So Dan Gillmor says that Dean’s new campaign manager is a horrible, horrible lobbyist. Unfortunate. He also harps on Dean’s flip-flopping, something I find not that important. I like a politician who expresses an opinion, reconsiders, then changes his mind. Flip-flopping, while easy to play ‘gotcha’ journalism with, indicates three things:

• A politican with an opinion
• A politician who considers things
• A politician who can change his mind based on consideration

Now, Gillmor’s charges of Dean’s pandering on the religious and family fronts are just disturbing. This kind of wedge issue stuff is just ridiculous. Dean shouldn’t play to it, and neither should anyone else.

Gamefly delivered Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic to me yesterday. So far, it’s pretty great. It turns out that I’m really into RPGs. Must have been my nethack upbringing. Oh, for a crysknife!

Via metafilter, I learn of some disturbing privacy/Internet related stuff that came out of Howard Dean’s mouth two years or so ago. Declan McCullagh (a “name” reporter on tech issues, of dubious reliability) writes for ZDNet (whom I loathe) that Dean advocated a national, biometric, smart card ID, and proposed that the use of this ID be mandatory on all computers and internet terminals. Text of speech available at the website of the “trusted” computing company at whose behest he spoke.

Okay, that is a sucky thing to say, Howard. Take it back. You were just talking out loud, right?

The Register has an article which, shall we say, refines some of the points made by McCullagh (who brought us the “Al Gore says he invented the internet meme”). I haven’t found the time to read the actual speech yet (and I doubt many people will), so getting more than one point of view on it seems good.

Looking at Project Vote Smart today, which turns your 9-Digit ZIP code into voting information. (I prefer “ZIP+4″ to “9-Digit ZIP”, personally.)

I’m tempted to donate some money to Al Hamburg, just because of the awesome hat he’s wearing in his photo on the curious amazon.com political contribution page. What does he stand for? Probably a bunch of stuff I find really disgusting.

I’d vote for Mr. Zip, though. Some people love him so much that they’re actually boycotting the use of Zip codes until the Postmaster brings him back. Which seems extreme. On the other hand, I would love to hear his theme song, “Zip-a-dee-doo-dah” (sung by Ethel Merman).

Any excuse to put up a picture of fellow Northwestern alum Jerry Orbach (Speech ’56) is a good one.

Really, I just want to mention the Law and Order Coloring Book, and the related exhibit of Law & Order related artwork, “Law & Order: Artistic Intent”.