“The liberal media” is an expression that was burned into the American conscious by Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdoch, owners of News Corp. which owns Clear Channel Radio and Fox News.  The political agenda of Rupert Murdoch would never be confused with anything liberal or even fair and balanced for that matter.  News Corp. lists as assets, 175 newspapers, and 41 TV stations and over 1200 radio stations, Fox Entertainment (movies and television), Direct TV, Clear Channel Outdoor Advertising and those nifty little kiosks you see in airports, malls and on the roofs of taxis.  Clear Channel, a subsidiary of News Corp. owns Premiere Radio Networks, which syndicates popular talk shows like those of Rush Limbaugh and Laura Schlessinger to hundreds of stations across the country.

            Clear Channel Radio is by far the largest owner of broadcast distributors in the nation and their political agenda is closely aligned with Cumulus Radio who together with Clear Channel owns a majority of all broadcast stations in the country.  Rupert Murdoch's investment in Fox News has changed America. As Richard Morin noted in The Washington Post on May 4, 2006, in an article titled "The Fox News Effect": "'Fox News convinced 3 to 8 percent of its audience to shift its voting behavior towards the Republican Party, a sizable media persuasion effect,' said Stefano DellaVigna of the University of California at Berkely and Ethan Kaplan of Stockholm University.

"In Florida alone, they estimate, the Fox effect may have produced more than 10,000 additional votes for Bush -- clearly a decisive factor in a state he carried by fewer than 600 votes."

            Our first president, George Washington said, “As Mankind becomes more liberal, they will be more apt to allow that all those who conduct themselves as worthy members of the community are equally entitled to the protections of civil government. I hope ever to see America among the foremost nations of justice and liberality."  Thomas Jefferson wrote, "The people are the only censors of their governors” and “The basis of our government being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide, whether we should have a government without newspapers (media), ore newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. But I should mean that every man should receive those papers, and be capable of reading them."   Our founding fathers held a commitment to a government of the people, by the people and for the people.  The consolidation of our news outlets into the hands of a few extremely one-sided distributors would be alarming to them.

            When you review my posts over the last several days you can see that campaign finance reform and net neutrality are hugely significant to preserving our liberty and way of life.  We are at a crossroads where it is essential that we continue the free flow of ideas and regain a voice with our elected representatives.  These are not partisan issues as the pendulum of political ideology swings back and forth.  The issues of campaign reform and net neutrality are about the free flow and access of the dissemination of information between us and our government.  I encourage you to visit Americans for Campaign Reform and Save the Net to add your voice to these crucial endeavors.

 

Who is Bob Dorr?

 

 

            I have written here before of my support for federal campaign finance reform and wanted to make you aware that you can easily learn more about it tonight, Friday October 20^th on the PBS show NOW.   You can see a preview of the show by clicking on the video below.  Americans for Campaign Finance Reform is not a radical group of liberals, it is not a stalwart establishment of Conservatives, it is an American movement supported by real people like you and me.  Is there resistance to this movement?  You bet there is.  The powerbrokers of Washington despise the idea of campaign finance reform because they like things just the way they are.  Under the current system large contributions and $1,000 per plate fund raisers ensure donor’s access to the candidates at the exclusion of people like us.  The last time I checked this country was still a democracy and supporting this movement is your chance to take back control of your country. 

            It doesn’t matter if you are happy with the current administration or are anxious to see a power shift at the capital.  The result of supporting campaign finance reform puts access to our leaders back in the hands of the people and out of the hands of highly organized and professional special interest groups.  That would be a good thing for all Americans.  So what would you have to do to support the efforts of the bi-partisan coalition of Americans for Campaign Reform?  Very little.  It’s easy, quick and painless.  Go here and join Americans for Campaign Reform, make a two minute phone call to your Senator and Congressional Representative and maybe send a couple bucks to help the movement get the word out.  Come on, check it out.  Phone calls are easy and I know how we all love to talk on our phones.  The thing is, if you do this, if you join and if you are lead to maybe make a phone call or two you will feel really good about yourself when you hang up from that call.  You will know you have done a simple act that will benefit yourself and your children and the millions of your fellow Americans who have a very limited voice in our government as it exists today.

