Pretty awesome compared to the normal programs I write that just tear through large amounts of data.

Here's the promo:

The first episode:

If you've been paying attention to the presidential race in the past 48 hours or so, you've surely noticed a marked change in how John McCain is running his campaign. Instead of campaigning on the issues and policy, McCain and the Republicans are trying to make this election an up-or-down vote on Obama and portray him in the most negative light while doing so.

It started yesterday with a television ad by McCain that compares Obama to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. To back the campaign up, the Republican talking point machine was on TV throughout the country repeating the campaign's shameful message. Today, the McCain campaign injected race into the discourse for no real reason other than to stir up racial fears of some voters.

So much for being a maverick -- this is page three of Karl Rove's playbook.

I don't think I need to convince any of you that Obama policies will be great for America, but to beat back this utter filth, the Obama campaign needs resources. I'm once again making a modest online contribution, and I hope you can, too. If everybody receiving this email donates $30 and gets five friends to do the same, it puts us nearly $30,000 closer to putting this deplorable Republican nonsense to rest.

Donate Here

I've set up a page to track how much we and our friends give with a goal of reaching $30,000. Please forward this fundraising link around to help make an Obama presidency a reality.

Thanks,
Ryan

http://my.barackobama.com/page/outreach/view/main/rhughes

And now lately, Virginia Governor Tim Kaine's name has been thrown around -- and he is very clearly the best candidate out there. He's consistently popular in Virginia, which unequivocally puts it in play, more than it already is. On top of that, Tim Kaine's approach to governance mirrors Obama's promise to break partisan bickering in DC. Tim Kaine is also just a good guy. When Tim Kaine was small-time, I didn't know a single person in UDems who didn't like him.

In other words, all upside and no downside. You might say he's not well known outside of Virginia, but I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing or even relevant to a VP candidate.

Anyway, here's the parade of other contenders that makes me gag a bit:

Evan Bayh, Governor of Indiana: Let's be honest. We aren't going to carry Indiana, no matter what the polls are saying right now. Despite his closeness to Hillary Clinton, selecting him is also not going to mollify the small contingent of her supporters that are still angry about the primary.

Joseph Biden, Senator from Delaware: Buffoon.

Wesley Clark, Retired General and Former NATO Commander: Wes Clark is actually my second choice if Kaine doesn't get the VP nod. He has a lot of upside with his military experience. But his stage presence is less than great, trust me.

Hillary Clinton, Senator from New York: Some say she'd bring money and her holdout supporters. However, Obama can raise money without her, as he raised $52 million last month alone. And furthermore, her supporters will come home by November, unless we're talking about the racist ones, of course. Even if she does bring something to the ticket that is of value, she also brings Bill Clinton back to wander the White House. And she's hugely divisive to the general electorate. We're not in the primary anymore, folks.

John Edwards, Former Senator from North Carolina: I'm sorry, I like the guy, but he's done after so many strikeouts. He doesn't really do much for the ticket at this point, either.

Chuck Hagel, Republican Senator from Nebraska: I'm not too cold on this one, but I don't think he'd ever accept the nomination. We'd lose a swing vote in the Senate if he were VP, anyway.

Sam Nunn, Former Senator from Georgia: Dude might put Georgia into more play than it is now, but he's kinda nutty. Nobody cares about his foreign policy experience from serving on a Senate Committee.

Edward G. Rendell, Governor of Pennsylvania: Crazy and a loose cannon.

Bill Richardson, Governor of New Mexico: Meh.

Kathleen Sebelius, Governor of Kansas: I actually like her, but talking heads say Hillary supporters would flip out about Obama picking another woman over Hillary. I don't exactly see why picking another woman over Hillary is different than picking a man over Hillary. How is a woman somehow worse? Maybe it's just nonsense punditry. Anyway, it would be kind of a shame, because Sebelius isn't a bad choice. But, Kansas is also not in play at all.

