Guest Email: bribes for our enemies

We bloggers tend to look only at the established media and each other. But there are amateurs out there who blog via email to their networks of friends, and I'll report what they say from time to time. First, the ANTI-Obama crowd from the deep south, what the established media calls "The Whisper Campaign." Now the point of this entry, a golden oldie resurging on the email-osphere (thanks Susan):

Our Arab Friends
This actually checks out on snopes.com. As a matter of fact, they did their own study & found the ___ s to be considerablly WORSE . .. . How they vote in the United Nations: Below are the actual voting records of various Arabic/Islamic States which are recorded in both the US State Department and United Nations records:

• Kuwait votes against the United States 67% of the time
• Qatar votes against the United States 67% of the time
• Morocco votes against the United States 70% of the time
• United Arab Emirates votes against the U. S. 70% of the time.
• Jordan votes against the United States 71% of the time.
• Tunisia votes against the United States 71% of the time.
• Saudi Arabia votes against the United States 73% of the time.
• Yemen votes against the United States 74% of the time.
• Algeria votes again st the United States 74% of the time.
• Oman votes against the United States 74% of the time.
• Sudan votes against the United States 75% of the time.
• Pakistan votes against the United St ates 75% of the time.
• Libya votes against the United States 76% of the time.
• Egypt votes against the United States 79% of the time.
• Lebanon votes against the United States 80% of the time.
  
• India votes against the United States 81% of the time.
• Syria votes against the United States 84% of the time.
• Mauritania votes against the United States 87% of the time.

U.S. Foreign Aid to those that hate us: (non oil-rich arab states)

• Egypt, for example, after voting 79% of the time against the United States, still receives $2 billion annually
• Jordan votes 71% against the United States - and receives $192,814,000 annually
• Pakistan votes 75% against the United States - receives $6,721,000 annually
• India votes 81% against the United States - receives $143,699,000 annually

Someone please answer me why we are giving Egypt 6 Billion dollars (sic) , for what? And that's not even mentioning the 100's of millions of dollars for the rest of these countries that hate us. What is this money for? And all of this money leaving our country while our tax payers struggle to put gas in their cars and food on their tables because these ______ continue to raise the price of oil while burning our flag and protesting us on every issue. Lets get someone elected that will _____ on them. Perhaps it is time to get out of the UN and give the tax savings back to the American workers who are having to skimp and sacrifice to pay the taxes (and gasoline) . Please pass this on to every taxpaper....

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Here's the Snopes page that talks about it (emailers love Snopes)

I don't know, but I can think of a few things it might be.

• bribes and fees for military aircraft flyover rights?
• bribes and fees for unpublicized services like intelligence listening posts and spy hostels?
• bribes and fees looking the other way when we attack places like Iraq?
• extra payments for not demanding the shutting off our middle eastern oil flow?

It's helpful to realize that, in the US, bribes are only legal in the form of campaign contributions. They're seen as just part of doing business in most places of the world.

Just chalk it up as us paying the REAL price of gasoline-- partly to the oil companies for profits, refining and oil itself, and partly bribes through taxes to foreign governments. That probably means we're actually paying the real market price, like the Europeans are.

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More shared stuff from EMAIL Friends

These are videos, music, art, inspirational or political essays in POWERPOINT or other formats I've received from friends and offer to share with you. These are on my photo-essay, link, and article website.

We are judged by our first impressions

--whether voting for or against war, or when we stick our necks out with our views before the ink's dry on today's headlines. I can't imagine Darla Jaye's this dumb. Maybe like GOP politicians, she's just required to shill for the right on KM-al-BZerra.


Darla Jaye's Blog
980 Live... for Friday, August 29th, 2008
Wow!!! What a historic day for America?! The election just got better. I bet Hillary is steamed. McCain went above and beyond my expectations in picking a running mate. A person who has fought government oversight, government corruption, and higher taxes. A person who is down-to-earth. A person who has charisma and charm. A person who has great moral values...
Alaska Governor Sarah Palin will be running for Vice-President of the United States.
Her (sic) and her husband, Todd, are life long NRA members, own a fishing company, and are very pro-life.

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I just wanted to get Darla Jaye's first impressions on my own blog-- so they wouldn't disappear anytime soon. (Probably like all the wonderful things people said about Richard Nixon and GWB before they were actually elected.)

As I was catching up on emails and blogs tonight, I saw Sarah on CNN use the exact lines TODAY as she did YESTERDAY about the Hillary's glass ceiling and how it's going to be broken YET this year. Here's a candidate so unused to national press coverage that she doesn't realize she can't use that same line twice in the same week.

