FREEBIRD (FREEb)

[Vivian]

Yep, Castle...those wonders are what (often) create the stuff of legends.

Having fun with that new toy, aren't you? Maybe you've discovered a new career.

[j.c.]

Viv...
I think it's a very big rock... I did, at first, think it might have been a speck or something on the lens, but it has lighting and shadow. I even tried to see it through binoculars... still didn't see it with my eyes.
I took a shot of my ceiling fan spinning... the camera, in vga (lowest) mode, caught the blades as if they were standing still... no blur. The wonders of technology

[Vivian]

Cool pics, Castle...

You think the object is a UFO, or maybe a reflection/distortion from the camera since your eyes didn't see it?

Now I know where to look for Mars, anyway. Been feeling like a complete doofus as I've been unable to find it. Biggest damn object in the sky, save for the Moon, and I can't see it! Sheesh! Thanks, though...I just hope I can find it now. LOL

[j.c.]

The Perseid meteor shower...
as expected, the shower itself was not as spectacular as the one I saw in 2001... with the full moon and Mars nearby, it was fairly difficult to see many 'shooting stars' this time, but I did see a few. Did the full moon spoiled the meteor shower? No way... nearly clear skies... beautiful full moon... Mars getting bigger and brighter by the day... and shooting stars. This giving way to yet another awesome sunrise.
I love the night
The day is OK and the sun can be fun but I live
To see those rays slip away
~BOC

Photo:
http://www.sunndach.com/photo/81303.html

[Vivian]

You are probably right, no sport in being left alone, is there?

Lovely sunrise! Mine was in my rearview this morning so I didn't get a good look. Sunset promises to be gorgeous, so if it's not the predicted 108, I might just go outside for a few.

[j.c.]

Received in email... take it or leave it... have faith or not. Personally, I'd like to believe we are doing much more good than not, and that our troops are appreciated as much there as here...

Letter to the Legion

Dear Post 45,

I caught wind of and read the recent news articles being circulated back
there in the states. I figured I could clarify some things for you.

As usual the news media has blown some things way out of proportion. The
countryside is getting more safe by the day despite all the attacks you
are hearing about. Imagine every shooting incident or robbery committed
in LA or Portland being blown way out of proportion. This is a country
where most of the Saddam Hussein thugs are being chased around like
scared rabbits by Coalition forces. It is literally open season on them!
We hunt them down like animals. There were about a million soldiers in
the Iraqi army at the beginning of hostilities and most of them took off
before we attacked. There are some that were very loyal to Saddam that
are trying to sneak around and take pot shots at us. We are cleaning
them up pretty fast.

There are also thugs from other countries running around, like Iran and
Syria. Well, the Iraqis hate these thugs as much as we do. So the Iraqi
people are hunting them down too! I can honestly say 98% of the
population of Iraq love us and they do not want us to leave...ever! They
say as long as we are here they feel safe.

What is going on with the countries infrastructure? Everything is going
well! The railroad is running again! The railroad has not run since
1991. In the city of Hilllah, the power stays on 24 hours a day and it
has more power than prior to the war. Some Iraqis are worried about
getting too much food from the coalition because they don't have enough
room in their homes to store it. The markets are open. The Seabees have
rebuilt all of the schools and put in furniture and chalkboards. The
kids used to sit on the floor! Now they have nice desks to sit at.
Commerce is running. New money is being printed. The Iraqi Dinar has
stabilized and is now increasing in value. Most of the Iraqi men want to
buy Chevy pickups (I told them a Dodge Ram with a Cummins Diesel is
better Ha Ha). They pretty much want any vehicle made by General Motors.
The highways and bridges are being repaired. In the Universities, the
girls have tossed their deshakas (long black dresses with head and face
coverings) and are now wearing western style clothes and even some are
wearing short sleeves. The favorite drink is Pepsi, followed by Coke.
They want us to bring them any and everything American. Any item made in
America or that is from America is worth money over here.

The newspapers and television paint a picture of doom and gloom and that
we are having major problems over here. That is just not the case. The
Iraqis have a saying about the situation over here "Every day is better
than the day before". Life is flowing back in to this country and it is
fun to watch and I am so glad I got to watch it happen. Some days
watching the Iraqi people is like watching the faces of little kids on
Christmas Day! Many of them are walking around in a daze wondering what
to do with their freedom. They are starting businesses everywhere. They
want to build shopping malls and factories, they want McDonalds and Jack
in the Box and Pizza Hut. Of course anything American Fast Food, because
of the stories the troops are telling them. We give them our old
newspapers and magazines that you have been sending us and they are
absolutely flabbergasted when they read them! They want us to keep
bringing them. They read every single page even the advertisements over
and over! This would be a good time for media to get their magazines
going over here because the Iraqis just love them.

