April 30, 2004

Great Minds Think Alike

"Baghdad doesn't need another 'brilliant' diplomat. It needs a Wyatt Earp." - Ralph Peters, author of Beyond Baghdad: Postmodern War and Peace, in a column in the April 29 New York Post

"Where is Iraq's Wyatt Earp?" - Bill Hobbs, author of the HobbsOnline blog, posted April 21.

Bloggers: There. First.

[Thanks to Donald Sensing for noticing.]

Riding Google

Gordon Smith's excellent Venturepreneur blog isn't just Google IPO central these days - Smith has added a new section on cycling. Smith is an avid cyclist and a law professor at the University of Wisconsin.

He Should Be Blogging It

Australian journalist John Shovelan is bicycling across America and filing weekly reports for an Austrialian radio program. You can read more about it over at Open Road.

Small Biz Needs Bigger Focus

Anita Campbell over at Small Business Trends says, "America's universities need to focus on entrepreneurs... because half of the population works for small businesses, yet education focuses on large businesses." She's absolutely right.

"Experience in Blogging is A Plus"

InfoWorld.com is looking for a full-time reporter. Check out the last line of the job description:

InfoWorld is seeking an ambitious full-time reporter for the IT industry's leading newsweekly and Web site. The reporter will work the beat by cultivating sources in the IT industry and user community. The candidate should be able to break news stories for InfoWorld.com, as well as working on enterprising news and feature articles. We are looking for someone with 2-5 years experience in covering information technology, and a background writing about storage and networking is a plus.

Prospective candidates can expect to write at least one online news story daily, and experience in blogging is a plus.

The Next Tech Boom 2

The all-important technology sector of the U.S. economy is once again generating job growth, reports yesterday's Wall Street Journal. Here's the link. You'll need a subscription to WSJ.com to read the whole thing.

More Evidence...

Criminal probes into the administration of the previous governor of Tennessee (Don Sundquist) continue to mount. NewsChannel 5 reports that a grand jury is now seeking records from the Sundquist-era Department of Economic and Community Development. At the heart of the probe is a concern that the Sundquist administration steered lucrative state contracts toward businesses owned by friends of the governor. The evidence has been mounting for some time. Stay tuned...

Internet Tax Ban Passes

The U.S. Senate voted 93-3 to pass a four-year ban on Internet access taxes, but the law is filled with exceptions and conditions. For example, states that already tax broadband access will be allowed to continue to do so for two years. The House has already passed a permanent ban, and the two positions must be reconciled. Stay tuned...

April 29, 2004

Bicycle Bloggers

Open Road, a new blog about bicycling, is about to launch as a sub-domain here at BillHobbs.com. I am seeking bloggers and blog-readers who also are avid road cyclists to join as regular contributors to the blog of commentary about cycling, races, issues facing cycling, equipment, images from the road, etc. It will become what it's bloggers make of it. And if it grows large, I'll move it to it's own URL. Leave a comment under the first and so far only post at Open Road if you wish to participate.

Patty Cake?

Donald Sensing analyzes Fallujah and says the end game is near. Better stuff than you get from the retired military talking-heads on CNN, etc.

Bush Boom: Best Economy in 20 Years

The economy hasn't seen a year of growth this good since 1984. The U.S. economy grew at a 4.2 percent seasonally adjusted annual rate in the first quarter, according to a Commerce Department estimate released today. That's the third straight quarter of growth above 4 percent, the first time in 10 years the economy grew faster than 4 percent for three straight quarters. GDPP grew 4.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2003 and by 8.2 percent in the third quarter of 2003.

Over the past year, GDP is up 4.9 percent - the biggest yearly gain in 20 years.

According to the Commerce Department news release, the biggest contributors to the increase in GDP in the first quarter were personal consumption expenditures, equipment and software, government spending, exports, and private inventory investment. The first two - consumer spending remaining strong abd businesses investing more in equipment and software - are very important indicators of a strengthening economy.

Watch for the media and the Kerry campaign to spin the 4.2 percent GDP growth as bad news by pointing out that some economists had predicted GDP would grow 5 percent in the first quarter. Ignore the spin becuase the American economy is on a roll - and when the Commerce Department releases its final GDP figure for the third quarter in about a month (today's figures are merely the initial estimates) you likely will see the 4.2 percent figure revised higher.

By the way, the last time the economy was this good, an incumbent Republican president who was strong on national defense issues defeated a weak-on-defense tax-raising liberal Democrat from Massachusetts Minnesota.

UPDATE #1: Jobless claims dropped sharply last week, an indicator of strong jobs growth.

UPDATE #2: Word has it that John Kerry was momentarily happy about the strong economic growth before he became sad about it.

That's The Spirit

Dean Esmay is pushing a final push to help Spirit of America raise $50,000 for a very good cause. The cause: helping the U.S. Marines in part of Iraq equip local Iraqi-run television stations to broadcast news that is more balanced - that is to say, less pro-terrorist - than the anti-American propaganda served up to Iraqis on al-Jazeera (whose slogan ought to be "We Distort, You Suicide Bomb).

