President's Day post
It is interesting to ponder the consolidation of these two important holidays in February - Washington's Birthday and Lincoln's Birthday - into one generic "President's Day." Was this an anti-union conspiracy? A way of taking a holiday away from the average working man [or woman]?
In the rage to name everything after Ronald Reagan, where is the "Reagan's Birthday" holiday, along with Washington and Lincoln? Not that I think the guy should get a day of his own but I'm just surprised his fans haven't tried to promote it. You can almost hear how that would go over in the halls of Congress: 'Oh, well, we can't do that, it would go against capitalism, forcing companies to offer a paid holiday on Feb. 6, blah, blah, blah ...' [and what's with the February birthdays?].
Andy Rooney had a great bit on "60 Minutes" last night lamenting that naming the holiday after all the presidents insinuates that they have all been worthy of a holiday. It was a good point; made all the more relevant when you think how great Lincoln was compared to recent batch of boneheads we've had in the Oval Office.

Speaking of presidents, has anyone else been watching this issue of handing over our ports to a company owned for a foreign government, specifically, the UAE ["Democrats plan bill to block Dubai port deal"]? What good is a War on Terror if we are handing over regulation of some of our biggest ports to company which could be potentially infiltrated by terrorists? It almost seems as though the administration is trying to allow a dirty bomb into the country! They are doing nothing about the porous borders; they are doing nothing about trying to heal the problems our nation has with the Muslim world; now, they want to hand over operation of our biggest ports to a strange company owned by an unstable Middle Eastern country? Insane. At least that is what one dad of a 9-11 victim thinks: ["'President's gone insane' - 9/11 dad "].

"'I'm a lifelong Republican and I think the President's gone insane,' said Gadiel, 58, who heads 9/11 Families for a Secure America.
Two of the 19 9/11 hijackers were citizens of Dubai, the Arab emirate whose bid to run ports in New York, New Jersey and four other cities was okayed by the White House even though investigators have found signs that money used to finance terrorism flowed through Dubai banks."

Well, yeah, insane just about nails it, eh? No true conservative and no one in their right mind would allow this to happen. But without checks and balances, without fighting opposition parties, this kind of stuff is bound to happen. Thankfully, some folks seemed to be trying to stop it.

Speaking of the "fighting opposition," here is interesting column by another Nader defender - Bob Koehler, of Tribune Media Services - about his problems with some folks on the Web: ["The Nader Effect: Democrats are chasing ghosts instead of Republicans"]. I especially like this:

"While the ghost of McGovern, who was mauled by Richard Nixon in 1972, is the most deeply ingrained and enfeebling, seeming to guarantee uncritical Democratic support ("we love America, honest") for every cynical Republican military or civil-liberties outrage concocted in the name of national security, the ghost of Nader is the most life-threatening. Its effect is emetic, causing an immediate discharge of rationality among the party faithful at every hint of a challenge from the party's values base. The Nader Effect causes Democrats to upchuck the very medicine that will save it."

Exactly. The medicine is simple: Stand for something. Imagine, that a column entitled "Give Peace a Vote," would garner such madness from those people who propose to be the saviors of the nation? Koehler's offense, of course, was suggesting that someone better could represent the 8th District of Illinois instead of the incumbent Democrat. And, with Democrats like this - she voted for the bankruptcy bill, the estate tax repeal, CAFTA, the AHP bill that guts state healthcare protection laws, the Enron/Halliburton energy bill, the PATRIOT Act, the Real ID Act, the Iraq War, another bloated defense budget, the flag desecration amendment, and the recent leave-no-millionaire-behind "tax relief" bill, according to Independent candidate Bill Scheurer's Web site [winwithbill.com] - who needs Republicans?
Plus, why are they eating their own ["Backroom Battles "]? This is the kind of potential candidates the Democrats need:

"Hackett, an Iraq War combat veteran, was hailed last summer as just the kind of “fighting Democrat” the party needed to reinvigorate its base and end its years in the congressional wilderness. After narrowly losing a race for Congress in a lopsidedly Republican district outside Cincinnati last August, the telegenic veteran—famous for dissing President Bush as a “chickenhawk” and “sonuvabitch” while on the stump—was courted heavily by Democratic leaders, including Sens. Charles Schumer and Harry Reid, to take on DeWine. But no sooner did Hackett enter the Senate race last October than Brown announced his candidacy for Senate, reversing an earlier decision he had made to stay out of the race."

Now don't get me wrong, Rep. Sherrod Brown doesn't sound like a bad guy. But why should Schumer and Reid even be involved in this? They are from New York and Nevada, respectively, not Ohio.

Retirement. Once you hit 40, you start thinking about it. You may not be doing much about it, but you are starting to think about it. I worry about it too and not just because I have a very young son and I am wondering about all those things he may need in the future. But, I wonder if I will ever see retirement and whether or not that is such a bad thing.
And, this isn't just about Social Security solvency or beach homes, this is about retirement in general ... the act of not working ... on something. I wonder if I will really ever be able to retire. Not just because I may not have the money to retire, but the fact that I probably won't be able to stop working.
I like working. I like working hard. I always have even when I was doing menial things like washing dishes. There is no indignity in work and the more fulfilling, the better. Plus, what can you do in retirement when you have done almost everything you've ever wanted? Can you spend the whole rest of your life living on a beach catching up on your reading? I go stir crazy after a week away from work. How am I going to handle not working at all?
Anyhow, this whole thread of thought recently came to me after I read this article: ["Retirement age 'should reach 85'"]. Hey, I'm all for working late in life ... but 85? That seems a bit much. I might not fully retire but I don't want to wait until 85! Come on.

2008. Interesting articles in the Sundays this week about 2008: ["Primary buzz is building early"] and this: ["Pols lining up at the gate for 2008"]. As well as this from earlier in the week: ["Conservatives Divided on '08 Candidate"].

