Politizine.com's 1,000th blog post

Amazingly, this blog has reached its 1,000th post. Shocking, isn't it? With more than 60,000 hits and 100,000-plus page views, I am so surprised that it has lasted this long. Of course, it would probably be at 2,000 posts at this point if I did what other bloggers do and blogged each entry separately. But whatever. I have a habit of throwing a bunch of stuff into one entry, just to make sure I get all the small stuff in.
In celebration of this blog's milestone, I have a small announcement: On Friday, my wife and I launched a brand new hybrid online/print newspaper called OurConcord.com. The first edition is at drop locations across Concord and most of the content is online. The rest will be updated later tonight while I'm watching the Red Sox game.
For those of you interested in this new publication, please read the "Why Publish?" entry on the site for a rather lengthy explanation of what we're trying to do. On Friday afternoon, I picked up the print edition, 2,500 in all, and was amazed at how great it looks for a first edition. It is pretty impressive, if I say so myself, when you consider it was put together pretty quickly.
Because of this new endeavor and my family and work responsibilities, I will be curbing posts to Politizine.com and concentrating on producing more local content for OurConcord.com. Politizine.com will still exist but I really want to put what limited time and energy I have into publishing the other site. I will get into this a bit more in the very near future.

Well, my car brakes work ...

Late last night, on my way home, I took the more residential ride home from the highway and almost struck a deer. It was fairly large with no antlers so it was probably female. However, it was pretty big, at least three-plus feet high.
I saw it out of the corner of my eye and thought I wasn't seeing what I was seeing until it was right in front of my windshield looking at me. Deer in the headlines is a literal term, BTW. I hit the brakes, everything in the car went flying around, but the sound scared the deer enough to move to the side where I just missed her by inches. Thankfully, I was only going about 5 miles an hour above the speed limit and was wearing my safety belt. Otherwise, my brand new Honda Civic would probably be junk scrap and I'd be in the hospital.
Hilariously, my first instinct was to reach for my digital camera to get a picture of the deer but it was tucked away in my computer bag which was lodged beneath the passenger seat. Ah, always the reporter.
Since I know what it is like being in a car which has hit a deer before - my father-in-law and I hit one in upstate New York in September 2005 - you can imagine that I was a bit freaked out. It shook me up, you know, life flashing before your eyes stuff. But I was glad to get in the house, a little less than a half a mile later, to sit down for a few minutes. That was a close one.
So, a warning to everyone in New Hampshire, the deer are out there, especially at night. Be a bit more cautious in your driving and you won't hit them ... and hopefully, they won't hit you either.

GraniteRoots for John Edwards

This afternoon, two young women [probably in college] canvassed my neighborhood handing out "GraniteRoots for John Edwards" packets, complete with a white spruce sapling, instructions on how to plant the baby tree, and a note from the state campaign director, Beth Leonard.
In the note, she requests assistance for the campaign:

Change often starts with just one person. Growing a forest can start in a very similar way - with a single tree. With this gift of a seedling, I want to ask for your help in bringing about the change our country needs. Our campaign is planting the seeds of change in New Hampshire one neighborhood at a time.

Leonard calls on voters to plant the tree and "watch it grow strong and tall" and help the campaign create the change needed to build One America.
This is a very clever campaign promotion, especially in my relatively politically liberal city neighborhood. I've lost the exact count, but I think this is the fourth time the Edwards campaign has been by the house doorknocking or leafleting. Obama has been by twice and Clinton has been by once. None of the other candidates have been by ... and there are Republicans in my neighborhood, too!

The view from Capital Commons

A.G. Edwards & Sons, the financial firm with a slew of local offices worldwide, held an open house at their new Concord office on the top floor of the new multi-million dollar Capital Commons office complex. It was an all day affair, complete with munchies, soda and friendly conversation from those who bothered to stop by and check the place out. I took the opportunity to drop in and see my tax dollars at work, since tax increment financing, or TIF, helped fund the $14 million parking garage as well as the property tax waivers, set asides, and bargain basement price for the lot, which were given to the developer to construct the project.
Three quick things on the positive side: The building is beautiful, the views are spectacular [see more pictures and video online at OurConcord.com], and it is great to see the old hole that was there for years finally filled. It is also great to see the new movie theatre coming along.
The bad news? Well, according to the entrance ledger, at least two floors are empty. The restaurant space, a major component of the project, is also empty. The Concord Monitor has a story about the restaurant space here: ["At Commons, eatery still vacant"].

