Kowabunga

The Elder at Fraters Libertas appears to be first in the blogosphere out with the news that Eason Jordan has resigned from CNN. Here's the article:

CNN chief news executive Eason Jordan quit Friday amidst a furor over remarks he made in Switzerland last month about journalists killed by the U.S. military in Iraq

There are a lot of bloggers that have stayed on top of this story that otherwise would have gone ignored by the Mainstream Media.

Kudos also to Hugh Hewitt for reading the announcement over the air on his live broadcast from Buckhill in Minnesota. (And thanks, hugh, for signing your book for me!)

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Well, I found it, Churchill's 9/11 essay, "Some People Push Back". The first thing that struck me as disturbing is an ad for a t-shirt of an American President with the phrase "International Terrorist" emblazoned on it. And why are they not selling t-shirts of Clinton with that same catchy phrase they have used for the t-shirt of President Bush?

In this essay, he rants and raves about the U.S. bombing of Iraq and claims that 500,000 children were killed because of it. I don't know where he gets those numbers, however, I have my doubts about this claim. It is true that Hussein is responsible for the brutal murder of over a half million Iraqis, many of them children, during the time he was in power.

Churchill compares our military in Gulf War 1991 to that of Nazi Germany, "It was a performance worthy of the nazis during the early months of their drive into Russia."

He continues on, referring to the terrorists of 9/11 as "combat teams", and that "They did not license themselves to 'target innocent civilians.'"

Well, really. Let's get a grip here, shall we? True enough, they were civilians of a sort. But innocent? Gimme a break. They formed a technocratic corps at the very heart of America's global financial empire - the "mighty engine of profit" to which the military dimension of U.S. policy has always been enslaved - and they did so both willingly and knowingly. Recourse to "ignorance" - a derivative, after all, of the word "ignore" - counts as less than an excuse among this relatively well-educated elite. To the extent that any of them were unaware of the costs and consequences to others of what they were involved in - and in many cases excelling at - it was because of their absolute refusal to see. More likely, it was because they were too busy braying, incessantly and self-importantly, into their cell phones, arranging power lunches and stock transactions, each of which translated, conveniently out of sight, mind and smelling distance, into the starved and rotting flesh of infants. If there was a better, more effective, or in fact any other way of visiting some penalty befitting their participation upon the little Eichmanns inhabiting the sterile sanctuary of the twin towers, I'd really be interested in hearing about it.

It's the last sentence of the above passage that has many people, rightfully so, outraged. Afterall, when you think about it he is calling ALL Americans "little Eichmann's", not just the victims of 9/11.

And then there is this passage. A real gem:

Evil - for those inclined to embrace the banality of such a concept - was perfectly incarnated in that malignant toad known as Madeline Albright, squatting in her studio chair like Jaba the Hutt, blandly spewing the news that she'd imposed a collective death sentence upon the unoffending youth of Iraq. Evil was to be heard in that great American hero "Stormin' Norman" Schwartzkopf's utterly dehumanizing dismissal of their systematic torture and annihilation as mere "collateral damage." Evil, moreover, is a term appropriate to describing the mentality of a public that finds such perspectives and the policies attending them acceptable, or even momentarily tolerable.

Had it not been for these evils, the counterattacks of September 11 would never have occurred. And unless "the world is rid of such evil," to lift a line from George Junior, September 11 may well end up looking like a lark.

It sounds to me as though we, the U.S.A., are the evil ones and that he believes we are at fault for the terrorist acts perpetrated on 9/11 and that the world will be better off if it were rid of America.

Question for Churchill: If America is so evil, why do you live here?

He goes on and on, the whole essay stinks of hate against America and Americans. Yet it is America that has nurtured his ability to succeed in academia and now roosts there like a chicken, unwilling to take the flack for the outrageous words he has written.

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Posted by Sqotty at 8:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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Egads! It's in the Star Tribune Online, so it must be true:

Sen. Mark Dayton, D-Minn., said today that he will not run for re-election in 2006.

Dayton made the announcement this afternoon in a telephone conference call with reporters.

"I do not believe that I am the best candidate to lead the DFL Party to victory next year,'' Dayton said.

There is already a lot of competition for this U.S. Senate seat, including Mark Kennedy. The question now is, who will step up to the plate for the Domocratic Party? My money is on seeing Tim Penny return to the DFL and run.

