I think that more or less says it all.

It is a lovely day in the Washington, D.C. metro area and I’m stuck inside in front of a computer with a headache. Any suggestions on how to deal with either, or both, of these problems would be appreciated.

I’m sure that most of this site’s readership is aware of the current issues surrounding the filibuster; specifically the efforts of Senate Republicans to outlaw its use on judicial nominees. Like the Iraq war they are taking the laundry list approach and are throwing out argument faster than a fish monger unloads a trawler as to why the filibuster should be eliminated.

I get the politics of all this, but one of the more recent arguments about the filibuster has me scratching my head. On NPR this morning they had a story about Bill Frist’s participation in a simulcast to churches arguing they should support filibuster elimination. (You can listen to the full story online). I want to be clear about one thing, before I go on, I don’t thinking Frist’s participation was wrong, or that the excerpts of his speech played on NPR were extreme (I can’t speak to the whole content of his speech which I’ve not heard), they were political, but this is not unexpected.

However, the gist of the whole thing is that the Democratic filibusters are targeted at “people of faith.” This seems rather a specious argument to me; mostly because it seems that they get upset by anyone that does not overtly promote THEIR faith as being generally against religion — that argument does not seem to follow, at least to me. It is not a matter of being against people of faith, it is a matter of trying to protect people of different faiths.

Basically, I think that the quote by Albert Muller encapsulates the message of the event fairly well:

Religious liberty is on the line here, because the courts also hold, by their constitutional roll, a responsibility to defend our religious liberty. But in far too many cases judges have constrained and violated our religious liberty. And so now are some members of the United States Senate.

Okay, huh? how so, can we have some examples? This is the part I just don’t get. Your religious liberty to do what exactly? To force your religious views on others? That violates their religious liberty, and the courts are right to protect it.

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For some background, Apple has an OS release called Tiger that is coming out next Friday. Microsoft, in an attempt to get attention (and trying not to focus on the delayed release of Longhorn), is trying to reinvigorate interest in its stagnant XP operating system with an advertising campaign.

Unfortunately for Microsoft, several people quickly downloaded the sample ad — and found out that it had been made with a Mac.

To make matters worse, it would not have been all that difficult to make the ad on a Mac and then change the creator information using a PC before posting the ad to the website. But when I checked a few minutes ago, the ad was still up, and the creator information still said “Adobe Photoshop CS Macintosh.”

(In other design related news, Adobe is in the process of buying Macromedia…)

I know we have some rather fierce partisans here and that some of you may feel it is not time for DeLay to resign - just yet. However, there is beginning to be a preponderance of evidence that it is time for him to go. For example the New York Times department of fancy graphics brought us this chart outlining some of the shenanigans associated with DeLay. In addition, this article touches on some of the investigations surrounding DeLay. There is also this article, which outlines DeLay’s top 12 transgressions. This does not even get into the extensive Op-ed column inches that have been spent on this subject. Getting rid of DeLay should not be a matter of partisan politics, it is a matter of getting rid of a man who is bad for politics.

Now, Brendan will take us back to Basketball.

It could just be me, and if it is. I’ll accept that. But do these two sites leave anyone else asking why?

The Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences has a web site. No surprise, and it is nothing to write home about; but it is not bad.

Now, there is another official Academy site specifically for the 77th Academy Awards.

Now, is it just me, or is the new site significantly uglier and more annoying than the original site–in its own special way? You know, one of those just because you can does not mean you should sort of things? And this seriously just sort of leaves me shaking my head…

I don’t know, comments?

So, I was cruising the USC job site (if anyone needs someone in LA, let me know) and found a wonderful position for someone with a little more experience than myself. So, if you think you have what it takes give it a shot and perhaps we’ll all see you in St. Louis.

What would election night be without a good drinking game? Now that I’ve gotten back from the long line at the polls it is time to start waiting for the results to come in go to work. So in the spirit of brendanloy.com drinking games past, lets get everyone smashed. The rules are very simple.

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Sadly, 2005 will not be as funny as 2004.

The TV version of CNN is reporting that Mount St. Helens began emitting mass quantities of steam at around noon pacific (melting the snow in the crater), and now has settled down slightly. Perhaps a final prelude to eruption is on its way, although the scientist on CNN is hedging on exactly what is going to happen next. The CNN Science section is not yet updated to reflect this change, but I imagine will be shortly.

UPDATE FROM THE WEBMASTER: Thanks for the update, Dane! Here’s the live webcam view:

Here’s an article: Steam eruption begins at Mount St. Helens.

Live video stream here.

Brendan has suggested many times that Kerry should be replaced with a better candidate. From Joe, to Hillary and back again. A recent Salon article (you can read the article free by watching the short ad (noiseless)) suggests to me that the problem might not be with the candidate, so much as it is with the campaign. They have been arguing hard on an issue that has gained little traction, Vietnam. And ignored things like the fact that Kerry was a key player in the Iran Contra investigation.

When it comes to the voting record, Kerry has allowed the Republicans to paint the picture–it is the same thing that Bob Dole allowed to happen back in 1996 and it cost him the race–instead of attacking the clams of the Republicans head on. And attacking the clams is something they could do, given that often times the statements of the Bush campaign range from misleading to lies. Not combating these issues, and these same tactics, hurt both Al Gore and John McCain in 2000.

The issue the Democrats must face, if they are to win, is not that they have bad candidates; Gore and Kerry were and are good candidates for president. The issue that the Democrats must face is that they need to campaign if they are to win!

They are going to have to have the backbone to both stand up to the Bush campaign’s attacks AND demonstrate effectively and clearly why their candidate should be elected President. The job approval numbers show that Americans are itching for a reason to fire Bush. The Democrats need to give them that reason in order to win. You can’t say, “I voted for the 87 Billion until I voted against it.” You need to say, “I voted for the 87 Billion Dollars when there was a plan in place to fund it. President Bush threatened to Veto his own request until that section of the bill was removed…” You don’t win elections by rolling over and playing dead. Dole and Gore learned that lesson the hard way, Kerry needs to learn from those mistakes if he is going to win in November.

Unstoppable

This guy has a darn good shot at winning.

Okay, write your own joke, I’m not touching this one

UPDATE: Fodder for more large scale jokes.

In an unprecedented occurrence the newly minted New World State has come under relentless attack by a band of mutant shoes. The mutant shoes clam to be part of a group calling itself the Universal Order. While reports of the shoes’ affiliation are yet to be confirmed, the Universal Order is know to be a libertarian splinter group bent on dominating the Universe. Last year they split from the Order of the Universe over a disagreement on tactics. In the months that followed the Universal Order also took over the Popular Peoples Front of the Universe, and The Peoples Universe Front.

Although these groups were previously peaceful, the creation of the Quantum Improbability drive, (running on top notch British tea) has lead to a rapid expansion of the groups holdings.

If true, the use of Mutant Shoes to further their cause would be a dramatic shift in policy. And could signify the emergence of a Libertarian Liberation front, and a strong split in Universal governance.

Film at eleven.