6 Reasons to Publicly Finance Elections

1. It's Needed. Big money wielded by special interests and their lobbyists is having a corrosive influence on our democracy.

2. It's Time.  Public funding is already working in several states, and there is growing national support for the idea.

3. It will work.  Publicly funded candidates will have enough money to run competitive races - even against privately funded candidates who spend more.

4. It returns control to voters.  Elected officials will answer to the voters not big donors. 

5. It improves leadership.  Public funding will foster real competition and encourage our best leaders to run for office.  Once elected, our leaders will be free to focus on our nation's challenges.

6. It's cheap.  Congress would only have to spend $6 per citizen per year to publicly fund all federal elections.  When you consider that "pork barrel" projects cost every one of us more than $200 last year alone, it's no contest.

 

                             

Attention California Readers!

Campaign Reform is on your November ballot.  Please watch this program.

 

 

            Hey, get this, today I was perusing the Wall Street Journal and came across a story by JESSICA E. VASCELLARO and ANJALI ATHAVALEY titled, Foley Scandal Turns Parents Into Web Sleuths.  The story begins, “Lori Hahn of Sacramento, Calif., has made a habit of talking to her three teenagers about being careful whom they talk to online.”  Yep, it was that Lori Hahn, sister blogger of HahnAtHome.com.  IM safer is an instant messaging monitoring tool that watches for keywords in instant message sessions occurring on your computer and sends an email alert when questionable or objectionable language is used.  It is a free tool, available here, that does not infringe on your children’s privacy by sending transcripts of their messages but rather warnings of offensive language.  The IMSafer website says they are providing this service, “To provide technology that solves the problem of protecting your children online.” 

            Lori had told me about signing up for the service a couple of weeks ago and claims it is working wonderfully.  She blogged about it here and here and was interviewed by Sacramento's TV 10 News after they saw the WSJ story here.  After reading her blog I requested a link and installed the software on my lap top to see how it worked.  I wanted to test it before loading it on the computer the kids use at home.  I guess I couldn’t tell you if it works or not.  To date my installation has monitored 67 instant message sessions and nothing exciting enough has happened to trigger an alert.  Either there is nothing sexually appealing about a fat middle aged married guy or I am a decent and honorable family man and female friends respect that about me.  It reminds me of the girl I talked to in college years ago who was telling me about the new rape prevention plan installed at her school.  Dark and potentially dangerous places around the campus were marked with signage that warned “Rape Zone”.  While there is nothing remotely funny about rape, this co-ed had claimed to have not had a date in a very long time.  She seemed incensed that the University policy was a huge failure because she hung out in those rape zones all the time and had not had even a hint of any action.

            The internet has impacted our lives in nearly as dramatic a way as has first language and then the alphabet.  The ability to send and receive information around the world in parts of a second has proven revolutionary to nearly every aspect of our existence.  Wednesday evening on the PBS program Moyers on America the topic of Net Neutrality was discussed.  Proponents of Net Neutrality claimed that a regulated and open internet is essential to our economy and democracy.  Equally important are the free flow of commerce and ideas and the internet has proven to offer an unprecedented level playing field for everyone.  Telecom and Cable giants want the ability to not only charge us for the infrastructure that the internet rides upon but they want to act as toll collectors and determine the content of the information shared on the internet.  To be fair, the telecom and cable industries claim that they have no intention of discriminating content over their wires but if that is the case why do they object to supporting legislation to guarantee that claim? 

