Just a reminder so you won't forget

My name is Mary Jo Kopechne

I would have been 65 years of age this year.

Read about me and my killer below:

When Sen. Ted Kennedy was merely just another Democrat bloating on Capitol Hill on behalf of liberal causes, it was perhaps excusable to ignore his deplorable past.

But now that he's become a leading Republican attack dog, positioning himself as Washington's leading arbiter of truth and integrity, the days for such indulgence are now over.

It's time for the GOP to stand up and remind America why this chief spokesman had to abandon his own presidential bid in 1980 - time to say the words "Mary Jo Kopechne" out loud.

As is often the case, Republicans have deluded themselves into thinking that most Americans already know the story of how this "Conscience of the Democratic Party" left Miss Kopechne behind to die in the waters underneath the Edgartown Bridge in July 1969, after a night of drinking and partying with the young blonde campaign worker. But most Americans under 40 have never heard that story, or details of how Kennedy swam to safety, then tried to get his cousin Joe Garghan to say he was behind the wheel.

Those young voters don't know how Miss Kopechne, trapped inside Kennedy's Oldsmobile, gasped for air until she finally died, while the Democrats' leading Iraq war critic rushed back to his compound to formulate the best alibi he could think of.

Neither does Generation X know how Kennedy was thrown out of Harvard on his ear 15 years earlier -- for paying a fellow student to take his Spanish final. Or why the US Army denied him a commission because he cheated on tests.

As they listen to the Democrats' "Liberal Lion" accuse President Bush of "telling lie after lie after lie" to get America to go to war in Iraq, young voters don't know about that notorious 1991 Easter weekend in Palm Beach when Uncle Teddy rounded up his nephews for a night on the town, an evening that ended with one of them credibly accused of rape.

It's time for Republicans to state unabashedly that they will no longer "go along with the gag" when it comes to Uncle Ted's rants about deception and moral turpitude inside the Bush White House.

And if the Republicans don't, let's do it ourselves by passing this forgotten disgrace around the Internet to wake up memories of what a fraud and fake Teddy really is.

The Democratic Party should be ashamed to have this national disgrace from Massachusetts as their spokesman.

  

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USATODAY.com - Skype use may make eavesdropping passe

USATODAY.com - Skype use may make eavesdropping passe: "Skype use may make eavesdropping passe"

Vlogging takes off and boosts hope for citizen journalism

Vlogging takes off and boosts hope for citizen journalism: " Highlight: Amanda Congdon, co-writer of 'Rocketboom,' discusses the surge in interest surrounding 'vlogging,' or blogging with video content, usually in the form of a video diary or reality show."

Web Design Reference Guide

Web Design Reference Guide Finding Your Blogging Voice
Last updated Feb 3, 2006. By Dave Taylor
-What writing style will produce the best results on your blog?

Schneier on Security: Is the NSA Reading Your E-Mail?

Schneier on Security: Is the NSA Reading Your E-Mail?: "Schneier on Security-A weblog covering security and security technology. December 26, 2005 Is the NSA Reading Your E-Mail? - Richard M Smith has some interesting ideas on how to test if the NSA is eavesdropping on your e-mail."

FAQ: The new 'annoy' law explained | CNET News.com

FAQ: The new 'annoy' law explained | CNET News.com

Create an e-annoyance, go to jail | Perspectives | CNET News.com

Create an e-annoyance, go to jail | Perspectives | CNET News.com: "Annoying someone via the Internet is now a federal crime.

It's no joke. Last Thursday, President Bush signed into law a prohibition on posting annoying Web messages or sending annoying e-mail messages without disclosing your true identity."

Guest Contribution: More Media Decline

Guest Contribution: More Media Decline The News About the News: More Media Decline in 2005

A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION
by Danny Schechter

Perhaps it's just me—but news seems to be coming our way faster and with a greater fury than ever before. A tsunami of "Breaking News" bulletins courses through the veins and ganglia of what passes for an information system. A corporate news system pumps it on more platforms dedicated to "more news in less time" on the web, on TV, on the radio, and now on the phone. It's hard to escape the deluge.