So in short you see I will give you the straight scoop and keep you
informed of what is up over here. I will sign off for now and send this
along. Thanks again to all of you for your support. My mailing address
has changed. The older one is no longer working. I will tell you the new
one as soon as we get it.

Senior Chief Art Messer
22 Naval Construction Regiment (Forward) Task Force Charlie
U. S. Navy Seabees
"With Compassion For Others, We Build, We Fight, For Peace With Freedom"

FOR GOD AND COUNTRY!

[j.c.]

Ah... Ms. Viv...
I surmise it's the 'no rules' concept. I had forgotten... people need rules... to bend... to break... to challenge. Guess it's no fun to post on a board where the moderators aren't likely to get riled
Aside... t'was a beautiful, clear night giving way to a slightly overcast eastern sky... providing me a beautiful sunrise. Much more to life than the squabbles found on these boards...
Have a good one!

[j.c.]

Mars Moves in for Some Quality Visual Time



Frosty white water ice clouds and swirling orange dust storms above a vivid rusty landscape reveal Mars as a dynamic planet in this sharpest view ever obtained by an Earth-based telescope.


Living too close to a neighbor may not be very appealing, but when Earth's neighboring red planet moves closer than it's been in 60,000 years, observers expect nothing but acclaim.

Scientists and amateur astronomers will benefit from the spectacular view of Mars this August as it appears bigger and brighter than ever before, revealing its reflective south polar cap and whirling dust clouds.

On August 27, 2003, the fourth rock from the sun will be less than 55.76 million kilometers (34.65 million miles) away from the Earth. In comparison to the space between your house and your neighbor's yard, that may seem like a large distance, but Mars was about five times that distance from Earth only six months ago.

"Think of Earth and Mars as two race cars going around a track," said Dr. Myles Standish, an astronomer from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "Earth is on a race track that is inside the track that Mars goes around, and neither track is perfectly circular. There is one place where the two race tracks are closest together. When Earth and Mars are at that place simultaneously, it is an unusually close approach, referred to as a 'perihelic opposition'."

Opposition is a term used when Earth and another planet are lined up in the same direction from the Sun. The term perihelic comes from perihelion, the point of orbit in which a celestial body is closest to the Sun. This August, Mars will reach its perihelion and be in line with Earth and the Sun at the same time.

The average opposition occurs about every two years, when Earth laps Mars on its orbit around the Sun. In 1995, the opposition brought Mars 101.1 million kilometers (62.8 million miles) from the Earth, twice as far as this most recent approach.


This composite image of Earth and Mars was created to allow viewers to gain a better understanding of the relitive sizes of the two planets.


"It gets more complicated as the race tracks are changing shape and size and are rotating, changing their orientation," Standish explains. "So this place where the two tracks are closest together constantly changes, changing the opposition closeness as well. This is why a 'great' approach, like the one this month, hasn't happened in 50,000 years. But with the tracks closer together now, there will be even closer approaches in the relatively near future."

Aside from visiting a local observatory, peering through a telescope is the best way to take advantage of this unique opportunity. Since June, Mars has been noticeably bright in the night's sky, only outshined by Venus and the Moon. Observers in the Northern Hemisphere will see it glowing remarkably in the southern sky lying in the constellation Aquarius, best seen just before dawn.

"You're not going to go outside and see some big red ball in the sky. It will look like a bright red star," said Standish.

The word 'planet' is derived from the Greek expression for 'wanderer.' At such a close distance, Mars remains true to this expectation as it consistently wanders across the night's sky. Tracking the "red star's" movement from week to week is yet another way to appreciate this rare occasion, since Mars appears to dart across the sky in comparison to more distant planets, such as Jupiter.

Although Mars will be closest on August 27, astronomers suggest viewing the planet earlier, as dust storm season is just beginning on the red planet and can obstruct a more detailed view.

Whether you are viewing through a telescope, glancing through a pair of binoculars, or star-gazing outside the city, be sure to take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, for Mars will not make another neighborly visit this close until 2287.
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/spotlight/marsClose01.html

[ergo sum]

Saintly Spirit Remembered, in a Truly Balkan Way
By IAN FISHER


KOPJE, Macedonia, Aug. 1 — Mother Teresa will soon become a saint. But this celebration of the divine in a human being has turned out to be as good a moment as any to fight about all the worldly things that usually get fought about in the Balkans: namely, religion, ethnicity and history.

