Betsy Devine: Funny ha-ha and/or funny peculiar

And that’s the conservative Manchester (NH) Union Leader. Here’s John DiStaso , two days ago, with a story that no other paper is following up:

Are Republican donors still paying big time for the legal defense of convicted 2002 phone-jamming conspirator James Tobin?

The Republican National Committee’s latest financial report shows a disbursement of $1,771,360.21 on Dec. 15 to the Washington law firm of Williams and Connolly LLP, which has defended Tobin since he was indicted in December 2004.

The RNC last August acknowledged doling out $722,000 for Tobin’s defense in 2004 and early 2005.

Yesterday, RNC spokesman Aaron McLear wouldn’t say what the latest disbursement to the firm was for.

If it was for Tobin, well — ka-ching. That’s a total of $2.5 million.

That ka-ching comes to you–not from Betsy Devine, a tax-and-spend liberal from way back–but from a very conservative NH newspaper, the only one trying to cover this cover-up…. Republicans too are unhappy with their national party’s slither down into corruption. Shame on the national press for letting this slide.

Cory Doctorow, looking noir and full of energy in London, waiting to speak at Suw Charman’s February 7 Open Rights Group (ORG) meeting. The corporate push to get “digital rights management” built into future hardware has moved to Europe. IMO, they’d be better off targeting the largescale commercial pirates in other ways! Punishing teens who make mashups to show their friends is a fruitless, mean-spirited use of their shareholders’ dollars, pounds, and Euros.

• “There’s nobody out there who wants his next TV to be able to do fewer things than the one he has now.”
• “In the US, we killed the Broadcast Flag by convincing politicians it would be unpopular to start breaking people’s televisions.”
• “It’s a bad idea to build your business model on the idea that you can make bits of information hard to copy.”

• Simon Willison (yes, that Simon Willison)
• Natalie Downe (my turn to buy the drinks, next time we meet)
• Ben Metcalfe (thanks for the tube ticket, Ben!)
• Kevin Anderson
• Tom Morris
• Tom Steinberg
• James Cox (Imajes)
• Glyn Wintle
• Michael Holloway

I did not, however, meet “Mike Arrington”, whose name got on the wikilist even though Mr. TechCrunch was in Arizona at Demo…

A good time was had by all–if in London, make your way to the next one!

Go on, take a butcher’s at The Fair Dinkum, Ridgy Didge, Dinky die, True Blue, Dyed-in-the-wool, Let’s Talk Strine SAO Quiz.

And, after you finish, you’ll understand “take a butcher’s” and many other useful expressions from Down Under.

Disclosure: I myself have an unfair advantage because, at Ookles, I work with Mike Air, who lives in Sydney, and claims he rides to work on a kangaroo. Although, thanks to this quiz, I now suspect he may have been bunging me on…

Dabble, an exciting new startup in the Web 2.0 space, got a great sendoff from Om Malik. Om says that with so many online sources of great video, people increasingly need some way to organize favorites.

Mary Hodder is calling her early release a “balpha“–I’m on the list to play with the beta version, so I guess I still have some time to wait.

Congratulations to Mary and team on a great beginning. Extra praise–from all who are sick of “Web 2.0”–to both Om and Mary for coming up with evocative new words for the rest of us to play with.

Now appearing in this photoset on Flickr.

Sorry no more now–hope there will be a bit more time and connectivity once we get to Cambridge, some time tomorrow.

Thanks to the University of Liverpool, Alon, Tim, Julia, Ian, and more for hospitality that was both brilliant and fab. Er, not one of these people really has a Scouse accent (translation: sounds like Ringo), but I met lots and lots of others who do.

Wow, the beautiful galley proofs came today, shaped just like a book–I flickred 6 photos with the tagline “New Wilczek baby has its father’s face.”

Meanwhile, running on the same brain circuits, Scott Johnson is planning an Ookles launch world tour! Yes, Scott J and Ookles and I are coming soon to a city near you–assuming you live near a city we’re coming to. More in the Ookles blog as the story develops.

And oh yes, just a little tiny extra–Frank and I are leaving for England today. First Liverpool (you can expect some Beatles blogging), then Cambridge. I hope very much to get down to London on Feb. 7 to lend support to Suw and Cory and all the other fine Open Rights Group ppl networking at … 01Zero-One? Okay, I’ll find it somehow.

Not to mention that Amity and Colin just got back from New Zealand where they saw keas and kakas (sp?) and swam with dolphins whose fins look like Mickey Mouse ears. I haven’t heard enough of their stories yet.

So if Frank Paynter wonders why I didn’t blog Bush’s State of the Union spinny speechette–this will have to serve as my excuse.