“Continuous commentary from The American Prospect

“, a weblog.

Tapped, though unsigned, is not, strictly speaking, the editorial voice of the magazine. Tapped frequently takes stances on issues where the magazine has no official stance of its own — and contributors may, from time to time, stray a bit from the magazine’s ideological bearings. Tapped may even, very occassionally, contradict itself. But such is the excitement of life at an intellectually vigorous publication where writers and editors struggle each day to figure out their take on world affairs and then pass those views on to our readers — and the world at large. With Tapped, we are pleased to be able to share our roughest rough draft with you.

“If an online wagering forum is to be believed, the events of the past few days have not altered the ranking of expected outcomes for next week’s congressional election.

Speculators on the Iowa Electronic Markets — a real-money election option exchange run by the University of Iowa — continue to see a Democratic Senate majority and a Republican-controlled House of Representatives as the most likely outcome of the Nov. 5 election.” Wired

ActForChange : Act Now: “It is essential that the U.N. be aware of the extent of domestic American opposition to a unilateral U.S. invasion of Iraq. Right now, President Bush is using the Congressional resolution giving him the right to use military force as evidence that he has the support of the American people.

Urge Secretary-General Kofi Annan to use his influence within the U.N. to block a resolution authorizing military force before the U.N. weapons inspectors have had sufficient time to do their job.” Sign and send an email from the site.

Richard Goldstein: What makes the pro-war progressives run? ‘There’s a real temptation to leave the chronic depression and ample masochism of the left behind. The war on terror can seem like an opening to build a muscular new progressivism with its feet on the ground. And speaking of feet, there’s an undeniable satisfaction in kicking a masochist while he’s down. Among the many rewards for sadism these days is the power it confers—and for progressives power is in terribly short supply. Finally, never underestimate the appeal to a critic of being taken seriously, and that means declaring your independence from left-wing “orthodoxies.” Village Voice Related: Via Rebecca Blood, Stand Down!, “the left-right blog opposing a war in Iraq.”

Kevin Bacon linked to Al-Qaeda [thanks, Walker]

Ellsberg: Still Rabble-Rousing

In the early 1970s, the Nixon administration was staggered when, as a Pentagon insider, (Daniel) Ellsberg leaked thousands of incriminating documents about U.S. lies and deception to the media regarding its foreign policy in Vietnam. The revelations of what came to be called the Pentagon Papers showed that at least four presidents had deliberately encouraged a war of dubious purpose in order to avoid the embarrassment of failure and to further their own agendas.

The parallels between the Vietnam War and the current pursuit of military action against Iraq are not lost on Ellsberg, who has remained on the lecture circuit since those infamous days.

“We were lied into Vietnam, and we’re being lied into a war right now,” he told a packed crowd at the Commonwealth Club Monday night… Wired

“BetaNews on Tuesday reported that in a newsgroup posting for beta testers a Microsoft representative said Office 11 would run only on Windows 2000 with Service Pack 3 and Windows XP.

Limiting the final version of Office 11 to Windows 2000 and XP would potentially encourage users of older operating systems to upgrade, but it could further erode relations between Microsoft and business customers already stung by increases in volume licensing fees, analysts say. Some business customers have indicated that they may explore alternatives to Office, such as Sun Microsystems’ StarOffice and OpenOffice, because of Microsoft’s licensing plan.” c/net. Notably absent from the story is a description of any features of Office 11 that would make anyone want to upgrade…

“This Halloween, Dracula and Frankenstein’s monster seem positively cuddly. To inspire some real fear, try dressing up as one of these current and former chief executives. Click on the images for a full-size, printer-friendly color mask. Now that’s scary.” Forbes [via lifeouttacontext]