Opaque Lucidity

Kerry's Dean Moment

So there you have it. Senator John Kerry, Navy veteran of the Vietnam War, implied that US soldiers, sailors and airmen in Iraq are uneducated. Today, Kerry released another statement saying that he was trying to make a joke about President Bush. It would be funny except for the fact that Bush did as well at Yale as Kerry did. Oh, and the fact that Kerry is lying about what he meant.

What the video above shows us is how liberals really view the military: ne'er do wells who have no other options but to join the military. Special message to the Senator----it's not 1970. Today's military is better educated, trained and armed than any force to ever march onto a battlefield. Every soldier, sailor and airmen serving today is a volunteer and I feel comfortable saying that 98% of them turned down opportunities in the civilian world to serve their nation.

The Senator's comments made me think of the men with whom I served for a couple of years in the Navy's Nuclear Power Program. To man, they were highly intelligent sailors who could've taken a thousand different paths in the civilian world. I'm sure at least a few of them are still out there today wearing the uniform more than 15 years later. Senator Kerry made his comments about them and about all the men and women who have come back from Iraq and Afghanistan in caskets. And yet, a simple, clear apology has not been forthcoming.

So today is day one of Kerry-Watch. This is the first day that has gone by without the Senator apologizing for his comment. Let's not let this die.

The Democratic Times

Does anyone find it odd that the New York Times waited until the week before the mid-term elections to run a photo-laden story about a funeral at Arlington National Cemetary? I don't; this is part of the planned "October Surprise" that the Dems and their fellow travelers in the media have had planned for a long time. Control of Congress is in their grasp and they will stop at nothing to get at the reins of power once again.

I do NOT have a problem with newspapers and TV news programs showing funerals at Arlington. What I find disturbing is the timing of the publication. When has the NY Times done this before? I'm sure the excuse will be that October has been the deadliest month for the US military in Iraq since the 2003 invasion. The terrorists understand the American media better than they understand themselves. They remember the Tet Offensive in the spring of 1968: when all was said and done, the Viet Cong were essentially finished as a military force in South Vietnam, but it didn't matter. The media in the United States was convinced that the war was lost, and so that perception was reality. Walter Cronkite was heard to say in the CBS newsroom, "What the hell is going on over there?" Of course, if Uncle Walty thought it, it must be a reflection of the minds of the American public.

The burials at Arlington will continue because, yes, good men and women are dying in Iraq and Afghanistan. Using them as part of a campaign to change the minds of emotional voters is despicable. But it's not new.

The Unbundling Of A Wedding

Before I begin my rant about the card above, please allow me to say that Kelli and I have been married in Las Vegas. It was, however, our second wedding on our fifth anniversary. Our first wedding, in 1998, was the real deal: 3 priests, 1 monsignior, a full Mass, etc. It's safe to say the second one was more a goof than anything else.

The card above is not an invitation to a second wedding. The bride and groom have both been married before, but not to each other. This should not, in my opinion, dull the seriousness of the contract into which they are entering. Marriage is a serious business and not something to be taken lightly. You married folks know this, but if are not married to someone who you really like to spend time with, then you don't stand a chance. It's not all about sex and money (although those are two factors).

I know both of the people getting married on November 11, and I don't have much confidence in the success of the union. I DO wish them well and I hope they prove me wrong, because nearly everyone deserves some level of happiness in life. But a gangster-themed wedding (oh, yes: the theme is not just limited to the invitations) seems, to me, a little flippant. Just how serious can they be?

11 And Counting

The time has come, I think, to speak frankly about the upcoming elections. As you know, I haven't written much lately about politics or the war; this is due to time constraints more than anything else. But debate is important, especially now. Whoever controls the House, Senate and the White House in 2008 will have to take some tough decisions concerning the war, judicial nominations, Social Security, immigration and a host of other issues. All this must be done in a nation that is more divisive than it has been since the Vietnam War.

