Obligatory roommate shot.

Photos are up from this weekend's adventures in the Green Mountain State with the roomies. Special guest appearance by Tracy and the fam.

More photos from: Alan | Adam

I'm on vacation in Vermont this week, so BTP posting has been on hiatus. But you've got to read the new Frank Rich column:

CINDY SHEEHAN couldn't have picked a more apt date to begin the vigil that ambushed a president: Aug. 6 was the fourth anniversary of that fateful 2001 Crawford vacation day when George W. Bush responded to an intelligence briefing titled "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States" by going fishing. On this Aug. 6 the president was no less determined to shrug off bad news. Though 14 marine reservists had been killed days earlier by a roadside bomb in Haditha, his national radio address that morning made no mention of Iraq. Once again Mr. Bush was in his bubble, ensuring that he wouldn't see Ms. Sheehan coming. So it goes with a president who hasn't foreseen any of the setbacks in the war he fabricated against an enemy who did not attack inside the United States in 2001.

Frank Rich nailed it in the New York Times this weekend. Tracy is right. It's a must read.

The money quote:

The endgame for American involvement in Iraq will be of a piece with the rest of this sorry history. "It makes no sense for the commander in chief to put out a timetable" for withdrawal, Mr. Bush declared on the same day that 14 of those Ohio troops were killed by a roadside bomb in Haditha. But even as he spoke, the war's actual commander, Gen. George Casey, had already publicly set a timetable for "some fairly substantial reductions" to start next spring. Officially this calendar is tied to the next round of Iraqi elections, but it's quite another election this administration has in mind. The priority now is less to save Jessica Lynch (or Iraqi democracy) than to save Rick Santorum and every other endangered Republican facing voters in November 2006.

Nothing that happens on the ground in Iraq can turn around the fate of this war in America: not a shotgun constitution rushed to meet an arbitrary deadline, not another Iraqi election, not higher terrorist body counts, not another battle for Falluja (where insurgents may again regroup, The Los Angeles Times reported last week). A citizenry that was asked to accept tax cuts, not sacrifice, at the war's inception is hardly in the mood to start sacrificing now. There will be neither the volunteers nor the money required to field the wholesale additional American troops that might bolster the security situation in Iraq.

WHAT lies ahead now in Iraq instead is not victory, which Mr. Bush has never clearly defined anyway, but an exit (or triage) strategy that may echo Johnson's March 1968 plan for retreat from Vietnam: some kind of negotiations (in this case, with Sunni elements of the insurgency), followed by more inflated claims about the readiness of the local troops-in-training, whom we'll then throw to the wolves. Such an outcome may lead to even greater disaster, but this administration long ago squandered the credibility needed to make the difficult case that more human and financial resources might prevent Iraq from continuing its descent into civil war and its devolution into jihad central.

As of today, it's been 1,434 days since 9/11 and 1,428 days since George Bush said he'd catch Osama bin Laden "dead or alive." That's longer than it took for the United States to defeat Germany, Italy, AND Japan after Pearl Harbor.

Here at Be The Power, we're forced to ask the obvious question: Where's Osama?

Well, it turns out that George Bush's army actually let him go when we had him surrounded at Tora Bora (via Blog for America):

During the 2004 presidential campaign, George W. Bush and John Kerry battled about whether Osama bin Laden had escaped from Tora Bora in the final days of the war in Afghanistan. Bush, Kerry charged, "didn't choose to use American forces to hunt down and kill" the leader of Al Qaeda. The president called his opponent's allegation "the worst kind of Monday-morning quarterbacking." Bush asserted that U.S. commanders on the ground did not know if bin Laden was at the mountain hideaway along the Afghan border.

But in a forthcoming book, the CIA field commander for the agency's Jawbreaker team at Tora Bora, Gary Berntsen, says he and other U.S. commanders did know that bin Laden was among the hundreds of fleeing Qaeda and Taliban members. Berntsen says he had definitive intelligence that bin Laden was holed up at Tora Bora — intelligence operatives had tracked him — and could have been caught. "He was there," Berntsen tells NEWSWEEK. Asked to comment on Berntsen's remarks, National Security Council spokesman Frederick Jones passed on 2004 statements from former CENTCOM commander Gen. Tommy Franks. "We don't know to this day whether Mr. bin Laden was at Tora Bora in December 2001," Franks wrote in an Oct. 19 New York Times op-ed. "Bin Laden was never within our grasp." Berntsen says Franks is "a great American. But he was not on the ground out there. I was."