That's right, there's an NES emulator for iPhone. I also downloaded all 700 United States NES games and uploaded them to my phone. As you can see, you have to touch the screen for the controller, which is not the most responsive thing ever. Nonetheless, it's kind of cool to have every NES game ever made on my phone.

Little did I know, the iPhone has a full Unix system running on it. If you remove Apple's restrictions, you can get at your phone's full features. Here, I've logged in remotely to the server that hosts this website.

Lastly, I wanted to make some custom sounds for alarms. Apple of course wants you to pay $1 each for them. Hell. No. Here, you can see my new wake up alarm, courtesy of The Shins. See if you can also spot custom sounds on this list by Pink Floyd, Pink Martini, and I Heart Huckabees.

Oh, if you decide to use the iPhone Dev Team's software, you should change your iPhone's root password.

I decided to go to the AT&T store before work. I figured all the crazy people would be camping out at the Apple store because they would feel the need to get their cherished toy direct from Apple. With the economy in the state it's in, how many people could be lined up outside an AT&T store before work to drop money on a new phone?

A lot, it turns out. About 80 to be exact. Seeing how long it would take, I drove straight past the AT&T store wand went to work. I thought that I could come back in the afternoon before people got out of work and have a relatively short wait. So that's what I did, only to find the words "IPHONE 3G SOLD OUT" plastered on the AT&T window. This struck me as odd because there were plenty of iPhones during the 2007 launch. Last year, people hoarded iPhones like Playstations at Christmas time, but found out the hard way that Apple could produce enough to meet demand. So, how could this store be sold out?

Undeterred, I went to the Culver City AT&T store. I pulled up and found no ominous papers posted to their windows, but they were in fact also sold out. Culver City! I figured my last and only shot was to go to the Apple Store in Santa Monica at 3rd Street Promenade. It was still before 5:00, so hopefully I could avoid some of the work rush.

In retrospect, I shouldn't have been surprised to find a line that was well over a block long. A couple of the people said that the wait was 2-3 hours. A nice Apple employee came out and assured us that there were plenty of iPhones to go around if we wanted to wait. I really didn't want to wait in the line, but I really didn't have anything better to do for the next few hours unless I wanted to go home and work on a website project. I also figured that if I came back tomorrow the line would be just as long, and if I went to AT&T in the morning, I'd risk not getting a phone because they'd sell out again. So I decided to wait.

At this point, I had to stop ask: why didn't AT&T stores have more phones? After all, Apple only has a small number of stores scattered throughout the US. The whole point of partnering with AT&T is that AT&T can reach far more customers than Apple can by itself through cell phone stores in towns all across the country. And they don't have enough phones to go around. Seems like really idiotic planning.

Anyway, there I stood in line. In between phone calls to burn my remaining Verizon minutes, I started pigeon holing people into groups:

• Vanity Enthusiasts
• Tech Enthusiasts
• Me

The vanity enthusiasts were typical Angelenos obsessed with having the newest gadget because they considered it a status symbol.

Some might raise an eyebrow to me taking me out of the tech enthusiast group, but trust me, I don't belong with those guys. Some were computer graphics programmers working in movie production, and they were alright. Others were the same adults that stand in Star Wars lines. "Can you imagine what Tetris will be like on the iPhone!?" they would ask. They debated back and forth about whether you would drag the pieces into place or if there would be an on-screen button to drop the pieces into place. Yes, really. What really blew me away about this group was an older guy who told an inquisitive passerby that he was so excited because he was changing history. Right then and there, standing in line to buy a product, he was changing history. If this guy didn't have a son standing next to him, you couldn't have convinced me that he had ever been sexually active. To dull the inane conversations going on around me, I played with a dog that a woman in line had. I should note that I made a point of not watching the clock. It would only have annoyed me more.

