Well, I've taken some time off from blogging. Obama is now President, and we've driven the NeoCons from Washington (well, some of 'em, anyway) and now I can spend a little more time dealing with RLS - Real Life Stuff. I'll try and keep my political rants to myself for a while.

I've got an iPhone, finally - great piece of equipment. Not perfect. I'm working on a list of the things that the iPhone doesn't do well... I may call it "10 Things the Blackberry STILL does better." Stay tuned for more. I'll be reviewing iPhone apps soon, too. The headphones that come with the iPhone are abysmal, of course - virtually identical to the ones that come with ipods, with an added microphone. It's worth noting that the Apple premium in-ear "Canal Phones" are pretty doggone nice for the price, though. I bought a pair, and they're solid.

Got a new 15" MBP, too. The new ones with the glass LED backlit screen and chicklet keyboard and the 1Ghz+ FSB... good grief these things are fast. It's faster than my iMac! I can't recommend this laptop highly enough. The dual-nvidia-video cards, the high speed RAM, the gorgeous screen... it's Teh Bombe.

Recent Gadgets that are Worthwhile

I got a First Act 222 USB Cable. Surprisingly nice piece of equipment for the price. I plug my guitar into the MBP and fire up Garage Band '09 (if you don't have iLife09, GET IT) and select the appropriate device, and jam on. Works with Guitar Rig 3, the built in GB effects, and Amplitube. Probably works with more stuff, but that's what I have. It's 16 bit and 44.1/48khz, so CD quality; not "pro level", but in a good mix I bet no one could tell the difference but a recording engineer.

I've created an Aggregate Device in my MBP that combines the onboard output, the input from the USB guitar cable, and the inputs from my Zoom H2. This allows me to use the H2 as a tethered USB microphone in the same Garage Band sessions that I use the USB guitar cable to record guitar. The combined system is extremely versatile and will allow any musician to create surprisingly complete and high-quality recordings with a minimum of gear and software.

I'm used to the speakers in the old 17" Macbook pro, and I was somewhat disappointed with the built-in speakers in the 15" MBP. They don't suck, as laptop speakers go, but they're definitely not the speakers I'm used to. To remedy this situation, I picked up a pair of IHOME Rechargeable Mini Speakers for iPods for use as external speakers for my iPhone or MBP. The reviews were almost universally good, and after playing with them for a while, I concur. Excellent sound from a tiny package - they're little ~1.5" half domes that snap together with magnets for easy transport. Sound is EXCELLENT for the package. They recharge via USB. My only complaints are that you get a little noise if you leave the USB plugged into the MBP while playing audio, and the audio cable and USB cable are lumped together into a special cable; I would have liked it a lot better if the devices had used standard-ish audio and charging cables.

More reviews and pimpage to come - feel free to ask questions about the gear here, I bought it with my own cash and I'll give you the straight poop.

There's a post up at the Orlando Sentinel that links to an interview with Joe Biden by Barbara West, of WFTV-Channel 9. The implication, and the way many took the interview, was generally that Biden failed to answer "tough questions" posed by the interviewer. The Obama campaign apparently cancelled further interviews with WFTV because of this interview. You should go watch it before reading further. Go ahead, I'll wait.

So the first question I have for you is this: Have you stopped beating your wife? The old saw is extremely relevant here. "Aren't you embarrassed by the blatant attempts to register phony voters by ACORN, an organization that Barack Obama has been tied to in the past?" Let's unpack this a bit. "Aren't you embarrassed" - leading the question with this phrase assumes that there is something for Biden to be embarrassed about. Rather like me walking up to someone and saying, "Aren't you embarrassed by your ex-employee's blatant infidelity to his wife?" You would be confused by that question, quite rightly - it's not clear why you should be embarrassed by your ex employee's current private life, much less actions you weren't aware of that had nothing to do with you. Then: "blatant attempts to register phony voters" presumes that this was ACORN's intent. If you do a little bit of research, you'll discover that ACORN hires individuals to go and get people to fill out voter registration forms. You'll discover that the law in most states requires ACORN to turn in every form they receive, regardless of the content of that form. You'll also discover that ACORN flagged the 'bad forms' as possibly inaccurate information. That doesn't sound like a blatant attempt to register phony voters, to me. Would you tell someone you were handing them a forged document if you wanted them to accept it as legitimate? Now: "... an organization Barack Obama has been tied to in the past?" The entire question is based on fallacious assumptions (that ACORN made a blatant attempt to register phony voters), which renders Barack Obama's historical connection even less relevant to their current behavior.