Imagine if Reagan repeated, "Tear down that wall", or Jay Leno used the same jokes two nights in a row. I suppose someone from the campaign will start going over her material in advance, once they realize that, if left on her own, she's not ready for prime time.


Darla, do we really want someone "down to Earth", like GWB is down to Earth running the country (you know, like Bush giving an unwanted backrub to German Chancellor Merkle?)

Is being pro-life, or female, qualifications to be thrilled about her appointment? Are you really pro-life, Darla? Is Hillary really "steamed" or would someone as politically astute as Clinton be rolling her eyes? I'm inclined to think this was a stunt of utter desperation. Is this the most qualified pro-life female he could find in the entire party?? What an insult McCain has committed against women--as if any woman will do for the ticket!

I think everyone's mind is still blown... but it's revealing to see how willing politicians are to spin and lie for their party! And we should learn a lot from them. If I was a Republican politician and wanted to keep my own credibility with my constituents, I wouldn't stick my neck out with a lie; I'd say something like, "well it's going to be an interesting two months." And say no more.

I was wrong. Not a Soccer mom. A hockey mom.

What was John thinking? As I watched him when she introduced herself to America in Ohio, even McCain's face made me wonder if he too wondered what was he thinking. When she praised Hillary Clinton, he clapped 3 times and the muscles in his jaw started flexing even as he kept his game face smile. Was this even his idea? Who knows?

All over America, conservative businessmen must be wondering how they allowed themselves to be betrayed like this. And thousands are probably reaching for their nitro pills. Whatever the GOP is, it's definately not the party of big business this year.

I'm just speechless. And conservative Dean of Radio Talk, Rush Limbaugh, was stuttering as he said this was a 'stroke of genius.' Imagine. A heartbeat away from being the leader of the free world. OMG!

The only thing that scares me is that the election is in just two months. And this electorate is the same one that brought us George Bush--even after we knew what we were getting! Really. Is this a movie script?

Soccer mom for vice president?

Posted by rman on 8/29/2008, 9:47 am

Well, all ears will be on Rush today. The next 20 lines of this message explain my views on Sarah Palin.


















Who?

Well, we'll find out now who in radio have the voices of reason and who are just Republican propagandists. Can you hear the roar of buttons on Google today as talk show hosts nationwide enter in the unfamiliar word, "Palin"?

So much for the GOP dissing the Democrats for lack of experience and judgement. Did you notice she has a degree in JOURNALISM? Like me and Scott Parks. When I told my wife about it a few minutes ago, she and I both started laughing at the same time.

DNC - Day 4 - Red Meat Obama Accepts

Said a radio room writer after the Obama speech: Crest of the New Wave. For all the Obama lovers, you've had your night. It's all down hill from here. He really didn't have much to say, and definitely nothing new.

Well. Obama said a great deal new... he outlined specifics. Pretty much for the first time. You must have been watching Fox Cable, weren't you?

Yes you better hope this is the start of a tsunami of change. It was a great night for Democrats, a spectacular night and a speech that might cause traditional republicans to take a pause. Even Pat Buchanan said Obama did very well tonight... the opposite view of what I heard on Faux News! There's a lot of crap flying through the air... I hope Americans will try to figure out who's telling the truth and who's lying again.

I saw a piece of Fox's act and they had all the usual right wing pundits on panning Obama's masterpiece.

Did you see on Drudge how down Fox Cable News was? CNN and NBC tied last night. I think people are starting to get it. If they really want fair and balanced, they need to look elsewhere.

VIEWERS: WEDNESDAY NITE COVERAGE 10 PM ET...
CNN 5,383,000
NBC 5,361,000
ABC 3,483,000
CBS 3,462,000
FOXNEWS 2,699,000
MSNBC 2,270,000

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I caught BZ off and on, during my various errands today. Rush and O'Reilly. Rush is such a hypocrite, accusing Obama of no judgment, no experience, and never a mention of Bush or McCain.

It was funny listening to BZ's Scott Parks from Denver, whose only job after KU was small town radio. He's covered four days of national politics and now this afternoon on his daily stint with Shanin, he was passing himself off as some kind of a Fox cable expert--repeating what all the cable pundits have been saying for weeks and months. Chapter and verse. Stuff like "Obama's going to paint McCain as just four more years of Bush." Well DUH! Who hasn't said that all summer?

Surely KU's j-school taught Parks the difference between fact and opinion, yet he preceded his opinion today with, "The fact of the matter is...." No Scott. Your political opinions, even if stolen from the networks, aren't facts.