The conflict centers on an attempt, so far unsuccessful, to donate a statue of Mother Teresa to the city of Rome. It is a simple enough dispute on one level, but on another it reflects the enduring strains that have made it so hard to stitch together Balkan societies.

The tale begins with a solitary fact that no one, mercifuly, disputes: Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, who became the world's most famous Roman Catholic missionary, universally known as Mother Teresa, was born in August 1910 here in Skopje. (As for the exact date, some say she was born on Aug. 26, others Aug. 27.)

The city was then an especially mixed corner of the Ottoman Empire, home to Turks, Greeks, Serbs, Bulgarians, Macedonians, Gypsies, Jews, Vlachs and Albanians, which is what Mother Teresa always said she was.

After Mother Teresa's death in 1997, one of Macedonia's most famous artists, Tome Serafimovski, fashioned a nine-foot bronze statue of her that now stands in downtown Skopje. As the Vatican moved to make her a saint, Mr. Serafimovski decided to donate a copy to Rome. Its delivery was to coincide with her expected beatification, the last step before sainthood, in October.

The intention, he said, was pure: "Mother Teresa was well known all over the world," he said. "She is from our city. She is a Nobel Prize winner."

But then last month, an Albanian newspaper here, Fakti, carried a sensational scoop: the statue, it reported from Italy, was to have an inscription identifying her as "a Macedonian daughter."

Albanian leaders were outraged. This was an attempt, they said, by the Macedonians to claim Mother Teresa as one of their own. The inscription, one Albanian political party charged, "undermines the Albanian national identity and represents usurpation of Mother Teresa's origin."

Ethnic Albanians make up perhaps a quarter, though some say a third or more, of Macedonia's two million people. (No one knows for certain and, like much else, it is argued over bitterly.)

The largest national group here are often considered Slavs. But many Macedonians contend hotly that they are in fact not Slavs, but descended from ancient Macedonians like Alexander the Great. Whatever their descent, they fought a brief war with ethnic Albanians in 2001.

Mother Teresa has now emerged as yet another strain in this larger national tug of war.

What complicates matters further is that Mother Teresa was Roman Catholic, while most Albanians are Muslim, and this has opened a crack for speculation about Mother Teresa's actual ethnic roots.

Jasmina Mironski, a prominent Macedonian journalist who has written two books on Mother Teresa, says there is no doubt that Mother Teresa's own mother, Dranafila Bernaj, was ethnic Albanian. But as far as her father, Nikola Bojaxhiu, goes, "He is the tricky combination."

She says the "u" that ends his name made him more likely a Vlach, a non-Slavic Orthodox people also called Walachians. Plus, she said, Mother Teresa "didn't speak Albanian, that's for sure; she only knew five words of Albanian."

Moreover, her brother's name was Lazar, the name of Serbia's most famous prince. "It's very Serbian, to be frank," she said.

This is heresy to Albanians, who say they have been repeatedly persecuted by Serbs.

The debate has leached out from Macedonia to intellectuals in Albania proper, who in July wrote in anger to the mayor of Rome urging him to resist the effort "to usurp the figure and deeds of Mother Teresa," as well as to Internet chat rooms read by Macedonians around the world.

"Mother Teresa was a Vlach from Macedonia," one Macedonian writer posted smugly on a Web site. "Never a Shiptar," a derogatory term for Albanians.

All sides say, naturally, that their only interest is to see Mother Teresa's life celebrated, but with the maximum truth possible.

"The whole world knows the pope is Polish," said Sulejman Rushiti, vice president of the Democratic Party of Albanians. "And if someone would say he was some other nationality, the Poles would be offended."

With the argument still raging, Risto Penov, the mayor of Skopje, who is overseeing the donation of the statue, noted that no one ever said Mother Teresa was Macedonian, just perhaps not 100 percent Albanian (Mr. Penov, who is Macedonian, also says she could not speak Albanian.)

Moreover, he said, there was never a plan for an inscription that mentioned a "Macedonian daughter." He said the idea is now the same as it always was, for an inscription that reads simply: "Born Skopje 26 August 1910. Died Calcutta 5 September 1997."

