Month: October 2004

Ecosystem Enhancements: The Continuing Saga

Continued gradual progress on the debugging. Here’s what’s-what this morning:
– The history graphs are working just fine, and I got at least a partial scan completed last night, so you’ll see some updated data.
– The ‘Top 10 posts’ feature appears to be working fine
– The ‘Links by Source’ is not fully operational; what I’ve found is that the method I was using to sort the results in descending order of the source blog’s rank was hosing performance. So I’ve disabled the sort, but as a result, you’ll now see 25 source blogs listed, but not necessarily the 25 highest-ranked. I’m investigating other options for sorting.
I’m fairly hopeful that with the current implemenetation, we shouldn’t see any performance lockups. If you do see any performance issues (or the Details page fails to display with an error), please let me know…

Ecosystem Enhancements: The Day After

Ok, so I’m not convinced I’ve got all the performance bugs worked out. But, I think there should be improvement today, and I’ve also implemented some throttling code so that you’ll see a polite “server is busy” message if the system is approaching overload.
So: take a look, let me know what problems you see, and as always, suggestions and feedback are welcome…
NZB
Update 5pm PDT: Still tinkering. The tweaks still haven’t solved the problems, so debugging continues…

Ecosystem Enhancements

It’s not a very good Monday (morning): After all the work this weekend, it turns out there is a performance glitch somewhere in the new enhancements that is causing bottlenecks to occur under load. This is rather depressing. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to fix it until at least tonight. So I’m afraid all I can offer is the description of the wonderful changes below… stay tuned to actually be able to, you know, use them. At this moment, it looks like, if you are patient, calls to the Details pages do return properly, so feel free to give it a try — just call the page once and wait, please, don’t keep refreshing!
It’s a slightly better Monday evening:: OK, as of now (6pm PDT) I think I have stabilized matters. I’m fairly sure the performance bottleneck is around the ‘top ten posts’ feature, and so I’ve disabled that. The other two new items — history graphs and posts-by-source — seem to be working fine. I’ll be working on the top-ten this evening to see if I can develop a fix; stay tuned…
…and maybe even a little bit better: I’ve implemented Yet Another Fix, this time to the top-ten feature, which I think should improve performance considerably. I’ll be watching closely to see if smoke starts coming out of the server tonight, and more importantly, tomorrow morning. Please report any oddities! Thanks…
——————–
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been doing quite a bit of work behind the scenes to improve the and add new functionality. There’s still more to be done, but today I’m unveiling some of the new features.
First, thanks to the crew at Hosting Matters, who have upgraded me to a more powerful server, which has improved both performance and stability of the overall site.
Second, the new enhancements. On each weblog’s details page, you’ll now find the following:
– History statistics for the blog’s rank and total unique inbound links presented in a line graph. Check out Power Line, Captain’s Quarters, INDC Journal, Hugh Hewitt or Allah‘s detail pages for good examples.
– An expandable tree menu showing the blog’s ten most-linked-to posts and who linked to them
– An expandable tree menu showing the links which the blog has received from other blogs, sorted in descending order of the source-blog’s Ecosystem rank (for easy identification of ‘big links’ from top bloggers).
My goal with the details page is to create a page with compelling information that every blogger wants to know about how their blog is doing. My hope is that bloggers find this information useful enough to check regularly, and perhaps even set as their home page. So: suggestions on what you’d like to see are most welcome.
There is one caveat: for the moment, all of these new features are available to everyone. Starting sometime in the near future, however, I will be restricting some of them to only be displayed for weblogs that display a link back to their Ecosystem status. You can find instructions on how to do this on your blog’s details page: it’s simple, painless, and automatically shows your ‘status’ for your readers to see . I think this is a fair trade; I receive a little more visibility for my efforts around here, and you get the cool toys to play with showing your blog details.
In summary: I hope you find the new goodies worthwhile, and I’d appreciate your comments, feedback, and yes, complaints. There is still much work to be done, but I hope you’ll enjoy these latest steps forward…
Update: Today is a bit of a trial-by-fire for the new code. I’ve tried to write everything to work efficiently and minimize system load, but I expect (and hope!) the site will get some heavy linkage and traffic today. So we’ll see if the code holds up! ( John Kerry Voice: BRING…… IT….. ON!). We’ve already had one crisis which forced me to a) learn how to use MySQL JOIN’s properly and implement a fast code fix, and b) abort last night’s scans somewhat prematurely. So this morning’s detailed data may be a little bit off, but the good news is I think the fix worked, and so tomorrow the scans should be able to complete with no problem.
As always, please let me know if you see other issues, and thanks for your patience…

