With the exception of the White House Press Corps, major MSM bush-bashers and lefties of all persuasions, the majority of Americans don't feel VP Chaney's accidental shooting of a friend worthy of the media frenzy being made over it.

Cheney will address the situation on Fox News tonight at 6 pm ET.  I'm sure members of the Press Corps will be green with envy that they do not have the opportunity to second-guess the Vice President in person. 

Did the VP intentionally thumb his nose at the press?  I don't feel that he did.  With a friend lying on the ground with unknown injuries -- and subsequently wanting to inform Mr. Whittington's family about the incident before notifying any of the media -- the White House Press Corps was hardly near the top of anyone's call-list.

David Gregory et al need to get over it.

Meanwhile, on with the important news of the day ..... uhhhh -- press corps?  Hello?  Anyone there? 

They've gone where?????

 
Somebody alert the Texas Wildlife Commission to check their licenses -- please!

You know the rest of the line.

I really don't care that Ann Coulter raised a few high eyebrows at the CPAC gathering.  You think she was contracted to address the declining price of eggs in China?  (Not that she probably couldn't, mind you.)  She's a bright, articulate, entertaining political satirist hired because she IS politically incorrect.  Her problem?  She's a woman who also speaks from the right.  And those one-liners she slings across political bows ricochet right into her bank account.  Good for you, gal. 

I also don't care that lefties and late nite comics will make Dick Chaney the butt of jokes for months to come.  Let those who ridicule Chaney declare their preference, however.  Would they rather go hunting with the VP or take a late night ride with Teddy Kennedy? 

I don't care if Mayor Nagin is asking foreign investors for financial backing to "save" New Orleans.  It's about time some of the monies we've sent abroad came home.

I don't care if Hillary has a behind-the-scenes deep-pocket PAC/advisory group holed up in a DC house called "whitehaven" that's been working on her presidential aspirations for years.   She'll still lose.  I'm not confident she'll even win her party's nomination.

I don't care that Billy-Bob Clinton's disbarment has ended.  I would like to see the list of international clients who retain him as legal counsel. 

I don't care that Europe, et al, are tolerating the rath-for-pay (coersion?) by fanantic Muslim reactionaries over a few cartoons assumed to be renderings of their leader.  You folks have enjoyed cartoons of our leaders (political and religious) for decades.  Of course, if you don't know how to stop or control the rioting -- or fear the confrontation -- you can always blame Bush. 

  It can be hard to git movin' on dreary Saturday's ...... 

I'm not even excited about the Super Bowl.  Enthusiasm aside, however, I'll probably order pizza and cheese bread for the same reasons I buy eggnog at Christmas and eat pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving.

On mornings like this I sometimes think about why (for example), lethal injections are "cruel and unusual" for murdering psychopaths who bury victims alive or chop them into little pieces.

Or (another example) how stupidity is often rewarded (pan to Casey Sheehan's mom).

Or how Indian-owned casinos give bunches of money to politicians to promote their causes -- which politicians deny receiving or doing -- when casinos could have hired folks like me to send letters, carry placards, lick stamps, make phone calls or sit on a bar stool in front of a slot machine all day!

Or how the loudest outcrys about lack of progress in rebuilding New Orleans are made by politicians (who squandered zillions of previous tax dollars on briefcases and travel while levys leaked and the poor became poorer), a do-nothing mayor who moved his family out of state post-Katrina, and restaurant owners who want a parade.  A parade?  May they mardi their gras in the sludge.  A PARADE?  The city should mobilize that flooded bus fleet and let Nagin lead a yellow-bus caravan through the streets.  Oh yeah -- the parade should also traverse steets around the hospitals (where my friends drowned), the Superdome, the Convention Center and  bog down somewhere in the 9th Ward. 

Or (my final example for this day) how some of the most absurd, discrepant, illogical, inappropriate, incompatible, inconsistent, inharmonious, ironic, ironical, out of keeping, unfitting, unlogical, unreasonable -- i.e.,  incongruous folks imaginable are actually there --
in Congress!