I'll do better than link to it, Dean. I'll be making a donation later today.

April 28, 2004

Doggies!

My son Bennett, almost 20 months old (!), is just starting to use words. Bye-Bye is his current favorite - and he drags it out in a sing-songy drawl. Another favorite word is "Doggies!", though it more often comes out as "Doddies!" And it comes out a lot. I bought him a book about Clifford the Big Red Dog. There are dogs on every page. "Doddies!" ... "Doddies!" ... "Doddies!" ... "Doddies!" ... "Doddies!" ... "Doddies!" ...

He sees a dog once and its "Doddies!" for an hour. Even if it wasn't a dog. Last night he spotted a rabbit in the back yard.

"Doddies!"

"It's a bunny, Bennett."

"Doddies!"

And so on, long after the doggie bunny ran hopped away.

You think maybe I'm supposed to buy him a dod?

Meeting Chance

It's about Honor, Duty, Country, Valor, Respect ... and, above all, the homecoming of an American hero. Please do go read the whole thing.

The Crusades

This may be the best commentary any American newspaper has yet published about the war against Islamist terror. I found it via Donald Sensing.

Excerpt:

Madeline Albright, the former secretary of state and feckless appeaser who helped get us into this mess, said last week Muslims still resented the Crusades. Well, Madame Albright, if Westerners were not such a forgiving people, we might resent them too.

Let's recap the Crusades. Muslims invaded Europe and when they reached sufficient numbers they imposed their intolerant religion upon Westerners by force. Christian monarchs drove them back and took the battle to their homeland. The fight lasted a couple of centuries, and we bottled them up for 1,000 years.

Now, a millennium later, Muslims have expanded forth again. Ask France. Ask England. Ask Manhattan. Two-and-a-half years ago fanatical Muslims laid siege to us. We woke up to the obvious. Our president announced it would be a very long war, then took the battle to the Islamic homeland. Sound familiar?

Let's consider the concept of a "long war." Last time it was 200 years, give or take.

Anybody catch Lord of the Rings? You know, the good part, the part that wasn’t fiction, the part that drew us to the books and movies because it was the truest part: the titanic struggle between good and evil, between freedom and enslavement, between the individual and the state, between the celebration of life and the worshipping of death.

That's the fight we are in, and it never ends. It just has peaks and valleys.

There may be a silent majority of peaceful Muslims – some live here – but that did not save 3,000 people in the World Trade Centers, the millions gassed and butchered in the Middle East, the tens of thousands slain in Eastern Europe and Asia, the hundreds blown to bits in the West Bank and Spain, or the four Americans shot, burned and hung like sausage over the Euphrates as a fanatical minority of Muslims did the joyful dance of death.

Maybe we are so tolerant, we are so bent on "diversity," we are so nonjudgmental, we are so wrapped up in our six-packs and ballgames that our brains have drained to our bulbous behinds. Maybe we're so addled on Ritalin we wouldn't know which end of a gun to hold. Maybe we need a new drug advertised on TV every three minutes, one that would help us grow a backbone.

It doesn't take a Darwin to figure out that in this world the smartest, the fastest, the strongest, and the most committed always win. No exceptions.

Look at your spouse and children. Look at yourself in the mirror. Then look at the pictures from the paper last Thursday. You better look at them. Those are the people out to kill you.

Half a century ago, a popular American slogan was "Better Dead than Red."

Today, you'd probably get called out and accused of intolerance and hate speech by the diversity police if you slapped a bumper sticker on your car that said: "Better Dead than Muslim." But if we don't fight the war now - in the enemy's homeland - we may one day find ourselves facing that choice.

Adding It Up

Help me understand this: Instapundit charges $1,000 per month to run an ad on his blog and he's currently got what looks to be four paid ads (The Spirit of America ad is likely a freebie for a very good cause.) Yet yesterday for some reason several folks dropped cash in his tip jars. The rich get richer. If I was a Democrat, I'd be proposing a National Blog Tip Jar Fairness Act and asking John Kerry to come out for and against it... Hah!

By the way, you can advertise on HobbsOnline for less than $40 a month. If you're inclined to drop some cash in the tip jar, I'd prefer you clicked the ad for Tennessee state senate candidate Billy Stokes or Tennessee congressional candidate Janice Bowling and donated to one of those campaigns instead - and email me the donation receipt as a way of thanking me for what I do here.

Sen. Alexander Battles For Higher Taxes

Sen. Lamar Alexander is continuing his battle for higher taxes with his ongoing opposition to the Internet Tax Non-Discrimination Act. That legislation now pending in Congress would permanently ban states from taxing all forms of Internet access. Full disclosure: I voted for Sen. Alexander and he is a friend of my wife's parents. That said, he's just flat wrong on this issue - wrong on the policy, wrong on the politics.

Upon reading a poorly-written story in today's Tennessean (by Gannett News Service writer Larry Bivins) I wasn't sure if I should blog about the bad policy Alexander is pushing, or the bad journalism - so I've decided to do both.

