Aaron: why did you need to bring Palin's experience into this argument. Everyone knows that puppets have more experience, you didn't need to point that out. ;-) - Robert Scoble
I spread the "someone cleaned up Palin's Wikipedia entry on the day of McCain's announcement" rumor, I hope that's okay with folks. Does that even count as rumor mongering? - Daniel J. Pritchett
Smart move, Robert. Any way you cut it, whether the rumors had been true or not, this is a no-win story for absolutely everyone. - Sean McBride
Shows just how viral rumors can be in the blogsphere. - Jeff P. Henderson
Blogosphere, too instant. 'Shoot' first, think later. - Yung-Hui Lim
Very true. Especially on political blogs (both sides) things can get crazy fast. The sheer level of hate out there is amazing. You saw it in the extremist attacks on Obama and no you see it as folks attack Palin and her family. I think it is a sign of how effective a choice this was that dirty attacks are coming so hard and fast, - Soulhuntre via twhirl
These posts are leaving a bad taste in my mouth. - Ernie Oporto
If I ate some of these posts, I'd die from an incurable disease. It's key to stay informed and read multiple sources, including those with which you disagree. If you only read one point of view, you'll believe anything. - Ontario Emperor via fftogo
I don't think it speaks to it being an effective choice - attacks come hard and fast no matter what these days. - Shawn Farner
This goes two different ways. I think there are many that are tired of the Rush's and Roves of the past decade using every little thing against anything they didn't like against someone. Now that there is a huge hole in the RNC people are going to pounce on it. - Christopher Welle
The rumors are reflections of the cynicism toward awkward presentations by politicians and handlers. For example, Tucker Bound refused to answer any questions by Campbell Brown (CNN) regarding Palin's experience -- an issue created by McCain's campaign - thus driving speculation and gossip that she has none. Mix in the wikipedia scrubbing -- and people sense the same ploys we've witnessed the past 8 years. Do you really want more false presentations? No, yet some really appear strange. - LPH
For my own curiousity, how do you think people *should* respond if they've been involved in spreading the now-debunked rumors? - Glen Campbell
Glen: they should post a post that corrects the rumors and explain that they passed along information that now has been demonstrated to be false. They should also apologize for the harm they did to the Palin family. - Robert Scoble
Pretty much what I had suggested. Unfortunately, I haven't seen any of that yet. - Glen Campbell
Glen: yeah, me neither. This is why journalists make fun of bloggers and why bloggers don't get access to lots of things. - Robert Scoble
Do you mean the "little known fact" joke meme, or the personal family issues which are neither the media nor blogosphere's business? - Andrew Feinberg
Andrew: no, I'm talking about the original rumor that was on Daily Kos site about Palin lying about her own baby to cover for daughter's pregnancy. Personally some of this stuff +is+ some of our business, especially because she's so against sex education. - Robert Scoble
@Robert, I doubt she's "against" sex education any more than anyone with any sense is for destroying the environment. I think she's against mandating sex education outside of the confines of the family since it should be the parents who should influence their children in matters of faith, conscience, and the things you should do with your body, not "the village" (so to speak). Oh, and in the matter of abortion, it's my considered belief that once you've conceived a child, it ain't just *your* body anymore. - Craig Eddy
I proactively posted that the picture was false as soon as I realized it; and then the news that the daughter is currently pregnant. Initially I ignored the story. I do not feel I owe an apology b/c in my posts on the issue, I indicated that the news was spreading and the only way it could be dealt with is if the McCain campaign providing a response. I stand by my comments that to leave Dallas after her water broke, and passing two more qualified hospitals is odd. Also her handling of these events provide voters insight into her leadership style. - Ruth Ferguson
The thing that has bothered me the most about Palin is that reliable sources report that she returned to work full-time three days after giving birth to a special needs baby. It's her right & to each his own, but I don't have much in common with a person like that, and wouldn't care to have them one step away from the presidency. Cheney has shown us that a VP can hand-puppet the President, so I take a closer look at a VP candidate than I did in years past. - Robert Linthicum
The DailyKOS report was about as low as I've ever seen. Andrew Sullivan even got in on the act too. Someone said too much shoot first and think later in the blogosphere. They are so right. - Peter Simard