There were rumors that Tio Juan's Margarita's, currently housed on Warren Street in the old city jail, was going to move into the space.
This reportedly irked the owners of Hermano's, another Mexican restaurant. The restaurant has had to bear the brunt of the construction project – dealing with the constant noise, having most of its parking lot consumed by construction equipment, etc. Hermano's has reportedly been barely hanging on, thanks mostly to the loyal clientele who have supported it through the inconvenience. A new Mexican restaurant just a block away would surely be the end of the long-time, local-owned and operated establishment.
When the rumors began flying about Margarita's, it also ticked off taxpayers who were told that they would be getting a new food choice at the location - not an old one that would abandon an already shaky Bicentennial Square. Now they're talking about a food court? We're losing millions in set aside tax revenue for this? Hello, Eagle Square anyone? There used to be this fancy food court with small shops down at the Eagle Square plaza. During the recession of the late 1970s, early 1980s, the federal government pumped millions and millions into reconstructing old buildings like the Eagle Square plaza, in an effort to preserve all the old buildings. Everyone raved about how the project was going to be the salvation of downtown. Well, it wasn't. They did a great job on the construction and it was well-worth the money to preserve the buildings. But in typical Concord fashion, its eyes were bigger than its stomach. The downtown food court/mall concept was a complete disaster. The businesses quickly went under after the Legislative session ended in 1984. The spaces were quickly converted into a historical museum, a law firm, and a cluster of small offices and non-profits. So much for saving the downtown.

Speaking of TIFs for a moment, it is interesting to note that if one were to add up all the lost property tax revenue due to the current TIF bonds which are outstanding, they would find that it comes pretty close to the amount of a budget deficit the city had last year. Gee, I wonder why?
Now, we have the Capital Commons project. Is this all going to turn out like one of those other failed promises of the past? As developer Michael Simchik

said in the Concord Monitor article, it took him 16 months to fill up his last project. With a plummeting real estate and construction market, who knows what will happen now.
We should probably all be patient and hope for the best. But, at the same time, the building might actually have been built too large for its size. It is a disappointment, for example, that the building blocks the gorgeous state Capital building, gateway to the city, while approaching the city from I-93 north. At night, it is unnerving. This is also, as Alan Hershlag noted before the building was constructed, a zoning violation. Scoff, who cares about the zoning laws.
Whatever happens, our community really needs to learn to take those small steps first, instead of always taking the big grand ones. We might find that we will be more financially secure and just as happy.
Here are the video and pictures:

Editor's Note: An earlier version of this post has been corrected.

John Edwards in Concord

John Edwards campaigned at Concord's historic White Park on Saturday afternoon.
I finally got a chance to go out and see a presidential campaign here in New Hampshire. Today, Edwards dropped into Concord, holding an outdoor town hall meeting at Concord's White Park. I figured out that my crappy digital camera actually records video although only about 5 minutes worth. So, there isn't a lot here:

Local cuts to social service agencies are a disgrace

Concord City Council should cut CCTV budget

As a journalist who has covered municipal bodies in two different states for more than a decade, I am sometimes completely shocked at how intelligent elected officials can collectively come to some of the worst fiscal and public policy decisions. Call it “consensusitis,” if you will.

The Concord City Council’s decision to slash most social service agency funding by 33 percent or more is one of those decisions. Councilors will pontificate that there just isn’t any money despite all the fine work these organizations do. But that is not altogether true. While most line items in the budget were cut, one was not: CCTV, the cable media access center. In this year’s budget, CCTV will be awarded $11,000 more in operating expenses than in fiscal year 2007, according to documents. The amount CCTV will receive from the city this year is more than $234,000.

What is so shocking about this increase is that just last year, in testimony before a budget hearing to the council, I exposed tens of thousands of dollars in CCTV’s budget which should have used to fend off last year’s cuts at the recreation department and library. Thousands of dollars for personal IRA benefits, travel junkets, volunteer services, and legal funding and obscure miscellaneous line items which could never possibly be spent down. An analysis of the entire operation is well over due and might make for some interesting auditing, if anyone had the intestinal fortitude to implement some oversight.

