Hurricane blogs

Brian Williams, in a single-handed attempt to save the nightly network news, has done some impressive things in the name of broadcast journalism -- namely, diving head-first into the Superdome during the New Orleans evacuation. It's a move that has a strong resemblance to Peter Jennings's young days.

Another great move for Williams, the Daily Nightly -- his blog where he really does pull back the curtain. His latest post

Forgive my lack of postings...we have very limited ability here. No one in New Orleans has a source of power or food or water or gasoline. At least we have the very best equipment and crews...but satellite telephone time is expensive and my online work has had to suffer as a result. We will do our very best to continue covering this story, while we may never be able to express the full magnitude of the suffering or loss... We hope you'll join us again for Nightly News Wednesday night from New Orleans."

There's a new post at the Daily Nightly from Jeff Gralnick, my former Journalism school professor, describing his helicopter tour of New Orleans, where he once lived.

Also, two of my Journalism School classmates, Mike Keller and Josh Norman, are working at the Biloxi Sun Herald. They started a blog as the storm approached called Dancing With Katrina. At first, their blog's tone was clever and cheerful with pictures of Mike in a sleeping bag on the newsroom floor. It didn't take long for that tone to change. Their last post has 280 comments, many of which are frighteningly similar to this:

Can anyone tell me anything about the North Gulfport...Orange Grove area? My mother and grandmother decided to stay in their apt on Old Hwy 49 In Gulfport due to my Grandmother being to weak from surgery to make it in a shelter. I ahve not heard from them since late Sunday night.

Mike and Josh's paper, the Sun Herald, is covering the worst of the worst in the worst possible conditions. The paper's official blog shows how bad its working conditions are. They can't even find their own reporters:

Communications to the Biloxi area are down -- phone, e-mail, Internet .... If you work for The Sun Herald, please contact the paper to let us know where you are. As we know the news, we will post it to SunHerald.com. We're in this with you for the long haul.

Worse still, the Times-Picayune, having been evacuated from their New Orleans offices, are trying their best to keep their paper running electronically. All their breaking news is now being run off their blog. Yesterday's paper was only delivered via .PDF online. Same with todays:

New job

Sorry to my three readers for not having blogged seriously lately. My internship at the Courier-Journal was ending (Friday is my last day) and I had a full-time job search going on while blogging the Kentucky State Fair for the C-J.

Well, I have a new job. I'll be moving back to NYC on September 10th to work at the NYTimes.com as a multimedia producer. I assume I'll be pretty busy at the new job, but I'll try to keep this blog as active as I can, assuming there's not a NYT anti-blogging policy.

Correction

After blogging that The Conservative Edge removed a post about the Merit System scandal that said conservative thinkers should give up on the "Democrats did it too" defense, Brian from the Edge emailed me and said that it was in their archive.

Their site does not yet have an archive link, but I'll take it on good faith that this is correct.

So what we're looking at is a diversity of opinions at the Conservative Edge, because the "Democrats did it too" defense is still going strong there.

Week after week of this investigation has given me the chance to feel several ways about it. First, it looked bad for Republicans and although I have my Republican sympathies, I wasn't sad to see Keith A. Hall taken down a peg or two. We used to call him Keith U. Haul at Centre. He was a senior when I was a freshman, and my class's student congress president. Prior to orientation, the whole freshman class received a letter from him with a KEITH A. HALL letterhead of montrous proportions. My roommate pledged SAE, Hall's fraternity, so Keith A. came by to visit regularly. It was a drag. So to see him publicly skewered due to his own hubris made me giggle.

But then, well, it just kept going. And for a while, I had my "the Democrats did it too" phase. Because of course they did. Fifty years of one-party rule is going to create some corrupt political pay-offs.

But that phase ended when I realized the Democrats didn't campaign for the moral high ground to "clean up the mess in Frankfort." Not to mention Pence's claim that the Fletcher/Pence administration wouldn't pardon anyone like Patton did. And most importantly, the Democrats didn't get caught.

Now, I just don't care. I'm just watching this game play out like a sporting event. Fletcher's one-two punch of pardons and pleaing the Fifth was a seriously aggressive chess move against the relentless Stumbo attack. Bluegrass Roots has an interesting post on how this gambit may have left Fletcher vulnerable at his flank.

