Archive for October, 2007

The New Isolationism: A Platform Proposal

The New Isolationism: A Platform Proposal

| October 31, 2007 | Reply

I’ve always enjoyed Ron Silver as an actor — but now I admire him for his humor as well: The presidential electoral cycle is upon us. That means conventions. Conventions have platforms. I propose a platform that will make the world like us again. Just like they always did. It may take 12 steps to […]

Read More

San Diego Fires post-mortem: ourselves

San Diego Fires post-mortem: ourselves

| October 31, 2007 | 2 Replies

I’ve previously posted feedback from readers on how the media performed during the San Diego Fires as well as how the government performed. At the same time that I solicited that feedback, I also asked for suggestions on how our coverage here at “And Still I Persist” might have been better. Feedback and my own […]

Read More

Some things transcend borders and cultures

Some things transcend borders and cultures

| October 30, 2007 | Reply

Headline: “Gov’t IT project ‘failed’ with $12mil misappropriated” Location: Vietnam. VietNamNet Bridge – More than 20% of the funds already disbursed for a multi-million dollar project that aimed to computerise Government offices nationwide has been misallocated, according to a new report from the State Audit Agency. The State Audit Agency said Project 112 had misallocated […]

Read More

San Diego Fires post-mortem: the government

San Diego Fires post-mortem: the government

| October 30, 2007 | 1 Reply

[UPDATED 11/01/07 0734 PDT] – The San Diego Union-Tribune has an excellent article by Alex Roth and Mark Sauer discussing to what extent government agencies handled things better this time than back in 2003. It particularly notes the need for more fire stations (with matching firefighters and equipment) to meet the risk of large-scale fires […]

Read More

Heroics saved firefighters in SoCal fire

Heroics saved firefighters in SoCal fire

| October 30, 2007 | Reply

Last week I commented on how courage, heroism and American self-reliance was on full display last week as the area faced its most wide-spread disaster in at least a generation. As the weeks go forward we are going to read dozens of stories about people who saw a chance to make a difference and did […]

Read More

San Diego Fires port-mortem: the media

San Diego Fires port-mortem: the media

| October 30, 2007 | Reply

A few days ago, I asked for comments on what you thought the media did wrong or could have done better in covering the San Diego fires. Several of you have taken the time to respond, either via private e-mail or by posting comments. Sad to say, the comments tended to be largely uniform and […]

Read More

North Korea Blog – Brilliant Parody Or Real Deal?

North Korea Blog – Brilliant Parody Or Real Deal?

| October 30, 2007 | Reply

This one is a goodie. I am trying to figure out if someone is being serious here or if this is just a really good joke about the pot-bellied transvestite Elvis impersonator who is running North Korea. It includes such notables as: Korea is well on the way to the great national reunification under the […]

Read More

Fema And The Fake Press Conference

Fema And The Fake Press Conference

| October 30, 2007 | Reply

When this happened it was far less interesting than what we were covering here, but this one was quite alarming to me. From the Federal Times: The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s deputy administrator, Harvey Johnson, had an unusually friendly audience at an Oct. 23 news briefing on his agency’s response to the California wildfires: his […]

Read More

Covering The San Diego Fires – Sources And Methods

Covering The San Diego Fires – Sources And Methods

| October 30, 2007 | Reply

First off, I would like to thank everyone for the mountains of praise and complements on our coverage of the fires in San Diego last week. It was a large amount of work, but I think it really helped everyone, including myself, understand what was going on. Several folks have expressed interest in how and […]

Read More

San Diego fires — photos of the Mt. Miguel fire (10/23/07)

San Diego fires — photos of the Mt. Miguel fire (10/23/07)

| October 29, 2007 | Reply

Morgan Davis, an old friend of mine, sent me a link to photos that he snapped as the Harris Fire was roaring over Mt. Miguel in southeast San Diego County last week. Here are a few of the photos: And here’s his description of the photos on his site, as well as a link to […]

Read More