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May 2008

Whom Dell Hell Befell [Dan Collins; UPDATED]

Robert Pedersen has a hair curling saga (Jeff’s immune) of Dell “customer support” gratuitous anti-customer violence. Caution: it is a long slog. If you’ve experienced similar things with Dell, you may wish to go over there and vent for sanity’s sake. I remember in the early days of personal computing the trade mags were full of praise for Dell’s cutting edge designs and dedicated tech support. It’s been a long

Can Mineral Rights Be Far Behind? [Dan Collins]

For the minerals, not the miners. Glenn Reynolds points out this Weekly Standard article by Wesley J. Smith on plants rights: You just knew it was coming: At the request of the Swiss government, an ethics panel has weighed in on the “dignity” of plants and opined that the arbitrary killing of flora is morally wrong. This is no hoax. The concept of what could be called “plant rights” is

Dwight Hopkins on the Trinity United Church of Christ [Karl]

The Chicago Tribune has run its take on “What led Obama to Wright’s church,” a topic addressed here at pw once or twice before.  Given that some have questioned the notion that the Black Liberation Theology of the Trinity United Church of Christ is not typical of black churches in America (despite a ten-year statistical study showing this to be the case), one notable quote in the Tribune piece comes from

Regional homilies that never quite made it into the national vernacular, #2

“If ‘buts’ and ‘ifs’ were smack and some spliffs, what a wonderful Christmas me and my boys would have, hanging out with a few ho’s in one of the vacants near North Howard, getting our high on, and maybe some ass, too.” (West Baltimore)

Dems 2008: Post-partisanship is a code? [Karl]

OpenLeft’s Chris Bowers suggests that Barack Obama’s claims of post-partisanship don’t make any sense on the surface, but should be read as a coded appeal asking voters to move beyond identity in their voting patterns.  It is an argument with several flaws. First, Bowers launches his analysis from a Rasmussen poll finding that: Fifty-two percent (52%) of voters nationwide say that it is more important to understand a candidate’s specific policy

GOP 2008: McCain’s real slip on Middle Eastern oil [Karl]

Presumptive GOP presidential nominee John McCain spent Friday clarifying his earlier suggestion that the Iraq War was motivated by US dependence on foreign oil: “And I just want to promise you this: My friends, I will have an energy policy, that we will be talking about, which will eliminate our dependence on oil from the Middle East,” McCain said. “That will prevent us from having ever to send our young

One More Little Or Less Night Wigger [Dan Collins]

A former aide to President Bill Clinton, and current informal adviser to Sen. Hillary Clinton, expressed outrage and shock on Friday after a videotape from 1992 surfaced allegedly showing him describing Indianans as “white n—rs.” Mickey Kantor, who served as campaign chairman during Clinton’s 1992 run for the White House and says he has offered help and advice to Sen. Clinton, insisted that the tape was a fraud and that

Congratulations to Robert Pedersen [Dan Collins]

CNN’s Nancy Grace has picked him as an “Extraordinary Parent,” and The Detroit News are going to run a story about the bike trekkers. It’s great that they’re beginning to break out of the blogosphere and into the MSM some, now. Below, Robert’s email:

Dems 2008: Elizabeth Wurtzel on Barack Obama’s other friends, the “Weathercouple” [Karl]

Author Elizabeth Wurtzel has a piece in the Wall Street Journal on Barack Obama’s relationship with the “Weathercouple” of William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn.  The eyebrow-raiser is this: Apparently, back when he was running for state senate, Barack Obama had fund-raising events at the home of Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, and there’s been some press about the senator’s friendship with this controversial Weathercouple. Many reporters are well aware, even

Dems 2008: The Catholic vote, revisited [Karl]

Slate’s Melinda Henneberger and the Carpetbagger Report’s Steve Benen are still mulling over why Democratic voters prefer Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama. As previously noted, Obama speeches and rallies have a more evangelical vibe that does not particularly resonate with Catholics, as Mike Huckabee discovered earlier this year. However, it is an over-generalization that Obama struggles with Catholic voters.  For example, he split the Catholic vote with Clinton in Wisconsin, and edged her out