Recent big headlines:
Jose Padilla has finally been indicted ... not for Oklahoma City, but for allegedly plotting to set off a dirty bomb: ["Dirty Bomb Suspect Jose Padilla Indicted"].
Another report showing no link between Saddam Hussein and the Sept. 11 attacks: ["Key Bush Intelligence Briefing Kept From Hill Panel"].
McCain says there could be trouble on the horizon?: ["McCain, Graham Warn GOP May Be in Trouble"].
Fourth, Congress may be reopening the Oklahoma City bombing case: ["'Compelling' evidence of another terroristU.S. senator forecasts investigation by Congress"].
Again, newspapers, in serious trouble: ["A future of empty doorsteps? Dark days for US newspapers"].
More information about previous knowledge of the Sept. 11 attacks: ["Weldon pushes 'Able Danger' criminal probe"].
A very interesting profile of Sen. Feingold by Michael Crowley: ["Withdrawal Symptoms"].
Pat Buchanan continues to make sense: ["Paris Burning: How Empires End"].
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
DailyKos poll update
Today, DailyKos posted the results from the last few Dem straw polls:
dKos reader poll. 11/21. 11,627 respondents.
Nov Sept Aug July June
Clark 26 34 35 34 26
Feingold 19 19 16 10 10
Warner 14 4 3 5 5
Edwards 12 10 7 7 8
H. Clinton 6 8 9 10 10
No Clue 6 6 9 13 17
Richardson 5 3 4 4 4
Other 2 3 4 4 7
Kerry 2 2 1 2 2
Biden 1 3 3 3 3
Bayh 1 1 1 2 2
Vilsack 0 0 0 0 0
My earlier comments may have been a bit off. Notice the slight slip of Clark, the jump for Warner, and the increase for Edwards too. And Feingold remains strong. If this was a primary, it would be a pretty good horserace between Clark, Feingold, and Warner.
Today, DailyKos posted the results from the last few Dem straw polls:
dKos reader poll. 11/21. 11,627 respondents.
Nov Sept Aug July June
Clark 26 34 35 34 26
Feingold 19 19 16 10 10
Warner 14 4 3 5 5
Edwards 12 10 7 7 8
H. Clinton 6 8 9 10 10
No Clue 6 6 9 13 17
Richardson 5 3 4 4 4
Other 2 3 4 4 7
Kerry 2 2 1 2 2
Biden 1 3 3 3 3
Bayh 1 1 1 2 2
Vilsack 0 0 0 0 0
My earlier comments may have been a bit off. Notice the slight slip of Clark, the jump for Warner, and the increase for Edwards too. And Feingold remains strong. If this was a primary, it would be a pretty good horserace between Clark, Feingold, and Warner.
Monday, November 21, 2005
New polling
On DailyKos.com, earlier this evening:
If the 2008 presidential primary were held today, who would you vote for?
Bayh - 144 votes - 1 %
Biden - 175 votes - 1 %
Clark - 2538 votes - 26 %
Clinton - 573 votes - 6 %
Edwards - 1158 votes - 12 %
Feingold - 1865 votes - 19 %
Kerry - 215 votes - 2 %
Richardson - 483 votes - 5 %
Vilsack - 52 votes - 0 %
Warner - 1446 votes - 15 %
Other - 257 votes - 2 %
No frickin' clue - 608 votes - 6 %
The numbers show some pretty clear things. First, the Kossacks are still totally obsessed by Clark who, IMHO, is unelectable and possibly a war criminal, from what I have read.
Mark Warner's numbers are also interesting - since no one essentially knows a thing about the guy. Sure, he is a Dem elected from a red state. But so was Edwards ... and that didn't quite work out. Although, he still gets good numbers, so the rank-and-file still must like him. I still stand by my earlier writing suggesting that a Dean/Edwards; Edwards/Dean ticket would have won election. Kerry was never going to win in a million years. Feingold is still raking in impressive numbers, which is good to see. With his votes against the PATRIOT Act, the invasion, and other things, he is the only legitimate leader right now in the Democrat Party.
Another fascinating thing: The Kossacks are rejecting almost all the insider candidates. Now that is amazing.
From PollingReport.com:
Diageo/Hotline Poll conducted by Financial Dynamics. Nov. 11-15, 2005. Registered voters nationwide.
.
"Suppose the 2008 Republican presidential primary were held today, for whom would you support if the candidates were [see below]?" If "All": "If you absolutely had to choose, which one person would you support?" Names rotated. N=326 Republican voters, MoE ± 5.4.
Rudy Giuliani - 22
Condoleezza Rice - 22
John McCain - 21
Jeb Bush - 11
Newt Gingrich - 6
Bill Frist - 3
None (vol.) - 3
Unsure - 11
"Now, suppose the general election for president in 2008 were being held today between [see below] -- for whom would you vote?" Names rotated. N=700 registered voters, MoE ± 3.7 (for all voters).
John McCain (R) - 52
Hillary Clinton (D) - 39
Unsure - 9
Jeb Bush (R) - 18
Hillary Clinton (D) - 34
John McCain (I) - 40
Unsure -7
Condoleeza Rice (R) - 20
Hillary Clinton (D) - 35
John McCain (I) - 35
Unsure - 10
Of course, the Electoral College and not the general election, elects the president. So, these numbers are meaningless. But they are intriguing. How about a Feingold/McCain ticket? End the bipartisanship, once and for all.
On DailyKos.com, earlier this evening:
If the 2008 presidential primary were held today, who would you vote for?
Bayh - 144 votes - 1 %
Biden - 175 votes - 1 %
Clark - 2538 votes - 26 %
Clinton - 573 votes - 6 %
Edwards - 1158 votes - 12 %
Feingold - 1865 votes - 19 %
Kerry - 215 votes - 2 %
Richardson - 483 votes - 5 %
Vilsack - 52 votes - 0 %
Warner - 1446 votes - 15 %
Other - 257 votes - 2 %
No frickin' clue - 608 votes - 6 %
The numbers show some pretty clear things. First, the Kossacks are still totally obsessed by Clark who, IMHO, is unelectable and possibly a war criminal, from what I have read.
Mark Warner's numbers are also interesting - since no one essentially knows a thing about the guy. Sure, he is a Dem elected from a red state. But so was Edwards ... and that didn't quite work out. Although, he still gets good numbers, so the rank-and-file still must like him. I still stand by my earlier writing suggesting that a Dean/Edwards; Edwards/Dean ticket would have won election. Kerry was never going to win in a million years. Feingold is still raking in impressive numbers, which is good to see. With his votes against the PATRIOT Act, the invasion, and other things, he is the only legitimate leader right now in the Democrat Party.
Another fascinating thing: The Kossacks are rejecting almost all the insider candidates. Now that is amazing.
From PollingReport.com:
Diageo/Hotline Poll conducted by Financial Dynamics. Nov. 11-15, 2005. Registered voters nationwide.
.
"Suppose the 2008 Republican presidential primary were held today, for whom would you support if the candidates were [see below]?" If "All": "If you absolutely had to choose, which one person would you support?" Names rotated. N=326 Republican voters, MoE ± 5.4.
Rudy Giuliani - 22
Condoleezza Rice - 22
John McCain - 21
Jeb Bush - 11
Newt Gingrich - 6
Bill Frist - 3
None (vol.) - 3
Unsure - 11
"Now, suppose the general election for president in 2008 were being held today between [see below] -- for whom would you vote?" Names rotated. N=700 registered voters, MoE ± 3.7 (for all voters).
John McCain (R) - 52
Hillary Clinton (D) - 39
Unsure - 9
Jeb Bush (R) - 18
Hillary Clinton (D) - 34
John McCain (I) - 40
Unsure -7
Condoleeza Rice (R) - 20
Hillary Clinton (D) - 35
John McCain (I) - 35
Unsure - 10
Of course, the Electoral College and not the general election, elects the president. So, these numbers are meaningless. But they are intriguing. How about a Feingold/McCain ticket? End the bipartisanship, once and for all.
Friday, November 18, 2005
The Noise Chart
December 2005
Reporting stations: WAAF, WBCN, WFNX, WMBR, WMFO, WTCC, WZBC
1. Aberdeen City – The Freezing Atlantic
2. Reverend Glasseye – Our Lady of the Broken Spine
3. The Glass Set – The Glass Set
4. The Swinging Steaks – Sunday Best
5. Taxpayer – Bones & Lungs
6. Chris Brokaw – Incredible Love
7. Hilken Mancini & Chris Colburn – Hilken Mancini & Chris Colburn
8. The Hidden – Smashes to Ashes
9. The Rudds – Get the Femuline Hang On
10. Tiger Saw – Sing!
11. Anushka Pop – Akathena
12. Harris – The Light is Seeping through the Cracks
13. Don Lennon – Rountine
14. Anarchy Club – The Way and Its Power
15. Certainly Sir – Tan
16. The Coffin Lids – 'Round Midnight
17. Feathers – Absolute Noon
18. Galaxie 500 – Peel Sessions
19. The Pixies – Sell Out
20. The Product – Four Demo Songs EP
21. Blanketeer – EP
22. Cocked N Loaded – Ding Dong Doom Baby
23. Das Happening – 4 Songs
24. Four Tet – Everything Ecstatic
25. The Good North – Life Outside Our Walls EP
26. Ho-Ag – Pray for the Worms
27. The Irreverends – The Irreverends EP
28. Karacter – Karacter
29. The Scissormen – Jinx Breakers
30. Soltero – Hell Train
Most Played CD of 2005:
Ad Frank & the Fast Easy Women – … Is the World’s Best Ex-Boyfriend
December 2005
Reporting stations: WAAF, WBCN, WFNX, WMBR, WMFO, WTCC, WZBC
1. Aberdeen City – The Freezing Atlantic
2. Reverend Glasseye – Our Lady of the Broken Spine
3. The Glass Set – The Glass Set
4. The Swinging Steaks – Sunday Best
5. Taxpayer – Bones & Lungs
6. Chris Brokaw – Incredible Love
7. Hilken Mancini & Chris Colburn – Hilken Mancini & Chris Colburn
8. The Hidden – Smashes to Ashes
9. The Rudds – Get the Femuline Hang On
10. Tiger Saw – Sing!
11. Anushka Pop – Akathena
12. Harris – The Light is Seeping through the Cracks
13. Don Lennon – Rountine
14. Anarchy Club – The Way and Its Power
15. Certainly Sir – Tan
16. The Coffin Lids – 'Round Midnight
17. Feathers – Absolute Noon
18. Galaxie 500 – Peel Sessions
19. The Pixies – Sell Out
20. The Product – Four Demo Songs EP
21. Blanketeer – EP
22. Cocked N Loaded – Ding Dong Doom Baby
23. Das Happening – 4 Songs
24. Four Tet – Everything Ecstatic
25. The Good North – Life Outside Our Walls EP
26. Ho-Ag – Pray for the Worms
27. The Irreverends – The Irreverends EP
28. Karacter – Karacter
29. The Scissormen – Jinx Breakers
30. Soltero – Hell Train
Most Played CD of 2005:
Ad Frank & the Fast Easy Women – … Is the World’s Best Ex-Boyfriend
Wednesday, November 9, 2005
Well, I was close
It isn't easy picking winners - whether it is an election, race horses, lottery numbers, or whatever. But, I took a stab at the Boston city elections and didn't do too badly:
FLAHERTY - 49,163 - 17.58% check
ARROYO - 43,492 - 15.56% check
YOON - 41,839 - 14.96% oops, had Connolly
MURPHY - 35,507 - 12.70% check
CONNOLLY - 31,596 - 11.30% oops, had Yoon here
O'MALLEY - 28,292 - 10.12% check
WHITE - 26,965 - 9.64% had Flynn here
FLYNN - 21,739 - 7.78% had White here
Write-in Votes - 1,008 - 0.36%
On the Mayoral race, I was way off: I picked Menino, 58-42. He won 68 to 32. But still, not a bad guess. It is clear from the results that the progressives didn't come out as heavily as they needed to. Sure, they boosted Yoon into the final four. But they left Matt O'Malley - a young, white, male progressive - way behind [those familiar with my political past shouldn't be surprised at this result]. The PDFs of ward breakdowns aren't up, but I am interested in seeing whether or not O'Malley got help from black communities in town.
