Air America Radio in Dayton--Just A Pipe Dream?

One of the things that bothers me the most about living in the Dayton area is the limited access to progressive or liberal media outlets. While the DDN tries its best to straddle the ideological divide between the region's conservatives majority and the rest of us, it is a very lonely outpost for obtaining opposing views available through traditional local sources (radio, television, print media).

Flashback warning...personal background info provided for context follows. The above thread continues later down the column.

As someone who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s, I was definitely a 'TV child'. As long as I can remember, we had a television firmly planted into the center of our living room. In fact, we were one of the first families in our old neighborhood to own a console color set (back when Sylvania still made televisions)--with a whopping 25" diagonal screen! Our hometown was one of the first in the nation to be wired for cable and we were fortunate to get several stations from the New York City and Philadelphia markets in addition to our local network affiliates and the fledgling public service station. I personally witnessed history as it was happening when Neil Armstrong took his grainy 'giant leap' in July 1969. I saw a president resign from office in August 1974, Hank Aaron hit his 715th home run in April 1975 and complained when a special report on the Camp David Peace Accords interrupted the world premiere of (the original) 'Battlestar Galactica' in September 1978.

While TV played a significant role in my upbringing, it was radio that truly piqued my interest. I received my first transistor radio when I was 7 years old and frequently had to have the batteries replaced by my mom or dad because of its constant use. I advanced to a clock radio a few years later and was also smitten by my grandfather's multi-band set that picked up police calls. I began to monitor broadcast signals to find out about them and determine just how far away they were (known as 'DXing' to radio buffs) and quickly cataloged many of the higher powered AM radio stations in the eastern half of the US and Canada.

Not satisfied with these 'local' offerings, I progressed to listening to shortwave stations that directed their programming out to an international audience and English language transmissions to specific target audiences. This was the mid 1970s and Cold War propaganda was going strong in the battle for 'hearts and minds' around the globe. All of the major players were present: the US (Voice of America, American Forces Radio for our widely deployed military members), the USSR (Radio Moscow), Great Britain (BBC World Service), Red China (Radio Peking) and various stations from the Warsaw Pact and other satellite nations (Radio Havana Cuba, Radio Prague). Listeners were asked to write to the stations to report their reception strength and quality and were rewarded with QSL cards and other assorted goodies for their information (I received numerous souvenirs like calendars and pennants--I even received a vinyl recording of several communist anthems that I still have today). This hobby helped steer my interests upon entering the military and vectored me towards a lengthy career in the intelligence services (although I thought that my many 'red' gifts might preclude my obtaining the necessary clearances for such a line of work).


End of flashback...continuing with the present...

Now that you have a better understanding this unique dimension of my personality, one can see that radio has been an important part of my life and a crucial element in how I observe my surroundings and get a 'feel' for where I currently live or where I might temporarily be. When I travel around the country by car, it's perfectly normal for me to scan the bands and see what my current location has to offer. During these surveys, I specifically look for the AM talk radio stations--at one time the exclusive domain of the right wing due to Reagan's rescinding of the FCC's 'fairness doctrine' in 1987. From this abandonment of balanced coverage of issues and equal opportunity for rebuttal, the likes of Rush Limbaugh, G. Gordon Liddy, Michael Reagan and a myriad of others set up shop to 'parrot' their highly conservative (and oftentimes evangelical-tinged) agendas to a wide listening audience.

It wasn't until 2004 and the creation of Air America Radio that liberals and progressives started to seriously venture into this arena. AAR was to serve as an alternative source of news and talk for an audience that did not subscribe to the existing views espoused by that medium's entrenched incumbents. Although this initiative did cause somewhat of a stir in the months following its inaugural broadcast on March 31st, this level of interest was seen as being directly related to that year's divisive presidential election campaign. As the months went by, more stations were added to their 'network' (currently have 87 terrestrial stations and one channel on XM satellite radio) but ratings have steadily floundered (averaging a 1.2 share nationwide throughout most of their 29-month existence).