March Noise Magazine Top 30 Chart
Reporting stations: WAAF, WBCN, WFNX, WMBR, WMFO, WTCC

1. Campaign for Real Time – Yes … I Mean, No
2. Compass – Munchy the Bear
3. Galaxie 500 – Peel Sessions
4. Rooftop Suicide Club – Always Like This
5. The Bags – Night of the Corn People [Reissue]
6. Chris Brokaw – incredible love
7. Certainly Sir – Tan
8. The Beatings – Holding on to Hand Grenades
9. Rick Berlin – Me and Van Gogh
10. Chop Chop – Chop Chop
11. Constants – The Murder of Tom Fitzgerril
12. Damone – Out Here All Night EP
13. Karacter – Karacter
14. Mascara – Spell
15. The Dents – Time for Biting
16. The Glass Set – The Glass Set
17. Victory At Sea – All Your Things Are Gone
18. The Curtain Society – Every Corner of the Room
19. The Cyanide Valentine – Let it Rot
20. Digney Fignus – Trouble on the Levee
21. The Hidden – Smash to Ashes
22. Slim Jim and the Mad Cows – homebrewed
23. Tiger Saw – Sing!
24. The Texas Governor – The Experiment
25. The Bleedin Bleedins – Life Without Computers
26. UV Protection – Consumer Material
27. Ad Frank & The Fast East Women – The World’s Best Ex-Boyfriend
28. The Chainletter – Home for Troubled Boys EP
29. Lincoln Conspiracy – “Our Blue Sky Is Not Falling Down”
30. Auto Interiors – Let’s Agree to Deceive Our Best Friends

Press releases
In the news business, you get a lot of press releases. It seems unending at times. Sometimes, the press releases are things you can use; other times, it's just some public relations flack trying to get some press. Sometimes, the PR flack doesn't know what he is doing and sends the press release to a strange, abandoned company email account. This separates the wheat from the chaff; and whether a PR rep truly knows about your media company or whether he is sending it out blind to flog the idea.
Anyhow, I got this one earlier today. It isn't something we would necessarily use but being a blogger, I'm intrigued by its findings and concept. Also, a quick Google of "Pierce Atwood LLP" revealed no known articles about the firm and blogging. This leads one to believe that this random press release didn't get much play.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
AS WORK-RELATED WEB BLOGS PROLIFERATE, NEW NATIONAL SURVEY FINDS FEW EMPLOYERS ARE PREPARED FOR THE IMPACT
5% of workers polled by Employment Law Alliance say they maintain a blog
SAN FRANCISCO, CA (February 7, 2006) – Web blogs are booming, but the latest survey conducted by the Employment Law Alliance (ELA) is reporting that while millions of workers – perhaps as many as 5% of the American work force -- are maintaining the online personal diaries, only about 15% of employers have specific policies addressing work-related blogging.
Some estimates put the number of workplace bloggers as high as 10 million. And with only a minority of companies regulating blogging at work, the conditions are ripe for disputes if employees use blogs to vent workday frustrations.
“The problem is not that an employer learns in a blog that an employee is dissatisfied, but that the dissatisfaction is made available to an unknown, potentially limitless audience,” says James Erwin, a labor and employment law attorney at Pierce Atwood LLP, a law firm with offices in Portsmouth and Concord, New Hampshire.
Work-related blogging was once thought to be benign, but it is now one of the hottest, and most complex and far-ranging issues in the workplace, according to Stephen J. Hirschfeld, the CEO of the ELA and a partner in the California-based labor and employment firm of Curiale, Dellaverson, Hirschfeld & Kraemer, LLP.
Blog-related issues cover a broad spectrum well beyond concerns by employers over the web-posting of company secrets. For example, can the employer regulate off-duty blogging because they believe the content injures the company’s reputation, is embarrassing to a company, or disparages a company’s products, management or customers?
“An employer does not want to intrude into an employee’s private life, but a company needs to protect its reputation for the sake of the entire workforce and the future of the business,” adds Erwin.
Erwin recommends all employers include a blogging policy in company handbooks, detailing what is and is not allowed and the consequences for violation. The practice of firing a worker for what is deemed inappropriate blogging even has its own name, doocing (named for a fired worker who maintains the www.dooce.com website).

The telephone poll of 1,000 adults, with a confidence interval of +/- 4%, was conducted over the weekend of January 22, 2006. Besides finding that 5% of American workers maintain personal blogs and that only 15% of their employers have a policy directly addressing blogging activities, it also revealed that:

• 59% of employees believe employers should be allowed to discipline or terminate workers who post confidential or proprietary information concerning the employer
• 55% think employers should be allowed to discipline or terminate employees who post damaging, embarrassing, negative information about the employer
• 23% support fellow workers being free to post criticism or satire about employers, co-workers, supervisors, customers, or clients without fear of discipline

Of the employees polled who work for a company with a blogging policy:

• 62% say the policy prohibits posting any employer-related information
• 60% say the policy discourages employees from criticizing or making negative comments against the employer
• 58% say the regulations deal with all blogging regardless of content.

Dr. Ted Reed, President of the Reed Group, LLC, a Philadelphia-based research firm and Survey Director for ELA, says the poll is indicative of a steady growth in adult blogging. A 2003 national survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that approximately 2% of American adults who used the Internet maintained a blog. “Based on our current research, we can have as many as 10 million bloggers among the American workforce.”
Pierce Atwood LLP is the ELA member law firm for Maine and New Hampshire. The law firm is the largest based in Northern New England and has more than 120 attorneys who serve regional, national and international clients from offices in Portland and Augusta, Maine. As part of the firm’s continuing growth strategy, Pierce Atwood LLP established a Portsmouth, New Hampshire office in 2001, and expanded further in 2003 when it acquired the well-respected law firm of Sanders & McDermott in Hampton. In December, 2004 the firm opened a Concord, New Hampshire office. For more information about the firm, its attorneys and services, please visit www.pierceatwood.com.
-END-
Contact: Jennifer WhittierPhone: 207-791-1244
Email: JWhittier@PierceAtwood.com
The Employment Law Alliance is the world’s largest integrated, global practice network comprised of premier, independent law firms distinguished for their practice in employment and labor law. There are member firms in every jurisdiction in the United States and over 65 countries around the world. For further information, including access to the survey charts and graphs, visit www.employmentlawalliance.com.

1,000 days ...
In 1,000 days, there will be another presidential election.