And in the end, incumbent Stephen Murphy - who was all but given up for dead by the media and politicos - returned easily.
Most disappointing for Patricia White was her returns. She slips to seventh even after spending a fortune on the race, with slick TV ads, trying to pitch herself as a populist woman even if she was born of privilege. Rumor has it that she will never run for public office again. Three strikes and you're out, as they say. But, never say never. Maybe people just don't know her well enough yet or were underimpressed with her ideas. Who knows.
It isn't easy picking winners - whether it is an election, race horses, lottery numbers, or whatever. But, I took a stab at the Boston city elections and didn't do too badly:
FLAHERTY - 49,163 - 17.58% check
ARROYO - 43,492 - 15.56% check
YOON - 41,839 - 14.96% oops, had Connolly
MURPHY - 35,507 - 12.70% check
CONNOLLY - 31,596 - 11.30% oops, had Yoon here
O'MALLEY - 28,292 - 10.12% check
WHITE - 26,965 - 9.64% had Flynn here
FLYNN - 21,739 - 7.78% had White here
Write-in Votes - 1,008 - 0.36%
On the Mayoral race, I was way off: I picked Menino, 58-42. He won 68 to 32. But still, not a bad guess. It is clear from the results that the progressives didn't come out as heavily as they needed to. Sure, they boosted Yoon into the final four. But they left Matt O'Malley - a young, white, male progressive - way behind [those familiar with my political past shouldn't be surprised at this result]. The PDFs of ward breakdowns aren't up, but I am interested in seeing whether or not O'Malley got help from black communities in town.
And in the end, incumbent Stephen Murphy - who was all but given up for dead by the media and politicos - returned easily.
Most disappointing for Patricia White was her returns. She slips to seventh even after spending a fortune on the race, with slick TV ads, trying to pitch herself as a populist woman even if she was born of privilege. Rumor has it that she will never run for public office again. Three strikes and you're out, as they say. But, never say never. Maybe people just don't know her well enough yet or were underimpressed with her ideas. Who knows.
Monday, November 7, 2005
Newspapers
I love newspapers. There is something about having one in your hand - versus reading one online. Over the years, I have worked for a number of pretty good papers and broken a lot of good stories as a reporter and editor. Before that, I worked as a contributor and advertising sales rep.
When I was a boy, I used to peddle the Concord Monitor, the local daily in the town I grew up in. It was one of my first real jobs. Every day after school, I would meet several other kids at the five-way intersection at White Park [where the old trolley station still is] and we would have our papers dropped there.
Back then, the Monitor was an afternoon paper and a bunch of us geeks would meet in the afternoon. At the time, the Saturday edition was the only morning edition and there was no Sunday paper. I always remember it being a huge paper and very heavy to carry around, easily double or triple the size that the paper is now.
Wednesday was the big edition of the week, with all the flyers in it for the weekend shoppers. If you had a big route - about 60 or 70 residents to deliver to - you were dragging that bag around like a Neanderthal dragging his mate by the hair!
It was a fun job but a bit strange too. The Monitor seemed to go through circulation reps. a lot. There was this one guy I used to really like who tried to get us to take pride in our work, by telling us to take time to read the paper and understand what we were delivering to the public. I never really thought of it at the time, but he was right. That guy was later replaced by another guy and then another, always urging speed in delivery and the exact opposite of the guy who told us to take pride in our work.
When we moved from one end of town to the other, I stopped doing the paper route. It was over a mile away and I was getting a little old for peddling papers. My brother would have a smaller route though and then the Monitor would move to mornings.
However, the demise of the newspaper is really startling. Similar to the recording industry, the advance of technology and the "virtue" of free content have led to its demise. We have also taught a whole generation of young people that they don't have to pay for anything, that information is "free," and that there are few and sometimes no consequences to our actions.
Check this out from Drudge earlier this week:
BLOODBATH LIST
Mon Nov 07 2005 11:02:35 ET
Average weekday circulation of America's 20 biggest newspapers for the six-month period ended Sept. 30, as reported Monday by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. [The percentage changes are from the comparable year-ago period.]
1. USA Today, 2,296,335, down 0.59 percent
2. The Wall Street Journal, 2,083,660, down 1.10 percent
3. The New York Times, 1,126,190, up 0.46 percent
4. Los Angeles Times, 843,432, down 3.79 percent
5. New York Daily News, 688,584, down 3.70 percent
6. The Washington Post, 678,779, down 4.09 percent
7. New York Post, 662,681, down 1.74 percent
8. Chicago Tribune, 586,122, down 2.47 percent
9. Houston Chronicle, 521,419, down 6.01 percent
10. The Boston Globe, 414,225, down 8.25 percent
11. The Arizona Republic, 411,043, down 0.54 percent
12. The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J., 400,092, up 0.01 percent
13. San Francisco Chronicle, 391,681, down 16.4 percent
14. Star Tribune of Minneapolis-St. Paul, 374,528, down 0.26 percent
15. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 362,426, down 8.73 percent
16. The Philadelphia Inquirer, 357,679, down 3.16 percent
17. Detroit Free Press, 341,248, down 2.18 percent
18. The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, 339,055, down 4.46 percent
19. The Oregonian, Portland, 333,515, down 1.24 percent
20. The San Diego Union-Tribune, 314,279, down 6.24 percent
It is interesting to note that the top three are pretty much holding steady. At least two of those papers - the NYT and the WSJ - set the national agenda as far as media coverage goes. The USA Today is the Pravda of the United States, IMHO. But look at the rest: Down, down, down ... The Boston Globe's circ numbers are not surprising. It is a shell of the newspaper that it once was. There has also been a long-standing boycott against El Globo, as Howie Carr calls it, by conservatives, who have long complained about the paper's liberal elitist mentalities. Some drops could probably be explained by the influx of non-English speaking immigrants moving into homes in urban America once owned - or rented - by English speaking folks who have cancelled their subscriptions when they moved away.
All of this is not good though because the newspaper is the bedrock of our society. The flip of this is that there will be new newspapers cropping up, free dailies and weeklies, and also the Internet, which will flourish as a source of news. But the Internet isn't a newspaper. It just isn't the same. And another problem is that no one has really found a way to make money from the Web yet. All in due time though.
I love newspapers. There is something about having one in your hand - versus reading one online. Over the years, I have worked for a number of pretty good papers and broken a lot of good stories as a reporter and editor. Before that, I worked as a contributor and advertising sales rep.
When I was a boy, I used to peddle the Concord Monitor, the local daily in the town I grew up in. It was one of my first real jobs. Every day after school, I would meet several other kids at the five-way intersection at White Park [where the old trolley station still is] and we would have our papers dropped there.
Back then, the Monitor was an afternoon paper and a bunch of us geeks would meet in the afternoon. At the time, the Saturday edition was the only morning edition and there was no Sunday paper. I always remember it being a huge paper and very heavy to carry around, easily double or triple the size that the paper is now.
Wednesday was the big edition of the week, with all the flyers in it for the weekend shoppers. If you had a big route - about 60 or 70 residents to deliver to - you were dragging that bag around like a Neanderthal dragging his mate by the hair!
It was a fun job but a bit strange too. The Monitor seemed to go through circulation reps. a lot. There was this one guy I used to really like who tried to get us to take pride in our work, by telling us to take time to read the paper and understand what we were delivering to the public. I never really thought of it at the time, but he was right. That guy was later replaced by another guy and then another, always urging speed in delivery and the exact opposite of the guy who told us to take pride in our work.
When we moved from one end of town to the other, I stopped doing the paper route. It was over a mile away and I was getting a little old for peddling papers. My brother would have a smaller route though and then the Monitor would move to mornings.
However, the demise of the newspaper is really startling. Similar to the recording industry, the advance of technology and the "virtue" of free content have led to its demise. We have also taught a whole generation of young people that they don't have to pay for anything, that information is "free," and that there are few and sometimes no consequences to our actions.
Check this out from Drudge earlier this week:
BLOODBATH LIST
Mon Nov 07 2005 11:02:35 ET
Average weekday circulation of America's 20 biggest newspapers for the six-month period ended Sept. 30, as reported Monday by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. [The percentage changes are from the comparable year-ago period.]
1. USA Today, 2,296,335, down 0.59 percent
2. The Wall Street Journal, 2,083,660, down 1.10 percent
3. The New York Times, 1,126,190, up 0.46 percent
4. Los Angeles Times, 843,432, down 3.79 percent
5. New York Daily News, 688,584, down 3.70 percent
6. The Washington Post, 678,779, down 4.09 percent
7. New York Post, 662,681, down 1.74 percent
8. Chicago Tribune, 586,122, down 2.47 percent
9. Houston Chronicle, 521,419, down 6.01 percent
10. The Boston Globe, 414,225, down 8.25 percent
11. The Arizona Republic, 411,043, down 0.54 percent
12. The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J., 400,092, up 0.01 percent
13. San Francisco Chronicle, 391,681, down 16.4 percent
14. Star Tribune of Minneapolis-St. Paul, 374,528, down 0.26 percent
15. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 362,426, down 8.73 percent
16. The Philadelphia Inquirer, 357,679, down 3.16 percent
17. Detroit Free Press, 341,248, down 2.18 percent
18. The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, 339,055, down 4.46 percent
19. The Oregonian, Portland, 333,515, down 1.24 percent
20. The San Diego Union-Tribune, 314,279, down 6.24 percent
It is interesting to note that the top three are pretty much holding steady. At least two of those papers - the NYT and the WSJ - set the national agenda as far as media coverage goes. The USA Today is the Pravda of the United States, IMHO. But look at the rest: Down, down, down ... The Boston Globe's circ numbers are not surprising. It is a shell of the newspaper that it once was. There has also been a long-standing boycott against El Globo, as Howie Carr calls it, by conservatives, who have long complained about the paper's liberal elitist mentalities. Some drops could probably be explained by the influx of non-English speaking immigrants moving into homes in urban America once owned - or rented - by English speaking folks who have cancelled their subscriptions when they moved away.
All of this is not good though because the newspaper is the bedrock of our society. The flip of this is that there will be new newspapers cropping up, free dailies and weeklies, and also the Internet, which will flourish as a source of news. But the Internet isn't a newspaper. It just isn't the same. And another problem is that no one has really found a way to make money from the Web yet. All in due time though.
Thursday, November 3, 2005
Butler's solo effort
Anna from Burned Down Days reports: The official release date for Richard Butler's self-titled solo album will be March 21, 2006 on Koch Records. More information as it becomes available.
What an ass ...
Mac allegedly assaults some of his fans: ["BUNNYMAN'S ASSAULT RAP"]. I just got the new record, "Siberia," and it isn't half bad.
Something new I have to try
"Shock coffee is the original hyper-caffeinated coffee to hit the market and the best success story to date": ["Shock Coffee"]. The site has that silly multi-level marketing feel but if it gets you zooming ...
"Going down, down, down, down ..."
Bush poll numbers reach a new low: ["Bush's job approval falls to 35 percent"]. Can impeachment be far behind?
Hmm ...
Peace Mom for President: ["Cindy Sheehan for President"].
Dems finally get stones?: ["Democrats turn up heat on White House"].
Only Maureen Dowd could write a piece like this: ["What's a Modern Girl to Do?"].
Boston elections
Kevin Rothstein of the Boston Herald is giving away "City of Champions" DVD to anyone who enters with the correct results in the Boston City Council at-large race. So, what the hell, here we go:
1. Flaherty
2. Arroyo
3. Connolly
4. Murphy
5. Yoon
6. O'Malley
7. Flynn
8. White
I don't know if I will be correct here. In fact, I am probably not picking the safe bets.