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Posted by Sqotty at 9:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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It seems as though everyone in the blogosphere is putting in their two cents worth on this topic, and with the recent speech given by Ward Churchill, where he defends statements he made calling the victims of 9/11 "little Eichmann's" and referring to the murdering maniacs as "gallant"

This from FoxNews.com

"I don't answer to Bill Owens. I do not answer to the Board of Regents in the way they think I do. The regents should do their job and let me do mine," Churchill said to thunderous applause. "I'm not backing up an inch. I owe no one an apology."

How about the American people, the people of Colorado, or at the very least, I believe an apology is due to the families and friends of those who were murdered in the attacks on 9/11.

I think I'll have to dig up his "essay" on the 9/11 attacks. I'll post a link to it when I dig it up.

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Stardate, oh wait, that's pajama boy talk.

The Duras Sisters are having problems keeping up with the demand for the latest entry in their line of wave making torpedoes, which I decided was a good thing as I needed a break and with that in mind, put into port at DS9 and headed down to Quark's place.

I was on my first round of Guinness when I heard Quark say, "Oh, oh, here comes trouble."

I looked around and spotted a grizzled old warrior in a battered battle armor stroll in. He looked like something dredged up from the time of Kahless and ready to head for Stovakor; his long grayed hair with two small braids framing his scarred face; The ridges on his forehead were strongly pronounced, and looked capable of beating down Kor in a head butting contest. As he approached, I asked who he was.

"That's Thunder Jack," Quark responded, his voice betraying a level of great concern, and he looked a bit nervous. "The meanest musher in the galaxy," he added in response to the blank look on my face.

"Thunder Jack?" I asked, still confused.

"Yeah, he got struck by thunder." Quark said.

"Three times," Rom whispered.

"Come on now, no one has ever been struck by thunder!"

"He has." Quark said, definitively. Rom nodded enthusiastically in agreement.

The old warrior reached the bar and boomed in a commanding voice tinted with gravel, "Tribble Sweat, and make it a triple!"

Quark quickly placed a large flagon in front of Thunder Jack, and filled it to the brim with 100 Feddies Tribble Sweat, and quickly scittered away.

"What are you staring at?" Thunder Jack growled at me.

"Just surprised to see you here is all."

"Hmph. Bet you don't even know who I am, do you boy?"

Okay, he had me pegged.

"I know who you are, boy. You're that hot shot surfer they call Kahuna."

Now I was surprised that this battle-scarred warrior knew who I was, and embarrassed that I had never heard of him.

"Okay, you've got me. I really don't know who you are," I confessed.

"That's what I thought. You ever hear of the Rua Pentherod? The biggest, longest, toughest targ sled race in the galaxy?"

Okay, I've heard of it, but never followed it. Rua Penthe is a penal colony on a space going iceberg.

Thunder Jack continued, "I'm a six time winner, although it's been a while since the last time I won. Plan to change that this year, and make a come back. Got me a new sled team, including the best lead targ I've ever seen. I think I may have another good six wins left in me, maybe more. What do you think?"

"I'd say you were right." He certainly looked tough enough to outlive
just about anybody I knew.

He lifted his cup in a mock salute, drained it in one mighty gulp, slammed the empty upside down on the bar with a mighty boom so loud that it shook the place, and had Quark covering his ears in response to the sonic blast that reverberated throughout the bar. I was beginning to understand why they called him Thunder Jack.

"If you were Klin enough, instead of being some surfer dude, I'd suggest you get yourself a team and try your hand at it." He looked me up and down with his studied eye. "But then, maybe you aren't up to, unlike Captain Gremmie of the Bat Guano." He looked at his now empty cup, turned towards Quark and hollered, " Quark! My cup is empty! How about a refill!" He then turned back to me as Quark hurried over to give him a refill, "sometimes I wonder just what kind of place he's running here. Let's a guy go dry like this!" He flashed a toothy grin at me.

"So, Gremmie is entering into this sled race, eh." This had to be a joke, Gremmie couldn't surf his way out of a wet paper bag. The thought of him handling a team of targs was a bit too surreal for me to believe.

"Yeah, incredible to think, ain't it! Sure you don't want to give it a try? I even know a trainer who'd be available to get you started."

"I take it mean you would be available."

"Oh, not me. I'm racing. Going to win it, too. Why, my new lead targ, Dubya, has tremendous power. We're talking fur-wheel drive, four on the floor and ready to roll. No, no, I was going to suggest you talk to Bwanna. He used to be quite good. Or so I'm told."