All week, the wight wing wadio types have gone on and on with their fear campaign.... Obama, Obama Obama. Just like the right wing emails I get constantly. When Darla was asked tonight, finally, after an hour dissing Obama, if she supported McCain, she broke out into hives. She's like Rush. He doesn't like McCain either. Never talks about him. And some old lady on Darla's BZ show smugly raising the StLouis/KC gaffe again... on the same station that shilled for eight years for the biggest simpleton in recent presidential history-- a president that can't put a sentence together without a TeleprompTer.

And now the radio shillers for Corporate America are trying to hoodwink ordinary people yet again. The question is, if they fail, will the GOP rat#### the Democrats again on election day to steal the outcome?

Chris Matthews on MSNBC mused most people are tired of Karl Rove dirty tricks, but that there are people who really do like the divisiveness and hatefulness. It's helpful to realize that Karl Rove is now on the FoxNews' payroll--pretty much nightly doing Hannity.

Whatever you do as this campaign plays out, listen very carefully and then vote for the side that is in your economic best interest. IMHO, what's in T. Boone Pickens' best interest is not what's in yours! As Obama said tonight, 'It's time for them (the GOP) to OWN their failures.'

Girl Wisdom

A little tidbit I heard last weekend from my 9-year old neice (shown here with daddy back when she was really little)


So here's a guest blog:


"Girls go to college to get more knowledge. Boys go to Jupiter to get more stupider."

Media Matters watchdogs the networks

I'm revising my schedule to make sure I'm in front of the TV when the conventions are on because I'm a complete news junkie. I've watched them since 56 when I was just a little kid. (ewww). I did flip over last night to see how CNN/MSNBC handled the coverage as compared to Fox. Media Matters is in the business of doing that for me, so I can just enjoy the shows.

Here's what Media Matters said about 'fair and balanced' Fox!

And what MM said of our own McCaskill on MSNBC!

I link to this group and I at least glance at it every day because I think watchdogging the MEDIA ITSELF should be part of a good breakfast.

DNC - Day 3 Speech Trifecta

History is Made - first black nominee

Clinton - Kerry - Biden
target tough speeches

Why I like the Star's new "INK" and LINKED to it.

Well the local bloggers seem to be a slightly exclusive group. There are a lot of blogs out there...more than I realized, more than we can see in the ten or fifteen most well known.

I'm just discovering the various bloggers in town and came across "State of the Line" earlier today and linked to it immediately. Well wired, well placed, well written. Their main story this week though, was about Ink. What the hell's Ink? says this out-of-touch guy who watches too much CNN. Well here's what the "State of the Line" wrote about the KC Star's newest, trendiest magazine and online effort:

INK SUCKS: Reason ONE

We hoped they would provide good arts coverage, the occasional trend piece, maybe shed some light on uncovered subjects in KC. Even the social networking basis for the accompanying site piqued our interest. We thought it would provide a new, interactive dimension for KC media.

We were wrong.

Ink quickly revealed itself as little more than a newspaper fluff piece writ large, dealing almost exclusively in soft profiles of mundane twentysomethings and non-articles on local near-trends. Their arts coverage was mainstream and dull; photos always trumped text. More troubling, though, was the blatant emphasis on self-indulgence.

INK SUCKS: Reason TWO

But it’s Ink’s attempt at an edgy, ironic tone that ranks first among offenses. The faux-subversive, kids-taking-over-the-house tone they attempt to construct strikes us as intrinsically false. Ink is the product of a monolithic corporation, and posing as a hip, independent journal rings rather hollow. There is nothing being critiqued or satirized within the pages of Ink; no positions are taken beyond milquetoast endorsements of mainstream cultural flavors.

The innovators have lost their dance!

Hmmm. Everyone is quick to promote themselves in the media world (our exclusive this, the only live and local that, we won this award, I have great sources, yada yada.) So I personally have no problem with something new, something started with some fanfare, and something with more of a blog flavor hitting the press. Lord knows, the traditional papers haven't been doing so hot. The local slick paper mags probably never get picked up off the coffee table because they're so boring. And since Myspace and Facebook are so big, well it's a style that's hot and people are going to copy it.

And all this naughty twenty-something stuff? Well, it's just the group coming up as the age group behind the Sex in the City crowd. Here they cum. (Well, they could stand to have a bit more taste.)

All those reasons State-of-the Line criticized them for are exactly why this old fart LIKES INK and will keep reading it until I find a reason not to. Ya know, no one gets to keep exclusive license on a hot trend that turns mainstream. Blogging's gone mainstream so not to be surprised the media conglomerates get into it along with everyone else!