Once I finally made it to the front of the line, I got a better glimpse of the idiotic things that passersby were saying to people in line. Chatting up an exhausted Apple employee, a man came to the front of the line and said, "I'll just cut in here!" The Apple guy assured me he couldn't count the number of times he had heard someone say that. I didn't understand at first why there were no less than three huge men guarding the door at all times until I saw just how many people tried to negotiate their way into the store. Honestly, what chance did you think you had with hundreds of people standing behind you? One woman came by and said rather loudly, "I just don't understand what these people are waiting in line for!"

"Printer cables!" I yelled.

At the front of the line, I gave strong consideration to writing on a piece of paper:

I definitely would have sold my spot, and I bet somebody would have taken me up on it. I joked about it with a couple of the computer graphics guys, but they didn't share my enthusiasm. They frowned on the idea, as if I were suggesting that babies be legally sold.

I finally got into the store and had to wait even longer. Any level of excitement I had was gone by then. I just wanted my damn phone. Once someone finally came to set me up, he helped me dupe AT&T into letting me keep my DC phone number using the address of a friend. Sweet. And then I was out of there.

The phone is solid.

Everybody knows that Rage's lyrics are unequivocally leftist. The band is often asked how they square their leftist orientation with the fact that their music is distributed by Sony Records. The response was generally something along the lines of, "We need to work within a capitalist system in order to spread the message and overthrow it."

That sounds credible on its face, but I have a hard time buying it after seeing them this past year. Take a look at all the expenses I incurred in order to see them live:

• Cross-country airplane ticket, much of which went straight to oil companies for the fuel
• Concert tickets
• Countless bottles of Gatorade to survive the heat
• Several meals
• Fuel for get to the concertSunscreen, sunglasses, etc.
• Rage concert shirt
• Etc...

Now, take my expenses and multiply them by 120,000 for the total number of people at both shows. That's quite a boon to American Airlines, petrol companies, record companies, restaurants, Hanes, and other companies.

It seems really clear, on balance, that Rage is doing much more to sustain capitalism than weaken it. On the one hand, they infused tens of millions of dollars into the economy. On the other, they said some subversive lyrics to people that already knew the songs.

I'm not saying I agree with things that Rage sings about, but if they are going to present themselves as a revolutionary leftist band, their whole routine shouldn't be laden with hypocrisy.

It also makes me wonder about what Zac de la Rocha does with the millions of dollars he's earned with Rage. Whatever the answer, I bet he's got a really soft bed in a big house -- a far cry from being the "Ghost of Tom Joad."

But whatever, it's still great music for the gym.

Yesterday morning I woke up to an email from Barack Obama announcing that he was opting out of public financing for the general election. The implications are huge for Democrats, and include stretching McCain's resources thin by making him campaign in all 50 states, making some red states go blue, and increasing chances on down-ballot races across the country.

The McCain response to Obama forgoing public funding was predictably negative. While McCain's soundbites on the matter are inane, there is a legitimate question out there as to whether all this money in the election is a good thing. I think it is.

Imagine a scenario where the Democratic and Republican candidates are both out of the public financing constraints and raising hundreds of millions of dollars. It would give both parties the resources to be competitive nationwide. Both sides could organize in all states and involve the electorate in reaches of the country traditionally forgotten in a system where resources are low and only swing states matter. It would engage people politically who previously had little or no motivation because their state had no organization or money spent there. Advertising nationally and in niche markets (e.g. Comedy Central, Lifetime, ESPN) also has the potential to engage so many more people than are currently.

Besides engaging more people, having more money go to the candidates would diminish the funds and effect of the so-called 527 groups that smear candidates (a la Swift Vote Veterans for "Truth"). Getting that trash out of politics can only be good.

Counterintuitively, having more money in the system might be more democratic because more people would be invested in the outcome, and the 527 propaganda machines would be much less influential.

One might point out that the only reason why Obama will go to all 50 states is because he will have a pile of money that McCain doesn't, so Obama can splurge on competing everywhere. When both candidates have equally huge war chests, the logic might go, the campaigns would revert to maximizing resources in only the swing states and the non-competitive states would get ignored again. To this, I would way that there's a saturation point in campaigning somewhere like Ohio. Once you inundate the airwaves, mail, and ground, there is little effect of spending extra. Furthermore, the ability to advertise nationally and in niche markets still reaches more people regardless of this supposed reversion effect.

