Response from fellow bloggers – this is old news

Kos and Jerome Armstrong respond. via Ed Cone.

I’ll stick by with what I said. I’ll add that the timing of this is real unfortunate because it is distracting folks from something that occured that used your money for an illegal purpose.

I despise folks that attempt to make people look bad for their political gain.

Light personal blogging

My personal posting has decreased as work on Philly Future has increased. I’ve been expecting that to occur sooner or later. Apologies. We’ll see what happens as more help comes on board (help – editors and fellow developers wanted!).

There’s lots of interesting things going on in the world.

Later this weekend I’ll be sure to do some kind of link dump 😉

Making news…

Almost a double post of what I put here earlier… except I document a few people and organizations I’ve been contacting.

Remember – there is never any harm in asking for advice. That is, of course, if you happen to ask advice from someone that means you some kind of ill. And then there’s rejection… which sucks…

But nothing, absolutely nothing – is worst than not trying.

You gotta keep on knocking on doors.

Blogger Activists/Pundits – Paid Off

Zephyr Teachout admits to a Dean campain practice: paying off bloggers “to ensure that they said positive things about Dean”.

There is a tremendous difference between this and the Williams situation: one was paid off with tax payer dollars, the others were paid off to be part of a campaign they clearly believed in, with campaign funds. One was illegal. One was not. One did not make disclosures. The others did.

Jeff Jarvis raises many questions that are worth discussing.

Being paid to do what you love is no wrong thing. In fact – that’s the right idea if you ask me. But can you trust a pundit/journalist who is being paid by some entity to faithfully report about that same entity? That’s tough. Sometimes getting paid helps you become an expert in your field. At other times – it leaves you nothing more than a paid hack.

The question has come up many times before. The way Dan Gillmor has handled this in the past has always impressed me.

Similarly, you rarely hear me mention Comcast, Philly.com, KRD, or any of my previous employers because you can’t trust what I say about them 100%.

More at EdCone.com and rc3.org.

Official: U.S. ends search for WMD in Iraq

The search (has) ended almost two years after President Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq, citing concerns that Saddam Hussein was building weapons of mass destruction and may have hidden weapons stockpiles


CNN: Official: U.S. ends search for WMD in Iraq: 1/12/04

Prediction: Tomorrow Rummy will say that the search continues and this is all part of us handing off responsibility to the Iraq government.

Don’t just read the news, make it

…If you remember the old six degrees phenomena, anyone is 6 hops or less away from you. In the age of email and social software, I bet it’s more like 4 hops or less (Margret was 2 hops away). If there’s a lesson for other webloggers here, it’s this: if there’s something you’ve always wanted to ask one of your idols or you have an idea for an interview you’d like to see, there’s nothing stopping you from tracking the right person down and getting the answers you wanted. I urge you to give it a try someday.

A Whole Lotta Nothing: Don’t just read the news, make it: 12/8/04

Truer words have never been spoken. These past few weeks I have reached out and have gotten terrific advice and feedback on all sorts of different things. Be brave folks. The only thing you have to fear is a little rejection right?

Thanks to Bill for sending this along. I’ve really taken this to heart.

“an important moment in the annals of modern culture”

NYTimes: Exit, Snarling: “Mr. Stewart’s “Daily Show,” which is especially popular with young people, is a reminder that television was supposed to be a “cool” medium, best suited to people whose jugular veins aren’t throbbing. And last month, when the tsunami hit Asia, viewers got a chance to notice what they were in danger of losing to talk TV. CNN, with a comparatively large international army of journalists at its disposal, went out and covered the story. Fox News and MSNBC had to depend more on conversationalists in the studio, all of whom agreed that tidal waves were very, very bad.”

via dangerousmeta which makes a great point about primary sources.

Something to share…

I have spondylolisthesis. I’ve had constant lower back pain for over eight years. On a scale of one to ten, I’m always between a three and five. Regular exercise reduces the pain level down to a two. My doctor has told me there is an operation I can have, that would probably be successful, but told me to only do this if I can’t live with the pain. I can. For now. But I wonder what it will be like when I am older. I’m bad at doing my exercises now as it stands.

Why am I suddenly sharing this? Well I’m declaring my back pain brotherhood with Al. I’m also coming to terms that this is something that will affect my life in a bad way if I don’t handle it. Like smoking. I had to quit. Done. Now I’m going to do something about my back. I think. I hope. Maybe?