The proposed legislation would make permanent a ban on Internet access taxes that Congress enacted several years ago, but which lapsed late last year. Tennessee and seven other states were allowed to keep their Internet access taxes, which were in place before the first ban. (Please note, this issue has nothing to do with the separate issue of applying sales taxes to online purchases.)

Alexander's opposition to the federal ban on states taxing Internet access boils down to a few points. 1. It will cost Tennessee $360 million a year in revenue. 2. It is a states' rights issue - Congress has no business interfering in Tennessee's tax policies.

But neither of those two points stands up to scrutiny.

The claim that the legislation will cause Tennessee to lose $360 million in revenue is false. As I wrote back on Oct. 29, 2003:

Oddly, The Tennessean portrays the bill as "charity to the telecommunications industry," even though it would cut taxes that consumers - not the telecommunications industry - currently pay. And, despite what The Tennessean editorial claims, the ban won't cost Tennessee $360 million, or even $36 million. It will reduce state revenues by a mere $18 million - a flea on the woolly mammoth that is the state's $22 billion budget. Fact is, Gov. Phil Bredesen has assured the state's congressional delegation that Tennessee state government can live without that $18 million a year the state collects in sales taxes on Internet access

The $360 million figure is simply a lie, a scare-tactic number cooked up by a coalition of state and local governments that want the right to tax Internet access and email. They cooked up the number based on the (false) claim that the Internet Tax Non-Discrimination Act will end taxes on all sorts of telecommunications services, not just on Internet access.

So the upshot is that the proposed permanent ban on Internet access taxes that Alexander opposes won't cost Tennessee $360 million - the tax it would have ended was only bringing in $18 million a year. In fact, the proposed ban won't cost Tennessee a dime because Tennessee's Supreme Court already ended the tax.

A little journalism criticism before I tackle the rest of Alexander's shoddy argument: The Gannett reporter who wrote the story did a lousy job. He provided no source for the $360 million figure, and no explanation of it. The fact is, the $360 million figure was cooked up by opponents of banning Internet access taxes by claiming - without factual basis - that the proposed ban would actually exempt all forms of telecommunications taxes, not just taxes on Internet access. The reporter's lousy job was compounded by The Tennessean, which chose to publish the story without asking for source and clarification of the $360 million figure, without explaining that the tax at issue only brought in $18 million a year to Tennessee, under a sub headline - $360 million would be kept from state under plan- that declares the dubious $360 million figure as fact.

The lead of Bivins' story goes on to say that the $360 million in lost revenue would come "at a time when the state is struggling to balance its budget." Apparently Bivins is unaware that Tennessee state government is currently amassing a large revenue surplus and is likely to end this fiscal year with more than $200 million in extra cash - even after rebating some illegally collected Internet access taxes, and losing the $18 million in revenue because of the state Supreme Court's ruling.

Tennessee is not struggling to balance its budget. In fact, the biggest fiscal problem facing the current governor is restraining lawmakers from spending too much money now that the state has a revenue surplus and a strong revenue-growth forecast for the coming fiscal year.

Bivins, based in Washington DC, might not know these facts. But certainly editors at The Tennessean should - and they should have edited Bivins' story to reflect the truth.

Now, back to Alexander's second reason to oppose the federal ban on Internet access taxes - the states' rights claim. Alexander says he's fighting the legislation because it amounts to an unfunded Congressional mandate, and by meddling in states' tax policies it violates states' rights.

Alexander is flat wrong. The Commerce Clause of the federal Constitution reserves to Congress the right to pass taxes and regulations affecting interstate and international commerce - and specifically forbids states from doing so.

There is perhaps nothing more "interstate" and "international" than the Internet, a global network that carries email, data and transactions across state and national borders in the blink of an eye. Congress not only has the right to ban states from applying taxes to this global network - I believe it has a duty to do so under the Commerce Clause.

I addressed this issue more fully here and here.

If you wish to contact Sen. Alexander and urge him to drop his opposition to the Internet Tax Non-Discrimination Act, you can start here.

Here's a good Forbes story on the issue from a national perspective.

And here's a study that shows that taxing Internet access would harm the economy, harm the telecommunications industry, slow the spread of broadband Internet access and reduce job growth.

President Bush has affirmed his opposition to taxes on Internet access, noting it could slow the economically-important spread of broadband (high-speed) Internet access and the next-generation services it will enable.

Anticipation

I may be blogging a bit less in the future - yesterday I ordered and paid for a new road bike, a Trek 2100, which I purchased from Allanti!, a fine bicyle shop in Brentwood, Tenn.

I haven't had a bike for the last four years and, with each passing day, I've missed riding more and more. If you're an avid cyclist, you understand. I'm looking forward to getting back out there on the country roads of Middle Tennessee. I turn 40 a little more than a month from now, and have adopted a crazy notion that, before I turn 45, I'll cycle across the country. Who knows, maybe I'll photo-blog the trip.

