Iddybud Thanks You

Iddybud Thanks You

I'd like to thank Common Ills and Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude for their recent comments and links.

From Common Ills:

"...isn't jude a groovy blogger? she's a woman and we're supposedly wondering where the female bloggers are so why doesn't she get more attention for all her hard work? or is that all 'so last week' already?"

From Sex and Politics, Screeds and Attitude:

"Jude of Iddybud has written an incredible entry on what's going on in Ohio today. It's entitled "Your Vote: Worthless in the Eyes of Media - Judging from the lack of news media coverage, you probably haven't heard about today's House Committee hearing." This puts the entire thing into perspective (no relying on implications or allusions I did). Again, please read the entire thing. (Though judging by the e-mails a lot of members already have Maria gets credit for being the first one to e-mail on it.)

there's your iddybud link.

Jude took on the issue, BuzzFlash is noting it and Ron of Why Are We Back In Iraq? is also addressing it providing background on why Kenneth Blackwell was 'too busy' to testify last time. (No, Ron's not justifying Blackwell's thumbing his nose at the Congress and the people.) From his entry entitled "Did Anyone Hear About The Hearing In Ohio?"

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These comments mean a lot to me. It's so good to know I'm not alone in this venture...this search for the truth in a labyrinth of mysterious-yet-blatant media ommissions.

I wrote to U.S. Rep Stephanie Tubbs Jones today to thank her for all the hard work she's done. I would imagine (from experience) that it all seems like a terribly thankless job to her, considering the fact that we're the only ones who seem to give a crap about all she's tried to accomplish.

By the way, Maria deserves the credit she's gotten at Common Ills on this story.

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I thought this would be a fitting place to provide a link to Jeff Sharlet's (The Revealer's) latest entry - The Media Do Suck (Why The Heathen Rage) - Journalism, Democracy, and the Greatness of America's #1 Celebrity Weekly News Magazine

Excerpt:

"...my guide to understanding what myth, journalism, and democracy actually do -- is "bali to," a Papua New Guinean linguistic convention described by anthropologist Steven Feld in Sound and Sentiment as "turned over words," language that "encompasses aspects of analogy, metaphor, euphemisim, litotes, irony, and sarcasm" -- and that's just for starters. "Turned over words" are like a pretty stone you turn over in your hand; those with eyes to see discover that the other side of the rock reveals new meanings; turn it again, and there's another. Minogue celebrates this kind of perception in "religious people, philosophers, [and] scientists," those whom he defines as "genuinely educated." Such people "will find new things in quite exiguous materials"; but then, sooner or later everyone will. That's the problem with those damn words: They keep turning over. Myth, journalism, and democracy are all notoriously unstable, as is religion, a kinship across ways of knowing and living that will as often as not lead to unanticipated and undesirable outcomes."

Charlotte Bloggercon Slated for September 17, 2005

Charlotte Bloggercon Slated for September 17, 2005



According to the Trade Street Journal, Charlotte, North Carolina will host a regional blogger conference on September 17, 2005.

According to Dave Beckwith of Parker Web Developers:

"Small-business blogging will be given more attention, since there has been a veritable revolution in business blogging, much of which is so new as to have been impossible to cover during previous conferences."

*Dave is also my co-blogger here at Iddybud.

Conference: Examining Agenda of the Religious Far Right

"Until progressives come to understand what [fundamentalists] read, hear, are told and deeply believe, we cannot understand American politics, much less be effective."

- Joe Bageant

Conference: Examining the Agenda of the Religious Far Right
April 29-30

There will be a two-day conference co-sponsored by the NY Open Center and CUNY Graduate Center Public Programs, to be held at CUNY Graduate Center (Fifth Ave & 34th St, Manhattan) on April 29 and 30.

The conference, called Examining the Real Agenda of the Religious Far Right, will include some of my favorite political activists.

Speakers: Karen Armstrong, Joan Bokaer, Chip Berlet, Katherine Yurica, John Sugg, Hugh Urban, Frederick Clarkson, Jeffrey Sharlet, Skipp Porteous, Charles Strozier, Robert W. Edgar, and Joseph C. Hough Jr.
(presenter bios here)


Susan at Suburban Guerilla has a blog-post about a Mo-Jones interview with Jim Wallis (of Sojourners).

Betsy Cronkite

"They had a great relationship, a partnership in the real sense of the word."

- Kay Barnes, Mayor of Kansas City, cousin of Walter Cronkite, speaking of Walter and his wife Betsy

Betsy Cronkite

Kevin Hoffman did a very nice job on this article about Betsy (Mary Elizabeth) Cronkite, the beloved wife of Walter Cronkite. Last week, Betsy died after a long struggle with cancer. Walter and Betsy would have celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary later this month

My thoughts and prayers go out to Walter and his family.

Arrogant Blackwell Refuses to Admit Ohio Mistakes

Blackwell Gives the Finger to Concerned Voters
......but he won't give U.S. Congresswoman his hand to shake.

Yesterday, Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell appeared before a Congressional field committee and had the audacity to state, simply, that "everything went smoothly" in the Ohio election last November.

He called citizens' concerns - your concerns and mine - "fabrications and exaggerations". He even jabbed at people like me, who are talking about him on this blog. (Read the linked Toledo Blade story by Jim Provance).

I guess he cannot take criticism in a constructive or non-defensive manner. Regardless, I don't see how he thinks he can just sweep all these concerns away with his horrid accusations, arrogant insults, and closing his eyes and pretending the problems aren't there. Unless we allow him to do so.


"What you don't want to hear, or what you are not hearing, is that Ohio..had one of the best election administration performances in the country." said J. Kenneth Blackwell.

U.S. Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald (D., CA.), countered: "Irrespective of that, there have been allegations put out there. Again, you don't want to hear that, but they're out there."

According to U.S. Rep Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D., OH.), the arrogant Blackwell refused to shake her hand outside the committee room.

The divisive Blackwell is going to run for Governor in Ohio. The cause for his rise to national prominence? Delivering Ohio to George W. Bush, thus hijacking the election.

In January, U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., who prepared a report on election problems in Ohio, said that an improper fund-raising letter for Blackwell's gubernatorial run supports suspicions that Blackwell's actions as secretary of state during the election "stemmed from partisan political motivations" to help Bush.

Funny Photo

"Mini-Me" Tumor Appears on President's Head

"Just how's he gonna manage, lugging that extra dome around?" a bystander was reported to have asked.

Originalism

"More improbable than unique..".
Originalism has some incredible photography and prose.

I saw a joke I liked at the blog - from the Edinburgh festival:

"I joined a dating agency and went out on a load of dates that didn't work out. And I went back to the woman who ran the agency and said: "Have you not got somebody on your books who doesn't care about how I look or what job I have and has a nice big pair of boobs?" And she checked on her computer and said: "Actually, we have one, but unfortunately, it's you."

N.Z. Bear To Wed

N.Z. Bear To Wed



Sorry, girls. He'll soon be out of the running. N. Z. Bear is getting married. He's also known as Truth Laid Bear, owner of the Ecosystem. I'm very happy to hear the good news about Bear and his Lady M.
Here's wishing the best of luck and love to them both.