"Now we have a person who can put us together again — and we're dividing ourselves," he said. But the editors at Fakti insist that their report was right.

Dragging his hand across his nose, the artist, Mr. Serafimovski, said he had had it "up to here" with all the bickering. No statue will be donated, he said, until the issue is resolved. He opposes anything even hinting that Mother Teresa was Macedonian (even if he himself believes the father was Vlach).

At Mother Teresa's own order in Skopje, yet another view seemed to prevail about this woman who left Skopje at the age of 18. An Italian nun who declined to be identified said Mother Teresa unquestionably spoke Albanian, among other languages, but felt the strongest affinity with another part of the world entirely. "Most of her life, she spent in Calcutta," she declared. "She felt more Indian than any other citizenship."

[Vivian]

Where'd y'all go? eom

[j.c.]

RIP

Rock Pioneer Sam Phillips Dead
By Joal Ryan

The man who cut Elvis Presley's first record, helped Johnny Cash walk the line and brushed up Carl Perkins' "Blue Suede Shoes," has died.

Sam Phillips (news), the founder of Sun Records, the label recognized as the birthplace of rock 'n' roll, passed away Wednesday at St. Francis Hospital in Memphis. He was 80.


According to the Memphis Commercial Appeal, Phillips had been ill for several months. On Wednesday, he was watching a Chicago Cubs baseball game on TV when he took a turn for the worse and was taken to the hospital, his son told the paper.


"I don't think any other Memphian had any more effect on the world than Sam," Knox Phillips, the son, said in the Commercial Appeal.


Certainly, no other Memphis notable, outside of Elvis Presley (news), left a greater music legacy.


"Sam gave Elvis that all-important first break and was there to take him seriously and give him an opportunity to be heard," Todd Morgan of Elvis Presley Enterprises said Thursday. "Who knows what might have become of Elvis' dreams if Sam had not been there where he was?"


Among the classics recorded by Phillips: Elvis' debut single, "That's All Right (Mama);" Jerry Lee Lewis (news)' "Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On;" Cash's "I Walk the Line;" Perkins' "Blue Suede Shoes;" and Jackie Brenston's "Rocket 88."


The latter song, while not the oft-played oldies' radio staple like other hits in the Phillips catalog, is arguably the most important of them all, with some historians regarding "Rocket 88," recorded in 1951, as the first rock record. Ever.


Little wonder that Phillips was regarded as "the Thomas Edison of rock 'n' roll" by Elvis' so-called Memphis Mafia entourage, according to the Commercial Appeal.


"Sam was a nurturing figure in a lot of people's careers," Elvis Presley Enterprise (news - web sites)'s Morgan said.


Roy Orbison and country crooner Charlie Rich (news) were others who got their start with the onetime disc jockey.


Born January 5, 1923, in Florence, Alabama, Phillips moved to Memphis in 1945, opening the doors of the Memphis Recording Service in 1950.


While segregation was the rule of order in the 1950s South, the doors at Phillips' studio were "open unconditionally--period," ex-wife Becky Phillips told the Commercial Appeal.


"A person could be black, white, down on his luck, big or little," Becky Phillips said in the paper. "A person's color was determined by what was in his heart and soul."


The open-door policy helped break down doors between genres, with R&B and country blending into a hepped-up hybrid called rockabilly.


"I always hated [that term]," Phillips once told the Commercial Appeal. "[T]o me it was rock 'n' roll. Whether it was black rock 'n' roll or white rock 'n' roll, it was rock 'n' roll."


Phillips founded Sun Records in March 1952. Through the next 16 years, the label released 226 singles, according to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Perhaps no single was more significant than Sun 209, released in July 1954. The artist: Elvis Presley.

Phillips and Presley met in the summer of 1953 when rock's future King walked into Memphis Recording Service to cut, as legend has it, a couple of songs to present to his beloved mama on her birthday. (Morgan points out that Gladys Presley's birthday was in April, casting doubt on the veracity of that oft-told tale.)

Whatever Elvis' motives, Phillips heard potential in the Mississippi-born baritone. He invited him back to record for Sun, hooking him up with guitarist Scotty Moore and bass player Bill Black.

"And magic happened," Morgan said.

Presley's first five singles were issued on Sun. In 1955, Phillips signed over Elvis' contract to RCA Records for $35,000.

The sun set on Sun in 1969 when Phillips sold off the label's catalog. Its offices stand in Memphis still today, rock's mecca a tourist attraction like Presley's Graceland seven miles down the road.