Everyone in the media is predicting a progressive sweep but I just don't see it. The city is still a big town and is still very conservative. I think - and hope - that Murphy will pull it out in the end. He is a good at-large councilor. While Arroyo is clowing around with hunger strikes because of the Iraqi invasion, Murphy is doing what is supposed to do: Getting potholes filled and cops on the beat. But the last straw may have been that sheriff's race - coming right after the treasurer's race. If he gets enough people working to save him though, he could pull it out.
I am also probably wrong in also picking Patricia White for dead last. A safer bet would be O'Malley. Being the only woman in the race should help when getting votes. But it probably won't be enough to win, especially with all the progressives doing everything in their power to launch Felix into the first position.
For the mayor's, I'm picking Menino, a very safe bet, 58-42 over Maura. However, I'm praying for Hennigan to pull out an upset. She has run a good campaign and it is time for Menino to go.
Both the Globe and the Herald endorsed Menino; The Phoenix endorsed Maura. The Phoenix also endorsed Yoon, Connoly, Arroyo, and White.
Anna from Burned Down Days reports: The official release date for Richard Butler's self-titled solo album will be March 21, 2006 on Koch Records. More information as it becomes available.
What an ass ...
Mac allegedly assaults some of his fans: ["BUNNYMAN'S ASSAULT RAP"]. I just got the new record, "Siberia," and it isn't half bad.
Something new I have to try
"Shock coffee is the original hyper-caffeinated coffee to hit the market and the best success story to date": ["Shock Coffee"]. The site has that silly multi-level marketing feel but if it gets you zooming ...
"Going down, down, down, down ..."
Bush poll numbers reach a new low: ["Bush's job approval falls to 35 percent"]. Can impeachment be far behind?
Hmm ...
Peace Mom for President: ["Cindy Sheehan for President"].
Dems finally get stones?: ["Democrats turn up heat on White House"].
Only Maureen Dowd could write a piece like this: ["What's a Modern Girl to Do?"].
Boston elections
Kevin Rothstein of the Boston Herald is giving away "City of Champions" DVD to anyone who enters with the correct results in the Boston City Council at-large race. So, what the hell, here we go:
1. Flaherty
2. Arroyo
3. Connolly
4. Murphy
5. Yoon
6. O'Malley
7. Flynn
8. White
I don't know if I will be correct here. In fact, I am probably not picking the safe bets.
Everyone in the media is predicting a progressive sweep but I just don't see it. The city is still a big town and is still very conservative. I think - and hope - that Murphy will pull it out in the end. He is a good at-large councilor. While Arroyo is clowing around with hunger strikes because of the Iraqi invasion, Murphy is doing what is supposed to do: Getting potholes filled and cops on the beat. But the last straw may have been that sheriff's race - coming right after the treasurer's race. If he gets enough people working to save him though, he could pull it out.
I am also probably wrong in also picking Patricia White for dead last. A safer bet would be O'Malley. Being the only woman in the race should help when getting votes. But it probably won't be enough to win, especially with all the progressives doing everything in their power to launch Felix into the first position.
For the mayor's, I'm picking Menino, a very safe bet, 58-42 over Maura. However, I'm praying for Hennigan to pull out an upset. She has run a good campaign and it is time for Menino to go.
Both the Globe and the Herald endorsed Menino; The Phoenix endorsed Maura. The Phoenix also endorsed Yoon, Connoly, Arroyo, and White.
Monday, October 31, 2005
Standing in the grocery line ... thinking ...
On Saturday afternoon, I was standing in the grocery line, thinking. I made the mistake of being a gentleman and giving up my place in a grocery line for a woman who left her cart in the middle of the store and later claimed that she was in line. I let her by - after she said it wasn't a big deal. She then proceeded to unload $315 worth of groceries and then attempted to pay with a check - without a courtesy card. Needless to say, I was in line for about 20 minutes behind her.
Anyhow, this left me for a good long time staring at those insipid supermarket tabloids. You know the ones - the Examiner, the Star, the Globe, People, Us, the Enquirer ... Do you recall the ad campaign: "Enquiring minds what to know ..." with the woman standing in line, looking up from the tab stating, "I want to know!"?
Foolishness.
And, for whatever reason, the greatest tab of all time, the Weekly World News, with the hilarious Ed Anger, doesn't seem to be on the racks anymore. As I always say about the Weekly World News, with a stolen line from "Repo Man": "They wouldn't print it if it wasn't true ..."
So I am looking at these ridiculous magazines, promoting and exposing the most shallow behavior of celebrities and all this other crap. There was the Brad and Jennifer divorce stuff, Liz on her deathbed, my God, they are even dragging up the Chandra Levi situation again ... Let the poor girl lie in the grave in silence already! You know what I mean.
I was just staring at these magazines, and Vanity Fair and TV Guide, thinking. And then, I had a revelation: I wonder if a political magazine had similar tabloid headlines, would people buy it? Would they care about important things if they were fed to them in a tabloid manner.
For example, "Scooter" Libby was indicted on Friday. This was Saturday. A potential screeching headline could be something like LIBBY INDICTED: DID HE DO IT FOR LOYALTY OR LOVE? Or how about marking the 2,000 American death in Iraq with something more than a random passing; like the body bags which we aren't supposed to see, with a headline like WHAT DID THEY DIE FOR? Or how about some scandalous corporate stuff blaring across a People-type magazine: KOZLOWSKI SAYS, 'I NEEDED THE $5K SHOWER CURTAINS!' Or, another headline: ENRON'S KENNY BOY: HOW COME HE IS STILL LIVING COMFORTABLY? THE SHOCKING TRUTH! Or another: CHINESE BUYING UP AMERICAN DEBT. WILL AMERICA BECOME THE RED, RED, AND BLUE?!
During the Clinton scandals, there was all kinds of dirt in these magazines. How come not now? Just because the scandals aren't about interns, small "L" lewinskys, and blue dresses? Come on.
The potential headlines are endless. But the question is: Would people buy the magazine? Would they wake up when faced with the important issues of the day on a level of the supermarket tab, something that they might be able to understand more clearly. I don't know. But it is worth a try, isn't it?
New Boston blog
Kevin Rothstein has a new blog about things going on in Boston City Hall: ["City Hall Confidential"]. It should be a good read. This is a great addition to the blogosphere, along with Adam Reilly's new Boston Phoenix political blog: ["Talking Politics"]. On another note, Eric Moskowitz of the Concord Monitor moves from the city beat to the political beat while Daniel Barrick moves from reporting to editing. Good luck to both of them!
On Saturday afternoon, I was standing in the grocery line, thinking. I made the mistake of being a gentleman and giving up my place in a grocery line for a woman who left her cart in the middle of the store and later claimed that she was in line. I let her by - after she said it wasn't a big deal. She then proceeded to unload $315 worth of groceries and then attempted to pay with a check - without a courtesy card. Needless to say, I was in line for about 20 minutes behind her.
Anyhow, this left me for a good long time staring at those insipid supermarket tabloids. You know the ones - the Examiner, the Star, the Globe, People, Us, the Enquirer ... Do you recall the ad campaign: "Enquiring minds what to know ..." with the woman standing in line, looking up from the tab stating, "I want to know!"?
Foolishness.
And, for whatever reason, the greatest tab of all time, the Weekly World News, with the hilarious Ed Anger, doesn't seem to be on the racks anymore. As I always say about the Weekly World News, with a stolen line from "Repo Man": "They wouldn't print it if it wasn't true ..."
So I am looking at these ridiculous magazines, promoting and exposing the most shallow behavior of celebrities and all this other crap. There was the Brad and Jennifer divorce stuff, Liz on her deathbed, my God, they are even dragging up the Chandra Levi situation again ... Let the poor girl lie in the grave in silence already! You know what I mean.
I was just staring at these magazines, and Vanity Fair and TV Guide, thinking. And then, I had a revelation: I wonder if a political magazine had similar tabloid headlines, would people buy it? Would they care about important things if they were fed to them in a tabloid manner.
For example, "Scooter" Libby was indicted on Friday. This was Saturday. A potential screeching headline could be something like LIBBY INDICTED: DID HE DO IT FOR LOYALTY OR LOVE? Or how about marking the 2,000 American death in Iraq with something more than a random passing; like the body bags which we aren't supposed to see, with a headline like WHAT DID THEY DIE FOR? Or how about some scandalous corporate stuff blaring across a People-type magazine: KOZLOWSKI SAYS, 'I NEEDED THE $5K SHOWER CURTAINS!' Or, another headline: ENRON'S KENNY BOY: HOW COME HE IS STILL LIVING COMFORTABLY? THE SHOCKING TRUTH! Or another: CHINESE BUYING UP AMERICAN DEBT. WILL AMERICA BECOME THE RED, RED, AND BLUE?!
During the Clinton scandals, there was all kinds of dirt in these magazines. How come not now? Just because the scandals aren't about interns, small "L" lewinskys, and blue dresses? Come on.
The potential headlines are endless. But the question is: Would people buy the magazine? Would they wake up when faced with the important issues of the day on a level of the supermarket tab, something that they might be able to understand more clearly. I don't know. But it is worth a try, isn't it?
New Boston blog
Kevin Rothstein has a new blog about things going on in Boston City Hall: ["City Hall Confidential"]. It should be a good read. This is a great addition to the blogosphere, along with Adam Reilly's new Boston Phoenix political blog: ["Talking Politics"]. On another note, Eric Moskowitz of the Concord Monitor moves from the city beat to the political beat while Daniel Barrick moves from reporting to editing. Good luck to both of them!
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Noise November Top 30 Chart
Stations: WAAF, WBCN, WFNX, WMBR, WMFO, WTCC, WZBC
1. Apollo Sunshine – Apollo Sunshine
2. Reverend Glasseye – Our Lady of the Broken Spine
3. The Rudds – Get the Femuline Hang On
4. Harris – The Light Is Seeping Through the Cracks
5. Feathers – Absolute Noon
6. Don Lennon – Routine
7. Chris Brokaw – Incredible Love
8. The Hidden – Smash to Ashes
9. Slim Jim & the Mad Cows – Homebrewed
10. Frank Smith – Burn This House Down
11. Cassette – Broadway Showstoppers
12. Faces on Film – Seven Sisters EP
13. The Glass Set – The Glass Set
14. Ric Ocasek – Nexterday
15. The Scissormen – Jinx Breakers
16. Taxpayer – Bones & Lungs
17. Tiger Saw – Sing!
18. Aberdeen City – The Freezing Atlantic
19. Baby Ray – “I Look, There you Are”
20. Blanketeer – Blanketeer EP
21. Bourbon Princess – Dark of Days
22. Count Zero – Little Minds
23. Four Tet – Everything Ecstatic
24. La Peste – v.2.0
25. Lovewhip – Virtual Booty Machine
26. Robby Roadsteamer – The Heart of a Rhino
27. Micah Blue Smaldone – Hither and Tither
28. The Dents – Time for Biting
29. Hilken Mancini/Chris Colburn – Hilken Mancini/Chris Colburn
30. Travel Labyrinth – It’s Springtime in my Brain Today
Stations: WAAF, WBCN, WFNX, WMBR, WMFO, WTCC, WZBC
1. Apollo Sunshine – Apollo Sunshine
2. Reverend Glasseye – Our Lady of the Broken Spine
3. The Rudds – Get the Femuline Hang On
4. Harris – The Light Is Seeping Through the Cracks
5. Feathers – Absolute Noon
6. Don Lennon – Routine
7. Chris Brokaw – Incredible Love
8. The Hidden – Smash to Ashes
9. Slim Jim & the Mad Cows – Homebrewed
10. Frank Smith – Burn This House Down
11. Cassette – Broadway Showstoppers
12. Faces on Film – Seven Sisters EP
13. The Glass Set – The Glass Set
14. Ric Ocasek – Nexterday
15. The Scissormen – Jinx Breakers
16. Taxpayer – Bones & Lungs
17. Tiger Saw – Sing!
18. Aberdeen City – The Freezing Atlantic
19. Baby Ray – “I Look, There you Are”
20. Blanketeer – Blanketeer EP
21. Bourbon Princess – Dark of Days
22. Count Zero – Little Minds
23. Four Tet – Everything Ecstatic
24. La Peste – v.2.0
25. Lovewhip – Virtual Booty Machine
26. Robby Roadsteamer – The Heart of a Rhino
27. Micah Blue Smaldone – Hither and Tither
28. The Dents – Time for Biting
29. Hilken Mancini/Chris Colburn – Hilken Mancini/Chris Colburn
30. Travel Labyrinth – It’s Springtime in my Brain Today
Friday, October 21, 2005
Congratulations to WKXL 1450!
