Saturday, 30 August 2008

Linkage

Alaskans on Sarah Palin– some extracts


Jim Wright (link via Whatever):

This just ticks me off.

Don't get me wrong here, I like Sarah Palin. I do. A lot. Her house is less than ten miles from my own. She grew up right here in the MatSu Valley, just down the road from Stonekettle Station. I've met her. My wife has met her - and we've got the pictures to prove it. She’s tough, and smart, and very Alaskan. She’s been good to the military here in Alaska, and unlike a lot of Republican Neocons these days she has a son in uniform who is serving in Iraq right now. [actually, deploys there on September 11 - o.g.] She stood up to her own party and went after corruption with a vengeance. She slapped Big Oil upside the head, something that is completely unheard of for an Alaskan politician. She not only bit the hand that fed her corpulent predecessors, she dammed near gnawed it off - which is something that fills me as an Alaskan with more than a touch of glee. I don’t agree with everything she stands for, especially her stance on core Republican agenda planks, but I do very much admire Sarah Palin and respect her.

I voted for her - after I swore I would not vote another goddamned Republican into Alaskan office. And I fully intend to vote for her again when and if she runs for reelection as Alaska's Governor.

I think her exceptional common sense, tough frontier mentality, and tenacious no-nonsense attitude is a good compliment to John McCain. I think Sarah Palin will make a dandy VP, and an even better President a few years down the line.

I also happen to think that she's the best thing that has happened to Alaskan politics in a long, long while.

So what the hell is my problem?

Well, I happen to think she's the best thing that's happened to Alaskan politics in a long, long while.

And I want to keep her. Here. In Alaska.

McGehee (hey, he counts, he’s “formerly”!):
Okay, so John McCain has picked Sarah Palin for his running mate. I was against it months ago, more for reasons having to do with Palin’s best interest than anything else really. As I replied to reader Bobbert by e-mail:
I like what I’d been reading about Palin. She’s popular up there in a way that no other governor I know of has been. I thought she could have had a real future in national politics—but this kind of short-circuits that.

Barack Obama has been running for president longer than Palin has been governor. All the enthusiasm for her nationally has to do almost entirely with her second X chromosome and her attractiveness.
Since writing that, I’ve actually seen her (on TV) in action on the stump, at the rally in Ohio where her VP candidacy was announced. I’m warming up to the idea now and getting a much better idea of why she’s as popular in Alaska as she is. Hint: it’s not as much because of X chromosomes up there as it is in the Lower 48.

Also worth bearing in mind is how she got to be governor. She defeated an incumbent Republican governor in the primary, someone who was already a big fish in Alaska politics even before becoming governor (a little more detail here) You don’t do that, even in Alaska, without some chops.

“Stormrider” (also here, via Blair):
My plea is "Don't underestimate her."

I worked on the Tony Knowles gubernatorial campaign 2 years ago... Sarah, a relative unknown, was running in the primary against Frank [Murkowski] and a wide field of well-liked Alaskan politicians, and was treated like a joke, right up to the primary election night when it became clear that she was the Republican candidate.

The general election season continued the theme... To many of us it felt like the Democratic party didn't ever take her seriously. We all knew Sarah had a chance of winning, even a good chance, ...but no one predicted the landslide that developed, or her ability to maintain an 80% approval rating.

Sarah is a shark. She is smart, and she is shrewd. However, she comes across as extremely personable; you can't help but like her in person. She is a good public speaker, I've seen better from her in Alaska, and considering how little time she had to prepare for today's speech, I think we'll see much better from her in the near future.

The biggest mistake we can make is to write her off, ignore her, or think she won't bring anything to the campaign. Quit with the jokes and the remarks about how cute and quaint she is. Stop with the pats on the back and the hurr hurr stuff...

Our job is to remember and remind everyone else that it is John McCain running for President and not Sarah Palin... We don't want people thinking about Sarah as the President.

I say this because I believe Sarah could win if she were the one running for President...

Read ’em all.