But when asked if they had looked at any of this, the council’s silence was deafening. No, they hadn’t and had no intention of doing so, despite the budget crisis.

So, when budget time this year rolled around, and the warnings of doom and gloom started surfacing, and the Conservation Trust Fund got raided, I thought for sure that someone might finally take even a cursory look at the CCTV budget and all the potential money which can be used to stave off some of the cuts elsewhere.

Well, I thought wrong.

Interestingly, CCTV has shuffled its budget around. Sure, the money for the benes, dinners, treats for the board, and junkets remain. But CCTV has decided to take some of the miscellaneous money, along with the increase, and hire a sixth employee, who will handle producer training … A job which has historically been performed by the full-time employees who already work there. Since there are only a couple of trainings a month, viewers like me cannot possibly imagine that they need another full-time person for this job.

When CCTV came before the council to talk about its budget, not a question was raised concerning the meager fund-raising efforts, the lack of grant funding successes, the tens of thousands in developmental losses, or the extravagant expenses. They weren’t asked to explain the unneeded hire or to provide any information about the money they blew through last year or the fact that governmental meetings still look like 14th generation videotape in the digital age. There was no motion to make any cuts to CCTV during this budget crisis.

Juxtapose that with the questions social service agencies received about their fund-raising efforts and now, comments that they need better oversight by the council. You have got to be kidding, right?

The point is that about $60,000 or more could easily be shaved from the CCTV budget without any harm in current delivered service. And there is no need for a sixth employee while the rest of the city is in crisis. That is a lot of heating oil for the needy this winter or summer camp opportunities for less-affluent kids in our community. And let’s not even get started on the cuts to the homeless shelter, the rape crisis center, senior services, etc.

Later this year, when many of these great social service agencies start hitting us all up for more money to make up for the losses, don’t forget what has happened here. This city council thought it was more important to increase the funding for a cable access media center which few people use and even fewer people watch than to watch over those most in need. This decision, frankly, is a disgrace.

It might also be good to remember that 2007 is an election year. While there has been some turn over in the council recently, it does not seem to have done much good. Voters would be wise to consider electing councilors who understand fiscal prudence and the importance of social capital, as well as taking care of those most in need first.

Why I'm voting for Irena Goddard on June 5

Note to readers: This is a letter to the editor I sent earlier this week to the Concord Monitor which hasn't been published yet.

Special elections, especially ones held in summer months, tend to be sleepy occasions. The race to replace the late-Marjory Swope as councilor of Ward 5 has been no exception. On Tuesday, June 5, voters will have the choice between two interesting candidates, with appealing and varied backgrounds. However, one candidate has shown the capacity to not only think about issues more deeply but also come up with creative solutions to solve problems. That candidate is Irena Goddard.

The voters of Ward 5 may think they are too busy to vote in this special election but I urge them not to ignore this race. It is the local elections – not the national ones – which have the most bearing on our lives, making sure we have municipal services and guaranteeing that the immediate things around us get done.

And as we all know, our city is facing some pretty difficult times. The budget is a mess. Social service agencies are finding it hard to cover things with less and less money. The police department is understaffed, with patrolmen being taken off their routes at night to do detective work, something I find completely unacceptable. Our first responders, like firefighters and EMTs, are falling behind on training. Heroin is cheap and easily accessible and has become the drug of choice. Some of us who have lived in bigger cities have lost friends to heroin and it is a shock to think that it is so casually being used by our young people in Concord. Anyone with their eyes open can see that while we have a great city, in many ways, it is headed in the wrong direction and someone needs to do something about it. It is clearly time to get resourceful and think about things differently than we are.

Over the last two years, I have gotten to know Irena and her adorable son. She thinks outside the box and will use her diverse business and life experience to thoughtfully tackle problems. As well, I think we can all agree, that the council could use more moms serving on it. If elected, I know Irena will show the leadership our city needs right now, by putting our neighborhoods above politics and doing what is best for everyone.

For almost a century, my family has lived in this community. I was born and raised in Concord myself, living most of that time in Ward 5, and I can tell you that there is no better person to be representing us than Irena Goddard. Please join me in casting a vote for Irena on Tuesday.

Update
The Monitor printed my letter in the Sunday edition, a big plus, along with another letter for Irena and one for her opponent. Tracking the letters to the editor in the Monitor, that makes five for Irena and two for her opponent. Hopefully, that is how Election Day will be.