There is still the concern people have about too much money in politics, but I really don't think it's a big deal. Individuals being able to contribute $2,300 (the max in this election cycle) hardly corrupts the system. Besides, if the Obama model is typical, the contributions are averaging something like $75. So many more people can afford to donate $35 than can afford a full $2,300 or close it. You can imagine an equivalent system on the Republican side with a ton of small contributions coming from millions of Southern Baptists, for example.

So let the money flow, and get some people from Alabama, California, Idaho, and elsewhere invested and involved. And make these 527 groups irrelevant.

• Civil unrest, especially in oil-producing nations.
• Increased protectionism and a drawback from globalization.
• Market winners in cleaner energy industries.
• An increase in public transit use and demand, which will expand systems. An interesting effect of expanded systems is that it leads to economic growth in the expanded areas, so cities will grow faster than they are.
• Exurbs will decline in population and value because their designs around automobile use will no longer be feasible for many.
• Walkable urban areas could see a huge increase.
• Telecommuting will expand in a big way, which will allow people to choose where they live based more on personal preferences than work factors.
• Greater percentages of people living in urban places, with numbers possibly as high as 70% in the coming decades.

I had a couple reactions here. The first is to the decline of a place like Palm Desert, where I grew up. It's really a kind of strange to think that all of the growth over the past couple of decades there could be erased just as fast if oil prices stay high and a reasonable fuel alternative for automobiles doesn't pop up.

A second is the cultural and political changes that come with having 70 percent of the country living in urban areas. Hello, progress.

The album has several covers in it. I'm generally not a fan of covers, but all of Cake's are amazing -- yes, all. Think "I Will Survive" and "Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps."

In B-Sides, Cake really flaunts its range by covering "Strangers in the Night," "Mah Nà Mah Nà" of Muppet lore, Black Sabbath's "War Pigs," Kenny Rogers's "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town" and Barry White's "Never, Never Gonna Give You Up."

UPDATE: As Kristen points out, you can't download the whole album free anymore. The album is still worth getting, one way or another.

Anyway, I know, big deal. It's California. They film movies here. But people were excited, and I got pulled outside to snap a few pictures.

Sean Penn, marching scene, 1970s cop car, and the movie trailers that monopolized our street this week while they filmed in the abandoned federal building:

More Milk pictures here]]> tag:www.newstohughes.com,2008://2.498 2008-02-24T04:17:23Z 2008-02-25T00:47:25Z

A typical case I read at school in Property is from Tennessee in the 1920s and involves cousins fighting over dead relatives' land. Yes, cue the banjos. Anyhow, last week I was reading my Property textbook and came across a case called City of Palm Springs v. Living Desert Reserve, 82 Cal. Rptr. 2d 859 (Ct. App. 1999). It was exciting to see something from the desert, and it's kind of a funny case, so I thought I'd share. Here's what happened.

The McCallum Desert Foundation gave 30 acres of land to the City of Palm Springs. The property was given fully with one restriction: "In the event that the property is not used solely for and perpetually as the site of the McCallum Desert Reserve and Equestrian Center, then the land and premises ... shall pass to the Living Desert Reserve, Palm Desert, California." So basically, PS had to make a giant horse stable, or the Living Desert got title instead. Well, PS had a different idea. It wanted to expand the municipal golf course (now Tahquitz Creek Golf Resort. Huge surprise, right?

In this case, PS had what's called present property interest because it possessed the 30 acres. Living Desert had a future property interest since it would get the land if PS violated the horse stable requirement. Property interests (present or future) can be condemned and taken by a government. Usually this is done to tear down abandoned buildings, make way for roads, etc. Check out what PS decided to do.

