Chris Heinz (John Kerry's stepson) is coming to the Ogden on October 21st for a major Democratic campaign event and the organizers are looking for a DJ to warm up the crowd. I think this is going to be a major event, with a strong probability of local and possibly national press and TV (we're working on the media strategy) -- and as you know, TV is all about good visuals. So in addition to Chris Heinz saying something memorable, I'd like to push for camera arrival in the throes of the DJ work as well, since a 3-second shot of that would liven up the broadcast if the stations chose to use it (always a big if). There also may be some Hollywood types there; this has turned into a major stop on a swing-state turn-out tour.

oh... i see you're not familiar with ingredients we use,
first we take a measure of the sweetest dairy creams,
combine it with your meat of choice, along with cheese and beans,
we mix in a juicy batter, then we heat it up,
and add the secret syrup, and serve it in a cup.
...
i see you're not excited,
well wait until you've tried it,
you'll want it in your diet.
it's a warm and tasty way to eat your daily beef,
and its very, very smooth, you don't have to use to teeth.
its kinda like the food a pregnant woman gives her fetus,
it builds you up and makes you strong. people really eat this.

Wow... could I have used more of a cliche. Today was my last day in Japan. Did not do anything all that exciting, just went shopping around Osaka with Marc. Picked up a couple things... a CD, a coffee mug, a gift or two, and a digital camera. You know, the usual. I leave tomorrow afternoon. The funny thing about that is, there is a typhoon a comin' this way. I have no idea if that will affect my flight... guess I will just have to wait and see.

So what have I done in the past couple days? This really deserves some photographs, so I am going to throw up a couple that gobo12 took on his cellular phone.

The first is a picture taken at a Buddhist temple we visited. The name of which I cannot remember at this point in time, but I believe gobo12 posted it in his journal yesterday. The second is a picture of a monkey (slightly edited) taken at the top of the Monkey Park. Everybody loves monkeys, right? The park was nifty. This large area where the monkeys live is private, and you pay a small admission to get in. You hike about twenty minutes (I would guess about two hundred and fifty to five hundred meters -- convert to feet yourself) to the top of this hill where there is this hut. Outside the hut, there are a bunch of monkeys running around and doing what monkeys do... like loafing about, and picking bugs off each other. Inside the hut, you can feed the monkeys through a chain link fence. The fence seems to be in place more for the protection of the visitors of the monkey park, than for the protection of the monkeys themselves, as they seem to be awfully aggressive when there is food around. One of the really nifty things about the park is the fact that the clearance at the top overlooks all of Kyoto, which is an amazing view.

So that, in a nutshell, is yesterday. While I did focus on the monkey park more, I must say that the temple was pretty amazing, too. It came complete with a Zen Garden, and "Moss the Interrupter." What exactly that is, I have no idea, but it makes us all giggle.

Alright. I think I have little else to share tonight. I need to start packing, as I have a bunch of crap to bring back with me. Luckily, I had extra space in my bags on the way here, and I dumped some stuff off on Marc, but I still think it could be tight.

Still in Japan, and still alive. Had an amazing day, and I am too tired to go into details on it right now. However, I did want to share this terrible picture of my (if that is not a cheese grin, I don't know what is) with all the William Gibson fans out there...

Yes. That is me, holding a bottle of Bikkle (which only matters to folks reading Pattern Recognition, but may not matter to them either).

Brief synopsis of my day. 1) Went to bed at about 6:00 AM -- pulled an all-nighter with gobo12. 2) Got up at 10:00 AM. 3) Went to Kobe, which is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen in person. 4) Took a cable car (think gondola) to the top of a mountain near Kobe. 5) Went to the top of the Sky Building in Osaka at night -- think brilliant city-scape all around and open air observation deck. And up next: bedtime. Over twelve hours of non-stop movement on only four hours of sleep seems like enough.

So I've decided to share something that I've recently read. This little tidbit was posted in the blog of a coworker and friend of mine, Peter Saint-Andre. Its an interesting post, with a position that I had yet to consider, so I hope he doesn't mind if I borrow (rip) it in its entirety. I'll inform him tomorrow (and I'll certainly be willing to remove it if he does mind), but I hope he doesn't.

From stpeter's post: ( America's Role - On being the world's policemen. )

My own personal thoughts have ventured in this direction, but I've only grazed the edges. I have felt for some time that it is the result of meddling by our "representatives" in D.C. that has caused such a broad anti-American sentiment throughout the world, and especially in the so-called "Axis of Evil." The idea that hadn't occured to me was complete isolation from global affairs. Its an intriguing idea... and one that I find unlikely to float. Even if large sections of America's population push in that direction, I think it would take a huge movement if it were to overwhelm the impact on powerful businesses that benefit from our meddlesome government.

On a related note, there's an extremely interesting piece on Salon that evaluates the profiteering expected by American companies in the wake of the war. It goes into detail about how, so far, the Pentagon and the administration are only requesting bids from American companies, especially ones with close ties to the White House, for post war cleanup and rebuilding. Its not a terribly surprising fact, but it is interesting to note that one of the companies that has been contacted is a subsidiary of Halliburton... boy, that names seems familiar. What ever happened to all those investigations into companies that had "questionable accounting practices?"