Liberal blog roundup

Looks like the liberal Kentucky blogs aren't nearly as interesting as the conservative blogs this week.

Bluegrass Roots blogs Bush's current public opinion plunge, which is nothing new. But unlike some conservatives who point out that the Democrats have yet to gain traction on Bush's nosedive, BGRoots sees this as a positive thing.

What is truly amazing is that it's happening without any coherent theme from the Democratic Party and with a mostly friendly media with respect to reporting economic news.

I think in this case "mostly friendly media" means friendly to Bush re: economic news, but it's not entirely clear. See for yourself.

Bluegrass Report, meanwhile, continues to be a victim of its own success. Instead of breaking investigative stories that the MSM wouldn't or couldn't dig up on its own, Nikolas has resorted to shallow jokes at the governor's expense, criticism of the Iraqi constitution and a report about Minnesota's talk radio habits. Mark, keep your focus on the Bluegrass.

And that's about it for the liberal blogs worth mentioning. BLUEgrass and Democrat from Ky are both up in arms with what Dr. Dobson says about keeping your kids from being gay. But that argument doesn't interest me much, and BluegrassReport had it weeks ago. WireCan has some scary things about the Third Secret of Fatima, but does it have a Kentucky link? Plug Nickel is kicking Ohio Gov. Taft when he's down, but again, a Kentucky connection?

Conservative blog roundup

This week, there's quite a bit to mention regarding Kentucky conservative blogs.

For starters, Conservative Friends, which is usually a preach-to-the-choir-type blog with strong opinions based on weak facts has two posts that give me confidence that DrewB is, deep down, a good person. While Drew had nothing nice to say about Cindy Sheehan, he became saddened and concerned when Sheehan's mother had a stroke, forcing Sheehan to end her "Camp Casey" protest. The comments left by Drew's readers, however, are less kind.

Conservative Edge, meanwhile, continues to play the "Democrats did it, too" game in regard to the Fletcher administration Merit System Hiring investigation. This by itself isn't so noteworthy, but since the Edge deleted a post by its own staff that was critical of this very practice, the repeated practice of it is saddening.

The Edge from August 12 (or at least, that's when I blogged it):

But for the sake of the Governor, the Republican Party of Kentucky, and conservative thinkers everywhere, can we drop the arguement that democrats have been doing it for years?

The Edge from August 22:

Here is the complete ethics opinion from the Executive Branch Ethics Commission opinion on Governor Patton's Office of Constituent Services. The undelying investigation which lead to the opinion is not disclosed. But from the opinion, troubling questions have arisen. Least of which is: Why wasn't a grand jury convened to look into whether merit hiring laws were broken?

Doug Petch confides his inner hippie by mourning the loss of Dr. Moog; his inner animal rights advocate with a greyhound rescue post (aren't they great dogs?!); and his inner Hillary Clinton by praising the reformed VA hospital system as a model for civilian healthcare reform. I like Doug Petch.

Eric Wright is about to start his last year of law school. Good luck, Eric. And in continuation with the general centrist move of the Kentucky conservative bloggers this week, Eric kinda-sorta pretty much endorses New Mexico governor (and big-time Bill Clinton buddy) Bill Richardson for President.

Something less fishy

Okay,

Instead of killing this post entirely, I'm just killing the text so that the comments from Conservative Edge and Ky Progess can stay.

The story is, I read both their blogs and found cross-posting once or twice or three times... enough times to raise an eyebrow. Why were these two blogs posting identical content?

Turns out that Ky Progress cross-posts to the Edge. That's fine. But for the record, I had no way of knowing this because Ky Progress posts anonymously, so I couldn't track who posted what to where and when.

So, I'm not turning over rocks looking for conspiracies. I'm just paying attention and asking questions.

Conservatives for the "liberal media"

Since Littlegreenfootballs, and Drudge before that, have scored direct hits at the Mainstream Media's blunders, conservatives have made a virtual pasttime of identifying examples of journalism's "liberal bias."

