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July 5, 2007

T-Mobile's wifi plan could chop bills; Olbermann video; 'Sicko' rallies Texans; eBay does Craigslist

We sparkled like it was 1947 Tuesday night, fortunately, since last night the sound of fireworks competed with the drone of heavy rain. Parties on either side of us became muted as they moved indoors. Don't you hate it when 4th of July gets rained out?

More vacation links:

Smart fun: Can you name all the U.S. Presidents? You have 10 minutes. Nice interface. Clue: Don't forget Arthur, Cleveland, Hayes, Taft, Harrison...

Catching up with...: Sly Stone's Higher Power: Fame & Scandal at Vanity Fair.

Video: Keith Olbermann, "Special Comment: Bush And Cheney Should Resign" | Transcript. Olbermann as Edward R. Murrow. Somebody has to.

Related: Through the Looking Glass, Darkly, by Dana Milbank, WaPo. Tuesday's White House Press briefing.

Libby judge questions Bush commutation as Judiciary Committee prepares hearings. http://rawstory.com/.

Bush Rationale on Libby Stirs Legal Debate

Similarly, in a case decided two weeks ago by the United States Supreme Court and widely discussed by legal specialists in light of the Libby case, the Justice Department persuaded the court to affirm the 33-month sentence of a defendant whose case closely resembled that against Mr. Libby. The defendant, Victor A. Rita, was, like Mr. Libby, convicted of perjury, making false statements to federal agents and obstruction of justice.Mr. Rita has performed extensive government service, just as Mr. Libby has. Mr. Rita served in the armed forces for more than 25 years, receiving 35 commendations, awards and medals. Like Mr. Libby, Mr. Rita had no criminal history for purposes of the federal sentencing guidelines.

and

Libby's sentence not unusually long Though Bush calls the 30-month prison term 'excessive,' records show defendants convicted of similar crimes served jail time.:

Several federal prosecutors interviewed by The Times also said they were concerned that Bush's decision would send the wrong message to judges, giving them reason to lighten sentences and undermining the goal of a more uniform justice system.

"Consistency and fidelity to the law are extraordinarily important. We have expended a lot of credibility to get judges to buy off on this," said one senior federal prosecutor who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the issue.

"I don't know how I am going to advise my people," the prosecutor said. "I cannot tell you how depressed and disgusted people are around here with this decision. It really undercuts law enforcement."

If mercy is coming back into style, how about mercy for more of us? It would certainly help the state budget to separate people who really need to be taken out of circulation from the those whose punishment is harsher than the crime.

Free calls from home: IPhone-Free Cellphone News. David Pogue of NYT raves about the new product the iPhone launch overshadowed:

It’s called T-Mobile HotSpot @Home, and it’s absolutely ingenious. It could save you hundreds or thousands of dollars a year, and yet enrich T-Mobile at the same time. In the cellphone world, win-win plays like that are extremely rare.

Here’s the basic idea. If you’re willing to pay $10 a month on top of a regular T-Mobile voice plan, you get a special cellphone. When you’re out and about, it works like any other phone; calls eat up your monthly minutes as usual.

But when it’s in a Wi-Fi wireless Internet hot spot, this phone offers a huge bargain: all your calls are free. You use it and dial it the same as always — you still get call hold, caller ID, three-way calling and all the other features — but now your voice is carried by the Internet rather than the cellular airwaves. ...

...T-Mobile gives you a wireless router (transmitter) for your house — also free, after a $50 rebate. Connect it to your high-speed Internet modem, and in about a minute, you’ve got a wireless home network. Your computer can use it to surf the Web wirelessly — and now all of your home phone calls are free.

...The cool part is that, depending on how many calls you can make in hot spots, the Wi-Fi feature might permit you to choose a much less expensive calling plan. If you’re a heavy talker, you might switch, for example, from T-Mobile’s $100 plan (2,500 minutes) to its $40 plan (1,000 minutes). Even factoring in the $10 HotSpot @Home fee, you’d still save $600 a year.

Illustrated short review -- also thumbs up -- at Engadget.

Enlightening self-interest: Sicko Spurs Audiences Into Action: One audience anyway, in Texas. Remarkable. At Cinema Blend:

...Outside the restroom doors… the theater was in chaos. The entire Sicko audience had somehow formed an impromptu town hall meeting in front of the ladies room. I’ve never seen anything like it. This is Texas goddammit, not France or some liberal college campus. But here these people were, complete strangers from every walk of life talking excitedly about the movie. It was as if they simply couldn’t go home without doing something drastic about what they’d just seen. My redneck compadre and his new friend found their wives at the center of the group, while I lingered in the background waiting for my spouse to emerge.

The talk gradually centered around a core of 10 or 12 strangers in a cluster while the rest of us stood around them listening intently to this thing that seemed to be happening out of nowhere. The black gentleman engaged by my redneck in the restroom shouted for everyone’s attention. The conversation stopped instantly as all eyes in this group of 30 or 40 people were now on him. “If we just see this and do nothing about it,” he said, “then what’s the point? Something has to change.” There was silence, then the redneck’s wife started calling for email addresses. Suddenly everyone was scribbling down everyone else’s email, promising to get together and do something… though no one seemed to know quite what. It was as if I’d just stepped into the world’s most bizarre protest rally, except instead of hippies the group was comprised of men and women of every age, skin color, income, and walk of life coming together on something that had shaken them deeply, and to the core....

Get my drift? Thousands of rubber ducks to land on British shores after 15 year journey. At The Daily Mail.

Conversation pieces: Church Bulletin Bloopers:

By here I was laughing out loud:

* Low Self-Esteem Support Group will meet Thursday at 7 to 8:30 p.m. Please use the back door.

* Ushers will eat latecomers.

* For those of you who have children and don't know it, we have a nursery downstairs.

* On a church bulletin during the minister's illness: GOD IS GOOD Dr. Hargreaves is better.

* Special thanks are due to the minister's daughter, who labored the whole evening at the piano, which as usual fell upon her.

eBay vs. Craigslist: Kijiji. Kijiji Providence.

Craig doesn't care: "My take is that anything that helps community is a good thing," Newmark tells cNet: eBay squares off with Craigslist, launches classified service

Posted by Sheila Lennon  at 8:04 AM | Permalink