Tiger Woods Scandal in Chinese

Chinese tabloid-TV style reporting. Sorry, no English subtitles.

The plot thickens.

A Nuclear Iran

Sooner rather than later.  Thanks in no small part to the efforts of Nobel Peace Prize recipient Barack Obama.

Sensing weakness Iran has announced plans to build 10 nuclear enrichment plants.

Why should Iran be concerned?

Obama’s policies are making the problem worse, not better, because they are leading to an expansion of the Iranian nuclear program. This should hardly be a surprise. Toothless as the Bush policy was toward Iran, at least there was an element of deterrence as long as George W. Bush himself was in the White House. The mullahs could always sweat a little as they imagined that they might be next in line to feel American military power after Afghanistan and Iraq. Indeed, there was evidence that they temporarily suspended parts of their nuclear program after the U.S. invasion of Iraq. There is no such concern now. 

Hope. Change. A Rogue Nuclear State.

Life at 3.5 Inches

Jason writes about a coworker who has recently purchased a Chumby and the good-natured teasing that has ensued.

When I first read about the Chumby last year my first thought was "clever" immediately followed by "there's a market for this?"

Well, apparently there is.  And for just $99 you too can view the world at 3.5 inches. Here's a view of the "virtual Chumby" that I created. Watch it long enough and it will cycle through the various "pages" on my personal "Chumby channel". (Fortunately for you a virtual Chumby was free to me -- otherwise there wouldn't be one here...)




Now if I were the sort to make a habit of viewing websites and videos on my cellphone I might become accustomed to viewing content in such a manner.

Which brings me to an observation about smartphones.  Like many others I have one however I'm not tethered to it.  I use mine primarily as a phone and a text messaging system (as a replacement for a text pager).  I do keep it synced with my work computer so I have contacts and calendar close at hand.  But I don't currently sync my Outlook email with it. Because I see no need to be so connected to my job that I need to send and receive emails 24x7.  If there's a system outage or server issue I need to tend to the smartphone alerts me to it.  In fact I can use it to call up Opera Mini and view the status of the network or various components. I can even send out a notification email, if needed.  But there is no way the Smartphone will become a proxy for my laptop.

During the course of a typical workday I may move between two or three locations, but generally I'm either at my desk or sitting in a meeting.  Unless there is some sort of major issue I don't need to receive or reply to emails in real-time. And quite honestly when I receive the email replies from those I correspond with that carry the tag "Sent by my iPhone" or "Sent by my Blackberry"  I frequently wonder why.

Seldom is the case where I need an instant response to an email I sent (or that I need to reply to one instantly). In most cases if I get a reply to my message the same business day it's generally good enough for me.  What's funny about this is that typically if the reply is not a brief one (yes, no, OK, thanks) it may be several days, if ever, when I get a reply from the recipient to my original message -- necessitating a followup email or a phone call. So how is that smartphone improving communications?

A friend laments that sometimes the coworkers that they deal with on a daily basis can't seem to plan beyond what the calendar on their phone can show them at any given time. I'm inclined to agree.

I truly believe that for each person who truly makes their smartphone a bona fide productivity tool there are a dozen others who simply use it as a gadget and high-tech distraction. I detect little if any change in the organizational or communication skills of many people I know pre- and post-smartphone. They're just as disorganized at 3.5 inches 24x7 as they were at 17 inches 8x5.  And sadly, in many cases, even more so.

Now if I see a Chumby suddenly appear on a coworker's desk I may truly become worried.

It's the Deficit, Stupid

Eighteen years ago the phrase "It's the economy, stupid" helped propel a little-known Democrat, Arkansas governor Bill Clinton, into the presidency, defeating incumbent George H.W. Bush.

Now it's the deficit that may prove to be the undoing of Barack Obama and his party as Karl Rove notes:

Last year, Mr. Obama made fiscal restraint a constant theme of his presidential campaign. "Washington will have to tighten its belt and put off spending," he said back then, while pledging to "go through the federal budget, line by line, ending programs that we don't need." Voters found this fiscal conservatism reassuring.

However, since taking office Mr. Obama pushed through a $787 billion stimulus, a $33 billion expansion of the child health program known as S-chip, a $410 billion omnibus appropriations spending bill, and an $80 billion car company bailout. He also pushed a $821 billion cap-and-trade bill through the House and is now urging Congress to pass a nearly $1 trillion health-care bill.

The American people may be lazy, but we're not stupid.

Many did not bother to look behind the glitz, glamour and rhetoric last year to see what Obama was really made of.  They were tired of the status quo and wanted a change.

But a crumbling economy, 10% unemployment, Wall Street bailouts and government takeovers combined with 1,000-page spending bills that go unread before being voted upon by our elected officials eventually got noticed. And now that reality is staring them in the face, they're angry. Because they rightfully feel like they have been lied to as well as taken for granted.

The change that Obama promised is not the change that Obama will get. The awakening of the electorate may ensure that.