I looked at Thunder Jack incredulously, "Bwanna?"

"Yeah, you know, that old witch doctor. The one who's set up shop next to Starbuck's with the lousy raktijeno."

"You're serious. Bwanna was in the Rua Pentherod?"

"Yep, he's a five time winner of some award or t'other." He slugged down his second flagon of Tribble Sweat, and once again slammed the empty upside down on the bar with a thunderous clap. "Tell you what I'm going to do. Offer me dinner over at Tunok's Grill, and I'll get you set up with Bwanna as your very own mushing mentor. What do you say?"

Okay, what else could I say. He as much as challenged me to do this, and no good Klingon Warrior ever backs down from a challenge. It's a matter of honor and duty. Besides, one needs to do something other than surf every now and again.

"Okay, you're on. Meet you at Tunok's Grill at 19:00 hours?"

"You're on. Tunok's for some fresh kill and grill, with large amounts of Blood wine. See you there."

With that, Thunder Jack rose up from his barstool and headed for the door, presumably to make arrangements with Bwanna to teach me about targ sledding. What have I gotten myself into?

Kahuna

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Over on Fox News there is this article in which the Mayor of Baltimore, Martin O'Malley, compares the President's budget cuts to urban areas to the terrorist attacks that took place on 9/11.

"Back on September 11, terrorists attacked our metropolitan cores, two of America's great cities. They did that because they knew that was where they could do the most damage and weaken us the most," O'Malley said. "Years later, we are given a budget proposal by our commander in chief, the president of the United States. And with a budget ax, he is attacking America's cities. He is attacking our metropolitan core."

This is a very tasteless way of complaining about proposed budget cuts from the Federal Government. It seems that the left has decided the best way to attack the President and his policies his by comparing them to terrorists, instead of challenging them in open debate and participating in the dialogue.

The article points out that O'Malley is considered a "rising star" in the Democratic party and may be tapped in a run for the governorship of Maryland in 2006. Let's hope that the voters of Baltimore and Maryland remember these remarks and vote him out of office.

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Posted by Sqotty at 8:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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This is in part a follow-up to the recent townhall meetup that took place last week. We were all intrduced to a graph on peak oil production, produced by PeakOil.org. Tracy has also written about this site on his blog, Anti-Strib, and is well worht a read.

Edmund Contoski, in his book Makers and Takers, sites that current oil reserves are estimated to last 250-300 years, natural gas, at current consumption rates, will last another 600 years, coal, 2,500 years, and there is enough shale oil to last 40,000 years. This doesn't even take into account the amount of uranium and how longthat will last with current breeder reactor technologies.

If we want oil and natural gas reserves to be stretched out over longer periods of time, then we need to expand the use of nuclear energy. Doing so will have two net effects: 1) natural gas, which many electric generation plants are now using instead of coal, will have a reduced rate of consumption; 2) since nearly every home relies on natural gas for winter heating, the cost will be dramatically lower as hoome owneres won't be directly competing with pwoer companies for the supply of natural gas. Less usage, less demand, more supply, equals lower prices. This will benefit the poor the most as they are typically the ones who are hit hardest as prices shyrocket wiht winter demand.

Back to the peak oil concept. This has been going on since the 1920s, when predictions were made "that only seven billion barrels of oil remained in the United States. By 1943 four times that amount had been consumed..." The trend continues to this day, with proven oil reserves increasing every few years as oil exploration uncovers new deposits, and technology advances enabling extraction from deeper oil fields.

InfoPlease has a chart listing the Proven Oil Reserves For 2003 for the top 10 known reserves. It does not include sites like ANWR. A second chart lists Top Rank Producers for the same period. The CIA World Fact Book also lists a chart on Proven Oil Reserves for 2002, with worldwide estimates of about 1 trillion barrels of oil.

After perusing the peak oil site, one has to ask: what do they propose to do? It is heavily slanted towards doom-and-gloom, as are many of the sites and articles it references, without providing any solutions, or acknolwedging that technological advances keeps changing the date of when peak oil production will hit.

Actually, it is entertaining exploring some of the linked sites. One site, peakoil.com, which kind of ounds like a sister site, is running a poll "would you serve if drafted?" The majority of respondents said no, or, one choice quote: "I would definitely serve if I was drafted to do something useful, like reforesting denuded hillsides or teaching rural Nigerians about birth control. I would be unlikely to agree to serve in Bush's corporate war machine." The comments are riddled with idiotic statements like that one, and profanity.

