Slashdot Mirror

Just like the article by Dr. Linda Halderman on Pajamas Media (in more ways than one), your comment contains no facts or analysis to back up your assertions. Conveniently several countries are omitted. There is no independent corroboration of the veracity or accuracy these assertions.

http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/

In relation to this, it is amazing to me how many sites are able to set the tone for the conversation without having a forum/comment section on their own site.

Pitchfork Media has some of the most controversial music reviews. I still don't think you can leave a comment directly on their pages. Compare that to NME, where the first review I opened had a comment section.

From the political isle: Instapundit Glenn Reynolds and Matt Drudge's Druge Report. These two pages set the tone for many (not all) conversations in the conservative blogosphere, yet no direct comment section. Same for the conservative magazine National Review. I'm wearing my political beliefs on my sleeve here. I invite someone to post a liberal site sans comments, I can't think of one on the top of my head.

The effect of removing a comment section forces the reader to search out if someone has a counterpoint to your opinion, which while it may not be terribly difficult via google, is something people simply are not accustomed to doing. This has two effects. It protects your reputation, since it is possible that someone reading your page would never know an opposing opinion. As an extension of that, since your reputation is far cleaner than a page with potential detracting comments, your message is securely delivered - whether it is that pitchfork thinks band x is good and they are also sponsoring a music festival featuring band x that you should purchase tickets for (no direct conflict of interest there!), or that you think policy y position is a good one and that you have friends that would benefit if policy y is advanced (Larry Kudlow at NRO here).

It may not necessarily be a mark of cowardice to not have direct comments on your site, but the inclusion of it is definitely a mark of bravery.

Nobody ever said anything about "better" - Just markedly different. Bush, for example, would never have said that he's striving toward a world without nuclear weapons. And, even though he and Obama are both for spending huge amounts of $$ that we're borrowing from the Chinese on credit, it never would have occurred to him to spend that money domestically.

I hate to defend Bush on anything (and I would consider this more of an indictment, anyway), but you can't really say his spending didn't include domestic spending. In fact the spending on the Iraq war was dwarfed by domestic spending, not including the massive expansion of Medicare, the largest since its inception.

The facts here are not quite so apparent and the Associated Press is certainly making a public case, I think that a jury would not be so favourable to them.

I read AP and AHN. and I don't find similarities and certainly can't see that the AHN service is simply lifting the Associated Press' stories.

Part of the lawsuit was that AP complained that AHN was including in a story a journalistic type attribution of "according to the AP" or something. AP complained and sued them for that too.

What this really looks like is the AP throwing its weight around yet again and sueing what is almost certainly a much smaller competitor in hopes to gain by threat and weight of litigation that to which it is not entitled legally, or morally.

This assualt, and AP's other initiatives recently, ie "Don't quote us" or 5 words costs $12.50 and the whole drudgereport.com debacle show that the AP has an agenda that runs counter to what is for the greater good, most certainly what is good for the internet.

Here are some really good articles

Is the AP Good For America?: a great overview of what the Associated Press has truly become.

Maybe the Associated Press need the type of bad PR smack down that only the internet can provide?

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/pro-joe-plumbers-trip-to-israel-scares-the-establishment-media/

Yup, they clearly aren't biased or retarded at all. A very nice and upstanding establishment. :p I mean, Joe the Plumber definitely wasn't a gimmick or something.

"despite everything the world continues to turn in its old corrupt way. And the same idea may now be crossing the minds of those who believed that electing Democrats into power would mean cleaner government, world peace and a high moral tone only to realize that maybe Washington is like a softdrink machine which dispenses orange bug juice no matter what buttons you push."