If you're a Tennessee cyclist and you haven't yet registered for the prospective "Share the Road" license plate, please do so. The plate will not be produced unless at least 1,000 are pre-sold. You can learn more about it at the website of the Allanti! bicyle shop, or click here.

And finally, my plan for a cycling-related blog that would be written by several bloggers who also are into cycling (road, mountain, racing, whatever) are still alive. I just need to find time to design the blog.

April 27, 2004

What is Justice?

Blake Wylie examines the question What is justice?, and explores whether churches are doing enough to help the poor. Read the whole thing.

Al Qaeda Planned Jordan WMD Attack in Iraq

Jordan has foiled a planned attack by al Qaeda that was to involve chemical weapons and could have killed tens of thousands of Jordanians. A few key points and questions. 1. Al Qaeda planned to attack Muslims. This is not the infidels vs. Islam, this is civilization vs. barbarians. 2. Al Qaeda had chemical weapons, i.e., weapons of mass destruction, brought in from Syria. It's worth investigating whether those weapons came into Syria from a neighboring country. Iraq is a neighboring country. 3. In debriefing of the suspects, it was revealed that planning for the operation took place in Afghanistan but also involved a meeting with top al Qaeda planner Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi in Iraq.

But of course the war in Iraq is unrelated to the war against al Qaeda and the general War on Terror. Nothing to see here, move along...

Better Than The Rest

Jeff Cornwall today explores why America is "so much more entrepreneurial than many other parts of the world" - and why the European Union is "desperately trying to figure out how to create a more entrepreneurial culture."

Bredesen/Naifeh Stealth Tax Increase Update

In the Tennessee legislature, House Bill 3529, the stealth tax increase on Tennessee businesses backed by Gov. Phil Bredesen, House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh and House Majority Leader Kim McMillan, all Democrats who promised to balance this year's budget without increased taxes, is on the agenda for today's meeting of the House Finance Committee, and the Senate version of the bill, SB3427, is scheduled to be heard in the Senate Finance Committee today,

/// UPDATE: The House Finance Committee adopted an amendment to the legislation, and sent it on the the Calendar & Rules committee with a recommendation for passage. Details on the amendment to come. My legislative correspondent says the Senate version also was amended. No details yet. \\\

This tax increase is fiscally irresponsible, and comes at a time when the state is piling up a large revenue surplus.

The Bredesen administration and Democratic legislative leaders are pushing this tax increase, though they promised to balance this year's budget without additional taxes.

The National Federation of Independent Business, after surveying its Tennessee members, has come out in opposition to this tax increase:

When we surveyed our members last week, 90 percent of you said that this bill was a bad idea. We have communicated your position on this bill to its sponsors, the administration and the General Assembly. We are telling them that our members oppose the bill because:

It denies small businesses the full benefit of the accelerated depreciation in the President's tax package, even as small businesses are leading the nation into economic recovery.

By permanently decoupling, it denies small businesses part of the benefits of any future accelerated depreciation measures.

It creates administrative hassles by forcing small businesses to keep two sets of books when depreciating their equipment, one for state taxes and one for federal taxes (accountants love this bill!).

Word has it the Bredesen administration, which is pushing hard for passage of the tax increase, is claiming it is "revenue neutral," even though the fiscal note that accompanies the bill clearly says it will increase state tax revenues collected from Tennessee businesses by $75 million.

How a $75 million tax increase is "revenue neutral" escapes me. Perhaps the Bredesen administration would care to explain - if they respond, I'll provide their explanation here at HobbsOnline.

If you are interested in helping defeat this tax increase on Tennessee businesses, you should contact the members of the House Finance Committee and the Senate Finance Committee to express your opposition to this fiscally irresponsible tax increase and unnecessary tax increase. (Those links take you to the committee pages - where clicking each member's name brings up contact info including phone, fax, and email.)

You can read the text of the email I sent to committee members here.

April 26, 2004

Iraq WMD Update

Kenneth R. Timmerman has an update on the hunt for Saddam's banned weapons of mass destruction and weapons programs. Bottom line:

In virtually every case - chemical, biological, nuclear and ballistic missiles - the United States has found the weapons and the programs that the Iraqi dictator successfully concealed for 12 years from U.N. weapons inspectors.

UPDATE: Also see this story from the Jerusalem Post.

Building on the Bush Boom

Sales of new homes soared to a new record high in March. Man, the Bush tax cuts are absolutely killing the homebuilding industry. Hah.

Ad Sale

I am offering reduced prices on ads placed on HobbsOnline now through the end of May. You can now reach this blog's 1,500 daily weekday readers for less than $40 per month, and as little as $10 for one month, depending on ad placement. Three Blogads ad strips are available - one in the right column, two in the left.

Something Old Something Dead

Michael Williams notes something odd about the pro-abortion women who led a rally for abortion rights Sunday in Washington D.C. Or should I say something old. Read the whole thing.

Why the Economy is Like Golf

Jeff Cornwall recalls a study that finds that many of today's big corporations have their roots in entreprenurial ventures begun more than a century ago.