Tonight, the WKXL 1450 news team won six 2005 Golden Mike Awards, including five for the news department.
Our Assistant News Director Hilary Cogen won two awards, a first place award for documentary news on a terror alert which was issued in the region earlier this year as well as first place for a feature story about a support the troops rally held over the summer.
Syracuse University senior Frank Alosa, who spent last summer working in the news department, placed first in the spot news category for his coverage of a hearing about an alleged probation violation of a convicted child molester and also won a merit award in the documentary category for covering a Gen. Wesley Clark speech in Manchester.
I won a merit award in the feature category for a story I did about the annual Hooksett Lions Club model train fundraising event. Later this week, I will grab the audio and try to link it here.
Sports Director Mike Murphy and Tom Gauthier, who works in both the news and sports departments, also won a sports play-by-play merit award for the Bow vs. Milford NHIAA Boy’s Playoff.
In fact, the department won five of the eight awards available to it although we only entered the spot, documentary, and feature categories [No staffers decided to enter the newscast category although they would have won since only the woman from WZID entered the category].
Our six awards were more than any other radio station at the event.
In all, it was a pretty good night for local news which is relevant to the community and not a bad way for WKXL 1450 to enter its 60th year of broadcasting live and local thoughtful community radio.
Tonight, the WKXL 1450 news team won six 2005 Golden Mike Awards, including five for the news department.
Our Assistant News Director Hilary Cogen won two awards, a first place award for documentary news on a terror alert which was issued in the region earlier this year as well as first place for a feature story about a support the troops rally held over the summer.
Syracuse University senior Frank Alosa, who spent last summer working in the news department, placed first in the spot news category for his coverage of a hearing about an alleged probation violation of a convicted child molester and also won a merit award in the documentary category for covering a Gen. Wesley Clark speech in Manchester.
I won a merit award in the feature category for a story I did about the annual Hooksett Lions Club model train fundraising event. Later this week, I will grab the audio and try to link it here.
Sports Director Mike Murphy and Tom Gauthier, who works in both the news and sports departments, also won a sports play-by-play merit award for the Bow vs. Milford NHIAA Boy’s Playoff.
In fact, the department won five of the eight awards available to it although we only entered the spot, documentary, and feature categories [No staffers decided to enter the newscast category although they would have won since only the woman from WZID entered the category].
Our six awards were more than any other radio station at the event.
In all, it was a pretty good night for local news which is relevant to the community and not a bad way for WKXL 1450 to enter its 60th year of broadcasting live and local thoughtful community radio.
Sunday, October 16, 2005
Butler gets signed
This is good news, via BurnedDownDays.com:
KOCH RECORDS SIGNS MULTI-TALENTED ARTIST RICHARD BUTLER
PSYCHEDELIC FURS FRONTMAN TO RELEASE SELF-TITLED, NEW SOLO ALBUM IN EARLY 2006
(October 17, 2005) -- New York, NY -- KOCH Records announces the newest addition to its successful and burgeoning roster, multi-talented artist and Psychedelic Furs frontman, Richard Butler.
With one of the most distinctive and recognizable voices in recent history, Richard Butler burst upon the scene in 1979 as lead singer and predominant songwriter of The Psychedelic Furs.Throughout their legendary 26-year history, The Furs earned a reputation as one of the most iconic forces to come out of the 80s post-punk, new wave era. The band charted big hits with "Love My Way," "Pretty In Pink," "Heaven," and "The Ghost In You," and released seven studio albums.
For his forthcoming KOCH Records solo release, titled simply Richard Butler, Butler collaborated with Jon Carin, an accomplished musician who has worked with Pink Floyd, Pete Townshend and Bryan Ferry. The result is a collection of songs that's an incredible melding of Butler's incisive lyrics and signature voice awash in Carin's mysteriously captivating musical landscape.
About the forthcoming album, Butler says, "I've experienced quite a bit the last few years, both good and bad it's changed me tremendously these songs reflect all of it and because of that, they're some of the most personal and important songs I've ever done."
Look for the self-titled album Richard Butler in early 2006!
KOCH Records proudly claims the largest number of Billboard charting albums among independents for each of the last four years (2001-2004). For additional info on the KOCH Records label and its roster of artists, please visit www.kochrecords.com
All Stars
Roy Morrison/Guest Perspective
My son Sam's team, the 12-year-old Kearsarge Mountain All Stars, lost their last game at Bambino field in Jaffrey.
They did their best, but came up short. Coach Toro gathered the team and offered each player praise.
The way it should be, America's kids, pinstriped pants covered with infield dirt from desperate slides hauling away equipment bags with their wonder boy bats and oiled gloves.
But unfortunately, other images punctuate our American dream. Our kids also haul duffel bags packed with field gear, not bats, onto commodious transports. The night I told my friend about Sam's losing game, we spoke about her son's coming deployment.
The day Sam started his fall term at Kearsarge Middle School, my friend's son was enroute to Iraq. Now, I can check Sam's math homework and then read perceptive and often humorous e-mails from Iraq about base life and a trip to mandatory convoy training.
For the educated and professional classes, it's usually somebody else's kid headed toward Baghdad. It's the secretary's son or the mechanic's daughter who signed up after high school; or, it's the past 40 dad, set up man at the plant, who once upon a time joined the National Guard.
There is almost no good news from the front, just the steady drip of reports of American casualties, or bulletins of Iraqis slaughtering Iraqis. The conservative chattering classes and liberal war apologists still offer justifications, but even their ranks are thinning.
It's time for us to stop paying allegiance to some American rituals.
The heroism of our sons and daughters in arms, the spilled blood upon the sands, the inevitable alteration of history's course by war's destructive energies are not justifications for even more killing.
If the Iraq war was about the danger of weapons of mass destruction, we found they didn't exist. If the Iraq war was about democracy, the Iraqis are about to vote on a constitution. If the Iraq war was about fighting terrorism, the war is making the terrorists stronger, not weaker, and has become the jihadists rallying point and training ground.
It's time to declare victory and bring our soldiers home with all deliberate speed. That doesn't mean overnight. It does mean turning the fate of Iraq over to the Iraqis, their Arab neighbors, and the United Nations.
Yes, the United States should provide logistical support for the Iraqis, and aid in the reconstruction of their country, which, after all, we bombed and invaded.
It's time to ask ourselves a few gut questions?
Would you send your son? Would you send your daughter? Many American mothers and fathers are being asked to do just that. Why?
I listen to sports radio. There are public service ads reminding 18 year old boys to sign up for Selective Service, in case Uncle Sam wants to get in touch...
There's a great silence from most of the Democrats who apparently see little political advantage in standing up to the Commander in Chief. But I have a few questions, I'd like answered: What if the U.S. had not invaded Iraq? What if UN inspectors were still combing every last sand dune looking for non-existent weapons of mass destruction? What if we spent money on levees in New Orleans and not bombs in Baghdad? What if thousands of Americans and Iraqis were not killed or wounded? What if Iraq had not served as a flash point for jihadist suicide terrorism?
And most importantly, why don't we turn over the fight for democracy in Iraq to Iraqis and bring our sons and daughters home?
Roy Morrison is a writer living in Warner, N.H. His next book is "Eco Civilization 2140" and is forthcoming.
Serious talk radio
Barbara Anderson of CLT has a great column in the Lowell Sun this weekend about the lack of serious talk radio in Massachusetts: ["Have we lost interest in serious issues?"]. Anderson, who drives liberals ballistic with her libertarian rantings and sometimes completely dead-on correct political positions, really nails it on the head here.
The consolidation of radio in the United States has taken all the serious talk off the air. And the other places for "serious" talk radio - like NPR - are too snotty to have Anderson on the air when they rarely do local radio. This hurts groups like CLT who have pretty much relied only on talk radio to get the rabble riled up. Without that rabble getting riled up, CLT's job is even harder than it was in the past, because the immediacy of radio lends itself to the rousing. Unlike TV, radio is a hot medium; the audio pours through your ears into your head versus coming into your brain via the eyes. It has a whole different effect on the mind.
Surprisingly, she even gives a pat on the back to her friend - but political enemy - Jim Braude of NECN, stating that he does some of the best political interviews, perhaps ever.
I don't know if I would go that far. I think the late Jerry Williams was one of the best political interviewers ever; the late David Brudnoy was pretty good too, although they could both be cranky. But Braude does do a good job and he is an asset to the industry.
Speaking of radio ...
Check out this great article on the one and only Bob Bittner: ["Deejay follows his star"]. Bittner owns this station in Maine where this newspaper is published. But I am more familiar with his "beautiful music" station, WJIB 740 AM, right outside of Fresh Pond Circle in Cambridge [the article got it wrong about being in Rowley]. That station also plays all the songs from the golden era of AM radio.
I once appeared on Bob's "Let's Talk about Radio" show, which used to air on Sundays, after we had an online argument/discussion about whether or not a commercial radio station could have an eclectic freeform talk and music format, with various guest hosts and volunteers. We took the debate off line and on the air, in 1997, I believe, and it was a lot of fun hanging out at his station. It is interesting to note that I am the program and news director of WKXL which currently has a similar programming format that I was advocating back in 1997 on Bittner's show; while Bittner does the thing he loves too.
The Western Primary
I forgot to post this earlier this week: ["Huntsman sets date for proposed Western primary"].
I think this is an intriguing idea and could make for an interesting primary season, especially if the election is a week after New Hampshire and includes at least a few Western states.
The only problem is that because those states are so big, they won't actually get the New Hampshire or Iowa experience - that one-on-one, shake every candidate's hand, kind of experience that makes our primary so special. The reverse of this is that in order to mount a serious campaign for the presidency, a candidate must organized in a lot of places at the same time.
So, if you are a serious candidate running for president, you are going to be running grassroots campaigns in New Mexico, Utah, and possibly Arizona, while at the same time going to Iowa and New Hampshire. In fact, you are going to enjoy the dry heat of the West after you've spent the cool fall of Iowa and New Hampshire campaigning around. If you have enough cash, you'll be earning frequent flyer miles for you, your staff, and the media, because you will be doing this a lot. Depending on your political position, you might even skip Iowa or New Hampshire, and concentrate on a big state like Arizona. Although, that didn't build "Joementum" for Sen. Lieberman when he skipped Iowa, went straight to New Hampshire, and then skipped everything else to make a stand in Delaware, ultimately being humiliated by the results.
Another reverse: If there is a big field for either the Democrats or Republicans and one guy wins Iowa, while another woman wins New Hampshire, and they all stay in to shoot it out in the Western Primary, there could be a total free-for-all with multiple winners and a nice drawn out primary process.
With all the money that is going to be spent in the 2008 election, there is a good chance that this could happen ... and it will be a lot of fun to watch.
Polling results
I also forgot to post these latest polling results for 2008 from two weeks ago:
FOX News/Opinion Dynamics Poll. Sept. 27-28, 2005. N=900 registered voters nationwide.
"If the 2008 Democratic presidential primary were held today, for whom would you vote if the candidates were [see below]?" Names rotated. Among Democratic voters; MoE ± 5
Hillary Rodham Clinton: 42
John Edwards: 14
John Kerry: 14
Al Gore: 11
Joseph Biden, D-MBNA: 5
Wesley "War Criminal" Clark: 1
Mark Warner: 1
Other (vol.): 3
Unsure: 8
Wouldn't vote (vol.): 2
Evan Bayh: 0
"If the 2008 Republican presidential primary were held today, for whom would you vote if the candidates were [see below]?" Names rotated. Among Republican voters; MoE ± 5
Rudy Giuliani: 26
John McCain: 23
Condoleezza Rice: 18
Newt Gingrich: 7
Mitt "Guy Smiley" Romney: 3
Bill Frist: 2
George Allen: 2
Other (vol.): 2
Unsure: 17
Wouldn't vote (vol.): 1
Very interesting ... but check this out:
"Thinking ahead to the next presidential election, if the 2008 election were held today and the candidates were Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Rudy Giuliani, for whom would you vote?" Names rotated. N=900 registered voters, MoE ± 3.
