GOTV gets dirty

...and I'm not talking about mudslinging.

Circlet Press, a publisher that describes itself as the "intersection of erotica and science fiction, fantasy, and futurism," has decided that there may yet be a way to get apathetic voters engaged with politics: offer them free porn.

Email a copy of a receipt from a campaign contribution, and Circlet will send you a sci-fi themed, erotic novel. Now's a little late to be mounting a last minute fundraising drive, so it's unclear how much of a difference Circlet thinks it can make. Since it's McCain who's in desperate straits, he's best hope there really are a number of sci-fi fans out there, ready to campaign for Tigh/Roslin rather than sticking with Roslin/Airlock. Either way, it should be a fun demographic dust-up.


(h/t to i09)

Liveblogging the last debate

10:07: "I think [the Supreme Court] has made a lot of bad decisions... I'm a federalist, let the states decide." Sounds like the Supreme Court is going to get a turn in the bathtub, once McCain finishes drowning the government.

10:04: I believe McCain just equated cosmetic surgery with organ transplants.

10:01: Yes, McCain, it's surprising that Obama is claiming to be levying a fine of $0 on Joe, the much maligned plumber, but use your words to express your disbelief. Holding perfectly still with your mouth open and blinking rapidly is a little too literal.

Barring any big moments, I'm signing off. Looks like it will be status quo ante bellum, with Obama's coolness playing well opposite McCain's agitation.

9:47: Look, I'm a fan of nuclear power, much more so than for "clean" coal, but "No problem" is a little flip, McCain

9:33: Obama talks about the "Kill him" remark, McCain takes umbrage that Obama doesn't recognize that "the best people in the world" come to his rallies. Then he says he's quite put out about the t-shirts people wear at Obama rallies.

9:25: People yell "Kill him" at Palin rallies because Obama didn't agree to Town Hall debates?

9:24: Obama said McCain never breaks with Bush on economic issues. McCain responds with a list of non-economic breaks.

9:23: The FoxNews line got the only laugh of all three debates.

9:21: The more defensive and desperate McCain looks, the better off Obama looks. As long as he stops smirking.

9:19: If McCain is proposing dropping the tariff on sugarcane ethanol, he must really be pulling out of Iowa

9:17: An across the board spending freeze?!? Really?!? So we, what, just stop paying Medicare doctors if treatment rates go up?

9:17: McCain is sill shilling for PUMAs.

9:15: Obama going through the budget line-by-line is still a laughable idea. Plus, without a line-item veto, it's hard to see what he'll accomplish.

9:14: Good to have someone point out that the $700 billion isn't meant to be a gift.

9:11: McCain hates redistribution. But if he keeps characterizing it as "spreading the wealth around" I fail to see how that's an effective attack.

9:08: "Senator McCain, do you want to ask Senator Obama a question?"
"No."
Wait, really? I'm calling an Obama win right now. What a terrible first impression.

The numbers are in, and the libertartians are losing

Mostly, I get my distilled datasets from FiveThirtyEight.com's sabermetric analysis, but there's something pretty thought-provoking at the end of the NYT/CBS poll that was just released.

The poll shows a 51-39 split for Obama and McCain, respectively, when third party candidates are counted. The real interesting data comes when you look at who's defecting for third parties.

	Democrats	Republicans	Independents
Barr/Root	0	0	2
Nader/Gonzales	2	2	4
Other	0	0	1

I'm not exactly what message the GOP is supposed to get when more partisans are deserting for Ralph Nader than for the Libertarian candidate and Ron Paul write-ins put together. Not abolishing government in favor of reducing it to the size where they can drag it into the bathroom and restrain it with a governmentally mandated seatbelt, perhaps?

That's hardly the worst of it for the Republicans.

	Republicans
McCain/Palin	81
Obama/Biden	11

One in ten registered Republicans are planning to defect to the Dems. That's five times as many as are planning to shift to Nader, and, if you want to get cute, infinitely many as are going to vote for Barr at this level of significance. So what message is the GOP establishment supposed to take home? Be more like the Democrats?

All these guys are doing a fine job planning the revolution, but, even with McCain in crisis, no one's really fleeing the two-party system. And, even as an ardent Obama supporter, I can't say that a world where dissatisfied voters just ping-pong back and forth between the two established parties is one I really enjoy living in.

So, libertarian-leaning, crunchy, or pomo- conservatives, what now? Bow your heads and pray "Next year in the Ballot-Box, not the blogosphere?" Cause from where I'm standing, this year is as much a failure for you as for the GOP.

[I realize the formatting is fouled up, by my HTML skills have proven insufficient. If anyone has suggestions, feel free to comment.)

Shining a spotlight on Apple's shenanigans

Apple will be releasing a new line of notebooks tomorrow, but, if you want to take a break from checking for Chinese leaks on tech specs, developer Peter Hosey has just finished updating the iPhone App Graveyard, (h/t Ars Technica which memorializes the apps that Apple has kicked off the App Store, and thereby placed off limits to everyone whose iPhones and iPod Touches aren't jailbroken.