PS condemned Living Desert's future interest in the property. The result was that PS had its present interest in the 30 acres, and since PS didn't use it for a horse stable, the property would no longer transfer to Living Desert because PS now owned the future interest also. Then PS could make a golf course or do whatever the hell it wanted with the land. McCallum's gift requirement was totally voided by PS.

What's even worse is that PS tried to screw Living Desert out of paying for its interest in the land, too. When a government condemns and takes property, it has to pay fair market value for what it takes. But PS claimed that the value of Living Desert's future interest was nothing since the chance of PS violating the original horse stable restriction was so tiny -- despite the fact that PS was condemning the land so that they didn't have to use it for a stable!

Anyhow, the CA courts saw through the charade. They said that, while the PS move was legal, it was against public policy to allow them to get away with not paying for it. Why? Because nobody in their right mind would ever donate to a city again because the city could turn around and screw the grantor with no consequence. PS had to pay Living Desert the full value of the 30 acres.

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I've had a lot of contempt for the way primaries were run in the past, but today I was really excited for the way things went. You're probably thinking that I should have been, since I voted in CA, the biggest prize of the night. But it's not that.

For the first time ever, I really think there was a lot of choice out there for voters on both sides of the aisle. Voters were much more passionate in their ability to choose from a wider range of candidates in their parties and actually have an effect. It was much more democratic than any national election in my (admittedly young) memory. Establishing a continuing tradition of a "Super Duper" Tuesday is probably the closest thing that America will ever come to a proportional representation system that allows voters in a national election to choose among candidates and policy preferences that truly represent their individual views.

That said, I strongly hope that a tradition of huge blocs of states voting early in February continues. Doing so would balance the two biggest policy concerns that commentators often make about primaries: giving many states a say in the process and allowing the lesser-known candidates to wage an effective campaign for president.

Keeping with a system that allows states to decide to hold their primary in early February will probably encourage more states to join the pack. The states that have yet to vote in the primaries have obviously seen what a success tonight was and probably want to give their voters the same opportunity four years from today. The more states that join the pack, the more voters get to pick from candidates that truly reflect their preferences.

On the other hand, some commentators argue that moving the primaries up so early disfavors candidates who lack the campaign funds and institutional support of the bigger names. This overlooks the fact that a small group of states still vote before Super Tuesday, allowing the lesser-known candidates to work retail politics of the smaller early states and possibly emerge on momentum.

Given that there is no clear winner tonight on either the Republican or Democratic ticket tonight, one might even argue that this incentivizes states to wait until after Super Tuesday to hold their primary elections because it could put a higher premium on those states' votes. This would finally stop the mad rush of states that have been constantly moving their primaries earlier and earlier in recent years.

Any way you cut the policy, it seems to favor keeping the big day.

We got her when I was in sixth grade. Though she had the propensity to occasionally gobble down an entire Domino's pizza when nobody was looking, she was devotedly loyal and protective. We were never sure what breed she was, but were convinced that she had some Australian Cattle Dog in her, based on her temperament and physical features.

It's especially sad to see her go, because she really was one of my last vestiges of childhood. She was with us all through middle and high school, and she made the exodus from my mom's house in 1999 with me and Kyle. Throughout college, teaching, and living in DC, I only got to see her sporadically. But when Kyle or I came home, she would immediately jump all over us and then proceed to growl, chase, and play with us just like she did when she was a puppy. It was both sad and heartening to see her this last holiday when it pained her to play, but did it as best she could for a minute or so.

Anyway, according to Wikipedia, her lifespan in human years was about 87 years. Not a bad run, Spark. You'll be missed.

AL, AZ, CA, IN, KY, LA, MI, MN, MS, ND, NJ, OH, PA, TN, WI

Looks like it could be some weird political trend.

I should note that one song mentions Kansas City, and I didn't count that as Kansas (or Missouri). Also, one song has the below lyrics in it. Given that it doesn't make reference specifically to NC or SC and that Carolina is most likely the name of a person, I left it out as well.

All in favor sign the waiver
Bloody carolina won't you
Take another look inside