Robert, I doubt McCain will allow Palin to have a Cheney role, how could she even begin to. I agree returning to work three days after giving birth is odd, esp. in this case: if it is true. It was strange things like that which gave an element of belief to the earlier rumors. - Ruth Ferguson
We may be overlooking another big story here: Sarah Palin just threw her daughter under the bus in order to refute the rumors that she (Sarah) wasn't the mother of Trig Palin. Why instead didn't she release to the press the medical records concerning the pregnancy and put the focus entirely on herself, not her daughter? This is all about Palin's judgment, not about any criticism of her family, and about McCain's judgment in selecting her as VP. - Sean McBride
Ruth: you must have missed that McCain is in his 70s. How long do you think he'll live? Hence, there's a BIG chance that Palin will take the top office. That's WAY more important than a simple "Cheney role." - Robert Scoble
Why is Palin's experience an issue and not Obama's? She's actually got much more executive responsibility than Obama has had. I'm not afraid of either being president - I'm EXCITED about an outsider making office and trying to clean it up. - Douglas Karr via twhirl
for me experience and JUDGEMENT are important. That is why I support Barack. He has shown it in his views on Iraq, dealing with enemies and selecting a VP: just to name a few. Also as a state legislator and US Senator from a city that probably has a larger, more economically and culturally DIVERSE population, I have more confidence in the experience he has. He has demonstrated "executive" experience in building an organization from the ground up in under two years that has more participants, nearly three times the size as the population of Alaska. Unlike other various wealthy participants in the race, he has successfully managed the budget of his enterprise. - Ruth Ferguson
Robert - I totally agree with you, I was really just responding to the earlier comment. - Ruth Ferguson
And here is another big story: the McCain/Palin campaign has just been forced to respond to a story that was generated on the Internet and ignored completely by the mainstream media. The response in turn has generated huge controversy in the mainstream media. Internet as engine, mainstream media as caboose. The revolutionary social dynamic here has nothing to do with how you feel about the questions that were raised about Palin's family life. - Sean McBride
Robert, McCain's mother is in her 90s and is still going strong. The fact that he survived Vietnam proves he has a strong constitution. To suggest he's going to die any minute is age-ism and is as disgusting as suggesting Obama is going to break out in dance any second. - Dawn
Dawn, McCain's father died at 71, a year younger than he is now. So his mother's age isn't the full story, just a campaign talking point. - Scott Gatz
As for going back to work after three days, women used to give birth in the fields, pick the baby up and then keep working. I bet nobody here would think twice about the father going back to work after three days. So if the mother is strong and healthy, what's the difference? She kept the baby with her, even carrying it around a govenor's conference while she attended sessions, etc. What was she supposed to do? Resign her office? Sit at home and watch soap operas and eat bon bons? - Dawn
Regarding Obama's judgment, he came out against the war when he was just a state senator. He wasn't briefed or saw any intell. Those who did, Republican AND Democrat, backed the war. Later, after Obama IS getting briefed he decided the war was lost, said the surge wouldn't work, voted to deny our troops funding, and demanded that we pull out of Iraq this past March. If we had, countless Iraqi's would have been slaughtered, Iran would have stepped into the vacuum and we would have had to go in yet again, starting from scratch with our boys dying in the thousands. If that's "good judgment" I hope he never subjects the country to poor judgment. - Dawn
Dawn, regardless, McCain's choice of a running mate is a serious indication that he cares more about winning an election than he does about the future of the United States. Haven't we experienced enough irresponsibility? - Jody C
Dawn - Bush 43 and the neocons tricked Americans into dumping trillions of dollars down the drain in Iraq on the basis of lies, distortions, cooked intelligence and a raft of now discredited conspiracy theories revolving around 9/11. Many of the best minds in the American national security community (including the Bush 41 inner circle) predicted the war would be a disaster long before it started. Obama showed superb judgment in questioning the advisability of the war. The Republican Party has thoroughly discredited itself by ringleading the war. - Sean McBride