"The New York Times is liberal!" "The Courier-Journal is liberal!" While certainly the editorial pages of these papers lean left, does their news?

Conservatives are quick to forget that the New York Times was the organization responsible for cracking open the Whitewater investigation that led to the impeachment of Bill Clinton. And Kentucky conservatives have the Courier-Journal to thank for ending the political career of Paul Patton.

So just because the paper is hammering a Republican governor now, doesn't mean it lets the Democrats off the hook. Furthermore (and more to my point), many old-school conservatives see the value of a muscular press.

Today, the liberal New York Times ran an Op-Ep by ulta-leftist Bob Dole in defense of Judith Miller and the importance of the Fourth Estate.

From his column:

As someone with a long record of government service, I must admit that I did not always appreciate the inquisitive nature of the press. But I do understand that the purpose of a reporter's privilege is not to somehow elevate journalists above other segments of society. Instead, it is designed to help guarantee that the public continues to be well informed.

His full text here.

Of course, it's good that some conservatives are coming to Miller's aid, because if you've been reading DailyKos, you know that the liberals remember that Miller was the Times reporter responsible for moving all of Chalabi's disinformation regarding the Iraqi WMD programs onto the front page of the NYTimes.

If it is the "liberal media," then why are the liberals so skeptical of it?

Praying for decency

The Anchoress is a beautiful woman and I've never laid eyes on her. A christian blogger that leans right, the Anchoress nevertheless sees the need for decent, reflective conversation intent on gaining understanding between parties and wings -- not just hurling vile invective in blog posts and comments.

From the Anchoress:

I pray that simple civil discourse can somehow enter into the arena of politics, that invective will lose its charms for some, and frenzied, overwrought political theatrics - whether they involve Randall Terry hanging around the Schindler family in Florida or the agenda-movers surrounding Mrs. Sheehan, in Texas - can be shut down like the bad farces they are.

I'm doing my part, Anchoress. You can be left wing, or you can be right wing, but the real meat is in the breast.

Conservative Edge gets one wrong-ish

Okay, so the NARAL ad on John Roberts is bologna, so says Factcheck.org. That much is settled.

The question now is, Is CNN "liberal" for having run the ad? And are they still running it following Factcheck.org's debunking?

Conservative Edge links to a Drudge Report story saying that CNN was paid $125,000 to run the NARAL ad, thus concluding that CNN is "liberal." Neither Drudge nor CE mention that CNN was also running an ad in support of Roberts from Progress for America, a conservative group. Does this make CNN conservative? No. Fair and balanced? I report, you decide.

But my question is: when did the CE post this message, because there is conflicting information on their site. The banner above the post said it was posted this morning, Friday, August 12. But the blogging software has tagged the post as 8/10, or Wednesday. This is important because NARAL pulled the ad on Thursday, after Arlen Specter called the ad "blantantly untrue and unfair."

If CE posted this on Friday, then half its post is incorrect, starting here:

CNN is continuing to run the ad. This particular ad is such a bold face absurd concoction, that I find it hard to believe that CNN was evert actually checking it for accuracy, but rather checking to make sure it would be detrimental enough to Bush's choice. Once they were satisfied that it would cause enough trouble, I am sure the agreement was an easy one for them to make

CNN is no longer running the ad. CNN reports that NARAL pulled the ad. It's a shame that CNN didn't pull the ad themselves.

Of course, just as NARAL, a fringe left group, is opposing Roberts, so is a fringe right group, Public Advocate for the United States because Roberts took 10 hours out of his life to help a gay rights group prepare for a Supreme Court arguement.

I think because Roberts is getting attacked by loons on both sides means Bush actually did what many thought was impossible: he made a good choice for his SCOTUS nominee.

The Edge does not disappoint

I was so sad when I thought the Conservative Edge had disappeared. I figured somehow it had folded due to all the new attention Kentucky bloggers had been getting. Maybe they had been busted blogging on the clock (a time honored tradition)... but no, they just upgraded.

And looking at their new posts, I'm happy to have them again. Two posts on the Merit Investigation worth mentioning. The first, from Leland Conway, who voices a criticism of his own party which I have felt for some time -- and totally nails it on the head:

But for the sake of the Governor, the Republican Party of Kentucky, and conservative thinkers everywhere, can we drop the arguement that democrats have been doing it for years?

