Posts by David Slack
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Ooops....beaten by David by 30 mins.....
Heh. Doubt that'll happen very often.
Nice to see the lawyers may not be needed to get a result.
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Webb beats Allen, Dems take Senate. Quote from Boston.Com
James Webb has defeated incumbent George Allen in Virginia, giving the Democratic Party control of the Senate, the Associated Press and NBC are reporting....
The Associated Press contacted election officials in all 134 localities where voting occurred, obtaining updated numbers Wednesday. About half the localities said they had completed their postelection canvassing and nearly all had counted outstanding absentees. Most were expected to be finished by Friday.
The new AP count showed Webb with 1,172,538 votes and Allen with 1,165,302, a difference of 7,236. Virginia has had two statewide vote recounts in modern history, but both resulted in vote changes of no more than a few hundred votes.
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In the past six years they have castrated the political minority
In that respect, it's worth bearing in mind that this President has had a strong enthusiasm for using delegated executive authority to bypass the Congress entirely. And that was with a quiescent body. For all the talk at this morning's press conference about bipartisanship, I remain to be convinced he has any real commitment to the notion. His performance seemed by turns to be grudging and petulant.
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I just like looking at James Carville on TV ...
I can lend you a book that explores his turbulent (as if there could be any other kind) relationship with Hunter S Thompson, including the speculation that they might actually be brothers.
Haven't been able to tear myself away from CNN all afternoon. Best quote: Begala reporting an APB for lawyers already emanating from Virginia.
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While we wait for the numbers, a little piece of campaign trail entertainment via Digg and Daily Kos:
George Bush, trying to save a Republican candidate in a Nebraska district: "Now, it seems to me if you're sending someone from this country to Washington, you better have someone who understands what it means to be a farmer and rancher." The Dem candidate, Scott Kleeb, is a rancher with a PHD who wrote his doctoral dissertation on the history of cattle ranching. And once placed fifth in a Nebraska rodeo for bull riding.
George's guy is a real estate agent.
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Just out of interest, does Auckland have any buildings "built this or last century" that are really good?
Depends, Sarah.
If you're prepared to accept early Twentieth Century, then I'd nominate the museum. And the Civic Theatre. And the Harbour Bridge.
Can't say that I feel fondly towards either of the most notable recent erections, namely Sky Tower or Aotea Centre. Maybe the Britomart, which is a re-fashioning of a nice old building, might have its supporters, but I can see that withering away unloved.
Oh - and the former Railway Station - another nice depression era piece of work.
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In effect, the Senate will come down to four states: Montana, Missouri, Tennessee and Virginia.
Even aside from the strategic significance of the Tennessee contest, I'm fascinated to see the outcome of the Ford/Corker bout. Robyn, a quick search of YouTube will quickly bring you up to speed on that particularly ugly dog fight.
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I'll bite. From Salon, a charge sheet against the incumbent administration, lest we forget:
http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2005/01/18/scandal/index.html?pn=1
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Well now, I wasn't going to bring this up for fear of being accused of trivial pedantry, but there was also a somewhat symbolic srcewup in the Heart of Auckland City full page ad in the Herald this morning. To whit:
LET'S BUILD SOMETHING WE CAN BE PROUD OF. LETS DO IT RIGHT THIS TIME.
My inner Lynn Truss was very entertained by the missing second apostrophe. If you're advocating the care and attention to detail implied in 'doing it right', you might want to be a little less hasty in your proofreading.
A trivial thing, I'll grant you, but the emblematic haste is one of the principal reasons I'm not enthusing over this.
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I'm getting tired of this normalisation of the notion that the "purchase" of media is just another form of licencing.
For a useful development of this, go to The Register (thanks NZBC), to see Peter Jenner declaiming on the subject in this vein:
The major four music labels today are "fucked", he says. Digital music pricing has been a scam where the consumer pays for manufacturing, distribution, and does all the work - and still has to pay more. Labels should outsource everything except finance and licensing.
But he's also optimistic that for almost everyone else - indie labels, musicians, songwriters and budding entrepreneurs - as well as network providers - the future's going to be pretty bright. The Big Four know that the DRM era is nearly over - and within two or three years, he predicts, "most countries" in the world will have a blanket licensing regime where we exchange music freely, for a couple of quid a month.