Blogpac.org - This seems to be a good idea

This group is pledging to wage progressive politics completely online. Any money raised will be spent online.

Statement from their website:

"Writing a blog post is not enough. Reading a blog post is not enough. Commenting on a blog is not enough.

Being educated is the first step toward political change. But the next step requires doing something.

BlogPac.org is that next step -- a group of bloggers not content to simply write words or read them, but eager to take action on the pressing issues of our day. We will not sit idly by and merely chatter as everything we care about burns. And you join us in our efforts. "

The Debates

Remember back in 2000 when Gore was expected to clean "W's" clock during the debates? Expectations were high back then and I think it caused everyone to regard even an "Okay" performance by Bush to look like a win.

This time, I don't think we have those abnormally high expectations of Kerry, and maybe it puts the debaters on equal ground going in. At least I hope so.

Ch-Ch-Changes at WMQX - Oldies 93.1 FM

Just found out that some changes are underway at Oldies 93 in Greensboro. The morning show host, Jack Armstrong, has been let go. Max McGann is taking his place. Not sure if that is permanent.

Gary "Boom-Boom" Cannon is coming in to do Mid-days. I worked with Gary years ago at 98.7 FM here in Greensboro when it was known as WRQK. Gary has recently been working in Charlotte at Magic Oldies 96.1FM. That station is owned by Clear Channel and was recently changed to 96.1 The Beat, with an Urban CHR format just like 94.5 The Beat here in Greensboro.

Make your own George Bush speech

From Mr Sun.

Make your own George Bush Speech.

Funny, but at the same time, sad, because it is so true. He nails it.

Internet streaming coming back to the Triad

For those of you who like to listen to local radio via Internet streaming, there is good news.

The four stations I work with, 99.5 WMAG, 104.1 WTQR, 94.5 WGBT and 100.3 WVBZ are going to resume streaming no later than November 1st.

Most local stations were streaming over the Internet during the late 90's and into early 2001. But a new contract was signed with the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) in 2000. This mandated that commercials produced by these members would be paid a royalty each time the commercial was played over the stream.

Radio stations were not making any money on streaming and in fact it was costing money to pay for bandwidth and the equipment and the fees to music licensees, such as ASCAP and BMI. So with the added expense created by the new contract, and the uncertainty of how to track it, most stations decided in early 2001 to end the streaming.

Now, new technology makes it simpler and cheaper to do what is called ad insertion. This is a process of stripping out all of the commercials, including ones produced by AFTRA talent, that play over the original broadcast, and substituting locally produced commercials in their place. This means that streaming goes from a being added expense, to being a revenue producer in it's own right. At least that's the plan. Time will tell whether or not enough streaming only commercials can be sold to pay for the cost of it. But we're going to give it a try.

We are testing the ad insertion technology now and hope to resume Internet streaming no later than November 1st. The tests are going well, and I think it will be sooner than that.

I'm excited about it. I have always listened to Internet broadcasts and with the added numbers of broadband customers out there, I think streaming is going to make a big comeback.

I haven't done any in-depth search, but I think at this point in time, there are no other stations in the Triad doing Internet streaming. If I'm wrong, I'm sure someone will point it out to me.

Best T-Shirt saying of the day

Two of our stations, WTQR and The Buzzard sponsored the Big Paul Ride to benefit the Victory Junction Gang Camp. I went to the rally point at the Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston Salem this morning to help register riders. One of the riders had on a t-shirt that said on the back, "If you can read this, it means the Hooter girl fell off."

Release The Rats!

Can you imagine being trapped alive beneath a collapsed building and hearing your rescuers shout, "Release the Rats!

It could happen. Rats equipped with radios that transmit their brainwaves could soon be helping to locate earthquake survivors buried in the wreckage of collapsed buildings.

Click Here for the article in the New Scientist.

Bloggers as Cops

"Blog and bloggers have made a huge mark in 2004, and this should give every major marketer and advertiser pause for deep reflection. Just consider the current world of journalism, where blogs have made perhaps their biggest and most indelible mark. Faster than you can say RSS, blog writers have blindsided the journalism community by disrupting traditional protocols, accelerating the speed with which stories get to market, and venturing into media coverage zones once deemed "untouchable." "

See the entire article from Media Post

Could this qualify as "Cruel and Unusual Punishment"?