Giulani: 50
Clinton: 39
"What if the candidates were Democrat [see below] and Republican [see below]?" Names rotated. N=900 registered voters, MoE ± 3.
McCain: 49
Clinton: 38
Clinton: 46
Rice: 43
Giuliani: 52
Kerry: 36
McCain: 53
Kerry: 35
Rice: 45
Kerry: 43
McCain: 57
Gore: 29
Giulani: 55
Gore: 32
This is good news, via BurnedDownDays.com:
KOCH RECORDS SIGNS MULTI-TALENTED ARTIST RICHARD BUTLER
PSYCHEDELIC FURS FRONTMAN TO RELEASE SELF-TITLED, NEW SOLO ALBUM IN EARLY 2006
(October 17, 2005) -- New York, NY -- KOCH Records announces the newest addition to its successful and burgeoning roster, multi-talented artist and Psychedelic Furs frontman, Richard Butler.
With one of the most distinctive and recognizable voices in recent history, Richard Butler burst upon the scene in 1979 as lead singer and predominant songwriter of The Psychedelic Furs.Throughout their legendary 26-year history, The Furs earned a reputation as one of the most iconic forces to come out of the 80s post-punk, new wave era. The band charted big hits with "Love My Way," "Pretty In Pink," "Heaven," and "The Ghost In You," and released seven studio albums.
For his forthcoming KOCH Records solo release, titled simply Richard Butler, Butler collaborated with Jon Carin, an accomplished musician who has worked with Pink Floyd, Pete Townshend and Bryan Ferry. The result is a collection of songs that's an incredible melding of Butler's incisive lyrics and signature voice awash in Carin's mysteriously captivating musical landscape.
About the forthcoming album, Butler says, "I've experienced quite a bit the last few years, both good and bad it's changed me tremendously these songs reflect all of it and because of that, they're some of the most personal and important songs I've ever done."
Look for the self-titled album Richard Butler in early 2006!
KOCH Records proudly claims the largest number of Billboard charting albums among independents for each of the last four years (2001-2004). For additional info on the KOCH Records label and its roster of artists, please visit www.kochrecords.com
All Stars
Roy Morrison/Guest Perspective
My son Sam's team, the 12-year-old Kearsarge Mountain All Stars, lost their last game at Bambino field in Jaffrey.
They did their best, but came up short. Coach Toro gathered the team and offered each player praise.
The way it should be, America's kids, pinstriped pants covered with infield dirt from desperate slides hauling away equipment bags with their wonder boy bats and oiled gloves.
But unfortunately, other images punctuate our American dream. Our kids also haul duffel bags packed with field gear, not bats, onto commodious transports. The night I told my friend about Sam's losing game, we spoke about her son's coming deployment.
The day Sam started his fall term at Kearsarge Middle School, my friend's son was enroute to Iraq. Now, I can check Sam's math homework and then read perceptive and often humorous e-mails from Iraq about base life and a trip to mandatory convoy training.
For the educated and professional classes, it's usually somebody else's kid headed toward Baghdad. It's the secretary's son or the mechanic's daughter who signed up after high school; or, it's the past 40 dad, set up man at the plant, who once upon a time joined the National Guard.
There is almost no good news from the front, just the steady drip of reports of American casualties, or bulletins of Iraqis slaughtering Iraqis. The conservative chattering classes and liberal war apologists still offer justifications, but even their ranks are thinning.
It's time for us to stop paying allegiance to some American rituals.
The heroism of our sons and daughters in arms, the spilled blood upon the sands, the inevitable alteration of history's course by war's destructive energies are not justifications for even more killing.
If the Iraq war was about the danger of weapons of mass destruction, we found they didn't exist. If the Iraq war was about democracy, the Iraqis are about to vote on a constitution. If the Iraq war was about fighting terrorism, the war is making the terrorists stronger, not weaker, and has become the jihadists rallying point and training ground.
It's time to declare victory and bring our soldiers home with all deliberate speed. That doesn't mean overnight. It does mean turning the fate of Iraq over to the Iraqis, their Arab neighbors, and the United Nations.
Yes, the United States should provide logistical support for the Iraqis, and aid in the reconstruction of their country, which, after all, we bombed and invaded.
It's time to ask ourselves a few gut questions?
Would you send your son? Would you send your daughter? Many American mothers and fathers are being asked to do just that. Why?
I listen to sports radio. There are public service ads reminding 18 year old boys to sign up for Selective Service, in case Uncle Sam wants to get in touch...
There's a great silence from most of the Democrats who apparently see little political advantage in standing up to the Commander in Chief. But I have a few questions, I'd like answered: What if the U.S. had not invaded Iraq? What if UN inspectors were still combing every last sand dune looking for non-existent weapons of mass destruction? What if we spent money on levees in New Orleans and not bombs in Baghdad? What if thousands of Americans and Iraqis were not killed or wounded? What if Iraq had not served as a flash point for jihadist suicide terrorism?
And most importantly, why don't we turn over the fight for democracy in Iraq to Iraqis and bring our sons and daughters home?
Roy Morrison is a writer living in Warner, N.H. His next book is "Eco Civilization 2140" and is forthcoming.
Serious talk radio
Barbara Anderson of CLT has a great column in the Lowell Sun this weekend about the lack of serious talk radio in Massachusetts: ["Have we lost interest in serious issues?"]. Anderson, who drives liberals ballistic with her libertarian rantings and sometimes completely dead-on correct political positions, really nails it on the head here.
The consolidation of radio in the United States has taken all the serious talk off the air. And the other places for "serious" talk radio - like NPR - are too snotty to have Anderson on the air when they rarely do local radio. This hurts groups like CLT who have pretty much relied only on talk radio to get the rabble riled up. Without that rabble getting riled up, CLT's job is even harder than it was in the past, because the immediacy of radio lends itself to the rousing. Unlike TV, radio is a hot medium; the audio pours through your ears into your head versus coming into your brain via the eyes. It has a whole different effect on the mind.
Surprisingly, she even gives a pat on the back to her friend - but political enemy - Jim Braude of NECN, stating that he does some of the best political interviews, perhaps ever.
I don't know if I would go that far. I think the late Jerry Williams was one of the best political interviewers ever; the late David Brudnoy was pretty good too, although they could both be cranky. But Braude does do a good job and he is an asset to the industry.
Speaking of radio ...
Check out this great article on the one and only Bob Bittner: ["Deejay follows his star"]. Bittner owns this station in Maine where this newspaper is published. But I am more familiar with his "beautiful music" station, WJIB 740 AM, right outside of Fresh Pond Circle in Cambridge [the article got it wrong about being in Rowley]. That station also plays all the songs from the golden era of AM radio.
I once appeared on Bob's "Let's Talk about Radio" show, which used to air on Sundays, after we had an online argument/discussion about whether or not a commercial radio station could have an eclectic freeform talk and music format, with various guest hosts and volunteers. We took the debate off line and on the air, in 1997, I believe, and it was a lot of fun hanging out at his station. It is interesting to note that I am the program and news director of WKXL which currently has a similar programming format that I was advocating back in 1997 on Bittner's show; while Bittner does the thing he loves too.
The Western Primary
I forgot to post this earlier this week: ["Huntsman sets date for proposed Western primary"].
I think this is an intriguing idea and could make for an interesting primary season, especially if the election is a week after New Hampshire and includes at least a few Western states.
The only problem is that because those states are so big, they won't actually get the New Hampshire or Iowa experience - that one-on-one, shake every candidate's hand, kind of experience that makes our primary so special. The reverse of this is that in order to mount a serious campaign for the presidency, a candidate must organized in a lot of places at the same time.
So, if you are a serious candidate running for president, you are going to be running grassroots campaigns in New Mexico, Utah, and possibly Arizona, while at the same time going to Iowa and New Hampshire. In fact, you are going to enjoy the dry heat of the West after you've spent the cool fall of Iowa and New Hampshire campaigning around. If you have enough cash, you'll be earning frequent flyer miles for you, your staff, and the media, because you will be doing this a lot. Depending on your political position, you might even skip Iowa or New Hampshire, and concentrate on a big state like Arizona. Although, that didn't build "Joementum" for Sen. Lieberman when he skipped Iowa, went straight to New Hampshire, and then skipped everything else to make a stand in Delaware, ultimately being humiliated by the results.
Another reverse: If there is a big field for either the Democrats or Republicans and one guy wins Iowa, while another woman wins New Hampshire, and they all stay in to shoot it out in the Western Primary, there could be a total free-for-all with multiple winners and a nice drawn out primary process.
With all the money that is going to be spent in the 2008 election, there is a good chance that this could happen ... and it will be a lot of fun to watch.
Polling results
I also forgot to post these latest polling results for 2008 from two weeks ago:
FOX News/Opinion Dynamics Poll. Sept. 27-28, 2005. N=900 registered voters nationwide.
"If the 2008 Democratic presidential primary were held today, for whom would you vote if the candidates were [see below]?" Names rotated. Among Democratic voters; MoE ± 5
Hillary Rodham Clinton: 42
John Edwards: 14
John Kerry: 14
Al Gore: 11
Joseph Biden, D-MBNA: 5
Wesley "War Criminal" Clark: 1
Mark Warner: 1
Other (vol.): 3
Unsure: 8
Wouldn't vote (vol.): 2
Evan Bayh: 0
"If the 2008 Republican presidential primary were held today, for whom would you vote if the candidates were [see below]?" Names rotated. Among Republican voters; MoE ± 5
Rudy Giuliani: 26
John McCain: 23
Condoleezza Rice: 18
Newt Gingrich: 7
Mitt "Guy Smiley" Romney: 3
Bill Frist: 2
George Allen: 2
Other (vol.): 2
Unsure: 17
Wouldn't vote (vol.): 1
Very interesting ... but check this out:
"Thinking ahead to the next presidential election, if the 2008 election were held today and the candidates were Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Rudy Giuliani, for whom would you vote?" Names rotated. N=900 registered voters, MoE ± 3.
Giulani: 50
Clinton: 39
"What if the candidates were Democrat [see below] and Republican [see below]?" Names rotated. N=900 registered voters, MoE ± 3.
McCain: 49
Clinton: 38
Clinton: 46
Rice: 43
Giuliani: 52
Kerry: 36
McCain: 53
Kerry: 35
Rice: 45
Kerry: 43
McCain: 57
Gore: 29
Giulani: 55
Gore: 32
Thursday, October 13, 2005
What's goin' on
Here is some interesting stuff that has been going on lately:
Sometimes, you can take the boy out of Boston but you can't take Boston out of the boy: I have been attempting to get at as much Boston municipal race coverage as I can and, as usual, the coverage has been pretty spotty.
Sometimes, you can take the boy out of Boston but you can't take Boston out of the boy: I have been attempting to get at as much Boston municipal race coverage as I can and, as usual, the coverage has been pretty spotty.
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Practices for Sustainability Emerge: A Wind Hedge as Financial and Social Innovation
Guest perspective/Roy Morrison
Today, the fundamental challenge we must face at first appears daunting. In the 21st century, economic growth must mean ecological improvement, not ecological destruction.
The news, unfortunately, is not of constructive change, but of war and disaster inextricably linked to the political and ecological consequences of our fossil fuel use.
We must ask: Can the market system heal, not destroy? Can liberal democracy endure? Can we as citizens, as businesspeople, as administrators, as workers transform a self-destructive industrial order to a prosperous and sustainable ecological civilization?
Implicit in these questions is the understanding that sustainability is not just a lofty goal, to be sacrificed to the demands of more pressing matters, but a necessity for our future prosperity and security.