            The internet is not unlike most revolutionary achievements in the history of man.  We reap huge benefits from the existence of the internet and face many challenges as evidenced by our need to seek out products such as IMSafer to protect our children.  You can get more information on the Net Neutrality movement by clicking on the links at the top of this page.  At stake is your ability to visit websites you enjoy, shop at online stores you prefer or glean information you seek for your work or leisure.  The internet is a benefit to all of society not unlike electricity, roadways, rail lines or telephone.  Millions of Americans have asked our legislature to protect our ability to utilize the internet as an open and equally available resource for all.  Some legislators have opted to accept the opinion that is backed by $40,000,000 in annual lobby efforts ahead of the interests of you, your family and your employer.  Please check to see where your Senator stands on this issue and then ask him or her to support Net Neutrality or thank them for their support.  In many ways the telecom and cable companies are similar to the predators we must fight to protect our children.  If the dualopoly of the communication giants have their way our children will be victims of the coroporate policy prescribed by Verizon, the Bell System, Cox Cable and Comcast. 

 

 

On Tuesday October, 17th 2006 the President of the United States signed into law the single worst assault against civil liberties in the history of America.  S. 3930. The Military Commissions Act of 2006 will surly (hopefully) fall under the scrutiny of the Supreme Court in record time.  The principal incentive for the drafting of the legislation was the Supreme Court's June decision in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld.  Hamdan v. Rumsfeld stated the President's illegal policy of utilizing military commissions for trying suspected terrorists of war crimes is unconstitutional. The Court said that the commissions failed to satisfy basic requirements of US military law and international law because, among other things, they denied defendants the right to be present at trial and to see the evidence against them.  President Bush will go down in history as the person most responsible for undermining the very foundation of our legal system. 

            The one thing that America had always stood for was our dedication to fairness, justice and the rule of law.  Prior to the consummation of S. 3930 we had a chance to endure in that reputation.  Now the practices of those charged to defend the spirit, borders and integrity of America at places like Guantanamo Bay are left on their own in seeking a definitive understanding of what constitutes torture.  The practice of extraordinary rendition is now acceptable but unnecessary because it will be legal to torture and beat confessions out of suspects on American soil.  Once an interrogator beats a confession out of a suspect they will no longer be required to offer verifiable evidence that can be examined by the accused or their legal counsel before being found guilty and sentenced to prison or death.  May God have mercy on this nation’s soul.

 

Read the entire law here.

 

 

            Hello Public Radio Listeners!  KUNI Radio, FM 90.1 on your Eastern Iowa FM dial is in the beginnings of their fall fundraiser.  Please fell free to click the KUNI link above if you would like to make a donation to KUNI to support their excellent programming as affiliates of National Public Radio.  This morning, as my alarm rocked my world at 4:00 AM I became all too aware that the semi-annual fund raising was at full speed.  I suppose it was the stupor of not enough sleep but it occurred to me that it may be a good idea to throw out a challenge pledge to help the radio station begin their campaign.  I made my challenge at 6:00 AM under the name Red Hog Diary dot com and for the next two hours of drive time, at a frequency of about five times an hour, listeners were encouraged to help secure the challenge pledge of the Red Hog Diary.  I guess I’m not sure if I am more proud of the fact that I once again helped keep quality programming on the airwaves or my brilliant marketing strategy that got the Red Hog Diary some quality air time. 

 

            I worked 14 hours Saturday and commuted for an additional 4 hours.  Sunday I worked about three hours from home.  Monday was an 15 hour day and then…The Bears played on Monday night. The Bears were down 23-3 late in the second half.  As I write this the Bears are about to receive the kick off after a second defensive score put the game within reach. There is about three minutes left in the game.  ….$#@&!!!!! Oh my GOD!  Devon Hester, the Bears dynamic kick return man just ran the kick off back eighty-three yards for a TOUCHDOWN!  …OH CRAP!  The Cardinals have taken the insuring kick off and then marched down the field and had an opportunity to kick a field goal with 53 seconds left.  The kick is from the   yard line and the kicker has not missed from inside the 50 yard line all year.  The kick is up…. IT”S WIDE LEFT!  BEARS WIN! BEARS WIN!  The Bears are no a perfect 6-0!  Sorry about the play by play.  I sat down at my computer thinking I had just finished the end of a crappy series of days.  My Iowa Hawkeye’s had lost to the lowly Indiana Hoosiers on Saturday so I was thinking this was just more bad sports karma.