I was rummaging through my virtual attic again this weekend and came across a fascinating study published by the National Commission on Entrepreneurship. The study, from August 2001, looks at the origins of the Fortune 200 companies in 1917 and 1997 to see how these leading companies were formed.

"Of the 1997 Fortune 200 companies, 197 of them were traced back to one or more entrepreneurial founders. Many of the 1997 Fortune 200 were also among the largest corporations in 1917."

This is an amazing statistic. Although almost all of the Fortune 200 companies have entrepreneurial roots, many were already large companies sixty years earlier. That is why the current entrepreneurial economy needs to be encouraged and supported. Our economy has ridden a wave of entrepreneurial activity that has its roots in the late 1800’s! These companies are no longer creating new jobs for America. They are a noble bunch, but their time is passing.

April 24, 2004

Piestewa Plaza at Tillman Stadium

There's a groundswell of support for naming the Arizona Cardinals' new stadium "Pat Tillman Stadium" to honor the Cardinal player who rejected a $3.6 million contract and joined the Army Rangers a few months after the September 11 attack on America, and who was killed in combat in Afghanistan. There's also a debate over whether Cardinals owner Bill Bidwill would be willing to forego the $10 million or more he stands to receive from selling the "naming rights" to the stadium, set to open in 2006 in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale. Consensus: no, but public pressure might force him to.

I propose a middle ground: have Congress add $20 million to the next defense appropriations bill to buy the naming rights and assign them to the U.S. Army, which would name the stadium "Ranger Pat Tillman Stadium," in honor of Tillman and all of the U.S. Army Rangers he served with.

And focus public pressure on encouraging Bidwill to rename the team the Arizona Rangers.

A few other thoughts. Tillman is not a hero because of how he died. He's a hero because of how he lived, putting honor and duty and country above wealth, fame and comfort. Arizona Republic writer Paola Bovin writes that Tillman's death "shook the cynical sports world, where rejecting NFL millions for military service had seemed the ultimate sacrifice."

That article goes on to note another well-known Arizonan combat death, that of Lori Piestewa, the Hopi Indian single mother who is believed to be the first Native American woman killed in combat in a foriegn war.

The Cardinals have already said they'll name a plaza at the stadium in Tillman's honor. They should rescind that, and name the plaza after Piestewa and the stadium after Tillman.

From Native American single mothers with little to NFL players with millions of dollars - we're all in this together.

Bush Boom Gains Momentum

From CBS Marketwatch:

Following a blowout third quarter and a very strong fourth quarter, most economists expected the economy to pause just a bit in the first three months of 2004. Instead, growth apparently accelerated, boosted by consumer spending, business investment, housing and inventory stocking.

The first estimate of first-quarter growth will be released by the Commerce Department on Thursday morning. The report is the highlight of another fairly busy week on the economic calendar.

Economists surveyed by CBS MarketWatch expect, on average, annualized growth of 5 percent in the first quarter after 4.1 percent growth in the fourth quarter and 8.2 percent in the third. It would be the first time in 10 years that growth exceeded 4 percent for three straight quarters.

Hobbs Family Update

Just a quick note to let readers know my wife is doing fine. I'm not going into any medical details, but she had surgery yesterday at Williamson County Medical Center, a small hospital in a Nashville suburb, to correct a problem created by surgery a week ago at the vastly overhyped Vanderbilt Medical Center. She's home now and resting comfortably. I'm still on Mr. Mom duties until my mother arrives Monday to help out. Plus it's Saturday and there is a festival on the town square... so blogging will be sporadic. Feel free to visit any blog on my blogroll that starts with a letter between A and Z.

April 23, 2004

Hero

Pat Tillman, 1976-2004

HobbsOnline: Now Part of A Universal Collection of Knowledge

The contents of my blog from (from its old URL) related to the elections of 2002 are to be included in a Library of Congress digital archive, according to an email I received today seeking my permission.

The United States Library of Congress builds and preserves a universal collection of knowledge for Congress and the American people. The Library's traditional functions, acquiring, cataloging, preserving and serving collections of historical importance to foster education and scholarship, extend to digital materials, including Web sites. The Library selected your site for collection, inclusion and preservation in the historic collection of Election 2002 Internet materials. ... The Library wishes to make the Election 2002 collection of archived Web sites available to offsite researchers by hosting the collection on the Library's public access Web site. The Library hopes that you share our vision of preserving the historical record of the Election 2002 presence on the Web and that you will agree to include your archived site among the collection that will be available to researchers from across the world.

If you agree to permit the Library to provide offsite access to your materials through the Library's Web site, please click on the following link...

Break

No more blogging for most or all of today. My wife is having surgery. But there is always plenty of good stuff elsewhere in the blogosphere. May I recommend ... everybody on my blogroll.

UPDATE: Surgery went fine.