-- Richard Fernandez

It should also be noted that the "Obama militarizing NASA" story that was on slashdot a few days ago was complete bollocks. The EELV launchers were partially subsidized by the Air Force, but are entirely owned by Boeing and Lockheed Martin. NASA's used EELVs in the past to launch things like the New Horizons mission, and I don't think anybody claimed that this was somehow militarizing the exploration of Pluto. This article explains things well:

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/media-botches-story-on-obamas-nasa-plans/

The only problem with this is that -- unless they are talking about some other vehicles, and if so, it's hard to imagine what they are -- the EELVs aren't "military rockets." Their development was subsidized with Air Force funds, but they were developed with Boeing and Lockheed Martinâ(TM)s money as well, and they are commercial rockets, available to the military, commercial users, and NASA. There is no need to "tear down a barrier" for NASA to use them, as evidenced by the fact that NASA is already using them. For example, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter was blasted to orbit and off to Mars with an Atlas V/Centaur over three years ago.

There is NASA resistance to using EELVs, but not because they are "military rockets." It's because they are seen as a threat to the agency's -- or more specifically, administrator Mike Griffinâ(TM)s â" desire to develop a new NASA-only vehicle, called Ares 1, and perhaps later, the larger version of it, Ares 5. If the EELVs become viewed as viable launchers for the human missions, the case for the Ares, already weak -- particularly considering its extensive development teething problems â" becomes much weaker, perhaps to the point at which the program dies. (It should be noted that five years ago, prior to becoming NASA administrator, Dr. Griffin, who is apparently desperately attempting to hang on to his job, had no problems with using EELVs for crewed spaceflight.)

Cut spending on education. We now spend, on average, twice per capita after inflation, what we did 100 years ago for the same practical results. To put it bluntly: at least half of the money spent on public education is a complete waste that has brought no discernible benefit to the community or kids.

Michael S. Malone wrote a while ago about the media bias during this campaign. Did you hear about it in the major media? Gee, why not? He writes now about "My Own Personal Media Bubble"

Although it'd be nice to believe that a socialist poltician got his money from the masses, it's not true. Obama's pockets were lined by George Soros's MoveOn.org, . Do some searches like 'obama campaign finance fraud' and 'obama foreign donations'.

It turns out that half of Obama's haul in 2008 has come in contributions of $200 dollars or less. These small donations do not require public disclosure under FEC guidelines, and the Obama campaign refuses to make public its list of contributors. Obama earlier announced he'd accept public financing if the GOP nominee did the same (and then, of course, broke his pledge in June after realizing he'd far surpass previous fundraising records). So there's a pattern. By keeping his donor list secret now, the Illinois senator has heightened speculation of financial impropriety. Not only can Obama's inside operatives organize massive bundling operations outside the law, there are no safeguards against the new "fat cat" contributors who bundle their own cash. Hillary Clinton's Norman Hsu scandal from late-2007 points to the kind of abuses possible under the current regime. A more serious breach of faith may be taking place right now in the Obama camp.

As Scott Mirengoff at Powerline reported on Thursday, the Obama campaign refuses to screen credit card contributions for potential fraudulent transactions, and thus any individual could make unlimited contributions using infinite aliases.
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/obamas-fundraising-fraud

You didn't actually mention Canada as a bastion for free speech rights, did you? Go ask Mark Steyn, who was just tried for human rights violations by some scary Orwellian thing called the Ontario Human Rights Commission for commenting about Islam. Clearly, you cannot speak your mind freely in Canada or some "human rights" tribunal will have you in the dock.

Same thing in Finland. Don't criticize religious groups, or even offend them, and don't criticize ethnic groups, have a site linked to alleged child pr0n, try to produce scary films, or even try to criticize censorship in Finland!

None of those things could be done in the US of A. Nice try though.

They do have laser guided bombs:

http://eng.ktrv.ru/production_eng/323/518/519/

So this is the accuracy I guess:

Root mean square deviation, m : 4 - 7

Lets see what comparable bombs the us has:

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/smart/gbu-27.htm

has a CEP of 8 but the GPS + some other Laser guided ones are better.

