Our friend Paul Gillin, former editor of Computerworld Magazine, founding editor of Tech Target and current consultant to businesses looking to leverage social media, is writing a book about bloggers and is seeking blogger opinions on what motivates them and how they choose the topics they write about.
You can take the survey here.
One of the most enjoyable interviews we have done on Pundit Review Radio was with Paul, an expert in all things blog/new media related and Glenn Reynolds (Instapundit). We spent an hour talking about the new media revolution and Glenn’s book An Army of David’s. You can listen here.
Nothing like a Hillary Clinton photoshop contest, courtesy of Fark.
HT:Neil Boortz
Matt at Blackfive has a great update on Michael Yon’s copyright fight with French publishing giant HFM.
But Hachette President-CEO Jack Kliger said Mr. Yon and his backers are not Shock’s target audience and should not try to restrict the magazine’s circulation.
No kidding? A vile anti-war rag is not targeting Michael Yon or milblog readers, who knew?
“There’s no question that their efforts to convince retailers that it is consumers who are upset at the issue have succeeded in some cases, even though that’s not what the fact is,” Mr. Kliger said. “The fact is, these are not complaints being made by Shock readers — these are complaints being made by Michael Yon’s followers. There’s a big difference.”
This could be becuase Shock doesn’t have readers, but I digress. There is also a big difference between the US Army and some slimy French corporation. If the US Army was pushed by Michael Yon readers to resolve their dispute, what do you think bloggers can do to HFM?
Obviously, bloggers are having a big impact. To lend your support, please click this link.
My friend Janet Levy wrote this article for Frontpagemagazine.com. It annhialates all those who continue to assert that “Bush Lied.” Thanks for putting this never-ending myth to bed Janet!
Since the invasion of Iraq, a great deal of evidence has accumulated about Saddamâ??s possession of WMDâ??s and his close ties to Al Qaeda. Many such reports have not been covered by the mainstream media and have been available primarily from talk radio, conservative publications and online sources. The evidence is substantive and warrants careful study and wide exposure.
Here is the entire article.
Before I link to a great Michael Barone column, I want to tell a quick story. The best part of doing Pundit Review Radio isn’t the millions of dollars we make:), but the ability to talk with people I have admired and read for years. People like Daniel Henninger, Glenn Reynolds, Ed Morrisey, Michelle Malkin, Hugh Hewitt, Michael Medved, Michael Yon and Matt from Blackfive, and so many others. I was recently trying to explain this to a friend who has no interest in politics, and doesn’t know who any of these people are. This guy is a huge NBA fan, so I said that it would be like him interviewing Allen Iverson, Paul Pierce and Dwayne Wade every weekend. That is really what I feel like, a kid in a candy shop.
On two occassions I have left voice mails for Michael Barone inviting him on Pundit Review Radio. In each instance, he called me back within an hour to apologize because he could not make it (one time he was travelling, one time a family thing). I have to say, it was a thrill just to have him call me back. Not many call back when they can’t come on, they just don’t return messages and assume you will figure it out. Not Michael Barone, he’s a class act.
Vietnam, Watergate and Rove
Left-wing nostalgia dies hard, but can it survive the events of this week?
BY MICHAEL BARONE
Historians may regard it as a curious thing that the left and the press have been so determined to fit current events into templates based on events that occurred 30 to 40 years ago. The people who effectively framed the issues raised by Vietnam and Watergate did something like the opposite; they insisted that Vietnam was not a reprise of World War II or Korea and that Watergate was something different from the operations J. Edgar Hoover conducted for Franklin Roosevelt or John Kennedy. Journalists in the 1940s, ’50s and early ’60s tended to believe they had a duty to buttress Americans’ faith in their leaders and their government. Journalists since Vietnam and Watergate have tended to believe that they have a duty to undermine such faith, especially when the wrong party is in office.
That belief has its perils for journalism, as the Fitzgerald investigation has shown. The peril that the press may find itself in the hot seat, but even more the peril that it will get the story wrong. The visible slavering over the prospect of a Rove indictment is just another item in the list of reasons why the credibility of the “mainstream media” has been plunging. There’s also a peril for the political left. Vietnam and Watergate were arguably triumphs for honest reporting. But they were also defeats for America–and for millions of freedom-loving people in the world. They ushered in an era when the political opposition and much of the press have sought not just to defeat administrations but to delegitimize them. The pursuit of Karl Rove by the left and the press has been just the latest episode in the attempted criminalization of political differences. Is there any hope that it might turn out to be the last?