So we had him once. Let's go get him again. After Bush is done meeting with Cindy, he can come meet with me and answer my one question: Where's Osama?

Click here to watch Cindy's message

Mr. President, it's time to meet with Cindy.

Cindy Sheehan is a grieving mother whose son Casey was killed in Iraq. She's camped outside President Bush's vacation home in Crawford, Texas, pledging to stay there until Bush meets with her to answer her tough questions about the sacrifice her son made for the war in Iraq. And there are plenty of tough questions:

• How is this war making us safer?
• Is it worth the cost of American lives?
• When are the troops coming home?
• Why did you tell us that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction?
• Why did we attack Iraq when they didn't threaten us?
• Where's Osama?

Some on the right want to criticize Cindy for being a flip-flopper. Apparently, she was in a group of military families that actually met with Bush once and was generally positive about the visit. Some claim that she doesn't truly represent the wishes of her family or, particularly, her fallen son. Usually, they trot out some aunt or cousin to undercut the story told by the soldiers own mother.

Some on the left want to criticize Cindy for not being the perfectly eloquent spokesperson for the anti-war movement. Some are concerned that she's being too political. Some are concerned about the way she talks about Israel.

Don't worry about any of that. Newsflash: Cindy Sheehan isn't perfect. But she never claimed to be. All she has ever claimed to be is a mother trying to make sense of the senseless death of her son. Circumstance has conspired to turn her into the point of the spear of the nation's broad opposition to the war. That's right - the entire nation's broad opposition to the war. The latest polls show that only 1 in 3 Americans approve of the way Bush has handled Iraq.

The bottom line is that Cindy isn't the only one with questions, but she's got a compelling story and stumbled on a pretty brilliant strategy for telling it, so she's become the "good guy" America needed in order to figure out what to do about the general malaise they're feeling about Iraq. It's clear that America wants Bush to meet with Cindy, answer her questions, and answer all of our other questions too.

Mr. President, it's time to meet with Cindy.

There were cops with machine guns on the Metro platform in Union Station today.

What's wrong with us?

One of the toughest things about being cross platform is creating workflow systems that keep you organized and can be fully used no matter where you are. In other words, it doesn't do me any good if all my to-do items are stored on Winston when I'm at work.

That's why I've been so excited about my successful experiment of the last week or so: 37signals' Backpack.

37signals believes in simple and elegant design, so at it's heart Backpack really only does a few simple things. But it does them exceptionally well.

Foremost, Backpack allows you to easily create little web pages for personal use. Those pages can include lists of items with checkboxes (usually, but not exclusively, for tracking to-do lists), leaving notes to yourself, and storing files including images. Items on the pages can be moved around easily and the pages themselves can be easily linked to each other, so you can always keep the pages logically organized.

You can access the data on the pages in a variety of ways. You can send an email to the serves in order to push data onto your pages. You can tell the service to send a text message to your cell phone in order to pull data out of your pages. You can even share your pages with friends, so they can help you keep track of all the stuff you have to do.

Before I discovered Backpack, I was keeping track of my to-do lists in a little notebook I usually keep with me. It was wicked effective, but a little cumbersome to keep having to re-write my entire list every time I used up a few more pages. In just a week of using it, Backpack has essentially replaced my notebook for to-do tracking.

It's not a quantum leap forward from pen and paper, but that's OK. I didn't need that. My notebook served me quite well. All I really wanted was a way to keep my tasks organized without having to rewrite them over and over. Backpack does that.

Cutting-edge Technology

For as simple as it is, Backpack is actually a vanguard for web-based applications. It makes extensive use of AJAX, the hot, new technology that drives cool web applications like Gmail, Google Maps, and Flickr.

Again, AJAX is not a quantum leap forward. Essentially, it allows web browsers to update a portion of a web page without reloading the whole the, which usually take more than just an instant, even on broadband. The difference is astounding. Backpack wouldn't be useful if it took 3 or 4 seconds to reload the page every time I added a new to-do item. It would just be another slow and unresponsive web app.

