apple juice

here’s a little background on McCain’s campaign manager. This link, circa 2006, comes to us from the always excellent talking points memo.

John McCain has signed up GOP operative Terry Nelson as his campaign manager — yep, that would be the same Terry Nelson who produced the infamous, racially-charged “bimbo” ad attacking Dem Tennessee Senate candidate Harold Ford, Jr.

that ad makes me vomit a bit in the back of my throat every time I see it.

read more: McCain Hires Strategist Behind Harold Ford “Bimbo” Ad As Campaign Manager

this heads up from TPM comes as they recount the last week of gutterball from McCain

good article examining why mccain has taken the low road. too bad obama is a bit hamstrung on fighting dirty since he has championed a “new kind of politics”.

McCain Makes Historic First Visit to Internet

In a daring bid to wrench attention from his Democratic rival in the 2008 presidential race, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) today embarked on an historic first-ever visit to the Internet.

Given that the Arizona Republican had never logged onto the Internet before, advisors acknowledged that his first visit to the World Wide Web was fraught with risk.

Priceless. (There’s a bit too much truth in this though, it’s almost scary.)

northern wisconsin provides excellent opportunities for unplugging from the internet, resting and relaxing. even though, the internet is only a few houses away. high speed internet is spreading it’s tentacles wide and far, so that even outside of minocqua, wisconsin, on a small lake, high speed is available.

i drove from my parent’s cabin to my grandparent’s cabin with my laptop open, just to see how many networks I would come across. eight. this may not seem like a lot, but nearly everywhere on the two-mile trip there was a wifi signal poking out.

but, at our cabin, no high speed. i set out the week with the goal of reading four books. (finishing two that I had already started and then two more new ones.) there have been discussions at school about the effect of the internet on reading, about how reading on the internet does not provoke deep thought and reflection the way that a book does, and even reading in a house where the internet is available provides enough of a distraction that books are read in a way that is shallower than before the advent of internet.

there is a strange allure to having the internet available when reading a book. what’s this word mean? what’s this place look like (look it up on google maps)? who was that person? (look it up on wikipedia)?

well, i’m sure the truth lies somewhere in the middle. it’s probably an issue of self-control, of learning to engage with your mind in a world that provides distractions everywhere you look.

the real challenge I think is convincing young people to let go of the distractions and singularily focus on something. at the NECC conference, I sat at a roundtable discussion about multitasking and it’s effect on learning. i got into a heated discussion with the woman seated to my right. she was on the side of “kids live in multitasking world, and we need to teach to that” whereas my argument was “we need to teach them to think, and that comes from focus”

needless to say, we didn’t convince each other of anything.

as the youngest person at that table by a few years, it was odd to be arguing against the technology-aided multitasking world that we seem to be heading towards.

who knows? but last week at the cabin in the woods on the lake, i finished those four books.

after a long and heated discussion about politics and the economy with my uncle and grandpa last night, which ended with my grandpa saying “we’re still buddies, right?” (“yes, of course we are!”, I replied), I’ve found something I agree with republicans on.

john culberson, republican representative of texas is waging a battle over the use of “new media” tools to communicate with his constituents. basically he uses twitter to update people on what he is working on.

Michael Campuano democrat of Pennsylvania proposed rules that would require approval before posting video to Youtube. I don’t really understand his reasons.

Actually, as it turns out, its not really a Democrat vs. Republican thing, it’s more of a generational fight.

How awesome would it be if all of our representatives and congresspeople were required to update their constituents on a blog. Discuss their reasoning on key votes. Post their reactions to news and current events.

Is that too much to ask?

I just finished reading “Three Cups of Tea” by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. I started reading the book earlier this year, but couldn’t find the time to finish it up during the second semester of the school year. As it turns out, it was one of the picks for our summer reading for school. I enjoy reading all of the picks that are made each year, so will also get a chance to read “Leaving Microsoft to Save the World”.

I throughoughly enjoyed the premise of the book. In the end, people are really after the same things: Security for the their family, education for their kids, the chance to give the next generation a better life than the one before it.

The link between terrorism and the lack of these things for so many who are living lives at the edge of poverty in places between Pakistan and Afghanistan is clear. The point is made over and over again that kids who are given an education go on to provide dividends to their communities in the years that follow.

It is such a simple message that is apparently lost on our government. Through the book Greg Mortenson meets with people across our government and military, only to find his pleas for not squandering the opportunity to provide for the Afghans living in poverty, displaced by our military actions.

The double-irony is that things like early childhood education, and education in general are often squeezed at the margins in the face of things deemed more “important” by the government. In one discussion with military leaders of our country, “Dr. Greg” points out for the cost of one cruise missile he could build 20 schools. Which do you think does more to combat terrorism? He asks.

And in our country, what could those types of funds, directed towards education do to lift people out of poverty, hopelessness and desperation?

In the end, the degradation of societies and communities comes from desperation and hopelessness. When there is no hope for a better future, everything comes unraveled.

I highly recommend the book. Check out the website of their foundtation, the Central Asia Institute, for more information.

Books I’m hoping to read this week:

• Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
• Wikinomics by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams
• Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
• The World Without Us by Alan Weisman