October 17, 2005

Today's Reading List

The War Another bad guy bagged: A Somali suspected of being a militia leader during the 1993 "Black Hawk Down" battle that left 18 Americans dead was arrested Monday on suspicion of war crimes while attending a conference in Sweden, police and organizers said.

If you've read the book Black Hawk Down, you know what most people don't - some of the bad guys in the battle of Mogadishu were trained how to shoot down helicopters by members of al Qaeda, who got good at it while fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan. Al Qaeda has been attacking America and Americans for a lot longer than just since 9/11. And we went to Somalia to feed people - not to steal oil, as Somalia has none.

Politics: If I still lived in Davidson County instead of the suburbs of Nashville, I'd be signing Ben Cunningham's petition to put the most recent big property tax increase to a referendum. Even if you supported that tax increase, you have to admit there nothing more democratic than letting the people vote on whether or not their taxes go up.

Matt White has some questions for Van Hilleary. And Adam Groves weighs in with an analysis of the polling and fund-raising numbers for Hilleary and Ed Bryant in the 2006 Senate race. ... An elected official claims, "We don't have anything to hide." But they don't have complete records of how the money was spent, either - including unexplained payments to lawmakers. ... Speaking of payments to lawmakers, Adam Groves explores whether the defense might play the race card as the Operation Tennessee Waltz public corruption prosecutions move forward. Er, , except some of the indicted have already plead guilty, and two of the indicted lawmakers were white. ... And, finally, Hugh Hewitt has some thoughts on the Miers nomination.

Blogging: Knoxville News Sentinel columnist George Korda goes gunning for state Rep. Stacey Campfield with an obsequious column titled "What Stacey Campfield ought to do," but Campfield fires back on his blog, suggesting that what Korda ought to have done is, A) get his facts right, by B) calling Campfield before he wrote his column so that, C), he didn't embarrass himself or his editors.

The dynamics of hunting changes when the deer have guns.

Religion: Here's a CNN report on GodBlogCon at Biola University. I wish I'd made the trip out there for that.

Media: Terry Heaton comments on corporate Big Media: "Corporate America may gobble up all the media properties like record albums at a garage sale, but they'll be of no use to anybody except the collectors."

Will Big Media really be "talking to no one soon," as Heaton hypothesizes? Perhaps. The more people that contribute to the web - not just surf it, but actually contribute content in the form of blogs, podcasts, and other digital media - the less we'll care what a handful of self-appointed self-important elites in a "media center" like New York or LA think we should read, hear or see for news or entertainment.

You won't need New York to tell you what happened in Peru or Peoria today once the people of Peru and Peoria can tell you themselves, directly, with text, audio, video and - most importantly - the perspective of being the people who lived through the news, not the perspective of people who jetted in after the fact. Only one thing can derail the new news future, and Heaton notes it: "Keeping the Web free is our major challenge, and we must be ever diligent in that task."

In the News: Sylvester Stallone is going to do a sixth Rocky movie. And a fourth Rambo. The first Rocky was a genuine American classic, a great film, but I fear we're only three or four years from Rocky Meets Rambo with the winner to take on the survivor of Alien vs. Predator II.

Advice Department: Terry Heaton says, "All I really need to know I learned in the blogosphere." It's a pretty good list.