Someone mentioned the lack of Glonass guided bombs though:

http://www.defencetalk.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-4381.html

The question is whether they use guided bombs. I would think though that guided bombs are far more efficient. You would need far less bombs to achieve a certain goal, this could reduce the number of planes to use in a mission and who knows what kind of infrastructure is necessary to run
the whole effort. Given that Russia is also running a PR war the added benefit of only hitting what they want may factor into their considerations as well.

Here is a link claiming that their ground weapons used are inaccurate:

http://pajamasmedia.com/richardfernandez/2008/08/09/whos-winning-in-georgia/

Is it possible to prevent this by preparing, planning, and mitigating? Sure. Will we do that? Not enough to save everyone.

I thought you people believed in Darwin. Evolution works because species grow until they reach a "balance".

Now what does a balance mean and what does it NOT mean :

It does NOT mean policies pushed by lying idiots. In other words a "natural balance" is not a political thing.

Mathematically you will have a natural balance if about 29% of any given generation dies, either due to violence, or food shortage, or (most likely) both. That's what's called a "natural balance".

Now let's get one thing straight : if there is any truth at all to evolution, this WILL happen (unless you want to claim that evolution doesn't apply to humans, but I assume you're not). It's only a matter of when and how, and to who it will happen, not if.

In other words the real bullshit is this :

Nobody will be safe, and it will all be because douchebags today do their best to convince everyone that the people who are trying to work cooperatively, together, toward a common good are the enemy. You're sowing it, you better well fucking expect to reap it.

This is idiotic anti-evolutionism. It's "mama I don't want to" cries at the first day of kindergarten.

The only cooperation evolution really allows for is simple : cooperation in killing "the others" (for all sorts of definitions of "others", but basically once someone is 3 degrees (parents = 1st degree, siblings = 1st degree, nephew = 2nd degree, grandparents = 2nd degree, ...) removed from you they basically got to die.

Unless you have, well faith ... what else to call it ?, that evolution doesn't apply to humans, there is nothing to do. And there is no-one to blame if you don't have faith. It's just the way it is.

And yes without faith the prediction is that you're going to lose all your little toys (and I mine), and we're going to pick up weapons and attempt to kill eachother once oil starts to go down significantly.

But then again, blaming is a very human, and very counterproductive activity, so just blame it on Bush. The Lord knows everyon else does, so if that makes you feel better, just blame him. Or republicans (I imagine you'll have to switch to McCain at some point, right ?).

The real problem is your ideology (shared by too many ohers). And yes, this problematic ideology is atheism. Unless something overrides Darwin, we won't even try to save ourselves.

http://www.pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/archives2/021982.phpInstapundit.com/

  Glenn Reynolds link

from: http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/why-trains-just-dont-work-in-america/

I just want to make it clear from the outset: I love trains. When I lived in New York and Connecticut, I rode trains regularly, just because I like them; they're far more comfortable that flying, and you don't have the hassles. I could walk to Penn Station, walk onto a train, and be in Washington or Boston or Hartford or Pittsburgh in a few hours, with pleasant scenery and the real chance of pleasant companionship. When I lived in Germany, I used the train to visit my employer's home office in Paris: I could pick up the Schlafwagen in Basel, sleep overnight, and be in Paris when I woke up. My grandfather was part owner of the shortest main-line railroad in the world; when my peers were playing with toy trains, I was playing on a real 2-8-0 Baldwin steam engine built in 1890. I really like trains.

So when Megan McArdle says "America's freight rail system ... is world-class. Its passenger rail should be too," I'm naturally inclined to agree with her. It positively breaks my heart to have to say "no, actually it shouldn't. Passenger rail is almost certainly never going to work again, at least as a national transport system."

As usual, what's thwarting my dreams of elegant dinners in the first-class dining car with Myrna Loy is arithmetic. Well, that and the fact that Myrna Loy died in 1993. Let's just compare passenger trains and airplanes on three trips I'm likely to take for business in the next few months: Denver to Los Angeles, Denver to New York City, and Denver to Washington, DC.

