No. 1

The word "blog" has finally arrived.

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A Father's Farewell

Dad's moving tribute to son who died in Fallujah. Warning: Impossible to read without crying.

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Arafat the peacemaker

This is a pretty incredible story. Here's the lead:

RAMALLAH, West Bank -- The interim Palestinian leader has ordered government-controlled media to halt broadcasts of material that could incite hatred against Israel, Palestinian officials said Tuesday.

Think about that. The tacit order under Yasser Arafat -- one which he never found the courage or willingness to rescind -- was for the Palestinian media to foment hatred of the Israelis.

The chances of Middle East peace are higher right now than any time during my life -- due in no small part to the death of Arafat.

By the way, Arafat won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994. That award has certainly lost its luster.

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Acting globally

I just gave $10 to buy food and tents for the Ukranian protesters. Perhaps the Internet really will change the world.

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I wanna be like...

A great overlooked story.

Who knew that Michael Jordan's older brother served in the military? In fact, Command Sgt. Maj. James R. Jordan just asked the U.S. Army to extend his service beyond 30 years so that he may go with his troops over to Iraq. Now we know where his younger brother got his heart.

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Ukraine updates

Sounds like a lot of potentially good news coming out of the Ukraine. The high court has sided with the challenger and foreign governments are now rushing to condemn the vote as fraudulent. This site has a nice roundup of the latest news.

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Pat Tillman

Click here and vote for Pat Tillman for Sports Illustrated's Athlete of the Year. He's the pro football player who quit his job after Sept. 11 to join the Army. He died earlier this year in Afghanistan.

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John Turturro

Just saw "Mr. Deeds," another quietly enjoyable Adam Sandler picture. The film featured a great performance by John Turturro, an actor who rarely gets his due. He often plays serious dramatic roles but, like all great actors, does comedy extremely well. He must be tough to work with because he can steal any scene in which he appears. Anyone remember him as the hilariously manic bowler from "The Big Lebowski"? A classic.

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Incredible

The U.N. scandal gets more surreal by the day. It appears Kofi Annan's son was receiving payments from the government of Iraq. What a pristine organization.

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Whole new ball game

Here's a couple of good stories on how new media is killing off old media.

• On why newspapers will continue to suffer declines.
• On how a bunch of guys in pajamas cost Dan Rather his job.

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Bowl Games

Sad indictment of the profligacy of bowl games. If the right teams don't win this weekend, there won't be enough qualified teams to fill up the 26 bowl games. Even if enough teams qualify, many games will feature 6-5 and even 6-6 teams. Who wants to watch an exercise in mediocrity?

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What's going on with Canada?

Two separate pieces of news point to a palpable shift in stance from our Northern Neighbor.

• First, Canada suggests taking a role in Iraqi elections.
• Now, they have joined the U.S. in refusing to accept the Ukraine elections.

Welcome developments from a country that (like many others) would have overwhelmingly voted for John Kerry. I guess Canada has decided to put on a cowboy hat and join the rodeo.

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Tax reform will solve a lot of problems

Interesting article in Time this week with some incredibly disturbing quotes from four retiring Senators on what's wrong with the U.S. Senate.

South Carolina's Fritz Hollings:

The body politic has got a cancer of money. I ran in 1998, and I raised $8.5 million. That's about $30,000 a week, each week, every week, for six years ... I've got to get money, money, money, money. And I only listen to the people who give me money.

The last line should trouble all Americans. Something is wrong with our democracy.

Having tried the heavy-handed approach of McCain-Feingold legislation, most would agree that big money hasn't been curtailed from the system. Tax reform may provide the only restraint to the system.

Lawmakers should strip the tax code of all the breaks, loopholes, and incentives they have granted for the last 50 years to gain favor with their contributors. Congress should then replace the code with some form of flat tax. The new tax should ensure that poor people aren't unfairly burdened.

Businesses and individuals will still lobby for outright cash disbursements (think farm subsidies), but it will be harder to approve real spending rather than offering an "incentive" in the form of a tax break. Hopefully, books like these will become a distant memory.

Maybe with fewer reasons for the rich to lobby members of Congress, they'll actually start listening to people who don't give them any money.