Some of the dead are victims of copyright problems like Tris (a Tetris remix) while others fell afoul of Apple's apparent no-absurdism policy (I am Rich, an app that cost $999.99 and displayed a glowing, red jewel on the iPhone screen above the words "I am rich"), but only one of the dead apps has me boggled.

Freedom Time displayed a countdown to George W. Bush's last day in office above the words "...until the end of an error." Apple dropped the app, claiming it was defamatory. (They also supposedly booted a Bushisms app, which only showed actual Bush quotes for the same reason. It does make you wonder if Bush can sue himself for defamation of character.)

Steve Jobs responded to criticism by saying,

I think this app will be offensive to roughly half our customers. What’s the point?

It's puzzling that Jobs thinks that his business won't succeed if he allows anyone to sell anything that might annoy some fraction of his target population, particularly when he could make money when Democrats buy the app.

Ah, well. Guess that puts the kibosh on writing an app to display the image below whenever the user navigates to the iTunes store.

Shame on you, Maureen Dowd's editor

When you're as famous as Maureen Dowd (though she's been getting her butt kicked by Gail Collins on the witty, incisive op-ed front for more than a year), it's easy to lose your grip on your ego. That's why the NYT has editors to check the pomposity and indulgence of columnists.

So where was Dowd's editor when she decided to write half of Sunday's op-ed in neologistic Latin? Sample pararaph:

Vilmingtoni, in Ohionem, McCain’s Mean Girl (Ferox Puella) defendit se gladiatricem politicam esse: “Pauci dicant, O Jupiter, te negativam esse. Non, negativa non sum, sed verissima.” Talk about lipsticka in porcam! Quasi Leeus Atwater de oppugnatione Busii Primi ad Dukakem: “non negativus, sed comparativus.”

Sorry, Dowd. Pixtrem transiluis. (You have jumped the shark)

Spelunking in the Uncanny Valley

The android is modeled on a real five-year-old and was created by the Intelligent Robotics Lab at Osaka University. The researchers are focused on using androids to create "geminoids," android doubles remotely controlled by their dopplegangers to lend a human presence to telecommunication. Even leaving aside the uncanny valley problem, the utility of transporting specific robots to teleconference is kind of insane. This will only really work with some kind of cheap matter fabbing unit on site. Till then, just revel in the strangeness, and hope the geminoids dont have a plan.

(h/t to io9)

I need hyperlinks in meatspace

My day started off terribly, since I had forgotten the NYT had collapsed the Metro Section into section A, and spent quite a while looking for it.

Therefore, I'm especially appreciative of online media and hyperlinks today and will now proceed to furnish a number of them. David, Kate, Ferny, and I are guest blogging at HuffPo today. HuffPo has set up a symposium here on the recent YPU debate R: Blogs are good for democracy.

My post is here, so enjoy! (But please keep the number of comments mocking my previous HuffPo post on Harry Potter to a minimum)

She came, she dimpled, she conquered

I know it was unreasonable to expect Joe Biden to not drag out all of his wonky answers, even when contrasted with Palin's quick, folksy remarks. I know it was unreasonable to expect Joe Biden to anticipate that Palin's flag pin would be that much bigger and sparklier than his. I even know it was unreasonable to expect Joe Biden to do the smart thing and say he'd cut government subsidies to rather than raise taxes on Big Oil and Big (Evil) Corporations.

But for the love of anything, was it really unreasonable to expect Biden to look out at the audience, not at Gwen Ifill! Do the Dems just hate winning, or do they really not see the need to give any kind of media coaching?

Why won't someone tell the Dems it's not deceptive to use a little lipstick?

Hobbes at Senate Hearings, Leaves without Covenant

Yeah, I wish.

I thought that Professor Garsten did a fine job lecturing on Hobbes's De Cive, but it was sweet of the Fed to give me an object lesson. So I'm supposed to consent to giving Paulson god-like powers over the economy and at the same time waive any ability to withdraw that consent or check his actions in the future. It's asking a lot, sure, but this is a crisis! Any form of division will delay us for too long! We need to put aside our petty factions and cede authority to one leader!

(I'd have titled this post "Leviathan Wept" but that title's been taken by author Daniel Abraham as the title of his excellent short story.)

I guess Congress didn't notice that the last time we passed a bill in crisis mode, with lawmakers not even bothering to read the bill (I'm looking at you, John McCain) didn't work out so well.

Frankly, whatever the merits of the original failout bill, I'm still blaming Congress for the Dow drop. If they (especially stop-the-presses-stop-the-debates McCain) hadn't built up the bill as a rush job, we could have actually read and debated it, which seems appropriate, given its importance and scale.



I realize I'm following up my last post with another real-life application of my Democratic Rhetoric class. Next week we read Woodrow Wilson, so stay tuned for the dissolution of the UN.