TRIP Train Train Plane Plane
Den-DC $554 74 hours $410 16 hours $1,778 (roomette)
Den-LA $426 54 hours $179 12 hours S1,232 (roomette)
Den-NYC $655 90 hours $428 18 hours $2,002 (roomette)

The table tells the tale, I think. The train is from one and a half to five times as expensive, and takes four and a half to five times as long, turning a four-day trip into seven or eight days.

These folks would be most likely to make a deal.
Free Republic
LGF
Michelle Malkin

A group that would probably receive some sort of funding( and a holder of the previous two )
Pajamas Media

The only problem with these is that one of them's misfired themselves off of Fox. Another has trouble carrying the message outside of their choir. As for freerepublic, their message seems to only reach the loyal and converted.

I kiiinda like Obama and realize the "he's a muslim" chain emails are very dishonest, but I don't really think there's anything wrong with being a Muslim so long as you don't think Jihad=kill those you disagree with. I do not appreciate my truthful comments being lumped in with that sort of obvious smear, and you kinda owe me an apology for suggesting my claims are on that level.

But let's permit Ron Paul to explain his views on Obama, who we all can see is clearly a BLACK PERSON.

"[O]ur country is being destroyed by a group of actual and potential terrorists--and they can be identified by the color of their skin."

"I think we can safely assume that 95% of the black males in that city [Washington, D.C.] are semi-criminal or entirely criminal."

"We are constantly told that it is evil to be afraid of black men, but it is hardly irrational."

Chief, I understand your skepticism. After all, I accused a man of accepting donations from neo-nazis. That's so horrible it's tough to believe. Anyone who would accept support from nazis is totally unfit for anything good. I can't believe I almost forgot a link, since apparently this is first you've heard of it: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2007/12/19/paul-to-keep-donation-from-white-supremacist/

And I also accuse Ron of writing racist hate-speech, and lying about it. That's pretty damn extreme, as far as accusations go. Anyone who wrote the things I refer to is a monster, and any of Ron's supporters who would actually attempt to hide the truth, as this fucker does: http://revolusion2008.blogspot.com/2008/01/conscience-of-ron-paul-supporter.html, is also a monster. Worse than most Scientologists, possibly. And anyone who knows about Lisa McPhereson knows that Scientologists are monsters too.

I'm a bit surprised that a slashdot reader is unaware of these well-worn, practically old facts. I don't watch TV news often or listen to talk radio, so maybe this stuff isn't as well known out there as it should be. I feel as though a demand to prove what is as obvious about Ron is akin to demanding proof of the moon landing or 9/11 being caused by terrorists. I don't think every assertion that slams a monster like Ron Paul must have citations. I'm just having a conversation, not building an indictment.

http://pajamasmedia.com/2008/01/ron_paul.php this is one expose that was pretty well written. The author was actually a fairly outspoken Ron Paul supporter. Gave him money, helped organize efforts, etc. But unlike some, this supporter stopped supporting Ron Paul when it became obvious Ron Paul is a monster. This is not someone who is biased against Ron Paul, this is someone who was biased in FAVOR of Ron Paul's presidential promises.

Some actually say Ron didn't write that stuff. But Ron's bank account paid for the publishing, and Ron signed the checks. Could a normal sane person pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to print racist stuff signed in the sane person's name? Also, why don't you actually read the newsletter: http://www.littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/pdf/RonPaul-december1990.pdf

The author of the hate literature seems to believe he is married to Ron Paul's wife and grandparent to Ron Paul's grandkids and represents Texas's 14th congressional district (Paul's district). That's not hard to explain, because Ron Paul is the author of this newsletter and all the others that say:

"The riots, burning, looting, and murders are only a continuation of 30 years of racial politics."

"The criminals who terrorize our cities--in riots and on every non-riot day--are not exclusively young black males, but they largely are. As children, they are trained

I've been doing that for years and I have yet to find anything like the racism you seem to think it's so chock full of. Have you read them yourself, or are you blindly following the lead of someone less informed than yourself?