Of course they have, but that's not the point. At first the scandal looked bad, like the Gov. had been caught doing what he said he was going to clean up... but now it looks more like Fletcher is getting unfairly beaten down by a political witch-hunt. Conservative Edge contributor Brian Geottl nails this point with his post on Annecdotal evidence:

a fellow attorney told me the other day: I am a life long democrat, and will always be a democrat. I'm not concerned with what happened in Frankfort, everyone knows the democrats did it too. I think that the AG is wasting the taxpayer's dollars and time. My trusted non-political friend has been a pretty good bell weather for me...

If Fletcher can get through this, he has plenty of time to do some good for the Commonwealth, like improving education or bringing in good, non-polluting factory jobs.

The only thing wrong with Brian's entry: it's "bell wether" not "bell weather." A wether is a sheep and the one in the front of the flock wears a bell that the other sheep follow -- hence "bell wether." sorry to be a pendant, but it's my nature.

Conservative Edge's new look

I thought Conservative Edge was gone, but thanks to Kentucky Progress I now know that the Edge has just upgraded to a new URL with a new look.

I'll update my link to the Edge right now.

Scary!

On the Wright blogger Eric Wright posts something that I would have rather ignored. New information regarding the whereabouts of Muhammed Atta and the fact that U.S. intelligence knew about it is scary enough.

But now Wright points out that this new information contradicts the official 9/11 Commission Report even though the 9/11 Commission knew about it... just doesn't sound good at all.

As someone who was in NYC on 9/11, this bothers me in ways that I can't describe. However, John Podhoretz's claim that this gaping hole in the Commission Report was solely to protect democrats' butts seems way off the mark, or at least lopsided. I'm surprised Wright buys it wholesale. After all, the commission chairman was Republican and the Commission absolved both Clinton and Bush administrations from screwing up. And it has become clearer and clearer that BOTH Clinton and Bush dropped the ball.

Brilliant!

All politics aside, there's some brilliant photoshopping happeing over at Planet Sean:

Speculation at the Report

Normally, I'm a BluegrassReport junkie. But lately, Mark has been treading water. No special reports lately. No meat. This morning: idle speculation.

Maybe Mark has just set his own bar too high to consistently hit. Or maybe the heat has him down.

Dan Kelly gets blogged

Another conservative blogger I read is Doug Petch. Several posts down from the top today, he's got a reaction to Ralph Long, a liberal Lexington blogger I read.

This Merit System battle began when Dan Kelly, state senator from Springfield, said this to the Courier-Journal:

"The question is, if the merit system is working as intended then there should be a representative number of Republicans that have been hired in previous administrations," Kelly said after the task force's second meeting.

Then Ralph Long said this:

First, this is the MERIT system. That means people should be hired by ability not by quota. I don’t care what someone’s party affiliation is, I care whether they are competent to do the job and so should Kelly.

Now, Doug Petch says that Kelly's comment...

implies nothing more than, if the process were truly blind to political affiliation, there should be a proportional number of democrats, republicans, and independents in merit positions regardless of which political party is in power. It has nothing to do with quotas - regardless of how Mr. Long chooses to interpret it.

I don't know what the breakdown is of pre-Fletcher Merit System employee political registration. I'd like to. But Petch is right that "representative number" does not mean the same thing as "quota."

And Long, for his part, should hesitate the next time he throws around the word "yuppie" as a derogatory term. As a 50-something consultant, no matter what party he belongs to, he's the poster-child for yuppies. Just look at his picture.

Every time there's a controversy regarding Iraqi war vets (like the Schmidt/Hackett race), I like to check in with Kadnine, an Iraqi war vet blogger from Louisville. I don't always agree with what he says, but he's certainly earned the right to say it.

In this post, it shows why I still come back to read him. Not because I like disagreeing with him, but because I respect his restrait and coolness under fire.

I'm sincerely sorry for your loss, ma'am...