Blogs Expose Editor in Daschle's Pocket

I've only been vaguely following the growing scandal in South Dakota involving the state's top political reporter being in bed with Sen. Tom Daschle (politically speaking). And involving that reporter's editor, the editor of the state's most influential paper, dismissing the blogosphere-led investigation in rather, uh, rude terms. If I was a South Dakotan, I'd be intensely following it. Here's an excellent link-filled blog post that pretty much tells you all you need to know. And if you still want to know more than that... more links here, which will, no doubt, take you to even more links.

Cheer Up...

Howard Fineman gives nine reasons Why the Race is Looking So Good for Bush. Reason #7: The Economy. Fineman notes that "It is improving in most places in most ways." Read the whole thing.

April 22, 2004

Don't Miss It

This is one of the funniest blog posts I've ever read. Oh, the wacky Left. Thanks to Glenn Reynolds for finding it.

Amazing Grace

Perhaps the greatest song ever written is Amazing Grace, penned by British slave ship captain-turned-Christian evangelist John Newton back in the early 1800s and put to the music of a waterfront drinking song. A few years ago, PBS's Bill Moyers produced a wonderful if long documentary on the song, showing it being performed by many different artists from many different genres of music. It is a song of amazing power, power that comes from the simple stark truth of the words.

I have been hearing a new version on the radio lately, the words of Amazing Grace fully incorporated in a song titled Grace Like Rain, peformed by contemporary Christian singer Todd Agnew.

Agnew honed his singling leading worship at his Texas church, and his music chops plahing coffeehouses where he covered songs by the Dave Matthews Band, Creed, and Counting Crows. Grace Like Rain wraps the words from Amazing Grace in rugged, modern rock, and adds a soaring chorus.

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost but now I'm found
Was blind but now I see so clearly

Hallelujah, grace like rain falls down on me
Hallelujah, all my stains are washed away, washed away

'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear
And grace my fears relieved
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed

Hallelujah, grace like rain falls down on me
Hallelujah, all my stains are washed away, washed away

When we've been there ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun
We've no less days to sing Your praise
Than when we first begun

Hallelujah, grace like rain falls down on me
Hallelujah, all my stains are washed away, washed away

Hallelujah, grace like rain falls down on me
Hallelujah, all my stains are washed away, washed away

Agnew writes that Grace Like Rain got its start after a friend played him Amazing Grace set to a new tune.

My first reaction was of course, "You can't do that. It's Amazing Grace." But as I heard it, I realized there was something special there. I wrote the chorus to it as a celebration of His grace in our lives. I introduced it to the band and used it in worship the next week and we realized we had something special on our hands. We have a powerful heritage in the church. We are tied to generations of worshipers who have honored God with their lives. Hymns are a part of that legacy. The new tune has taken the hymn out of the habit of the church and has brought these powerful words back to life for me and for many others.

Agnew has done something not much different, setting the powerful words of Amazing Grace to a driving rock beat popular with the youth he is seeking to reach with the same divine message.

You can hear a 35-second snippet of Grace Like Rain here. I only wish that when Agnew performed at my church a few months ago, I had gone. And I look forward to the day when Grace Like Rain becomes a common way we sing Amazing Grace in worship.

Youth Ignore Newspapers

Readership of newspapers is declining among the 18-24 age group, and some in the industry think the problem is packaging and marketing, rather than the product itself.

From Editor & Publisher:

"Your newspaper is in peril," John Lavine, director of the Readership Institute, told a packed room of newspaper editors and publishers here today. Lavine was speaking about the latest findings on young readers released at a joint conference session between the Newspaper Association of American and American Society of Newspaper Editors.

Readership is declining among 18- to 24-year-olds; and those that do read newspapers spend less time doing so. One third of those young readers are considered heavy readers and 61% read their daily paper over the course of a week with an average reading time of 20 minutes - much less than older readers, especially those over 65. "The [danger] is real. You can't have a business where your older customers are not replaced," urged Lavine.

The New Readers study, surveying 10,800 readers among 52 dailies, found advertising is one of the key drivers to readership in that age group and that they seek out image ads with a narrative flair. They also seek value for their money. In this regard, Lavine said newspapers are way behind the curve: "Just about all advertisers are offered a youth demographic in every other medium save for newspapers."

One telling example of how the newspaper industry doesn't quite "get" the online revolution: The Editor & Publisher story does not provide a direct link to the survey the story is about, nor does it provide a way for readers to comment on the story or the survey. Instead, it is the typical top-down "we know what's important for you to know" approach to journalism that turns off the Internet generation. That - not a failure to cleverly package and market newspapers to the 18-24 demographic - is why newspapers are in peril.

UPDATE: John Sturm, president of the Newspaper Association of America, seems to get it:

With an economic recovery taking hold, newspapers have a chance to spur their transformation from traditional "ink on paper" companies to more broad-based media that lure readers in new ways, said John Sturm, president of the Newspaper Association of America.

Sturm, speaking at the group's annual meeting Wednesday, said people are demanding instant content on what matters to them, and that newspapers have to exploit the latest technology to provide it.

"People want to consume their media where, how and when they choose," Sturm said. "They want to look only at the ads that interest them. Until someone comes up with TiVo for newspapers ... we are the quintessential 'pull' media."