In 1986, Presley, who died in 1977, and Phillips were reunited, both men among the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's original inductees. Fellow Sun alum Jerry Lee Lewis was another Class of 1986 honoree. Orbison and Perkins followed in 1987 and Cash joined them in 1992.

"I am a sound freak. I could play around with sound forever," Phillips told NPR in 2001, in trying to explain his success. "There's no amount of brains and dollars and sense...that can bring you around to getting the joy out of doing something in sound that I see and feel until this day and always will until I'm no longer around physically."

[Churak]

Contact Animal Advocates; they will be sure to skin the seal & send you the slippery carpet.

[SoxFan]

Low you just exaggerate everything I write down and twist my words to suit your infantile purposes. When I squeeze the seal it's already dead from the clubbing, so there you're wrong once again. Talk about accuracy in media!

[Lownumba]

Dear SPCA: I have learned of a man who squeezes his seal. What should I do? Lownumba, animal lover

[SoxFan]

But I have a corporate seal and I love squeezing it together.

[Lownumba]

Sox, please do not member mark me. It sounds like it could be a painful procedure in a delicate area.

[SoxFan]

I find you to be particularly caustic this session. It appears that you've succumbed to Red Sox feva and it has almost made you into a person to admire. A few more posts like today and I'll membermark you.

[Lownumba]

I don't actually live in Rhode Island. I just said that to throw you off. I live in a suburb of Boston. It's a nice town except my neighbor is a blowhard.

[SoxFan]

I was thinking of going to Rhode Island to visit it and now I'm definitely going. So keep it up bubba as disease and pestilence will be coming your way shortly. Of course that being the normal state of affairs in RI how would you know the difference?

[Lownumba]

Ergo, good point. Sox's ability to brighten up a room just by leaving it is well documented.

[SoxFan]

Actually I'm quite positive it caused an orgasmic response. Much like Bush's press conference must have excited them.

[ergo sum]

His brief sojourn yesterday practically caused an orgasmic response. Don't encourage him.

[SoxFan]

Hey even Ponce de Leon must have realized that his quest was fruitless. But while waiting for Armageddon I occasionally throw bait out to the rabble.

[Lownumba]

Sox, a quick head's up: It's 11:30 and you haven't baited anyone with the "Name one thing that social conservatives..." mantra even once today. I didn't want you to fall too far behind schedule.

[SoxFan]

I thought you hung on my every word and I see you say: Ignore soxie? You cut to the quick. Plus you are redundant for if you knew Vivian you would know Vivian ignores me.

[Lownumba]

As I recall, at page 400, you're not even halfway home...and the worst is yet to come.

[Vivian]

LOL! Lownumba, page 400?? Damn, I don't have that kind of time to waste. Thanks for the heads up, though.

[Lownumba]

Vivian, ignore Soxie's message #113 regarding Atlas Shrugged. It is, quite possibly, the most insufferable piece of twaddle ever composed. You'd pretty much know whether you'll like The Fountainhead in the first 25 pages or so. You won't know that you absolutely hate Atlas Shrugged until about page 400.

[SoxFan]

I think you would love Atlas Shrugged, especially when she talks about god.

[Vivian]

Well, maybe I'll read it...someday...think I could get through it? That drivel is what makes me nuts. LOL

[Lownumba]

I actually enjoyed the book, The Fountainhead. Like Atlas Shrugged, it suffered from Rand's heavy handed drivel, but the Howard Roark character was a classic. Cooper, most assuredly, never read the book either.

[Vivian]

LOL! Lownumba...

It probably had more to do with bankability than anything else.

To be honest, I've only a vague notion of the movies' storyline. Never read the book, I'm not a fan of Rand...hey! I rhymed! I know, I know, I'm easily amused.

[Lownumba]

Vivian, this is the third time that I've seen it. It absolutely stunk the first time, and it gets worse every time. What dip decided that Howard Roark should be played by a 48 year old Gary Cooper?

[Vivian]

Man, what a departure for Gary Cooper! I only saw about an hour of it this morning, then had to leave for work. Someday, I will see the whole thing.

[ergo sum]

The devil is in the details Sox and right now that question is a very dark matter.

[SoxFan]

I wanted to push Gary Cooper off the building at the end of that movie like 99.9% of every sane person did. Right? I never like architects anyway.

[Lownumba]

Soxie, if you have access to satellite right now, The Fountainhead is on one of the Cinemax channels at 10:05 AM. What a horrid movie.

