My second favorite team beat my first favorite team tonight, 5-1, behind strong pitching (as usual) from Pedro Martinez.

On the one hand, the Tigers lost. On the other hand, this win helps the Red Sox in their quixotic quest to defeat the Evil Empire. Kind of a toss up, don't ya think?

From the Washington Post:

In a lighter moment, the Cheney tour stopped at a farm stand owned by Ray Levan, 65, in the small town of Catawissa. Cheney and his wife went to buy fruit and vegetables, while daughters Mary and Elizabeth went with the Cheney grandchildren to watch cows being fed.

The Cheneys purchased nine apples, five large tomatoes, three green peppers and a dozen ears of corn. Cheney pulled a $10 bill from his pocket and gave it to Levan. Asked by a reporter whether the $10 covered the cost of the produce, Levan indicated that it did not. But he said it was an "honor" to sell the fruits and vegetables to the vice president, even if at a discount.

This makes me wonder...

At some point, shouldn't there have been a "How much is that?" or a "Your total is 15.76, Mr. Vice President." How did they manage to skip over that? Is Cheney that terrifyingly socially inept?

Moreover, isn't it supposed to be a really big deal when a politician doesn't know the price of a gallon of milk? Is the price of produce really so different? If John Kerry had done this, would Letterman be calling him Jacques Kerry by now?

Sigh. C'est la vie.

I'm in Vermont for the weekend. It's fantastic and should be a chance to catch up with old friends, chill out, and engage in epic days of fucking around.

That doesn't mean, however, that I don't still have work to do. Which is why I'm so frustrated that my cell phone doesn't work and my wifi card doesn't work with the router here.

The cell is reasonably understandable. I'm in the middle of nowhere Vermont. But there is cell coverage here. It's just not AT&T's GSM Network. But seriously, I don't think about every possible place I'll go when I sign up for AT&T's new and improved network. I just want it to work.

The wifi card is a little silly. We're more or less freeloading off the upstairs tenant of the house, sure. But at the same time all the laptops with G wireless cards work. Mine, with a B card doesn't. The likely culprit is just range. The G cards get weak signals that the B cards can't pick up. But again, I just want it to work.

We live in a high tech world. But when that technology isn't reliable, it doesn't help you get your work done. It just makes you have to drive into town to buy an ethernet cable so that you can share the ethernet connection of one of the working computers. And it makes you use a calling card on some landline that nobody knows about. Eventually we'll sort this all out and technology will just work. Let's hope that day is soon. I'm not sure how much more of this I can take.

Originally posted to the EchoDitto Weblog.

Ladies and Gentleman, meet del.icio.us, the new social bookmarks manager.

The idea is that you put all your favorite bookmarks into one big list. They are organized at first chronologically, but the simple interface also asks you to punch in a few keywords. Then you get a list of keywords along the side which essentially replace the folders you might keep your bookmarks in now.

These keywords also help create interesting relationships among your bookmarks. For example The Washington Post, The 9:30 Club, and Tonight's TV Listings live in three separate folders on my iBook - News, Music, and "Useful". But in My Delicious, they are also collected in a new "DC" category. Pretty spiffy.

Once we all put our bookmarks online, suddenly we can arrange them all in a bunch of neat ways like Newest or Most Popular. Additionally, I can find all the folks who are linking to Detroit Tigers Baseball websites. Or I can discover new indie rock websites linked to by fans of Pitchfork.

I think the best way to describe this is Gmail for your bookmarks, with a dash of Friendster thrown in. I think. If you've got a batter way to describe it, I'd love to hear it.

Jim Griffin's Weapon of Mass Democracy put together this hilarious new desktop wallpaper. Join the Justice League by endorsing John Kerry today!

Here's a question for you: why does NBCOlympics.com tell you the results of events before they are aired? I got screwed this afternoon when I went to find out when the Men's 200m Freestyle swim final was going to be televised. Instead, I found out the result on the website and ultimately didn't watch the event.

I understand why most media outlets report the results as they happen, but that makes it hard enough to avoid spoilers. Why would NBC's official source for Olympics info undercut their television broadcast?

To tie this into my work with EchoDitto, doesn't the real-time nature of the internet destroy the communal experience of watching the events as they happen on TV? Even with a tape-delay, so long as no one knows what happens, it's still like watching it live. Remember, the 1980 Miracle on Ice was not broadcast live. But no one knew how it would end, so the television broadcast still became a shared moment for our national community.

I think I've only watched 7 or 8 hours of Olympics today. But I've got photos from last night to prove that I actually did kill a whole weekend in front of the TV! Enjoy.

Last weekend, the Tigers lost 2 of 3 to the Red Sox and cost me 20 bucks in my bet with The Other Senator. Then, they flew out west and lost their first game against Oakland to fall a season-high 10 games below .500. Not good.