Good God.

http://pajamasmedia.com/2008/01/ron_paul.php

I do recall, however, reading one article published sometime in the 80's where he wrote of how fast black gang members could run. If you think that's a racist statement then you should get your head examined.

If you don't think that's racist, you need yours examined, sorry.

You seem to be familiar with that though, you last 4 posts have negative (and incorrect) things to say about Dr Paul

That's because I am unable to find anything good to say about him, at least as a candidate. He'd probably be fun to have a beer with. Kind of like the crazy old grampa at the bar.

What Does Obama Have Against the American Flag?

NEED I SAY MORE ABOUT OBAMA

Barack Obama seemed to deliberately decline to put his hand over his heart during the national anthem while campaigning

Whoops, LET'S NOT FORGET ABOUT HILLARY
Everybody's favorite Actor/Politician, Fred Thompson

Did you really just cite

Reuters
and the Associated Press
as
examples
of
accuracy
in reporting?

Wow, just wow.

Well if this rumor turns out to be true, things could get real intersting over there soon. And just when oil prices had started coming down again.

A correction to my previous post: I did some checking and learned that Saudi Arabia has the largest known oil reserves in the region. Iran and Iraq are close seconds around a billion barrels each which combined is still less than what is known to exist under the Saudi sands. That will teach me to quote stuff I hear on the radio without checking first.

Muslim religious leaders removed from a Minneapolis flight last week exhibited behavior associated with a security probe by terrorists and were not merely engaged in prayers, according to witnesses, police reports and aviation security officials. ....

Passengers and flight attendants told law-enforcement officials the imams switched from their assigned seats to a pattern associated with the September 11 terrorist attacks and also found in probes of U.S. security since the attacks -- two in the front row first-class, two in the middle of the plane on the exit aisle and two in the rear of the cabin.

        "That would alarm me," said a federal air marshal who asked to remain anonymous. "They now control all of the entry and exit routes to the plane." .....

According to witnesses, police reports and aviation security officials, the imams displayed other suspicious behavior.
        Three of the men asked for seat-belt extenders, although two flight attendants told police the men were not oversized. One flight attendant told police she "found this unsettling, as crew knew about the six [passengers] on board and where they were sitting." Rather than attach the extensions, the men placed the straps and buckles on the cabin floor, the flight attendant said.
        The imams said they were not discussing politics and only spoke in English, but witnesses told law enforcement that the men spoke in Arabic and English, criticizing the war in Iraq and President Bush, and talking about al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden.
        The imams who claimed two first-class seats said their tickets were upgraded. The gate agent told police that when the imams asked to be upgraded, they were told no such seats were available. Nevertheless, the two men were seated in first class when removed.
        A flight attendant said one of the men made two trips to the rear of the plane to talk to the imam during boarding, and again when the flight was delayed because of their behavior. Aviation officials, including air marshals and pilots, said these actions alone would not warrant a second look, but the combination is suspicious.
        "That's like shouting 'fire' in a crowded theater. You just can't do that anymore," said Robert MacLean, a former air marshal.
        "They should have been denied boarding and been investigated," Mr. MacLean said. "It looks like they are trying to create public sympathy or maybe setting someone up for a lawsuit."
        The pilot with another airline who talked to The Washington Times on condition of anonymity, said he would have made the same call as the US Airways pilot.
        "If any group of passengers is commingling in the terminal and didn't sit in their assigned seats or with each other, I would stop everything and investigate until they could provide me with a reason they did not sit in their assigned seats."

   

Do you think there are actually Iraqis out there who doubt that killing innocent people is morally wrong and need a reminder?

Where have you been for the last few years? The secret phrase for the day is "suicide bomber" (or rather "'mass-murdering fuck-head' who is willing to kill himself in the process as long as it increases the body count"). To be fair, many (but not all) of the suicide bombers nowadays are believed to have been foreign Al Qaeda imports, but they're still getting logistical support from certain segments of the Iraqi community.