TV Stardom on $20 a Day - New York Times

TV Stardom on $20 a Day - New York Times: "By ROBERT MACKEY
Published: December 11, 2005

AMANDA CONGDON is a big star on really small screens - like the 4�- inch window she appears in on computer monitors every weekday morning or the 2� inches she has to work with on the new video iPod. Ms. Congdon, you see, is the anchor of a daily, three-minute, mock TV news report shot on a camcorder, edited on a laptop and posted on a blog called Rocketboom, which now reaches more than 100,000 fans a day."

Posting to the Sequim Magazine BLOG

:: soundtransit - Phonography...

:: soundtransit :: search: "SoundTransit is a collaborative, online community dedicated to field recording and phonography."

IVR Cheat Sheet by Paul English

IVR Cheat Sheet by Paul EnglishTrouble with VOICE messaging? See this.

Evening papers are back -- online

NEWSPAPERS
For those who love newspapers -- to read them, write them and rail at
them - these are somber times. ... Newspapers are one of the glories
of modern Western civilization. They have, on the whole, probably
never been better written, edited and produced than they are today.
But their future is in doubt. So, is this the twilight of printed
news? Should the scribes of instant history be hunting-and-pecking
their industry's obituary? The answer is probably no. "I've never been
a believer that print will die," said technology writer and blogger
Edward Cone of North Carolina. "I think print has a lot of advantages.
It's a useful form. It's profitable, it's disposable, and you can roll
it up and hit the dog with it." But the nation's daily newspapers are
certainly changing fast, and to understand their future it may be
useful to glance at their past. ... Morning readers tended to prefer
their news straight-faced and serious. Afternoon readers were
different. They wanted to be entertained rather than educated,
preferring news of crime, sports and local politics, spiced with
strong opinions. The afternoon papers ran many editions, updating
stories throughout the day, getting the stock market closings and the
racetrack results in the final edition. Journalism in the afternoon
flourished until after World War II, when it was weakened by changes
in demographics, technology and the American economy. ... Now the
Internet has given newspapers the chance to compete again in the
breaking-news business. For once, the written word has an advantage
over television and radio. Most office workers would find it awkward,
to say the least, to sit around watching television or listening to
the radio. But they can read. And many with access to the Web check
the news there periodically all day. ... Web editors say readers look
for stories about crime and politics, about local neighborhoods and
communities, local sports and entertainment. In other words, they're
hunting for the kind of news once found in evening papers, exactly at
the times of day that once were the edition deadlines of those papers.
In fact, newspaper Web sites increasingly have come to resemble their
vanished afternoon brethren, albeit in electronic form and loaded with
bells, whistles, blogs and podcasts.

Source: Douglas Birch, The Baltimore Sun
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/ideas/bal-id.eveningnews27nov
27,1,4088875.story?coll=bal-ideas-headlines

----------------------------------------

Media focus on white, wealthy in missing-children cases

COVERAGE
Study: Media focus on white, wealthy in missing-children cases

For a missing child to attract widespread publicity and improve the
odds of being found, it helps if the child is white, wealthy, cute and
under 12. Experts agree that whites account for only half of the
nation's missing children. But white children were the subjects of
more than two-thirds of the dispatches appearing on the Associated
Press' national wire during the last five years and for three-quarters
of missing-children coverage on CNN, according to a first-of-its-kind
study by Scripps Howard News Service. "I don't think this results from
conscious or subconscious racism," said Ernie Allen, president of the
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. "But there's no
question that if a case resonates, if it touches the heartstrings, if
it makes people think 'that could be my child,' then it's likely to
pass the test to be considered newsworthy. Does that skew in favor of
white kids? Yes, it probably does." That race and class affect news
coverage is a fact that's not lost on the families of missing minority
children. "But the thing about it, the ghetto mamas love their babies
just like the rich people do. And they need to recognize that," Mattie
Mitchell said of news executives. Mitchell is the great-grandmother of
missing 4-year-old Jaquilla Scales. Jaquilla, who is black and has
never been found, drew only slight national coverage in 2001 when she
was snatched from her bedroom in Wichita, Kan. But the bedroom
kidnappings of Danielle van Dam, Polly Klaas, Jessica Lundsford and
Elizabeth Smart, all white girls, erupted in a barrage of publicity.