I remember how we boomers felt when we loved the Twist... and then the adults picked up on it, took it to NY's Peppermint Lounge and then our parents started doing it to stay youthful! (View to the left...adults learning our dance!)

Jeez, we were PISSED! Now Google's turned blogging into something you can do on your desktop! The innovators have lost their dance!

Bloglisted or blacklisted?

Funny...it's a heck of an effort going on over there at the Star, this INK thing. Funny also that as of this writing, I couldn't find any of the established bloggers LINKING to them. Here they are.

INK ON PAPER
INK BLOGS

What does it mean when you "Welcome" a big name?

I noticed this little phrase for the upcoming visit of super-rich oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens :

NewsRadio 980, UMB, and Rainy Day Books WELCOMES T. Boone Pickens to a luncheon...(September 8), get your tickets....

What's this "WELCOMES" stuff? Did the sponsors get the guy, rent the hall, and are trying to make money on him?

Or in fact did HE rent the hall to make money, and get a few media and wel-known locals to "welcome" him--in return for their good names and some free publicity? Does "Welcomes" constitute real ownership of the event, or just a way for the talent and the "welcomers" to rub a little of each others cool on the other? I first heard this in the context of radio stations "Welcoming" big name concert acts to town which means they have exclusive promotional rights and they get to introduce him on stage in front of their banners.

Can't ya just hear it now, "For the second time, Joel Olstean's mega-church Welcomes JESUS!, Judgement Day, 7pm at the Houston Astrodome!! Get your tickets...."

So who reads blogs besides bloggers?

I'm new at this. I'm having fun because it's new.

Back in 97 when I had 3 websites, I got a lot of traffic because there weren't five websites for every air breathing mammal on the planet. You had to know HTML coding in those days but now it's all wizards and drag n drop. It would seem everybody's in it. Thank you very much Google but what have you done?

BTW, this is a vintage California kid in his basement. While I have a face for radio, I swear this kid is not me and never was me-- though I did have an IBM XT and an Oki DMP printer once.

I haven't bothered to put a counter on it... but I can only hope that after people actually SEE this blog they'll stop by because they like it or dislike it enough to see what nasty things I say.

Tony mentioned me but only in a snide sort of way and since he mentions everyone, I'm not feeling overcome by good fortune. Fact is, he seems to post everything he can find. He didn't link to me though even tho every active and inactive site in town is linked on his site. Guess you have to be on longer than a week but it's okay if you don't post for three months. I've gotten more selective and have started deleting my earlier added links that are either boring or haven't been appended since January.

So the real questions are these:

• whats the local audience besides the bloggers themselves and their closest friends?
• do bloggers friends SAY they read just to be polite or do they read with their morning coffee because they cancelled the paper?
• are there enough readers who aren't bloggers and city hall insiders to justify the effort?
• if you write a blog and no one reads it, is it really a blog?
• does the guy get more reach at the corner of I-70 and Broadway (the one with the sign saying "Homeless, Please Help, Godbless") ?
• is blogging a mental illness if you post more than one story a day?

KMBZ brings in T. Boone Pickens

copy from BZ

KMBZ BUSINESS FORUM
WELCOMES T. BOONE PICKENS

NewsRadio 980 KMBZ is proud to welcome T. Boone Pickens to the KMBZ Business Forum Presented by UMB Bank. Don't miss your chance to hear T. Boone Pickens, legendary figure in the business world. Known as the "The Oracle of Oil", he built Mesa Petroleum, the largest independent oil company in the United States. The luncheon will be held, Monday, September 8th, 11:30am-1:30pm at the Marriott-Muehlebach Tower. $42 admission includes autograph book, lunch and parking. To register call 913-744-3659 or purchase tickets online!

So who is this "AWL-Bidness" guy but another kazillionaire telling us what to do?

Pickens: An Environmentalist Sucking at the Govt's Teet
Wikipedia's bio of T. Boone Pickens
Pickens Own Website message
Swift Boat Funder against Kerry
Obama Meets with Pickens to talk about Environment
McCain Meets with Pickens to talk about Environment
USA Today on Pickens Plan to get us off the Oil Teet
Newsweek on Pickens: a case of Rebranding for Profit
Columnist Tim Carney says he's pulling another fast one

DNC - Day 2 The Hillary Speech

Her speech seemed fine to me, the only thing interesting on an otherwise boring night of coverage.

"And you haven't worked so hard over the last 18 months, or endured the last eight years, to suffer through more failed leadership. No way. No how. No McCain. Barack Obama is my candidate. And he must be our president," she declared to thunderous applause.

