My latest adventure began with a long-distance 'phone call from "withheld" I received yesterday while working at the Factory.
This included an absurd death threat.
It was followed by three more calls. I was "asked" to remove some references to sensitive issues I have written about in this log and elsewhere, before matters became complicated.
I'll give no details because I've decided the affair is "off the record" for now as a news story and will keep that promise made today to several people.
But while I follow it up, I'll use this public place for a private message: a response to the callers and their unconventional means of obtaining some of my confidential information:
i) death threats and other strange things given news agency and other journalists are frequent. Some take seriously. Your way of going about it and then changing tack was unusual;
ii) much of this log is no more than fun or goodies for friends, colleagues and people who share my interests;
However, any "hard news" I set down here or elsewhere is checked and sourced just as we do with agency copy. I won't retract stories or ideas because they don't suit you;
iii) journalists protect their sources, especially those at risk. This routine but vital practice means we release information to police or other investigators only in specific circumstances;
iv) in calling me at work, you aroused the interest of my colleagues, but it would be foolish either to use my home telephone number or to involve my family and friends in any way;
v) if what you are up to proves to be some game or hoax -- for now, you have the benefit of the doubt -- you're wasting my time, that of other journalists who are specialists in related fields, and that of people I've now contacted in other professions.
We're currently checking your information.
I hope you're verifying mine and following the leads I've recommended to you, as well as taking judicial advice. It's in your own best interest.
It wasa damned nuisance to have to blog this instead of getting on with more interesting plans for the evening.
zzz
To everybody else, this sordid business, events in Africa and the usual office fun and seriousness have had the merit of taking my mind off that election for yet another day.
I promise my Factory friends that I'll bring in celebratory bottles if your hopes are met and my pessimism proves to be unfounded, but I'd rather remain ignorant until I've no choice.
A well-researched article in 'Les Inrocks' (already gone from the Net) was called 'Où se cache la gauche US?': "Where's the US left hiding?"
Apart from an interesting sidebar on right-wing "dirty tricks" with electoral machinery -- already well documented on the Web -- it concluded that there is indeed a Left across the Pond. Well to the left of Kerry,but still fragmented in very American ways.
Sylvain Bourmeau and Jade Lindgaard wrapped up last week's report by suggesting that a combination of citizens' groups, media initiatives, lobbying by prominent artists, and fund-raising without resorting to multinationals all point to the emergence of, "beyond the Democrats, a real identity on the left. Is it so reassuring that they're all thinking ahead to ... 2008?"
You won't see me tonight in Harry's Bar or anywhere else in Paris where expatriate Americans have been holding ballots and will be glued to TVs.
Some people, so I'm told, come here to get away from all that.
How about PJ Harvey instead?
She has one of the women's voices I've planned to explore in more depth.
When the ITMS in France put PJ's iTunes Originals on line, I was quick to jump.
The music's great, of course.
But when PJ talks about it, track by track, this is real added value.
I'd like to hear many more such initiatives...
9:25:38 PM link 
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