"It was like watching Gidget address the Reichstag." LOL You can almost see Hunter S. Thompson, cigarette holder clenched in teeth, grinning down from Heaven. - Karim
That's an excellent article. Now I know McCanin doesn't have the firmest grasp of the English language. A woman commented to him "I don't trust Obama. I have read about him and he's an Arab." To which McCain shook his head and said, "No ma'am, no ma'am. He's a decent family man..." My question: was his reply just not well worded, completely bigoted, or a little of each? - £ogical €xtremes
Well, exactly ... I accept that things get yelled in rallies that you may not even hear (Obama's campaign was quick to concede that I think because they'd be afraid of getting the same criticism). But this is simple. You go out, you *proactively* address this stuff, you keep it out of your ads. There's no question McCain * Palin is fanning the flames and allowing this kind of sentiment. - Peter Kirn
via twhirl
@Logical: From watching the video I think he was trying to skip ahead and cut off the terrorist idea. That's what the elderly lady was implying, she took a while to get it out though. If you just read the text, then yeah, it looks like really poor word choice by McCain as an answer to her question. - xero
@Logical: you have a point. when the 'arab/muslim' thing is thrown around there are some who say, with disgust, "No! He's not one of those!" The clear implication is that arab/muslim is 'bad' and something to be refuted. when i see this happen, i just have to do a 'face-palm' [http://bit.ly/3ppznN] - MikeAmundsen
"Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin abused her power as Alaska's governor and violated state ethics law by trying to get her ex-brother-in-law fired from the state police, a state investigator's report concluded Friday." - James Ferguson
via Bookmarklet
B-b-but she cleared herself of all wrongdoing yesterday! I know because I read it on the interwebs! Where does some bipartisan committee get off saying she unlawfully abused her power?!? </sarcasm> - Karim
Karim - according to the report, she did not unlawfully abuse her power. She just abused it. No law was broken. - Phil Glockner
lead on the Associated Press story: "Sarah Palin UNLAWFULLY abused her power as governor..." [emphasis mine] http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200... The Chief Investigator said she violated a state ethics law. Palin's attorney responded by saying that, in order to violate the state ethics law, "there has to be some personal gain, usually financial," and there was no financial gain. - Karim
I think limiting it to financial gain is just so much spin. Firing the guy to satisfy her own *personal* vendetta constitutes *personal* gain in my book. - Karim
New York Times (which according to McCain campaign is not a journalistic organization): "Such impermissible and repeated contacts create conflicts of interests for subordinate employees who must choose to either please a superior or run the risk of facing that superior’s displeasure and the possible consequences of that displeasure,” the report states. It concludes that such action was a violation of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act." (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10...) - Karim
yes, exactly! from page 65 of the report: "Compliance with the code of ethics is not optional. It is an individual responsibility imposed by law, and any effort to benefit a personal interest through official action is a violation of that trust. As explained above, the term 'benefit' is very broadly defined, and includes anything that is to the person's advantage or personal self-interest. - Karim
(continued) "The term 'personal interest' as used in the Ethics Act means any interest held by the public officer or the public officer's immediate family, including a sibling such as Governor Palin's sister Molly, Molly's children, her father Mr. Heath or any other family member." - Karim
for Palin's lawyer to say that Palin didn't derive any FINANCIAL GAIN, therefore there was no violation, is a load of moose excrement. - Karim
My bad, sounds like you guys have taken the discussion further anyway. Good on you. - Phil Glockner
Man. I've just finished skimming -- skimming, mind you -- the 263-page public report, and it leaves no doubt that the Palins wanted Trooper Wooten *gone*, they repeatedly pressured Monegan to fire the Trooper. And when Monegan didn't bend to their will, they fired him. - Karim
The report reads like Moby Dick -- with Wooten as the White Whale, and Palin as Cap'n Ahab. They just have to get him. They want to fire Wooten for stuff he'd done years prior, even though he'd already been punished for it. They want to fire him because he'd allegedly killed a moose without a license. They want to fire him because he went out on worker's comp with an injury, but was then seen riding on a snowmobile. They just can't let it go. - Karim
Ironically they violate ethics laws because they demonize Wooten and see him as unethical. Todd Palin, NOT a state employee, shows up at cabinet meetings, which are not open to the public. And what really got Monegan fired? He sent a State Trooper poster to Palin's office for her to sign, and the trooper holding the flag on the poster? *Wooten.* Oops. - Karim
The whole thing comes off as this sordid, disgusting soap opera. It's funny when set in a "small town values" context. Maybe not so much if this woman is holding the 2nd-highest office in the land. - Karim
""I saw what Bush and Cheney did. They came in with a (budget) surplus and a stable world, and look what's happened now. In eight short years they've taken one peaceful and prosperous world, and they've torn it into tatters."" - newsjunk.com
The worst presidential administration in American history nicely summarized in three sentences. - Sean McBride
"In his majority opinion, Justice Richard N. Palmer wrote that the court found that the “segregation of heterosexual and homosexual couples into separate institutions constitutes a cognizable harm,” in light of “the history of pernicious discrimination faced by gay men and lesbians, and because the institution of marriage carries with it a status and significance that the newly created classification of civil unions does not embody.”