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Here's something that the Obama campaign sent out tonight to get to advertisers, since McCain's apparently decided he can't win without the dirty tricks squad. Well, here's the real story on that best republican tradition.

Obama's Swift Boat email:

A few months ago, John McCain went on TV and denounced Swift Boat-style character attacks. He even promised the audience he could put a stop to them. What a difference a few months make. The Swift Boaters are back -- spending millions to attack Barack -- and the McCain campaign has welcomed them with open arms. Yesterday, the McCain campaign issued a statement effectively endorsing and echoing the latest baseless attacks sponsored by former Swift Boat funder Harold Simmons. Simmons' next generation Swift Boat group, The American Issues Project, is running a false, negative ad designed to smear Barack with the absurd insinuation that he is connected to terrorism. We can't stop McCain and the Swift Boaters from spreading sleazy lies, but we can pressure the stations running the ads to follow basic standards of public broadcast. Last week, committed supporters like you wrote more than 100,000 emails and made countless phone calls to TV stations in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, and Michigan. This week, we're putting pressure on advertisers supporting these stations to withdraw their ads and take their money elsewhere. Write to national advertisers on these TV stations and tell them not to support this garbage. John McCain could step up and run the clean campaign he promised. Simmons is not only the new Swift Boat group's top funder, he's one of McCain's top funders. The founder of the group even used to work for McCain. McCain has their phone numbers -- all he has to do is call. But instead, McCain has backpedaled on his promise -- making a conscious choice to use the same old politics that George Bush used to get elected. We won't be swift-boated again. TV stations may want the revenue from these ads, but most other corporations know it's bad for business to be associated with this kind of malicious and controversial smear. Both CNN and Fox News have refused to run the ad. Help make sure this trash doesn't pollute another election. Let the other advertisers know they can't be seen to support this kind of politics: http://my.barackobama.com/advertisers Keep fighting the good fight, Obama Action Wire

Nymphomaniac Convention

A man boarded an airplane and took his seat. As he settled in, he glanced up and saw the most beautiful woman boarding the plane. He soon realized she was heading straight towards his seat. As fate would have it, she took the seat right beside his.

Eager to strike up a conversation he blurted out, 'Business trip or pleasure?' She turned, smiled and said, 'Business. I'm going to the Annual Nymphomaniacs of America Convention, in Boston .'

He swallowed hard. Here was the most gorgeous woman, he had ever seen sitting next to him, and she was going to a meeting of nymphomaniacs. Struggling to maintain his composure, he calmly asked, 'What's your business role at this convention?'

'Lecturer,' she responded. 'I use information that I have learned from my personal experiences to debunk some of the popular myths about sexuality.' 'Really?' he said. 'And what kind of myths are there?'

'Well,' she explained, 'one popular myth is that African-American men, are the most well-endowed of all men, when in fact it is the Native American Indian, who is most likely to possess that trait.

Another popular myth is that Frenchmen are the best lovers, when actually it is men of Jewish descent, who are the best.

'I have also discovered that the lover, with absolutely the best stamina is the Southern Redneck.'

Suddenly the woman became a little uncomfortable, and blushed. 'I'm sorry,' she said, 'I shouldn't really be discussing all of this with you. I don't even know your name.'

'Tonto,' the man said, 'Tonto Goldstein, but my friends call me Bubba'.

Rush Stutters When He Lies

Check it out, if you can stand the noon-hour ranter. When he starts making up stuff about the democrats, he can't help but stutter.

I have a well-honed BS detector and with him, I have to turn it off. And when he talks about the liberals, I have to turn off my "Hypocrisy Detector" as well. The guy's got guts talking about Obama's friends and acquaintances in rough Chicago with all the friends the Bush family has in the mideast and good friends like Ken Lay formerly of Enron.

Rush didn't like McCain when he ran against Bush the Younger. None of the big republicans did because they saw Maverick McCain as uncontrollable. I'm not sure who anointed Bush over McCain, but somebody did because all the talkers were in lockstep. Does anybody have any tape of what they said eight years ago when McCain was trying to get some primary traction? I notice they're bringing up everything Hillary said about Obama a few months ago. It's in cases like that when my Hypocrisy Detector sounds.

One more thing. Have you noticed that most of the white wing wadio types are only talking about Obama, not THEIR guy at all? Can you win only by ripping the other guy and not selling your own?

TV9: Dewey Defeats Truman

The Bayh Teeshirts - by a Tuesday morning quarterback.

How did it happen that KMBC ate a lure and not a worm when MM reported smugly that an area TEE SHIRT maker was making Obama-Bayh tee shirts and so there's the exclusive national story? Were they punk'd?