Kadnine was on the record saying he wouldn't vote for Hackett, either. I think I would have. But the way this guy bites his tongue and fights the urge that is so easy for bloggers to succumb to: the all-out, brains-out-the-window rant (see Conservative Friends) -- makes me pay attention to him and listen to what he has to say.

Thanks, Kadnine.

Jesus doesn't care about the poor

I hate to keep picking on DrewB at Conservative Friends, but as long as he makes it this easy, I'll keep pointing it out.

From Conservative Friends:

And as long as they continue talking, we'll continue getting gems like the following from California Democrat Senator Jack Scott:

""I don't think God is either a Democrat or a Republican," said California state Sen. Jack Scott (search), a Democrat. "The moral values that I really care deeply about is justice for the poor and peacemaking and so that's the reason that I wouldn't call the Republican Party the party of religion.""

Huh? Could someone translate this gibberish for me? I honestly don't remember being called the "party of religion" and even if we were, what would it have to do with peacemaking and justice for the poor?

This is what happens when you cross a Christian with a free-marketeer: he forgets that Jesus comforted the afflicted and afficted the comfortable.

DrewB, since you haven't been paying attention at church, this is just a sampling of what one religion has to do with "justice for the poor:"

"Do not deny justice to your poor people in their lawsuits." -- Exodus 23:6

" So the poor have hope, and injustice shuts its mouth." Job 5:16

" You evildoers frustrate the plans of the poor, but the LORD is their refuge." Psalm 14:6

" The wicked draw the sword and bend the bow to bring down the poor and needy, to slay those whose ways are upright." Psalm 37:14

" Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed." Pslam 82:3

" He who mocks the poor shows contempt for their Maker" Proverb 17:5

" If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered." Proverb 21:13

" Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy." Proverb 31:9

" The scoundrel's methods are wicked, he makes up evil schemes to destroy the poor with lies, even when the plea of the needy is just." Isaiah 32:7

"Their evil deeds have no limit; they do not plead the case of the fatherless to win it, they do not defend the rights of the poor." Jeremiah 4:28

"Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy." Ezekiel 16:49

"You oppress the righteous and take bribes and you deprive the poor of justice in the courts." Amos 5:12

" Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." Matthew 19:21

" Looking at his disciples, he said: "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God." Luke 6:20

See no evil at all

Over at Conservative Friends, DrewB thinks he has a solution between the Intelligent Design and Evolution debate: teach neither in school. I'm not kidding.

However, evolution being taught as fact within the school system is a complete and total farce. Before all the scientists out there have an apoplexy, let me explain....

Then, of course, there’s the ever-popular question “If man descended from apes, why are there still apes?” Evolution still just has too many unanswered questions to be taken as hard scientific fact and taught to our children as the definitive way that the world was created.

If cell phones are based on old phones, then why are there still land lines?

I will not use DrewB's bone-headedness to chastise conservatives at large. While the ID folks are clearly dyed-in-the-wool conservatives, so are a lot of people with better critical thinking skills than the ID crowd or DrewB.

Pope John Paul II made it very clear that the Catholic Church believes that evolution does not threaten its tenet that God created the human soul. And evolution folks have yet to claim that the soul evolved from jellyfish.

So to genuinely suggest that you shouldn't teach evolution (even though they haven't found the "missing link(s)" yet) is just crazy-talk. My guess is DrewB didn't do that well in school. Although, I'd be happy to correct that statement if DrewB would like to correct me. I'll even post his transcripts if he wants.

So yes, evolution is "just" a theory, but so is gravity, strictly speaking. To paraphrase Jon Stewart, does DrewB think that it's angels pulling his pants down?

Smoking ban

Over at Ky Progress, there is criticism of Louisville's new smoking ban.

The spread of government smoking bans should concern anyone with even a single civil libertarian bone in his body.

It might be unfair to hang views of conservatives in general around Ky Progress's neck, but where was his civil libertarian bones when the Patriot Act was up for review?

The conservative view: smoking ban: bad; Total Information Awareness: okay if the President says so.

1st Post

I'd like to start this blog by mourning the loss of two strong Kentucky bloggers. If anyone knows what happened to Conservative Edge, the hard-hitting blog on the right or Plug Nickel, a left-leaning independent blog that cracked me up... then post a comment.

I miss them.