Many of you reading this don't consider yourself Republican or Democrat or Libertarian, etc. Remove that notion from your head. You may consider yourself a maverick who votes for the candidate over the party, but once you pull that lever, you belong to a party. You may not be a card-carrying member of anything, but if you put the force of your vote behind one party over another, then you own it. So don't think you're above the fray, because the only people not in the fray are people who don't vote and if you don't vote, you are abdicating the greatest right you have as an American.

You can safely conclude that there are two types of people in Washington and the media: people who know we are at war and people who deny it. As with all things there is a grey middle, but the two sides are becoming more and more clear as time goes by. Those in denial see the threat of terrorism as little more than an imagined excuse to spend more on the military and supress our constitutional rights. To them, the war in Iraq is not about terror but about Halliburton or George Bush's father. It is a political monster and can, therefore, be played like any other event. This explains why you hear a great deal about the bad news coming from Iraq but almost nothing from the 12 of 17 provinces in which life is better than it was before 2003. Some people in power go so far as to say that things would be better all around if Saddam Hussein were still in power (note the statistics given on the site do not reflect the estimated 100,000 people a year Hussein had killed or who simply vanished.)

One important thing to note is that the anti-war crowd is not really protesting the war. They ARE against the war, but that's not the focus. After all, President Clinton's war from the air against Serbia caused barely a word of protest to be uttered, except by the Chinese whose embassy was bombed by mistake. No, the protest is really against one man: George W. Bush.

The hatred of President Bush by the Left and the mainstream media pre-dates 9/11. If you remember the campaign of 2000, you'll remember that Vice-President Gore was portrayed as a genius whose boring diatribes could be dismissed with a laugh. Governor Bush was an idiot from Texas, the son of a rich man who had known nothing but privilege in his life. In reality, Al Gore's grades at Harvard were worse than Bush's were at Yale and Gore attended and dropped out of TWO schools at Vanderbilt--divinity and law school. GW Bush went on to receive an MBA from Harvard, the first President to have an MBA from anywhere. I have a feeling Dan Rather never told you that.

This is an old method of the Left: defeat the man, not his ideas. Remember President Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative? Not only was it dervisively termed "Star Wars" the MSM, but the Left began spelling the President's name "Ray-Gun". Ray Gun. Get it? Like Buck Rogers? You'll still see some people doing it today. It would be hilarious if it wasn't so childish and stupid.

A group of people and a party who truly believe that our nation is at war would be more serious about issues. Regardless of how you feel about Iraq, you have to think about the last time you heard a Democrat voice a coherent strategic plan for the place other than cut and run. Intelligent people can disagree about the merits of the 2003 invasion, but a withdrawal from Iraq now would be a disaster, especially in the long term.

And so it appears that we are becoming a nation in which nearly half the voting public is not voting FOR anything, but rather is expressing their hatred at the ballot box. To what end, exactly?

Santa Claus Is Here

I know that most of you have been racking your brain trying to think of something nice to buy me for Christmas. Well, I've finally found something useful, inexpensive and a great conversation starter. Thanks in advance.

General Amnesty

Because the mid-term Congressional elections are only 12 days away and starting tomorrow I'm going to start throwing out the heat again just like the old days, I have unbanned everyone I have ever banned from the blog (all three of them). That means those of you who are frequent readers and commenters need to bang on these people if they get out of hand. Unlike the Daily Kos, I will no longer remove posts; the only exception is if someone physically threatens someone on the blog or directly mentions impending criminal activity. I don't want to get mixed up in that (again).

Air Jump

For those of you (and you know who you are) who have given me private (and public) grief about being a huge Battlestar Galactica fan, watch this scene from last week's show. I expect YouTube to pull it any second, so it may be gone by the time you read this. Keep in mind that the Galactica is supposed to be enormous, like a super-sized aircraft carrier built to stay in space it's whole life.

And if that didn't do it for you, here's what happened after the Galactica jumped back into orbit and was beat to hell from falling 100,000 feet or so doing something she was never designed to do.

Podcast Expo Audio

I've posted the audio from the Podcast Expo over at the Matt's Today in History website. It's pretty long, so you may want to download it and listen to it in chunks. Bob Wright (Baseball History Podcast), Jason Watts (History Podcast) and I talked about history, podcasting and anything else that came to mind. If that's your thing, please have a listen.

