On this cold saturday morning after thanksgiving (which was quite good, thank you for asking), I was browsing the New York Times and found several articles of interest. Links and comments below. Massachusetts to Press Microsoft Antitrust Case
Thank you Massachusets. Somebody came to the realization that the settlement put together by the Bush DOJ was completely worthless and would do nothing to stop the behaviours that got Microsoft into hot water in the first place. This is one of those sad, unseen consequences of the pro-business-at-all-costs mentality that enetered the White House with the Republicans.
I do not know whether the argument that the ruling as it stands now will have no substantive effects on how Microsoft conducts it’s business will hold up with the Appeals court, but it is nice to see at least one of the states continuing the good fight.
Jim Jeffords (Ind, VT) may not be a force to counter the Republican help Senate anymore, but he is really in a unique place to voice his opinions, and I appreciate that as an independent he only really has one group he answers to, his constituents. And I admire his guts for making that move. (I am sure there were less altruistic reasons for his actions, but I prefer to not think of them.) I think that the major political parties have gotten so entrenched in their own policies and cohesiveness that the system has lost the idea of representing the best interetsts of the country. I think the country would be well served by more indepentently minded people entering government. A few loonies thrown in might really shake things up.
His op-ed talks a good bit about the kinds of issues that are being ignored in today’s political discussions but shouldn’t be. Of course they are being ignored because they are “bad news” issues that aren’t particularly sexy. It is very hard to have a great “rah! rah!” press conference on coal plant emissions. (Although maybe showing laser guided bombs dropping down the smokestack would work. I should get Ari on the phone…)
Unfortunately his piece will be read and ignored by a majority of the population (or at least a majority of the minority that actually read any kind of news these days). ::sigh:: The system depresses me.