The Register
US university has outraged its student rag by trying to charge $20 for Microsoft software access - even if students don't use it.

University of Maryland officials have proposed everyone pay the semester fee - even those who don't own a computer, who already have their own MS, or simply prefer to use another kind of software.

News, Views and a Silicon Valley Diary
Free speech is always under assault in this country, but an ''anti-leaking'' bill (New York Times; registration required) on President Clinton's desk is one of the worst attacks yet.

This one is a slimy attempt by people in the administration and Congress to let officials decide what citizens may learn about what their government is doing in their name. It is, as opponents say, a blank check to keep government misdeeds out of the public's notice.

FEED | Daily 11.01.00
Napster has always been a revolution within the commercial music business, not against it, and yesterday's deal between BMG and Napster demonstrates that at least one of the five major labels understands that. The press release was short on details, but the rough outlines of the deal has Bertelsmann dropping its lawsuit and instead working with Napster to create subscription-based access to its entire music catalog online. Despite a year of legal action by the major labels, and despite the revolutionary fervor of some of Napster's users, Napster's success has more to do with the economics of digital music than with copyright law, and the BMG deal is merely a recognition of those economic realities.

Politics & Prose - 2000.11.01 - Beatty
Still, Gore must win it. If Bush prevails, all three branches of government could easily be in the hands of a radical Republican Party -- the party of Lott and DeLay, of environmental legislation written by polluters, of tax cuts for 600,000 of the richest Americans, of the non-union open shop and striker replacement, of "regulatory relief" for corporations that foul the air and water and put the lives and safety of their workers at risk. It's the party that wants to stop government from protecting citizens from private interests but arm government with the power to regulate a woman's body. And it's the party of George W. Bush, as shallow a man as has ever aspired to the presidency, a man who cannot defend his own programs, a man so weak that he had to appeal to the moderator of the third debate -- "Jim!" -- to protect him from Big Bad Al Gore and his threatening questions. That moment should have sunk his candidacy. He can't cry "Jim!" in the Oval Office (though he could cry "Daddy!"). But it seems to have made no impression on focus groups of undecided voters, who thought Bush did well in the debate.

Decoding the Candidate
A man who must rely on the charity of listeners to get his message across may not seem like an ideal president

Decoding the Candidate
George W. Bush has a disconcerting habit of saying things that don't mean anything ("expectations rise above that which is expected," "more and more of our imports come from overseas") and an even more disconcerting habit of saying the opposite of what he means ("100 percent of the people will get the death tax," "if you say you're going to do something and don't do it, that's trustworthiness").

BookNotes News
Bush, the Education Govenor of Texas
* Teacher salaries at beginning of 1st term, 36th
* Teacher salaries at beginning of 2nd term, 38th
* Teacher salaries plus benefits, 50th
* Bush Family Values in Texas
* Highest number of children living in poverty, 2nd
* Highest % of children without health insurance, 1st
* Highest % of people stripped of Medicare benefits, 1st
* Number of executions, 1st
* Bush Pollution in Texas
* Pollution released by manufacturing plants, 1st
* Pollution by industrial plants in violation of Clean Air Act, 1st
* Greenhouse gas emissions, 1st
* Bush and the Quality of Life in Texas
* Spending for the arts, 48th
* Spending for the environment, 49th
* Affordable Housing, 48th
* Highest home insurance rates, 1st
* Spending for police protection, 47th

Salon.com Politics | Judging W's heart
This has, of course, reared its head before. There was Tucker Carlson's article in Talk magazine last year that recounted Bush's callous mocking of the death row pleas of Karla Faye Tucker. His constant campaign smiles when asked about the death penalty even led to one question during the third presidential debate about why he always seemed so "gleeful" when talking about capital punishment. And of course, his clumsiness and seeming indifference toward the family of James Byrd Jr. suggests, at least, a discomfort that would suggest his abilities as a racial healer may not extend much further than the multi-culti pageantry of the Republican Convention.

Salon.com Politics | Judging W's heart
"When did you graduate?" Bush asked her, as she recalls. She told him. That's when Bush told her that Yale "went downhill since they admitted women."

Salon.com Politics | Judging W's heart
Just as Bush is able to engage so effectively with the residents who are fellow born-again recovering addicts, he seems unable to understand why someone who doesn't believe in Jesus wouldn't want tax dollars going into proselytizing Christian activities. He similarly didn't get it when he opposed the recent Supreme Court decision that denied Christian public school students the right to force their prayers into the ears of everyone who attended their Friday night football games. These are not examples of intolerance or cruelty as much as, apparently, just witlessness. A few weeks ago, Washington Post reporter Terry Neal, an African-American, was sitting on the Bush campaign plane listening to his Walkman.

This beauty contest is rigged
Bush had a far more serious credibility problem than the vice president. Bush has proven himself untrustworthy on issues of considerable public import, rather than on those of trivial aspects of his biography. But, as Cokie Roberts points out ? in defense of herself and her colleagues I might add ? ?The story line is Bush isn?t smart enough and Gore isn?t straight enough. In Bush?s case, you know he?s just misstating ? as opposed to it playing into a story line about him being a serial exaggerator.? In other words, media bias in this election has given George Bush a license to lie.

This beauty contest is rigged
?America has already had one dimbulb as president and he was re-elected by landslide. The rose-colored nostalgia for Ronald Reagan, a president who reportedly could not recognize his own son at his high school graduation, has set a bar for Bush so low that would be difficult for him to miss if he were genuinely retarded. Bush could not help but perform up to this minimum level of competence. After all, all that was required of him was to give a decent speech at the Republican convention ? something any minimally trained actor could do ? and to ?hold his own? against Gore in three debates.

News, Views and a Silicon Valley Diary
I'm scared because the United States, a nation I love, is about to elect the most unqualified and/or intellectually dishonest president in this century.

The Register
So did they or didn't they? Through Friday Microsoft spokespeople, spinmeisters and execs seem to have been largely unsuccessful in damping down the fires started by the Wall Street Journal's 'Microsoft hacked' story, but by the end of the day some kind of corporate line seemed to be emerging - they didn't get anything, they didn't change anything, and anyway they weren't in there for long.