Blogging is now a TV phenomenon which is to say, it is real and possibly about to expire. As Jonathan Zittrain of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society told me recently:

"Every time I look at blogging, I see the seeds within it of CB radio in the 80s," he says. While the CB radio turned out to be useful for commercial trucking, the idea that it would be ubiquitous turned out to be false. "We look back and say, what were we thinking? We were all like 'Breaker 1-9'"

Finally, written proof that you don't have to call shotgun for your whore.

Since I predicted a boom on subscription based music services right before iTunes and a Kerry election victory, I'm almost afraid to say anything about politics and music anymore. Almost....

However, this dude from Wilco makes a point I wish the recording industry would figure out:

Tweedy: We didn't go out of our way to make it sound low-res. MP3s are poorer quality anyway. That's part of why the record industry's argument against file sharing is so ridiculous -- nothing out there on P2P networks sounds as good as the original CD or vinyl record.

Speaking of satire, have you heard about this guy who rode a Segway across the US? A buddy of mine wrote this take on the endeavor. I thought it was stupid whent that guy drove the lawnmower across the country, but at least he could pick up an extra $20 here and there by doing some mowing.

Why do I find this funny, and this unfunny? Is it becuase I prefer naked rage to smugness or because I'm targeted in one and not the other? Or is everything just made funnier by uncontrolled cussing?

My boss just sent me this link, suggesting I contribute.

Reflections on the end of my career as a political prognosticator

It's been cold and dreary in San Francisco these past two days, and I've been sick with a cold ever since the night of the election. It's hard to explain what it feels like here, where 85 percent of the population voted for Kerry. Sick and bad and hurt might do it. More depressing than the fact that Bush won is the painfully reality that this time, he received a majority of the votes. I find myself thinking a lot about those millions of silent voters and whether they are incredibly wise to say "neither candidate matters to me" or whether they are stupid and lazy and ruining it for the rest of us by allowing one third of the people in this country to have so much power.

I've had my browser's home page set to eonline.com for the last two days. September 11th made me a news junkie, but November 2 made me sick of all political reporting. I hear the TV for a second on Wednesday as I go by the garage to pick up my car, and they are talking about how out of touch the Democrats are with the moral values of Americans. It sickens me, as I think how out of touch our preisdent is with my moral values, and the moral values of 49 percent of the country. Doesn't that count for something? This country is polarized, in part, because that's the only way we know how to talk about things.

Anna and I sent GG's application for Canadian citizenship in yesterday.

It hurts, this believing in your fellow American and being let down. It makes you want to walk away and say, "Fine. You stupid southerners and heartlanders want it that way. Fine. Take it. It's yours." I don't think I'll feel this way forever, but for the time being, I just don't want to know about things anymore.

Following my departure from politics, Anna hs become the resident political analyst here. She quite interestingly points out the reversal in voting patterns since 1968 and, convinced that Bush is another Nixon, has started work on impeaching the son of a bitch. Go Anna.

Blogs Send Stocks Lower on Talk of Kerry Victory

Here's an interesting theory as to why these poll numbers are always skewed: they ignore cell phone users. Cheer up Democrats. Even without my vote, you're still gonna win. :-)

Coming from Canada, where the actual validity of elections never seemed to be in question, the inconsistent sloppiness inherent in US voting never ceases to amaze me. And for a moment, I wonder how a country where a large percentage of voters have serious concerns that their votes will not be counted can present itself as a beacon for democracy to the rest of the world. Of course, then I think to myself that Canada is technically run by a hereditary monarchy and practically run by a Liberal political machine that has maintained power for over a decade and I wonder if our fucked up democratic machine isn't somehow more transparently honest.

Over the weekend, I changed my opinion on who's going to win today's presidential election. I've thought about it and faced my unvarnished pessimism head on and I've set it aside. At this point I believe that John Kerry is going to win the election. It's hard to go on record saying this after the disappointments of the last four years. Having seen the country so willingly embrace so much of its worst side, it's easy to believe that the unfolding future is no longer a place I'd really want to inhabit. People have been saying that the Democrats have become the reactionary party of the day, always saying, "No. Don't privatize social security. Don't change Medicare. Don't go to war," while the Republicans are now the party of new ideas. And as I prepare to vote on the dozens of ballot measures and candidates -- none of which I could possibly understand well enough to really trust myself -- I have a strong sense of what it must have been like to have been a conservative in the 1960s and to watch the country change in radical and alienating ways.

Still, I think John Kerry is going to win and I'm ready to go on record saying so. I think that he's done a better job in this election than anyone expected, giving him momentum going into election day, and I think a dead heat favors the challenger: Ultimately, I think people are more likely to make the effort to vote if they think it's going to change things rather than if they think it's going to maintain the status quo. We Americans relate better to the whip than the carrot. That's a fact.

I'd like to believe that this analysis is accurate. The most interesting thing about this, I think, is how wrong pre-election popular vote polling was 4 years ago -- with almost everyone calling it for Bush, even though Gore ended up winning the electoral vote. Even Democratic insiders thought the actual result was an unlikely scenario at the time. In an election with this much interest, I think the pollsters will be even more off base, and I think this election will go to Kerry and will be a lot less close than everyone is predicting.

One other thing: Despite all the attention on this election and all the talk about record numbers of voters there is one other thing that should be noted. I just heard on the radio that "a record 12 million voters are expected to vote in California." There are about 22 million eligible voters in the state. Why don't more people vote? If we believe so much in the wisdom of the people, what are all these silent voters telling us?

Everyone I know feels a little queasy today, worried to even think that Bush might lose for fear that even the thought of a Kerry victory might jinx it. But I'm not voting for Kerry anyway, so what the hell.