The Essence of Blogging

Peter Gill, student journalist for The Oklahoma Daily at the University of Oklahoma, nails the essence of blogging:

A blog is your own personal Web page devoted to whatever you want to write. It’s easy to make, usually free, and accessible from any computer connected to the net. And it’s all yours to do with as you please.

Give it a name. Fill it with your deepest, darkest thoughts. Then, let your friends read them. Heck, they can post comments on how lame your blog is. Be vindictive and link to their blogs so everyone can see they’re just as lame as you are. That’s how blogs work.

Get Gmail Via Blogger?

Harry Tzetzos finds a connection between Blogger and Google's highly anticipated and controversial Gmail service.

Are You Paying Attention?

Dan Gillmor says blogging is growing up and becoming more useful. Gillmore: "The global conversation is growing, and it has value for just about anyone who's paying attention."

Sure as Shootin'

Michael Williams passes along a dead-right essay on the difference between liberals, conservatives and southerners.

Join the Fight

Dean Esmay has a way for you to help win the War on Terror. And once you've followed his links and helped, hit the back button, then hit his home button and start scrolling. Always lots of juicy bloggage at Dean's World.

April 21, 2004

Where is Iraq's Wyatt Earp?

Sixteen children were incinerated on a school bus today in Basra.

Say that out loud. Sixteen children were incinerated on a school bus today in Basra.

Al Qaeda kills Muslims too. When will "the Arab street" rise up against such barbarism?

You know, America had its "Wild West" phase, and it wasn't cleaned up with multilateral peacekeeping forces and the involvment of the United Nations. It wasn't even cleaned up by outsiders. It was cleaned up by good Americans with guns who were sick and tired of living at the mercy of bad Americans with guns. It was cleaned up by lawmen who dispensed as much lead as the judges dispensed justice. Nobody particularly cared whether the bad guys were hung in the town square the morning after a trial or gunned down at the O.K. Corral.

Sixteen children were incinerated on a school bus today in Basra.

Change just one word in that sentence. Change "Basra" to the name of your town. Would you tolerate it for one second? Would you, deep down, mind at all if the killers were hunted down and shot dead? If you didn't participate in dispensing leaded justice to the killers, wouldn't you at least view those who did as heroes?

Iraq is in its Wild West phase. It's time Iraqis stepped up to clean up the mess, and it's time they cleaned up with the proper application of maximum and fatal violence to the people who plan, abet or perpetrate such acts. And it's time we stepped back and let them do it.

The only good Islamofascist terrorist is a dead one, and the more die soon at the hands of Iraqis - Iraqi police, Iraqi defense forces and Iraqi civilians - the better off Iraq will be.

Sixteen children were incinerated on a school bus today in Basra.

Iraqis need Iraqi heroes to put an end to the barbarism now, and they need them to be Iraqis so in the future they can tell their children and their grandchildren about the Iraqi heroes who won the war against tyranny and terror.

Where is Iraq's Wyatt al-Earp?

Recommended Blog

Just ran across a really good blog I hadn't seen before. It's called doubleplusgood infotainment. Check it out - you'll be glad you did.

Stats. We Got Stats.

Robert Cox makes some valid points about the unreliable nature of many kinds of blog traffic stats, ranging from how "visit" stats include repeat visits, the impact of RSS feeds on inflation blog traffic stats, and the ways some unethical bloggers cheat to increase their hit counters.

Cox is right, but there are a few things I'd add.

1. SiteMeter, the visit stats tracker popular with bloggers because the TTLB Blog Traffic Ranking uses SiteMeter data, counts the same visitor twice if they visit your blog more than once, but more than half an hour apart. So, indeed, someone who visits your blog five times throughout the day is counted as five visits. However, all popular blogs have their share of regular readers who drop by often, so it still can be useful to compare one blog's SiteMeter stats with another blog's SiteMeter stats.

2. Free hit counters from SiteMeter, Bravenet, etc., are good for tracking trends, but aren't very accurate. They tend to undercount traffic - at least judging from much more robust data trackers that my web hosting company provides as part of my blog's hosting package. I've heard similar views from other bloggers who have better tracking tools than the freebies. Bravenet and SiteMeter are different in ways that make it valuable to have both on your site, even if you also have a better tracking tool from your hosting service.

Having SiteMeter allows an apples-to-apples trend comparison such as the TTLB ranking. And Bravenet tracks unique visitors on a daily basis, making it a useful data source in addition to SiteMeter - that's why I keep both counters on my site in addition to using the more robust data tracking applications provided by my hosting company.

One of the site counters provided by the hosting company, Awstats, counts unique visitors - a much better stat than SiteMeter's "visits." However, unlike Bravenet, Awstats tallies unique visitors on a calendar-month basis, with no day-by-day breakdown of "unique visitors." (Memo to Awstats: If you could provide daily unique visitor numbers and also provide data on how many of each day's unique visitors were repeat visitors during the month, that would be AwesomeStats.)

