an English proficiency exam to get into college. Last summer the administration claimed over 400 terrorists prosecuted. Turns out only 36 were prosecuted for terrorism, most of the others were for immigration or making false statements.

There's other stuff, but you get the point. When are we going to hold the administration responsible for not telling the truth, or more meaningfully, actually succeeding.

Army Interrogator Convicted in Death of Iraqi General

The New York Times reports Army Interrogator Convicted in Death of Iraqi General (I hope this link lasts). Chief Warrant Officer Lewis E. Welshofer Jr "suffocated Maj. Gen. Abed Hamed Mowhoush after wrapping him in the sleeping bag and sitting on him during an interrogation session on Nov. 26, 2003." He was convicted of negligent homicide and negligent dereliction of duty. It's not called torture but so far he's one of 251 military members punished for detainee mistreatment.

In the trial, the defense argued that approved interrogation techniques were not clear. All the more reason the McCain Amendment was important.

Bizarre CIA Attack

CNN reports that "Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Sunday ridiculed as bizarre a U.S. report that senior al Qaeda leaders were killed in a CIA attack on a home along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border."

On Jan 13 we bombed a home thinking that Al Qaeda leaders were there having dinner. At first reports were that 8 leaders were killed with several civilian casualties as well. Turns out there were no leaders there, just 18 civilian casualties. Aziz said Sunday, "If you just reflect on what happened, first -- we heard that there was a dinner meeting with all the seniors -- I think that's a bizarre thought, because these people don't get together for dinner in a terrain or environment like that."

So here's the problem. "Aziz said the attack violated a U.S.-Pakistani agreement that calls for the countries to collaborate with each other before any such attack." Can this country not follow procedures for anything? We don't get warrants and we don't tell other governments before we bomb their countries. Great. Here's my favorite, US politicians said the airstrike was justified by the erroneous belief that a top al Qaeda leader was among the group. Aren't we all tired of "justified by erroneous belief" by now?