We've been so distracted with all this talk of war that the American public seems to have forgotten about all the abuses by those in power. Weird, huh? Guess they just didn't want all of our attention focused so close to the administration. Certainly drawing a conspiracy theory out of here would be easy, but it would still be nothing more than a hyperbole.

So I was reading the blog of Scott Rosenburg, Salon's managing editor, and I came across an entry referencing a letter written by a reporter for the Washington Post about the behavior of the White House's quote games. Basically, it works like this. Interviews are conducted "off the record" and any quotes that are used in the newspaper would have to be emailed to the press office. If the quote was approved, only then could it be attributed to a White House official.

First, this doesn't make any sense. An "off the record" interview shouldn't have any quotes, right? And having to get them approved? This doesn't really sound like journalistic integrity to me. Basically, if any journalist wants quotes from the White House, they have to agree to these rules, so pretty much every news organization capitulates to the will of the White House's press office.

It doesn't stop there, however. It gets even better. Jonathan Weisman's account (look for "It's time to change the rules of WH reporting") had this blurb:

Since the profile focused on Hubbard's efforts to translate relatively arcane macroeconomic theory into public policy, the quote I wanted referenced the president's effort to end the double taxation of dividends: "This is probably the most academic proposal ever to come out of an administration." The press office said it was fine, but the official wanted a little change. Instead, the quote was to read, "This is probably the purest, most far reaching economic proposal ever to come out of an administration." I protested that the point of the quote was the word "academic," so the quote was again amended to state, "This is probably the purest, most academic, most far reaching economic proposal ever to come out of an administration."

What appeared in the Washington Post was, "This is probably the purest, most academic ... economic proposal ever to come out of an administration." What followed was an angry denunciation by the White House press official, telling me I had broken my word and violated journalistic ethics.

Not only is the White House insisting on reviewing quotes before they're used, but they are changing them as well. Obviously, at this point, they aren't quotes anymore. This isn't, however, preventing news organizations from presenting them as such. Add this fact to the belief that American's are, in general, willfully ignorant, and you have a huge group of people who are, effectively, no longer questioning their government. I almost hate to whip out the oft-used (over used?) quote of Thomas Jefferson, but... "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance." (My emphasis.)

It used to be that you could trust the media to keep the government in check. Now the media is big business, and ratings are good for business. If one media outlet is getting quotes from the White House, because they agree to those ridiculous rules, then others have to follow suit, or (potentially) lose ratings. It is unfortunate, but it is more or less a truth of America's media. The idea that we may no longer be able to rely on the media to be vigilant on behalf of the masses frightens me to no end.

Frankly, if we the people can't rely on people whose job it is to keep an eye on our government, who can we rely on to do it? Trusting the journalistic integrity of our media is vital to our country, and its people.

Just saw this hilarious bit on CNN about the U.S. House of Representatives cafeterias changing the names for 'french fries' and 'french toast' to 'freedom fries' and 'freedom toast' as a rebuke to the French for not supporting our wars on Iraq. This really should be an article in The Onion, right? Here's a blurb:

"This action today is a small, but symbolic effort to show the strong displeasure of many on Capitol Hill with the actions of our so-called ally, France," said Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, the chairman of the Committee on House Administration.

Ney, whose committee has authority over the House cafeterias, directed the change, after colleague Walter Jones, R-North Carolina, circulated a letter suggesting such a move.

"I represent a district with multiple military bases that have deployed thousands of troops," Jones said in a statement. "As I've watched these men and women wave good-bye to their loved ones, I am reminded of the deep love they have for the freedom of this nation and their desire to fight for the freedom of those who are oppressed overseas," Jones said in a statement. "Watching France's self -serving politics of passive aggression in this effort has discouraged me more than I can say."

Damn... brings a little tear to my eye. I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I can enjoy freedom fries with lunch. I have a great idea, let's start a letter writing campaign to McDonald's and see if we can get them to do the same. That'll show those snooty French. (Um... yes. This is sarcasm. I don't want to deal with this type of confusion.)

You know, every once in a while you have to salute somebody for coming up with something so clever you wish it had been you. One of my friends just sent me a link to this article about Terry Jones, who's losing patience with his neighbors... much the same way as Dubya is losing patience with Iraq. Check this out:

Perhaps Mr Bush needs to wipe out everyone who could possibly be a future terrorist? Maybe he can't be sure he's achieved his objective until every Muslim fundamentalist is dead? But then some moderate Muslims might convert to fundamentalism. Maybe the only really safe thing to do would be for Mr Bush to eliminate all Muslims?

It's the same in my street. Mr Johnson and Mr Patel are just the tip of the iceberg. There are dozens of other people in the street who I don't like and who - quite frankly - look at me in odd ways. No one will be really safe until I've wiped them all out.

Have fun.