Banned from Kos ... again!
On Tuesday, Jan. 31, I was troll-rated into oblivion at the Daily Kos political chat site and lost access to participating at the site.
This has occurred twice before: Once during the famous primary wars of 2003, for defending Ralph Nader repeatedly and criticizing Gen. Wesley Clark and former Gov. Howard Dean, who I ended up voting for; and then again, in late 2004, when I stated early one Sunday morning that an "SNL" skit showing John Kerry to be a flip-flopper was funny and factual correct.
After the second banning, I took a break from the site for almost a year, although I did continue to glance at it now and again for news stories and other political nuggets.
But after talking to some folks via email who had participated in the site and missed some of my interaction, I decided to participate again. I also made it a personal policy that I wouldn't get into too much controversy, as to not anger those true believers which would get me troll-rated again into oblivion and start the whole process over again.
Well, I failed.
For the most part, it was a safe strategy and it seemed to work. My contributions were part of what I thought was a healthy discussion about politics in general, strategy, and other things that would empower people to be more involved in the process. The thought was that if you can get people to shut off their computers and learn how to run field campaigns, for example, they would be able to create more change than bitching at a blog site. Bitching on a blog site doesn't create change; it is just bitching.
Of course, anyone involved in campaigns in the past knows this to be true; field is everything. Information is everything. But anyone involved in campaigns in the past also knows that progressives and liberals, generalizing, have an adversarial relationship with the hard work that goes into producing winning electoral campaigns. They do a lot of pontificating about "movement building," but they rarely follow through with the work that needs to get accomplished.
It was hilarious when I was involved in the early days of the Massachusetts Green Party - after volunteering for Ralph Nader's presidential campaign in 1996 - and would talk about purging voter's lists to find the good voting residents. "Activists" would look at me and say, "What's a voter's list?" They were too busy Marching for Mumia to realize that the only way to influence voters was to actually find out who they were and talk to them. It was only until activist Iowa Karen Kubby put the process into a cartoon format and passed it around on the Web that folks inside the MGP and other places took the process of purging seriously. Later, in some of the smaller campaigns, Greens were able to take this process onto near wins - like Jesse Perrier's Selectman's campaign in Winthrop, Mass., in which he got 40-plus percent of the vote. Another candidate, Paul Lachelier, challenged long-time state Rep. Tim Toomey, a double-dipping Democrat layabout, and received 37 percent of the vote, in Cambridge and Somerville. Other Greens in super liberal areas of Western Massachusetts were able to garner similar numbers by actually going out and talking to voters. Statewide candidates - not really using the purging process but still significant - were able to garner decent vote returns too. James O'Keefe, who ran for Treasurer in Massachusetts as a Green, won more than 9 percent of the vote in 2002 in a climate where the state Dems were pounding Green gubernatorial candidate, Dr. Jill Stein. President Bill Clinton even visited the state telling voters not to be "Nadered" by Stein who was clearly more qualified to be governor than Mitt Romney or Shannon O'Brien. O'Keefe managed to skirt most of the damage from Democrats which was squarely aimed at Stein. But he didn't get much help from the mainstream media. Despite having a Masters degree in Economics and a background in computer software engineering, they didn't feel he was qualified. The major daily newspapers ignored his campaign, with the Boston Globe even editing O'Keefe out of a three candidate picture. The picture had all three candidates extending their hands jointly together in a sports metaphor with the Globe editing O'Keefe completely out of the picture ... except, of course, his hands! Some television stations were kinder; allowing O'Keefe to participate in some of the debates, probably because the Republican Dan Grabauskus had no chance of beating eventual winner "Tim for Treasurer" Cahill.
My discussions on Kos weren't about anything more than empowering people and chatting up political gossip, something I don't do at work very much and prefer to do online, during downtime.
But then, the blogosphere started to really let loose after the Alito nomination follies. Some of the more popular posters on Daily Kos started to openly talk about rebellion within the Democrat Party and even leaving the party to punish Senators who were supporting Alito. They'd had enough, especially after some Senate Dems smartly abandoned John Kerry's seemingly clueless filibuster attempt against Alito. In fact, some of the more popular posters, like MaryScott O'Connor, a former actress in California who also runs the My Left Wing site, called for a re-registration to "Independent" in an effort to influence the party [O'Connor is a super liberal poster who I happen to respect because of her thoughtfulness and deep convictions even if I may disagree with her rage]. She was particularly infuriated by southern and western Dems ignoring the dangers Alito might bring to Roe v. Wade. Kos himself seemed to stay out of this fray and allowed people to argue back and forth about it, although he did sympathize with the rebellious poster's anger at the lack of action against Alito. Kos even went so far as to brag that the netroots were organized in this fight. He mightily roared that now, Senate Democrats would take them seriously, even if they had little to no effect on the process.
While Kos has openly stated that he has little tolerance for indie voters or indie liberal parties, he has openly called on his followers to target Sen. Joe Lieberman - advocating and encouraging anyone, independent or otherwise - to run against him! This, historically, as anyone involved in the party knows, is a no-no. You don't eat your own, no matter what.
But with Kos and his posters, there is a bit of hypocrisy on this. Lieberman is a Republican with a big-D label by his name, they say, so it is different than a guy like Nader trying to bring truth and honesty to the political arena. Kossacks correctly think the same of Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, labeling him: "Sen. Joe Biden, D-MBNA," after the big financial company from his state which he seems to serve so well - much to the detriment of credit card holders everywhere.
A lot of excuses were posted for this strange change in philosophy between no tolerance for indies and tolerance for them when they are against someone we dislike or someone who Kos targets. But, whatever.
Having worked in both Dem and indie arenas and have voted for Republicans against Democrat candidates I couldn't stand, I commended O'Connor and others, and encouraged them to think about the idea of abandoning the Dems. I didn't advocate for the idea; I just said folks should think about it. I shared some of my own experiences trying to reform the Democrat Party in the late 1980s when I was an active member of Ward Committee meetings in Boston, as well as my experiences with the Greens during the mid- to late-1990s. I stated that it was nearly impossible to reform the Dems and I did openly advocate not joining the Greens because of their unrealistic illusions and propensity to be totally disorganized [Sorry my Green buds still out there reading my stuff, this is the reality of the situation].

Sidebar: This dynamic of rebellion in the wake of the Alito nomination from within the ranks of this ragtag collection of people talking amongst themselves online has virtually received no attention from the press - despite the popular sentiment online. O'Connor did manage to get on John Gibson's Fox radio program after she posted a rant entitled "We are fucked." The audio is posted somewhere but I have yet to listen to it. There was little else in the way of press about this very interesting dynamic in the country right now. In fact, it is a testament to the lack of a political press interested in covering anything deeper within the party structures, something they always used to do in the 1960s and 1970s. Whole sections of books have been written about the intra-party struggles, like the move to diversify the Dems in the 1970s after U.S. Rep. Shirley Chisholm’s populist campaign for the presidency found itself completely shut out of the political process [Check out "Marathon: The pursuit of the Presidency, 1972-1976," by Jules Witcover, a fascinating read about this era of Democratic politics].

