Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

No Shame

Posted on October 25, 2006 by Michael Froomkin

Cheney ♥ Waterboarding: “It’s a no-brainer for me,” Cheney said at one point in an interview.

Note that in WW II the US stated that waterboarding was a war crime— when practiced on US troops by the Japanese.

Posted in Torture | 2 Comments

‘Stay The Course’

Posted on October 25, 2006 by Michael Froomkin

The ‘Stay the Course’ video. Much better than news stories that miss the point.

Incredible that the NYT story doesn’t even mention that Bush claimed “we’ve never been stay the course” and instead just ran with the White House line that they were changing the rhetoric.

We have always been at war with Oceana.

Posted in Iraq | 2 Comments

Jim Webb Does a Good Commercial

Posted on October 25, 2006 by Michael Froomkin

Since I previously knocked Jim Webb’s advertising, it seems only fair to point out that this time he’s done a good one.

Or, rather, Mark Warner does a good one for Jim Webb.

Speaking of Jim Webb, here’s an effective ad produced by Lars Sandvik, a Washington ad-maker who doesn’t usually do political ads and isn’t part of the Beltway consultant mafia. He did it for free, on his own, without consulting the Webb campaign. Now the question is whether anyone will find the money to put it on TV.

Incidentally, the ad is designed to be customizable at low cost — all you have to do is change the handle if the pitch fits another candidate.

Bottom line: even if Jim Webb himself isn’t the best TV performer, he’s got the right sort of friends. (And, the latest poll shows Webb with a narrow lead over Sen. George Allen, 47% to 44%. But as this is something of an outlier from all the other polls that show Allen ahead, I’m not going to believe it until I see it confirmed at least once, maybe twice.)

Posted in Politics: US: 2006 Election | 3 Comments

Firefox 2.0 – Maybe Next Week

Posted on October 25, 2006 by Michael Froomkin

OK, this is pretty impressive. Almost all of the 26 Firefox
extensions I have installed at home are already ready for 2.0. 

Only seven extensions I currently have installed are not ready.  Of these two are just frills (Shazou and Timetracker).  Spelling is built in, so
I won’t need Spellbound.

Of the other four that are not yet ready, there is one which I’ll certainly miss but can manage without (Autofill). There is really only one showstopper — TabMix Plus. And the developer of that says he needs a week or so to get it ready.  So it looks like I will only
have to wait a week or so to upgrade to 2.0.

Here’s the list of what I use with info on upgrade status
drawn from the amazing Bill’s
Big List of Firefox® 2.0 Compatible Extensions

Ready
for 2.0

Adblock
Plus
Chatzilla
CoLT
del.icio.us
Complete 1.3
Download
Statusbar 0.9.4
dragdropupload
1.5.21
EditCSS
0.3.6
ErrorZilla
Mod 0.1.1
Extended
Statusbar 1.2.5
FireFTP
0.94.4
Gmail
Space 0.5.1
Googlepedia
0.4.1
gTranslate
0.3
MR Tech
Local Install 5.3.1.1
ScrapBook
1.2.0.6
Searchbar
Autosizer 1.1.2
Video
Downloader 2.0
View
Source Chart 2.4.05
X-Ray
0.8.1

Not
(officially)
ready for 2.0

  1. Autofill
  2. Bugmenot 
  3. Shazou
  4. The functionality of Spellbound is, I gather, built in to
    2.0
  5. TabmixPlus is not
    ready yet, but should
    be ready Real Soon Now     

    I REALIZE THAT FIREFOX 2
    IS GOING TO BE RELEASE ON TUESDAY, OCTOBER 24.
    A NEW VERSION OF TAB MIX PLUS IS GOING TO BE RELEASE SHORTLY AFTER
    THAT, IN LESS THAN A WEEK. PLEASE BE PATIENT, FOR NOW YOU CAN TRY THIS
    VERSION EARLY.
    http://tmp.garyr.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3515

  6. Timetracker
  7. Wayback (but this is somewhat obsoleted by ErrorZilla)
Posted in Software | 1 Comment

Scott Adams Can Speak Again

Posted on October 25, 2006 by Michael Froomkin

Scott Adams, the author of Dilbert has become the first person in recorded history to recover from Spasmodic Dysphonia (an inability to speak). It’s an amazing story.

Incidentally, I was horrified to discover recently that my children appear to think Dilbert is the Great Guide to Office Life. They take it as nearly true, just as they used to treat Calvin and Hobbes as the Guide to Excruciatingly Appropriate Household Behavior.

Posted in Science/Medicine | 5 Comments

51% Support Bush Impeachment

Posted on October 24, 2006 by Michael Froomkin

It’s not a ‘fringe’ idea: Apparently 51% of those polled think impeachment is a reasonable idea. Even if “only” 28% say it’s a high priority.

As I’ve said before, I don’t support impeachment since it would tear the country apart, wouldn’t get through the Senate…and if it did all it would do is make Cheney’s status official. Not worth the effort.

But it’s interesting to see how widespread the anger is. And, yes, it is a surprising, even shocking, number. Why? Because dissent just isn’t visible enough.

Posted in Politics: The Party of Sleaze | 5 Comments