28/70

Just when I thought Bush's approval rating would stay in the low 30s forever, there's this bit of news that proves that the public is paying attention:

President George W. Bush’s job performance is currently viewed positively by only 28 percent of U.S. adults, the lowest since he took office. Seven in ten adults view his job performance in a negative light, including almost half (48%) who say his job performance is poor. Since February, the President has dropped from one-third (32%) who viewed his job positively and 67 percent who gave him negative marks.

The only good news for Bush here is that Cheney's approval rating — 25% — is lower than his.

More of That

If you didn't watch "The Daily Show" tonight, shame on you. McCain was on, and Jon Stewart just ripped him apart. How did he do it? He asked informed questions and wouldn't take stump speech rhetoric as an answer. That's something I'd like to see more of from the press. It's sad that you have to tune into Comedy Central to see a real interview of a leading presidential candidate. Shiznit.

Update 4/25: The interview is now online here.

Work Is Hell

There's an old saying: "You don't have to be crazy to work here, but it helps." In Iraq, you might just have to be crazy. These guys certainly are. Zipping around an active war zone setting up satellite dishes? I don't care how good the money is — I'll pass.

When Was the Last Time You Thought of…

…Klaus Nomi? For me it was yesterday afternoon. Mary and I were driving back from Charleston, listening to a little "Fred" on XM, when out of the nowhere I got an image of his rather unique look in my head. So take a break, kick back, and enjoy a little Total Eclipse from one of the weirdest looking and sounding figures in 80s music (and that's saying a lot).

Birthday Season

Did you know it's "birthday season?" Neither did I, not until I walked into Target yesterday to buy a birthday card for my father. Apparently, he was born in season, but I wasn't. This has me vaguely concerned.

I'm not sure how I'm supposed to prepare for birthday season. I'd hate to do something inappropriate or at odds with the spirit of the time. I suspect Target just wants me to buy lots of stuff at their store. Not the most expansive reason for the season, perhaps, but they did invent it so I guess it's their call.

Conflict of Interest

I'm still a few years away from claiming my senior citizen discounts, but I still remember when AARP was a fairly progressive organization. My sympathies came to an abrupt end in 2003, when that organization decided to back the Republican presciption drug plan, all but guaranteeing its passage. That move didn't make much sense to me at the time, but when I learned that AARP was selling "gap insurance" to seniors to compensate for the flaws in the GOP plan, it was obvious what had happened.

Today we learn that the AARP is entering the insurance business in a huge way, but will still continue to lobby on behalf of seniors. I wonder if anyone truly believes that it can manage this conflict of interest. Bad government insurance is a profit opportunity for private sector companies. Simply put, the worse the policy, the bigger the profit, and AARP has already shown that in its decision-making, profit trumps policy. I'll miss the 15% off my movie tickets, but I can't join an organization that I don't trust.

Isn't It Ironic?

This morning on CNN, the talking heads kept repeating that yesterday's shooting would be one of those events where people would remember where they were when they heard the news. And they're probably right.

I know I'll remember that I was in a hotel in Austin, just a couple of miles away from the University of Texas, where the previous record for mass shooting deaths had been set 41 years ago. What an odd coincidence.

Rudeness Toward Pundits

This morning on CNN's Reliable Sources, Mary Katharine Ham, a blogger at townhall.com, contested Ariana Huffington's claim that the problem of rude or threatening comments on blogs "is not about right-left."

I disagree just a little bit. I think it is easy to say that this is a problem of both sides without realizing that there — despite Arianna's obvious comportment and elegance on TV, that there are some serious monkeys hanging from the rafters over on the left side of the blogosphere.

And Michelle Malkin has been getting the C-word and the W-word in her in-box for years. And the same folks who wish for Cheney to be assassinated online are saying, you know, that Condi is a — is brown sugar or, you know, a house slave.

So I think that they — there really is a problem on the left side of the blogosphere…

It's funny, but just this morning, I found some rudeness here. And here. Not to mention here. And even in the comments to one of Ham's own blog posts, here.

But did you really expect someone like Ham to give up the chance to take a partisan swack at the left? Ahhh, no.

See the Pattern?