Ohioans fed up with the ideological 'wasteland' AM radio has become had reasons to celebrate in 2005. That year saw AM stations in Cincinnati (WCKY), Akron (WARF) and Columbus (WTPG) becoming AAR affiliates in a state considered crucial in current and future US politics. Unfortunately, Dayton was overlooked and listeners in this area would have to try to tune in to WCKY or WTPG over the AM airwaves (the Akron station is too far and too weak to hear locally) or continue their internet streaming or satellite reception to get their AAR 'fix'. Although both stations are nearly equidistant from the greater Dayton area, WTPG's low signal power (1,000 watts) is dwarfed by the 50,000 watt transmissions from the Cincinnati station. While it didn't 'boom' in like our local AM stations, I was able to listen in most of the day and early into the night before they reconfigured to a directional antenna pattern for operating during hours of darkness. My morning and evening commutes could now be used for becoming better informed instead of simply being 'entertained' by the likes of Bob & Tom or other local 'wannabes' in our local radio market.

Sadly, this acceptable arrangement was impacted by the invisible hand of capitalism. In July 2006, WCKY swapped formats with sister station WSAI (supposedly because of low ratings) and now AAR programming is relegated to a 5,000 watt platform. While this new outlet is still more powerful than its sister affiliate in Columbus, it no longer broadcasts on a 'clear channel' and routinely experiences interference with 65 comparably strong stations that share that frequency in the US and Canada (compared to their former 50,000 watt signal looming over 33 other lower powered transmitters). Now, many morning and evening drives have me trying to 'dig out' AAR programming from among the clutter and spurious noises that routinely plague the AM radio spectrum.

The maps are provided below to tangibly illustrate this degradation of coverage. Many factors affect reception of AM radio programming (weather, time of day, sunspots, etc.) but the primary one when considering signal quality is effective radiating power (ERP) and this level-of-magnitude reduction greatly impacts listeners outside of the station's local listening market.

WSAI/1360kHz (left) vs WCKY/1530kHz (right) -- daytime coverage maps

WSAI/1360kHz (left) vs WCKY/1530kHz (right) -- nighttime coverage maps

According to radio-locator.com, there are 34 stations in 'close listening range' (between 8 and 60 miles) of Fairborn--21 are FM stations and 13 reside in the AM band. Five of the AM selection are classified as adhering to a 'talk' or 'news' format and three of those are affiliated with the Fox News Radio network (the other two prominently feature right-wing programming). If we include 'fringe' coverage (within a 170-mile radius), the number jumps to 101 ( 55 FM/46 AM) with 20 of these classified as 'news/talk'. Other than Cincinnati's WDBZ (urban-centric) and two of the three previously mentioned AAR affiliates (WARF is apparently too weak to ever be heard in the Dayton area), all of the others either feature pro-conservative programming or do not provide enough information via the web to label them properly. Conservative counter that NPR-affiliated stations carry programming aimed at a more liberal or progressive audience but this solitary station (WYSO) does not feature the kind of material heard on AAR or its conservative competitors.

After analyzing this environment, what are our available options for AAR programming in Dayton?

- The local radio spectrum is almost completely filled (regulated tightly by the FCC to eliminate interference between broadcasters) and the cost of starting up a new station can be financially prohibitive (starts at the seven-figure mark for commercial operations). If you catalog Dayton's AM market, you'll see plenty of the tried-and-true formats (the five [!!!] 'news/talkers' are joined by three separate, two religious broadcasters, and one each of country, oldies, and urban contemporary).