Captain Ed Returns

You know you’re a blog-addict
I had no access to the Internet, and thanks to the activities this weekend, not much access to the news, either. It was so bad that I called my mom (Vayapaso) late Friday night and had her read the debate analyses from the other Northern Alliance blogs to see how it went…
Welcome back on line, Captain! Now get back to work.

Northern Alliance Radio On Now

If you’re online right now and browsing the blogs, you really should be listening to the simulcast of Northern Alliance Radio, where Mitch Berg and John Hinderaker are discussing last night’s debate.
One minor problem: the clips of the debate that the gang is playing aren’t being broadcast on the Internet simulcast. (And yes, Mitch and John, that was me calling in to report the issue…. I’m listening! )

Other Debate Reactions

Other reactions from around the ‘sphere:
“Neither candidate did anything to ‘win’ tonights face off in St. Louis. Like two rams attacking one another on a hilltop, Kerry and Bush proved that neither would waver from their positions.”
Spot On: “We had two French reporters covering our party from Radio France, for a show called Interception. I talked to them for a little while, they’re against the war in Iraq, pro-Kerry and they thought that Bush obviously won.”
Overtaken By Events: “Bush by a mile. Even NPR agrees.”
I was going to keep rounding up opinions, but once I noted Allah’s roundup post, I decided it was utterly redundant…

Final debate thoughts

Bush connected with the audience with humor (self-deprecating and otherwise), while Kerry utterly failed to do the same. It was Bush’s room: Kerry was just visiting. Combining that with solid answers which hammered Kerry on his weakest points made tonight a clear win for Bush on points, if not an utter knockout.