            Monday Night Football.  That was a lot of fun.  The Bears had six turnovers, didn’t score an offensive touchdown and were trailing by 20 points with only moments to go in the third period.  Talk about shock and awe!  Okay, I’ll come back down to earth now but did I mention that was a lot of fun.  Victories like that, in my 44 years as a devoted Bears fan are few and far between.  This year, with a perfect record on the line, the dramatic come from behind win must have been just a little too exciting for me because I started yelling and screaming as it became apparent that Devon Hester was going to go all the way.  My oldest son came running down the stairs with a horrified look on his face because I was hootin’ and hollerin’ so loud. He thought for sure I was being ax murdered.  When he found out what all the commotion was about he was glaring at me a little bit.  I guess in hind sight I’m not sure if he had run down the stairs with intentions of saving me or if he had run down the stairs to ensure the ax wielding mutant that may have invaded our home got the job done.  He was displeased enough about being jolted awake by the screams of his Father that I just didn’t really have the courage to ask him.

            Sports are a great distraction for times like these.  For a few hours this evening I was able to escape the pressures of a big project at work, the unending demands of single parenthood and the embarrassment that is George W. Bush.  When my Bears were fighting back I was not thinking about the two hours of work that remained before I slept, the fact that the clothes I had washed and folded last night had not been put away and the kitchen was a mess or that The Eisenhower assault fleet was due to enter the waters off the coast of Iran today.  I guess you could say I had a perfect ending to a very long day, and that’s the way life oughta be.

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            David Limbaugh, in his syndicated Sunday column challenges his readers to “imagine the Democrats winning a debate over national security when they’ve vigorously opposed almost every tool President Bush has tried to use to prosecute the war on terror?”  I love that he did that!  Truly, it offers me a sense of hope and gives me pause to raise my head high to imagine that we would “change course” and take meaningful steps to address the very real threat of terrorism while repealing the illegal policies endorsed by the Bush administration to prosecute the accused in the war on terror.  If in fact it is true that Democrats have opposed almost every tool that the President has proposed it just suggests to me that every tool proposed has reeked of inhumanity, injustice or immorality.  Let us not imagine the Democrats winning the war on terror; let us assure it, and once again hold our heads high as a nation of dignity and honor.

            “Can you imagine Democrats prevailing on a values debate where it would be emphasized that they actively promote the radical homosexual agenda and castigate one of the finest institutional exemplars of traditional values in our nation’s history – the Boy Scouts – for their moral refusal to permit homosexuals to be scoutmasters.”  If you mean, Mr. Limbaugh, that this values debate is about whether or not all Americans deserve to fall under the protection of the rights guaranteed under our constitution, if you mean that it should not be the right of government to tell their constituents who they can and can not love and if you mean that this values debate is concerned with allowing all couples the benefits and protections of our society regardless of their sexual preference then, yes, I can imagine the Democrats winning that debate.  The fact that we have not won this debate already should be a cause for embarrassment for all of us. 

            And about those moral models, the Boy Scouts.  When I enrolled my youngest son for school this year there was a sign-up table for Cub Scouts.  I was a scout, my oldest son was a scout and we had a wonderful time and learned many valuable things in the scouts.  Currently the Boy Scouts of America have been hi-jacked by some fundamentalist Neanderthals that spew an agenda of separatism, intolerance and hate and when my son asked if he could sign up for the scouts I informed him in no uncertain terms, “Absolutely not.”  The issue is greater than scoutmasters.  It is also the policy of the Boy Scouts to deny membership to children whose parents are gay and children whose parents are atheist.  I thank you Mr. Limbaugh for reminding me that such organizations have no place in the gym of a public institution at an event for the registration of public schools.  I will keep you all posted on my luck with getting that table removed from next years event.

