O’DonnellWeb

• A letter from someone who has known Sarah Palin since 1992 « My 2 Buck$ -
• Fredericksburg.com - Teacher is disc-golf pro - Note to self: Get back on the disc golf course, it's been way too long.
• The Reality-Based Community: Palin v. Reality - Reality wins

This is the funniest thing you’ll see all day, maybe all week.

Your faithful police servants at work.

Today, while attending the Republican National Convention Protest to demonstrate his personal disapproval of the war in Iraq, five officers from the St. Paul Police Department beat him mercilessly. When we picked him up we found him bloody, covered in bruises and scrapes, alone and in need of medical attention.

To Protect and Serve used to refer to the general public. Who are they serving these days?

via Fred.

• The Agitator » Blog Archive » [Insert Name Here] - McCain's staff wrote the VP convention speech before they even knew who the VP would be. I'm sure the Dems do the same thing. The entire process is a sham.
• Subterranean Press » Blog Archive » A Brand New Short Story by John Scalzi -
• Think Progress » The Sarah Palin Digest -
• The DCeiver: The Audacity Of Dopes: Airwolf - Palin like to Air Wolf Hunt, in which wolves are chased by planes until they are exhausted, and then the plane lands and they shoot the wolf. Sounds real sporting to me.

I was flipping over to America’s Got Talent during the commercials while watching Project Runway and it occurred to me that it has been way, way too long since the Hoff made an appearance here at ODonnellWeb. So enjoy. This video never, ever gets old.

This is how that “Do you want to be my VP call” may have gone down.

Google sent me an email notifying me that they have disabled my video titled “2007 Christmas Video” because it has been identified by our Content Identification tools as potentially lacking the necessary copyright authorization for use on the Google Video site.

It’s a family Christmas video, which was marked as private and probably viewed by 3 or 4 people at the most. I used Mellencamp’s version of I saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus, and the Brian Setzer Orchestra doing Run Run Rudolph, as the soundtrack to the video.

That doesn’t fall under the Fair Use doctrine? And don’t you just love the shoot first, ask questions later attitude at Google? Because it potentially violates a copyright, it’s removed from the Internet. I guess it would be too much to ask for somebody there to actually look at the context and make an intelligent decision.

Do no evil my ass. Google is just as much a corporate tool as any other company. Remember, this is the company many of us entrust with all our email, and increasingly, our documents and spreadsheets too. What happens when they decide to shut down your email?

Ironically, I just remembered that the Google Video was never seen by anybody. The quality at Google Video pales compared to Viddler. I loaded the video at Viddler too and that is the link that I sent to friends and family. Can you have a copyright violation if nobody has actually seen the video?

I just checked my Google Account, apparently I uploaded two versions of the video, one high quality and one normal. The are only blocking one version. That software at Google works real well. I’m going to protest the claim. It’s not like I really care, but it’s the principal of the issue.

Update: Formal complaint filed with Google on 9/3. We’ll see how long it takes to get a response.

• The curse word ‘Battlestar Galactica’ created - CNN.com - It's not news until CNN covers it, right?

With about 3800 MP3s on my music server, it’s easy to forget about stuff that I own. This is especially true in my case in that I get some really good stuff for free via ADDreviews, which I listen to, write about, and them promptly forget. So from time to time I’m going to highlight some of those bands here.

Tonight’s honoree is Sterling Y, a Nashville based rock band with a strong Black Crowes vibe. I originally gave them a good review, and then I guess they sort of got lost in my MP3 collection. That’s a damn shame because these guys rock. Like I said, there is a definite Black Crowes influence there, but they take the sound in more of a late 70s / early 80s hard rock direction. It’s good stuff. Their new tunes on Myspace are damn good too, maybe even leaning a bit more in the hard rock direction. I’m looking forward to the new album and I’ll even buy it if they don’t send me a review copy

Intrade market now estimates a 12% chance for Palin to be withdrawn before election. Speculation would be higher but it’s obvious that Palins don’t know much about early withdrawal

Zing!

• Bob Barr | The Onion - America’s Finest News Source - Bob Barr on the issues

• Our Respendence Is Never Quiet - The Soxaholix pushed out a redesign today, and it is fabulous.
• Sciencedebate 2008 - Obama answered
• New Video - Sammy Hagar - Cosmic Universal Fashion « www.hardrockhideout.com - Sammy gets political

It’s like planes, trains,and automobiles, only totally different. The story is in the captions. As always with these Google slideshows, I can’t slow down the speed, so you might be better off clicking through. Or you can pause it here immediately and click through at your own pace.

• Fear and Loathing | Democratic National Convention | Denver 2008 - The Denver the major networks didn't show you

We’re off for a father-son weekend of camping, hiking and fishing. Tentative plans include:

The Luray Zoo this afternoon on the way in.
This hike on Saturday.
Climbing Old Rag Mountain on Sunday.

We are camping right on the Shenandoah River, so they’ll be plenty of early morning and evening fishing right from the campsite, and board game in the tent at night. The weather is sort of crappy at the moment, but it is supposed to clear over the afternoon and turn into a rather nice weekend.

I won’t be blogging, but I may send a few tweets from the trail when we take breaks, if I have a cell signal.

Have a nice weekend, I should lots of pictures on Monday!