September 06, 2003
Another blogger in Baghdad
Jon Carroll of the SF Chronicle had a column earlier this week about another blog out of Iraq, www.riverbendblog.blogspot.com. Says Jon: "It is written by a woman, a resident of Baghdad not otherwise identified, and it's funny and sad and constantly informative."
Meantime, just heard about the Baghdad Bulletin, an English-language magazine by Iraqis dedicated to covering the postwar redevelopment of Iraq.
UncleBob said:
Riverbend's blog, Bagdad Burning, is indeed worth following. You learn she's a young computer programmer, but under the new American Iraq, she and other women in that country have lost their ability to work, as many of the business owners now refuse to employ females, in deference to the fundamentalists.
I have to disagree with Carroll's blanket statement that blogs "have had their day as a populist phenomenon," however.
I would say that they have served really well as a publishing tool to allow writers and reporters to step in and fill the yawning void created in San Francisco and every other major market save perhaps New York - by the utter failure of newspapers to inform their local publics about what the hell is going on.
When only the Fortune 500 can afford to own newspapers, the reporting contained therein becomes automatically suspect. Sacred cows multiply in the fields.
So the value of time-tested columnists - and bloggers - increases. My 2 cents for the morning.
Bush and the environment: The Rollback Machine
Grist magazine: The Rollback Machine. Keeping tabs on the Bush administration's environmental record.
Thanks to Susan M. for the pointer.
Ted Koppel on the dangers of the Patriot Act
Ted Koppel on the dangers of the Patriot Act and the Victory Act. Yes, you missed Nightline the other night, but you can still catch Koppel's closing statement on Lisa Rein's Radar.
Dean puts the lie to No Child Left Behind
Here and here, Howard Dean puts the lie to George W. Bush's weekly radio address, in which he proclaimed the success of No Child Left Behind.
Schools from Texas to Colorado are being forced to dumb-down their tests so that they can ensure "progress" from one year to the next. This is a sham, and a disservice to our children. Worse still, in too many places, struggling students are reportedly being held back or even pushed out of classes and schools in a tragic game to boost average tests scores. Meanwhile, to help schools actually improve, the Administration provides rhetoric without resources.It's time we had school reform that works and really does close the achievement gap not empty sloganeering that burdens our schools and sticks local taxpayers with the tab.
The Dean campaign offers an online petition to support our kids' education.
"Doonesbury": Jerked off the funny pages
Hundreds of papers might be pulling Sunday's strip for referring to the health benefits of masturbation. Garry Trudeau talks to Salon about his comic's 32-year history of controversy.
anthony said:
JD,
Thanks for the tip. I just posted this to Eightlinks, where I just became Guest Editor. And, of course, I gave you a plug as the source. ;)
Clark's Web warriors
Salon (subscription or one-day pass required) takes a look at the Web warriors backing Gen. Wesley Clark's bid for the White House.
Salon also took a look at Clark's potential candidacy. Excerpt:
Clark may be hoping that Democrats are so angry about the direction of the country that they'll be willing take a chance on a political rookie with a gold-plated rÈsumÈ. ...And what a rÈsumÈ it is. A Southerner from Little Rock, Ark., who graduated first in his class at West Point and became a Rhodes scholar, Clark was awarded the Purple Heart in Vietnam. He became a four-star general, later serving as supreme commander of NATO troops, and he defeated Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic and stopped the Serbs' ethnic cleansing of the Albanians.