There should be laws against experimentation of this type.

Yahoo! Inc. and media agency OMD asked participants in their "Internet Deprivation Study" to live without the Internet for two weeks.

The results weren't pretty. The subjects reported a sense of withdrawal, frustration, and disconnectedness when the Internet was removed from their lives.

Click Here for all the gory details.

I know I would resort to prostitution to pay my Road Runner bill. But then I would have to come up with some other idea to get the money.

Time for some linkin'

Some great info out there you need to see.

The White House won't make this mistake again.
Why can't the damn media ask questions like this? Mathew Gross pointed out what happened when the public got a chance to ask questions of White House Communications Director Dan Bartlett. Here is the link to the complete "Ask the White House" web event.

Proof that God is at least somewhat pissed at Republicans
From Lex Alexander and his Blog on the Run, "Bob Morris thought it was an interesting coincidence that a state with questionable presidential election results would be pummeled by hurricanes just before the next election." So he overlaid maps showing 2000 election results by county with maps showing the hurricane tracks. And he's now pretty sure he has proved something."

JW Drops the F-Bomb
Funny story from JW concerning her hormones and the proper use of the F-Bomb.

If they would just lower the damn prices I would buy one
From Wired News. U.S. lawmakers are increasingly willing to contemplate bold action to get people to stop watching analog, over-the-airwaves television and switch to digital TV. How bold? They will consider a bill Wednesday that pays a $1 billion subsidy to make it happen.

I don't like how I feel

I can't recall actually becoming angry like this before. Not over an election.

I know I feel differently about this election than I have ever felt before. I actually felt it necessary for me to change my voter registration.

I was born into a family of Republicans. Heck, my mother voted for Eisenhower and then immediately went into labor. I was born at 11:04 pm on 11/04/1952. The same day Dwight was elected into office.

My parents are Republicans, both sets of my grandparents were Republicans.

But we were not an overtly political family. We didn't have political discussions around the dinner table. I don't recall my parents ever really talking about a presidential candidate as I was growing up.

When I turned18 and registered to vote, I registered as a Republican. I voted for Nixon in 1972. But I did all that because I was not really aware of the political process and I just registered Republican, because I had been born Republican.

But after that 1972 election, I started paying more attention to politics. I started to develop my own ideas about things instead of just going along with the flow. When 1976 came along, I voted for Ford over Carter. He turned out to be the last Republican I ever voted for for President. When 1980 rolled around, I had changed my registration to unaffiliated and I voted for John Anderson. Since then, my presidential vote has gone to the Democratic candidate. But I never felt the need to change my registration because I have voted for some Republicans in other races and never wanted to align myself with a particular party. I just didn't feel it was something I needed to do. Until now.

This year, for the first time in my life, I have registered as a Democrat.

I'm not sure why, but I think I need to make a statement. Maybe not a statement to anyone else, but certainly a statement to myself. This year, the stakes are just too high.

George Bush has got to go. He has squandered our military resources in this useless exercise in Iraq. He has sqaundered our good relations with most of the civilized world. He has not concentrated on destroying the real terrorists who threaten our country. He is damaging our economy that boasted a surplus when he came into office. He is destroying jobs. He is not working to improve health care. He is arrogant, and he has surrounded himself with people who do not have the best of interests of this country at heart.

I find myself actually hating the man. I can't help it, but that is the way I feel. And I have never felt this way before about a candidate for elective office.

Possibly my hate is developing because I see the momentum for his election growing and Kerry's diminishing. Maybe I'm just frustrated. I hope I can change how I feel, especially if Bush is re-elected, because it is no fun feeling this way.

Audio Blogs

This is a neat idea. Syndicated radio shows fed to your iPod via RSS in mp3 format. It mentions several audio blogs that are available such as Dave Winer's Morning Coffee Notes, Blogdigger Audio and more.

Bombing in Indonesia has a local interest for me

The Bombing in Indonesia today is more than just a news story for me. My brother-in-law and sister-in-law and my less than 2 year old neice live and work there. I am not going to give their names or what they do there because this post could be read by anyone in the world. Maybe I'm paranoid, but hey, you never know.