Source: Thomas Hargrove and Ansley Haman, Scripps Howard News Service
via The Island Packet
http://www.islandpacket.com/24hour/nation/story/2926281p-11593332c.htm
l

Buzz Series

Posting to the Sequim Magazine BLOG

<embed controller="true" width="320" height="256"
src="http://clips1.vimeo.com/video_files/2005/11/22/vimeo.29712.mov"
autoplay="false"></embed><br><a
href="http://www.vimeo.com/clip=22124">View this clip on Vimeo</a>

New West Network Home

New West Network Home

Yes, Sequim has a lot of beauty.

 
 

Teens define media

Melissa Paredes, a 16-year-old in Lompoc, Calif., maintains a Web site where she posts her own poetry and pictures and shares music. So when she was mourning her stepfather, David Grabowski, earlier this year,
she reflexively channeled her grief into a multimedia tribute. Using images she collected and scanned from photo albums, she created an online slide show, taking visitors on a virtual tour of Grabowski's life -- as a toddler, as a young man, at work. A collage of the photographs, titled "David Bruce Grabowski, 1966-2005," closes the memorial. "It helped me a lot," Melissa said in an instant message, the standard method of communication among millions of American
teenagers who, according to a study released Wednesday by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, are fast becoming some of the most nimble and prolific creators of digital content online. For all of its poignant catharsis, Melissa's digital eulogy is also a story of the modern teenager. Using the cheap digital tools that now help chronicle the comings and goings of everyday life -- cell phone cameras, iPods,
laptops and user-friendly Web editing software -- teenagers like Melissa are pushing content onto the Internet as naturally as they view it. "At the market level, this means old business models are in upheaval," said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew project. "At the legal level, this means the definition of property is up for grabs. And at the social level, it means that millions of those inspired to create
have a big new platform with which they shape our culture.
Source: Tom Zeller Jr., The New York Times via CNET news.com

Newspaper execs say circulation declines reflect shift to Web, less discounting

Editors and publishers at some of the newspapers hardest hit by
Monday's FAS-FAX reports say steps need to be taken to maintain
current readers while attracting new ones. But to many, the
circulation declines announced today by the Audit Bureau of
Circulations came as no surprise, given the overall industry trend.

But most say the circulation measurements are incomplete because they
still do not take into account growing Web site activity. Others also
said they had lost circulation deliberately by ending or reducing
discounted programs as their value becomes diminished in the ABC
measurements. "Circulation will continue to drop until there will be a
plateauing, then I expect a rapid decline," said Tom Fiedler,
executive editor of The Miami Herald, noting that he does not expect
circulation to increase during his lifetime, which means newspapers
must focus on the Web as a genuine delivery system. "Newspapers will
become supplemental reading for a very elite audience," he added, and
the online edition "will be where the popular press lives." "We are
well aware of it, that newspapers continue to struggle to reach their
audience," said Anne Gordon, managing editor of The Philadelphia
Inquirer, which suffered an 11,000-copy drop in daily circulation, and
about 30,000 on Sunday. "It's not a surprise." Still, Gordon was among
several who pointed to increasing Web activity as a factor that the
current FAS-FAX measurements do not address. "The Philadelphia
Inquirer has more readers than it has ever had if you factor in the
Web. We have well over one million readers." At the Herald -- which
has experienced a 4.3-percent drop in weekday print circulation since
September 2004 -- Fiedler says he sees a similar corresponding shift
online, where Herald.com has seen an "accelerated increase" of about
30 percent per year: "We are seeing that our readership is not
declining if you include online -- it is actually growing. Source: Joe
Strupp, Editor & Publisher