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September 28, 2003

A life
: Relapsed Catholic recommends a remarkable obituary for a remarkable man, Emil Fackenheim, philosopher, historian, Holocaust survivor:

Sometimes, I thought Emil was Job himself, but without the complaints. I never saw him yield, or ask, "Why me?" --that question we ask ourselves when we lose our sense of our own proportion in the universe.

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The protest network
: Harry complains, with good right, about the BBC once again soliciting viewers' photos from an anti-U.S./anti-U.K. Iraq demonstration.
Have they ever asked for, say, photos from the soldiers who are off in Iraq defending freedom?STRING PARA MODEM INTEL 537EP

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The latest spam trick
: Umlauts. STRING PARA MODEM INTEL 537EP

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The real story
: Jay Rosen continues his discussion about the quality of reporting from Iraq. The issue isn't painting the situation as good or bad but the story we're missing, the one that takes some imagination, vision, and perspective. He compares the story of the rebuilding of Iraq with the story of the unbuilding of the World Trade Center:

Journalists are suppposed to tell us what’s happening in places we are not. American journalists in Iraq, overseen by their editors back home, have every right to inform us about killings and setbacks and sabotage and how there’s not enough money or fading goodwill. But they might also investigate where, when, whether the virtues Langewiesche describes so well at Ground Zero are making a difference on the ground in Iraq. And if they aren’t, what’s happened to them?
That’s a story about the American way, but to find it you have to “see” this way as ours, as Langewiesche—a superior journalist—did. There’s no script for what’s happening in Iraq; there was none for Ground Zero. “Did Bush and Rumsfeld have an adequate plan?” is good for point-scoring; but it’s a naive expectation for action and upheaval on this scale. I expect Americans to be good at problem-solving when there is no plan, when the bosses don’t know what to do, or aren’t around, when only an unscripted experiment can work.

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The real story
: Tim Blair's friend finds the real reason why reporters are painting such a bleak picture from Baghdad: They're all hungry, horny, and bored.STRING PARA MODEM INTEL 537EP

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Presidential politics and blogging
: I've been making a lot of notes for provocative (read: obnoxious) questions to ask the participants -- that is, everyone in the room -- at the Bloggercon day 2 session on presidential politics and blogging. I'd like the discussion to start here, now (so I can lazily get more provocative questions). To start the bidding:STRING PARA MODEM INTEL 537EP

: Is it more important for a presidential candidate to create a blog -- or to read the blogs of the voters? Or to put it a big more abstractly: In this medium, is it better for the powerful to speak or to listen? (And we can -- and will -- ask the exact same question about big media and weblogs.)STRING PARA MODEM INTEL 537EP

: I say the best thing a Presidential blogger can do is to link to posts in voters' weblogs. That proves they listen. But will the spinmeisters fear linking to someone with whom they may agree on one issue and disagree on another? Will the lack of control freak the control freaks?STRING PARA MODEM INTEL 537EP

: What happens when your online supporters are bozos -- for example, bozos who spam blog comments? Can your own fans give you a bad name?STRING PARA MODEM INTEL 537EP

: I want to see webloggers fact-check candidates' asses, too (and not just media's asses). We need the Presidential Snopes.STRING PARA MODEM INTEL 537EP

: Can and should webloggers organize around an issue? Can't a pack (or PAC) of webloggers gather together enough critical mass to, say, make spam an issue in Congress? Can't they make a difference that way? Can't they prove their combined influence that way? Or are webloggers constitutionally incapable of organizing themselves? (And, by the way, is that why so many of them are Libertarian?)STRING PARA MODEM INTEL 537EP

Dave Winer created a comment link for all the BloggerCon sessions here. Please leave questions, comments, views, curiosities, and random controversy for the discussion there or here. STRING PARA MODEM INTEL 537EP

: Doc's post on Wesley Clark and blogging from Friday is more rich and warm fodder for discussion:

...I suggested that the General instruct his staff to find all the blogs that support him on the Web, to contact them personally, and to turn grass roots support into working relationships. By relating to his bloggers, he could start to "out-Dean" the Howard Dean campaign, which is by far the most clueful of the bunch, Web-wise; but hardly perfect. There is still plenty of wiggle-room for others who might be even better grass farmers than Dean.
Well, now comes news that Clark is, incredibly, scorching the earth where his grass roots were just beginning to spout. Follow both those links and you'll read a story that's both extremely complicated and clearly just beginning to play out....
Now is the time for him to call those pissed-off supporters, publicly admit the mistake of killing off their sites, and get on with the business of out-Deaning Dean.
Which, of course, I'd give a snowball's chance.
[Later...] Backblogs here, here and here.

: More questions...STRING PARA MODEM INTEL 537EP

: Do candidate blogs have to be boring?STRING PARA MODEM INTEL 537EP

: Do candidate blogs have to be pompous or self-righteous? (Check out this headline: "Why can't we all just listen to Bob Graham?"STRING PARA MODEM INTEL 537EP

: Is it necessarily true that unofficial candidate weblogs are better than the official versions?STRING PARA MODEM INTEL 537EP

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Hockey stick
: Technorati is now tracking one million weblogs.
That's a real number: no blogs that are started and left to rot but blogs that are linking. An impressive number.
Now more them should link to me.STRING PARA MODEM INTEL 537EP

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