The court also found that “the state had failed to provide sufficient justification for excluding same-sex couples from the institution of marriage.”
In 2005, the Connecticut Legislature passed civil union legislation, but the eight gay and lesbian couples who were plaintiffs in the case argued that the civil union law had created an unequal status for gay men and lesbians and did not confer upon them the same rights and protections as marriage." - Bret Taylor
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I'm mostly using either Bitstream Vera Sans Mono (which was imho the most decent-looking font you could get in Java before the JDK learned to do ClearType) or Consolas. - yole
DejaVu Sans Mono and Consolas are the best of what I've tried. - 9000
I've tried those other fonts but I keep finding myself going back to ProFont. I use ProFont with no AA in IDEA with size: 9 and line spacing 1.0. All the other fonts are too big and if I make them smaller they get pixelated. I guess I like my fonts small :D - Grant Gochnauer
the page linked bitterly lacks a comparison of braces vs parens vs brackets, wherein lies my principal disagreement with Courier New, for instance. comma and dot, colon ad semicolon need to be compared, too. - 9000
It's addictive. Developers and programmers are a highly helpful bunch. I also like how Jeff added the gaming components to it, like the achievements and reputation. - Alan Le
One of the nice compared to say comp.lang.*, is that you can ask any programming question, and usually get an answer. In other words - nothing's off topic - Rajarshi Guha
yes, it has become a daily visit for me - timepilot
I've heard at least one person frustrated that his answers are accepted because of his higher rating even when a better answer has been given. Anyone else seeing that behavior? - Stupid Blogger (aka Tina)
It is pretty surprising how much faith people put in the reputation score. It is mostly a measure of how long you've had an account, rather than a measure of knowledge or skill. I do think there have been several cases where my mediocre answer was voted up or accepted simply because I had the highest rep, and I felt there were better answers. I left a comment on one of them, but nothing came of it. - Denton Gentry
A lot of the joel on software and coding horror traffic, which is a lot, is shifting over. Not quite as fun though. All the personality was sucked out. - todd
My Powershell expert friend Hal Rottenberg keeps tweating about all the questions piling up there. I'm not much of a programmer, but there is a ton of activity there. - Eric @ CS Techcast
I still haven't heard anyone answer what's in it for me to answer people's questions. - Jason Carreira
The usual with the internet. The more we help each other the better we all do. - todd
@see also the discussion from earlier this week about how there's no experts on social media, because there's no value in it for them - Jason Carreira
I know he's trying to be a contrarian rebel without a cause in re-inventing the social media wheel, but it's really stupid that you either can't participate at all or have to be a power user. Every other social site gets new users participating by allowing them to do low-commitment participatory actions (like voting and rating). With SO, you have to have at least a 15 rating to do that: I guess SO is hoping to God new users never outpace established users? - Mark Trapp
funny, my most finger on the pulse developer friend told me about them a week ago. total instant blow up. - Noah Kravitz
Mark: actually that's a good thing. The #1 killer of developer and early-adopter focused communities is newbies and trolls and noisy people. - Robert Scoble
It kinda sucked building up those first 15 points, but it didn't take long at all. All you need to be is intelligent and not post douche-type answers. - Chris Charabaruk
Robert - it amazes me you can look at that site and understand it. Nice breadth of knowledge. Hacker News is about as close as I want get to those types of stories. - Hutch Carpenter
Wow... I hadn't looked at it before... I now have even less desire to help people with their homework. Yuck. - Jason Carreira
I like it. I don't understand everything in there, but then it's hardly possible. - Ian Hussein Maverick May
“Barack Obama just sent me email titled "last call for change." Oh, so is this the last spam I'll get from the campaign asking me for money? Yeeeaaaahhhh!!!!”
