File this under ‘no pulp’.

Directed by Matt Damon?

[Via Sullivan]

As some of you may know, I’m an avid fan of TED talks. One of my favorites to this day is Ray Kurzweil’s talk about technology and how it will transform us all. Earlier this month, I was fortunate enough to actually attend a lecture by Kurzweil at RIT. The talk, just like his TED talk, was about technological singularity and how it is rapidly approaching.

Below is a slightly abridged version of what we saw at RIT this month, and if you haven’t seen it, I strongly recommend watching.

Technology has changed us so quickly in such a short period of time it’s absolutely astounding, and the change is growing exponentially. Some of the predictions Kurzweil is making for the next 40 years are downright mind blowing. We’re the last generation to know what life was like prior to the internet. We lived the transition from no internet to ubiquitous use. We’re ARE the crest of this new era and we’re riding it right into the future. Juice.

Alright, let’s break this one down.

(more…)

I’ll be looking for my check in the mail from the Obama campaign…

McCain is back in (and looking hotter than ever).

Look at that hunk of a man.

CNN, 8 PM Eastern Time.

Kos is absolutely full of shit here.

I’ve been severely disappointed with the coverage of this bailout package on DKos lately.  They’ve been so focused on the poltics of this whole bailout package that they can’t even see the forest from the trees.  They just can’t seem to bring themselves to support this thing because it was proposed by Bush’s Treasury Secretary.  Now I’ll admit that this gave me pause, also, but at some point you have to realize that at the end of the day, you have to be able to set aside the fact that you don’t trust the Administration, and realize that we have to do something.  But the thing is, they won’t even accept that there’s a crisis, or at the very least, they are just pissed that no one’s told them anything.  Here’s kos:

See, this is my biggest pet peeve about this entire fiasco. There has been zero effort to educate the American people about why the situation is so urgent. There have been a lot of proclamations that the situation is urgent, but still no explanation.

I asked both Reid’s office and Pelosi’s office about releasing Paulson’s presentation to the leadership to the American people, so we can all see what supposedly has them all so spooked that we have to mortgage the next several generations of Americans. Reid’s office was non-committal (i.e. “I hear you”, but no movement toward full transparency), and Pelosi’s office blew me off.

Maybe Frank or Dodd can clue us in? I mean, we know they think it’s the end of the fucking world, but this isn’t Iraq, there’s no pretensions of “secret intelligence” and “protecting sources” to hide behind. If they want the peoples’ representatives to sign off, then don’t treat us like damn toddlers too delicate to see the facts.

Because from where I’m sitting, it looks just like the Iraq War bullshit, and we all know how those dire “facts” ended up turning out. Either offer full transparency, or stop whining about people skeptical about this solution to the crisis.

Yeah.  This looked exactly like the Iraq War debate, until the Democrats started driving this.  Now, all of a sudden, the netroots is distrusting its darling Chris Dodd?  I mean, wtf?  Am I suppose to sit over here and get pissed off because I haven’t seen Paulson’s presentation (which probably shows a lot of info about banks’ balance sheets that would most likely send the Dow in a freefall if it were released), even though people I trust (i.e. Dodd) are spearheading this effort.  I mean it’s not like were about to pass the Bush Admin’s joke of a bill in it’s 3-page entirety.  Democrats wrote this bill.  The Bush Admin caved to us.  We got oversight.  We got executive pay restrictions.  And now kos has the temerity to go to public opinion polls to show that we’re on the wrong side of this?

Yet every challenger across the nation, Democratic and Republican, is running against this thing to public cheers. The tone deafness on this is shocking.

House Republicans, of course, have their own take on what happened. They blame Frank and Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.), chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, for trying to force through an agreement lacking bipartisan backing once they knew McCain had suspended his presidential campaign in order to return to Washington. Republicans said it was a blatant attempt by Democrats to deny McCain – and House Republicans – a role in the discussions.

When did McCain suspend his campaign? And if Republicans were smart, they would embrace this, rather than try to argue that it was actually the Democrats who were stymying this bill. They’re acting as if people will give political props to whichever party makes this boondoggle happen. It’s like bizarro world over there.

Goes to show that political tone deafness is currently a bipartisan affair inside the Beltway.