A Wind Hedge
A wind hedge is a new financial means to connect energy users to renewable energy developers for their mutual advantage. It empowers energy users to facilitate and benefit from renewable energy development. It can be a powerful tool removing institutional barriers to building the renewable energy infrastructure.
The wind hedge allows renewable developers and energy end users to negotiate mutually beneficial agreements. The wind farm gets an assured and reasonable long term price for power generated; the energy user gets stable and affordable long term energy costs; society gets more renewable development, a stronger economy, and a decline in fossil fuel use and pollution. It's a win-win-win arrangement.
A wind hedge, at bottom, is an expression of the economic, social, and ecological consequences of fossil fuel use that is bringing forth healing responses to the excesses of an empire of oil. By itself, a wind hedge is not the answer to our problems. It is one manifestation, of many to come, of economic and social forces that are catalyzing a movement toward sustainability from business and pollution as usual.
A wind hedge will do more than fatten quarterly balance sheets. It improves the triple bottom line of sustainability: the financial, the social, and the ecological.
A wind hedge is a good example of the practice of sustainability representing the emergence of financial and social innovation.
A Hedge
A hedge is a means of protection. A Contract for Differences (CFD) hedge is a tried and true financial way both producers and uses control their costs.
Classically, a hedge lets a farmer in Iowa and a baker in Boston negotiate a win-win deal so both can stay in business.
The farmer can pay her mortgage if she can sell her wheat at $1.00 per bushel. The baker can pay his mortgage if he can buy wheat at $1.00 per bushel. They agree on a $1.00 strike price for 1000 bushels. The farmer sells her wheat in the Iowa market. The baker buys his wheat in the Boston market.
In the first year, there's a frost in Iowa. Wheat is $1.50. The farmer earns $1500. The farmer sends $500 to the baker. The farmer's net income is $1000.
The baker meanwhile has paid $1500 for his wheat in Boston. But he receives $500 from the farmer. His net cost is $1000.
Next year, there's a bumper crop. Wheat is 50 cents a bushel. The farmer earns just $500. And the baker pays only $500 for his wheat. The baker sends $500 to the farmer. His net cost is $1000. The farmer's net income is $1000. Over the two years, the farmer has an average income of $1.00 per bushel; the baker has an average cost of $1.00 per bushel. It's a win-win relationship.
Wind Hedge Details
A wind farm pays nothing for fuel, some money for maintenance, and a lot to bankers for their capital investments. Wind farms earn money from power sales, typically into wholesale markets. To clear the financing hurdle, a wind farm must earn enough money to cover their 20-year mortgage for capital costs.
But electricity prices vary widely. The spot market for electricity sometimes peaks at 50 cents per kilowatt-hour, and other time's falls to 2 cents. Renewable developers, to satisfy financiers, have been forced into negotiating long term power purchase contracts with utilities or other large marketers at less than favorable prices. The wind hedge, by stabilizing long term energy costs and income allows both users and developers to prosper.
The basic mechanics of the wind hedge are straightforward. The two parties agree on a quantity of power to be hedged, a strike price, and a term of years. Power generated by the wind farm is sold into its local spot market.
Each month, if the average price received by the wind farm is above the strike price, the wind farm sends a check to the energy user. If it's below the strike price, the user pays the wind farm the difference. If there's no sale of power, there's no payment by either party.
As long as the two separate markets--the wind farm's local market and the buyer's local market--behave in a similar fashion, the hedge works well. In the Northeast, for example, natural gas prices determine the market clearing prices for electricity. When natural gas prices rise or fall on the NY Mercantile Exchange, natural gas prices and electricity prices also rise or fall both in New England and in New York State. A wind hedge thus, in principle, is valid for a wind farm in New York and an energy user in New Hampshire.
Since a wind hedge is a financial arrangement only, and not a power purchase contract, the wind hedge is not limited to wind farms in the user's back yard. The user continues to buy power from its local supplier at the best price obtainable. The hedge provides economic protection.
In the U.S., large wind developers have successfully used hedge agreements with companies like Goldman Sachs, Constellation New Energy, and Morgan Stanley. Now, hedges are being actively negotiated between wind developers and businesses, universities, and governments. Completion of the first round of developer-end user wind hedges is expected shortly.
Wind Hedges and Sustainability
As a practical expression of sustainability, a wind hedge should help catalyze an ongoing ecological transformation from the ground up. This is transformation not imposed upon us by law, government, or fiat, but arising from civil society, from the actions of businesses, institutions, organizations, unions, local governments, communities, and, of course, individuals.
Sustainability, like democracy, is a social practice that, at bottom, is a matter of ongoing social innovation and renewal, of practical creativity.
Necessity means that sustainability must become an emerging characteristic of how we work, how we organize ourselves, how we measure and account for what we do.
Sustainability is an idea whose time has come. It is in response to necessity that moves us to action in accord with underlying social dynamics.
These include the creation of healing responses to excess, of the earth finding a way, and the tendency to help solve intractable problems through an increase in scale and complexity, in this case through the growth of new extensive networks between renewable power producers and power users.
Sustainability in the Market
Sustainability, in part, means smart businesspeople seeking competitive advantage in rapidly expanding markets. There's real money to be made.
Sustainability now counts. And counts big time.
General Electric President Jeffrey Imhelt, for example, has embraced "ecoimagination" and is aggressively pursuing markets for clean energy, efficiency, and clean water.
But sustainability is more than just new product development. Sustainability is, at bottom, a matter of addressing our fundamental challenge: how do we make things better in the future, not worse; how do we unleash the forces of growth in service to sustainable prosperity, strong communities, and healthy eco-systems?
We can no longer realistically choose between profit and a healthy environment. We must choose both, or we will have neither. In the 21st century we have moved from an either/or to a both/and world.
For businesses and institutions, the conduct of sustainability has become much more than rote acceptance of The World Commission on Environment and Development 1987 definition in Our Common Future (the so-called Bruntland
Report) that defined sustainability as meeting "the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."
Today, we are seeing flesh put on the bones of principle.
Roy Morrison is a writer and energy consultant involved in wind hedge development. His next book, forthcoming, is "Ecocivilization 2140." For more info see his Web site http://www.rmaenergy.net/ and click on power point and wind hedge section.
Headlines
Here are some important things going on:
The Hammer gets clocked: ["DeLay steps aside as majority leader after indictment"].
Kerry exposed: ["Kerry's not- so-amazing race, on film "].
O'Reilly smacked-down: ["O'Reilly vs. Donahue in the No Spin Zone"].
An interesting piece: ["Predictions are futile"].
Weirdness or truth?: ["Forecaster leaves job to pursue weather theories"].
Anngelle's Rock Dirt: ["The Rock Dirt"].
Today, the fundamental challenge we must face at first appears daunting. In the 21st century, economic growth must mean ecological improvement, not ecological destruction.
The news, unfortunately, is not of constructive change, but of war and disaster inextricably linked to the political and ecological consequences of our fossil fuel use.
We must ask: Can the market system heal, not destroy? Can liberal democracy endure? Can we as citizens, as businesspeople, as administrators, as workers transform a self-destructive industrial order to a prosperous and sustainable ecological civilization?
Implicit in these questions is the understanding that sustainability is not just a lofty goal, to be sacrificed to the demands of more pressing matters, but a necessity for our future prosperity and security.
A Wind Hedge
A wind hedge is a new financial means to connect energy users to renewable energy developers for their mutual advantage. It empowers energy users to facilitate and benefit from renewable energy development. It can be a powerful tool removing institutional barriers to building the renewable energy infrastructure.
The wind hedge allows renewable developers and energy end users to negotiate mutually beneficial agreements. The wind farm gets an assured and reasonable long term price for power generated; the energy user gets stable and affordable long term energy costs; society gets more renewable development, a stronger economy, and a decline in fossil fuel use and pollution. It's a win-win-win arrangement.
A wind hedge, at bottom, is an expression of the economic, social, and ecological consequences of fossil fuel use that is bringing forth healing responses to the excesses of an empire of oil. By itself, a wind hedge is not the answer to our problems. It is one manifestation, of many to come, of economic and social forces that are catalyzing a movement toward sustainability from business and pollution as usual.
A wind hedge will do more than fatten quarterly balance sheets. It improves the triple bottom line of sustainability: the financial, the social, and the ecological.
A wind hedge is a good example of the practice of sustainability representing the emergence of financial and social innovation.
A Hedge
A hedge is a means of protection. A Contract for Differences (CFD) hedge is a tried and true financial way both producers and uses control their costs.
Classically, a hedge lets a farmer in Iowa and a baker in Boston negotiate a win-win deal so both can stay in business.
The farmer can pay her mortgage if she can sell her wheat at $1.00 per bushel. The baker can pay his mortgage if he can buy wheat at $1.00 per bushel. They agree on a $1.00 strike price for 1000 bushels. The farmer sells her wheat in the Iowa market. The baker buys his wheat in the Boston market.
In the first year, there's a frost in Iowa. Wheat is $1.50. The farmer earns $1500. The farmer sends $500 to the baker. The farmer's net income is $1000.
The baker meanwhile has paid $1500 for his wheat in Boston. But he receives $500 from the farmer. His net cost is $1000.
Next year, there's a bumper crop. Wheat is 50 cents a bushel. The farmer earns just $500. And the baker pays only $500 for his wheat. The baker sends $500 to the farmer. His net cost is $1000. The farmer's net income is $1000. Over the two years, the farmer has an average income of $1.00 per bushel; the baker has an average cost of $1.00 per bushel. It's a win-win relationship.
Wind Hedge Details
A wind farm pays nothing for fuel, some money for maintenance, and a lot to bankers for their capital investments. Wind farms earn money from power sales, typically into wholesale markets. To clear the financing hurdle, a wind farm must earn enough money to cover their 20-year mortgage for capital costs.
But electricity prices vary widely. The spot market for electricity sometimes peaks at 50 cents per kilowatt-hour, and other time's falls to 2 cents. Renewable developers, to satisfy financiers, have been forced into negotiating long term power purchase contracts with utilities or other large marketers at less than favorable prices. The wind hedge, by stabilizing long term energy costs and income allows both users and developers to prosper.
The basic mechanics of the wind hedge are straightforward. The two parties agree on a quantity of power to be hedged, a strike price, and a term of years. Power generated by the wind farm is sold into its local spot market.
Each month, if the average price received by the wind farm is above the strike price, the wind farm sends a check to the energy user. If it's below the strike price, the user pays the wind farm the difference. If there's no sale of power, there's no payment by either party.
As long as the two separate markets--the wind farm's local market and the buyer's local market--behave in a similar fashion, the hedge works well. In the Northeast, for example, natural gas prices determine the market clearing prices for electricity. When natural gas prices rise or fall on the NY Mercantile Exchange, natural gas prices and electricity prices also rise or fall both in New England and in New York State. A wind hedge thus, in principle, is valid for a wind farm in New York and an energy user in New Hampshire.
Since a wind hedge is a financial arrangement only, and not a power purchase contract, the wind hedge is not limited to wind farms in the user's back yard. The user continues to buy power from its local supplier at the best price obtainable. The hedge provides economic protection.
In the U.S., large wind developers have successfully used hedge agreements with companies like Goldman Sachs, Constellation New Energy, and Morgan Stanley. Now, hedges are being actively negotiated between wind developers and businesses, universities, and governments. Completion of the first round of developer-end user wind hedges is expected shortly.
Wind Hedges and Sustainability
As a practical expression of sustainability, a wind hedge should help catalyze an ongoing ecological transformation from the ground up. This is transformation not imposed upon us by law, government, or fiat, but arising from civil society, from the actions of businesses, institutions, organizations, unions, local governments, communities, and, of course, individuals.
Sustainability, like democracy, is a social practice that, at bottom, is a matter of ongoing social innovation and renewal, of practical creativity.
Necessity means that sustainability must become an emerging characteristic of how we work, how we organize ourselves, how we measure and account for what we do.