No, it was just a serious case of being overzealous... TV stations live to scoop competitors and being first with the facts. If their public explanations are accurate, they simply confused a contact's refusal to "confirm or deny" with something much bigger than it was.

Evasiveness is just risky business. When sources deliberately mislead reporters, they do so at their own risk... and the reporter's risk as well. Reporters don't generally lie on purpose. They don't try to misreport. The problem is that a "no comment" by a newsmaker isn't the same as an admission. Except sometimes it is.

Beware of the illogical jump to a bad conclusion. And the other fatal mistake is that the answer to ONE question (we're making Bayh tee shirts) isn't necessarily the answer to a DIFFERENT question (Obama chose Bayh.)

This is pretty much Journalism/Fact Finding 101 and KMBC should surely know better. While the reporter eats the first mistake for making the illogical jump, so too did his managers for not questioning and supervising. Someone at 9 should have remembered that tee shirt makers do make Final Four tee shirts in advance--just to get a jump on early sales if their teams DO win. But Bayh didn't win. So in this case, all look foolish the next morning.

Police spokesmen and others need to take note of this risk because misleading reporters is something they tend to do frequently. Don't ever let a reporter leave without a thorough understanding of the facts-- because they are tempted to fill in the blanks you deliberately leave out or mislead them about!

Media grows 2 big for its britches

Sometimes we start taking ourselves too seriously - especially when we need a reality check about what stories are REALLY important, versus which ones that just give us a lot of mileage.

Such might be the case of the mayor and his meddling wife. (You know the one, the only one in the metro that anybody talks about.) It would appear the flack over his spousal sidekick is mostly of interest only to the media.

This comment from the official city FUNK Family blog this week:

It would appear that a lot of people are asking the question of why Funk and I would choose to have me serve as Funk’s personal assistant at City Hall instead having me do the same work for him from home, but the reality is that most of the ordinary people aren’t the ones asking the question, the media are. Regular folks seem to respect that the Mayor is the only one who should get to choose which tools he finds helpful to have in his tool kit, not the newspaper, and not anyone else.

...In faith,
Gloria & Mark

Note to Gloria (can I call you that?) Spiro Agnew learned the press gets the last word. It really does no good to whine about picayune things about you in the press; it's just part of doing business as a politician. There's only ONE of you, and so many of them!

Too bad GWB's closest adviser wasn't Laura instead of Dick and Don! But that's not allowed...remember when the media micromanaged Billy for letting Hilly talk about health care?

And then when he got openly bitter about the media's incessant nitpicking last fall, they turned on him with a vengeance. I wonder if shaking his finger at a reporter cost his spouse the nomination? So Gloria, be cool or the cartoonists will start drawing a witches hat on your head and your husband will be back in the number-crunching business. Then were will you be?

Barack Chooses Biden (Aug 23, 12:09am)

G --

I have some important news that I want to make official.

I've chosen Joe Biden to be my running mate.

Joe and I will appear for the first time as running mates this afternoon in Springfield, Illinois -- the same place this campaign began more than 19 months ago.

I'm excited about hitting the campaign trail with Joe, but the two of us can't do this alone. We need your help to keep building this movement for change.

Please let Joe know that you're glad he's part of our team. Share your personal welcome note and we'll make sure he gets it:

http://my.barackobama.com/welcomejoe

Thanks for your support,

Barack

DNC Day 1 - a media event

It's no wonder the 3 major networks didn't carry much of the first night's show because, like the last few conventions, it was just a made-for-TV commercial. So if you wanted to see it all, you were watching cable news. Other than a few tearful moments of cancer-stricken Edward Kennedy at the podium, the main event was consummate mom, Michelle Obama. Followed then by a warm-and-fuzzy staged family moment with loving mom and daughters, and dad on the big screen speaking remotely from... from Kansas City!

Obama spoke by satellite from the Brookside home of somebody-or-other, giving the local TV stations an angle to cover as well. The entire Obama event was clearly to soften the images of the presumed nominee as a regular American family guy, his devoted and unpolitical wife, and his cute kids who love their daddy. Evidently, all went as planned on day one.

The TV pundits expect the fireworks to be Tuesday night when the stars are named Clinton and they're hoping for divisiveness because it's a better story than a united party. Of course Fox will just make that up, even if it's not there.

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KMBZ's Scott Parks was exactly right when he described it as a media event on his afternoon drive show from the radio center outside the main hall at the Pepsi Center in Denver. He said he and BZ reporter Eric Bushman hoped to score floor passes to get into the main hall where all the TV action was broadcast on cable.