It's becoming clearer: The Hippo is abandoning Concord

On Wednesday, I posted this entry about the possible demise of the Concord edition of The Hippo: ["Is The Hippo ending its Concord edition?"].
There hasn't been any response to the piece from the parties involved but I know some have seen the article online. However, the past few weeks, editions which have been dropped in Concord were the same as ones dropped in Manch. And after taking a quick gander through the latest issue, released on Thursday, it is becoming clearer that this speculation may be dead-on correct.
The latest issue, which I picked up on Warren Street in downtown Concord, has a Publisher's Note by Jody Reese - not Dan Szczesny - who had previously been writing the Concord editorials. The edition is a hefty 71 pages. This is impressive when you consider this is New Hampshire and the newspaper is primarily covering news and culture, with heavy emphasis on arts frequented by a younger audience. Three reporters remain, according to the staff listings, although this week, Lisa Brown's contribution was limited to a quarter page of news briefs about Manch and an article about treasure-hunting with your GPS. She was previously the Concord reporter. There is virtually no Concord news or content to speak of, although most of the ads based out of the Concord area remain [lumped together on Page 8 and 9].
Associate Publisher Jeff Rapsis has a very good cover story on the state of classical music in New Hampshire entitled "Fight at the opera" which is worthy of posting. Since I got to know most of these cats when I hosted a daily arts program for a local radio station, it is good to see that their story is getting out there.

In other local media news ...
* Congratulations to Concord Monitor Editor Mike Pride for being named the co-chairman of the Pulitizer Prize Board, the group which hands out the best in journalism awards: ["'Monitor' editor chair Pulitizers"]. After reading the article, it's amazing the guy has any kind of life. Between editing the newspaper, blogging, and reading all the books and entries he has to read, it is amazing he can keep his sanity.

* Rick Watrous has this letter in the Monitor challenging the newspaper to do more investigative reporting: ["Cut the fluff; give us a series on the city budget"].

"There are important local stories ripe for reporting. Sunday's Viewpoints featured a letter about city council conflicts of interests and the lack of a council ethics code. I and others have raised similar questions about questionable behavior in Concord city government. The Monitor should live up to the "civic duty" Pride mentions and investigate such stories."

Watrous makes a good point, especially when eyeing some of the fluffier pieces in the newspaper and some of the major things which get ignored, for whatever reason. Here is the column, written by Pride, which Watrous alludes to: ["Without newspapers, would we know?"].

* After 35 years, Gardner Hill, the host of "Coffee Chat," aired his last program on a local radio station here in Concord. Hill doesn't know what he is going to do now that he is out of work but he is keeping his options open. Many of us grew up listening to Gardner on the radio and it is amazing that he has had such a long, fruitful run. Best of luck to ya, Gard!

* Next week, the Union Leader will launch a new online bidding system at its Web site, unionleader.com. The system is called Ubid-Ubuy, and seems to be modeled after eBay. Similar programs offered by some area radio stations have bombed. But as newspapers look for new forms of revenue, it doesn't hurt to try something.

* Walter Alarkon, a reporter at the Monitor, has an interesting piece about presidential candidates visiting the area and utilizing some radio stations in the Granite State to reach out to voters: ["Small stations, big-time guest"].
The article is good. But I found it strange that a certain local radio station in Concord, which has covered hundreds of presidential campaign events over the last two-plus years and has a Web site with downloadable mp3s of all kinds of 2008 presidential campaign audio, was completely ignored in the article. The slight was pretty prominent and noticed by more than a few of us out here in the hustings.
I called Alarkon to get a bit of background about the story. He said that he spoke with some people at Concord's only commercial station but they weren't included in the article. The focus was about small radio stations which have political or opinion talk shows on the air, not news stations, he said. Since the station didn't broadcast political or opinion shows, it wasn't included in the article, he said.
To the non-trained eye, this all seems pretty logical. But for those of us who have worked in the media, it really seems as though other hands may have had a role in the story. I mean, why include anything about radio stations in Keene or New London which can't even be picked up in the reading area of the Monitor?
In the end, the article wasn't as good as it could have been because important local information was kept out of the story.

