Greetings. With Iraq looking more and more likely to end up as a chaotic version of an Iranian-style Islamic state, and approval ratings for his war plummeting, George Bush, Jr. and his handlers apparently figured they couldn't go wrong with an expensive little jaunt to Baghdad airport for a couple of hours on Thanksgiving.

Images from the photo-op, including one showing the President in a natural-looking pose holding a serving tray full of food, were immediately released.

Your next task Mr. President, should be to order your minions in the Pentagon to cease blocking the media from covering the stream of flag-draped coffins arriving back in this country almost daily. I understand that such images don't carry the same optimistic punch as turkey with the troops, but in the name of "fair and balanced" coverage of the situation in Iraq, can we depend on you to do the right thing?

I won't be holding my breath.

--Lauren--

Greetings. After a recent "discrimination complaint" from an employee here in Los Angeles County, the county sent out a notice requesting that all vendors to the county cease using the terms "master" and "slave" on their products. This terminology has of course been standard in the computer and other technology industries for many years (take a look at the configuration labeling on most any disk drive, for example).

But what's the logical next step? Well, presumably a ban could be instituted against the terms "male" and "female" used to describe most connectors, plugs, sockets, and the like. After all (the Politically-Correct Police would argue) the obvious relationship between those terms and the shapes of the associated components can only be regarded as obscene.

That's all for this flog, uh, blog entry.

--Lauren--

Greetings. Those persons wondering why there seems to generally be so much enthusiasm for electronic voting systems by Congress, even in the face of the obvious shortcomings and dangers in most of the available e-voting systems, might have found this morning's House voting procedure instructive of the attitudes involved.

A vote (on a controversial and massive Medicare reorganization bill, that could ultimately affect every American) was scheduled by the Republican House leadership so that it would take place in the wee hours of the morning, starting around 3 AM EST -- when most people wouldn't be up to watch the fun. Then, when it appeared that Republicans had lost the vote at the end of the designated and announced 17 minute voting period, they held the vote open in limbo for a total of about three hours (by far a new record) to allow for additional arm-twisting and political threats, finally convincing enough members to suddenly reverse their votes to get passage.

With this sort of concern for rules and fairness in the Congressional voting process, is it any wonder that so many in Congress embrace risky e-voting systems, and no doubt will support even more dangerous Internet-voting technologies as well?

--Lauren--

Greetings. As I've discussed previously, the Federal Communications Commission has ruled that broadcasters will have control over what U.S. viewers will be able to record from digital TV, via a "broadcast flag" that will directly limit the operations of digital recording equipment.

Fact Squad Radio now takes a tongue-in-cheek look at where this might end up, in the short MP3 audio segment "Don't Copy That Show! That's an Order!".

--Lauren--

Greetings. It's cool to be the family spy! That seems to be the message that two new television commercials are sending, along with a dash of "humiliation can be fun" as well.

In a Sony camcorder commercial, a little girl is seen surreptitiously recording her older brother having an innocent romantic moment with his girlfriend. She then creates a DVD from this material and uses it to embarrass him in front of their parents.

A Cisco/Linksys commercial (promoting photo sharing) features another little girl (just what are these spots trying to tell us about American family life?) who in this case rigs a screen so that photos of her older brother with another girlfriend are shown to his current girlfriend while he's out of the room. Little sister then feigns ignorance about why the girlfriend suddenly departed. The playing of "Your Cheating Heart" in the background is presumably supposed to be the justification for sister's vigilante action.

No doubt Sony, Cisco, and the ad agencies behind these spots think these vignettes are humorous and cute. Perhaps the next phase in commercials like these will be step-by-step instructions for taking compromising photos in the bedroom and selling them on Websites around the world.

When it comes to corporate profits, it looks like turning customers into spies might be a sordid pot of gold.

--Lauren--

Greetings. Apparently bowing to pressure from right-wing groups who feared an "unfair" portrayal of their hero, CBS today announced that they were exiling their new miniseries on ex-President Ronald Reagan to the limited viewership of their sister pay-cable network Showtime.

There's obvious irony in this decision to keep the production off of CBS. Just a few days ago, at CBS' 75th Anniversary gala, attendees chuckled as Tom and Dick Smothers reminded us of the cancellation of their Vietnam War-era variety show by CBS decades ago due to political content. It appears that little has changed in that regard at CBS.

If right-wing factions were really so concerned about television programming that was unbalanced, you'd think they'd be clamouring for changes at say, Fox News. Nawww...

--Lauren--

Greetings. The home page for this blog now includes links (in the links section and via the flag icon) to an excellent, continuously updated information page regarding coalition casualties (deaths and injuries) in "Operation Iraqi Freedom" and related operations.

--Lauren--