Julian Sanchez of Ars Technica passed on a statement from an Obama campaign representative who points out that the changes in wording highlighted by Versionista aren't the whole story, and that more Obama tech-plan details are now available in a PDF, saying "there is absolutely no substantive change to our policy - folks who want more information can click to get our full plan."

Thats an important point, but the PDF has also not been updated to include Joe Biden's name, either. Its possible that content revisions are planned to the PDF after the website update has been completed. Given the structural nature of the changes that have been made to the website, it would make sense for the PDF to be updated to reflect this. If that is not the plan, the Obama campaign needs to make a very clear public statement about this and not rely on a staffer who sent an email to a guy at a website who told someone who works at Slashdot.

Slashdot | Obama Significantly Revises Technology Positions

While you were busy focusing on the financial crisis another massive power grab is going down.

The new legislation before Congress would "reaffirm" that "the President is authorized to detain enemy combatants in connection with the continuing armed conflict with al Qaeda, the Taliban, and associated forces, regardless of the place of capture, until the termination of hostilities."

Congress is considering explicit authorization for the President to indefinitely detain US citizens on US soil without charges.

Why Congress shouldn't give the president more power. - By Neal Katyal and Justin Florence - Slate Magazine

Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.

Another crisis, another massive power grab.

naked capitalism: Why You Should Hate the Treasury Bailout Proposal

I am asking for your support of the Democratic challenger, running in a difficult race against an out of touch Republican opponent.

Remember Virgil Goode? Here is your chance to send him packing.

Stop Virgil Goode

It seems to me that if the practitioners of campaign journalism can’t figure out a way to make it so that lying is punished, rather than amplified and rewarded, by the press then they ought to pack up their bags and go do something else. Pretty much all the other branches of the press — from the film critics to the foreign correspondents to the weathermen to the investigative reporters to the “news of the weird” guys — seem to have a clear role in the ecology.

From the article this article links:

Perhaps faith in institutions is so anemic that non-partisan truth-squadding simply isn't believed.

Matthew Yglesias - The roll of the press in an election

Berwyn Heights, MD Mayor Cheye Calvo, who was handcuffed by police after they shot and killed his two dogs in a baseless marijuana raid on his home, will criticize the overuse of SWAT-style drug raids this Thursday (9/11) at the Cato Institute in Wash, DC.

These kinds of stories - no knock raid, wrong house, gun fire exchanged, pets, innocent people, officers dead - seem to have become regular occurrences. This is not unavoidable.

Victim of botched paramilitary drug raid to speak out

I've come to the conclusion that you actually want shifty, dishonest politicians elected by an apathetic populace. This means that things are working.

If McCain's VP pick were just as boring as Obama's I might not care at all about this election, but Palin is an existential threat that demands an awakening from apathy. I don't know whats more fearsome, the fact that she was selected, or the fact that the American people have bought it and she has given McCain a huge boost in the polls. I feel like I'm living in an insane asylum. Whether its the open attacks on ancient principals such as Habeas Corpus or the fact that we are in the midst of a nearly unprecedented economic cataclysm one cannot escape the conclusion that the people in charge have absolutely no idea what the fuck they are doing and that the people who do know what ought to be done have been totally marginalized by our corruption. Palin personifies all of this. She is the slick corporate VP who is all image and no substance, and they love that about her because they have convinced themselves that if they do away with substance it will free them from the problems that substantial people attempt to address. This is the road to despotism. This is the fevered dream of theocracy. This is America.

RE: Quote of the day

"You can't just make stuff up... The American people aren't stupid," Obama said.

Sigh, maybe he isn't qualified to be President after all...

Quote of the day

It was in St. Paul last week that Palin drew raucous cheers when she delivered this put-down of Obama: "Al-Qaeda terrorists still plot to inflict catastrophic harm on America and he's worried that someone won't read them their rights."

But Obama, who taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago for more than a decade, said captured suspects deserve to file writs of habeus corpus.

Calling it "the foundation of Anglo-American law," he said the principle "says very simply: If the government grabs you, then you have the right to at least ask, 'Why was I grabbed?' And say, 'Maybe you've got the wrong person.'"

"The reason that you have this principle is not to be soft on terrorism. It's because that's who we are. That's what we're protecting,"

Obama to Palin: 'Don't Mock the Constitution' | The Trail | washingtonpost.com

If you think it's unlikely that we will all be sucked into a giant black hole that will swallow the world, as German chemistry professor Otto Rössler of the University of Tübingen posits, and so carry on with your life as normal, only to find out that it's true, you'll be a bit miffed, won't you?

If, on the other hand, you disagree with theoretical physicist Prof Sir Chris Llewellyn Smith of the UK Atomic Energy Agency, who argues that fears of possible global self-ingestion have been exaggerated, and decide to live the next two days as if they were your last, and then nothing whatsoever happens, you'd feel a bit of a fool too.

Lets party like its 1999!

The question: Will the world end on Wednesday when the Large Hadron Collider is switched on? | Science | The Guardian