[SoxFan]

The key question is will the Universe continue to expand (evidence is that it is expanding at a faster pace). If the Universe slows down and then contracts then there was no beginning, just always. If the Universe continues to expand and never contracts then we are doomed. Of course in four billion years we are doomed anyway because our sun will have gobbled up the earth. Hopefully we will have conquered space travel by then and gone beyond our solar system.

[j.c.]

Ergo...
I doubt hi-tech can answer the God questions.
But I bet it can tell us where Jimmy Hoffa landed.

[Vivian]

ergo...

But to say we came to be through some Divine Plan is to turn over control of our lives and our destinies to someone else. And, IMO, that is what some people simply cannot do.

[ergo sum]

I agree Castle which is why I can't understand this whole evolution controversy. Most of the evidence right now points to a "beginning" of the universe. If I have any "faith" it is this: That the human race is just beginning its journey and the no one will ever "know" where the journey is headed. The way I see it, I don't know if there is a god or not but I do believe in miracles.

[j.c.]

...people see what they want to see... (and hear what they want to hear). Eventually, imo, hi-tech will prove or disprove many of life's questions... providing mankind survives long enough...

Hi-Tech Study Fails to Find Nessie
By SUE LEEMAN, Associated Press Writer

LONDON - The Loch Ness monster is a Loch Ness myth.

At least according to the British Broadcasting Corp., which says a team which trawled the loch for any signs of the famous monster came up with nothing more than a buoy moored several yards below the surface.


The team used 600 separate sonar beams and satellite navigation technology to trawl the loch, but found no trace of any monster, the BBC said in a television program broadcast Sunday.


Previous reported sightings of a large beast in the gray waters of the lake led to speculation that the loch may contain a plesiosaur, a marine reptile which died out with the dinosaurs.


The BBC researchers said they looked at the habits of modern marine reptiles, such as crocodiles and leatherback turtles, to try to work out how a plesiosaur might have behaved.


They hoped the air in Nessie's lungs would reflect a distorted signal back to their sonar sensors.


"We went from shoreline to shoreline, top to bottom on this one, we have covered everything in this loch and we saw no signs of any large living animal in the loch," said Ian Florence, one of the specialists who carried out the survey for the BBC.


His colleague Hugh MacKay added: "We got some good clear data of the loch, steep sided, flat bottomed — nothing unusual I'm afraid. There was an anticipation that we would come up with a large sonar anomaly that could have been a monster, but it wasn't to be."


The BBC team said the only explanation for the persistence of the monster myth — and regular "sightings" — is that people see what they want to see.


To test this, the researchers hid a fence post beneath the surface of the loch and raised it in view of coach full of tourists.


Interviewed afterward, most said they had observed a square object but when asked to sketch what they had seen, several drew monster-shaped heads, the BBC said.


There have been reports of sightings of a "monster" in the loch since the time of St. Columba in the 6th century.


Many who have reported sightings have described a beast similar to a plesiosaur, but experts say it is 65 million years since the last fossil record of plesiosaurs. Loch Ness is only 10,000 years old, so anything living there must be much younger.


BBC TV plans to broadcast a documentary on the investigation, "Searching For The Loch Ness Monster."
___
On the Net:
BBC, http://news.bbc.co.uk

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=817&ncid=757&e=10&u=/ap/20030729/ap_...

[ergo sum]

New Rules, Old Rhetoric
By MICHAEL K. POWELL


ASHINGTON

As the debate about media ownership has moved to Congress during the last two months, the tone of the rhetoric has grown increasingly shrill. One member of Congress said the Federal Communications Commission's June 2 decision to modernize media ownership rules would produce "an orgy of mergers and acquisitions," while another said the new rules could create a new generation of Citizen Kanes.

A key portion of the F.C.C.'s decision would allow one company to own broadcast stations reaching up to 45 percent of the national market, an increase from the current cap of 35 percent. Last week the House approved a $37 billion measure to finance several federal agencies, which also included a provision to restore the 35 percent limit. Yet there is a distressing lack of consensus, and even some basic misunderstandings, over exactly what problem Congress is trying to solve.

There is no doubt that this debate about the role of the media in America is important. It involves not only the core values of the First Amendment, but also issues like how much we value diversity of viewpoints and to what extent the government should promote competition and encourage local control of television.