 Sometimes i just slay me.

Most Democrats see every event through the filter of their hatred for President Bush. No matter what happens, anywhere in the world, their spin on events is that they discredit the President. Democrats and their media allies are like an armada of Ahabs, cruising the seas in their obsessive pursuit of the white whale who defeats them time after time, never giving up the chase.  -- PowerLineBlog

*Moonery:  (a goatard from Gabby at The Goat Gazette) is defined as conduct indicative of barking (or yodeling, whining, yapping, etc.) moonbats.

PowerlineBlog points out the bias and flagrant misrepresentation in the ABC and New York Times' editorial portrayal of Justice Scalia's absence from Chief Justice Roberts' confirmation on September 29.

No, Scalia was neither vacationing nor on a "junket" in Colorado. 

He was there lecturing approximately 10 hours a day at a conference, scheduled in October 2004.  In preparation for the conference he had compiled a 400-plus page study guide.

And it's not that these MSM sources were not provided a full accounting of Scalia's schedule.  Both were given complete details of conference planning and schedule. 

It simply suited the MSM "story lines" to represent that Scalia had intentionally skipped Roberts' confirmation.

As Powerline concludes, the public should not have to wonder why MSM chose to reference Justice Scalia's lecture as a "junket" while not mentioning similar "junkets" by two more liberally-leaning members of the Court.

Moonery.  Moonery pure and simple.

Now ask why so many of us continue to blog.  If you have any doubt, that is.  While we may never eliminate the slant and bias in MSM, we will reveal it.

Gull picked up on a previous post from here which included a comment by Thespis:

I think that there will be a strong blogger influence for at least the next ten years or more. The authors and contributors might change, but it is an excellent outlet for those of us without others to listen to our constant rants on various topics.

I have only been blogging since September. Doing a good job requires more time than I can give since I work for a living. I am sure that others feel the same.

Hang in there! I have appreciated all of the support and encouragement from those at your wonderful site.

I read and write as much as possible. Let's all vow to do the same.

I need a blogging partner or two in order to keep everything fresh, timely, and new. There are too many days when I can not get to it at all, yet I constantly think of stories.

I hope that Blogging does not go the way of "mood rings" and "pet rocks" from the 1970's.

Not if Gull has her way, Thespis!  Both she and I have our priorities (as do you) and we never expected to blog more than for the entertainment (enlightenment?) of our cohorts over at Pogo.com!

Her post sorta speaks for all of us.  (It's expanded from comments to her previous post -- a followup from this blog -- reposted here with permission!)

I really don't think the level or content/context of personal blogging will change too much overall in the near future.   

No matter what folks say, however -- readership is always a motivating factor in and to the life of a blog.  

With few exceptions (two being the bloggers who responded to part 1!!!), most of the blogs I read are political in nature. 

As with most of us -- I enjoy reading blogs that write about what I'm interested in!  My family is grown and out on their own. (They would croak if I blogged about them -- and we talk/email every single day!  They'd know who told!!!!)   I work full-time and am pretty self-centered when it comes to creature comforts and/or who gets new shoes this month, who controls the remote or when to do the dishes or take out the trash.  I no longer attend PTO meetings or drive kids to soccer practice or softball games.  I've replaced bridge club with online poker because I don't have to bring a covered dish.  I'm interested in personal health issues because I have a few; I'm over-60, opinionated AND sensitive to the LACK of blogging (and community-building) for my generation.  And I happen to enjoy raising hell about/dissing the hypocrits who pretend to care about my welfare and well-being under the guise of policies that follow party lines.  Plus, I enjoy blogging AND I'm sufficiently foolish enough to believe that I have something important to say.  Most of the time, anyway. 

But I digress.

I anticipate a movement to impose a code of standards to political blogs in the near future.   (Not sure it will work, though.   MSM seems to adjust their "standards" whenever it's politically expedient -- so why should bloggers be held to "assigned" standards?  And if Congress gets involved -- you can bet your sweet bippy it will be a political move to curtail the impact of political blogging!)