Batting .500

OK, so what did you think when Adama said, "Brace for turbulence"? 90,000 and falling like a stone. Man, that's good TV!

Exodus, Part 2 (Possible Spoiler Alert)

If you are not a fan of the new Battlestar Galactica, you may want to skip this post. If you have not watched last Friday night's episode (Exodus, Part 1), you may want to skip this post.

For the three of you remaining: I'm going to make a prediction about tonight's episode and it's not going to make anyone happy. In short, Lee Adama and the rest of the Pegasus crew are going to die.

I think the story has been building up to this for some time. First, there was Ron Moore's hint that a major character was going to die this season. Second, the Pegasus has sort of outlived her usefulness as a plot device. She was a major part of the second season, but now she's just a newer version of Galactica tagging along with the rest of the fleet. Finally, the show is much more "romantic" when the hope of humanity is a 50-year old beat-up ship that was due for retirement. And I love the fact that the starboard hangar bay had already been converted into a museum; that's so "Navy" it's not even funny.

So how's it going to happen? If you remember the Admiral told Lee to wait at the rendevousz point for 18 hours and then leave with the civilian fleet if they weren't back by then. My guess is that Lee is going to wait and then jump to New Caprica to try to save his dad and Galactica against orders. And then he'll die. Bada-bing, bada-boom.

I'll probably be apologizing for this tomorrow.

Silent And Deadly

I just got back from walking Molly and it's one of those fall nights I love---cool and everything is still wet from the rain we had earlier. I don't know why, but at times like this I think about the world and how much trouble is brewing in so many places.

There's a scene in "30 Seconds Over Tokyo" in which the guys who are getting ready to fly the Doolittle Raid are getting briefed on board the USS Hornet, the carrier that was hauling their bombers to within striking distance of Japan. The Navy lieutenant giving the briefing had a large picture of the Tokyo waterfront on an easel behind him. The picture was from a low angle, as if the person who took it was in Tokyo bay. The briefing is rambling along when a sailor walks in and whispers something in the lieutenant's ear. The officer stops, walks to the photograph and says, "This barrage balloon has been moved to here." The pilots look at each other.

Later, two of the pilots are smoking on the flight deck. Van Johnson, who plays the main character, speaks the following monologue (I'm doing this from memory):

"That briefing really threw me. I mean, here we are, and out there a group of guys we never met is sweating it out all day on the floor of Tokyo Bay in a submarine so they can surface and take pictures of the barrage balloons. All so we have a chance."

What the American public didn't know in 1944, when the movie was made, was that there really was an American submarine in Tokyo Bay in April, 1942 (the USS Silversides, I think).

So I was thinking about this tonight as I walked around the block with Molly. And I realized that not so much has changed in the past 60 years. I would be willing to bet a very large amount of money that right now, a submarine is sitting in Korea Bay or in Wonson Harbor, waiting for a "go" order to fire her cruise missiles. The men are a little more comfortable than the men on the diesel fleet boats were in World War Two, but service on a sub is still uncomfortable and dangerous. It probably won't come to the point where their services will be needed, but that boat gives the Pentagon and the White House options.

I guess I wander pretty far afield when I go around the block.

Blame Canada

I knew that, eventually, our government would wake up and realize what a threat Canada has become. Finally, something is being done. It's not a moment too soon.

Canada needs to replace Iraq as a member of the Axis of Evil. Consider the following:

-They're right next door.
-They look like Europeans, but speak better English.
-They're always running around our country being courteous and nice.

My God! Why has it taken so long?!!!!

And Now What?

It looks as if North Korea may be preparing to conduct another nuclear weapon test. We now know that the last one was, indeed, nuclear and not a conventional impostor. What now?

There are two reasons to conduct a nuclear test: to test the reliability of your stockpile, or show the world what your new little toy will do. Since North Korea has no large inventory of these weapons (at least, let's hope not), then the intention is to show that world that Kim Jong Il and his posse have joined the nuclear club. What now?