Whether changing the ownership cap will address these concerns is another question. If the problem is lack of diversity among the media, then the fact is that the United States has the most diverse media marketplace in the world. There are more media outlets, owners, variety and diversity now than at any point in our nation's history. Moreover, our nation's media landscape will not become significantly more concentrated as a result of changes to the F.C.C. rules.

Some say the problem is media concentration, and point out that only five companies control 80 percent of what we see and hear. In reality, those five companies own only 25 percent of more than 300 broadcast, satellite and cable channels, but because of their popularity, 80 percent of the viewing audience chooses to watch them. Popularity is not synonymous with monopoly. A competitive media marketplace must be our fundamental goal, but do we really want government to regulate what is popular?

Others claim that ownership limits are necessary because TV has too much sex or too much violence, is too bland or too provocative. Is television news coverage too liberal, as the National Rifle Association maintains, or too conservative, as critics of networks like Fox say?

The importance of this debate requires accurate facts about the marketplace and clarity from the government about what it is doing. Such an approach helps distinguish legitimate concerns about media concentration from more worrisome efforts to use the government hammer to shape future viewpoints or punish viewpoints expressed in the past.

Much of the pressure to restrict ownership, I fear, is motivated not by worries about concentration, but by a desire to affect content. And some proposals to reduce concentration risk having government promote or suppress particular viewpoints.

The solution proposed by some in Congress is to rescind the ownership cap and restore the status quo. These are the same ownership rules that governed during the time of widespread public discontent with television. It is hard to see how the status quo will produce the results some in Congress say they want.

Keeping the national ownership cap on television stations at 35 percent is also a rule previously struck down by the courts. Moreover, many cable channels — with whom broadcast stations compete for viewers — often reach more than 80 percent of the viewing audience.

Some argue that the cap is necessary to limit concentration. Yet not one of the four major networks (CBS, NBC, ABC or Fox) owns more than 3 percent of the nation's television stations. The national cap is not what is preventing greater concentration.

More critically, the national cap does not limit the number of stations one can own in a local market. Fortunately, the F.C.C. maintains strong local ownership restrictions that limit the number of stations one can own in a single market. It is important to consider the rules comprehensively, as the F.C.C. has done, and not piecemeal.

In any case, the national cap does not limit the number of stations one can own; it limits only the number of people one can reach. If a company owns a handful of stations in populous markets like New York or Los Angeles, it will bump into the cap quickly. But if the stations are in smaller markets, it can own many more.

This oddity is why so-called local affiliate groups own many more stations nationally than the networks. Fox Network, for example, is over the 35 percent cap with 35 stations, but Sinclair Broadcasting is well under the cap (at 14 percent) with 56 stations. One can see why many local broadcast groups support the national cap — it allows them to own more stations than the networks. It does not prevent a company with headquarters in Atlanta from owning stations in Muncie, Ind., no matter what numerical limit is drawn. Such has been the case for decades.

At the same time, the current debate has ignored a disturbing trend the new rules will do much to abate: the movement of high-quality content from free over-the-air broadcast television to cable and satellite.

It is difficult to see exactly how setting a lower cap will improve television. Already, most top sports programming has fled to cable and satellite. Quality prime-time viewing, long the strong suit of free television, has begun to erode, as demonstrated by HBO's 109 Emmy nominations this year. Indeed, for the first time ever, cable surpassed free TV in prime-time viewing share last year. If they can reach more of the market, broadcasters will be able to better compete with cable and satellite.

All of this demonstrates that media ownership is no easy issue. When striving to promote the public interest, we must also honor the values of the First Amendment. That's why, following the 1996 mandate of Congress, the F.C.C. armed itself with the facts and spent an exhaustive amount of time and resources to strike this constitutionally important balance. Let's have a national debate, but let's keep it in focus.



Michael K. Powell is chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.

[ergo sum]

No, this is a topsy-turvy race in which anyone with 65 signatures and 3,500 bucks can run. Which brings us to Georgy Russell, described by the San Francisco Chronicle as "a 26-year-old high-tech programmer from Mountain View." Or, as her campaign manager described her in an e-mail: "A cute girl looking to fill the Democratic void in this election." The campaign motto: Beauty, brains, leadership. It's a strategic tack that may explain the Georgy for Governor thong underwear ($14), one of 18 Georgy items for sale on her Web site."