Has anybody been tracking the frequency of emails from Barack Obama's campaign? How about the McCain campaign? Nader? - possible248
Funny. I was just thinking the same thing. - Lynne d Johnson
I still haven't contributed the maximum. I sure don't mind being reminded they can still use my money. And I sure don't mind giving if it helps. Besides, I asked to be on the Obama mailing list; that means it's not spam. - Howard Keziah
I didn't even get an e-mail from McCain - mine was snail mail. And he called me Friend. - Jesse Stay
I've never received email from any of them. I am not on any of their mailing lists. I wouldn't give any of them any money anyway. I can think of way more deserving causes I would give to first. - Ian Hussein Maverick May
Isn't that an opt-in list? Then it's not spam. - Ingo
Hey, speaking of politics + tech + econ - Winer said I should contact you about a story for ABC News. You near a cell phone (heh) for 3 mins later today? - Dan Patterson
Thanks - headed to an editorial meeting, I'll call some time after 3 EST if that's cool - if the weekend works better, lemme know. Thanks again! - Dan Patterson
"It's a good thing for John McCain that only American citizens can vote in U.S. presidential elections. If the election were held overseas, or even in the rest of North America, the Republican nominee wouldn't stand a chance." - Kol Tregaskes
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It is a good thing for all Americans that only American citizens can vote in U.S. presidential elections. - Michael Tefft
I have to admit, I cannot fathom these kind of stories. Who CARES what the rest of the world wants? If it were up to me, I'd get my sister elected supreme dictator of Iraq and get rich off the sh'load of oil she'd give me for helping her campaign. Is that what the Iraqis want? Probably not. So maybe, JUST MAYBE, the rest of the world doesn't really have our best interests at heart when they respond to polls like these. MAYBE, given the choice, they'd have us elect Bart Simpson, because we deserve it! - Brian Norwood
Sometimes I don't understand Americans.. We can be pretty dumb sometimes. Seriously, how can people support McCain? I just can't see it - Grant Gochnauer
Which brings up the question, would you vote Bart Simpson or Ralph Wiggum given the choice? - Richard Walker
Grant. Just because you can't see it, doesn't make it "dumb". - Brian Norwood
I really can't tell if in Europe it's either Obamamania or just plain old anti-Bush, but historically this side of the Atlantic has always leaned towards Democrat candidates - João Almeida
"Four large states McCain once seemed well-positioned to win -- Virginia, North Carolina, Ohio and Florida -- have in recent weeks shifted toward Obama. If Obama were to win those four states -- a scenario that would represent a remarkable turn of events -- he would likely surpass 350 electoral votes." - newsjunk.com
Daniel, you cannot link to picture only pages in FF. :-( - Kol Tregaskes
Kol, since you posted this manually you can upload the photo and then include a link to where ever you would like (including the original image online). The only time you can't link directly to an image on FF is when you're using the bookmarklet. - Stupid Blogger (aka Tina)
Immaturity - these people have it. Seriously, customer FAIL. - AJ Kohn
What do you expect? Looks like McDonalds - orionstarr
Sometimes I post images from my hard disk that have found their way there over the time. I have often no idea where they originate, but usually from some picture collection sites that have just copied them from similar sites (and they don't have idea about the origins, either) - Jemm
The best idea ever. HAHAHA. I will remember that <8) - Ryo
If I could get back onto Digg I could tell you. :-( - Kol Tregaskes
I'm not patient enough to wait 30 minutes. Once we were driving to Vegas and stopped at the Denny's in Baker (a very small freeway town with very high traffic at its businesses). After a delay, we were seated. After waiting 10 minutes and not even receiving a hello, we left. (Leaving the ketchup intact.) My wife now refuses to stop in Baker. - Ontario Emperor
-1 for uncreative use of mustard vs. ketchup, I would've drop-shadowed ever letter. I think I'm also peeved cuz, regardless of poor service, this is a bit OTT - Marko Bon
How is this OTT? waiting 30 minutes, they should've etched it into the countertop with a knife...ridiculous.... - Sean McGee
I'm not sure that there is an establishment large enough that I wouldn't be able to physically contact the wait-person and get my order in / be heard / be attended to. - Marko Bon
Why do some people blame this on the customers? It's a bit immature, but I'd be pissed too. - Tad - the Meme Maker
@Tad: 1) Customer is a dunce to wait 30 minutes for service. At 10 minutes they should have found a server and demanded service or gotten up and walked out. 2) Why take it out on a likely over-worked and under-paid server. Does that person deserve to clean up a juvenile mess? Find a manager and complain like an adult. 3) Get snarky with servers and you will not like what's in your food. Customer FAIL for weak-kneed, passive-aggressive immaturity. - AJ Kohn
Did anyone tell them it was a walk-up counter? - Kelly W.
Kol: Here's Mona's post from July 17 http://friendfeed.com/e/ebdfd5... with a link to the 7/29/07 Passive-Agressive Notes blog "This is why your server is cranky." http://passiveaggressivenotes.... It's from a lunch counter in Oregon Caves National Park, with a "Boo You Fail" note with $0.00 tip on the receipt. - Mitchell Tsai
Let's examine the civility levels. Who's a decent human being? - Aaron Hood
Lets face it people in America are racists. It is sad that people would say such things about Obama. Not all are racists but obviously the people on the right are and just try to cover it up. - orionstarr
I was JUST watching about this on MSNBC. Isn't it frustrating that while the Dow loses nearly 800 points, McCain's camp is admitting that focusing on the economy is a BAD IDEA for them? How the hell is that "country first"? - Grant Gochnauer