Presidential Debate Liveblog #2

Yup, I’m liveblogging tonight — and I really mean it this time. No server issues that I know of, so the field is clear!
And as a special twist, I may also share the wisdom of special friend M, who will be partaking of the debate with me this eve.
This will be my liveblog post, so please link to this if you are so inclined. Stay tuned!
Pre-Game Thoughts
– So is TiVo the liveblogger’s equivalent of performance-enhancing drugs for athletes? It seems somehow…unsporting. I’ve got TiVo too, but I shall endeavor to do true realtime… pausing is for sissies.
– Someday I’ll figure out how to do a competitive liveblogging competition…
And we’re off!
– Kerry’s teeth: My eyes! My eyes! Somebody slap a filter on the camera when he smiles, for crissakes…
– Kerry’s first question: “Are you now, or have you ever been, a flip-flopper?” Kerry obviously had this one thought out. He completely forgot, of course, Iraq, which is kinda, er, important. I think folks might have noticed that.
– Bush’s response: Surprise surprise, Bush hasn’t forgotten Iraq. And he hammers Kerry effectively with the same sledgehammer Cheney used on Tuesday.
– Bush’s first question: a softball posing as a fastball on the decision to go into Iraq. Bush has his talking points ready on this one. And does a solid job of pounding home both the risk, and YES! finally a reference to the Oil For Food scandal.
– Hey, wasn’t that Bush’s smirk on Kerry’s face during Bush’s response!
– Does anybody else get the sense that Kerry really doesn’t want to talk about Iraq tonight? Interesting…
– Bush’s rebuttal is strong. And M confirms my smirk-sighting on Kerry’s face.
– Bush is about to hand Kerry’s hat to him on reaching out to allies with the fact that France and Germany both said no to helping more…
– Argh. Bush forgot to mention that part. But he delivers a great response anyway.
– Overall Bush is coming off much, much better than last week. He needs to slightly calm down a bit, but he’s doing good.
– Bush delivers an excellent answer on making unpopular decisions and sometimes pissing off other nations. Great spot on deciding Arafat isn’t a partner for peace.
– M says that they taught Kerry to address every audience member by name so he seems more human. “He can’t smile, ’cause he’ll look freaky.” I think she might be right!
– Good question on Iran and what Kerry will do if the U.N. approach fails. Kerry ignores the question and again blames Bush for screwing everything up. He repeats his own plan to reduce proliferation, which sounds nice.
– Bush: “That answer almost made me want to scowl.” Heh. Although M does observe that Bush “looks like a little devil.”
– Bush comes back to the Axis of Evil! And it actually works!
– Bush on the draft: “Rumors on the Internets”. Is there another Internet that all the cool kids hang out on and I haven’t been invited?
– I cannot understand why Bush doesn’t call out the fact that the draft bill currently in Congress is sponsored by Democrats.
– Bush slams Kerry on voting to cut the intelligence budget. And makes the central point that defense is a losers game in fighting terrorism.
– Ah, crap. Domestic policy. Time for a bathroom break & a refill on my beer.
– Back with the beer of tonight’s debate.
– At the end of Kerry’s litany of wonderful things that his health care plan would do, I half expected him to open a wide smile and declare “AND YOUR TEETH WILL GLEAM LIKE MINE, WITH THE LIGHT OF A THOUSAND SUNS!”
– Bush returns to “Senator Gone”, which played so well from Cheney Tuesday.
– Ooooh! A conservative pissed at Bush’s spending. Somewhere, the kids at The Corner and Spoons are all getting overstimulated.
– Yipes. Kerry really shouldn’t make pledges, or anything, right into the camera like that. Reminds me of that famous exchange from Tootsie:
Producer : I’d like to make her look a little more attractive, how far can you pull back?
Cameraman: How do you feel about Cleveland?
– Boy, Kerry’s Red Sox comment didn’t play well in St. Louis. Can’t imagine why.
– Anybody who is basing their vote in this election on environmental policy should be pecked to death by spotted owls, and the coresponding reduction in their carbon dioxide emissions traded to a coal-fired Hummer manufacturing plant in Kazakhstan under the Kyoto treaty.
– Kerry states he respects the feeling of the lady who asks about embryonic stem cell research, and manages to haltingly, awkwardly sound almost lifelike.
– Wow, Kerry is starting to actually melt down, stumbling over words and having some of the same awkward pauses that Bush suffered from last week. It can’t have anything to do with the actual question. I think he’s thinking in the back of his head that tonight isn’t going nearly as well as the last time around…
– Surprisingly, Bush wins the stem cell question. Kerry sounded pandering, Bush manages to simply and clearly explain his decision to allow research on the existing stem cell lines but on no others. I don’t even agree with it, and I thought it was a good answer.
– Whoops! I really don’t think Kerry volunteering that he’s a Catholic while he’s opposing abortion was such a great idea. I am always baffled by people who think that abortion is wrong (i.e., it is murder) but are OK with allowing people to “make their own choice”. If it’s murder, oppose it with all your being. That’s not my opinion, but if it’s yours, how can you possibly countenance abortion being legal? This is an issue where I’ve always understood the fanatics far more than I understand the moderates.
– Bush’s response is naturally simpler. Both sides are playing to their base on this question, but the problem for Kerry is, he’s got that Catholic-who-supports-abortion issue hanging around his neck.
– Kerry coins this week’s “Global Test”, and it’s “Judicial Intervention” on abortion!
– Hasn’t anybody coached Bush on how to admit some minor, amusing mistakes to answer the “what mistakes have you made?” question? You’d think, given the hammering he got on that last year, that he’d have come up with some by now.
– Kerry wastes some of his valuable, last time dragging on his lameass defense of his “I voted for the $87B before I voted against it”. Dumb!
Final Thoughts
Bush connected with the audience with humor (self-deprecating and otherwise), while Kerry utterly failed to do the same. It was Bush’s room: Kerry was just visiting. Combining that with solid answers which hammered Kerry on his weakest points made tonight a clear win for Bush on points, if not an utter knockout.

