There is now an ad for a book called Barn Dance Hoedown in those Ashlee Simpson comments. I guess, these must be salad days for the hoedown community.

While we're teaching the rest of the world about Democracy, it looks like the US could take a lesson from a few of the former Soviet republics on how to maintain a free press.

Whoa! Drive by porn.

Less than one week to go before the elecion here and the question on my mind is when and where is the terrorist attack going to occur? I'll tell you this, I wouldn't go to one of those world series games if you paid me.

Hoedown makes SNL come-back.

In case you haven't seen the infamous Ashlee Simpson video, you have to check it out (Click on 2nd photo here)Of course if it had happened to me, I woulda just sung the same song over again and when they asked me why, I woulda said, "oops I did it again." Or was that the other one...?

I'm blogging this only because it involves a hoedown.

Copy this CD

Wired has a CD in its latest issue released under the Creative Commons license. I'm glad this project hasn't died a quiet death. It would be interesting to see how creative this whole endeavour has actually been. The idea is that if you're free to borrow IP (e.g. Snow White) you can create new and more interesting things (e.g. "Snow White:" they Disney movie). Has it panned out?

Sometimes there is a fine distinction between "insanely annoying" and "hilarious," something I feel I get a special familiarity with in my daily interactions with big high technology companies. Take, for example, Friday's exchange with Microsoft's German PR agency on the subject of this story, in which Microsoft appeared to be both supporting an open source software project, while at the same time reserving the right to sue it out of existence.

I've XXed out the names to protect the guilty. Here's the email I was sent a month after I filed the story:

"Microsoft Presseservice"
10/22/2004 06:02 AM
To
Robert McMillan/NEWS SERVICE/IDG@IDG
cc

Subject
Background information: Structure of Microsoft PR department





Dear Mr. McMillan,

on the 16th of September an article in the German "Computerwoche" regarding Microsoft exhibiting on the OpenOffice conference had been published referring to the information we sent to you on the 15th of September. In this article in "Computerwoche" you can read that "Spokesperson Sandra XXX declared to "IDG News Service"...".

XXX XXXX XXX, PR Manager Microsoft Office System, asked us therefore to clarify that this is not correct. The colleagues in the German Microsoft Presseservice are not Microsoft spokespersons, but only some kind of interface between the Microsoft PR managers and the journalists.

If you have any further questions regarding the structure of the Microsoft PR department, please feel free to get in contact with us. Our service is available Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Best regards
Sandra XXXX



My response:



Hey Sandra,

This sounds like maybe this is just a linguistic/cultural thing. In the US, we call "some kind of interface between the Microsoft PR managers and the journalists" a "spokesperson." It's shorter and it's easier for our readers to understand.

For example, the sentence I used (in the english version) would be awkward if I wrote:

Microsoft decided to participate in the conference to learn about Open Office and "take an active part in the dialogue and to discuss important topics related to open standards," said Sandra XXXX, a kind of interface between the Microsoft PR managers and the journalists, via e-mail.

In the future, if there's some special way you'd like us to attribute your comments, (e.g. if you don't want me to use your name) please let me know and I should be able to accomodate, or perhaps you could put me in touch with someone who I could call a "microsoft spokesperson" next time.


Bob


Robert McMillan
US Correspondent
IDG News Service, San Francisco

Why can't the Democrats make an argument for Kerry as good as this?

We look back on the past four years with hearts nearly breaking, both for the lives unnecessarily lost and for the opportunities so casually wasted. Time and again, history invited George W. Bush to play a heroic role, and time and again he chose the wrong course. We believe that with John Kerry as president, the nation will do better.

If Bush loses this election, do you think the Republicans will ever engage in a debate again? Maybe we've just spent the last 100 years learning how to make theatre with the mass media, and maybe the presidential debate will be the next thing to go. Of course, this last debate was barely even a debate. How can you call something a debate when the participants can't even ask each other questions. As this Washington Post article illustrates, shielding the President from real debate may make it harder for him to ever answer spontaneous questions. But what it only touches on is the obverse: it makes the press, fearful of losing what little access it has, even more obsequious.

For the extraordinary state of Ohio, Bush made an extraordinary effort. On Sept. 1, two executives and a reporter from the Columbus Dispatch were ushered up the front steps of Air Force One -- a treatment unheard of for journalists.

The White House suggested the venue after the newspaper asked Bush to meet with its editorial board. The front-page headline that emerged from the 45-minute interview was a quote from the president: "The Country's Getting Better."

Judith Miller sure picks the darndest times to be a good reporter.

CupperWatch!

No, you're not, Gina—it's everybody else who is bonkers!

One month to go and, despite what the U.S. media is reporting... it still looks like Bush is going to win. I don't know why the keep talking about the popular vote in the press. Almost every day there is a new poll saying what percentage of Americans favor what candidate. Doesn't anyone remember the popular vote numbers from 2000? Strike that, I do know why these polls keep coming out. It would take too long to explain what is really going on. Talking about Electoral College votes also creates the dangerous possibility that Americans might do the math and realize that the Electoral College isn't reflective of a representational democracy -- something that happens to be playing well for the Republicans right now (take a look at all the red states with no population in them and see how many are Republicans.)

In the last few weeks, I've seen two things that really have explained what's going on. First is this essay by Naomi Klein which is the only thing I've read explaining why America would both want to invade Iraq and actually be pushing for the hand-over of sovereignty.

After you read that, watch the first two chapters of the TV version of the House of Cards trilogy. The final one sucks, but you'll probably want to watch it anyway, because Ian Richardson is so bloody good.

Then, for good measure, watch George W. Bush: Faith in the White House. I haven't seen this film, but it would be interesting to watch it in the context of the other two pieces.