Wednesday, August 18, 2004

Eric Muller and Michelle Malkin will debate the merits of her book, "In Defense (Well, Not Really) of Internment," next Wednesday 8/25 at 10 AM on Philly public radio. You can listen live on the web or catch up in the archives. 11:26:32 AM    comment []

Brad Krantz discussed a good idea for the Olympics on his show this morning -- only allow sports for which the Olympics are the pinnacle of achievement. Who cares about Olympic baseball and tennis, anyway? 11:17:22 AM    comment []

I added a list of conference participants and blog addresses at the main page. Please check to see if your info is correct. We are at 29 confirmed and 4 possible attendees, which means we definitely need a bigger room. I'll post the new location and directions ASAP. Five elected officials are currently scheduled to come, as are political websters including Matt Gross, Ruby Sinreich, Matt McWilliams, and the man who needs a blog as much as anyone I know, Roch Smith Jr., plus maybe John Hood and the guys from NC Rumors.com, so we definitely have critical mass for a good discussion of blogs and politics. I would love to get more local pols and pros involved. I have emailed the members of the GSO City Council and the Guilford County commissioners twice, and the Guilford school board once. Aside from the acceptances and two regrets (Florence Gatten and Linda Shaw), silence. Anyone have ideas on how to get their attention? 11:10:51 AM    comment []

I'm looking at meeting rooms at the GSO public library and the Weatherspoon Museum as we consider a larger venue for next Saturday's conference. 8:45:39 AM    comment []

Jim Capo went to a meeting of ABC of Guilford County: "These folks are serious and are a legitimate grass roots challenge to be reckoned with by the ruling establishment in our government school system of Guilford County." Even allowing for the fact that Jim tosses around phrases like "government schools" and is able to use meetings of the John Birch Society as a point of reference, it sounds like a credible report of a possibly formidable movement. 8:19:30 AM    comment []

Mark Cuban: "There seems to be some confusion that TeamUSAs lack of dominance at the Olympics is a reflection on the NBA. Its not. Its exclusively a reflection on the NBA’s inability to put together a team that is suited for the Olympics. Dont blame the players. Fire whoever put the team together." The Mavs owner isn't just ignoring the erosion of fundamentals in the NBA, he's pretending that the pampered millionaire culture of the league wasn't a factor in the number of no-shows among top players. And when he asks, "Does anyone believe that the Olympics offer any marketing value to a sport?," I think the answer is clearly "yes" -- the explosion of non-US players in the NBA can to some degree be traced to the Dream Team, which helped export the pro game to a global audience. 8:09:06 AM    comment []