- Dayton listeners could petition Clear Channel Communications, the owners of WSAI and WCKY, to ask them to reverse their July decision and have AAR programming returned to their more powerful outlet. Radio waves do not stop at the boundaries of cities, counties, or states, and while we might not be in their intended market, those transmissions--most noticably from the 50,000 watt outlet, do enter our homes and our lives on a 24/7 basis. I wonder if this scenario was factored in to their ratings-driven decision. WLW, another 50,000 watt member of Clear Channel's Cincinnati news/talk stations, has a large following north of the city (and around the country) and I would bet that any changes to their format or programming would be done only after polling their entire audience--not just the ones who live inside of Interstate 275.

- Advances in technology, specifically HD radio, would allow for more stations to operate within the current AM and FM frequency allocations (extra channels could become available for leasing to out-of-area broadcasters like AAR) but this is not expected to become widespread for several more years and requires modifying existing receivers or purchasing new ones capable of processing the digital signals.

- Currently, satellite radio is our most reliable and flexible solution (can be listened to in the home, the car, as well as on the go) but competing companies (XM and Sirius--the 21st century's continuation of the "VHS vs Betamax" debate) and exclusive contracts to highly desired networks can 'shut out' listeners from their desired programming (AAR was originally broadcast on both satellite providers but signed a long-term contract with XM in early 2005 to have their programming exclusively available via their subscriber service).

- Broadband and wireless technologies extend the range and utility of today's computers as well as the opportunities to listen to streaming audio broadcasts provided by AAR directly or through one of its affiliates (sadly, this has been my primary method of enjoying their programming). Problems with AAR's server occasionally happen due to the amount of listeners trying to access the streaming site simultaneously exceeding the capacity of their hardware.

- Finally, Air America Radio now offers a premium service that allows its paying subscribers to download audio files that can transferred to portable music players for later 'podcasting' at the listener's convenience.

The common thread of all the above options is money. Money is required to purchase the hardware items (receivers, computers, routers, antennas and wireless capability). Money would be needed for entry into the local market (construction of new station or purchase of existing one to change its format, leasing of spare HD frequencies of local broadcasters). Money has already influenced the public's opinion of AAR (financial difficulties when it started up, poor Arbitron ratings influencing advertising rates to potential customers) and these facts have been 'red meat' to the conservative talking heads who have predicted AAR's demise from its first day on the air. Money would also have to flow from the pockets of the liberal and progressive listening audience to the businesses that choose to advertise on a potential local affiliate.

Sadly, in today's local economy, money is not easy to come by, especially for those who are truly at the core of the progressive movement--George Soros notwithstanding. Unless some local media-savvy individual can be persuaded to see our community's need for this type of programming--as well as a potential payoff for him and any investors, Mr. Soros' philanthropy might be our only hope to bring AAR to Dayton's airwaves.

'Labor' Day?

As I sit at home today and enjoy a federally-mandated break from the daily grind, I wonder if my conservative friends and coworkers understand just how endangered organized labor is in this country.

In Sunday's and today's editions of the DDN, the paper ran several stories highlighting how 'Joe Sixpack' is not sharing in the rewards of our currently 'healthy' economy like his neighbor 'Calvin Caviar' seems to be. Jim DeBrosse provides non-partisan objective data to bolster his claim that wages are not reflecting the growth witnessed in the 1990s (take-home pay experienced similar stagnation for the 20 years previous), despite increases in worker productivity and a 50 percent rise in corporate profits over the past three years. Today's op/ed pages debate this same issue, with the staff providing an opposing view (an editorial from the Investor's Business Daily) citing evidence that workers are in fact receiving far more in total compensation than they have in earlier years. Above the section was a cartoon done by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's R.J. Matson (titled "Left Behind a Rising Tide") which (IHMO) displayed the sentiments of the 'non-levitated' so succinctly.

As their publication implies, Investor's Business Daily looks at this issue from the perspective of the 'elevated'. That publication cites an overall increase of 13.1 percent in tax-free benefits to employees since 2000 and an 8.7 percent gain in total compensation since 2003. While these statistics might be correct, they could be rendered null and void in the psyches of the average employee who sees more and more of his discretionary income going towards fueling his/her vehicles, co-payments and premiums for health care (if they can afford these policies in the first place), and rising tuition costs to educate his/her children to hopefully replace them some day in the American workforce (and help fund their post-retirement incomes--if Social Security still exists in the future).