Two eye Concord Ward 5 Council seat

According to Concord City Clerk Janice Bonenfant, two candidates have emerged to run for the council seat held by the late Councilor Marjory Swope, who recently passed away due to cancer.
Irena Goddard of Redington Road and Robert Werner of the Hooksett Turnpike, are running. Other potential candidates have until 5 p.m. today to file to run.
Goddard, a Free State Project supporter, ran for Concord School Board last year, coming in fourth and missing a win by a mere 357 votes [Six candidates were vying for three seats]. Goddard placed fifth in Ward 5. Interestingly though, she placed second in Wards 8 and 9, the area on the southeastern side of the city, and the Heights. Both are on the opposite side of the city.
The school board race was lightly covered by the media. The Concord Monitor limited its coverage to printing a voter's guide and a political hit piece about incumbent Paul Codington losing his law license. The piece was published on the front page, above the fold, election morning, and surely had a role in his loss [Codington, through some court finagling, was later able to get his law license back]. A local radio station also hosted and broadcast one of the debates and produced news segments about each of the candidates running up to the election.
Werner was previously the vice chairman of the Merrimack County Democrats and a local powerbroker. He was a supporter of presidential candidate John Edwards in 2004 and also a policy analyst for the Smoke-Free NH Alliance, according to campaign finance reporting Web sites.
In September 2005, Werner created a PAC, Citizens for New Solutions. In May 2006, the PAC name was changed to Citizens for Sensible Solutions. An active Web site for the PAC was not found and the PAC does not appear to have done much during its existence.
In September 2006, the Cheshire County Democrats blog posted an event listing sponsored by the group: A complimentary reception and discussion about how Democrats can win in New Hampshire, featuring William Gaston and Elaine Kamarck, authors of "The Politics of Polarization," was held on Oct. 19 at the Manch hotspot, Fratello's. The blog described the PAC this way:

Citizens for Sensible Solutions advocates for public policies that expand economic and educational opportunity, strengthen families, promote community values, demand responsibility and accountability from government, and protects our citizens. CNS will actively support candidates for public office that embrace this positive vision of New Hampshire’s future.

In end of the year 2006 filing, according to the Secretary of State's office, the PAC raised $3,160 and spent $2,279. Werner donated $1,350 to the PAC. Other political players donating money include Billy Shaheen, the husband of the former Governor [$300], failed District 1 Congressional candidate and Attorney Jim Craig [$300], Attorney George Bruno [$100], and Attorney Mike Atkins [$100]. Fire PAC NH also donated $500 to the PAC. The PAC listed the Fratello's event [$1,465.95], an airline reimbursement, and postage of $646, as expenses for the year, leaving $880 on hand.
Last January, Concord Mayor Mike Donovan, appointed Werner to the Utility Policies/Appeal Board.
Ward 5 is located in the western part of Concord. It runs from the Green Street Community Center to the Hopkinton line west, north to Auburn Street, Little Pond Road, and Lake View Drive [not including White Park], and south to Little Turkey/Great Turkey Pond/River basin to the Bow line on one side and along Clinton Street on the other side.

Is The Hippo ending its Concord edition?