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Ukraine and Blogging

Here are a couple of good blogs covering the aftermath of the Ukraine election -- certainly a new way to get one's news. It will be interesting to see how accurate these reports turn out to be.

For the record, Colin Powell's statements today are very reassuring about our committment to democracy -- even among allies in the War on Terror. (Compare this to our lukewarm admonishment of Putin's rollback of democracy in Russia.)

One blog is reporting that Russian special forces are arriving in Kiev, a troubling development...

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On Van Gogh, Hollywood

Great column by a screenwriter in Southern Cal.

Quotable:

One would think that in the name of artistic freedom, the creative community would take a stand against filmmakers being sent into hiding à la Salman Rushdie, or left bleeding in the street. Yet we've heard nary a peep from Hollywood about the van Gogh slaying. Indeed Hollywood has long walked on eggshells regarding the topic of Islamic fundamentalism. The film version of Tom Clancy's "The Sum of All Fears" changed Palestinian terrorists to neo-Nazis out of a desire to avoid offending Arabs or Muslims. The war on terror is a Tinsel Town taboo, even though a Hollywood Reporter poll showed that roughly two-thirds of filmgoers surveyed would pay to see a film on the topic.

In a recent conversation with a struggling liberal screenwriter, I brought up the Clancy film as an example of Hollywood shying away from what really affects filmgoers--namely, the al Qaeda threat vs. the neo-Nazi threat. He vehemently defended the script switch. "It's an easy target," he said of Arab terrorism, repeating this like a parrot, then adding, "It's a cheap shot." How many American moviegoers would think that scripting Arab terrorists as the enemy in a fiction film is a "cheap shot"? In fact, it's realism; it's what touches lives world-wide. It's this disconnect with filmgoers that has left the Hollywood box office bleeding by the side of the road.

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Update: Moral Dilemma

Chalk one up for marital harmony. I voted for the Democrat. When weighing all my options, it seemed the wisest course of action. Especially since I live in Georgia.

It mattered little in the end. The Republican won handily.

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Moral Dilemma

So we have a runoff election in Georgia today. My wife voted this morning and I'm planning on voting later today. Now, Ann's a Democrat, and I'm a Republican. The electon is non-partisan but the two candidates sit on opposite sides of the political spectrum.

Funny thing is, Ann got a little confused this morning and voted for the Republican. She admitted that when she got to the voting booth and couldn't remember which one was the Democrat, she just guessed that the guy must be the Republican. Oops.

So now, my wife wants me to vote for the Democrat to equalize her mistake. I'm just not sure I can do that. Any opinions on a proper course of action?

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Blog de Connard

The fascinating blog shows a firsthand view of the Ukraine situation. By all most independent accounts, the election was a sham. Wonderful to see people stand up for democracy. Hope this turns out well.

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He knew what he was dying for

A student at the University of Georgia died in Fallujah on Friday. Here's part of an email Bradley Thomas Arms, 20, sent to his fraternity brothers about three weeks ago:

It's the future of this country that will be different down the road; it's extremely hard to change hearts that have hated for so long. But as long as we can keep younger generations open-minded, then we will win this war, even though the fruits of my labor will not be realized for many years when the children of this country now rule.

I am glad this brave young Marine so clearly believed in this war. It is a shame that more Americans do not.

The purpose of this war is to make the Arabs quit hating us. Some will say that our action in Iraq will only create more hatred; I say to them that they were already pretty angry.

By spreading democracy in the Middle East, the Arabs will prosper under the same freedom that so many of us take for granted. They will quit blaming the U.S. for their poverty and repression and realize that their own despotic rulers were the true cause of their troubles.

The "fruits of my labor" may take many years to appear, but it will. Thank you Bradley. My children will live in a safer world because of you.

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Great article

An account in the New York Times of the fighting in Fallujah. History will show that this was the decisive battle of Iraq.

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This is huge

A bunch of countries just agreed to dramatically reduce Iraq's debt. The deal "represented a considerable concession from France."

That's a big win for the U.S. on the diplomacy front. A blow for those who say the Bush administration can't get along with other nations.

It'll be interesting to see how the major papers play this story on Monday.