Think of the difference between a desktop application like iTunes and a typical web app. In iTunes, you click the play button and your music starts playing with zero lag. On the web, you click play and it loads a new page which loads the music playing plug in and the music starts playing. It's only a delay of a few seconds at most, but all of the sudden the app doesn't "feel" fast.

Backpack feels fast.

Backpack + Dashboard = Happiness

Courtesy Chipt Productions

Finally, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the cool little widget I was using on Winston to review and edit my Backpack pages.

Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger includes a feature called "Dashboard" that puts any number of useful (or useless) little mini-applications just a click away. Independent developer Chipt Productions has put together a Dashboard widget that interfaces seamlessly with my Backpack data and looks stunning to boot. When, I'm at home, I use it almost exclusively to edit my Backpack pages.

DCFC - I Will Follow You Into the Dark
(5.8 MB MP3)

So, Ben Gibbard has had to overcome a lot. Dozens of lovers have broken his heart. One of them moved to LA. One of them moved to DC. One of them moved to London.

Luckily, Ben has parlayed all this heartbreak into 5 great records, a major label record deal, schoolgirl crushes across the country, and the best American band of his generation, Death Cab For Cutie.

But this time, they may have gone too far. Someone went and died on Ben. I think it's another lover, because he seems pretty distraught about the whole thing. I mean, he had to go and make a whole new record about it. Lucky for us.

That record, Plans hits the shops later this month and also marks DCFC's major label debut. I managed to score a pre-release copy and have been listening basically non-stop for three days. It's pretty good. Better yet, the major flaw is something that I think can be fixed.

First, the good. Basically, Ben is at it again with his profound metaphors and accessible but nuanced lyrics. His voice, as always is full of emotion. Like I said, this record is all about death and it's clear that Gibbard is sharing some his most intimate feelings of grief, loss, and love with us. The album literally crescendos with the line "Love is watching someone die." on the ninth track (of eleven), "What Sarah Said."

Similarly, the best song, "I Will Follow You Into the Dark" is simply Ben's solemn promise to be there in this life and the next and anywhere in between sung over an acoustic guitar line that you wouldn't ordinary hear in a Death Cab record. The lyrics are really beautiful:

Love of mine
Someday you will die
And I'll be close behind
I will follow you
Into the dark
No blinding light
Or tunnels to gates of white
Just our hands clasped so tight
Waiting for the hint of a spark

You can download the track here (5.8 MB MP3).

The only real problem I have with the album is the production. Sometimes, I feel like I can't really hear Ben's voice, which in my opinion is the driving force behind DCFC's music. The effect is that some of the songs bleed into the backgrounds. That's acceptable for some bands, but I expect better from Death Cab. Guitarist Chris Walla is one of the best producers working today and once again helmed the control knobs for this record.

The good news is that I do not have a pristine copy. I've got a rip from a web stream that is good enough to listen to and enjoy before the record comes out, but I take DCFC's music seriously enough that I'm planning on buying the CD when it comes out. So, officially, I will refrain from passing judgement on the production until I get to listen to it at the highest fidelity.

I'm hopeful, too. I was listening with my headphones on the Metro this evening and was unpacking new tidbits from the songs that I hadn't heard sitting at my desk.

That's about where I'm coming down on this record as a whole. It is not as immediate and accessible as DCFC's finest, We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes, or the Ben's Postal Service side project, Give Up. Ultimately, however, Ben is such a gifted songwriter and the themes of love, loss, and grief are so powerful and universal that if you take the extra effort to really lose yourself in the music, you are richly rewarded.

Meet Winston, my new iMac.

A few weeks ago, the backlight on my iBook started acting funny. I was worried about this, because I knew it could cost a pretty penny to fix that. A trip to the Apple Store confirmed that it would be close to $400 to get it fixed.

At that point, I figured, you're starting to be in the new computer range. That wasn't ideal, but I'd bee planning on replacing the laptop in the relatively near future anyway, so I started shopping.

At first, I was convinced I needed a pimped out Powerbook that would give me the horsepower to run a bajillion apps all at once. Then, the clerk had me convinced I would do just fine with a new iBook at less than half the price. Then, I reconsidered again and was ready to drop a large chuck of change on a new Powerbook.

Then I called my friend Joe.

