Harkin Number One Bush Opponent

CQ Vote Scores: Harkin Number One Bush Opponent

Tom Harkin voted against George Bush's declared position more than any other senator in 2008, according to Congressional Quarterly vote scores. Harkin opposed Bush's position 75 percent of the time.

The votes and scores are in this article. The tables themselves are in annoying .pdf format. But I shouldn't complain. I used to have to trudge over to the library to read this stuff when I should have been writing my master's thesis. Now I can enjoy it with my first cup of coffee, and you'll read this post, unlike that never-written thesis which no one outside my committee would have read.

Speaking of the miracles of technology, PC World says there are several techie things that you won't see anymore after the economy tanks. Some we'll miss (Free Tech Support), some we won't:

2. Wi-Fi You Have to Pay For

Everyone is going to share the cost of public Wi-Fi because the penny-pinching public will gravitate to places that offer "free" Wi-Fi. Companies that charge extra for Wi-Fi will see their iPhone, BlackBerry and netbook-toting customers -- i.e., everybody -- taking business elsewhere.

Someone tell the University of Iowa campus, a wifi deadzone for us mere citizens. No University ID, no wifi.

Another thing you won't see is VHS, as the last major supplier lets go.

PETA doesn't like Sarah Palin and the feeling is mutual. I never did manage to play their "throw a snowball at Palin" game; all I get is "send this to a friend" links that try to sucker you into the PETA mailing list.

I have a pet theory, unencumbered by any actual evidence, that PETA's rise in the late `80s was boosted by under the table right wing money. Environmentalists were on a roll in the late `80s, but it fizzled about the time PETA rose. How does a small fringe group with a relatively extreme message get so much visibility? PETA's unpopular tactics painted all environmentalists as extreme, and in my gut I don't think that's an accident.

Still, PETA has gotten a lot of very attractive actresses to go naked rather than wear fur, and we can't complain about that. (But the women in cages fetish is creepy.) As for Throw A Snowball At Palin, making fun of politicians is exactly what the First Amendment was written for.

I'm going through my thousands of pictures putting together a slide show for our inauguration party; if you have any really good stuff let me know. My problem, other than sheer volume: I'm writing a draft of history and I don't know yet what to do with John Edwards. Great candidate, great policies, great supporters... did something stupid.

This writer says it's time to give John a break.

Despite the firm and disappointing "President-elect Obama is not in favor of the legalization of marijuana," Esquire says anti-prohibitionists are hopeful and think it might be a late second term thing.

Watch your headlines in the era of tabbed browsers: Obama and peeved progressives gets truncated to the first eleven letters. Almost as good as "News From The Associated Press."