And still no solutions to the "oncoming energy crisis."

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Stardate, oh wait, that's Pajama Boy talk.

The surf was down today, way down, no wave action anywhere in the quadrant. Just as well as today was the day for the Intergalactic Bowling Tournament hosted at the Scum and Villainy Lanes on Mos Eisley. Teams from all around were scheduled to put in an appearance. I had to scramble to get one put together as most of my crew never heard of bowling. Neither had, but I figured what the hey! If Gremmie can bowl, so can I.

My team ended up comprised of the Doctor, Bwanna, and Kola KooKoo, Bwanna's assistant. We were primed and ready, and nothing better to do since there wasn't any surf to speak of.

If we only knew what was in store for us.

At the Scum and Villainy Lanes, all participants must first check their weapons at the front desk. No Bat'leths and no phasers. No problem. I looked at my disruptor, verified it was fully charged and holstered it. Weapons check complete.

Bowling looks like a fairly simple game: You pick up a large ball, weighing around 14 pounds, and roll it down a lane to smash into a punch of pins, 10 to be exact. The more you knock down, the better, get 'em all on the first ball and you get what is called a strike (no relation to unions or the Federation Strike Force), or, if you have to use two balls, one at a time, and knock them all down, you get a spare. Simple enough.

However, it wasn't long before we figured out that this game was somehow rigged. This cat in black robes and armor, whenever he was left with one lone pin standing, would stand out there, hold up one hand, and sure enough, it would turn to dust before the pin setter grabbed it.

The Doctor found that he could use his super long scarf to similar advantage, using it to snap at a pin to knock it down. The problem is, the pinsetter grabbed the scarf and shredded it, knocking the lane we were on out of action until the yarn could be phasered off.

There were other obstacles, much like you find at a miniature golf course: tractor beams forcing balls into the gutter, deflector shields, and super magnets to hold the pins in place. It turns out this is standard bowling in Mos Eisley.

Bwanna and Kola KooKoo used their mystic powers to help raise their scores, however, I was left holding the proverbial Bat'leth. I guess this means I should stick to surfing.

Kahuna

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Blog, by Hugh Hewitt, is a combination history lesson and look into the future, as the patron saint of the blogosphere demonstrates the impact of blogs on the political landscape. He begins simply enough with an outline of how blogs have had a tremendous impact on media and reporting, including a discussion on the four big stories of the blogosphere."

Hewitt points out that the first blog appeared in or about 1999, and since then some four million blogs have hit the Internet, forever changing the way information is disseminated around the world, much like the impact of Gutenberg with the first movable type printing press had centuries ago.

The four big stories of the blogosphere are: Trent Lott ouster, Raines and the NY Times, Kerry's Christmas in Cambodia, and Ra^thergate, all of which received immediate and in-depth coverage in the blogosphere, focusing on the facts, and, in the case of the Dan Ra^ther's report on G.W.'s Texas Air National Guard service, proving that the documents used to support the 60 Minutes 2 report were forgeries, made using modern computer technology, specifically Microsoft Windows.

The book is full of comparisons between how the blogosphere is changing the shape of media and reporting to the Protestant Reformation started by Martin Luther. The blogosphere uses the latest in technology and the Internet (which has been around for a comparatively long time) with its means to quick and easy self-publishing to revolutionize communications, just as the printing press was used in Luther's time to quickly print and spread the 95 Theses nailed to the church door at Wittenberg to the populace, thus triggering, more than anything, the Protestant Reformation. Changes in technology are having this same impact today, along the "Information Superhighway" of the Internet, just as Luther changed the religious world, with the aid Gutenberg's printing press, forever changed the means by which books were reproduced (no longer by hand, but massed produced) and brought literacy to the masses.

The use of comparing the blogosphere and its impact on modern communications and reporting is frequently compared to the Protestant Reformation and the moveable type printing press. Hewitt hits the nail on the head with this comparison, as it was the beginnings of mass book production that enabled the Reformation to gather steam and spread throughout Northern Europe. It was also due to the printing press that Luther was able to have the bible distributed to the masses in their native languages, be it English, German, Danish, or any other language. Hewitt also mentions in his book an effort to translate the bible into Klingon (hey, got the obligatory fandom reference in!). (The Klingon Hamlett translation project was wrapped up a few years ago with a successful print run.)