I ask the "what now?" question in all seriousness. I think we can all agree that whatever action the UN takes will mean little in real terms, and don't think that China is going to remain tough on the issue (although they are strengthening their border defenses). If we are going to act decisively, the we will probably have to do it alone.

Which is exactly what Kim Jong Il wants. He wants to negotiate with us alone, probably remembering the success he had with Madeleine Albright in the 1990's (the images of her drinking a toast with Kim as if he's some sort of legitimate state leader and not a mass-murdering silly inbred sociopath still turns my stomach). The six-party talks aren't popular in Pyongyang, probably because they don't allow the North to play one nation against another. So for any non-military option to work, we MUST keep the five parties (US, China, South Korea, Russia, Japan) together and in unison.

The big elephant in the mix is China. She is North Korea's largest trading partner, so she has the most economic pull. One way to approach the problem might be to offer to help pay for the cost of the refugees that are sneaking across the border daily on the condition that Beijing stop sending them back to certain imprisonment or death. I don't see that happening, but we need to start thinking outside of the box.

As I've said before, foreign policy is not a card game---every country has its own rules. A military intervention in North Korea is a non-starter for several reasons. First, we are stretched too thin to put boots on the ground (although the Navy and Air Force are not). Second, it is doubtful South Korea would support such a move because of the threat to Seoul, which is within artillery range of the DMZ. Third, if Japan supported the move, it would bring back all the bad memories of Japanese aggression in China and Korea during the Second World War. Old wounds heal slowly in that part of the world, or so I'm told.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the cost in lives would be enormous. I'm not talking about Iraq-like casualties or even Vietnam-like numbers; I'm talking about Okinawa and Iwo Jima. There are some hardcore dudes in the North Korean Army and hungry or not, many will fight to the last man. I don't think the American public could be convinced that such a sacrifice is worthwhile. I don't know that I could be convinced.

Ignorance Of Youth

Three students from my high school were involved in an accident yesterday afternoon; one of them, a teammate of one of our nephews, was killed. His car was hit head-on by one of his fellow students, a girl who was drunk at 5:30 in the afternoon. The third girl was taken to a hospital in Louisville and is in good condition. One teenager's life has been ruined---one teenager's life has been ended. No amount of anger or sadness will change any of that now.

One of the girls with whom I went through grade school and high school died in an auto wreck 20 years ago last month. There was no alcohol involved this time, but lives were ruined. I know what's going to happen at Providence over the course of the next few weeks, and I wish like hell none of those kids had to live through it.

First, there will be an outpouring of grief, a sort of bonfire that keeps growing as the students feed off of each other's sadness. When you're 15, you don't know how to put anything into perspective. Every break-up, fight or bad grade is a huge mountain to climb, and the death of a fellow student is Mt. Everest. Right now, no one can see a day when this will be behind them all.

Then something else will happen: some people will try to make this about themselves. They will talk about how they were secretly in love with John or secretly envied him or had an argument with him on Friday. It's immaturity, and I guess it's also a way of handling this giant thing that is new and foreign. The last time I talked to Cara, I was kidding her about leaving class early. I wish I had thanked her for her friendship and kindness. You never know, so say it now.

Then, slowly, things will return to normal. The closeness that the students feel now will dim and everyone will return to his clique. The cruelties of teenage life will return and very few people will remember how insignificant it all seems in comparison to the loss of a life that was still in its springtime. Some people will grow into adulthood and never think about these days again. Others will remember them as the first time they glimpsed what life holds in store for all of us.

Warriors Amongst Us

Where do we get such men?

The Next October Surprise

David Kuo's latest book, due out on Monday, asserts that the Bush Administration ridiculed Christian leaders behind closed doors and used them for their votes. By the time you read this, the Sunday talk shows will be discussing the book, which more or less guarantees it brisk sales.

Does the timing of this bother anyone besides me? We are three weeks from an election and a book which will raise questions with the Republican base is released. There's nothing illegal about this, but it certainly says something about the publishing industry.

I read David Kuo's last book "Dot Bomb". It was about his time at Value America a start-up that burned through its cash and turned friends into enemies in very little time. Funny thing about that book is that it sounds amazingly like his current book: attack your boss and show how he was an idiot and the little people were shown the door. I believed what he said in "Dot Bomb", but now I wonder if this is just Kuo's modus operandi.

