BuzzMachine... by Jeff Jarvis

August 25, 2004

Dance and the world dances with you

: John Perry Barlow plans to disrupt the RNC by breaking into spontaneous dancing.

Delegates will no doubt think this is normal New York behavior. Artsy-farts, we New Yorkers.

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They're forever blowing bubbles

: Loved this phrase in Om Malik's coverage of the big injection of VC bucks into Vonage today:

Citron said Vonage was cash-flow positive excluding the costs of acquiring new customers, according to the newsreport.

That's like saying the company is cash-flow positive, excluding expenses.

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Moooooo

: I am in the cattlecar that is Continental at O'Hare. Well, actually, I'm in the Kobe beef car, the airline club, and it still feels like we're livestock.

Why does anybody fly anywhere anymore?

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Dead trees tell no tales

: Can't find the exact AP story I found in various papers today (I'm on a slow connection at the O'Hare lounge right now) but I find it hilarious that Barnes & Noble and other booksellers say they're being accused of bias for not having enough copies of the Swifties' tome when, of course, that is the fault of the Swifties' right-wing publisher, who clearly didn't believe in this enough to print enough copies.

See also Amazon's shift of its review policy on this book, giving into the mudslinging that has become the standard of this campaign:

"We've decided to suspend our normal customer review policies and rules for this title," according to the notice. "For example, we usually prohibit ad hominem attacks. That policy in particular seems to be incompatible with presidential election year politics. Therefore, short of obscenities, reviews on this book are now a free-for-all. We take no responsibility for the following discussion. Aren't presidential election years great? Have fun!"

Yes, what fun: democracy as a contact sport. Whippee!

: UPDATE: The Reuters story:

Barnes & Noble, the world's largest bookseller, on Monday issued a statement saying it had sold out of the book and, in effect, held up its hands in surrender to what it called "thousands of complaints" from both supporters and detractors of the book.

Supporters, Barnes & Noble said, are claiming the bookseller has intentionally not stocked the title or is hiding it, while detractors are asking stores to remove it altogether.

"(Complaints) started in the stores, and the home office has been inundated as well," said a company spokeswoman.

And the AP:

Its publisher, Regnery Publishing Inc., won't have more books available until later this week, and that order also will not be able to meet demand, Barnes & Noble CEO Steve Riggio said in a release.

Riggio said Barnes & Noble has no political agenda.

"The fact is Regnery has not been able to keep up with customer demand for this title," he said. "Further, the publisher cut our original order for the book in half. We've been put in the difficult position of having to defend ourselves over a title we can't seem to get enough copies of from the publisher."

Well, gee, if the Swifties think this is so damned important, maybe they should just put it up on the web... for free.

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Comrades at arms

: Got a nice email from Andrew Sullivan, on R&R, offering covering fire on the Swifties and Instaphnom. Hurry back from the beach, Andrew.

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Campaign punches and punchlines

: Jon Stewart started his interview with John Kerry saying, "I watch a lot of the cable news shows, so I understand that you were never in Vietnam.".

Right?

At a time when the campaign has become so dirty and sad, it was smart to go on a show where people could not only get back to the issues but get back to civility and laughter.

Beats the news.

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Character III

: The Freeway Blogger gives us historical perspective on character. (See the Revolutionary War Veterans for Truth.)

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Character: II

: If I were going to talk character as an issue -- and I won't -- I'd be more concerned about a candidate who allowed or condoned dirty campaigning in the present tense than about these particular supposed sins -- by either candidate -- in the past tense.

Every voter I know from both sides is turned off by the slime being slung during this campaign.

This is leadership?

You can say that the left was first with Michael Moore, attack dog, accusing Bush of deserting. And you'd be right. But it's the Swifties who are now leaving a bad taste in the mouths of voters.

In fact, if they keep going, I think there's a good chance that the Swifties and their ilk, having broken the camel's back, will end up winning this race for Kerry.

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Character: I

: If all goes according to plan, the Philadelphia Inquirer's op-ed page will be reprinting my post about character as a nonissue today.

Very cool that the Inquirer quotes from blogs every Wednesday. That's the ticket: Listen to the people.

[And, hello, Philadelphians. I can't let this opportunity pass without giving my sister, the Rev. Cynthia Jarvis at Chestnut Hill Presbyterian, a plug.]

: UPDATE: It's in the paper.

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Whereabouts

: I'll be traveling much of today, going to Chicago to talk to a very big ad agency about the wonders of citizens' media. Posting when possible.

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