If I can evoke the rallying cry of John Gibson's and Bill O'Reilly's recent 'War on Christmas' campaigns, I would like to ask you the following question: what did you do today to keep 'labor' in Labor Day? Was it just a day off from work spent at the mall? Did you attend a public event (such as Kettering's Holiday at Home Festival-an end-of-summer gathering) that has no connection to the local or national labor movements other than volunteers manning fund-raising food booths? Or did you participate in a labor-centric celebration (I know...they are few and far between these days)? Did you know that Labor Day was first celebrated in New York City in 1882 (coincidently the birth year of FDR who later nationally instituted the guidelines of a 40-hour workweek and a minimum wage)? Do you know who Samuel Gompers was and what his role in the formation of today's labor movement? Were you aware that the rest of the world celebrates labor on May Day (May 1st of each year) to commemorate a riot that occurred in Chicago in 1886?

It appears that the White House also doesn't 'get' the significance of the holiday. If you read this year's Labor Day presidential message, you will see that any reference to organized labor is conspicuously absent in order to placate the egos of the new 'captains' of industry and their shareholder sycophants. Little do they realize that their successes are built on the backs of the hourly laborers who long ago began a fight for the benefits most of take for granted--and for a growing number of our fellow citizens, will eventually lose.

Labor Day is a day of remembrance and reflection for me. My siblings and I grew up in a home that directly benefited from the labor movement. My dad was a linotype ('hot type') typesetter for two major daily papers (to include the now-defunct Philadelphia Bulletin) before we moved back to northeastern Pennsylvania in 1966. I was the oldest of five children that were being raised in a traditional middle-class way in the late 1960s and early 1970s. My two brothers and I were privileged enough to attend Catholic school run by our local church. Although neither of them was new, we were a 'two-car' household. We had a family get-away every year (a full-blown vacation or just a long day at one of the local amusement parks). My father's single paycheck was enough to put food on the table, clothes on our backs, and still have enough left over to enjoy the niceties of life.

A 'stock' photo of a linotype machine and typesetter, circa 1960s

We hit a rough financial patch after we were flooded out of our house during Hurricane Agnes in 1972 and my dad entered a debt cycle that he couldn't recover from. In October 1978, his union (International Typographical Union) and three others from their local newspaper guild went on strike against their new union-busting Wall Street-centric mangers (Capital Cities Communications) and formed their own newspaper, the Citizen's Voice (now the oldest US paper formed by striking workers--coincidently in the smallest market that still publishes two daily papers in this country) to compete against the Times-Leader. The switch from a corporate operation to a worker-run enterprise took a financial toll upon everyone in the guild, to include the family members. Already experiencing a shaky marriage, the stress of these life-altering events (my dad was his local's president) led to a physical separation of my parents that lasted until he passed away just 13 short years later.

So, as this day draws to the close, I return to my original inquiry--what do my conservative associates do or think about on Labor Day if it's not labor? My guess is scheming to name something else after or create a new national holiday for their labor 'icon' Ronald Reagan.

As president of the Screen Actors Guild, Reagan was recognized as being notoriously pro-management and he greatly weakened that union bargaining power before being pressured to resign before the expiration of his term. In 1981, he began an 8-year quest to single-handedly rescind any federal concessions given to organized labor since the passage of the 'New Deal'. The recent plane crash in Lexington can be directly attributed to his disbanding of PATCO back in 1981 and the weakening of the controllers' position in establishing wage scales and working conditions in FAA facilities (Lexington tower only had one of its two authorized controllers on duty when the Comair flight crashed eight days ago).