This bothers me on another level. When you work for someone and leave on good terms, you don't then turn around and profit by making that relationship into something it wasn't. Plus, who will want to hire Kuo now? I hope he sells a cubic buttload of books, because he may have to live on those proceeds for the rest of his life.

The Liberals Giveth, Listeners Taketh Away

Air America has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. I have to be honest here: I'm smiling as I type this. I'm surprised they lasted this long.

I hope liberals in this country pay attention to the sad tale of Air America. First, they had no business plan. The network existed to slam George Bush and shape elections. They were good at the first and lousy at the second because most people who vote for Democrats don't listen to talk radio because it's more than a 15-second sound byte.

Second, not everyone is cut out for the radio. The radio professionals I have known in my life are very, very good at keeping a steady stream of conversation going on the air. When I did my little stint at WHAS helping with 84Online, our host was constantly stirring us up in order to keep us talking. My short exposure to Air America showed me that there was a lot of uninteresting filler, and it doesn't take much of that to turn people off.

Third, the folks at Air America never realized that their main job was to bring in advertisers. The fact is that mainstream advertisers are turned off by hate-mongering and repetitive talk that never varies. No one is going to advertise with Al Franken just because he's Al Franken. Corporations need to show a return for their advertisement dollar or they will move on to someone else. It's interesting to note (regardless of what you think of him) that Rush Limbaugh has had many of his advertisers for over 15 years. It has nothing to do with being conservative or liberal---it has to do with putting on a good show.

The final lesson is this: you can not be honest about liberalism and hope to be successful. Liberal politicians only win elections when they lie about their beliefs. The plain fact is that we are not a liberal nation. We're not especially conservative either, but more people relate to traditional values than not because they find the past comforting. You can argue about the correctness of that, but it doesn't change the numbers.

The Third Ban

I just banned someone from this blog, only the third time I have had to do so. This person is a frequent poster, but I can not and will not allow anyone to use language that is offensive. It's very possible to make a point without doing that, although I doubt this person was smart enough to realize this.

By the way, there are no appeals, so please don't e-mail me. Move your opinions over to somewhere like the Daily Kos where everyone is that abusive.

YouTube Down The Tubes

Not that it's surprising, but it appears that YouTube.com is not only removing copyrighted videos and pRon from its video offerings, but anything making fun of liberals as well. Read the entire article.

For a moment, let's put the shoe on the other foot. Imagine if YouTube pulled any video containing jokes or parodies of conservatives, but let a faked video of Bill Clinton's assassination remain. Can you even begin to imagine the uproar? There would be calls for a Congressional investigation and Nancy Pelosi would call for YouTube to be outlawed. Barbara Streisand would be all over it, and Bill Mahr would say that some things "just aren't funny."

If the Dems win back either house of Congress in November, this kind of thing will become more and more prevalent as liberals begin to smell the possibility of a steamroller victory in 2008. You read it here first.

History Lost

This will make you feel good about European relations.

And They Are Here, And They Are Us

I think about 9/11 every day. I didn't lose any loved ones there or in Washington, DC or in a field in Pennsylvania. So many things have happened in the past five years because of or in the name of the events of that day that the day itself, that raw morning, have lost their meaning for many people. Strip away the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and Michael Moore and Dick Cheney and George Bush and Bill Mahr and remember that morning, when we were so innocent to the world outside and how ugly it had become.

In an indirect way, a question was put forth today in the forums at Podcast Alley: when is it OK to start laughing at 9/11 or, more specifically, some of the silly offshoots of that day? With no further editorializing on my part, please follow the link below to the forum and take a moment to view the video in question. Then, go back and read my response post (I'm the Matt's Today in History guy, in case you didn't know) and tell me what you think.

Forum Link

Suicide Factor

If you're a Battlestar Galactica fan, then you watched tonight's season opener with some interest; I certainly did. There were some things I expected, but one thing I did not: a part of the story involving humans attacking Cylons via suicide attacks.