Unfortunately, during this very enlightening phrase of interaction at Daily Kos, I got into a side argument about Al Gore Sr., a southern Democrat who had a pretty bad civil rights record. Everyone knows this and it has been covered by editorialists from the left and right. Everyone knows that southern Democrats attempted to kill the Civil Rights Act and Gore Sr. was one of the leaders in that movement. Everyone knows that it wasn't until after years and years of fighting integrating that Gore Sr. finally came around, not unlike Alabama Gov. George Wallace and others later on. Everyone knows that when Vice President Al Gore in 2000 was talking about his father's legacy of civil rights advocacy that he was rewriting the history about his father [While the Bible does say, Respect thy mother and father, it doesn't say Fib about thy mother and father to rewrite history and cover your political ass]. Everyone knows that if it weren't for northeastern Republicans, blacks still wouldn't have civil rights today. All this information is in the Congressional Record. There are voting records and comments by other Democrats, like then-President Lyndon Johnson, who openly thanked Senate Republicans for their assistance in passing the Civil Rights Act. Going back a bit further, everyone knows that if it weren't for Republicans in the late 1800s, blacks would still be slaves today. It is fact. There is no argument about it ... unless you currently hate Republicans and are a part of the "liberal blogosphere" in 2006. You're drinking the Kool-Aid, like Jim Jones' followers did, as the saying goes. A cryptic metaphor but accurate nonetheless. The Dems can do no wrong, even after you are targeting Lieberman and others from your desktop.
Well, my comments didn't sit right with some folks and wham, troll-rated into oblivion again. This is what happens when you don't know your history - you are condemned to repeat it, as the saying goes. This is what happens when you hate so much that you can't look at the bright side of anything.
Personally, I'm not happy with the Republicans in Washington. I think the current bunch are corrupt as the day is long. They are a disgrace to their forefathers and Republicanism. It is nothing more than a political label now. But I'm not happy with the Democrats either. I see no difference in the hiding of Vice President Dick Cheney's energy plan and the crap that went on when Hilary Clinton - not an elected official, but the wife of the president - was meeting in secret to scheme up a supposed insurance policy for Americans. I won't even get into the alleged pharm market manipulation or other things from that era.
But this is what happens when you are so worried about political labels and less about political integrity that you are scarfing down that Kool-Aid. Any mindless following of political labels is a train ride to fascism and tyranny. Needless to say, I am going to probably give up on the educational dialogue of the blogosphere and will instead, spend time doing more fruitful endeavors. I will probably still cross-post at MyDD and have also been invited to cross-post at My Left Wing, despite my online debates with O'Connor, a class act in the blogosphere [She rages sometimes, it's OK though. She has come around].
But at some point, you have to give up and stop wasting your time trying to help people empower themselves. You can't make people see the truth. No matter how important speaking truth to power and "teaching" people the tools to change their lives, you can't force people to do it. You can't teach people common sense. It can be a lost cause.
I have always believed that lost causes are the only ones worth fighting for. But for now, more important writing deserves to be written.
I just thought my regular readers, many who were Kossacks and starting coming back to Politizine after I started posting again, should know why I'm no longer there.

The people who control the world?
It isn't often that I post entire articles here which aren't written by me. But this piece just says it all, doesn't it? And people think there isn't a conspiracy to run the world ... they aren't hiding, are they?

["Partying at Davos"]
By Jeff Faux
The world’s rich and powerful are heading this week to their annual meeting in the plush mountain resort of Davos, Switzerland. Hosted by the great global corporations (Citigroup, Siemans, Microsoft, Nestles, etc.), some 2000 CEO’s, prominent politicians, pundits and international bureaucrats will network over great food, fine wine, good skiing and cozy evenings by the fire contemplating the world’s future.
This is not a secret cabal; journalists will issue daily reports to the rest of us on the wit and informal charm of our financial betters. Rather it is like the political convention of those who manage the global economy. Call it the Party of Davos.
All markets are systems of rules that determine what sort of people are winners and what sort are losers. Politics is largely conflict among the different sorts – or classes – over who gets what. In stable societies, a social contract provides for enough wealth to trickle down to keep the lower orders from rebelling. Thus, in the 1950s, when Dwight Eisenhower’s secretary of defense said that what was good for General Motors was good for America, most Americans – including the United Auto Workers – agreed. Within the boundaries of the US economy, capital and labor needed each other.
But as corporations went global, the mutual dependence weakened. And in the absence of global democracy, their owners and top managers seized the opportunity to set the new rules without social constraints. The first head of the World Trade Organization called these new rules a “constitution for the global economy.” It’s a constitution that protects just one world citizen – the corporate investor. It prohibits effective protections for the workers, consumers and the environment.
In America, as in most places, the party of Davos is bipartisan. It includes Bill Clinton and Dick Cheney, Robert Rubin and Don Rumsfeld, Madeleine Albright and Condoleezza Rice. (George Bush is also a member, but he doesn’t like to travel). John Kerry is quoted as having called himself a “Davos” man.
Indeed, without reference to economic class it is impossible to explain why Democratic elites championed NAFTA, the WTO and the other instruments of corporate protectionism, which traded away the interests of its blue-collar industrial base in favor of the GOP constituencies in Wall Street and red-state agri-business. Nor is it possible to explain why Washington is indifferent to a relentlessly rising trade deficit, and the resulting foreign debt that has put the country’s future in the hands of the central bank of China, while the Pentagon simulates war games with China as the enemy.
The media language we use to talk to each other about globalization hides its class structure. The press consistently talks about national “interest” without defining who exactly is getting what. Thus, American workers are told that the “Chinese” are taking their jobs. But the China threat is in fact another global business partnership – this one between commissars who supply the cheap labor and the United States and other foreign capitalists who supply the technology and two-thirds of the capital used to finance China’s exports. The rest of the world calls this “neo-liberalism,” a term unknown among America’s media “internationalists.”
The politics of the global marketplace are a one- party system. The opposition to Davos is unorganized globally. What might be called the Party of Porto Alegre – the NGOs who meet at the same time in Brazil – is politically marginal. The trade union movement’s effort to organize the workers of the world is at best at a very early stage.
Still, there may be some bad new ahead for Davos. After a quarter of a century, the world is beginning to resist policies that have shifted wealth and power away from people who work for a living to those who invest. Scarcely a day goes by without a major riot somewhere in China, Indonesia and elsewhere in Asia. In South America, anti-neoliberal parties have come to power in Brazil, Bolivia, Venezuela, and Argentina – and already have slowed down the effort to extend NAFTA to the rest of the hemisphere. Very close to home, a leftist candidate is leading in the campaign for Mexico’s next president.
But perhaps more important, Davos’ chief champion – the U.S. governing class – is in trouble. The opposition to the War in Iraq has demonstrated the limits of America’s willingness to send its children to die in order to force the world’s cultures into one vast shopping mall. And the looming crisis of America’s foreign debt will cramp the ability of our elites to use the countries’ economic power to support their global corporate backers. The erosion of the American social contract – already being reflected in stagnant wages, financial insecurity and collapsing health care system – could soon force the governing class to pay more attention to Bloomington, Illinois than to Baghdad, Iraq.
Globalization will not go away. Improvements in communications and transportation will continue to make the world smaller for as far into the future as we can see. Nor will economic classes soon disappear. The question is, as always, who sets the rules and in whose interests? So although the parties at Davos may not be over, the rest of the world seems less willing to pay for them.