Some on AM progressive talk radio believe that these functions will be eventually outsourced to distant locations (perhaps India?) in future budget-cutting moves to minimize costs and maximize the dividends of the airlines' shareholders--all to the potential detriment to passenger safety. Now THAT would be a legacy to be proud of; however, I doubt such facts will dampen their zeal in beatifying 'the Gipper' to sainthood within the 'church' of American conservatism.

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Sorry to be so cynical (or borderline disrespectful)...when I see how the greed of others potentially led to events that directly impacted me or the lives of my siblings or children, I tend to lose my objective perspective.

4-Day Weekend

I decided to take a day off on Friday to give myself a 4-day span of staying away from my office. It's not that I don't like my 'home away from home' (just moved to an office along the outside wall of our building--now I have a window!). It's just that I have procrastinated on several projects at the homestead and I need to complete or at least claw a little closer than I am now.

The most pressing of these is clearing out our two-car garage that we currently have to park both of our cars outside of out on the driveway. Since we have a small house, we must rely upon that area to store our "want to keep but can't find room for it" items or out-of-season clothing that is rotated every six months. At its best, the garage has only been able to yield enough space to park one car during our ownership. Since mine is newer, I've had the privlege of parking inside ever since I purchased it a little over two years ago. For the past few months, however, both vehicles have been exiled to the driveway because of a long-standing effort to finally go through all of our collected worldly possessions and determine which ones will be kept and which others will be thrown away/recycled/donated. This initiative started with earnest but has waned somewhat due to the summer heat. With the recent break in temperatures, I feel it is now time to complete this task (or at least clear off the parking 'half') to allow me to bring my car back inside and avoid the pending weather-induced tasks of scraping off the windshield or brushing off snowfall accumulations. Two trips to the local donation center have returned approximately half of that desired space to us but there is a lot more work ahead.

After one of my deliveries, I stopped in on base to check out the latest offerings at the base exchange (known as the BX in the heavily acronymized military). As a military retiree, I am still able to shop at this and other facilities normally the exclusive domain of the active-duty community and their family members; however, I rarely do. I'm not sure if it's because of the inconvenience (entry to the installation can be time-consuming, especially during exercises or contingencies) or the realization that I can now afford to shop out 'on the economy' (monthly retirement pension supplements my current bi-weekly paychecks) and don't need the base's economic assistance (no sales tax, subsidized pricing) anymore.

Another subtle reason might be that I don't want to delve into its partisan political atmosphere that permeates it and other military faclities these days. I guess it isn't a modern phenomenon (I do remember the Lee Greenwood, chest-thumping bravado during the Reagan years) but it has become much more obvious since the 2000 election and has mestastitized itself due to our nation's transition to a 'post 9/11' world. Prior to 1998, I kept my political views to myself (in accordance with regulations that still exist today). I was stationed in Washington, DC during the Clinton impeachment and it served as the 'topic du jour' for many water cooler bull sessions. My uniformed coworkers were simply unable to see past their own take on him and his policies to recognize that his 'transgressions' were purely of a personal and political nature. Clinton had issues with the military throughout his entire presidency (he introduced his 'don't ask, don't tell' plan shortly after taking office) and the impeachment was a befitting end many of my uniformed compatriots wanted to see for their commander-in-chief. This hatred ran so deep that several acquaintences of mine (to include a very high-ranking officer) refused to accept a presidential certificate of appreciation solely because it was signed by Clinton. They chose to wait until the new version with our current president's signature was issued before making their official requests--even though they retired prior to Bush being sworn in as president. When I retired in 2004, I held no such notions of waiting until after fall election to ask for one with (hopefully) Kerry's signature. I accepted my tangible token of appreciation from my Constitutionally mandated commander-in-chief, as I routinely remind the others, "like a man."

