Democrats, Conservatives, and other things

I didn't watch Jim Webb's speech following the State of the Union the other night. I have liked Webb since reading a couple of his books and was pleased to see he was chosen to represent the Democrats' point of view. But now I'm sorry I missed it because I'm seeing some really positive comments about it. The text is good but there must have been something in the presentation that led, for example, Michael Froomkin to link it with the comment "Now that’s a speech." (Video and text also available here.)
In another example, Dave Winer says:

I stood up and cheered, tears running down my cheeks. This is the kind of person that the founders imagined would be our leader. By the end of the speech I found myself hoping that Webb runs for President, although I think it unlikely that he will. But he would make a good President. I haven't felt that about anyone in a very long time.

On the conservative side, I've been getting a new set of political emails over the last couple weeks, maybe somehow connected to the Colorado Progressive emails I've been puzzling over for the last year or so. But these are from a group connected to Richard Vigurie, and several of the emails have his name on them. They express huge concern with the Democrats in Congress and how they will destroy -- with Bush's help -- the agenda the conservatives have been trying to accomplish. The latest, this morning, links to a site called Conservatives Betrayed. Betrayed? Shouldn't it be, rejected?

Speaking of conservatives, Huffington Post carries Eric Williams' report on reading and listening only to conservative news in newspapers, radio and TV for a week: Right Like Me. His conclusion? It was mostly depressing and negative:

I'd be hard pressed to give examples where Rush, O'Reilly, Hannity and the rest said anything remotely optimistic or constructive. Their entire arsenal of arguments could be boiled down to "If it's Democrat, it's crap!" Based on this week's sampling, one could come to believe that, on every single important issue of our day, Republicans have the correct answer and Democrats believe something absolutely antithetical and are therefore wrong and scheming to destroy America.

There was only one case in which he had to switch off: after three minutes of Ann Coulter, saying things like this:

...she even found a way to slam a dead Republican - specifically, Gerald Ford! She wrote him off as a "milquetoast", but softened her criticism by stating that "even the worst Republican is better than any Democrat".

In other browsing:

Columbia Journalism Review's CJR Daily has this, from Liz Cox Barrett: A Girl's Got the Gavel! But What's She Wearing? over the really annoying coverage of Nancy Pelosi's wardrobe. Anybody remember what Newt Gingrich wore? Tip O'Neill? Carl Albert? Any of the rest of these guys?

Here's a great discussion on Boing Boing over how to disinfect your kitchen sponges. The dishwasher plan, which I use, is rejected because it doesn't really disinfect (are they sure?); so the preferred method: nuke 'em. But make sure they're wet when you put them in the microwave. Dry ones will burn. Oh, and they'll smell bad either way.

On the Brad Blog: How to hack a voting machine, easily. Someone made a key copied from a photo of a voting machine key on the Diebold website: and it worked! Nice security. (Also linked on Make's blog.)

I'm sure I've linked this before, but it's worth another: GetHuman has a list of phone numbers you can use to talk to a real person at major U.S. companies.

Lastly, on MiamiBeach411: 101 fun attractions in Miami. Useful for visiting Chicago and Indiana fans next week, and one of the best lists of this kind I've ever seen. (Fort Lauderdale and Broward included too.)

And, speaking of giant knitting projects, Make blog shows an American flag knitted on 20-foot needles....