Jody: Seems to me that voting for a VICE President with no foreign relations experience is a hell of lot more responsible than voting for a PRESIDENT with no foreign relations experience. Even if McCain dropped dead even months into his presidency, Palin would be much more qualified at that point to assume the office than Obama is now. And there is absolutely no more reason to believe that McCain will die in office than there is that Obama will die in office. My husband was 46 when he died. His 86 year old grandmother is still going strong. - Dawn
Sean: Let's let history decide if creating a large Middle Eastern allie was worth the cost on blood and treasure. - Dawn
Dawn -- the new Iraqi government is closely allied with Iran, and just offered its first big oil contract to China. The chief beneficiaries of the Iraq War have been Iran and Muslim fundamentalists. This current Republican regime has been the worst and most incompetent presidency in American history. Do you really believe that the Iraqi people love Americans after we brutally invaded and occupied their territory, and created hundreds of thousands of Iraqi deaths, casualties and refugees? - Sean McBride
McCain chose Palin because she is a reformer like he has always worked to be. Palin took on the corrupt Republican machine in Alaska. What did Obama do when he encountered an even more corrupt political machine in Illinois? He embraced it, turned his head and accepted its financial favors. Obama has shown from the get-go that he's all about gaining political power not fighting it. That's why he stayed in Wright's church, why he embraced a known domestic terrorist who launched his run for office, and how he got his mansion with the help of now convicted felon. McCain's choice of a running mate is a serious indication that he cares more about actually making REAL changes than gaining power and glory and financial favors. - Dawn
I guess you mean the way Palin was for the bridge to nowhere before she was against it [oops forgot to mention that in her intro speech] and the way she against corruption and washington politics as usual after she was a director of Stevens 527, those political groups that have been known to fight for truth and the American way. :) - Ruth Ferguson
I cannot speak for other groups but I agree in the past women did give birth and return to the fields soon afterwards. however I was told slaves had little choice. - Ruth Ferguson
I am not elected official, but I was against the war despite the fact the american government leadership lied and I sure as heck am not as smart as those folks. Yet somehow some of us managed to not blindly believe the testimony given or the progranda they know acknowledge they deliberately spread via the media. Yet we want to criticize Obama b/c he was against something sooner then most elected officials - who now agree he was right. As to the vote against the troops: it is not uncommon for an official to vote against a bill because there are other unrelated elements that get tacked on which they don't support. Or at least I assume that is one of the reasons why McCain voted against the new GI Bill [or was that one of the votes he skipped]? - Ruth Ferguson
Robert -- I am revising my opinion based on recent events -- I think you missed a very big story. :) - Sean McBride
Like Ruth, I was against the war in Iraq, but not until I read a book called "Inside Al Qaeda" (www.tinyurl.com/InsideAlQaeda) which provided much more background on the organization and especially Osama. At the time I caught a lot of flack, mostly from people educated by the media sound-bites and the underlying fear. To their credit, the Bush administration took advantage of this fear and has driven us to the state we are in today. - Jim McCusker
I opposed the Iraq War before it started because 1) I knew the track record of the neoconservatives who engineered and promoted the war and 2) I knew that invasions and occupations of foreign nations almost always end badly for the invader and occupier. The neocons have been trying for decades to goad Americans into wars with Arab and Muslim nations in the Mideast for reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with the American interest. They are also notorious liars and deceivers in the Straussian tradition, and their raft of conspiracy theories about 9/11 were patently absurd on their face. - Sean McBride
I'm happy I didn't spread the old stories about Sarah Palin because the new stories are so much better (i.e., Ted Stevens' 527, the Alaska Independence Party. - K Welch
K Welch -- the old stories about Palin on the Internet forced the new stories to front and center in the mainstream media. And, the irony of it all: the old stories were more flattering to Palin than the new stories. In the old stories, she sacrificed herself for her daughter; in the new stories, she sacrificed her daughter for herself. - Sean McBride
"Alejandra, a single mother, prepares to perform as an exotic dancer in a Venezuelan discotec. She works every Tuesday through Saturday until 3am and is paid approximately $10 USD per night. It is not customary for patrons to tip.