When you walk into the BX, the first thing you notice is the sound of the Fox News Channel. In these days of cheap televisions, you can hardly avoid their glow in many public facilities (airports, restaurants, even bathrooms) and the exchange is no different. Just like the White House's own policy, sets near the main checkout counters make it almost impossible to ignore the blather and bias of their selected station. It gets worse when you walk back to the electronics department and are faced with a 'wall' of Shepard Smiths or Brit Humes parroting the administration's positive spin on its latest embarassment or failure. Luckily, the store closes at 9PM or else I might fall under the hypnotic spell of a dozen or so Sean Hannitys tearing down the remaining shreds of my own reality to replace it with his own.

I do have to say that the atmosphere has changed somewhat since our global 'war' on terror started. I was assigned to a somewhat-remote overseas base shortly after the 9/11 attacks (I was on a plane flying to that location when the towers were struck and was forced into a 3-day unplanned delay while we waited for our flight to be allowed to continue on to its intended destinations). With that installation's exchange the most convenient location to purchase goods (buying on the local economy was somewhat expensive and a language challenge), residents of that base were at the mercy of the military's stateside purchasing corporation and the added issues with shipping goods halfway across the globe. We never went without the necessities but selection was somewhat limited. This was especially true in two distinct entertainment mainstays: books and movies.

The exchange's book store carried a wide variety of stateside and local offerings; however, almost all the non-periodical offerings seemed to be 'slanted' towards a pro-administration, Christian customer base. Items in the 'newly arrived' and 'most popular' displays mirrored its already large 'spirituality' section. It was a rare find to see Michael Moore's "Stupid White Men" or Al Franken's "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right" among the many copies of Ann Coulter's "Slander" and "Treason" or Sean Hannity's "Deliver Us From Evil: Defeating Terrorism, Despotism and Liberalism" available for purchase. Luckily for me, the Internet and online booksellers allowed me to avoid the exchange's censorship panel and obtain offerings counter to the prevailing political dogma.

Movies on similar subjects, either for purchase or for mass viewing, didn't fair much better. When "Bowling for Columbine" was released on DVD in the summer of 2003, copies of this Academy Award-winning documentary never appeared on our local retail shelves nor did it run in our local movie theater (neither did 'Fahrenheit 9/11' the following year but I had already departed for Ohio). Contrast that to Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ." The film opened on Ash Wednesday 2004 stateside and was shown on our base on Easter weekend--that's less than a 6-week delay! In AAFES' defense, other less-controvertial 'blockbusters' ("Star Wars Episode II", "Spiderman II") also experienced 'Passion-like' speed to the entertainment-starved 'hinterlands' but their wholesale refusal not to show this commercially successful movie in overseas' theaters during the run-up to the 2004 presidential election could be seen as informal partisanship or blatant censorship.

Back to the present...when I visited the local BX this weekend, I perused through the books and magazines area. While still heavily populated with family-oriented, religious or pro-military items, I did happen to see a few books that caught my eye. One was James Risen's current bestseller "State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration". This author, the NY Times reporter that broke the recent stories on NSA communications eavesdropping and monitoring of terrorist-linked finances, would expect to have his head mounted on a pike outside any military installation, now has his book displayed alongside the 'usual suspects' of Bill O'Reilly, Bill Bennett and other right-wing pundits. Another book was Chalmers Johnson's "The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic." I had recently seen him in the documentary "Why We Fight" (which was also available in the DVD section) and decided to purchase his softcover edition for my library.