Jeff Faux, the founder and former president of the Economic Policy Institute, is the author of the new book The Global Class War, a study of the impact of globalization abroad and on U.S. living standards and politics. He is a contributing editor to The American Prospect, and a member of the editorial board of Dissent. His articles and commentary have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The American Prospect, Foreign Affairs en Español, The Nation, The Columbia Journalism Review, and many other popular and professional publications.

Haunting
Christopher Lee blasted some of the so-called actors involved in films these days recently: ["Lee laments Hollywood 'stars'"]. However great Lee is, let's be honest: He has been in some clunkers over the years. Gremlins 2, Howling 2, 1941, Meatcleaver Massacre, and a ton of cheesy Dracula movies.

'08 is lookin' like a lot of fun ...

While the date of the New Hampshire primary and what the DNC plans on doing with it is on every political junkie's mind up here, things seem to be heating up out in the blogosphere. The hilarious Molly Ivins posted this column earlier this week: ["Not. backing. Hillary."]:

"Enough. Enough triangulation, calculation and equivocation. Enough clever straddling, enough not offending anyone This is not a Dick Morris election. Sen. Clinton is apparently incapable of taking a clear stand on the war in Iraq, and that alone is enough to disqualify her. Her failure to speak out on Terri Schiavo, not to mention that gross pandering on flag-burning, are just contemptible little dodges."

Boy, doesn't that say it all? Over at DailyKos, this column was a hot topic, with a slew of posters agreeing with Ivins, a few stating that Ivins voted for Ralph Nader in 2000 so why should anyone listen to her, and a whole bunch more drinking the "I'll vote for any Democrat" Kool-Aid Jim Jones style. Oh, they'll never learn. While she isn't a very powerful pundit, her column is a good wake up call for the Dems. If the Republicans nominate a moderate in 2008 and the Dems some war-monger pain-in-the-ass like Hillary, it could be 2000 all over again.

Down in Massachusetts, there is a bit of trouble for Gov. Mitt "Guy Smiley" Romney ... he's losing his consultant: ["Romney political strategist quits"]. He's breaking ties with Mike Murphy - the star consultant for Sen. John McCain in 2000 and numerous other campaigns. Murphy claims he is going to stay neutral if both Romney and McCain are in the primary:

"The deal is there's no reelect committee to work for, and I've made it clear all along that if there is a presidential primary campaign Mitt Romney and (Senator) John McCain, I'd have to be neutral in it."

Eh, yeah, right. I'll believe that when I see it. It is difficult for these guys to stay out of the fray when they don't have to. He would just have to pick one or the other. Of course, this is assuming that McCain is running and there is no guarantee of that.
As an aside, Murphy will make an interesting chapter in a book I may eventually finish writing some day. I can talk about how he sneaked into the 2002 Democratic convention on a press pass and how I tipped off a press aide for a treasurer's candidate to his presence. He was quickly booted from the auditorium - but not before I got some good information from him. Sorry Mike. I can also talk about his role in getting Romney to run for governor in 2002 after Guy Smiley promised he wouldn't run for governor. And how the town of Belmont used public funds for a Welcome Home i.e. political, rally. Trust me, it will be worth the read when the book gets done. I'm also waiting on a guy I know to do a document dump on Romney. We'll see if he actually ever gets around to doing it.

Then, there is Al Gore, who has truly become his own man: ["'We the People' Must Save Our Constitution"].

"Don't misunderstand me: the threat of additional terror strikes is all too real and their concerted efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction does create a real imperative to exercise the powers of the Executive Branch with swiftness and agility. Moreover, there is in fact an inherent power that is conferred by the Constitution to the President to take unilateral action to protect the nation from a sudden and immediate threat, but it is simply not possible to precisely define in legalistic terms exactly when that power is appropriate and when it is not.
But the existence of that inherent power cannot be used to justify a gross and excessive power grab lasting for years that produces a serious imbalance in the relationship between the executive and the other two branches of government."

Americans who were polled after the speech believe Bush should be impeached: ["Americans Support Impeaching Bush for Wiretapping"]. The problem here is that this is the same Al Gore who was a member of the Clinton Adminstration during the passage of the domestic anti-terrorism bill, the precursor to the Patriot Act. This is the same Gore who stood by Bubba when he bombed the Sudan to get Monica and her stained dress off the front page of the papers. The same Gore who didn't speak up when Sandy Berger, Bill Cohen, and Madeline "Not So" Bright were advocating regime change in Iraq on a pathetic college tour where they were summarily blasted and booed by the crowd. Creek, creek, creek ... that was Gore. No outrage at that time - when he was the vice president and had the power to influence policy. Still, I'm intrigued by Gore and what his motives are beyond getting time on C-Span. Maybe he has changed.

Will there be a Nader "factor" in '08? Probably not. Nader was shellacked in 2004 for no other reason than existing. He is aging; half his face is paralyzed; he still owes money from the 2004 race. But Nader may have a last hurrah, especially if this film, "An Unreasonable Man," picks up steam: ["indieWIRE"] and ["Ralph Nader to Attend Sundance Film Festival"]:

"I was so sick of people (mostly whiny Democrats) yelling at me about Ralph without having all the information. When discussing him, I too was conflicted. But most of all I wanted to tell the story of Ralph Nader's entire life and career so at least when people judged him, they would understand more about this American icon."

It is a wonder what would have happened in 2004 had the Democrats spent the millions of dollars they spent keeping Nader off ballots on their own general election campaign. Sure, Kerry probably would have lost anyway because he was - and is - a soulless yuppie. But Kerry didn't lose by that much when you look at the numbers. Sure, he gained New Hampshire; but he lost Iowa and New Mexico, states Gore won. There was also [silly] speculation that Kerry might win Arizona, Nevada, Virginia, and West Virginia, states where he probably was never going to win. But what if Kerry had spent that last $15 million in his bank account in those states? What if the Democrats had spent the $6 million they spent keeping Nader off the ballot in Pennsylvania in neighboring Iowa?

In a sort of political related note, check out this car: ["A 330 mpg car for everyone"]. The only problem with this is that I doubt it will be safe enough to take on the highway. Can you imagine getting front-ended by a Mac truck in that thing? They'll be lucky to find anything left of you!