Teamed with Shanin back at the studio, Parks landed a listenable drive time interview with local democratic senator Claire McCaskill, who also was to speak Monday. While this blogger expected Parks' trip to be of promotional value only, he and Bushman turned some journalism. Of course the station could have done without the local voices in Denver and relied on the network.

But other than those few minutes of local angle and behind-the-scenes remarks on Newsradio 980, the real benefit is the experience those two local reporters are getting at the conventions. Experience brings perspective useful for a career. Hopefully they'll stick around in Kansas City so BZ and its listeners will benefit from it.

By late evening, BZ's home page had a pix of the BZ BoyZ.
Lucky KMBC Cameraman! Check his daily blog! And Mahoney's.

Are you Right or Left Brained?

So many links, so little time! Here's a link I've added to the right side of the site taking you to Perth Games. Don't forget to wander back in sometime!

Click below to find out if you're left brained (an anal retentive) or right brained (a creative.)

Click here. (We now take you on an 8 thousand mile Internet trip to Australia!) There are several fun games there, so if you don't come back for awhile, take a sack lunch.

Northland gets hit again

Laid off KCI mechanics to exit American Airlines at the overhaul base.


We've just never managed to make KCI a stable place. Even arch-enemy St Louis cleaned our clocks by stealing TWA. Then the Braniff debacle. And now this!



Barack Obama Sked for KC Tuesday Night
Obama Travels to Convention through Kansas City
Plagerized from Fox4

The question everyone wants to ask Obama: If he becomes president, will he nationalize the airlines and issue an executive order to force AA to keep KCI's mechanic jobs? What, the president can't do that? Well then. What good is he besides keeping us all from being nuked?

Odd (looking) man out - KC's mayor

A list of the familiar, after a few minutes of thought:

Farrah Fawcett, Jimmy Hoffa, Howard Hughes, Rodney King, Kay Barnes, Katie Horner, Claire McCaskill, Michael Jackson, Mike White, Marilyn Maye, Miley Cyrus, Aaron Carter, Billy Carter, Clay Chastain, Coal Gasification, Kathryn Shields, Al Riederer, Fred Phelps, Fred Thompson, Phil Kline, Rebuilding New Orleans, Olsen Twins, Offshore Drilling, OJ Simpson, Jessica Simpson, Jessica Lynch, Jessica Simpson's Baby, John Edwards' Baby, Thomas Jefferson's Baby, Baby Doe, Bob Berdella, Bob Stephan, David Duke, Duke's LaCrosse, Lady Di, Tom Pendergast, The P&L District, The Surge, The Deseg Case,The Fair Tax, The Grandview Triangle, The Boats, Union Station, Stan Glazer, Paul Morrison, Nick Civilla, Natalie Holloway, a New Stadium, Monica Lewinsky, Light Rail, Wolf Creek, Charlie Wheeler, Bill Waris, Yolanda Heuett-Vaughn.

What do the people and topics on that list have in common with Mayor Funkhouser? No, they're not all ex cons. The answer is (to quote Sam Kinnesson):

"They all got too much Freakin COVERAGE!!!!!

(By the way, this resized, re-aspected picture is what the Funk would have looked like if someone hadn't squished his head when he was a baby.)

Who cares about him or his wife who desperately needs a hobby--like maybe Special Olympics, or remedial reading, or getting rid of ugly billboards? It's inside baseball, Tony! Give it a rest.

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Speaking of coverage, just one other thing. Of all the reporters and talk show hosts who plan to do the Anderson Cooper thing, and that's report live from Denver, how many of them will gather their news OUTSIDE the hall because they can't get in?

Most of their trips should be logged to the PROMOTION, not the NEWS budgets!

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The Whisper Campaign. While the action goes on in Denver, there's still the real Anti-Obama campaign being waged via email. Take a look.

Hand signals at the Olympics

Noticed Hey Cameraman (a not so subtle conservative going to shoot the Demver Convention for his TV station) had a teeney weenie picture that I saw during the Olympics. Luckily I followed his links and found a much better picture to remind myself of the volley girls in Beijing.

It occurred to me how much nicer HER hand signals are, compared to some pro baseball catcher's. What does that mean? Curve-ball?

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As to Hey Cameraman... I hope he fair-balances his camera while at the convention... so we get pretty pictures and not nose hairs!

If stereotyping is so bad, why do we do it?

I'll not go into it when someone else has done it so well, but I agree with this, even though it can be both politically incorrect and unfair to categorize individuals based on the groups to which they belong.

