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While personally I don’t think it makes much sense to holding someone accountable for actions their associate did 40 years ago, I could see how some people would think that significant. So regarding Obama’s association with Weather Underground cofounder Bill Ayers, I assumed the Republicans had jumped on a real issue and were legitimately hammering Obama on it. And that’s what a strong democracy is all about.

Except what the Republicans are saying about Obama and Ayers isn’t true.

My new favorite website, FactCheck.org, has put out a fantastic article on the attacks that McCain and Palin have been lobbing at Obama. Read their story: “He Lied” About Bill Ayers?.

FactCheck says of the ads, “We find McCain’s accusation that Obama “lied” to be groundless” and “Other claims are seriously misleading.” Overall, they say,

McCain-Palin campaign attempts to sway voters – in ads and on the stump – with false and misleading statements about the relationship, which was never very close. Obama never “lied” about this, just as he never bragged about it. The foundation they both worked with was hardly “radical.” And Ayers is more than a former “terrorist,” he’s also a well-known figure in the field of education.

Normally I don’t feel the need to parrot every new story on FactCheck.org, but I thought this one was important since most people probably assume, as I did, that there’s really some meat behind this whole Obama-Ayers thing. But after reading the FactCheck piece, it seems to be much ado about nothing.

I think it’s important now and then to remind ourselves how important some things are, especially things we might take for granted. I’ve become alarmed at the rate at which our rights to privacy are being eroded. So I’d just like to highlight two very interesting pieces on privacy.

The first is this article on Wired titled “The Eternal Value of Privacy” by Bruce Schneier (famous security technologist and author). I recommend reading the article, but here’s a crucial excerpt:

The most common retort against privacy advocates — by those in favor of ID checks, cameras, databases, data mining and other wholesale surveillance measures — is this line: “If you aren’t doing anything wrong, what do you have to hide?”

Some clever answers: “If I’m not doing anything wrong, then you have no cause to watch me.” “Because the government gets to define what’s wrong, and they keep changing the definition.” “Because you might do something wrong with my information.”

My problem with quips like these — as right as they are — is that they accept the premise that privacy is about hiding a wrong. It’s not. Privacy is an inherent human right, and a requirement for maintaining the human condition with dignity and respect.

The second thing I recommend is this amazingly interesting presentation by Mr. James Duane, a professor at Regent Law School and a former defense attorney. He explains in humorous detail why you should never agree to be interviewed by the police.

This ties right in with what else Bruce Schnier said in his article, namely that “Privacy protects us from abuses by those in power, even if we’re doing nothing wrong at the time of surveillance.” Call me paranoid now, but watch this video and I bet you’ll change your mind.

Again, I scour the blogs and podcasts so you don’t have to.

To the dismay of millions, Netflix service went down hard this week and they were unable to ship any DVDs for a few days. They sent out emails apologizing for the problem and even issued 15% credits to all affected users. Will this cause people to consider switching to Blockbuster Online? I doubt it. Even though we were annoyed by the lack of DVDs arriving in our mail, the thought of actually going down to the Blockbuster and then having to physically return the video days later just seems so old fashioned nowadays. We’re sticking with Netflix.

No good stuff and no full screen mode for NBC Olympics website. NBC and Microsoft could have created a pretty sweet experience for watching the Olympics online. But they ended up crippling the site and shooting themselves in the foot. First, you can’t watch any of the videos in full screen mode. NBCOlympics.com uses Microsoft’s Silverlight technology, which the Redmond company is hoping will become a real alternative to the ubiquitous Adobe Flash. So the Olympics site was a coming-out party of sorts for the new streaming video technology. But then for reasons that probably only make sense to TV executives, they neutered the video player and removed the ability to view in full screen (which Silverlight can normally handle easily). Then the decision was made (by the same boneheads probably) to only show day-old or uninteresting content on the website so as not to “cannibalize” their TV programming. They’ve since admitted that was a stupid move. In reviewing their own data, they realized that rather than cannibalizing, watching the Olympics on TV or online only encourages more viewing on the other. TV and the web are complimentary and both help make people more interested in the Olympics as a whole. It’s good to them finally recognize this, but don’t expect them to make any changes to their programming or full-screen mode for this Olympics.

As airline flights go up and up in price, at least here’s one bit of good news. Some airlines are looking into the possibility of providing WiFi internet connectivity on planes. In addition to wifi, they’re also considering adding live TV. Overall, this is pretty great. Flying has become an absolutely horrible experience for most people. So it’s good to see the airlines taking steps to make flying just a little nicer. Soon getting stuck on the tarmac for six hours without food or water won’t seem so bad because at least you’ll be able to watch the Daily Show and browse I Can Has Cheezburger. And by the way, the compusock concept (see image) is both hilarious and kind of confusing.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has a long history of suing fans who they accused of illegally sharing MP3s. But it seems they don’t always bother to get their facts straight before suing, and sometimes they attack with very little evidence at all. That was the case with Tanya Andersen. Here’s the back story, but in a nutshell she was sued by the RIAA and the judge found no evidence of any wrong doing. The RIAA was ordered to pay for Tanya’s legal fees. The judge awarded Tanya the fees in part to “deter prosecution tactics such as the RIAA’s”. After two years, “no one even remotely connected to the defendant has been alleged to be the actual infringer,” he wrote. That was in 2007. Well of course the RIAA wasn’t too happy about that and has done everything to avoid paying up. Well the big news this week is that after many attempts to negotiate a much lower amount, the RIAA has finally ponied up the $107.951.03 it owed Tanya..