Tone deaf?  Where the hell are the grown-ups at DKos?  Listen, I’ve spent hours reading about this crisis, and I’m still not in a position to form a credible opinion on what should be done.  So to expect the American people to even begin to understand what this bailout package is supposed to do, is just ludicrous.  All they see is the headline “Congress bails out Wall Street”  which to them means that Congress is just helping out rich people who made ridiculous risks.  But damn it, if Ben Bernanke, Depression scholar, says we need a big bailout package, then I’d probably give it some thought.  If Henry Paulson, a well-respected finance expert who’s been inside the investment banking world, says we need it, then I’ll give it more thought.  If Sen. Chris Dodd, a netroots-beloved, clear-thinking Chairman of the Senate Banking Comittee, wrote the bill, then I’M FUCKING ON BOARD, to hell with the ridiculous populist posturing.  All the grown-ups are on board with this package.  The only people that aren’t are the House Republicans and John McCain.  Yet kos somehow finds himself on the same side as all the kids in the room.  And why?  Partisan blather.

Grow up.

Here’s another gem from the already famous Katie Couric interview:

Transcript below:

COURIC: You’ve cited Alaska’s proximity to Russia as part of your foreign policy experience. What did you mean by that?

PALIN: That Alaska has a very narrow maritime border between a foreign country, Russia, and on our other side, the land– boundary that we have with– Canada. It– it’s funny that a comment like that was– kind of made to– cari– I don’t know, you know? Reporters–

COURIC: Mock?

PALIN: Yeah, mocked, I guess that’s the word, yeah.

COURIC: Explain to me why that enhances your foreign policy credentials.

PALIN: Well, it certainly does because our– our next door neighbors are foreign countries. They’re in the state that I am the executive of. And there in Russia–

COURIC: Have you ever been involved with any negotiations, for example, with the Russians?

PALIN: We have trade missions back and forth. We– we do– it’s very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia as Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where– where do they go? It’s Alaska. It’s just right over the border. It is– from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there. They are right next to– to our state.

I can’t help but think that after a few more interviews like this, Gov. Palin should do everyone a favor and take the advice of conservative columnist Kathleen Parker.

This is my favorite part:

So health care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions, and tax relief for Americans, and trade — we have got to see trade as opportunity, not as, uh, competitive, um, scary thing, but one in five jobs created in the trade sector today.

This is getting to the point where it’s like watching Michael Scott manage an office.  And the thing about it is, it would be funny if it wasn’t real.  But it is.  And that’s what makes this really, really scary.

My friend Shawn filled me in on a cool easter egg for all you Facebookers.  If you scroll to the bottom of any page, you can change the language settings from “English” to “English (Pirate)”.  Have fun, mateys.

I have always loved Letterman. He is a guy of class before humor and I think he really addresses the ridiculousness of this whole “suspension of the McCain campaign” in a succinct way. I like how he is angry. I like how he shows how absurd this whole thing has gotten while still throwing in some classic Letterman humor. Enjoy.

What frustrates me most about Palin and McCain’s picking her as a VP is that it was an absolutely reckless move, not on the part of his campaign, but on the part of the security and well being of this country.

I feel that too often we look at Palin as a poor political move by McCain. In some ways I am sure it has been. My problem is that the poles dont reflect the danger that this country would be in should she be president. The absolute lack of leadership. The complete lack of knowledge and experience and judgment. Honest to god I look at her and I think Bri Bri is more qualified to run the country.

It’s disgusting that McCain picked her. Disgusting. The poles don’t reflect enough of what a bad move she is. A bad move for this country. Not enough people actually pay attention to what is going on. If they did, McCain wouldn’t even stand a chance.

I don’t even know how to word my anger. This isn’t even about getting my party into power or as shallow as campaign squabbles. This is like … serious.

Shes an dunce with enough social skills to climb the Alaskan political ladder. I’m sure she’s not an complete idiot, but she sure as hell isn’t smart. And that’s a big deal to me.

Yglesias:

I swerved out of the way of a wayward pedestrian yesterday biking from the office to the gym, and wound up in a nasty pothole. Tire’s now busted and in need of fixing, so I’m going to suspend political commentary (well, okay, I might take a meeting with Lady Lynn de Rothschild, scourge of elitism) until I can fix the crisis.

Hilarious.

From a new Pew report:

In each of the surveys, there were only small, and not statistically significant, differences between presidential horserace estimates based on the combined interviews and estimates based on the landline surveys only. Yet a virtually identical pattern is seen across all three surveys: In each case, including cell phone interviews resulted in slightly more support for Obama and slightly less for McCain, a consistent difference of two-to-three points in the margin.

Here’s the data:

Just to recap, what was Nate’s conclusion?  2-3 points.

[Via Ambinder]