            Limbaugh does not believe that “conservatives will deliver control to the party of tax and spend because Republicans haven’t done enough to curb domestic spending.”  Okay, that old line of bull just doesn’t cut it anymore and I would think any fiscal conservative would have blushed when Limbaugh played that tired and worn old card.  Reagan and Little Bush are responsible for the two greatest deficits in the history of the planet and all the Democrats did with their last opportunity to lead the country was generate a surplus.  There has not been a Democrat in Washington for over a quarter of a century that could spend at the rate of the GOP.  And not only that but Democrats did not spend what they did not have.

            Imagine a nation that has respect for civil rights, all Americans – regardless of their tax bracket, regardless of their sexual preference, religious affiliation or political ideology.  Imagine a nation that respects individual rights and does not torture or prosecute without due process, a nation that respects the environment, education and the protection of workers within her borders.  Imagine a nation with a progressive plan to reduce dependence on foreign oil and reform our borders in an equitable and just manner.  Imagine a nation that has the respect of other nations as a champion of hope, prosperity and justice.  Thank you for your column Mr. Limbaugh.  I read your words and was reminded that chances are good that your myopic, selfish and degrading vision of America will soon be relegated to a chapter of history where America veered of course but was righted when America imagined the consequences of this upcoming election.

 

 

            That whole living life to its fullest thing reared its ugly head on my drive back from the home office at midnight last night.  Nothing like a 14 hour workday sandwiched between four hours of drive time to make one introspective.   My first wife moved to Washington DC 50 weeks ago for a one year job assignment.  About the same time that “She Who Must Be Obeyed” moved out East we lost and decided not to replace a key element of my three person department at work.  It has made for a long year and from time to time I find myself pondering the questions: “Is this all there is?”  “Is my life going where I want it to go?” and “Am I attentive and engaged enough with the important people in my life?”  I hate those kinds of questions yet from time to time they creep out of the dark and dusty confines of my subconscious.

            I know that from time to time it is healthy to step back and evaluate one’s life course.  I just hate that in this, my 46^th year; I am still not an astronaut/rock star or a world champion motocross racer/independently wealthy philanthropist and as you all know, that last Papal Conclave for appointment as Supreme Pontiff did not go so well for me.  So it goes.

            I am not so disappointed about missing out on the astronaut thing because those space capsules look like they may be a bit cramped for a 340 pound space pilot such as I would be.  Additionally, I have never heard a good explanation for what an astronaut does when it is time for my morning poop, coffee and sports page routine that I count as some of the most precious time of my day.  Somehow being a rock star with out the balancing contributions to the scientific world afforded by being a rocket jockey seems to be a shallow and self absorbed existence.  You know me; I’m all about the people. 

            I would have made a great world champion motocross racer if it were not for the minor fact that I was never any good at it.  Competitive racers are such a selfish lot.  Back in 1977 I certainly cherished the chance to be champion more than any other competitor churning the corners at the community circuit.  Characteristic of contending contestants, chances of conceding competitive character to my charging cycle categorically was out of the question.  The bastards!  As for independent wealth and philanthropy, well I’m open to give that a shot if you would all please send money. 

            I guess I am not so disappointed with regards to the “Vicar of Christ” position passing me by when I think back that I only made it to mass about nine times last year.  Sunday morning is my only morning to sleep in and I’m pretty sure the job of Pope would pretty much put an end to my slovenly Sunday morning style and seriously subordinate my substantial struggle with sacramental scheduling.

            Probably by now you are pondering my penchant for picking parallel primary patterns in composing the previous paragraphs.  I don’t know why.  I guess it was just easier than confronting the tantalizing topic of time transitioning my thoughts and intentions as I travel through middle age.  Did I ever mention the intention of this Red Hog invention was the prevention of the attrition of my disposition?  It may be so or it maybe not so but of this one thing I am certain; the mid-life manifestation of mortality in manhood makes many pursue poor preferences.  More befitting, I think, than coveting a Corvette, engaging in infidelity or succumbing to the comb-over I have chosen to blog my way through the perpetual perils this midlife predicament that persistently provides me pause.  So I got that going for me.