As for "kill this animal just as he killed his thousands of victims", that sounds exactly like revenge to me. Please, read what you're saying and think of the real consequences when Iraqis see that even their great American liberators punish people through barbarism.

"Barbarism" is putting people in shedding machines, slowly and feet first. That's what Saddam and his sons did when they didn't like people (or when soccer players lost). Or perhaps we should make him stand in a room with the floor covered in acid (like he did to others). Those would be "revenge" and "an eye for an eye". But the 'just' here is poetic, not prepositional. Hanging is merciful; and that IN ITSELF is an important development in this part of the world. This IS the rule of law and not revenge.

Incidentally, check out http://pajamasmedia.com/2006/11/the_day_of_justice .php for some live reaction from Iraq to the verdict.

Finally, what the heck does the left have to do with the comments above? Just because they disagree with the Republican government they must be liberals?

No, but the US "left" shares two traits with some glaringly obvious trends in this thread's posts:

1) Moral Relativism - "I think the US is just as bad; if Saddam's being executed, let's kill Bush next!" Examples of this are all over the place... If you really think the US was/is as bad as Saddam's Iraq, please do us all a favor and move to Europe where in a few years' time you'll see what the future of this line of argument is.

2) Disdain for the Democracy/The Public decision - "The Death Penalty is bad, regardless of the prevailing moral viewpoint or what the people of Iraq (legitimately) decide." Note, we're not talking about hanging someone for being gay, Chinese imprisonment of bloggers, shooting someone trying to leave the country, or any of the more widely accepted "legitimate" rights and freedoms that have been curtailed by the corrupt few in a relatively undemocratic society. If the populace legitimately chooses to enforce capital punishment for the most heinous crimes, so be it. The elite don't rule the country any more. (Side note: See also the Left's fascination with Roe v. Wade. The People should be able to decide these things, rather than things being mandated by fiat by judges at the federal level. You can be pro-choice and still feel that Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided.)

This is perhaps slightly ironic, given that the Iranian Government actively censors blogs on the Internet."

Indeed. In fact, they don't just censor blogs... they detained at least 50 bloggers last year.

Filmmaker Andrew Marcus has made a ten-minute video about yesterday's Judiciary Committee hearings on the NSA's terrorist surveillance program; it's been posted at Pajamas Media. The video includes footage of Arlen Specter and Alberto Gonzales inside the hearing room, interviews with Senator John Cornyn and Debra Burlingame, some of the questions Paul asked Ted Kennedy and Dick Durbin, and Paul's concluding summary of the hearings' significance.

It's an excellent recap of the first day's proceedings, with some valuable perspective that is absent from most news accounts. One of the most telling moments is when Debra Burlingame points out that prior to the September 11 attacks, the NSA was surveilling an al Qaeda member in Yemen who placed or received more than a dozen phone calls to and from a number in San Diego. Because these calls involved someone in the United States, the NSA didn't listen to them. It turned out that the "Kahlid" who was receiving the calls in San Diego was one of the September 11 hijackers. In fact, he was one of the hijackers who murdered Debra's brother, the pilot of American Airlines flight 77.

This is what Democrats and the news media call "domestic spying." Do the Democrats really want to return us to the days when al Qaeda could call its American operatives with impunity? Reporting from Capitol Hi

We Begin:

published a number of cartoons depicting Mohammed in ways that can only have been meant to express contempt.

The cartoons themselves are here:

http://pajamasmedia.com/2006/02/mohammed_cartoons_ published_in.php

They are the lamest bits of "contempt" westerners have ever seen.

Compare these images to the image "Piss Christ" (a crucifix in a jar of the "artists" urine)

http://instapundit.com/archives/028348.php

and then recall the non-issue it became.

To a moslem depicting the profet is totally forbidden, apparently, which the newspaper in question certainly knew;

Completely, proveably false!

