Peoria Pundit

… is a creative name for a blog that supposedly includes posts from
former Gen. Wesley Clark. Unfortunately, CBS article
on
the *blog failed to include the URL for the blog! * Fortunately, there
is a link on the candidate’s official Website
. Unfortunately, there’s nothing there but a
couple of announcements about appearances and fundraising. He’s supposed
to blog personally about once a week. We’ll see. So far, the general
ain’t speaking.

Here’s a tip for all you young reporters out there: When writing about
Web sites, it might be a good idea to *mention the damn URL!*

… fighting bias from the left /and the right/ requires a little self
awareness . And
what better place to develop that awareness than through a strong
liberal arts education. Of course, J-schools are leaning away from
objectivity.

http://www.daybydaycartoon.com/Cartoons/09-18-2003.gif

… who I know will appreciate the
humor.

Remember folks, there’s not a tinker’s damn worth of difference between
the GOP and the Dems. They are just different wings of the same ruling
party.

… of America’s most libertarian minded newspaper chain
.
The worst scenario would be if Freedom Communications is sold to yet
another media conglomerate. I’ve worked for these guys. They are good
people. It’s a shame that our nation’s confiscatory tax laws are helping
destroy family owned newspapers.

.. but I am referring to
the /soft drink/. Geeze, some people

have suspicious minds.

… cause of the nice things he wrote
about me. Tom
Mangan?s Prints the Chaff blog is
one of the best independent journalism blogs around (I hesitate to use
the term ?j-blog”). He used to run these two great sites called Seven
Questions and Newsies on the Web
.

Tom used Peoria Pundit (yeah, I?m
linking to myself. Deal with it.) as an example of how spunky,
independent blogs can?t live up to their potential without resources
available to dead-tree media and broadcasters.

My reply is posted
on his site.

… is a story with legs. Romenesko
has tons of links to
follow up articles about this mess. Jack Shafer, for example, writes
that at least six journalists were
contacted by two different White House leakers:

/How do we know that? An unnamed source?”a senior administration
official”?told the Post so, adding that he “would not name the
leakers for the record and would not name the journalists.” In other
words, a White House leaker is leaking to the Washington Post about
Novak’s White House leakers, but the leaker to the Post draws short
of dribbling out the identities of who leaked to Novak and whom else
they tried to leak to. The Post source does, however, pass stern
judgment on Novak’s leakers, saying the leaks were “wrong and a huge
miscalculation, because they were irrelevant and did nothing to
diminish Wilson’s credibility.”/

Leaks are so common in Washington politics, I doubt many of the leakers
or leakees even bother to consider the legal or ethical ramifications
any more. That’s the pity.

… I have the following stuff on my plate tomorrow:

? Putting the October 2003 issue of the The Community Word on the Web.

? Putting together the next issue of The Heinlein Society newsletter.

? Attending a rather large job fair. Baby needs a new pair of shoes.

? Watching the Cubs play Atlanta. This may be the most important of the
four. This is /not/ one of those half-serious comments.

I may not have time for much blogging. Deal with it.

…. the Cubs haven’t won a post-season game since the 1945 World
Series. Until tonight that is. Chicago beat the Braves 4-2. In Atlanta.
Kerry Wood is the winning pitcher.

Teams that win a playoff opener _on the road_ are overwhelming favorites
to win that series.

… on tomorrow’s 60 Minutes II
? Perhaps. If this
blurb is any indication, the boys at Black Rock are at least trying to
get both sides:

/In the five months since President Bush declared major combat over
in Iraq, at least 80 GIs have been killed and more than 750 wounded.
But there has also been a lot of progress, particularly in the
north. Correspondent Scott Pelley reports on two Iraqs — one at war
and one at peace. He spent last month traveling the country to find
out how the war is going, and if there has been any progress toward
peace. Pelley visited with the 101st Airborne Division in the north,
where troops and civilians are working together to stabilize the
region. The Americans are busy training a civilian police force,
holding local elections, opening schools and repairing pipelines.
The troops there say they haven’t come under fire in three months.

But Pelley also spoke with GIs patrolling the area from Baghdad to
Tikrit and down to Ramadi, a triangle of Saddam support that is a
danger zone in Iraq for Americans. The soldiers there aren’t so
lucky. They face the threat of enemy fire every day, and some of
that opposition comes from Saddam’s paramilitary fighters, known as
the Fedayeen. One man who claims to be a member of the Fedayeen
tells us, “I wish that I have missiles that could bomb you in
America to kill you as your sons killed our sons and our families
just like this and you’ll be all in hell.” In Baghdad, Pelley takes
us to a place the Army calls Sector 17. Both Iraqs exist in that
part of the capital, a sector so unpredictable that when gunfire is
heard the troops don’t know if it’s a threat, or a celebration in
progress. This week on 60 Minutes II, there’s evidence of war and
the progress of peace in Iraq./

Reading headlines alone would give the impression that things are worse
now in Iraq than they were before we got there.