He made me realize an important principle. What I really wanted from my next computer was more power, not more portability. I now do the lion's share of my computing in my apartment. From time to time, I like to use my computer in the living room, but my biggest frustration is not that I need to take it places, it's that the machine isn't powerful enough. Joe suggested something I hadn't thought of: "Get a desktop."

Suddenly, the path was clear. For less than half of the price of a top-of-the-line Powerbook, I could get a new iMac that would be significantly MORE powerful than the Powerbook. After that, I could pay to have my current iBook repaired or even buy a brand new iBook and STILL pay less than one Powerbook.

So that's just what I did. I'm typing this now on my new iMac, Winston. Why Winston? Well, in the past I've had an "Embassy" theme in my apartment and I was trying to revive that a little. Joe and I figured that one of the best diplomats of all time was Churchill and...ya know..."Winston" sounds cool.

The machine runs like an absolute dream. I bought 1GB of additional RAM and I never, ever run out. It makes my computer (and me) more efficient and effective. I do darn near everything I can on my computer and having something really speedy and powerful makes a big difference. Plus, it will roar through thousands of photos in iPhoto without breaking a sweat.

The screen is big and bright. The "Where's the computer?" design turns heads and fits in my tiny bedroom. OS X is the best operating system out there. Heck, even the stock keyboard is pretty nice. I'm very, very happy with my purchase.

I still haven't had my iBook repaired. I figure I'll let the backlight finally die before I worry too much about it. Besides, I no longer really use it while in my apartment. I'm sure that will change; I want to strip that machine down so it will run as fast as possible for email / web surfing. But for now, I don't miss it.

Besides, when it does finally die, it will only cost a few hundred bucks to get it good as new. Or a thousand for a brand new iBook. Remember, I won't need to the laptop for heavy lifting, so it doesn't need to be at all souped-up.

Anyway, I love my new iMac. If you get one, you should too. Plus, the process I used to choose it just reinforces the old Yogi Berra-ism, "When you see a fork in the road, take it."

I was gonna write something about the new Luke Stricklin song that's taking the country music world by storm. The song details this Iraq War veteran's stance that America totally kicks ass and that if you disagree, well, he's just gonna punch you right in the mouth.

I was gonna write something about it myself. But the Shank just nailed it and there's nothing more to say.

RadioShank: Asshole American

LUKE STRICKLIN - American By God's Amazing Grace [mp3]

Wow. Do you think when he tells people to stop complaining about wha they ain't got cuz it could be worse, they could be livin' in Baghdad he's referring to rich who've been receiving tax breaks during a time of war?

Do you think when he sings "If you got something bad to say about the USA, you better save it for different ears 'less you wanna crawl away," do you think he's referring to traitors in the White House who vindictively out undercover CIA agents while we're at war? Or do you think he's referring to the folks back home who are pissed that BushCo sent our troops to war without things like proper armor? Or a plan?

And I'm an atheist, does that mean I'm not American? Or just not as American as you?

But when ol' Luke sings "I really don't care why Bush went into Iraq" he reveals the entirety of the problem. As an American, Lukey, it is your duty to give a flying fuck when the rulers of your country decide to invade a sovereign nation without provocation.

Cuz see, when you don't care why Bush went to war, you make it even easier for him to do it again, in Syria, Iran, Poland, etc. etc.

So Luke, your jingoistic message here, "we're prouda what we done, so don't you question or criticize," well, it's totally unamerican, just like anyone who agrees with your hackneyed, exploitative sentiment.

Ass.

My apologies for not posting in a while. Things have been pretty busy at work. Plus, I'm writing about politics full time for my job, so it can sap all of my creative juices to write about those topics. Bottom line, if you want to read more of my ramblings on politics, sign up for the DSCC mailing list.

The good news is that I really feel like my job is one of the best ways I can help make a difference. The simple truth is elections matter.

Take the Roberts nomination, the most prominent politic news of the recent past. Barring some new and shocking revelation that guy is going to get approved for the bench, no matter how much my old friends at PFAW scream and yell. He'll bring his conservative ideology to bear on the Court for the next 30 years.

If John Kerry gets elected last year, John Roberts never gets nominated. If, in 2006, we take back the Senate, the next John Roberts dies in committee. So, I've set out to help make sure we can do just that.

Bottom line, the Supreme Court is all about elections. And there's not a whole lot else to say about it.