[lysie]

Grab that cup of coffee, tea, your favorite morning beverage...sit down...let's talk.

[lysie]

Good morning, my friends. Wintery mix today here in Central New York.

[Miss Marple]

Good morning, lysie! Very cold here for this time of year...just took the dog out.

Geraldo on talking about Hans Blix. I haven't had my fist cup of coffee yet, and Geraldo is hard to take this early. Molly said the same thing yesterday...HA!

[lodwick]

Thanks for the thread and a right way bttt.

[Mr. Mulliner]

Morning Lysie. Thanks for starting the thread today.

An easy commute for me, once I got all the ice scraped off. That took over 5 minutes just to get the windows passable.

Busy morning to get ready for my two classes as I spent much of the weekend goofing off with my brother who's visiting from Colorado.

[kayak]

Great start to the thread today, lysie! ...... *hugs*

[nicollo]

I needed a break last night. So I went for a walk. As I wandered through a wonderful and wonderfully chilly November rain, slushing through the leaves, I listened to Drudge and laughed his banishment of Bob Woodward.

By breaking the story of Carl Rove's supposed "nazi rally" remark and the Bush taped interviews, Drudge has provided an enormous service. That dog is out, so there's nothing left to discuss (very Clintonian, the strategy; don't think Drudge's copy came from the Wh--.... ah, forget it). The Washington Post has downplayed this aspect in its serial presentation of the story. Yes, Drudge broke that embargo, and the ship arrived safely to port.

This is important because it represents one of the great accomplishments of the political right over the past ten years. Along with the great service to the nation by the Washington Times and talk radio, for example, Drudge has broken the media monopoly on the news. What was missing before was competition.

No great or new insight here. I'm only thinking of it today as I re-read my manuscript for the umpteenth time, before resubmitting it for final editing. I have before me a Taft speech from 1912. It was perhaps the first broadcast presidential speech, as he read it over the phone from Boston to a newspaper banquet in New York (Taft made great and concerted use of new technologies, such as the automobile, moving pictures, radio and telephone). He told the reporters:

I shall not weight my message to you with an expression of my respect for the concentrated power in this country that you gentlemen represent. The safety of the country lies in the fact that you neutralize each other, and in the growing conviction of the country that the truth is not in you, but that it lies between you... I am not thereby consigning you all to an Ananias club, however strong your desire for close association under some banner, but I am explaining to you how each one of you saves the country from the rest.

[Note that in Taft's day the newspapers and magazines were Big Media, there being no television or radio at the time]

FR is one of these, having an effect far beyond its membership that... saves the country from the rest.

cc: JimRob