Many MSM outlets that use blogs (or allow comments by email, for example) don't normally allow comments (or prescreen them) -- for obvious reasons.  There is little control over the content of comments and they don't want their institutional authority challenged ....  (You might also note that some "popular" political blogs encourage flaming and vile comments.  Without substance, it's one way to attract readers.  Direct from the Say-It-Ain't-So Department.) 

IMO, bloggers have become guardians (the Fifth Estate) of the guardians (if journalists are the Fourth Estate) of democracy (first, second and third being the judicial, legislative and executive Estates).  Media institutions don't like having their slants, perspectives and opinions challenged.  Soooo -- in this respect, BLOGGING (i.e., factual corrections, debate, counter-points, other perspectives, etc.) is being down-played by the very institutions bloggers are challenging!

A blog by any other name will be the same?  I agree.  I remember spending $20 for "snapshot" software in the mid-90's for my Vietnam photos (with comments) and how "proud" I was to be on the cutting edge (complete with scanner attachment to transfer old slides to digital files).

What's the future of blogging?  As Movin' suggests -- some types/formats of blogs may become less plentiful, but their role and function will expand as technology expands.

There are now regular college lectures available on iPod .... many blogs offer optional iPod broadcasts .... and the indispensible wireless phone system allows emailing, texting and imaging to and from anywhere.

(If you aren't following references in this thread and haven't read Movin's post at http://journals.aol.com/movinon203/MovinOn/entries/1683 -- do so.)

I actually envision more political bloggers to begin offering "optional venues" for readers not confined to landlines, laptops or PC's!

And my bet is on bloggers winning the media war with MSM!

 

Comments/reactions are always welcome, by the way.  (I've only deleted one comment ever -- and it was to keep my young niece from reading a few words I'm sure she'd probably seen on a bathroom wall.  But not on MY bathroom wall.)

Bold type above for my emphasis. 

We've referenced the Fifth Estate before.  To ensure that MSM is kept "honest," independent bloggers have to survive -- especially the "part-time" grassroots bloggers who aren't dependent on advertising, think-tank endorsements, talking heads circuits or college speaking fees.   If links, "co-ops," teams or rings are necessary -- let's have them! 

It has not been pretty or void of grandstanding by various democrats -- namely Teddy Kennedy and most recently his protege John Kerry. 

But barring another total disaster (other than the behavior of democrats during the Judicial Hearings meetings), Alito will be named to the Supreme Court of the United States.

It's time to move on to the next hurdle (i.e., opportunity for barking moonbats to mount another assault on GWB) -- not the least of which will be yodeling lessons for John Kerry -- unless, of course, he comes down from the ski slopes and slides back into Washington to perform his elected duties.

::::practicing a welcome-home-Kerry yodel:::: 

Flippity flop, it's gotta stoppppppp
You're timing's wrong -- best change the songgggg
Avoid the slopes and White House hopes --
Give it up, you moonbat, youuuuuuuuuuu!

I've been contemplating recent blog-blather (someone wrote it and it didn't seem important enough to flag) that has fluttered around in the back of my mind ....

RE: blogging will "die out" in a couple of years.  Rationale:  people will grow tired of writing for/to themselves and surfing will find new venues.  Makes me wonder ....

Our actual contributor list here has dwindled (though their names remain because we continue to meet for poker a couple of nights a week) ... three of us do the bulk of sporadic writing on this site while our associates are experimenting with their own.  Makes sense!

I've noticed that the more popular/successful blog sites become, the less owners actually blog!  Rather than expound on topics, they link to other expounders.  It's more like they are preening their replacements ....

I read fewer and fewer blogs.  I'm down to approx. 10 that I read daily via Bloglines.  I seldom comment on other blogs.  Most comments sections turn into free-for-all's in which the blogger's thesis is used as a springboard for one-up-manship ... Maybe it is meant to be this way.  It may, however, be "infiltrated" to discourage serious commenters from posting. 

Is this a sign of the times?  Will blogging decline?  Will MSM reclaim control of the world as THEY want us to view it?

I hope not.

--Rhet