Others in the game tonight:
Spoons!
Hugh Hewitt
Ann Althouse
Alarming News
The Valkyrie
Metallicty
Editors in Pajamas
The Politburo
The imposters at Protein Wisdom
…and so far that’s it! Let me know if anyone else is joining in…

Wisdom from Rodney

Father Bear, not one to e-mail tips lightly, sent along a collection of great philosophy from the dearly departed Rodney Dangerfield.
For your amusement, and in memorial to dear Rodney, therefore, I present some of his fine wisdom:
A lot of girls turn me down. One girl turned me down, she said she had to go to work in the morning. I told her, “I’ll be finished by then!”
I’m trying a new diet now. The diet is Viagra and prune juice. I tell ya, I don’t know if I’m coming or going.
I told my psychiatrist that everyone hates me. He said I was being ridiculous – everyone hasn’t met me yet.
Once when I was lost I saw a policeman and asked him to help me find my parents. I said to him, “Do you think we’ll ever find them?” He said, “I don’t know kid. There are so many places they can hide.”
Last night my wife met me at the front door. She was wearing a sexy negligee. The only trouble was, she was coming home.
I was making love to this girl and she started crying. I said, “Are you going to hate yourself in the morning?” She said, “No, I hate myself now.”
I knew a girl so ugly, I took her to the top of the Empire State building and planes started to attack her.
I went to see my doctor… Doctor Vidi-boom-ba. Yeah…I told him once, “Doctor, every morning when I get up and look in the mirror I feel like throwing up. What’s wrong with me? He said, “I don’t know, but your eyesight is perfect.”

Rest in peace, Rodney, and thanks.

VP Debate Thoughts

No liveblogging for me last night, which was actually just as well. Was nice to just sit back and watch the show.
And a good show it was. My take is that this was a win for Cheney; he scored the only wickedly good hits (having never met “Senator Gone”, Kerry’s dismal record on defense issues, and catching Edwards ignoring the contribution of Iraqis in the war) although it wasn’t a complete disaster for Edwards.
The most important contrast between these two men was what the debate showed about their knowledge of the issues that will face the next administration, particularly in the fight against terrorists. Cheney spoke like a man who was immersed in both the strategy and detailed tactics of every aspect of the war; his answers came from personal knowledge and experience.
Edwards spoke like a spokesman who had been handed a set of talking points. They weren’t bad talking points, but to me, it was clear that he was a man with no experience in government; he is a lawyer first, and a politician second. He hasn’t actually gotten around to the ‘governing’ part yet.
I suspect viewers picked up on this. And that feeling of unease with Edward’s rehearsed talking points was beautifully enhanced by Cheney’s slams against Edwards appalling record (or lack thereof) in the Senate.
But Cheney’s biggest victory wasn’t in belittling Edwards — it was reaching past him and scoring points against Kerry as well. This was huge, because it allowed Cheney to help make up some of the losses Bush suffered last week.
Overall, I’d expect that we’ll see a slight bump back in the polls over the next few days. But by the time those results would register, Friday night will be upon us, and then the game may change again…