Links to Pictures of the Big Mo thru history:

http://instapundit.com/archives/028427.php

also see:

http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.ht ml?id=110007934

So, to sum it up: Denmark is festering in xenophobia and inflamed rhetoric; a newspaper decides to try to cash in on stirring up the shit and behave a spoiled brat; instead of being mature and apologize, the West is spiteful. Whatever one may think of the moslem world, this is simply not an honourable way to behave.

First of all, we should all be making a careful distinction between Islamo-Facists and "moslems".

I personally am an escapee from communist eastern europe, so I understand quite well that not all eastern europeans were communists.

Second of all, some of the cartoons created by the I-F are here:

http://www.tomgrossmedia.com/ArabCartoons.htm

The thoughtfull reader can compare and contrast them with the cartoons of the Big Mo and decide who is stirring shit.

The reaction of the Islamo-Facist element fits in perfectly with this cartoon

http://thestudyofrevenge.blogspot.com/2006/01/isla m-is-poopy_21.html

Note: Cartoon is being pathetically censored by blogger.

As I've once or twice mentioned here, I used to be a staffer in a Congressional office. About seven years ago, I made a concerted effort to get my Member to do a Slashdot interview. It didn't pan out, but I can assure you of two things: first, that yes it probably would have been written by a staffer. And two, that the Member in question would have read it, deeply annotated and editted it, and then sent it back to be written, re-written and written once more before sending it back. That's just how it works: they have to respond in writing to thousands of requests from constituents, the media, government agencies, etc. Not to mention their colleages.

So you get your staffers to write stuff, which you then revise and approve. How much oversight goes into one of these letters? Well, mine reviewed a few thousand documents every evening, then gave them back in the morning. Each was heavily marked up with his Red Pen of Death, so I'm pretty sure that he read them all. Others, I know, don't. Some look at only the "important" correspondence, or spot-check, or more heavily use form letters (though we used those too). Ultimately, even a great representative has thousands of letters to write every day. You have to be realistic about what they can do.

As for a blog, you have to be realistic about what makes a good blog. Lots of good links (which means copious web browsing), and lots of good new content. No politician has time to generate all that and still attend to their duties. So of course they'd kick it over to their press secretaries-- that's what they're for.

If you don't believe me, check out Andrew Sullivan or Roger L. Simon or Winds of Change or any of our friends on the Advisory Board over at Pajamas Media. Their blogs are (or are nearly) full time occupations. A politician isn't purely a media figure. In fact, many of the best are guys you haven't heard of. Expecting them to drop everything to become full time bloggers is unreasonable, but most have known the influence of the blogs for some time now.

First, the data is know to be fake. From this link:

http://news.pajamasmedia.com/world/2005/12/15/6683 762_Doctor_Cloning_P.shtml

Roh also told MBC television that Hwang had pressured a former scientist at his lab to fake data to make it look like there were 11 stem cell colonies.

In a separate report, a former researcher told MBC that Hwang ordered him to fabricate photos to make it appear there were 11 separate colonies from only three.

"This is something I shouldn't have done," said the researcher, who was identified only by his last name, Kim, and whose face was not shown. "I had no choice but to do it."

Second, from this link:

http://science.monstersandcritics.com/news/article _1073161.php/Disgraced_Korean_cloning_pioneer_pres sured_woman_colleague

It quoted the woman as saying she felt 'forced' to donate egg cells, having been told that if she did not do so her name would be removed from a research document published in 2004.

I hardly need to make editorial comment on these facts. Those without ethics will continue to insist nothing is wrong. Those of us with ethics shudder with revultion and hope the guy never works in a postition of authority again.

There is another business venture consisting of associated blogs - Pajamas Media - which should be mentioned in this context. Its business model is based on creating a multi-blog advertising system. As far as I know, pajamas uses serious political blogs rather than "daily diary" sorts of things.

Perhaps we need a different term for serious blogs about whatever subject. Also a term for the commenter community that grows up around each one. Here's your chance to get famous, although Bill Quick, who invented the term "blogosphere," doesn't seem to have gathered enough fame from that.