But 3 big wins against playoff caliber teams later, and the things are looking up again in Tigertown. Plus, after just scoring 3 runs in the fourth inning, they're in the driver seat again tonight against the Angels.

I've said it before, this team can finish the season at .500. That would set a record for biggest single-season improvement. But it's a heck of a challenge. Every time this team has approached even level, they've faltered in getting over the hump. Now is the time to buckle down and start winning some series. Let's go Tigers.

So far today I've seen beach volleyball, regular volleyball, men's sabre, lots of soccer, badminton, swimming, table tennis, boxing, field hockey (go Hockeyroos!), weightlifting - both snatch AND clean and jerk (he he he), bicycle racing, gymnastics, synchronized diving, and rowing.

God, I love the Olympics.

This Is Rumor Control reports today that Iran is arming and funding Iraqi insurgents in and around Najaf.

This is gigantic news and will likely be coming soon to a breathless 24-hour news channel near you. We are sucking in other countries to the mess we created in Iraq by fighting an unnecessary war without a proper plan to win it. It's a war that's getting bigger and more dangerous. It is not a war that's defeating the evildoers who attacked us.

Also of note: TiRC is a client of EchoDitto, my new place of employment. But that, my friends, is a whole 'nuther post.

The Lear Jets - the official softball team of People For the American Way - dropped the last game of their regular season tonight 25-7 to the loaded Washington Outsiders, a team sponsored by the Inter-American Development Bank. The final result marred an otherwise gorgeous evening of Jets softball.

SS Matt and 3B Tonya led the Jets attack, driving in two runs a piece. Their offense sparked a 4-run fifth and final inning when they combined with five other Jets to reach base consecutively.

1B Nick led off the inning with a hit and scored on Tonya's single. 2B Julia followed that with her second single of the night. RCF Alyssa moved into scoring position RF Amelia's single and scored the Jets' final run on LF Peter's sharp rap through the infield.

LCF Emily singled and scored the first run in her Lear Jets debut. She also made a run-saving catch at the fence to rob an Outsiders slugger. C Ruth escaped the EP Nerve Center for a few hours to round out the Jets squad with her outstanding play behind the plate.

Nick and P Todd combined for a nifty double play in the 4th inning when a sliding Nick flipped the ball to Todd covering first. The pitcher then gunned to third where Tonya tagged an advancing runner.

Today's loss marks the end of the Jets regular season. A possible exhibition with arch-rival NARAL remains to be scheduled, but the hot stove league is already heating up. The contract of team manager Todd expires this year, but he expects to be back. "I'm having too much fun to just quit now," he said in a statement earlier today.

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the brutal murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner at the hands of the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi. The three were dedicated volunteers for the Congress On Racial Equality and were busy registering black voters during the famous Freedom Summer campaign.

The only crime these patriots committed was asking America to live up to its promise that all men are created equal. All they did was invite more people to our American party. Take a minute, will ya, and honor their memory.

First, tell someone near you about this anniversary. I believe that we live forever not chilling on a cloud playing the harp but in the hearts and minds of those we love and those we touch. Continue their legacy by sharing it with a friend.

Second, sign up right now to be an Election Protection Volunteer on Election Day. Join People For the American Way and its allies in historically under-represented communities as we make sure every vote counts this year.

Oy. Wil Ledezma (also a star on my Xbox), Yan, and Ugie combine to give up only 2 runs on 5 hits to one of the best offenses in baseball and the Tigers STILL lose. Ugh. Four Rangers pitchers combined to shutout the Detroit nine over the last 8 innings.

The loss drops the Tigers back to 8 games below .500 and effectively ends any wild hopes of postseason play. Frankly, though, it's just frustrating that this team can't quite figure out how to get over the .500 hump. They inch closer and closer, then tumble down the mountain.

Let's hope they can take 2 of 3 from the Red Sox. After all, I've got 20 bucks riding on it with The Other Senator.

I almost always find myself talking about William Saletan's Ballot Box columns with my friends and colleagues. He is a pretty smart guy. That's why I'm so happy today that he has taken a look at the post-convention polling and determined that it's Kerry's race to lose. Yay!

There are four reasons:

1. Kerry has gotten a small, but measurable bounce in the polls.

2. Kerry has maintained a strong lead in the polls, approaching 50%, for a while. Saletan writes, "Kerry is that close
   to making a Bush victory mathematically impossible."

3. Bush's elect, re-elect, and job approval numbers are flatlining or still falling.

4. Kerry voters are solidly in his camp. After the convention, only 5% of Kerry voters think there's a good chance
   they'll change their minds. Bush's numbers are slightly higher.