We’re So Sorry

To: The World (c/o France)
From: America
Re: Our apology

Hello, World! America here. We know that we’ve been a bit on the outs lately, and frankly, that hurts. But we also know what’s been bugging you. Lately, many Americans have been thinking that maybe things would be a lot easier without that cowboy in the White House, leading us off into trouble around every corner. With all his moral clarity and talk of good vs. evil, he’s got pretty much everybody mad at us.
So it’s time to put all that behind us. We want to be pals again, like in the good old days. And so we want to say we’re sorry in the best way we know how: by recognizing our mistakes, voting the cowboy out, and asking if you’ll forgive us.
We’re sorry that three years ago, when attacked by relgious fanatics, we out at Muslims at home and around the world.
We’re sorry that, in our enthusiasm, we thought that the sixteen resolutions passed by the were actually meant to be complied with by Iraq, and enforced by the U.N.
We’re sorry that our illegal invasion violated Iraq’s national sovereignty, which granted to Saddam Hussein and the Baathists the right to rule that nation in perpetuity. (We will begin discussions on correcting our error, and returning Hussein to power, shortly).
We’re sorry that we have caused such economic harm to your fine nations, and that we ever doubted that your opposition to our actions was motivated out of anything but the best of intentions.
We’re sorry that even now, some of our more foolish citizens, in thrall to the cowboy, still refuse to see that Iraq posed no threat and had no interest in supporting terrorists.
We’re sorry that after overthrowing the rightful governments of Afghanistan and Iraq in our imperialist adventure, we’re now imposing our values on their citizens.
And lastly, we’re sorry that the murder of 3,000 of our fellow citizens led us, in moments of weakness, to err on the side of caution, and to not take the the word of a madman that he could do us no harm. That we implemented a policy of replacing tyrannies with democracies, in the foolish hope that spreading freedom around the world would not just make us safer, but make the world safer. That it would bring us thanks, rather than scorn.
For all this, we are sorry.
So, World, we hope you’ll accept this apology, and the one coming on November 2nd. Because all around America, the battle cry is being declared:
Vote John Kerry: Because We’re Sorry

(originally posted 10/5 6:24am; bumped 10/6)

TTLB Veep Debateblogging

Yes, I’m liveblogging tonight. This will be the post I’ll be updating, so link here if you are so inclined.
Update: Cancel that. My server is acting up and is proving unreliable, and it’s actually getting swapped out in a few hours (and there will be much rejoicing). So I think I’ll sit this one out.
Post-debate thoughts will follow eventually, however…
Others in the game:

Captain Ed
And don’t forget to watch NBC to see John Hinderaker’s post-debate commentary!

Coming Soon: The Loyal Opposition

Allah
Speaking of which, is anyone else out there thinking of quitting after the election? Allah sure is.
Nah. After the election, the real work will start. Regardless of who wins, I see myself shifting into a “loyal opposition” mode, focusing on critiques of the administration’s policies. I see this as being necessary even if Bush wins, as although he has my firm support, he’s far from perfect.
And if Kerry wins; well, let’s just say I and many others will have our work cut out for us…

Trustbusting the Parties?

I’ve finally found a copy of the debate ” of Understanding” (Thanks, Bill!) that the Kerry and Bush campaigns have agreed to, which makes me very happy, since as we all know, primary source information makes me get all tingly inside.
I’ll be going through it in detail over the next few days, but reading the first few pages, one thought jumped out at me. This is an agreement between “Kerry-Edwards ’04, Inc.” and “Bush-Cheney ’04, Inc.” which includes restrictive provisions such as:
“The parties agree that they will not… appear at any other debate or adversarial forum with any other presidential or vice presidential candidate.” (Pages 1-2)
Now, if Kerry-Edwards ’04, Inc. and Bush-Cheney ’04, Inc. were, say, Coke and Pepsi, and they signed an agreement which was clearly designed to exclude competitors from the marketplace, they’d be hauled up on antitrust violations.
So my question is: does antitrust law apply to political campaigns? They are incorporated entities of some type (hence the “Inc.”), but obviously not traditional commerical entities. How about for the actual parties themselves? Is there an exemption in antitrust law for political organizations?
And if anti-trust law doesn’t apply to the campaigns and parties — why not? I’m not asking for a practical, real-world why-not (that’s obvious), but rather, from a legal perspective, what’s the rationale as to why it shouldn’t apply?