February 2006 Noise Chart
Reporting stations: WAAF, WBCN, WMBR, WMFO, WTCC, WZBC

1. Aberdeen City – The Freezing Atlantic
2. Hilken Mancini/Chris Colburn – Hilken Mancini/Chris Colburn
3. The Rudds – Get the Femuline Hang On
4. The Hidden – Church & War EP
5. Popgun – Trigger
6. Reverend Glasseye – Our Lady of the Broken Spins
7. The Pixies – Sell Out 2004 Reunion Tour
8. Galaxie 500 – Peel Sessions
9. The Glass Set – The Glass Set
10. Apollo Sunshine – Apollo Sunshine
11. Burning Babylong – Roots Heavy
12. Cracktorch – Tonight the City
13. Cyanide Valentine – Let it Rot
14. The Irreverends – The Irreverends
15. Harris – The Light is Seeping Through the Cracks
16. Don Lennon – Routine
17. Piebald – Killa Bros & Killa Bees
18. The Product – The Makeout Song EP
19. Swinging Steaks – Sunday Best
20. Anushka Pop – Akatthena
21. Rick Berlin – Me and Van Gogh
22. The Blind King – ‘til You’re Gone
23. Chris Brokaw – Incredible Love
24. The Curtain Society – Every Corner of the Room
25. Damn Personals – “Little Armor”
26. Damone – Out Here All Night EP
27. Electric Sugar – Prescription Only
28. Dr. Nancy Mroczek, PhD – Dr. Nancy Mroczek PhD EP
29. The Scissormen – Jinx Breakers EP
30. Scamper w/Kay Hanley – “Barcelona”

Thought for the day
You only have the rights you are willing to fight for.

411: An old pal from Winchester forwarded this information to me today:
"Cell phone companies are charging us $1.00 or more for 411 informationcalls when they don't have to. (They are plainly and simply greedy.)Here's how to beat them. If you need to use the 411 information option:Dial 1-800-FREE 411 (1-800-373-3411) without incurring a charge at all, except for whatever minutes are required to make the call.It works on home "land line" phone too.This is information people don't mind receiving. Pass it on."

I will have to check it out and see if it works.

Speaking of phones: Did you know that your phone records were for sale? ["Your phone records are for sale"].

New Orleans, Post Katrina: Well, it looks like the powers that be are finally letting folks know how New Orleans will be rebuilt. And, as many suspected, it looks like a land grab - with the working class folks of New Orleans being left out of the big plans: ["N.O. residents angry about rebuilding ideas"]. So, who is this Joseph Canizaro guy anyway? Well, do a Google: ["Mother Jones 400"]:

In 1997, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development chided Canizaro for heading a local housing authority that ignored lower bids and awarded a contract to a board member of First Bank and Trust, where Canizaro happens to be chairman.

Hmm. OK. What else can we find? A lot of stuff about donations to Bush and then, this: ["The city's future may depend on a mogul with Bush's ear"]. Why is it that these folks are always put in charge of "the rebuilding" or "the rezoning" or "the restructuring." How come it is never any regular folks who just want their homes back. Let's see if the Sean Hannitys of the world expose this fraud like they go after Democratic mayors in small towns who are taking property for small economic revitalization projects. And yeah, don't get me wrong, that's bad too.

Oh Ana Marie: Wonkette! has a book out. And another book coming ... with a six figure advance! I'm in the wrong business. But then again, I don't really like to blog by making sexual references and sodomy jokes all the time. And, I don't live in D.C. ... I live in New Hampshire. But now, she has decided not to blog and, in fact, her blog is getting a sex change: ["Wonkette's Sex Change"].
I think I will wait until it ends up in the cut-out bin.

I think I may try this: ["TerraPass"].

Tax, Don't Trade Pollution
Guest Perspective/Roy Morrison

The Pittsburgh Steelers in the NFL playoffs against the Cinncinati Bengals called their trick play Fake 38 Direct Throwback. My son Sam and I call ours Chicago Lateral 2 Yellow. There's a pitch to the end who throws a lateral across the field to the quarterback who fires to the streaking end. TD.
Sometimes there's a correspondence between your backyard and the bigs, pro football or sandlot, an e-mail across town or to a friend's son serving in Iraq.
Then there are things that just aren't quite right.
A brand new pickup from Public Service Company pulls up to read the meter. If I can send e-mail and data around the world, why can't my electric meter be another smart control node of a 21st century network?
And I drive into Concord on I-89 while a huge plume of sulfurous smoke pours from the Public Service Company coal fired power plant in Bow and a brown mist heads south toward Manchester along the Merrimack River. Why are we told that the coal burned in Bow meets all environmental regulations and is a money-saving bargain as if its toxic mercury and particulate emissions and climate changing carbon dioxide are without costs?
For us to be both prosperous and healthy in the 21st century, we must get the prices right. It's time to let our market system work. It's time for poison power to charge its true costs and not have the rest of us be forced to pay its way.
By taxing polluters from the first gram of toxins and harmful emissions, we would decisively help put sustainable power on a fair and even footing with poison power. The market, not regulators, if we get the prices right, can take care of much of the pollution problem not just at Bow's Merrimack Station, but with sustainability in general.
The current regulatory system that allows a set amount of pollution without charge is fundamentally flawed. To permit "free" pollution is to pollute not only the air and water, but also the marketplace.
Poison is regulated only on the margin. Polluters only pay for exceeding their free poison allowance.
This is the basic problem behind the admirable Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative pollution cap and trade system adopted by Northeast Governors attempting to reduce carbon dioxide emissions that drive global climatic change. The governors are to be applauded for their initiative in the face of Bush administration intransigence.
Slashing carbon dioxide emissions is essential. But the modest RGGI plan, which will most strongly impact coal plants such as Merrimack Station, is already running into trouble. Massachusetts and Rhode Island have pulled out.
Some businesses worry about further increases in electric rates in a year where electric prices have soared after Hurricane Katrina. Public Service Company and other powerful polluters who want to keep operating coal plants as a "bargain" for ratepayers are less than enthusiastic.
Pollution taxes, not the sale of artificial pollution allowances ultimately are the way to solve our problems. Environmentally, if we had State sales taxes on emissions from electricity from the first gram, we would help the market send signals for sustainability. The more polluting the power, the higher the price. Buy cheap. Save the planet.
Economically, the income from the pollution taxes should all be recycled as rebates or efficiency retrofit grants to businesses and to low income people. The tax would help our businesses be competitive, protect the health of our kids, help low-income people to pay their bills, and advance prosperity and sustainability.
Pollution taxes are the way forward.
This is the concept. Next, I'll provide details.