Sustainability is an idea whose time has come. It is in response to necessity that moves us to action in accord with underlying social dynamics.
These include the creation of healing responses to excess, of the earth finding a way, and the tendency to help solve intractable problems through an increase in scale and complexity, in this case through the growth of new extensive networks between renewable power producers and power users.
Sustainability in the Market
Sustainability, in part, means smart businesspeople seeking competitive advantage in rapidly expanding markets. There's real money to be made.
Sustainability now counts. And counts big time.
General Electric President Jeffrey Imhelt, for example, has embraced "ecoimagination" and is aggressively pursuing markets for clean energy, efficiency, and clean water.
But sustainability is more than just new product development. Sustainability is, at bottom, a matter of addressing our fundamental challenge: how do we make things better in the future, not worse; how do we unleash the forces of growth in service to sustainable prosperity, strong communities, and healthy eco-systems?
We can no longer realistically choose between profit and a healthy environment. We must choose both, or we will have neither. In the 21st century we have moved from an either/or to a both/and world.
For businesses and institutions, the conduct of sustainability has become much more than rote acceptance of The World Commission on Environment and Development 1987 definition in Our Common Future (the so-called Bruntland
Report) that defined sustainability as meeting "the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."
Today, we are seeing flesh put on the bones of principle.
Roy Morrison is a writer and energy consultant involved in wind hedge development. His next book, forthcoming, is "Ecocivilization 2140." For more info see his Web site http://www.rmaenergy.net/ and click on power point and wind hedge section.
Headlines
Here are some important things going on:
The Hammer gets clocked: ["DeLay steps aside as majority leader after indictment"].
Kerry exposed: ["Kerry's not- so-amazing race, on film "].
O'Reilly smacked-down: ["O'Reilly vs. Donahue in the No Spin Zone"].
An interesting piece: ["Predictions are futile"].
Weirdness or truth?: ["Forecaster leaves job to pursue weather theories"].
Anngelle's Rock Dirt: ["The Rock Dirt"].
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Protest coverage
One of the reasons I love FAIR - Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting - is the fact that they really lay it out. Here is their latest email about disappearing antiwar protests:
"Hundreds of thousands of Americans around the country protested the Iraq War on the weekend of September 24-25, with the largest demonstration bringing between 100,000 and 300,000 to Washington, D.C. on Saturday.
But if you relied on television for your news, you'd hardly know the protests happened at all. According to the Nexis news database, the only mention on the network newscasts that Saturday came on the NBC Nightly News, where the massive march received all of 87 words. (ABC World News Tonight transcripts were not available for September 24, possibly due to pre-emption by college football.)
Cable coverage wasn't much better. CNN, for example, made only passing references to the weekend protests. CNN anchor Aaron Brown offered an interesting explanation (9/24/05):
The following day (9/25/05), the network's Sunday morning shows had an opportunity to at least reflect on the significance of the anti-war movement. With a panel consisting of three New York Times columnists, Tim Russert mentioned the march briefly in one question to Maureen Dowd-- which ended up being about how the antiwar movement might affect Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential chances.
[Sidebar: This is pretty disappointed of Russert because he sometimes seems like a guy who gets it. Although, he is obsessed with a McCain/Clinton 2008 campaign. Back to FAIR]
On ABC's This Week, host George Stephanopoulos observed, "We've seen polls across the board suggesting that we're bogged down now in Iraq and now you have this growing protest movement. Do you believe that we're reaching a tipping point in public opinion?" That question was put to pro-war Republican Sen. John McCain, who responded by inaccurately claiming: "Most polls I see, that most Americans believe still that we have to stay the course.... I certainly understand the dissatisfaction of the American people but I think most of them still want to stay the course and we have to."
[Sidebar: It's clear that some of these Sunday shows need to find some new folks to put on the panels. Must we always get the same silly inside the Beltway crap? Back to FAIR.]
A recent CBS/New York Times poll (9/9-13/05) found 52 percent support for leaving Iraq "as soon as possible." A similar Gallup poll (9/16-18) found that 33 percent of the public want some troops withdrawn, with another 30 percent wanting all the troops withdrawn. Only 34 percent wanted to maintain or increase troop levels--positions that could be described as wanting to "stay the course." Stephanopoulos, however, failed to challenge McCain's false claim.
(An L.A. Times recap of the protests--9/25/05-- included a misleading reference to the Gallup poll, reporting that while the war is seen as a "mistake" by 59 percent of respondents, "There remains, however, widespread disagreement about the best solution. The same poll showed that 30 percent of Americans favored a total troop withdrawal, though 26 percent favored maintaining the current level." By leaving out the 33 percent of those polled who wanted to decrease troop numbers, the paper gave a misleading impression of closely divided opinion.)
On Fox News Sunday (9/25/05), panelist Juan Williams was rebuked by his colleagues when he noted that public opinion had turned in favor of pulling out of Iraq. Fellow Fox panelist and NPR reporter Mara Liasson responded, "Oh, I don't think that's true," a sentiment echoed by Fox panelist Brit Hume. When Williams brought up the Saudi foreign minister's statement that foreign troops were not helping to stabilize Iraq, panelist William Kristol retorted: "So now the American left is with the House of Saud." (That was, if anything, a more complimentary take on the protesters than was found in Fox's news reporting, when White House correspondent Jim Angle-- 9/26/05-- referred to them as "disparate groups united by their hatred of President Bush, in particular, and U.S. policies in general.")
Another feature of the protest coverage was a tendency to treat a tiny group of pro-war hecklers as somehow equivalent to the massive anti-war gathering. NBC's Today show (9/25/05) had a report that gave a sentence to each: "Opponents and supporters of the war marched in cities across the nation on Saturday. In the nation's capital an estimated 100,000 war protestors marched near the White House. A few hundreds supporters of the war lined the route in a counterdemonstration."
Reports on NBC Nightly News and CBS Sunday Morning were similarly "balanced," and a September 26 USA Today report gave nearly equal space to the counter-demonstrators and their concerns, though the paper reported that their pro-war rally attracted just 400 participants (that is, less than half of 1 percent of the number of antiwar marchers).
In a headline that summed up the absurdity of this type of coverage, the Washington Post reported (9/25/05): "Smaller but Spirited Crowd Protests Antiwar March; More Than 200 Say They Represent Majority." Perhaps this "crowd" felt that way because they've grown accustomed to a media system that so frequently echoes their views, while keeping antiwar voices--representing the actual majority opinion--off the radar."
Here is Steve Iskovitz's take on it:
I'm stuck in New Jersey en route back to Boston from the weekend's protests in DC, but there's a computer here, so I'll make the best of my time:
Saturday's demonstration was strangely peaceful. There were hardly any police around, and they kept their distance. Apparently this is due to a lawsuit that ANSWER won against the DC police over incidents at a demonstration here last fall in which police behaved similarly to last summer's RNC in New York, with pre-emptive arrests and all that.
As a result of this lawsuit, the court ordered the police to keep their distance, and forbade them from wearing riot gear. Without police harassment, the demo went incredibly smoothly, and shows, I guess, what demonstrators can do when left on our own, to simply demonstrate. How many were there? I don't know. The police said 150,000, so it was likely more, how much more I can't guess.
On Sunday the IMF-World Bank met. There was supposed to be a demo or action against that. I didn't get into the city until around 1 pm that day, and I walked the security perimeter and didn't see one single protester, but something might have gone on in the morning.
Monday morning there was apparently an action at the Pentagon. I wasn't there, but I did go to the action at the White House.
About 250-300 of us met at a church at 16th and P.
Cornell West said, "Katrina, Rita, Povertina..."
Coincidentally, as we left the church to begin the march, a bus from the Walter Reed Army Medical Center drove by. The police gave us a lane and otherwise left us alone as 250-300 of us marched toward the White House. Only one helicopter flew far overhead. It's strange to see a decrease in police presence and harassment, after pretty much a steady increase over the past few years.
We march past the White House to the Ellipse. A small group of women chant, "Not my son, Not my father, You want war, Send your daughters." Someone announces that over 370 people have signed up to get arrested in front of the White House.
We split into two groups and march in either direction around the White House. Only two cops, on bikes, ride alongside us up 17th St. Police heat picks up only a little during the march. The two groups of marchers reuinite at Lafayette Park in front of the White House.
Only a handful of cops guarded the White House gate as 400 or so of us arrive. As more of us get closer to the gate, some more police arrive. People hang cards with names of war dead over the wrought iron gate of the White House. Clergy and Gold Star families (families who've had a relative killed in Iraq or
Afghanistan) proceed to the front. Several of them, including Cindy Sheehan, ask to meet the President and are denied. Police give three warnings to leave, and then begin arresting one by one.
I had to leave shortly after this to catch my ride back, but up to the time I left everything was calm, and the arrests were orderly. I've read since that Cindy Sheehan was among the arrestees. I've also read that the Americans were fighting Sadr's troops, and that the British are going to start withdrawing troops next year. The whole thing appears to be caving in on Bush fairly quickly, although where that will all lead is anyone's guess.
'Cesspools in Eden'
EPA Testers Privately Telling People New Orleans is Off the Charts
CBS News is running this blog from one of their guys down in New Orleans, which includes, in part:
Meanwhile, the Associated Press is reporting in this story that the sludge and everything else was stirred up by new flooding in New Orleans due to Rita, and they have no idea if there were any breaches at any hazardous sites. Just more reason to slow everything down.
One nation [supposedly] under God
Many Towns Turned Away Evacuees, Leading to Days-Long Bus Trip by Aron Kahn
SAN ANTONIO - A group of Hurricane Rita evacuees were forced to remain on buses for most of a bewildering, days-long trip to San Antonio because they were denied shelter in several cities, passengers said.
The exhausting trip also was extended because the evacuees were returned to Beaumont, their starting point, halfway through under the mistaken belief that it was safe to go back.
Though accounts from the fatigued passengers sometimes conflicted Monday, this general picture emerged:
Evacuees from several Gulf Coast cities - including some Hurricane Katrina evacuees - boarded Beaumont city-transit and school buses Thursday night. Along the way, some found shelter, and remaining passengers were consolidated.
As they headed northwest, they were turned away from shelters in several small towns, said David Jones, a 39-year-old Beaumont construction worker who made the trip with his pregnant wife and 2-year-old son. In some cases, fire marshals said the buildings were full.
Water and a few snacks were offered along the way, Jones said. The bus tried to return to Beaumont early in the weekend, but was stopped outside town. At one point, the manager at a motel that had no vacancies allowed passengers to sleep on the dining room floor for a few hours.
The trip was grueling for the elderly, the ill and young who were aboard. When they arrived in San Antonio on Sunday morning, 41 passengers were transferred to a shelter for people with medical problems.
The shelter sent two to a hospital immediately: a man who needed kidney dialysis and Jones' wife. Eight others were treated for severe dehydration.
"These people zigzagged all over south Texas," shelter director Robert Marbut said.
© 2005 KR Washington Bureau and wire service sources
One of the reasons I love FAIR - Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting - is the fact that they really lay it out. Here is their latest email about disappearing antiwar protests:
"Hundreds of thousands of Americans around the country protested the Iraq War on the weekend of September 24-25, with the largest demonstration bringing between 100,000 and 300,000 to Washington, D.C. on Saturday.
But if you relied on television for your news, you'd hardly know the protests happened at all. According to the Nexis news database, the only mention on the network newscasts that Saturday came on the NBC Nightly News, where the massive march received all of 87 words. (ABC World News Tonight transcripts were not available for September 24, possibly due to pre-emption by college football.)
Cable coverage wasn't much better. CNN, for example, made only passing references to the weekend protests. CNN anchor Aaron Brown offered an interesting explanation (9/24/05):
"There was a huge 100,000 people in Washington protesting the war in Iraq today, and I sometimes today feel like I've heard from all 100,000 upset that they did not get any coverage, and it's true they didn't get any coverage. Many of them see conspiracy. I assure you there is none, but it's just the national story today and the national conversation today is the hurricane that put millions and millions of people at risk, and it's just kind of an accident of bad timing, and I know that won't satisfy anyone but that's the truth of it."To hear Brown tell it, a 24-hour cable news channel is somehow unable to cover more than one story at a time-- and the "national conversation" is something that CNN just listens in on, rather than helping to determine through its coverage choices.