There are, as Hewitt points out, millions of blogs, however, there are only a few big blogs, sites whose traffic is measured in the tens of thousands per, and the vast majority of blogs make up what is referred to as the tail. Some 90-95% of blogs fall into this category. The tail is not to be ignored, as they help drive stories around the blogosphere, and many are worth reading.

There are also many statistics in regards to blogs and blogging, who blogs, why, and rate of blog abandonment, the experimental blogs where many people test the waters before plunging in (I had an experimental blog myself, before going all the way with my long time fandom site, and morphing it into something that is still fannish, but much more).

Hewitt gives credit to many bloggers that have helped usher in this information revolution, and gives warning to those who ignore, or discount, the impact this new media will have (and is having) on society.

Since the publication of Blog, we have since seen what may be the first ever Blog-O-Thon for charity, where Captain's Quarters raised thousands of dollars for World Vision to provide relief to the people hard hit in the tsunami that struck in the last days of 2004. The bloggers have proven that not only are they capable of quality journalism, seeking truth, verifying facts, but also capable of coordinating efforts to help those in need.

Hewitt is one of the most ardent, and vocal, supporters of blogs, inspiring many of today's voices on the web with his commentary on radio, thru mentions on his blog, and the occasional Vox Blogoli, Hewitt's open invitation for bloggers to swarm around a specific topic, which has given many lesser known blogs some well deserved attention.

There are references to many fine blogs worth reading, and a section where Hewitt documents responses to a survey he ran on his own site during the preparation of this book.

Blog is an excellent book, packed with a lot of history on the development of mass media, and the direction it is moving to. Pick it up, give it a read, and then, if you feel the urge, go out and start a blog and see for yourself what blogging is all about.

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The first Thursday of the month is the regularly scheduled gathering of the Twin Cities Townhall meetup group, a gathering of conservatives to discuss and learn insights on the issues of the day.

If you are not familiar with the Townhall Meetup, it is a gathering started by townhall.com as a means to facilitate discussion. Townhall.com is a project of the Heritage Foundation and they set the agenda and put together materials and provide talking points for the meetup groups. If you haven't been to one of these, come on down, have a beer and some eats, and join the fun. And this meeting was more fun than any of us expected.

Recently, the group organizer folded the Republican meetup and a couple of other failing meetup groups into this one as the Townhall Meetup has been a very successful gathering, with attendance running between 12 and 15 in a given month. This month, there were 16 attendees, including several new members (two came from western Wisconsin) and our very first "liberal" infiltrator. This is a solid indication that after nearly a year and a half of meetings we have arrived on the radar screen of great gatherings. What better measurement than having a left-wing nut show up trying to disrupt things. And try to disrupt he did, but not very successfully. It was, however, very entertaining.

This month, discussions ranged from the President's State of the Union Address, Missile Defense and is Howard "Hee-Haw" Dean the right choice to lead the DNC (YES!). Oh, and the pervasive "it's about Oil!" from the left-wing nut.

The general sentiment is that Missile Defense, though still not complete, is worth the investment. Not sure, but I think one of the guys thought it would be a good idea to sell/provide it to other nations, as that would help make ballistic missiles obsolete. I disagree with that sentiment, as there were those who felt that if everyone had "the Bomb", then it would become obsolete. That philosophy was proven wrong.

The left-wing nut pointed out that if any country (or terrorist group) wanted to nuke the U.S. they could bring it in on a container ship at detonate it in the harbor. He has a valid point to bring up this concern, however, it was quickly noted that in the event of such an attack, it would be very easy to shutdown all ports of entry to the U.S., thus eliminating a second attack, albeit at great cost to the nation's economy. We'll set aside other options that terrorists could use to nuke an American city, as there are other ways, and, frankly, I don't want to be giving them any ideas that have not been floated around on the internet already.

Building a missile defense system cannot be accomplished overnight, but only over a period of years of development and testing, and such development stimulates the economy by bringing new technologies spun off from the missile defense program to the market place, just as was done with the early space program which brought about micro-miniaturization, giving birth to pocket calculators (making slide sticks for calculus obsolete), not to mention computers ranging from hard working servers, desktop workstations, laptops to the diminutive in size (but not in power) PDA.