Roy Morrison is an energy consultant and writer. His next book, forthcoming, is Eco-Civilization 2140. His Web site is www.rmaenergy.net.

Tai ... found
Anyone remember "That Guy Tai"? Well, I do. Tai used to be a pretty funny morning drive host on WFNX in Boston and then he decided to take a stab at talk radio. He moved over to WRKO - first doing mornings with the abhorrent Marjorie Clapprood and then later, moved to evenings at WRKO. I appeared on his show a couple of times in 1998 and Tai was pretty good to me and produced a very good show on the air. He later got bumped and moved back to DJing at classic rocker WROR, and later, I lost track of him.
Well, he is back out there, doing a blog for the Boston Herald called TaiRade: ["TaiRade"] and subbing some shows around the area. Interestingly, when I wrote a blog entry about the Herald blogging, I didn't even know that Tai was doing it. He has been blogging for them since August. 2005. You would think that if the Herald was going to bother to put these folks on the site, they would try and give them a bit more of a push. Tai is a celeb in Boston. People probably still remember him. Why not highlight his blog site?

My 'punk rock' son
I have a son, about 17-months old, and he is the cutest little thing. Yesterday, when I got home from work, I saw the most fascinating thing happen. My wife was listening to the "Retro-Active" Music Choice channel on TV [Music Choice is streaming music service offered by Comcast. It is basically music without the commercials. Retro-Active formats new wave, punk, post-punk and what was once called modern rock, which is what we both grew up listening to]. Just before entering the house, there was my son, doing a baby pogo, to Black Flag's hilarious "T.V. Party"! His baby pogo consisted of him doing slight knee bends and waving his arms around. I just about started crying it was so cool - my son, the 17-month old punk rocker! :-)

Hell hath no fury ...
... like a woman scorned: ["How they got caught: After lobbyist broke off engagement, ex-fiancee told of illicit dealings to FBI"].
Guys, let this be a lesson to you all. If you are cheating on girlf or wife, they will find out, so don't do it. Decide early on in the relationship as to whether or you are going to tell her about your crooked dealings or not. Or, just don't do the crooked dealings. Don't ever - ever - dump your attractive and smart "thirty-something" fiancee for some Twinkie manicurist especially when your fiancee knows every sleazy detail about your public life. Don't be such a moron.

Happy New Year
Here's hoping you all have a very Happy New Year. It looks like 2006 is going to be a good one. There are a few things you may have missed of late.

Predictions: This link was posted on DailyKos earlier today: ["Informed Comment"]. If you think about the petroleum profits for a moment, that is quite a bit of money. Not only that, when you think about the $230 Billion spent on the Iraqi invasion, the nation could almost retrofit every building in the country to be more energy efficient with that money. There have also been some news stories floating around the foreign press that the United States is preparing to launch a military strike against Iran: ["US planning strike against Iran"]. Why, I ask, why?

Oddsmakers: What is it about oddsmakers. How do they figure things out? Is it just a hunch or do they have crystal balls? Trade Sport Traders has posted some of the odds for the Democratic nomination in 2008: ["2008DEM.NOM"]. Hillary Clinton is at 2.25 to 1 odds, the favorite. Former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner is 4.9 to 1 odds, or a close second. It goes pretty long from there. Former VP Al Gore is getting 20.4 to 1 odds. John Edwards is getting 21.7 to 1 odds. My personal fave at this point, Sen. Russ Feingold, is getting 23.3 to 1 odds for the nomination, ahead of whole lotta other folks who should be getting better odds, like Sen. Evan Bayh and Gov. Bill Richardson.

Spying: I'm glad the whole spying story seems to have legs. It has been fascinating to watch. I guess President Bush and VP Cheney are lucky that the Congress is out of session or else there would be hearings pretty fast, don'tcha think? Even Republican Sen. Richard Lugar believes there should be hearings into what Bush authorized and why: ["Lugar Supports Investigation Of Bush's Spying Program"]. The ACLU is calling for hearings too: ["No President Is Above the Law "]. Then, there is this story about the military shutting down the blogs of troops overseas: ["U.S. military 'shuts down' soldiers' blogs"]. And, what are they fighting for again? How do cave-dwellers manage to get laptops and Internet service - in the middle of nowhere - to look at these blogs? That's ridiculous.

Long-awaited: Worcester's The Curtain Society finally has a new CD out: ["Society raises the curtains on the long-awaited album"]. It's only been like what, nine years or something? And you can't really count the "Volume Tone Tempo" EP. The four songs from that EP are included on "Every Corner of the Room." I ordered a copy of the CD so I'll let you know how it sounds. If it is as good as the EP, it should be a winner.

Monica: I was pretty surprised to see this column on CommonDreams.org forwarded from the National Catholic Reporter: ["Monica, We Need You Now"]. Another Web site, CommonTimes.org has some interesting links too, which are posted by readers. Here is a little story about their success: ["Bush Protest Poster Puts CommonTimes on the Internet Map"].

Celebrity worship: I'm beginning to wonder if maybe those people who allow the process of celebrity worship could be considered terrorists. If they lead to the destruction of the nation, wouldn't they be considered terrorists? I was flipping by one of the stations and saw Britney Spears and her husband on a beach, hanging out. All of a sudden, there was one cameraman, then another, then yet another. Before you knew it, there were 12 guys surrounding them with movie cameras and the couple decided to try and leave. But they couldn't - because they were surrounded by these people with cameras! If that wasn't terror, I don't know what is. And why is it this way? Maybe the lowest common denom: ["2005: Boob tube at its worst"].

Catching up on things
Eighteen days and no posts. I can almost hear the blog screaming at me ... "Stop ignoring me!!" ... "But I have been busy." ... "Not too busy to just say 'Hi' once in awhile." ... "Yeah, you're right, sorry about that."
But even without posting, traffic here has been pretty steady and I'm kinda shocked by that. Anywhere from 30 to 60 people on any given day stop by the site [Thanks so much for that!]. I really have to try and make a commitment to do more with it, even if just to please those 30 to 60 folks who bother to stop by each day. At one point last month, Politizine was ranked in the Top 10,000 visited blogs in the world. Pretty impressive when you consider that I will sometimes go 18 days without a post! Hah.