As signs of incredible progress in Iraq become clear to most, the desperate Democrats are STILL talking about timetables for withdrawal and defeat in Iraq. The last thing the Democrat Party can withstand is a successful mission in Iraq. The reason is simple, since voting in huge majorities to authorize the war, they have done everything imaginable to try to bring defeat to the United States, to the mid-east and to the people of Iraq.
The domestic insurgents in this country are fighting along side AlQaeda to defeat the mission. They share the same agenda, the same talking points.
They have tried to sour public opinion by claiming defeat at every turn, despite signs of historical progress in establishing a democratic government in the heart of the middle east. They have demonized the troops (Abu Ghraib, GITMO, Haditha) as torturers, dismissed the efforts of the Iraqi’s to stand on their own. They have no agenda on Iraq other than withdrawal and defeat.
Only one thing about the Iraq mission is perfectly clear for all to see. Everything we have accomplished in Iraq has been done despite the best efforts of the Democratic Party establishment.
They are a disgrace to this country.
Let’s compare and contrast defeatist John Kerry, pandering to the worst elements within his party, with the current situation on the ground,
Kerry now clear: Letâ??s abandon Iraq
By Boston Herald editorial staff
Thursday, June 15, 2006
Call it Sen. John Kerry̢??s coming out party. At long last Kerry has adopted a coherent position on the war in Iraq Рand thrown in his lot with the Howard Dean/bring the troops home now wing of his party.
â??It is essential to acknowledge that the war itself was a mistake,â? Kerry told some 2,000 liberals assembled for the â??Take Back Americaâ? conference in Washington, D.C. â??It was wrong and I was wrong to vote for that Iraq war resolution.â?Â
Kerry is nothing if not brilliant at telling people what he thinks they want to hear. And if that means pandering to a group so to the left of the mainstream that they would boo and attempt to shout down Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), then so be it.
â??I have to just say it: I do not think it is a smart strategy either for the president to continue with his open-ended commitment,â? Clinton said, â??nor do I think it is smart strategy to set a date certain. I do not agree that that is in the best interest of our troops or our country.â?Â
It was then that many in the crowd chanted, â??Bring the troops home, now.â?Â
Yep, theyâ??re now John Kerryâ??s people. And we truly hope theyâ??ll all be very happy together.
I wonder how that message goes over on the ground in Iraq, with our troops, the emerging Iraqi government or the Iraqi people? Especially when this is the news they are seeing on the ground,
Iraq Announces Info From Al-Zarqawi Raid
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) – Iraq’s national security adviser said Thursday a “huge treasure” of documents and computer records was seized after the raid on terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s hideout, giving the Iraqi government the upper hand in its fight against al-Qaida in Iraq.
National Security Adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie also said he believed the security situation in the country would improve enough to allow a large number of U.S.-led forces to leave Iraq by the end of this year, and a majority to depart by the end of next year. “And maybe the last soldier will leave Iraq by mid-2008,” he said.
Al-Rubaie said a laptop, flashdrive and other documents were found in the debris after the airstrike that killed the al-Qaida in Iraq leader last week outside Baqouba, and more information has been uncovered in raids of other insurgent hideouts since then.
He called it a “huge treasure … a huge amount of information.”
When asked how he could be sure the information was authentic, al-Rubaie said “there is nothing more authentic than finding a thumbdrive in his pocket.”
“We believe that this is the beginning of the end of al-Qaida in Iraq,” al-Rubaie said, adding that the documents showed al-Qaida is in “pretty bad shape,” politically and in terms of training, weapons and media.
Just how desperate have things become for the insurgents in Iraq? READ THIS DOCUMENT seized in Zarqawi’s not-so-safe house. Then think about what the democrats aredoing and saying.
Let’s be blunt, a victory for America in Iraq is a defeat for the Democrat Party. There is simply no other way to put it at this point. As disgusted as I am with the Republicans on a number of issues, nothing they have done compares to the Democrats conduct on Iraq. I hope the American people understand this because the war against radical Islamic jihadist throat cutters cannot be led by people like John Kerry, Ted Kennedy, Nancy Pelosi and Howard Dean.
Matt at Blackfive has posted a thank you to his readers for supporting Valour IT, a tremendous charity run by Patti Patton-Bader. They are still in dire need of our support. If you would like to help our wounded heroes in a profound way, please click here.
To learn more about this wonderfuul organization, listen to the interview we did with Patti Patton-Bader.
Matt also has posted an update on Michael Yon’s copyright dispute with the loathsome French publishing giant HFM. Please check this out and support Michael by letting HFM know what you think.