Rumors around the publishing industry are that The Hippo, the free news and culture weekly out of Manchester, will no longer be publishing a Concord edition. During the last few weeks, readers [including yours truly] have noticed that Concord news was virtually non-existent in The Hippo, with the editions looking exactly the same as editions found in Manchester.
An email to Dan Szczesny on April 15th, requesting information about whether the Concord edition was being discontinued, was never answered.
Insiders familiar with local publishing have hinted that a cross-selling agreement between Newspapers of New England [the Concord Monitor's parent company], which publishes The Hippo, and the alternative weekly, was not going well and may be heading south.
Originally, when the Monitor's parent company agreed to publish The Hippo, there was a clause included which stated that The Hippo folks would not put out a Concord edition. In 2004, The Hippo launched a very successful Nashua edition, and a year later, after a cross-selling agreement was negotiated, started a Concord edition. Late last year, the company started a Monday through Friday micro-daily called the Manchester Daily Express.
If the cross-selling agreement were to end, The Hippo would either have to stop publishing a Concord edition or find another company, like the Phoenix Company out of Boston, to publish its newspaper. It seems as though The Hippo has decided the former.
The Concord edition consisted of a local editorial on Page 2, produced by Szczesny, and a few local stories and listings on Page 6. Other Concord content, albeit minor, was spread throughout the paper, including the cute Quality of Life meter feature.
But was the Concord edition doomed to fail from the start?
Previously, Neighborhood News, Inc., a subsidiary of the Union Leader Corporation, attempted to publish an arty weekly called The Concord Mirror [They also expanded coverage into Concord's South End neighborhood, to beef up circ]. Edited by Eric Baxter, who now writes for The Hippo's Daily Express, the paper was available both as a stand-alone and as an insert in the Bow Times. It featured a few articles and a slew of local listings, but was slim on ads. Towards the end, before Neighborhood News made it a section of the Times, effectively killing it as a stand-alone, The Mirror struggled to find its voice and had a hard time finding relevant arts content to cover.
The Hippo took a different track: They gave Concord readers the guts of the Manch paper, with a bit more local content, which limited expenses and gave readers the best of both worlds. Since many readers care about things going on in Manch, it worked.
However, advertising for the Concord edition, at best, was light, and probably not enough to sustain a full-time news reporter with a starting salary of around $25k. The ads seemed limited to a handful of restaurants and small businesses. Unlike the huge amount of advertising which can be found in Manchester and Nashua, Concord is a much smaller market. Advertising is tight, as local radio stations and the Monitor know firsthand. Most mom and pop businesses are barely hanging on and the Monitor probably found the cross-selling agreement cutting into their own business. The Monitor also launched a new weekly of its own - The Concord Insider - an insert in Tuesday's paper and a stand-alone downtown by Wednesday.
In the past year, staffing a consistent reporter to cover Concord news in the edition has also seemed to be difficult. A revolving door of reporters, most recently ex-radio gal Lisa Brown, has tried to do its best to provide content for the paper. Brown's work seemed to mostly be a collection of small, one paragraph bits of information or local listings, and not the more extensive investigative pieces Concord readers are clamoring for. Editors at The Hippo also attempted to enter into a news-sharing agreement with a local radio station, to beef up its Concord content, as did Neighborhood News when they were publishing The Mirror. But both opportunities failed to materialize when disagreements arose over whether or not content would be traded or purchased. The Hippo has previously offered Podcasting on its Web site to WTPL The local FM sports/talker. Chris Dornin, who runs a State House news service, also contributed pieces to the paper for a short time.
The paper has two employment advertisements on journalismjobs.com, a national newspaper employment Web site - "Features reporter with big dreams" and "Writer/Listings Coordinator." While it isn't known for sure, those new hires are probably not destined to cover Concord.
If this is truly the end for The Hippo's Concord edition, it is a sad day for local readers interested in more choices than just the Monitor. While The Hippo didn't offer a lot of Concord news, they at least tried. And that, is better than nothing.

Concord Monitor releases primary poll
This morning's Monitor has an extensive 2008 poll conducted by Research 2000 during the same time period pollsters completed a poll in Iowa. The online edition of the Monitor doesn't have the poll but the newspaper version does. Here is the article: ["Obama strong in new poll"]. Clearly the poll is biased because Sen. Obama was in the state just before the polling and got a slew of media coverage. But who knows. Here are some of the details:

DEMS:
Hillary Clinton: 22%
Barack Obama: 21%
John Edwards: 16%
Al Gore: 10%
John Kerry: 7%
Wesley Clark: 4%
Dennis Kucinich: 4%
Joe Biden: 2%
Tom Vilsack: 2%
Evan Bayh: 2%
Bill Richardson: 2%
Undecided: 2%

GOP:
Rudy Guiliani: 26%
John McCain: 25%
Mitt Romney: 10%
Newt Gingrich: 8%
Condi Rice: 6%
George Pataki: 3%
Jeb Bush: 1%
George Allen: 1%
Sam Brownback: 1%
Rick Santorum: 1%
Duncan Hunter: 0%
Undecided: 18%

Some thoughts: Where do the Gore voters go if he doesn't run? Kerry should just give it up. It's hilarious to see Clark, the war criminal, tied with Kucinich, the peace candidate. Kucinich got 1.3 percent in 2004's primary so he is already three times ahead of the game. It is also interesting to see voters naming a slew of candidates who are not running, like Bayh, Allen, Bush, and Santorum. Allen lost a squeaker but any presidential aspirations he had are over. Santorum got totally clocked ... by 18 points. Anyone thinking he is going to run, or has any chance of winning, is delusional. Lastly, Vilsack, Bayh, and Gingrich didn't seem to get any boost from recent visits to the state. Granted, it's early.