There has been so much to write about of late but I just haven't had the chance.
I have been named the CEO of WKXL 1450 which basically means I will be running the station after the first of the year. It will mean added responsibilities and I will have to give up most of my news gathering and managing tasks. Short-term, it will be exhausting; but long-term, I think it will be a good move for me and I have great hope for 2006.
Speaking of blogs, I find it amusing - in a good way - that Herald Media, the company I used to work for, is now promoting the use of blogs at the Boston Herald and Town Online sites. Some of the posters, like Kevin Rothstein who now covers Boston City Hall have gone full-throttle; others are just using them to post election results and noodle a bit.
I'm glad someone in the company realized that it is a great medium to instantly speak to the public in a way that daily or weekly print newspapers just can't accomplish.
On a couple of occasions during my employment, I was informed that the fact that I had a blog made some people in the company uncomfortable despite the fact that I rarely spoke about the company. Some readers from Winchester, the town I used to cover, even complained that I had a blog even though I wasn't saying anything about them or the town [and what I could have said ...]. But what business is it of theirs, I would ask. I should be able to do what I want so long as it isn't done at work and doesn't affect my production, which, it never did. If anything, work affected my Politizine production. Hah, again.
I honestly think it was a control issue. Herald Media controls the blogs that they have; if someone starts one up himself, the company doesn't control it. But I am glad they are using the technology to share tidbits with their readers. Sometimes, you can't fit everything into the paper that you need to. Sometimes, you miss something. Sometimes, things break on Friday - the day after your weekly paper has been published. And I also know how hard the journalists for Herald Media work. There is sometimes no end to the day but it is an exhilarating feeling.
No news on the sale front of the papers though. There are some investment bankers looking to cash out and it may be the end of the Purcell era soon.

Canceling Esquire
I decided to let my Esquire subscription lapse this month. Over the years, I have had an on and off relationship with the magazine and never quite understood why. I think it has always been a subliminal need to imagine how good I would look in really expensive clothes, watches, cars and babes - none of which I would ever be able to afford in my lifetime [So why support this even at $10 a year?]. Not that that is a big deal or anything. I guess I have never really liked how I looked - with the exception of that skinny curly long-haired art rocker phase I went through in the early 1980s - and if I could look at pretty guys all dressed up, I might feel better about my own potential "look." Not that I am bad looking or anything. But thinking about it now, I'm probably not the only man who feels inferior looking at all the good-looking guys in the magazine knowing that I will never look that good because it takes 15-hours to look like that! It is an unrealistic standard to hold yourself to.
And yeah, there were always some pretty good articles in the magazine too. The piece following Joe Trippi around before the Dean collapse in Iowa was great and the recent article about the end of oil was enough to make you go build a windmill and bomb shelter in the backyard to keep the power on and save yourself from the George Romero end of the world zombies who will be eating your brains after the apocalypse. But two articles in the last couple of years that were memorable? That isn't a lot. Compare that to say Vanity Fair, which has the readable - and memorable - Christopher Hitchens, James Wolcott, and countless other things every month.
Esquire, for all its pomp and circumstance, and past historical relevance, just isn't meaningful anymore. I can't recall the first time I read the magazine but I do remember an article from the late 1970s, early 1980s, about the night softball game and beer-drinking craze of the time period. The front cover had this hot chick with cleats thrown over her shoulder, complaining that her man's softball games were ruining her sex life. Yeah right. Well, that guy just didn't know how to balance the two!
And putting Bill Clinton on the cover ... when our nation is at war ... what the hell was that ... shock, horrors ...
Seriously though. It is totally schizophrenic right now. It can't decide if it wants to be a gay household table top art magazine or a frat boy FHM bikini pinup magazine or something else, none of which reflects me as a person or a man these days. I'm not 18 anymore. I'm not gay. If I want good articles to read and beautiful women to look at - with little clothing on - I will buy Playboy and get the best of both worlds!
So, as John McLaughlin would say, bahye, bahye Esquire. May you find your former place in magazine history.

Random clips
I honestly don't want to go into the domestic spying stuff. I will lose a gasket and this screen will remain blank for many more than 18 days. I am infuriated beyond words. It is so damn unAmerican it isn't even funny. Plus, I think former Sen. Gary Hart says it best here: ["Intelligence Abuse Deja Vu"].

R.I.P. Jack Anderson: ["Crusading journalist Jack Anderson dies"]. Boy, they just don't make them like that anymore, do they? With columnists selling their space to lobbyists and other such nonsense: ["Op-Eds for Sale"], it is amazing this guy was even in the field. What character. I remember watching him on "Good Morning America" when I was a kid. I always thought he was an interesting story-teller and had these scandalous little tidbits about stuff going on in Washington. As I grew up and started reading newspapers, I found similar things out from Jack Germond and Robert Novak, and eventually became a journalist myself. He was one of the greats in the field.

Bill Weld, New York governor? Yeah right, stranger things have happened. The enjoyer of amber-colored spirits everywhere will have an easy time relating to the common man of the state. Although, he wasn't such a bad governor when I lived in Massachusetts, especially compared to how the Democratic nominee in 1990, nut John Silber, could have potentially ran the state! However, he is being taken seriously which means that the media there - Boston viciousness on 'roids with even more pompousness than the clowns on Morrissey Blvd. - will be coming after him. Like, say, this: ["Ghosts of a Shuttered College Follow Weld"]. Weld's campaign site is here: [Weld for New York]. Damn. Doesn't he look like shit? Too much good living in dreary ole Manhattan.

Earlier I was talking about blogs and I did want to remember to note this interesting article about citizen journalists in metro Massachusetts: ["Citizen journalists fill a niche with e-news"]. This could be where it is all potentially going: People with full-time or part-time jobs also taking on the part-time responsibility of covering their towns for the Web, so that everyone can connect themselves to what is often a disconnected town or city government.

The coming end of classical music in Boston?: ["Sale signals classical music's swan song"] and ["Greater Media, Charles River In Exclusive Negotiation"]. There has been a ton of gossip about this radio sale on the Web but it will be interesting to see how much it fetches. The rumor is somewhere in the $100 million range. Can you imagine that? Insane, for sure.

This didn't get as big a play as it should have: ["Family Upset Over Soldier's Body Arriving As Freight"]. MSNBC's Keith Olberman had it on but it was ignored by everyone else [I wonder why]. How reprehensible. You lose your kid and the military ships the body back to you like passenger baggage.

Nick Zampiello, who has mastered a bunch of my recordings over the years, was featured in this Boston Herald article about the gentrification of my old Fenway neighborhood: ["Sound of silence: Fenway music scene drowned out by gentrification"]. Of course, the Herald is about 10 to 15 years too late for the big story about real estate in this area. But it was nice to see that they were acknowledging all these business folks losing their space.

This was a very cool find: ["Subway Workers Unearth N.Y. History"]. Imagine that. A fort wall sinking into the ground over a few hundred years. Isn't it amazing how the earth works sometimes?