The producers of BSG are political animals and they are open about their intention to bring real-world issues into the fictional world of BSG. For the most part, they have done this seamlessly and it's interesting to ponder how the last few thousand human beings would react in similar circumstances in real life. But the suicide bomber thing is different because it reminded me of something very real: the basic liberal misunderstanding of morality and violence.

You hear a phrase when liberals talk about suicide bombers in Israel: "the cycle of violence". This phrase seeks to equate acts of terrorism with acts of military self-defense. To them, they are the same thing, since they believe violence is violence and it's all evil. You'll hear their bromide that one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter, as if the truth of that statement makes their childish view of the world more acceptable.

No one likes to see people die, but we all know that we live in a world where people die so others can live. This is the nature of our species and it is my belief that we will always be this way. Call it the sinful nature of man or whatever, but if you think that humans will ever live completely in peace with one another, you're ignorant of history and of human nature.

You can not look at the physical manifestations of violence and say that suicide bombing or the use of nuclear weapons are immoral in themselves. What makes any action immoral is its effect on others. Look at the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Had the US not dropped those weapons, an invasion of the Japanese Home Islands would have taken place that fall---and millions of people would have died. You can say that the death of hundreds of thousands from burns and radiation sickness is immoral, but if that is your assertion, would the invasion of Japan have been less immoral? Sometimes, our only choice is between the lesser of two evils.

And so the producers of BSG introduced suicide bombings to the show as a way to say, "Gee, what if the good guys resorted to this?". Maybe I'm wrong, but I see this as their attempt to make the Deep Thinkers out there re-evaluate the world scene. But I can sit here and tell you that if you took 50,000 Americans and imprisoned them without trial in a city, it would only be a matter of time before they started blowing themselves up to make a point. Would that be immoral? If it led to the survivors' freedom, then I would say no, but only because of the cause they are fighting for.

And, no, you can't say that the average Palestinian suicide bomber is fighting for freedom. On average, he's a teenager who was recruited and brainwashed so that he wouldn't think twice about killing innocent civilians. They don't know it, but they are fighting, ultimately, for those who wish to establish a caliphate over the entire Middle East. And that is not worth dying for, regardless of who you are and where you're from.

Battle For The Founding Fathers

As we've been caught up in the plight of a gay Congressman and his untoward online conversations, something that really matters has been going on in Iraq: a battle to end the insurgency in Baghdad. It has been an especially deadly week for Americans there, but the thought is that if Baghdad becomes balkanized, the entire nation will be lost.

I don't write much about the war nowadays because I have nothing new to say. I worry about it, because I don't see a way in which we can ever leave behind a nation which stands a chance of remaining a democracy. The history of the Middle East is full of one tyrant defeating another, then another, and so on. If the majority of Iraqis begin to see us as comparable to an occupying Roman legion, then what will happen when we are gone? Most likely, the strongest group of terrorists will establish a Taliban-like dictatorship/theocracy.

I know a man locally named Joe who went to Iraq as a civilian contractor. I asked him about his thoughts on the Iraqi people and their view on Americans. He said that they do see us as interloping occupiers, but that they had been taught for at least a generation to hate Americans---it was one of the basic tenets of Saddam Hussein's regime. Thus, Joe was not surprised by the Iraqis' attitude.

One thing I see missing in Iraq is a group of Founding Fathers. Even though revisionists have done their best to make our founders look like lucky white guys, those of us who know better realize that they were an extraordinary group of human beings. They had frailties, as we all do, but they risked everything for an idea that had not been tried in modern times. Most of them could have continued to live their lives in relative comfort as British subjects. And as a parent state, England was by no means an oppressor. They needed the American Colonies as much as the Colonies needed England. The War for Independence was just that: not a revolution (like in France) wherein all the old traditions and beliefs were thrown out the window, but a statement that we wanted to be our own nation. It was just that simple. We kept many of the British traditions and started some of our own, but even today we have many things in common.