UPDATE: OK, I was wrong. The New York Times did indeed lead with the story. They don't dwell on the France aspect, but they do color the agreement as a major foreign policy coup for the White House. Oddly, none of the other major newspapers (USA Today, LA Times, Washington Post) devote more than a wire story to the news. (That info, courtesy of Slate's daily newspaper roundup, a great feature.)

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Great post

Check out this post from Iraqpundit. He points out the difference in Falluja coverage between the London Times and the New York Times. It's stunning.

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Great Escape

The Great Escape has always been one of my favorite films, but I had no idea how much of it was true till I saw this PBS documentary. Check out the interactive graphic on the left side of this screen for the details.

Look, there's even a fan club.

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The U.N.

At the United Nations, at last a good sign. A no-confidence vote for Kofi Annan is looming.

The oil-for-food scandal appears to be the straw that will break the camel's back.

For years people complained that sanctions against Iraq were only hurting the people, not the government. In response, the U.N. created and managed an oil-for-food program that allowed Iraq to sell some oil as long as the proceeds went to feed the people of his country. But we now learn that that little of the money went to feed the Iraqis.

Now we find out where the rest of the money went. Not only did the Iraqi children die due to lack of food, but the money went to pay the families of the people who killed innocent civilians.

It's damn near too surreal to grasp.

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I love the nightlife. I love to boogie. 

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Overprotection

From the BBC story:

Prince William has said that if he joins the Army when he finishes St Andrews University he would not shirk fighting at the front line.

"The last thing I want to do is be mollycoddled or wrapped up in cotton wool," the 22-year-old said.

For the record, the word mollycoddled isn't seen nearly enough in everyday use.

Niether is this, this or this.

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Biofeedback

Does anyone remember this episode of the Bionic Woman?

Money quote:
"Having spent the last few years in meditation with monks in Tibet, Darwin can use biofeedback techniques to slow down his metabolism, to have electrical fields pass through his body, and to do other neat things that help them out on the mission."

Obviously, Americans were so enthused with the biofeedback craze that it infiltrated the Bionic Woman. Yet another indication that this country was seriously whacked out in the 70s.


By the way, this was my favorite episode of the Six Million Dollar Man.

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Pigs

In the last paragraph of George Orwell's Animal Farm, the animals peer through the windows to see the pigs meeting with their old masters, the humans:

"Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."

Tonight, as the Republican-controlled House voted to change its rules to protect Tom Delay should he be indicted in Texas, I found myself thinking of this passage.

When I first became interested in politics in the early 90s, I held the Democrats in low regard for a number of issues: Unbridled government spending, gerrymandered districts that left elections moot, and the overwhelming conclusion that power had corrupted them.

When I look at today's Congress, I find it now impossible to say which is which.

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Sweet honey wine

I laughed out loud when I read this post. This is my old pal from college who told me too many political blogs already exist. Solution: A blog dedicated to drinking. That's Robb, with the ham hock.

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Where's the outrage?

Am I the only one who find this objectionable?

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That evolving media

This is an interesting story on the major network news channels. Sounds like they're seeing the paradigm shift that is occurring.

The money quote:

"There is an explosion in the number of news and quasi-news outlets and it goes into the Internet, it goes into broadband, streaming video, it's now on cell phones ... and those of us in network news have to recognize that," Westin said. "Technology is making it possible that the audience wants us to come to them, instead of making them coming to us which is traditionally what network news has done."

I think 2004 will be remembered as the year the shift accelerated.

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Dick Cheney

Now we know why he's so cocky.

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Objectivity run amok

From the Associated Press:

"Van Gogh was ritually slaughtered on an Amsterdam street Nov. 2, apparently for criticizing Islam."

Here we see a common problem with today's media. In an overzeaolous bid to appear "objective," reporters cannot bring themselves to state facts.

Filmmaker Theo Van Gogh was undoubtedly killed because he criticized Islam. Van Gogh's film "Submission" strongly rebuked Islam's treatment of women. The murderer left a note marking the script-writer of the film for death and warning of a Dutch jihad. The murderer attached said note to Van Gogh's body with a large knife plunged into his chest.

The AP reporter need not soften his sentence with an "apparently."