Visit my blog on April 1 and then visit it once per hour through April 30 and Awstats will count you as ONE unique visitor for the month, while Bravenet will count you as one unique visitor per day and SiteMeter will say my site was visited 720 times.

When I report on my blog that HobbsOnline has had more than 21,000 unique visitors this month, I am using the Awstats data. It means that more 21,000 different people have come at least as far as the home page this month. And when I say that HobbsOnline has about 1,500 regular daily readers, that number is based partly on the Bravenet data and partly on the Awstats data.

Awstats provides other useful data. It can show me which individual post has been viewed the most times. And it can tell me how many times that post was the entry page for the visitor to the blog.

Since I moved my blog to this URL on Jan. 1, the most viewed post on the blog has been this one, posted March 16, titled John Kerry: Let's Play Defense. Since March 16, it has been viewed 13,935 times. And 7,926 times it was the entry page for the reader, meaning they came to HobbsOnline from some other website or blog via a link to that specific article. Also, 7,264 times that post was the exit page. The flip side is that means that more than 6,600 times that post was read, the reader stuck around to read something else on my blog.

By the way: In April, that same post has been viewed just 231 times.

A lot of smaller blogs like mine occasionally see a traffic surge via a link on a major blog or from multiple links on many other blogs. I've often wondered if such links, going to a specific post, result in many readers sticking around to read other things.

Consider this post from a few days ago, titled Citizen-Powered News. It was linked to by several other blogs, among them Glenn Reynolds, Jeff Jarvis and Dean Esmay. (Sorry if you linked to it and I didn't mention you!)

According to Awstats, that post has been viewed 7,772 times so far, of which 4,555 times it was page the reader entered my blog. 3,790 times, it was a reader's exit page. So... what happened to the other 765 readers? Do they still have that page open on their browser? Not likely.

The way I have my blog formatted – the way most Movable Type blogs operate – when a reader is viewing an individual post, the headline to the previous and the immediate next post are displayed at the top of the screen. So I checked the stats and the immediate next post, this one, has been read 1,181 times this month - and that's only the people who opened the item individually, rather than just read it while scrolling the home page. Of those 1,181 readers, only 16 entered the blog on that page. It is reasonable to assume that some of the 765 readers of the Citizen-Powered News post clicked the link to this post as well. (Likewise, the previous post has been read 173 times, yet was the entry page for only six readers).

By the way, 11 different posts of mine have been read at least 500 times this month, and seven of them more than 1,000 times.

Yeah, so what, you're probably thinking. This is all rather inside baseball, isn't it? Well, yeah. But it illustrates a few things. First, while Cox is right to caution that "visits" stats often include repeat visits, surely it's reasonable to assume that an entry that is read nearly 14,000 times is not being read by one guy 14,000 times. It's being read by a lot of people.

Second - if you're a blogger and something you've just posted is being linked to by a lot of other blogs, or a few big blogs, make sure you have interesting posts immediately before and after it, to keep readers around long enough that they might decide to become a regular reader of your blog.

After all, repeat visits may skew the stats a bit - but repeat readers is a very good thing indeed.

[Editor's note: This post, originally posted around 3:30 p.m., was updated at around 11 p.m. with minor changes throughout to clarify a few points. If you are quoting from it, please quote from the updated/improved version.]

UNSCAM

I'm not blogging about UNSCAM, the multi-billion-dollar
Saddam/United Nations "Oil For Food" scam, but I'm following it. You can too at Friends of Saddam, a new blog dedicated to chronicling the investigation of perhaps the greatest heist in all history. (Thank Sheriff G.W. Bush for putting an end to the robbery and freeing the hostages!) Roger L. Simon and Glenn Reynolds are both also following UNSCAM developments., as are other bloggers.

Solid Revenue Growth Forecast for Tennessee Government

The Jackson Sun editorial page today urges the Bredesen administration to Save, Don't Spend, State's Meager Surplus:

Tennessee lawmakers should follow Gov. Phil Bredesen's advice and stop spending money they don't even have yet. Instead, any money they have left over this year and next should be put toward replenishing the state's battered reserves which have been depleted the past several years just to make ends meet.

The State Funding Board adopted its revenue estimates Monday, and for the first time in several years, things are looking up for state finances. Projected growth over the next couple of years is moderate - between 3.85 and 4.6 percent. That translates to between $15 million and $67 million in non-recurring funds this year, and $64 million and $112 million next year. Already, lawmakers are fighting over what to do with that money.

While the editorial is right about the need to save rather than spend surpluses, it confuses the issue by calling the Funding Board's projection of next fiscal year's revenue growth a "surplus." The real surplus is being piled up this current fiscal year. Sadly, the Bredesen administration has already made plans to spend that money rather than rebate it to taxpayers via a reduction in the sales tax rate, or save it in the state's reserves for a future "rainy day."

By the way, regarding the State Funding Board, I recommend you read, if you haven't already, my post from yesterday on how the Funding Board's work is often politicized.

WaPo Notes Growth of Political Blogads

The Washington Post examines the growing number of