On the Fiscal Cliff, Republicans Got Nothin’

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Daniel Gross, writing for The Daily Beast:

The reality should be seeping in to viewers of the Sunday shows that the Republicans don’t have a game plan. They don’t have a single, specific proposal to avoid the fiscal cliff. And even if they had one, they don’t have a roadmap to get there. They keep expecting Obama to come back with something more to their liking, which they’d also reject. Many Republicans literally don’t understand what is happening. Sen. Charles Grassley tweeted over the weekend that he was frustrated that President Obama hadn’t embraced the recommendation of the Bowles-Simpson Commission. Apparently, he is one of the many people in Washington who doesn’t understand that Bowles-Simpson recommended letting the Bush tax rates on the wealthy expire, while also proposing to cap or eliminate deductions primarily enjoyed by the wealthy. Above all, the Republicans have yet to grasp that the field is tilted against them. Republicans have every reason to expect, based on their scouting of past Obama performances, that he will start moving toward them and then, essentially, bargain with himself. But now he doesn’t have to. Right now, the policy choice isn’t between an Obama proposal the Republicans abhor and a preferred Republican proposal. No, the choice is between an Obama proposal the Republicans abhor and the fiscal cliff, which Republicans would like even less and the Democrats could live with for a while. The Republicans are losing, and time is running out. But instead of putting the quarterback on the field and rolling out an aggressive two-minute drill, they seem to be preparing to punt. I really get the sense that our team is winning this fight. Perhaps the first four years of the Obama administration were him building up his list of 'been there done that' situations that he can now look back on to make the right political situations this next go-round. The next four years of the Obama administration might be like the last four of the Clinton one (in terms of the economy I hope, not the scandals).

Elevation Dock With Lightning Adapter

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Marco Arment, writes:

The primary appeal of the original Elevation Dock was the ease of removing your iPhone from it. Apple’s crappy little docks were so lightweight that you’d need to annoyingly hold them down while removing the phone, often requiring two hands. Elevation Lab made a great video on Kickstarter demonstrating how frustrating other docks were, and showing how easily the iPhone lifted out of their heavy base with their custom, low-friction connector. We all saw that video and knew that frustration, and that’s why they were able to far surpass their Kickstarter goal so easily. And with the iPhone 4S, it really did work that well, once we eventually got our Elevation Docks. But with the Lightning adapter, the Elevation Dock works like all of the other docks in that video. Marco summed up my exact experiences with our adapters. While I'm glad it looks good sitting on my desk, the grippiness of the Lightning cable into the iPhone 5's Lightning port is tight. This would be a good thing, normally, just not in this situation. Read his entire piece.

New iMacs Go On Sale

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This morning, as promised, Apple made available the new iMacs to order. My primary home machine is a 1st generation 27" iMac that I bought in November of 2009 when they were first released. It reached 3 years old this week, and boy does it feel it. The percentage of time that I beach ball increases on a monthly basis and compared to my new (as of 8 months ago) iMac I use at work, this machine feels like a dinosaur. I've been waiting for Apple to release this machine for a while now, but ever since they announced them in October I was unsure of one thing: storage options. The allure of the new Fusion Drive appeals to me, but after giving it some thought, I had decided that I would rather have the same configuration as the iMac I have on my desk in the office at work. That machine is configured with a 256GB SSD + 1TB HD combo. It's fantastic - lots of secondary storage for archiving videos, and other large sized files, while having the performance of the SSD as the primary drive. I was hoping that the new configuration options for the iMacs would allow for the following scenarios: HD, FD, SSD, SSD + HD, SSD + FD. Ideally I wanted a 512GB SSD + a 3 TB Fusion Drive. Sadly, the configuration options are HD or FD or SSD. No two drive options are available. Given this, I think the best option for myself is the 3TB Fusion Drive or either the 768GB SSD and then for me to pickup an external 3TB Thunderbolt drive. I plan to wait a few weeks for Anandtech to get their hands on one of these Fusion Drives to benchmark it to see how it performs.

Joe Biden Goes Shopping At DC's New Costco

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What's not to love about this guy?

Biden “engaged in an extended Costco shopping spree, to the delight of shoppers and employees at the store,” according to the pool report. The vice president flashed his Costco card as he walked through the doors to loud cheers. Employee Ivey Stewart handled a cart for Biden, who stopped frequently for hugs and photos.

Sacks For Sandy

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Two awesome people that I know, Leah Reich and Michele Catalano have organized a toy drive for children who were victims of Hurricane Sandy's wrath. It's simple really, you head to the Sacks for Sandy site and click on the link to the Amazon Wishlist for the gift drive. Purchase a gift and make sure you select Michelle as the shipping address (it's a pre-filled in option for you on the shipping page) and the gifts will be delivered to Michelle who will see that they're delivered to kids in an Sandy affected area. There are also ways on the site to donate money directly to the cause, donate your time if you live nearby, or other ways that you can help out. The good news is that initially they had set a goal of 500 gifts. Within 24 hours they've already had 400+ donations so they've upped the goal to 1000 gifts. Please spread the word and consider making a donation yourself.