Iraq has never known independence as we know it. Their government has always been a dictatorial third party with little concern for the welfare of the common man. No amount of American manpower and aid can let the "Arab Street" know what independence is about. Instead, the lesson will have to be taught by Iraqis, by brave men and women who are willing to risk everything for an idea. The idea is stronger than any radical Islamic sham religion, but it doesn't seem that way right now. The people will have to be sold on the idea.

In short, Iraqis need Iraqi heroes. They need a George Washington, who made sure that the Presidency did not become a position of royalty and who gave up power at a time when he could have become a dictator for life. They need a Benjamin Franklin, who sold the idea of the United States to Europe and who, without a doubt, was the first American as we know them today. We are who we are because of these men and many others whose names we may never know. Without Founding Fathers of their own, I'm afraid that Iraq will remain a nation divided by both religion and the very concept of what a nation is.

The October Non-Surprise

From Drudge tonight:

According to two people close to former congressional page Jordan Edmund, the now famous lurid AOL Instant Message exchanges that led to the resignation of Mark Foley were part of an online prank that by mistake got into the hands of enemy political operatives, the DRUDGE REPORT can reveal.

Developing...

I heard earlier today that one of the pages had hired an attorney. My first thought was "why?" Now we know. None of this is surprising, but the damage has been done. I'm sure the Dems are just hoping to draw the story out until November.

Infection Rate

WOW!!!!

Clean Up Now!!!

Former Representative Mark Foley is in plenty of hot water with regard to his online conversations with interns in Congress. I'm beginning to see and hear something I don't like: Republicans starting to put spin on the story.

1. Rush Limbaugh mentioned today that it was crazy to think someone would legitimately save their instant message chats. He hinted at entrapment. IT DOESN'T MATTER. He wrote the e-mails and typed the messages; he's a dirtbag who did one thing correctly: he resigned.

2. Some callers to various shows have mentioned how the Democrats and the mainstream media are speaking with moral outrage while Bill Clinton's actions were seen as no big deal by the same people. IT DOESN'T MATTER. Did anyone really expect to be treated fairly? The MSM is out for blood because the mid-term elections are less than a month away and the Dems will cling to anything that floats down the river, just like the Republicans would if the situation was reversed.

3. Foley is claiming he was molested as a child and that he is an alcoholic. IT DOESN'T MATTER. Regardless of your past, you still have free will. Foley made choices; they happened to be bad ones. Making himself into victim is something a liberal would do. Stand up, admit your fault, and then go away.

I've mentioned this before, but it's important that the Republicans clean their house. It doesn't matter what happened yesterday or in the 1990's---comparing oneself to Bill Clinton is despicable. If House leaders knew of these messages and covered them up, then they need to go. No, if the Dems were in this kind of trouble they wouldn't resign, but does that make it OK? The idea is to be better than our base instincts. Now is the time for honesty and integrity, not duck and cover.

The Expo

Here are some photos from the Portable Media Expo that Kelli and I attended last weekend:

One of the keynote speakers was Ron Moore, producer of "Battlestar Galactica" and former "Star Trek" producer. He talked about his own BG podcast, which is awesome.

Leo Laporte was the other keynote speaker. He stressed the need to replace the term "podcast" with something else, like "netcast". He makes a good point, but I don't see it happening.

That's me on the stool talking (shocking, I know). Seated are Bob Wright from the Baseball History Podcast and Jason Watts (behind the windscreen) from the History Podcast. These two fellows made the trip worthwhile. We did an hour-long show at the expo in which we talked about history, podcasting and the like.

The show was well done and informative, but it left me a little depressed for several reasons. First, even though quite a few people present had heard of our 'cast, I am definitely a small potato in a HUGE field. Second, my show will never be super-popular because, well, it's educational. The most popular shows right now are either Stern-type comedies or about sex. I'm a little disappointed by that, but I should not be surprised.

Finally, there is a growing gap between professional and amateur podcasters. I blame Podshow for this, although, to be fair, they are out there to make money, not build my self-esteem. However, it's pretty obvious that certain people get invited to certain events and everyone else is left out in the cold. Such is life.

Still Spinning

Sorry for the lack of posts over the past few days. We arrived home from the PME and I'm still collecting my thoughts. As you can imagine, I have something to say about podcasting. Tomorrow.