Couldn’t Help But Notice (010508)

Apple appears to be making a big business move:

Want a coffee with your iPhone?

Apple (nasdaq: AAPL - news - people ) Chief Executive Steve Jobs wants to patent a process that will save customers the hassle of waiting to order a cup of coffee at a local Starbucks (nasdaq: SBUX - news - people ) or a fresh burger at the nearest fast food restaurant. Even better: The technology would let you jump the line of those ordering in person.

In an application with the U.S. Patent Office published on Dec. 20, the Cupertino, Calif.-based computer and gadget company described a wireless system that would allow customers to place an order at a store using a wireless device such as a media player, a wireless personal digital assistant or a cellphone.

….. Apple’s application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office describes a process for placing an order and then notifying customers when an order is ready to grab at a pick-up station. One goal, the patent application notes, is to avoid an “annoying wait in a long queue if the purchaser arrives before completion of the order.”

The technology promises to morph Apple from the business of simply selling gadgets and music and movies that can be played on those devices into an intermediary in all kinds of exchanges.

The price of an iPhone doesn’t look quite so ridiculous.

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Diana West: “A ‘Defining Atrocity’? Yes, Against Our Marines” –

….. What a difference a year has made since charges came down at the end of 2006. The New York Times in October mourned — I mean, noted — the shift: “Last year, when accounts of the killings of 24 Iraqis in Haditha by a group of Marines came to light, it seemed that the Iraq war had produced its defining atrocity, just as the conflict in Vietnam had spawned the My Lai massacre a generation ago.”

No “defining atrocity”? Gee, that’s too bad. The Times went on to lament that the presiding military investigator recommended that murder charges against the ranking enlisted Marine, Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich, be dropped. And this, the newspaper bellyached, “may well have ended prosecutors’ chances of winning any murder convictions in the killings.”

No murder convictions? Well, boo — the heck — hoo.

This isn’t to suggest that the four remaining Marines facing legal proceedings are in the clear……

….. On May 17, 2006, Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., piled on to say what happened at Haditha was actually “much worse” than the Time story. Official investigations were still underway, but the ranking member of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee repeatedly condemned the Marines for having “killed innocent civilians in cold blood.”

…..End of story? Not necessarily. The week before Christmas, the North County Times of San Diego reported that lawyers for (Haditha defendant Stephen) Tatum have asked the military court to order Murtha to submit to interviews about his comments. They also “want to force an interview with retired Marine Corps Commandant Michael Hagee about what Hagee may have said to Murtha or others about the Haditha killings.”

The judge has yet to rule on this matter, but I, for one, hope he orders up the interviews. What is said may reveal that the Iraq war has indeed produced its “defining atrocity” — against our own Marines.

So do I.

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Hillary booed (HT Gateway Pundit), and rebuffed (link may require subscription):

Hillary Clinton didn’t get the answer she was looking for when she finished her speech at the 100 Club Dinner, an annual event hosted by the New Hampshire Democratic Party.

A subdued Clinton gave a condensed version of her standard stump speech at the event, which featured speeches from several Democratic candidates. She ended the talk by asking, “Who will be the best president from day one?” the crowd let out a huge “Obama!” cheer, standing on chairs and drowning out the Clinton supporters.

I doubt that either the boos or the rebuff would have been reported if they had occurred before the advent of New Media.

Hillraiser (last item at link) Norman Hsu has also been convicted (HT Instapundit) and sentenced to three years in prison in a California fraud case.

A booing, a rebuff, and a conviction. These are three of at least a half-dozen items that that would finish, or would long since have finished, anyone else’s presidential candidacy.

But now that Mrs. Clinton is facing real voters, it may finally be that the Old Media “Whitewash” she has had going in her favor for over 15 years will no longer protect her.