In Defense of Stereotyping

TV News: What Local Stations Don't Want You to Know

Comment page....

TV News: What local stations don't want you to know!

Local television news has become less important to Americans--in part because we're catching on to their scam. We're not wasting our time and so viewership is declining. More and more of us are realizing how little journalism local news gives us.

This is a place where you may comment on the RadiomanKC website essay on television news. If you do so, and are in the media, please also indicate your job position and city when you press on COMMENTS below.

KMBZ's Darla Jaye: Why don't YOU listen?

Darla, I caught a piece of your act on my way to last night's birthday party at Chuck E Cheeze. The entertainment there was better than on your show!!

You're doing that same self-righteous, pseudo-indignant, pro-cop crap you do all the time. Talking about the KCK guy who's been getting rocks thrown at him for pulling a wounded police officer out of a crashed police car. You quoted him saying his homeys called him a snitch, and working for the police. Of course he obviously showed valor for pulling her out and it's too bad he caught crap for it. Now that was worth about ten minutes of your 3 hour program on KMBZ.

You had an obvious question but it was just rhetorical from you, as usual. The question was this: WHY would people turn against a neighbor for coming to the aid of a cop?

It was a worthy discussion. Sadly, you really didn't want to know why. The little white girl talk-show ranter had already made up her mind, even after a caller tried to tell you KCKPD officers are heavy-handed on the residents of the neighborhood. You wouldn't listen, you argued with him, because your hometown Johnson County cops don't hassle rich residents of THEIR communities.

I don't get hassled either-- because of my age, color, and the car I drive. They're very polite. But kids do get hassled and talked down to all over town. And people driving 1980's cars seem to be always pulled over. It's either DWB or DWP ("Driving While Black" or 'Driving While Poor.')

Why don't you understand that in some parts of KCK, the police are looked upon pretty much as the Iraqi Army is looked upon in Baghdad!

Why can't you get that? KCK isn't Pleasantville, for chrissakes! You don't have to be a convict or dope dealer to hate cops if they frequently stop you and everybody you know! You are very naive for a girl who spent some time in Alabama--or were you part of what's left of the Solid South?

Now I've worked in cities where police were like that. It takes a strong police chief and an aggressive media with some cops behaving badly on tape to cure bully police. The chief has to weed them out and fire them. It's hard to do that because of the 'us against them' mentality all urban police departments seem to adopt. And cops don't snitch on each other. That's a firm rule among paramilitary police.

You pretty much have to see them yourself to believe it. I did too. I hung out with the NAACP in one city so long ago for awhile until the local gestapo came in talking trash to the poor people and I got em on tape and put it on the air. But no one ever believed black leaders until the TV stations recorded a police riot against white kids that looked a lot like Kent State but without the gun play.

Do YOU want to see if it's true or they're making it up, Darla? Be brave. Befriend some people in the 'hood where people say the cops are bullies...and when they come around, watch the dynamics. See if they act differently than the suburban cops do. See if they act confrontational or negotiate to keep heads calm.

There are cops who think no one should be out after 11pm and anyone who is, is automatically suspicious. But black people, many of whom don't have air conditioning and who are very social with their neighbors, do stay outside well past that time -- the time when the Leawood crowd retires into their split level homes on their quarter acre lots. Lots of poor people stand outside and drink and get loud, and laugh, and carry on with each other. That's their culture. And it's not illegal.

Ya know, the George Bush way of peacekeeping is a show of force--aircraft carriers and shock and awe. And look what that gets us besides a trillion dollars in debt and a resurgence of the cold war? Like cops, he doesn't pick on rich, nuclear countries. Just little tin horn countries like Iraq which are no match.

So wake up, Darla. Listen to your callers and be flexible. Be curious. You should have changed the topic to what it logically should have turned to ...after it was clear the neighborhood pretty much accused him of giving aid and comfort to the enemy. So far, you've been too bullheaded to understand when your topics should change from yours to your callers'. Or are callers just show props while you do your rants? Until you learn to listen to people, you'll never grow. Even when your callers are trying to teach you.

Hello World

I'm quick to notice things but slow to adopt them. I had to be the last programmer in the world to move from DOS to Windows. I hated VW Bugs but eventually I bought a used one. That kind of thing. I've been doing websites for years. But apparently blogs are the kewl thing just now. So here it is. Mostly I like my latest website, Radioman's Kansas City. So this effort and that one will go hand in hand.

I'm a news junkie. I was in news for 25 years. And nowadays, I get to say my opinions. Here's my website where I have a lot more to say and show:

http://sites.google.com/site/radiomankc/