Linkee-poo lives in an ASAP world

Some real numbers on ebooks and their potential. Sometimes those of us on these here internets get caught up in the bubble and believe the froth that "everybody is online" and "everybody uses Facebook" or all the other tripe. Not really. And it's only magnified by yelling into the bubble that is the internet. It's a big bubble, to be sure, but not big enough for everybody (say, remember the term "Digital Divide"?). (Grokked from Jay Lake).

The gaffs just keep coming (Romney makes a speech at an Alcoa plant saying with the NLRB ruling they'll lose jobs, company replies, "We won't.") I would make an excuse, but actually this just points out the conservative mental break with reality. Dudes, we'd really like you all to help us with problems, but when you just make shit up, it's kinda hard to do. At least, you know, talk with the people you're making a speech in front of to see if your talking points actually work.

I'm not going to point to the ongoing gaffes of that other front runner, because, frankly, she worries me. A lot. Why? Because I remember another candidate that did similar things, had similar appeal, and similar numbers at this time. That was GW Bush. And we all know how that turned out. Bachmann is making a similar argument (likable, you could have a beer with them, ordinary people, and, oh, she's anointed by God for this, BTW). That she may have a chance to get real power is frightening in its implications (not so much for her political ideals, but her theocratic leanings which can be politely described as extreme right wing social conservatism).

Because it points to an earlier conversation, if Congress fails to act on the debt limit (and it's the House of Representative's baby, Constitutionally), things get very bad. But what I want to most point to is the last paragraph.

"Since '09 there's been no increase in nominal dollar spending," (Moody's chief economist and former McCain economic adviser Mark Zandi) said. "There's significant fiscal restraint in the current budget, and any additional fiscal restraint… would be I think a mistake. That the economy is going to have to digest the fiscal restraint that's already in train and added to that would be at this point probably too much for the economy to bear."

Or, in other words, we can't cut our way out of this.

On the persistent myth that Obama is the "Me, Myself, and I" president. A bit of tabulation regarding the use of the first-person singular pronouns in announcement speeches of the current crop of conservatives. Yep, that would be your liberal media at work. (Grokked from Jay Lake)