Abortions are illegal in Venezuela and there are no paternity laws. Because fathers are not legally held responsible for supporting their children, women who become pregnant regularly find themselves single mothers also bearing full financial responsibility for their children." - Anna Haro via Bookmarklet
Today marks the 12 year anniversary for me and mrsth. We are going to dinner later tonight in the City and will share a vintage bottle from 1996. The 12 years have not always been easy, but we have a wonderful life together to show for it and four beautiful and amazing children. She's a terrific mother, lover, sometimes model for a photography obsessed husband, person, partner and most of all friend. Happy Anniversary. - Thomas Hawk via Bookmarklet
Congrats to you both, and here's to many more happy years for you. - susan mernit
hope it goes well and you got what you wanted - Cecil Sandus
Thanks, everyone!! My birthday was awesome. And the weekend isn't over yet! Yay for Monday off!!!!! I'm hitting the beach and eating leftover Indian food for dinner tomorrow. :-) - Lisa L. Seifert
Yeah. I have a cold/ear infection. No beach for me today. Probably fine because EVERYONE else is there right now which would drive me nuts. I'll go another day when I'm feeling better. - Lisa L. Seifert
I think this is where I told people to get off techmeme's junk and go read a livejournal. 'blogosphere' != lots of wanna be famous media/pr/software devs talking about friendfeed and fail whales. So yeah, what others said. - Eric Rice via Bookmarklet
It would be a good campaign advert except I think McCain already has the "brainless fuckwit" constituency vote in the bag, he'd just be wasting his money. - dkb
I wish they'd hurry up and get the private/group sharing feature done so I could let Tad have access. That's my only "big" complaint about Evernote so far. - Lindsay Donaghe
Come to think of it... why oh why can't the schools just distribute this stuff electronically? If they don't want to put it on a website in PDF format somewhere then they should just hand you like 256mb usb thumbdrives with all of at at the orientation night. - Lindsay Donaghe
Lindsay: I have helped my old primary school where my Mum works digitize all thier information and we distribute it via private rss feed. My biggest hassle is not the tech side but getting the info from the teachers. - John Worthington
@John, well they've got all the info, since it's printed (killing a bunch of trees!). Why not digitize it and just hand out the hard copies to people who ask for them... I'd much rather have it digital so I don't have to scan it all in anyway. :) - Lindsay Donaghe
If I could quit my job I'd probably be all over setting up digital stuff for my kid's school. Getting the classes set up with wikis and other stuff. Trying to educate the teachers and staff on what they could do that would help the kids. I'd probably really enjoy it. Alas... have to make a living. - Lindsay Donaghe
Quit playing with that and come look at this cool Photsynth thing!!! - Tad - just Tad
Evernote is awesome for this stuff, and will be even better once they have pdf previews working...do they preview on the mac yet? - Trent Olson
I make my own PDF previews... I open the PDF and do a clip to Evernote of something in it that will catch my eye (or text for OCRing) and then pull the PDF in the new note with the capture. Works pretty good. - Lindsay Donaghe
Great idea Lindsay! I will definitively do that. - [ zu ]-eBailey
That is a good idea. In a totally unrelated matter, I've been wondering something. How do you pronounce your last name? - Trish R
My oldest (5th grade) goes to an elementary school for Science, Technology, Economics, and Mathematics. We get all of the school stuff emailed to us. Very few pieces of paper have come home. When necessary we print, sign, and return. We could just edit the PDF in Photoshop or Acrobat, add a signature image, and respond via email. - Anthony K Valley
That's cool Anthony. I wish schools like that were the standard and not the exception. - Lindsay Donaghe
You'd be surprised the number of parents at my kids' school who neither use nor understand those computer things. It's mind-boggling. - Cyndy
I'm not surprised, Cyndy... a little sad though... and sadder still that the school staff are so unfamilar with them as well. Though encouraged that my kid's teachers this year seem to be enthusiastic about learning how to use "that new-fangled technology". That's a step in the right direction. Again, wish I had time to go in and educate the educators. I'd hold some training classes for any of them that were willing to attend if I had the time. - Lindsay Donaghe
interesting idea Lindsay - don't know what your profession is but imagine if you could develop a one day course that the teachers could take as a part of their optional continued education Web 2.0 Tools to Improve Parental Communication. You have to think that with younger parents, it would not be greek to them and they would appreciate it. Not a parent but it would be great if my kids teachers used something like a room on FF or Twitter. - Ruth Ferguson
@Ruth - I might see if I can do something like that. There are some complications with what KIDS can do online, because there's so much (in my opinion over-)protection of them from "online predators". But there are a lot of things such as FF and Evernote that could be beneficial to teachers. There are so many of them that are intimidated by it all, so maybe they'd appreciate someone guiding them down some avenues for exploration. - Lindsay Donaghe
My sister teaches 8th grade in a low-income, often English as second language speaking school in suburban Minnesota. She does a lot with technology - her kids have to prepare presentations in powerpoint and she's got an online calendar and all that - but the income/English gap gets in the way and a lot of the kids are transient (only there for 3 or 4 months of the year because of their parents' lifestyles). It's a tough nut to crack. - JoEllen
I did this last night and it was SO helpful. Thanks for the suggestion! - Trish R
People have actually asked me and my wife if we have a violent relationship... Talking like this is just how we talk and get rid of stress. Plus my fav is f*ck-stain... - John Worthington
Nah... If my husband calls me silly, I call him a silly f*cker. If I call him a goofball, he turns around and calls me a goofball f*cker. You get the idea. Gets interesting when one calls the other a silly goose =) - Stupid Blogger (aka Tina)
Oh, I'm not THAT vulgar, Outsanity... Mattb4rd: aw, ty :) John: I know, people question my relationships all the time LOL - Mona N.
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