Tuesday, March 09, 2004

Last month, I wondered if the early adoption of weblogs by the Democratic establishment matters. Kos says it does: "The Bush Administration is now in a quandry, never before faced by a political campaign. EVERY WORD IT UTTERS can be instantly fact checked and vetted against previous administration proclamations. And the press, lazy as it is, doesn't even have to do the research. They simply have to read the blogs (and they certainly do). The party can pick the best bits of the day and mold them into spin and talking points. Their overstretched, overworked research departments now have reinforcements of major caliber." Obviously there is no shortage of conservative blogs. What's missing is the interface with the GOP machinery. Kos again: "Hardly a day goes by when I don't see a blog-inspired email blasted out by some party functionary, be it the DSCC, DCCC, DNC or affiliated organizations. Those institutions -- the very core of the "Democratic Party Establishment" -- are linking to blogs at increased rates. And the results speak for themselves." Let me say it again: the technology is non-partisan. And it's easy to set up. I would expect real GOP blogs to be in place before summer. 5:44:51 PM    comment []

Today the GOP, tomorrow....? NYT: "Of the nearly 100 interns working in the White House this semester, 7 are from...four-year-old Patrick Henry College...An eighth intern works for the president's re-election campaign. A former Patrick Henry intern now works on the paid staff of the president's top political adviser, Karl Rove. Over the last four years, 22 conservative members of Congress have employed one or more Patrick Henry interns in their offices or on their campaigns." PHC president Mike Farris: "I believe we are raising a generation of young people who will stand out as a godly remnant in tomorrow's society, ready to reclaim the biblical principles upon which our land was founded. There is a leadership vacuum in America, but with the opening of Patrick Henry College, we are beginning to train many who will fill that vacuum at the highest levels. Many people have invested significantly and sacrificially in Patrick Henry College with no other purpose than a passion to rebuild America for Christ and for liberty." 3:39:59 PM    comment []

"If you want to smoke dope and your neighbor wants to smoke cigarettes and the guy across the street wants to give a gun to his boyfriend as an engagement present before their lavish church wedding,  nobody can be telling the others what they can and can’t do.... This isn’t about abdicating moral authority, it’s about privatizing it. At our house we home school the kids, we just outsource the academics." -- from my Independence Day 2003 column. 12:36:54 PM    comment []

Comstockery. 12:29:39 PM    comment []

FCC Commissioner Michael Copps (a Democrat appointed by Bush) on radio content, in a 2002 interview with Morality in Media: "I'll bet if we had a particularly flagrant example, and actually revoked a license or two along the way, that would send a message such as has never been heard to the broadcasting community, that the FCC was serious and that maybe this was going to involve something more than the usual cost of doing business, and perhaps it would even be sufficient to militate in favor of a little different kind of programming." 12:28:42 PM    comment []

The Woman's Christian Temperance Union -- the ladies who helped bring about Prohibition -- is not only still around, it's got a website. 12:12:29 PM    comment []

Hating the Burlington Industries headquarters on Friendly Ave. has been a popular sport in Greensboro since the building went up in 1971. I think it's actually kind of cool, but only from the outside -- it's pretty hellish inside (and not just because of Burlington's notorious corporate culture). Anyway, down it comes. Starmount Co. president Coolidge Porterfield tells the N&R that nobody wants it as a coporate HQ, it's unsuitable for anything else, and it would need millions of dollars of asbestos removal, anyway. Signs of aging: you outlive buildings you remember being built. 8:58:39 AM    comment []

Matt Gross: "Attacking your opponent's weaknesses is the easy part. Attacking where he's strong is the key to victory." 8:15:55 AM    comment []

David Brooks says that Mitch Albom's fuzzy feelgood spirituality is a bigger threat to America than Mel Gibson's militant orthodoxy. "Our general problem is not that we're too dogmatic. Our more common problems come from the other end of the continuum." Brooks offers no evidence that his brand of old-time religion is superior -- he takes that on faith -- and spends no time contemplating the reasons people have fought to escape orthodoxy. It could be a Cal Thomas column, except it's served up on what should be the most prestigious opinion page in the land, which makes it worse. UPDATE: Jeff Jarvis whacks Brooks: "Have you read the news the last two and a half years, Mr. Brooks? I'd say that religous dogmatism -- fundamentalism and fanaticism -- is a well-proven danger! It is causing wars and hate crimes and terrorism and, some would say...peril to the Constitution." 8:08:54 AM    comment []

Freeman Dyson: "Littlewood's Law of Miracles states that in the course of any normal person's life, miracles happen at a rate of roughly one per month." 7:52:11 AM    comment []