John Walker Lindh, the Marin County twenty-something who “found himself” at a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan, is asking the President to commute his sentence.

Brosnahan said the sentence should be reduced because Yaser Esam Hamdi, another American citizen captured in Afghanistan on suspicion of aiding the Taliban, is being released after being held for three years as an enemy combatant.

You know what – that’d be fine with me, provided that Lindh got the second half of Hamdi’s sentence, too – renouncing his American citizenship and exile to Saudi Arabia. But instead, I imagine that we’ll see the Barbara Walters interview in the near future, crying about how unfairly he’s being treated. My guess is that the Mrs. Mike Spann won’t get equal time.

Okay boys and girls, I hope that everyone on the porch is planning to do their homework tonight.

The assignment:

•Watch the first presidential debate.
•TURN OFF THE TELEVISION AS SOON AS IT IS OVER – DO NOT WATCH THE SPINNERS.
•Compose a quick post (or comment to this one) with the following information:
1)Win, lose or draw?
2)Best one-liner/made-for-tv moment
3)Worst flub or biggest missed opportunity
•Synopsis, as you saw it.

Is this cooler than the Shiner Bash?

(If only for the 5 min/donut time bonus. 28 miles? My guess is that I could finish with a negative time. Stupid Troll. This is the same weekend as his wedding.)

Strange things are afoot at the Circle K.

I’m halfway regretting my trip to Norway – the end of this baseball season has been a nail-biter. The best story line right now is the NL Wildcard race, with the ‘Stros, the Cubbies, and the Giants all separated by half a game. Until this weekend, the Giants were also serious contenders for the NL West championship, but the Dodgers look to have clenched that.

The Expos are moving to DC which in and of itself is good. My one gripe is that DC has agreed to drop $440 Million on a new riverfront stadium to land the team. I dig baseball, but I’m loathe to see tax dollars go to fund it. Ah well. The question now is what to call the team. The Senators is a natural choice, but Michael Wilbon (of PTI fame) makes a compelling case for naming the team the Grays.

There’s also been a couple of players with extraordinary years. Bonds is the 700 lb gorilla in the middle of the room, with speculation centering not on “if” but “when” he’s going to hit 756 (My answer is ’06, mostly because he’s sitting at 225 walks for this year alone). Ichiro is looking to break the single-season hit record. But my favorite line of the whole year has been Rogah Clemens’ and his renaissance as an Astro. Not only is he sitting at 18 & 4 for the year, but he’s got over 200 strikeouts.

The playoffs should be good. Boston’s been on a tear in September – they seriously challenged the Yankees for the AL East. St. Louis is out of control – 103 games in the bag already, and they had decent interleague opponents, unlike the Yankees, who had six games against the Mets. Houston’s bound to implode in the next week, most likely spectacularly – the question is if it’ll be before they win the wildcard, or in the first round against St. Louis(? – I’m guessing here – doesn’t the wildcard play the team with the best record?) or the second round against Atlanta.

Good season. Biggest gripe, though, is that everyone gets to play in October this year due to the regular season schedule.

In case you’re wondering what it’s like to look up and see a blimp lurking in the sky during your morning run …

it’s creepy.

Interesting document (.pdf) on encryption and data security that I came across this morning doing a little research project. Good reading.

Although covered in this section only by insinuation, or only in passing, human frailty still accounts for roughly 80 percent of the information-security system failures, as it has for the last 25 years. Therefore, the key link in any information-security chain is not a technology per se. Rather, it is the people who manage informationsecurity system operations and those who use them.

Margaritas

How long till the first lawsuit?

Just to keep my outside-the-beltway friends informed, here’s the latest on the latest attempt by politicians of a certain stripe to make political hay out of a situation that only concerns people they don’t actually care anything about.

I do hope you’re all keeping an eye on your elected representatives and will give them a call when they start neglecting your rights and concerns in favor of bullshit.

“The homes of this city will be safer when its law-abiding citizens are on an equal footing with its violent criminals,” DeLay said on the House floor earlier. “Washington residents are American citizens and therefore deserve the same right to bear arms to defend themselves as much as anyone else.”

I think my home will be safer when people like Tom Delay leave government and go back to drinking rubbing alcohol and eating clay (or whatever it was that caused him to turn out that way).

Honestly, can someone explain what is going on here?

—should I ask the kids the kids to leave the room?—

Clips from the media set to an overall calendar… 11 min video

Now this is really cool and somewhat creepy. A Danish artist created these giant animatrons that walk via some unapparent force (wind? elastic bands? motors?) I’m reminded of Terry GIlliam, or perhaps Sodaplay creations made real. The big one just doesn’t seem possible. Watch the videos.

(Via Engadget)

This guy enters into cybersex sessions and plays unfair and it’s a laugh riot.

> bloodninja: Slip out of those pants baby, yeah.
> BritneySpears14: I slip out of my pants, just for you, bloodninja.
> bloodninja: Oh yeah, aight. Aight, I put on my robe and wizard hat.
> BritneySpears14: Oh, I like to play dress up.
> bloodninja: Me too baby.
> BritneySpears14: I kiss you softly on your chest.
> bloodninja: I cast Lvl. 3 Eroticism. You turn into a real beautiful woman.
>
> BritneySpears14: Hey…

—Possibly NSFW but it’s really funny.—

I think I’m gonna switch the drivers on my keyboard at work to the Dvorak keyboard layout. Who’s with me?

I hope and dream someday to create something as intricate, beautiful and pointless as Marble Machine 2.

—and no, I’m still not thinking of having children—

This guy is nuts.

I’ve decided I’m only going to have one track by any one artist on my ipod. Which means I need to identify the best single track by about 10,000 bands. This is where I host the list and ask for advice.