Alberto Gonzales botches the White House vetting of Bernie Kerik for Secretary of Homeland Security and gets promoted to Attorney General. Rudy Giuliani pushed for the nomination in the first place and now leads in the polls for the 2008 GOP presidential nomination. Kerik was such an obvious disaster, and these people just didn't see it or didn't care. It seems like Kerik isn't the only one with some pretty serious character flaws.

Walk On By

It pains me to admit it, but I'm sure I would have been one of the people who rushed past without even looking.

New Laptop

I got a new Thinkpad T60 a week back, and as I am wont to do, I spent a whole lot of time getting it set up just so, which this time means a dual-boot machine with XP and Fedora Core 6. I've posted my install diary (minus all the cursing) in case this will help anyone else save a few cycles.

Bye, John

This is what the beginning of the end looks like:

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) will launch a high-profile effort next week to convince Americans that the Iraq war is winnable, embracing the unpopular conflict with renewed vigor as he attempts to reignite his stalling bid for the presidency.

With the Virginia Military Institute as a backdrop, McCain plans to argue in a speech on Wednesday that victory in Iraq is essential to American security and that President Bush's war machine is finally getting on track after four years, aides and advisers said.

Of course, McCain hasn't been criticizing the conduct of the war for most of the last four years, but that's old news. Now, he's not only committed himself to a "victory" that can never happen, he's committed himself to Bush's unpopular and sinking fast "stay the course with slightly more troops" plan. McCain's painted himself into this corner on Iraq, and there's no way out now.

A year ago, I wouldn't have bet against John McCain being the next President. Today, I think he'll be lucky to make it to New Hampshire.

But I Like My VOIP

So Vonage, and by extension, the rest of the VOIP world, seems to have a problem: the technology used to connect their network to the phone system is chock full of Verizon-owned patents. Oops.

It's unclear what this means for Speakeasy, my VOIP provider, but now I'm not so concerned about its recent acquisition by Best Buy. When it comes to litigation and negotiation, bigger is better.

Promises, Promises

I'm not sure quite what to think about the proposed XM-Sirius merger, but as an XM customer I do want things go smoothly if there the merger does happen. I already have 2 XM radios (including one built in to a fairly expensive piece of stereo equipment), and I'm not looking to replace those any time soon.

So, in an effort to put the minds of customers like me at ease, XM sent out a letter a few days ago that said:

Rest assured that any radios or other equipment that you currently use will be fully supported, both before and after we create the new company. In fact, following the merger, we expect that existing radios will be able to receive a mix of programming from both services. There will be no obligation to buy a new radio. And, as always, we will honor all existing multi-year subscription plans.

Now, there is some artful language here, such as using "we expect" instead of "we will". And of course customers aren't obligated to buy new equipment, but that just means they can't legally compel me, not that I won't have to if I still want to get the signal I'm paying for. But this clever word play wasn't clear enough for the lawyers, apparently, who have more delineated notions of what constitutes a promise. So note the fine print (the very small and hard-to-read fine print) on the back:

The following factors, among others, could cause actual results to differ materially from the anticipated results or other expectations expressed in the forward-looking statement: general business and economic conditions; the performance of financial markets and interest rates; the ability to obtain governmental approvals on a timely basis; the failure of Sirius and XM shareholders to approve the transaction; the failure to realize synergies and cost-savings from the transaction or delay in realization thereof; the businesses of Sirius and XM may not be combined successfully…

Etc. etc. I know it's just boilerplate, but the fact is that XM is giving themselves about a dozen ways out of their pledges, including such handy catch-all excuses like "operating costs", which they can use if they have to spend any money at all to make their stuff work. The combination of false promises on the front taken back by the legalese on the back doesn't leave me very optimistic. Better if they hadn't said anything at all.

Newsweek Poll: Science Is Stupid

Sad but true. In a nutshell:

• 48% believe "God created humans pretty much in the present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so"
• 39% don't think that "the scientific theory of evolution is well-supported by evidence and widely accepted within the scientific community"

I know I should stop being astonished when I see data like this, but I just can't help it. That nearly half of Americans think that biology and geology are essentially false is a remarkable thing. That two-fifths can't even bring themselves to characterize correctly the status of evolution in the scientific community is just plain crazy.

Still, there is some good news in this poll. Two-thirds of Americans believe it is possible to be a moral person without being religious. You can almost smell the tolerance, can't you.