There are dozens of stories like this one on the internet today. Basically, there are a lot of rumors going around that Apple is introducing a video iPod in a week. If these rumors tell us anything, it’s that Apple is not introducing a video iPod in a week. More likely, they’re releasing something new–a revision of the Powerbooks, maybe, but my guess is the long-rumored iPDA. Steve Jobs has said that Apple had developed a PDA but never released it (he’s never been a big fan of the devices–he killed the classic ahead-of-its-time Newton). I’m sure they didn’t let that field lie fallow. An intriguing possibility (and one I find pretty unlikely) is that they’ll be releasing a Treo-ish smartphone. More likely it’ll be a standard PDA, demonstrating the viability of a mobile OSX–and setting the stage for a smartphone next year with seamless iTunes integration and solid state memory.

Or maybe they will release an iPod Video. If they do, it’ll be the same form-factor as the iPod Photo, basically, with the ability to play short movies (like music videos) synched through iTunes. Note, though, that a new version of iTunes was just released (and cleared all my song ratings, incidentally) just a couple of weeks ago.

So, in summary: no iPod Video. Probably a PDA. Maybe a smartphone. Possibly a crappy iPod Video, despite my protestations to the contrary.

Andrew Sullivan writes in the Sunday Times about the ongoing torture going on in Iraq, and about an American soldier, Ian Fishback, who’s doing his best to bring the injustice to light. After doing all he could to inform his superiors, who were unwilling to take his concerns seriously, Fishback kept moving up the line until he got to decorated veteran and POW John McCain. His letter to McCain (quoted in Sullivan’s piece) paints an ugly picture of horrible and officially-sanctioned behavior, before, during, and after the events of Abu Ghraib.

This is pretty astonishing and awful in itself, but it also seems like the most recent example of a serious conservative taking issue with the policies and behavior of people near the top of the GOP (especially the White House). Most of the criticism of Miers is being launched from the Right. The war in Iraq is enjoying little-to-no support, both among voters and their representatives. The way the federal government bungled Katrina, whether due to incompetence or worse, had people all over the political spectrum up in arms. Tom DeLay, whether he ends up convicted of anything or not, seems to have been involved in some pretty shady behavior. The economy isn’t exactly thriving. Oil prices have stabilized, maybe, but they’re higher than ever. The environment is getting lip service. And now it seems that the malfeasance exemplified by the Abu Ghraib scandal will be coming back into the spotlight.

I’m not saying these things are the result of conservative values–if anything, I’d say that a lot of what’s gone wrong in the last 6 years has been due to a renunciation of the values the GOP has traditionally trumpeted. And the rest? A renunciation of ethical, democratic (i.e. democracy, not Ted Kennedy), and compassionate values. How much worse can it get for the GOP? And what’s going to be the result of it all?