The following day (9/25/05), the network's Sunday morning shows had an opportunity to at least reflect on the significance of the anti-war movement. With a panel consisting of three New York Times columnists, Tim Russert mentioned the march briefly in one question to Maureen Dowd-- which ended up being about how the antiwar movement might affect Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential chances.
[Sidebar: This is pretty disappointed of Russert because he sometimes seems like a guy who gets it. Although, he is obsessed with a McCain/Clinton 2008 campaign. Back to FAIR]
On ABC's This Week, host George Stephanopoulos observed, "We've seen polls across the board suggesting that we're bogged down now in Iraq and now you have this growing protest movement. Do you believe that we're reaching a tipping point in public opinion?" That question was put to pro-war Republican Sen. John McCain, who responded by inaccurately claiming: "Most polls I see, that most Americans believe still that we have to stay the course.... I certainly understand the dissatisfaction of the American people but I think most of them still want to stay the course and we have to."
[Sidebar: It's clear that some of these Sunday shows need to find some new folks to put on the panels. Must we always get the same silly inside the Beltway crap? Back to FAIR.]
A recent CBS/New York Times poll (9/9-13/05) found 52 percent support for leaving Iraq "as soon as possible." A similar Gallup poll (9/16-18) found that 33 percent of the public want some troops withdrawn, with another 30 percent wanting all the troops withdrawn. Only 34 percent wanted to maintain or increase troop levels--positions that could be described as wanting to "stay the course." Stephanopoulos, however, failed to challenge McCain's false claim.
(An L.A. Times recap of the protests--9/25/05-- included a misleading reference to the Gallup poll, reporting that while the war is seen as a "mistake" by 59 percent of respondents, "There remains, however, widespread disagreement about the best solution. The same poll showed that 30 percent of Americans favored a total troop withdrawal, though 26 percent favored maintaining the current level." By leaving out the 33 percent of those polled who wanted to decrease troop numbers, the paper gave a misleading impression of closely divided opinion.)
On Fox News Sunday (9/25/05), panelist Juan Williams was rebuked by his colleagues when he noted that public opinion had turned in favor of pulling out of Iraq. Fellow Fox panelist and NPR reporter Mara Liasson responded, "Oh, I don't think that's true," a sentiment echoed by Fox panelist Brit Hume. When Williams brought up the Saudi foreign minister's statement that foreign troops were not helping to stabilize Iraq, panelist William Kristol retorted: "So now the American left is with the House of Saud." (That was, if anything, a more complimentary take on the protesters than was found in Fox's news reporting, when White House correspondent Jim Angle-- 9/26/05-- referred to them as "disparate groups united by their hatred of President Bush, in particular, and U.S. policies in general.")
Another feature of the protest coverage was a tendency to treat a tiny group of pro-war hecklers as somehow equivalent to the massive anti-war gathering. NBC's Today show (9/25/05) had a report that gave a sentence to each: "Opponents and supporters of the war marched in cities across the nation on Saturday. In the nation's capital an estimated 100,000 war protestors marched near the White House. A few hundreds supporters of the war lined the route in a counterdemonstration."
Reports on NBC Nightly News and CBS Sunday Morning were similarly "balanced," and a September 26 USA Today report gave nearly equal space to the counter-demonstrators and their concerns, though the paper reported that their pro-war rally attracted just 400 participants (that is, less than half of 1 percent of the number of antiwar marchers).
In a headline that summed up the absurdity of this type of coverage, the Washington Post reported (9/25/05): "Smaller but Spirited Crowd Protests Antiwar March; More Than 200 Say They Represent Majority." Perhaps this "crowd" felt that way because they've grown accustomed to a media system that so frequently echoes their views, while keeping antiwar voices--representing the actual majority opinion--off the radar."
Here is Steve Iskovitz's take on it:
I'm stuck in New Jersey en route back to Boston from the weekend's protests in DC, but there's a computer here, so I'll make the best of my time:
Saturday's demonstration was strangely peaceful. There were hardly any police around, and they kept their distance. Apparently this is due to a lawsuit that ANSWER won against the DC police over incidents at a demonstration here last fall in which police behaved similarly to last summer's RNC in New York, with pre-emptive arrests and all that.
As a result of this lawsuit, the court ordered the police to keep their distance, and forbade them from wearing riot gear. Without police harassment, the demo went incredibly smoothly, and shows, I guess, what demonstrators can do when left on our own, to simply demonstrate. How many were there? I don't know. The police said 150,000, so it was likely more, how much more I can't guess.
On Sunday the IMF-World Bank met. There was supposed to be a demo or action against that. I didn't get into the city until around 1 pm that day, and I walked the security perimeter and didn't see one single protester, but something might have gone on in the morning.
Monday morning there was apparently an action at the Pentagon. I wasn't there, but I did go to the action at the White House.
About 250-300 of us met at a church at 16th and P.
Cornell West said, "Katrina, Rita, Povertina..."
Coincidentally, as we left the church to begin the march, a bus from the Walter Reed Army Medical Center drove by. The police gave us a lane and otherwise left us alone as 250-300 of us marched toward the White House. Only one helicopter flew far overhead. It's strange to see a decrease in police presence and harassment, after pretty much a steady increase over the past few years.
We march past the White House to the Ellipse. A small group of women chant, "Not my son, Not my father, You want war, Send your daughters." Someone announces that over 370 people have signed up to get arrested in front of the White House.
We split into two groups and march in either direction around the White House. Only two cops, on bikes, ride alongside us up 17th St. Police heat picks up only a little during the march. The two groups of marchers reuinite at Lafayette Park in front of the White House.
Only a handful of cops guarded the White House gate as 400 or so of us arrive. As more of us get closer to the gate, some more police arrive. People hang cards with names of war dead over the wrought iron gate of the White House. Clergy and Gold Star families (families who've had a relative killed in Iraq or
Afghanistan) proceed to the front. Several of them, including Cindy Sheehan, ask to meet the President and are denied. Police give three warnings to leave, and then begin arresting one by one.
I had to leave shortly after this to catch my ride back, but up to the time I left everything was calm, and the arrests were orderly. I've read since that Cindy Sheehan was among the arrestees. I've also read that the Americans were fighting Sadr's troops, and that the British are going to start withdrawing troops next year. The whole thing appears to be caving in on Bush fairly quickly, although where that will all lead is anyone's guess.
'Cesspools in Eden'
EPA Testers Privately Telling People New Orleans is Off the Charts
CBS News is running this blog from one of their guys down in New Orleans, which includes, in part:
"The teams working in St. Bernard Parish, which is now an enormous toxic waste dump, are waking up with sore throats and other respiratory ailments. Privately, the EPA testers have told them that all the pollutants and environmental toxins are way off the scale. No one is looking to stay there long."If this is true, there must be an immediate stop to any plans to repopulate and an immediate fullscale investigation into the EPA and what they are holding back.
Meanwhile, the Associated Press is reporting in this story that the sludge and everything else was stirred up by new flooding in New Orleans due to Rita, and they have no idea if there were any breaches at any hazardous sites. Just more reason to slow everything down.
One nation [supposedly] under God
Many Towns Turned Away Evacuees, Leading to Days-Long Bus Trip by Aron Kahn
SAN ANTONIO - A group of Hurricane Rita evacuees were forced to remain on buses for most of a bewildering, days-long trip to San Antonio because they were denied shelter in several cities, passengers said.
The exhausting trip also was extended because the evacuees were returned to Beaumont, their starting point, halfway through under the mistaken belief that it was safe to go back.
Though accounts from the fatigued passengers sometimes conflicted Monday, this general picture emerged:
Evacuees from several Gulf Coast cities - including some Hurricane Katrina evacuees - boarded Beaumont city-transit and school buses Thursday night. Along the way, some found shelter, and remaining passengers were consolidated.
As they headed northwest, they were turned away from shelters in several small towns, said David Jones, a 39-year-old Beaumont construction worker who made the trip with his pregnant wife and 2-year-old son. In some cases, fire marshals said the buildings were full.
Water and a few snacks were offered along the way, Jones said. The bus tried to return to Beaumont early in the weekend, but was stopped outside town. At one point, the manager at a motel that had no vacancies allowed passengers to sleep on the dining room floor for a few hours.
The trip was grueling for the elderly, the ill and young who were aboard. When they arrived in San Antonio on Sunday morning, 41 passengers were transferred to a shelter for people with medical problems.
The shelter sent two to a hospital immediately: a man who needed kidney dialysis and Jones' wife. Eight others were treated for severe dehydration.
"These people zigzagged all over south Texas," shelter director Robert Marbut said.
© 2005 KR Washington Bureau and wire service sources
Saturday, September 24, 2005
Boston's Top 30
Here is The Noise Top 30 chart for October.
Reporting: WAAF, WBCN, WMBR, WMFO, WTCC, WZBC
1) Apollo Sunshine – Apollo Sunshine
2) Mobius Band – The Loving Sounds of Static
3) The Rudds – Get the Femuline Hang On
4) Waltham – The Awesome EP
5) Ashby – Looks like You’ve Already Won
6) Frank Smith – Think Farms
7) Juliana Hatfield – Made in China
8) Hrvatski – Irrevocably Overdriven Break Freakout Megamix
9) Bourbon Princess – Dark of Days
10) UV Protection – Consumer Material
11) Slim Jim and the Mad Cows – Homebrewed
12) Tiger Saw – Sing!
13) Edan – The Beauty and the Beat
14) Fast Actin’ Fuses – Advance
15) Heathen Shame – Speed the Parting Guest
16) Reverend Glasseye – Our Lady of the Broken Spine
17_ Polyethylene – Paper or Plastic
18) The Perniece Brothers – Discover a Lovelier You
19) Lovewhip – Virtual Booty Machine
20) Ad Frank – Alotta Devotion
21) Freezepop – maxi ultra fresh
22) Sarah Borges – Silver City
23) Cyanide Valentine – Let It Rot
24) The Cautions – Proceed with the Cautions
25) [munk] – “Kick out the Chairs”
26) Superpower – Superpower
27) Amun Ra – A Thousand Ticking Clocks
28) The Stairs – On Sleep Lab
29) Andrea Gillis – Andrea Gillis
30) Tracy Bonham – Blink the Brightest
Here is The Noise Top 30 chart for October.
Reporting: WAAF, WBCN, WMBR, WMFO, WTCC, WZBC
1) Apollo Sunshine – Apollo Sunshine
2) Mobius Band – The Loving Sounds of Static
3) The Rudds – Get the Femuline Hang On
4) Waltham – The Awesome EP
5) Ashby – Looks like You’ve Already Won
6) Frank Smith – Think Farms
7) Juliana Hatfield – Made in China
8) Hrvatski – Irrevocably Overdriven Break Freakout Megamix
9) Bourbon Princess – Dark of Days
10) UV Protection – Consumer Material
11) Slim Jim and the Mad Cows – Homebrewed
12) Tiger Saw – Sing!
13) Edan – The Beauty and the Beat
14) Fast Actin’ Fuses – Advance
15) Heathen Shame – Speed the Parting Guest
16) Reverend Glasseye – Our Lady of the Broken Spine
17_ Polyethylene – Paper or Plastic
18) The Perniece Brothers – Discover a Lovelier You
19) Lovewhip – Virtual Booty Machine
20) Ad Frank – Alotta Devotion
21) Freezepop – maxi ultra fresh
22) Sarah Borges – Silver City
23) Cyanide Valentine – Let It Rot
24) The Cautions – Proceed with the Cautions
25) [munk] – “Kick out the Chairs”
26) Superpower – Superpower
27) Amun Ra – A Thousand Ticking Clocks
28) The Stairs – On Sleep Lab
29) Andrea Gillis – Andrea Gillis
30) Tracy Bonham – Blink the Brightest
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