The latest news out of Microsoft and Apple should put to rest any doubts that tech companies are going all-in with touch-based interfaces. Microsoft recently offered a preview of Windows 8, which features customizable “tiles” instead of the traditional desktop environment. The “tiles” are part of Microsoft’s strategy to market Windows 8 as a tablet-friendly operating system. Instead of pointing and clicking, the demo emphasizes swiping and “snapping”. And then there’s Apple, which unveiled Lion, the next version of its desktop operating system. Lion features plenty of gesture-based commands that mimic the gestures used on iPhones and iPads.

I’m sure plenty of people will find these interfaces intuitive and useful, but I worry that these companies will start incorporating touch-based functions that have no keyboard or mouse equivalent. Right now, I can perform almost any Windows function that anyone else can. Will that still be true when I upgrade to Windows 8 or 9? Both Apple and Microsoft have been great advocates and enablers of computer accessibility. I don’t expect that to change overnight, but they may need a gentle reminder that user interfaces should be flexible enough to meet the needs and preferences of the user. Plenty of consumers, gimp and able-bodied alike, simply have no use for a gesture-based and are quite happy with the mouse cursor. Don’t take it away from us.

Michelle Bachmann, Minnesota’s most regrettable contribution to the American body politic, appears poised to run for president. I’m beginning to harbor a morbid hope that Sarah Palin enters the race just so I can watch these two battle each other for the hearts and minds of this country’s paranoid fringe. Bachmann alone is sure to utter some nonsense that will be epic in its lunacy; one can only imagine the absurdity that will ensue if she and Palin become opponents. The possibility makes me giddy. Of course, that giddiness will quickly dissipate on the day I wake up to a Palin-Bachmann Inauguration Day and I’m hauled in for questioning by the local militia.

Suzy Khimm is fast becoming one of my must-read journalists covering health care policy. She seems to understand the nuances of the budget debates over entitlement programs better than many of her peers. Her coverage of Medicaid issues is particularly good, as evidenced in this guest post at Ezra Klein’s blog on Medicaid and managed care. Khimm notes that more states are requiring people with disabilities and the elderly to enroll in managed care as a condition of receiving Medicaid. States hope that a managed-care-for-all model will help control Medicaid costs at a time when nearly every state is facing enormous deficits. The evidence for managed care as a cost containment strategy is dubious at best, but that hasn’t swayed states like Florida from passing sweeping legislation that will transform its entire Medicaid program into a managed care model.

Here in Minnesota, Governor Dayton recently vetoed a human services bill that would have placed people with disabilities and the elderly in Medicaid managed care and similar legislation might be put forward again in a special session. I remain unconvinced that managed care organizations can deliver lower-cost care to a population that is inherently expensive. State legislators’ enthusiasm for the model can mostly be ascribed to two things: a belief that the private sector does everything better and sheer fiscal desperation. And since managed care has not been previously used for these populations, legislators are free to book savings that are mostly conjecture and guesstimates. What remains to be seen is whether these same legislators will still be as enthusiastic boosters of private enterprise when the managed care organizations start demanding more money to serve people like me.

Hubert Humphrey is something of a fading demigod in these parts. His name is stamped on sports stadiums and academic institutions, but a growing number of Minnesotans probably only have the vaguest idea of who he is. Humphrey would have turned 100 and Rick Perlstein commemorates the occasion in the Times with a clear-eyed yet admiring analysis of Humphrey’s legacy. Humphrey was the perfect embodiment of Minnesota-style progressivism: humble, sincere, resolute, and egalitarian. That kind of progressive spirit has been in retreat in Minnesota over the last several years, but it hasn’t completely disappeared. There will never be another Hubert Humphrey, but we can strive to realize his vision of a better Minnesota and a better country.

I wouldn’t be much of a geek if I didn’t point out that today is Towel Day. In honor of Douglas Adams, grab your favorite towel, head down to local pub to knock back a few pints, and maybe recite some Vogon poetry if the mood strikes you. I’ll join you as soon as I remember where I put that babel fish.