As soon as I heard about it this morning, my wife and I started to worry. But they e-mailed us this morning to let us know they were all right. Here is what they had to say.

We (and everyone we know) are fine. The bomb was located near the Australian Embassy and seems to have mainly effected the two buildings near the embassy and the locals that work security at the embassy and of course those working in those buildings (almost mainly Indonesians).

No doubt it was the handywork of the same group that orchestrated the Bali and Marriott bombs. Although the head of said organization is serving time, he was spotted by the media last week in a local Starbucks having mochaccino with the local head of police. The police acknowledged it was him and claim that was some sort of interrogation technique. I suppose the dialog went something like this... "Tell us the truth or we will force you to drink more coffee from the infidels..." Sorry, its all just a part of life here in Jakarta. (And yes, we have Starbucks and yes it's still $5 for a bloody cup of foo-foo coffee.)

We have no word from the US Embassy about any plans to evacuate. We'll keep you posted, but I wouldn't expect it.

Thank God for the Internet and the ablility to get word from them so quickly.

U.S. Military Deaths in Iraq Pass 1,000

A new milestone for our war president. Yahoo! News - U.S. Military Deaths in Iraq Pass 1,000

Should government operate like a business?

In the controversy over the busing problems experienced by the Guilford County Schools this year, David Hoggard mentioned that the Guilford County School Board said the school system operates like a business.

David went on to say that, "....if the schools were truly being run like a business some heads would roll as an overt sign to us, the customers, that accountability must be demonstrated."

I have a problem with both of those statements.

Number one, if the School Board said that the school system is operated like a business, then they don't have a clear idea of how a business really operates.

Number two, a real business, operated in a business like and professional manner, would never fire one or more people as a gesture to the public that accountability was being demonstrated.

Do we really demand a sacrifice be offered up in the form of a fired worker to placate our anger? I would much rather we solve the problem than just fire someone to make a point.

I've always had a problem with people saying that government should operate like a business, because government cannot and should not be operated like a business.

Sure, there are some business practices that we can employ in government. But we, the public, the customers, demand too much accountability and too much openess from government for it to ever operate in a business like way. We demand our government entities operate like a democracy, and a well run business is not a democracy.

A real business functions with a lot more secrecy and a lot less openess than we would ever tolerate in government.

Business operates only to make a profit.

Government operates only to serve the public.

Those are two completely different goals.

I'm depressed

The momentum seems to be on the side of George Bush now. Looking back, you can see how the Bush campaign used the Swift Boat Vet ads to cut into Kerry's momentum just before the Republican convention. Then combine that with the natural bounce from the convention, and you get some real movement heading downhill into the final days before the election.

I hope Kerry can re-group, but I'm pessimistic. It is just so damn depressing to think of 4 more years of Bush.

Bill Clinton is a Genius

God I love that man. If I could vote for him again I damn well would do it.

But just when the rest of us are sitting around wondering what we can do to stop the Republican Party from getting even more press about their convention, Bill Clinton steps up to the plate and actually does something about it. The man has a heart attack.

OK, maybe he didn't have a heart attack, I don't think that has been determined yet. But he at least had some chest pains.

The man didn't stop there though. No, he takes the next step and goes in for not 1, not 2, not 3, but quadruple bypass surgery. You gotta love him.

He manages to once again mute the Republicans message just a little bit. Admittedly, he won't stop all the talk about the republicans, but at least we have a lot of talk about something else for a change.

We could all learn something from this man.

Just to show my support, I went today and had a skin cancer cut out of my back. Got 20 stiches in it. I know, I know, it's not heart surgery. But at least I'm doing my part. Now if I can just get the mainstream media to report it, we can keep some of this talk of Bush to a minimum. I think Francis is going to cut into my pub just a bit though.

Blogger fired for.....Blogging.

MediaPost Advertising & Media DirectoryClick Here to read an article about a blogger who was fired for just mentioning the company she works for in her blog.

Seems like ground for a lawsuit to me.

Yes, I have been gone for awhile. Been busy. Sorry.