The worst Democrat is infinitesimally better than the "best" Republican.

-- pantanal

I have two words for you:

Joe Lieberman.

Case rested.

...is an Independent. An outlier... I mean an outliar.

Yes.

Bet on it.

(Simple answers to simple questions, h/t Duncan...;-)

Thanks - it was good to sleep in a bit today and take it easy. The return of moderately cold weather has gotten everyone sick this week.

Do you know a hard disk recovery company in the Bay Area that is reliable and keeps good confidentiality? I have a disk drive with 2 years of hard work on it that isn't responding to the outside world (it may have become autistic).

To paraphrase The Graduate, "Ben, just one word. Are you listening? Backups...." ;-)

I've been somewhat remiss myself, and only recently started doing regular dumps to an external 500GB. Most of my stuff was backed up, but my older JPEG photos were only on an older 300GB external, which has gone foobar. The company (Maxtor, bought by Seagate) has their own data recovery service (on their web page), which I'm going to inquire about rather than rescan in several hundred old negatives and slides (unless all fails). Don't know what they cost, though.

As for others in the Bay Area, I don't know off the top of my head. I could ask around from the IT folks I know (I'm telecom, not IT services, and frankly hate WinDoze and Micro$ux...).

Cheers,

Lieberman is officially not a Democrat but an Independent, and even when he was nominally a Democrat, he was actually a Republican. The broader issue however is that in the highly imperfect reality we live in,and for the foreseeable future, if we don't get a Democratic president, we will get a Republican president, nothing in between. I completely agree with all the criticism of the Democrats capitulation. However, this republic can't survive 4 or 8 more years of a Republican in the white house, so unfortunately, for the time being, we need to settle for the lesser of two evils.

Another 56-44 vote for cloture (or thereabouts).

Have we now entered the realm of comedic tragedy, or just plain tragedy?

Karen, without gluten, the world would be bereft of baguettes. Not a world I'd willingly live in. (Avoid doctors and accept the consequences? Well....)

Ondelette, I have no advice to offer, only sympathy. I do regular backups, but even so, at that horrible moment when the clunking starts, or a reboot doesn't produce that satisying whine, well....

Given that your info might be of particular interest to ambitious IT types, though, I'd be wary of non-bonded recovery services. Good luck, in any case.

fwiw, these companies are based in the bay and offer recovery services. Gillware is pricy (over 400 bucks) Craigslist has a lot of computer listings but you are taking a risk with someone you don't know.

http://services.seagate.com/

http://www.gillware.com/index.php

Do buttons contain casein? If so, then you might want to avoid them, too. Considering that casein is a main ingredient in tempera paint, can it really be good for anyone, except those with cast-iron stomachs?

Seriously, good luck with your recovery project. I had something like that happen a year or so ago, but fortunately most of what I had been working on was online, since I had to reformat. That Norton utility that restores to a previous configuration got stuck in a loop. It was awful. There was no other recourse. I've sworn of Norton, too.

WT, I wouldn't give up wheat willingly, either. In fact, I dug in my heels and resisted the whole way, but in the end I had no choice, if I didn't want to waste away. Amazingly, there is a company that produces small baguettes, along with some other gluten-free items. You would not like the baguettes, though. I only buy them on rare occasions.

Over time, I have found a few compensations, one of which was regaining a more youthful figure. (Honestly, I'd prefer to eat wheat.) ;~)

I think your blackmail/wiretapping idea has merit, especially given the inexorable lack of confidence that the Democratic caucus must have in the maladministration.

If BushCo had only demonstrated a bit of competence, they might have less to worry about.

There's gotta be 4 more restrooms somewhere, where we can get rid of 4 more Republican senators and get people to get the vote passed.

Maybe the Democrats should tell the Republicans that if they try to hang the next terrorist attack on them, they'll retaliate by telling the world what the Republicans were doing when the terrorists attacked, and with whom, for how much, and whether or not there's an open file on them down at the ASPCA for petting the goat.

[Thanks again, everybody, thanks, Arne.]

I completely agree with all the criticism of the Democrats capitulation. However, this republic can't survive 4 or 8 more years of a Republican in the white house, so unfortunately, for the time being, we need to settle for the lesser of two evils. -- pantanal

I disagree. The way I see it, this "representative republic," as it is now and the direction it is headed, can and will survive until the rest of the world finally has had enough of it. It is thriving at the moment actually. Doing anything and everything it cares to do. What we imagined we had, either never actually existed or has been turned into something that doesn't have to "survive" Republicans and Democrats. This republic is a product of those two parties, not one suffering under and/or about to be destroyed because of their "leadership." Both parties are, and have been, building it for the last what? 50 years or so?

Settling for the lesser of two evils is simply an attempt to "work within the system," that both Republicans and Democrats have created, and thus amounts to an agreement that things should continue on, as they have been, for the foreseeable future.

http://www.chris-floyd.com/content/view/1272/135/

(I'm telecom, not IT services, and frankly hate WinDoze and Micro$ux...).

Cheers,

-- Arne Langsetmo

All hail the glorious Linus T!