Bad Day

I was going to post today about Bush and his unabashed ballsiness in trying to make his administration's illegal acts legal, but f*** it, I don't have the energy to be outraged right now. I just had (and hopefully got out of) a fight with my lovely ladyfriend, so I want to post about HAPPY THINGS!!

NEW IPODS! The big iPod is the same, just with a bigger hard drive, and the Shuffle now has a smaller form-factor and a brushed metal casing with an attached clip. But the nano is where Apple really nailed it. Finally, a worthy successor to the mini! The soft plastic "look-at-it-wrong-and-it-scratches" casing is replaced with a seamless brushed metal enclosure inspired by the mini (Apple's best seller, for good reason). That's the biggest feature, and frankly it's the best decision Apple has made in a long time. The nano has always had the potential to be as big as the mini was, but it was held back by poor design. Hell, used minis have been big sellers on ebay, probably in direct competition with the last-gen nano. No more!

Nice work, Apple. It's been a long time coming, but it's good to see you were listening!
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In the interest of not letting these freedom-trampling fuckers completely off the hook just because I'm having a rough day, here are the links to the stories I was going to write about:

Bush and his team pressuring Congressional Republicans to "approve greater Executive power".

"Bush's proposals would narrow the U.S. legal interpretation of the Geneva Conventions in a bid to allow tougher interrogations and shield U.S. personnel from being prosecuted for war crimes."

Senate Judiciary Committee approves bill that expands gov't ability to spy on U.S. citizens without warrants, reduces Congressional oversight.

"Specter's bill concedes the government's right to wiretap Americans without warrants, and allows the U.S. Attorney General to authorize, on his own, dragnet surveillance of Americans so long as the stated purpose of the surveillance is to monitor suspected terrorists or spies."

...snip...

"Specter has moved to have his bill voted upon next week by voice vote, called a unanimous consent motion, according to the ACLU's Graves. Such a procedure would leave no record of who voted for or against the bill."

My skin is crawling.