How cool is that? The Oakland Tribune asks: "Would anyone ever wear Gray Davis' or Darrell Issa's name on a thong? Maybe Russell is a contender after all." Georgy also has a blog (hey, who doesn't?) on which she says things like:

"Hari and Ben from KTVU you are awesome!"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55890-2003Jul28.html

[ergo sum]

Let me introduce you to Georgy.

http://www.georgyforgov.com/

[Vivian]

Lownumba..LOL! And my theory is these literary "giants" were egomaniacs who just thought themselves so brilliant that they refused to alter any of their sacred written word.

Or, maybe, I'm just too stupid, too.

[Vivian]

Democrats in Disarray

Reed Irvine
Saturday, July 26, 2003

On July 25, the Democratic National Committee placed a full-page ad in the New York Times with this message above a photo of President Bush delivering his State of the Union Address:

"America took President Bush at his word. '...Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.' But now we find out that it wasn't true. The CIA knew it. The State Department knew it. [Washington Post, 7/23/03; Time 7/21/03] But he said it anyway. It's time to tell the truth."

Those three dots before Saddam indicate that these six words were omitted: "The British government has learned that." It was necessary to omit them in order to justify the claim that what Bush said was not true. The truth is that the British government maintained then and still maintains that it had reliable information from sources that it could not share with the CIA that Iraq had recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.

The New York Times used to check ads of this type for accuracy. If they found anything that they thought was inaccurate, they insisted that it be corrected. Accuracy in Media has placed a number of ads in the Times over the years, and we have occasionally had to defend the accuracy of the copy we submitted or make a change that the Times demanded.

Unless the Times has proof that the British government is lying, it should have required the Democratic National Committee to include the six omitted words and provide the evidence that proves that the British were lying and that the CIA, the State Department and the White House all knew it.

The DNC is sending out e-mail that conveys a message similar to that in the New York Times ad, but it omits the three dots that represent the omission of the attribution to the British government. We tried to find out if those dots were inserted in the ad at the insistence of the Times, but we couldn't get an answer from the advertising department.

The claim that the president's statement is known to be false is based on the fact that there is a crude forgery relating to an alleged Iraqi approach to Niger for the purchase of uranium. This, however, does not prove that there was no approach to Niger or another African country.

Herbert Romerstein, an expert on Soviet disinformation techniques, had a column in the Washington Times on July 21 in which he says, "The crude forgeries were designed to be exposed to discredit the truth about Saddam's nuclear program." He says the Iraqi intelligence service was trained to use this trick by the Soviet KGB.

He cites another example of this trick, which is known as "poisoning the well." A forgery was perpetrated to discredit the London Telegraph's discovery of documents in the Iraqi Foreign Ministry building that revealed that George Galloway, an ultra-left Labour member of Parliament, had been on Saddam's payroll big time. This was followed by a discovery by the Christian Science Monitor of documents confirming this, but they turned out to be forgeries and the Monitor had to apologize for its story about them.

Romerstein says, "Mr. Galloway and his friends are now using the exposure of the Christian Science Monitor forgeries to try to discredit the authentic London Telegraph documents."

The New York Times had published on its op-ed page an account by a former ambassador, Joseph C. Wilson, of a trip he had made to Niger to find out if there was any valid evidence that there was an Iraqi effort to acquire uranium. Romerstein addresses this, noting that Wilson, who had worked for two Democrats, Sen. Al Gore and Rep. Tom Foley, wrote that he spent eight days drinking sweet mint tea and meeting with dozens of people in Niger and it didn't take him long to conclude that there had been no Niger uranium sale to Iraq.

Romerstein comments, "Intelligence information comes in bits and pieces. Communication intercepts, photographs and agents on the scene are the most valuable sources. The least valuable is the diplomatic cocktail party chitchat that may add a snippet of information to the story."

The DNC apparently didn't clear its ad with Bill Clinton. He told Larry King the Democrats should quit harping on this matter. His advice evoked favorable comment from some Democrats on Capitol Hill, but he apparently didn't clear it with Hillary. She repeated her call for an independent investigation of the matter.

[Lownumba]

Vivian, my working theory is that I'm too stupid to appreciate their genius. I remember reading The Old Man and the Sea and thinking "What the hell is this crap?" Huckleberry Finn didn't flat out suck, but it certainly didn't knock me over. The Scarlett Letter did flat out suck. D.H. Lawrence? Bwap. Faulkner might have been great, but he didn't speak to me. Melville was torture. In all fairness, maybe I'm would appreciate them more now. I spent much of college in a haze.

[Vivian]

So, Lownumba, why do you think some endure? And are even thought classics?

[Vivian]

Thanks for the memories, Bob! RIP eom