We see also this same nonsense with Reuters and their obstinate refusal to call anyone a terrorist. People who kill 350 children after seizing their school can not be referred to as a "militant" or "guerilla." It's just not objective.

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Myth: Resignationsat the CIA are bad

So the deputy director of the CIA has resigned. This Washington Post article implies that Goss and his chief-of-staff are a couple of jerks bent on upsetting everyone at the agency. Well, I don't work there, but I do know that the CIA has had some major screwups in the last few years.

Perhaps it's time somebody did upset the apple cart. The people complaining to the Post are the longtime agency staffers, who are apparently happy with the way things have been run. The Post presents Goss's criticism in a vacuum, as though the CIA has been performing adequately for years. The country will probably benefit from a CIA director who ruffles his employees feathers.

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Myth: Established networksare the only source for news

This guy proves that's no longer true. What would you rather read about the Falluja fight this week? Something with a Baghdad dateline or a photoblog account from Kevin Sites.

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Myth: There is a limitto the information on the Internet

That conjecture is wrong. Everything you ever needed to know can be found on the Internet.

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Myth: Yasser Arafat was a great man

This column from the Boston Globe says it all.

The media should share the blame for the lionization of this murderer. We have all read stories about terrorist bombings that were carried out by the "al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, which is loosely affiliated with Arafat's Fatah organization." That is bunk. Arafat was always in charge. He gave the orders to murder innocent people, and the media never spelled it out.

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Myth: USA Today is a crappy newspaper

It seems that whenever anyone wants to trash a newspaper, USA Today supplies the easy target. It's colorful, it's given away free at hotels, it specializes in short news. What's not to hate?

Unfortunately, the facts just don't support the criticism.

First off, a bit of honesty. USA Today is no New York Times nor a Wall Street Journal. But, what newspapers do compare with those venerable titles? The Times and the Journal sit in a category unto themselves. After all, they are the only two papers in the country that take an entire morning to read.

That said, USA Today rests squarely in the 2nd-tier category -- as do other papers with national prestige such as the Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune and the L.A. Times. But, when searching for a large newspaper to trash, nobody launches undefended criticisms at those three papers.

In essence, the four newspapers compare equally. They cover international news well -- all have numerous foriegn correspondents. They cover Washington politics well -- all have well-staffed Washington bureaus. And they all cover the nation well.

USA Today, in fact, does the latter much better than the others. Why? Because USA Today is owned by Gannett, which in turn owns a kaboodle of daily newspapers. (Including the Jackson Clarion-Ledger in Mississippi where this author once worked as a copy editor on the news desk. But if you worked for Gannett, you usually don't go around defending them, so please don't read any bias into that fact.) These local dailies give Gannett great access into many U.S. cities, a benefit USA Today uses wisely.

USA Today holds several other qualities above the other papers.

As someone who has lived in North Carolina, Mississippi, Massachusetts and Georgia, I enjoy reading the news roundup from those states. I'm sure others get a kick out of reading local news from their former haunts as well. When I pick up a Washington Post, I receive no such joy.

USA Today provides easy-to-digest graphic information. Sometimes certain data (e.g., the ratio of catfish to alligators in Louisiana) proves interesting but doesn't merit a whole story. USA Today's infographics provide the information, quickly and in entertaining fashion. Some sneer at this "dumbing down" of information; I'm just happy they took the time to provide the data in a fun manner.

USA Today has one of the best sports sections in the country. I dare you to find more raw sports information in any other daily newspaper. (The Atlanta-Journal Constitution's sports pages are the best I've read in the country, but they appeal more to the Southern sports fan.)

USA Today provides an incredibly wide swath of news. Yes, the articles may not be long (though the cover stories on each section front each devote more than 60" of copy per day), but they derive from a variety of locales and cover a host of subjects. Most articles are relatively short, but if you need more information you can go to the New York Times or Wall Street Journal. USA Today's articles are no shorter than any other 2nd-tier newspaper.

The bottom line? The L.A. Times, Chicago Tribune and Washington Post don't exceed USA Today in coverage regarding the latest violence in Haiti, the pending action of the Federal Reserve or the devastation of hurricanes in Florida. Yet, when we're searching for a whipping boy, my beloved USA Today always seems to suffice.

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