What new technologies might be spun off from the development of missile defense is currently unknown, but no doubt it is helping drive the need for more powerful computer processing capabilities to handle the high level mathematics and the speed to make ballistic and trajectory computations in order for missile intercept to be successful. Businesses and researchers are always looking for better, faster computers, not to mention computer gaming with the large amounts of computer power needed to render graphics in real time, and more movies are relying on computer generated animation for special effects.

Oil: okay, here's where things started getting wacky. The infiltrator in our midst kept bringing up that peak oil production will peak in a couple of years, and pointed to a chart he printed off the internet from some "expert" in Sweden (hey, don't they have access to the North Sea oil reserves, like Norway?), and that after that oil production will become more expensive. Never mind that we still have one of the hugest oil reserves in ANWR, and that Canada has some of the largest fossil fuel reserves in the world. Also, that peak oil production has been predicted for decades, and has been proven wrong every time as new fields are found, and new technologies become available to extract additional crude oil from the ground where older technologies have petered out in regards to production.

This poor guy looked like he was going to "lose it" and break down in tears. The left-winger never once broke into a smile or laugh at something humorous (no we were not laughing at anything he said, either, or making fun of him).

Many things on energy were pointed out, from the use of current fossil fuel technologies (which keeps improving) to nuclear energy, and, yes, solar energy. It was quickly pointed out that there is estimated to be enough uranium on Earth to last us 'til the sun runs out of its own nuclear fuel (by then, we may have figured out how to replenish its fuel supply from gas giants to keep it running a few billion years more). For an interesting write-up on Nuclear Energy, check out How long will nuclear energy last? by Prof. John McCarthy. Check out the whole site, it's quite interesting and informative.

Eventually, our "friend" from the left made his intentions for coming to this gathering apparent. He revealed the t-shirt he was wearing (he never took off his jacket). It was the most disgusting and vile phrase I have ever heard and/or seen. I will not repeat it, so let it suffice to say that it was a proclamation by this hateful person as to what God does to his you-know-what. I think you get the idea. He went on to say that people who are religious are inferior, then went on to brag about being a member of MENSA; there were several folks in attendance this night who are a part of MENSA, and many more who meet the qualifications but never joined (I'm one of the latter). It's amazing how the leftists are always considered to be the ones who are tolerant and open-minded, yet here was a prime example of the hate-mongering left in all its intolerant vainglory. He hated conservatives, was intolerant of people with religious views, and even views contrary to his own, was narrow-minded, supports eugenics instead of natural selection, and believed himself to be a superior being than us "lowly" conservatives and Christians (there is at least one atheist in the group of regulars to the meetup).

Finally, after having as much of this fun, Tracy, the fearless leader, took the time to diffuse the situation (he seems to be pretty good at that) and we broke up into smaller groups, leaving the left-wing nut out in the cold, who eventually left making some very disturbing remarks, and receiving an invitation to come again next month. I only hope that if he does come back, he shows some wisdom and maturity in what he wears. Maybe even equipped with some facts to support his arguments and a willingness to participate in the dialogue, and not be an angry, hate-mongering schmoe. It was obvious that his intent was not to join in the conversation, but to disrupt the meeting as much as possible. He failed.

Aside from, or in spite of, the meeting was quite successful, one of our largest turnouts, with a lot of interesting and informative conversations. If you haven't been to one, you should plan on coming down for the March gathering. Details at townhall.meetup.com. If you are outside of the Twin Cities area, you can always search the meetup site for a gathering near you.

Now, some pictures.

Some of the group.

Darrel and Tracy

More folks.

and a bigger group shot.

Not sure what will be on the agenda for next month, however, maybe we'll be lucky and see the "Return of the Left-Wing Nut," or "Left-Wing Nut Tries Again." Stay tuned, as only time will tell.

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Sisyphean Musings has posted the results of a conversation with Mr. Adams of the world Economic Forum concerning obtaining a copy of the tape from the session at Davos where it has been reported that Eason Jordan made statements that the U.S. Military had been targeting journalists in Iraq. Although the outocme of the dialogue with Adams of the WEF is disappointing, that the tape will not be released to the public (nor a transcript), this is due to policies set forth by the WEF.

Yet, on the WEF website, there is this order form which one can use to order DVDs of various sessions, including one called "Biological Threats to Societies," which took place the same day as the subject session "Will Democracy Survive the Media." Now, my question is: Since there are 20 different sessions are available for purchase in DVD format, and the subject session was known to have been recorded, why is the WEF refusing to release this one? Why not release it? Will Eason Jordan request its release?

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