Global warming?
It's friggin' Christmas and it is 47 degrees outside! Where is the cold weather? Where is the frost? Where is the snow? I got my son a two-man rubber toboggan for Christmas ... but there's no snow to use it! Ugh.

Link dump
Here is a bunch of stuff I've been meaning to share.

Ralph Nader continues to make sense: ['This is about corporate-managed trade']. Lori Wallach is one of my heroes. I also haven't bought Sen. Byron Dorgan's book yet but I plan to when it comes out in paperback.

If the end of oil is coming soon, this is something we should all look at: ["DIY Fuel"].

Very interesting: ["Pyramids were built with concrete rather than rocks, scientists claim"]. So, I guess they won't be digging around the Sahara looking for those space machines from Exodus any time soon ...

Last night, I stumbled across the "Dark Skies" pilot listed in On Demand and watched it. I had forgotten how good the show was. And, it makes sites like this one, even more interesting: ["Alien Payback"]. I saw this linked at DailyKos of all places. I don't fault the guy for trying to get his story out there. But I find it strange that you can get booted from DailyKos for supporting Ralph Nader or for challenging anything but the official story about 9-11, but he then accepts ads from people who claimed to have been abducted by aliens and injected with stuff. Ohhhh-kaaayhh.

Speaking of 9-11, this site has a whole slew of stuff which is really worth a second look: ["Killtown"]. This site, along with this one: ["9-11 Truth"] this one: ["Share the truth"] and this one: ["Scholars for 9/11 truth"], are worth second looks. I would also advise people to watch the "Loose Change" documentary ... with an open mind. I don't know if 9-11 was an "inside job" or whether or not government officials had prior knowledge. But, I don't believe that a 757 was flown into the Pentagon and no one has yet explained why WTC 7 was "pulled." I wish the FBI would release all the security tapes they confiscated from the Sheraton and 7-11 right near the Pentagon. Which actually find out that it was a cruise missile and not an airliner which crashed into the Pentagon.

Aaron Russo, a former Libertarian Presidential candidate, has been working on this new documentary, which is now out on DVD: ["America: Freedom to Fascism"]. I'm looking forward to checking it out.

This guy created MySpace ... and he has a lot of complaining to do: ["Free MySpace"].

Joy Division doesn't like upcoming documentary: ["Joy Division doesn't like 'Control'"].

And then, there is this: ["Forespray"].

WSJ
I really enjoy reading the Wall Street Journal. Despite some delivery problems - it took six weeks to get the sub started and since that time, I haven't received a full week. I usually only get four issues a week and I don't think I'm the only person in Concord, N.H. getting the thing. But I really like reading it. There are changes coming and most of them look pretty good:

Dear Subscriber:

We live in an era of change, and the way we get our news has also changed.

So, starting January 2, 2007 you will see a more relevant Journal designed to better meet your needs. There will be increased focus on interpretation, insight and ideas …more of what the news means and not just what happened.

And your Journal will look different too. It will come to you in a slimmer, easier to handle size, with a more legible typeface. There will be better section labeling and more daily summaries to help you find what you need more quickly.

Some other great new features include …

• “Today’s Agenda” designed to alert you to the meaning of news expected later in the day.
• “In Brief” summaries which will mirror the popular “What’s News” on key industries and topics inside the paper.
• Value-added Statistics that graphically communicate market information and global market trends each day.
• NEW Markets Data Center at WSJ.com available free to all subscribers. This site will provide full stock listings and easy ways to put data into context. Innovative features include stock and index charting, access to market-moving headlines and email delivery of key market information.

Please visit now at wsj.com/mdctour to find out for yourself how easy Markets Data Center is to use.

We hope you like what you will see on January 2. Be assured that what has not changed is the high quality content and credibility you have come to expect from The Journal. As always we welcome your reactions, comments and thoughts. You can contact us at newlookfeedback@wsj.com.

Sincerely,
The Wall Street Journal

Happy Christmas and Happy Holidays. I'm on vaca this week so blogging will be limited ... unless the world explodes or something. Have a good one.