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 22:21:04 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Linkage

Re: Palin


Best quote so far, from Steven Den Beste:

John McCain just sewed up the vital Otaku vote by picking a meganekko to be his VP candidate.

Some more links:
Attila Girl:
So. We're bothering to hold the election this fall . . . why?
Tam (also):
I feel a little giddy all of a sudden. I’m going to have to do some soul-searching here.
Rachel Lucas:
I’m going to have a very hard time refraining from politics blogging now though. Thanks, Sarah, you naughty naughty maverickette.
Meryl Yourish:
Susie B. is smiling.

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 00:50:32 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Friday, 29 August 2008

Linkage

Laptop vendors: Ignoring the customer


Vista wars: Report from the field:

...what is truly impressive is the hatred for Vista out there on the net, and the lengths that it inspires people to go to to get rid of it and, in the spirit of the net, help others get rid of it.  Googling for info about getting XP up and running on this particular machine [Toshiba Satellite A200 laptop] yielded pages and pages of helpful information about exactly what must be done to round up the necessary drivers (many from the OEMs who supplied the various components of the machine)...

The other really startling thing was how many non-expert users were doing this...

I had the same experience installing XP on my Dell XPS 1530 (great computer, once you disinfect it) - there is basically a community dedicated to purging it of Vista...

When you are inspiring legions of both expert users and ordinary non-techy people to go through the pain of installing an operating system using an ad hoc collection of unsupported drivers, something is badly, badly awry.  I am critical not of MS so much as Toshiba, Dell and co - they are the ones who have made the key decision to support nothing but Vista.  I wonder if they realise the lengths their users are going to to get around this choice?
And if your customers have to go around you to get what they want, then why should they deal with you in the first place?

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 16:12:26 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Thursday, 28 August 2008

Linkage

Why Bill Ayers matters


Ken Talton explains:

This goes to the heart of why the modern left is actively scary....and why they can’t see that they are.  They see nothing wrong with associating with a terrorist if the terrorist was a leftie...and they are so detached, ethically bankrupt and provincial that they can‘t see why this is an issue.

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 16:45:16 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Wednesday, 27 August 2008

Linkage

You don’t HAVE to be crazy, but...


Frank James writes good stuff.[1] Like this story of metal thievery in the hinterlands, the use of a manure spreader as a getaway vehicle, and the importance of reputation as an element of rural crime control:

It’s not a question of whether or not I would actually shoot ’em, but it's the public perception that I would LIKE TO shoot ’em that tends to keep our particular place a little less disturbed than others...

(Tried to link this a couple of days ago, but PowerCo glitched my service – thanks a bunch guys, couldn’t wait five minutes, could you? – before I could save the post.)

----------
[1] which you should already know

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 17:05:42 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Friday, 22 August 2008

Linkage

At least they didn’t name him “Eerie”




UPDATE
080822 17:25Daily Mail story
(Daily Mail via Rachel Lucas, where they’re fightin’ like cats ’n’ dogs)

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 15:07:14 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Wednesday, 20 August 2008

Linkage

“Save Internet Radio” campaign - doomed by naïveté


John Gorman directs some straight talk at the Save Net Radio campaign about the fight they’re in and the opponent they face:

Save Net Radio wants to play nice to the record company goon squadron. They can’t come to grips with the fact that this group will take pleasure in cutting out your heart and feeding it to you.

The RIAA considers fairness an antiquated notion at best and corrosive naiveté at worst.
If you’re gonna go after sharks, you’d better bring a harpoon gun.

There’s more, including a prediction of what the recording industry really has in mind.  Read the whole thing.

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 01:57:14 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Friday, 15 August 2008

Linkage

Republicans bail out Democrats on energy, accomplish nothing


Mark Philip Alger demolishes the Gang of 10’s energy “compromise.”


Elsewhere:

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 16:44:39 GMT | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Saturday, 02 August 2008

Linkage

PETA Kills Kittens (and Puppies). Lots of them


Go read:


Then consider the “ethics” of a  0.84% adoption rate.

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 01:31:16 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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