This is a clear illustration of the sensationalist nature of the questions asked. I can't speak to the political bias of the editorial process at WFTV, but I can say without equivocation that these are not "tough questions", they're baited, inflammatory, and designed to anger their target. I suspect this was a blatant attempt to try and get Joe Biden to engage in some of his "rhetorical flourishes", to go off the rails and present them with a newsworthy gaffe of some sort or another. I think that Joe's response was rational irritation with the questions' phraseology.

I mean, come on. Does anyone really think that Karl Marx would view a tax cut for the middle class - even with Obama's "spread the wealth" vocalization - as an ideal of the Manifesto? Does the advocation of a progressive tax structure rather than a regressive one make Obama a Marxist? Do you really think Karl would agree? And the goofy bitch quotes Marx's most famous line as though Obama had spoken it himself. She asks Joe, "Isn't this a potentially crushing blunder?" (paraphrased). Duh. This isn't a loaded question.

Come on people. Joe Biden and Barack Obama have almost certainly had far more political science education that this talking bubblehead, and could probably tell her what chapter the quote comes from, but there she is, saying, "That's from Karl Marx." This may be journalism, but they're trying to create news rather than transmit information. The Obama campaign is smart enough to refuse to feed the kind of stupidity this "News Crew" promulgates. There's nothing added to the Political debate by this sort of idiocy, and anyone who feels these are simply "tough questions" has already made up their mind and is more interested in "gotcha" journalism than any real discussion of the issues. The US does have socialist programs in place - and most Americans believe in them - but that's a far cry from making Obama a modern day Marxist.

Progressive tax programs are certainly more worker friendly than old school capitalism, but we learned what that brings before we implemented the Antitrust acts, unions, social security, and other modern US socialist programs, before we put utilities in natural monopolies into tight governmental controls or out-and-out government ownership. Accusing Obama of being a Marxist is nothing more than McCarthy-esque fearmongering and demagoguery. I applaud Joe's response, and that of the Obama campaign.

There's been a lot of noise in the press and from the Right about socialism lately. They keep assuring you that Barak Obama is a Socialist, and repeating that socialism is not the American Way. Socialism is evil. Socialism is communism, dressed up for a nice cocktail party. Socialism is dictatorship and torture and devaluation of human life. In short, they'll tell you that socialism is the root of all that's evil and wrong-headed.

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I'm getting really, really tired of all of the drama surrounding the $250,000 per year income level that's being bandied around by McCain. The Republicans have their faithful convinced to vote against their own interests in the hopes of winning the lottery - they've been doing it for years. Most people don't make any bones about Republican policies being tilted to favor the wealthy, but they get played. They are sold a dream, a myth.

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We went down to the Liberty Memorial Saturday to see Obama speak. It was quite an experience. I've heard that 75,000 people showed up, and it looked like it. There were all sorts of people, all ages, all races. Representative Cleaver spoke and got the crowd worked up a bit. Obama went on a little late, but people were happy to wait for him.

He delivered essentially the same speech I heard on POTUS/XM earlier in the day, customized for KC, and emphasized that now is not the time to try and coast, that we (his supporters) need to work even harder to get out people to vote. He had very little to say about McCain - maybe sixty seconds to two minutes of his speech were about his opponent.

I was amazed at the mix of people - to be expected, I know - but even more impressed by the fact that everyone I encountered, even in the crowded passages to and from the street, was polite and friendly; there was a sense of community brought on by a common goal. I think it's been sorely lacking in American politics for a long, long time.

I'm pretty sure Obama isn't the second coming, or Superman, or even Bat Man, but he's become the center of a movement, driven by people disenchanted with the status quo, by his rhetorical skill and charisma, and by his plans. His "College for Service" plan is a great idea, I think, and so did the crowd - and, I think, most Americans (outside of the Republican Faithful). He says the right things about oil and alternative energy, he says the right things about health care, he says the right things about the economy.

Colin Powell's support pretty much provides a solid answer for those asking "Is Obama ready to be Commander in Chief?". It's hard to say how much that will swing the vote, but it's another nail in McCain's political coffin. No matter how you cut it, I'll bet ya five dollars that Obama is the next President of the United States. And I'm pretty happy about that.