The big international news has been the war between Russia and the old Soviet republic of Georgia. What hasn’t been spotlighted much in the mainstream media is the cyber-attack that Russia has launched against Georgia. At one point, all Georgian Web sites were blocked. Russian hackers worked to overload Georgian web sites and at the same time Russian backbone providers interfered with international web traffic to Georgian servers. Amazingly, it seems that not only was Russia blocking Georgian sites, it was altering or setting up dummy versions of Georgian government and news sites to make it seem like all was well in Georgia. Security researcher Jart Armin warned users not to trust any official-looking Georgian web sites that did not mention the Russian hostilities since these were most likely intercepted and altered by Russia. This is all pretty scary stuff. The next big war is going to be fought as much online as on land. China and Russia have legions of hackers working for them. Because of our strict law enforcement, we don’t have the distributed base of hackers in our country. But hopefully our government and military are taking steps to shore up our defenses. Even better, I hope somewhere, some Americans are working on good cyberwar offense (with blessing from our government of course).

And as we get closer to November, the political attack ads are only going to get more frequent and more blatant. I’m no fan of McCain, but his latest ads are ridiculous (those blaming Barack for high oil prices and claiming Barack will raise taxes). I’ve discussed the oil issue over and over already, but I decided to look into the tax issue this week. Here’s the breakdown of the two candidates’ plans according to CNN. Basically, McCain’s tax plan gives the biggest tax breaks to the wealthiest individuals and gives very small tax breaks to poorer families. Barack’s plan actually increases taxes for the wealthiest 1% and dramatically reduces taxes for less-well off families. Click the graphic for a more clear comparison between the two plans. McCain’s plan provides the largest cut on average but does so by giving a disproportionate amount of the benefit to the wealthiest individuals. So while the attack ads are technically correct (McCain’s plan provides a larger tax break on average), wouldn’t you rather the tax break go to those who need it most? Also, don’t forget that Barack’s lower average tax break means less need to further increase our national debt.

Lastly, a dog owner in MD was arrested after she ignored repeated requests to stop having her dogs poop on a neighbors lawn. This is an issue near and dear to my heart. In our little row of townhouses, we have many neighbors with dogs. Most of them are great and do a superb job picking up after their animals. But at least one or two of our neighbors let their dogs out unsupervised and fail to pick up after their pets when they defecate on our lawn. Seriously people, if you have a dog in the city, it’s your responsibility to pick up after them. Not doing so is disgusting and rude. Now, do I think these people should be arrested? Mmm, probably depends on the size of the dog…

Apparently this has been going on for a while, but I just discovered it. Comcast is apparently experimenting with different ways to improve their god-awful customer service. And one of those ways is by reaching out to people via Twitter. It’s pretty amazing, that given their track record, they are being so innovative.

This guy Frank in Philly manages the comcastcares Twitter account and he must monitor all uses of the term “Comcast” on Twitter (probably via a Summize search). When I recently twittered about a Comcast problem, I got a reply from comcastcares asking if he could help! I was floored.

After a little more digging, it turns out this is legit. If you checkout the comcastcares Twitter page, you’ll see tons of conversations going on between Frank and people out there with Comcast problems. He provides advice and suggestions and will even escalate your issues if you ask for his help. But maybe most importantly, he makes people feel like they’re actually being heard (by a real human!) and he provides some much needed moral-support to the legions of frustrated Comcast users.

I am definitely no fan of Comcast (previous rants here and here), but comcastcares/Frank has scored some major brownie points with me. Just the fact Comcast is doing this makes me think that maybe, just maybe, there’s hope for Comcast after all.

Am I still going to switch to FIOS as soon as it’s available? You betcha. But when that day comes, I’ll be a little sad to say goodbye to my new Twitter buddy.

I think this represents a brilliant new avenue for companies to build customer loyalty and improve customer service. Most Twitter-ers are part of the techno-elite and are very likely to be early adopters of hot new technologies. In other words, Twitter users are probably exactly the type of customer you really want to keep happy. These are the people that influence the buying habits of others and can make or break a new cool gadget or service.

There has never before been a tool like Twitter (or FriendFeed or whatever) that allows companies to reach out to their most valuable customers to make sure they have a good experience with their products. Let’s just hope more companies are smart enough to figure that out.

Keith Olberman from MSNBC goes on an awesome rant against the FISA bill and President Bush. It’s a must-watch regardless of how you feel about Bush and the current administration.

If you can’t watch the whole thing, jump to point 7:40 and listen from there, as that pretty much sums it up.

This totally kicks ass, although it does make my little blog post on the topic seem pathetically tame in comparison.