The real tangible sign of 'conservative hangover' was seen in the September 4th edition of Air Force Times, a unofficial commercial trade weekly available for anyone willing to pay $2.75 to get a slightly unvarnished look at today's USAF. I used to subscribe to it when I was in uniform but let it lapse in retirement. Many of my then-contemporaries despised this paper for providing a forum for 'disgruntled troops' to vent about their superiors or policies or for simply exposing the Air Force as an imperfect organization (a variety of Public Affaris-approved choices are circulated throughout the force). One area of that periodical that has usually held staunchly against dissenting views has been their opinion columnist pages. I must say I was rather impressed that this week's issue featured a commentary by the president and founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (his column "Christianity in Combat" is available via this link). The other columnist, Robert F. Dorr, provides his take on the apparent 'mission creep' of our current vice-president into the military chain of command (as his column stated, there is no 'vice commander-in-chief' as one AF unit so proudly displayed in their headquarters until corrected--the Constitution draws the line of command directly from the president to the Secretary of Defense). He also highlights a very telling fact about Mr. Cheney's involvement in the government by stating that he has 15 military and national security advisers on his staff--his predecessor, Al Gore, had only one!

Although such facts have been available to those of us who choose to look for them, the matter of publishing such dissenting views/opinions for ready consumption by a wide military audience (the Christianity column was also printed in this week's Navy Times and Army Times) is a remarkable departure from repeating the latest offerings from Bush-Iraq 'echo chamber' and could be seen as a sign that our uniformed citizens (and voters) are losing faith in the 'democracy experiment' that their leaders and commanders are risking their lives for.

Stuck in a Rut

After my 'breakthrough' posting this past Sunday night--the first entry for almost five weeks, it appeared that I had returned from my blogging 'slumber' and was ready to get back into the daily saddle again. Alas, it was not to be...

Monday is the traditional 'back to work' day for most of us working stiffs and I had the added chore of doing the weekly grocery shopping after leaving the office. After catching the 'nouvelles de soirée' from Bob Scheiffer and the lead non-story about the legal circus out in Boulder, Colorado, I went into mental shutdown during dinner with a double dose of syndicated comedy ('The Simpsons' followed by 'Seinfeld') on our local Fox affiliate. At 8PM, the channel changed to MSNBC but Keith Olbermann was traveling and a sub was hosting so I flipped through Time Warner Cable's other offerings in our bedroom. When I came across the Weather Channel, I noticed that we were receiving severe weather warning notices that would not expire until after midnight so the computer was turned off...without me posting a blog entry.

Last night, I decided to watch a movie that I received in the mail on Monday from Blockbuster Online. "V for Vendetta" received a lot of buzz via television and internet advertising as well as theatrical reviews when it opened last spring. Some of that hoopla centered around Natalie Portman ('Evey') having her long locks of hair shorn down to their nubs (I won't go into the innuendo or discussion that this unorthodox action stirred up on some of the discussion sites I visited). The setting for the movie is Great Britain (at least I think it was still called that) in the not-too-near future (believe about 30 years from now) and they are under totalitarian rule after several biological attacks by supposed religious extremists scared the public to back such a government.

Since I never read the comic book series of the same name by Alan Moore, the film version was not tainted by any preconceived notions or expectations. Plenty of readers have vilified the Wachowski brothers (of "The Matrix" franchise) for transforming the original story from a commentary about Margaret Thatcher's governments (Britain's prime minister from 1979 to late 1990) into a Bush-era 'parable', complete with secure underground locations and the main character now posing as a freedom fighter instead of an anarchist. No matter the controversy, I found the movie to be very entertaining and, as the Brits would say, 'spot on' in its criticism of the current American state of affairs.

One of the rewards I get from watching movies that are set in locations where I used to live is that seeing famous landmarks on the screen (the Parliament building played a major role at the end of the film) triggers personal memories of me or my family visiting them. I was fortunate enough to tour through the various halls of the British legislature and we actually got to go inside the House of Commons (they weren't in session so we were able to sit in the seats and pretend we were 'backbenchers'). Normally, you are only allowed to 'peek' inside or step up to (but not cross) the 'blood line' (a red strip of carpet that harkens back to the days when swords were commonplace) that circles the room. Now that sessions of Parliament are televised live (like our own Congressional sessions are broadcast on the C-SPAN networks), the anticipation of peering into a veiled-off part of democracy (and our own past) has subsided.

The other odd recollection was the movie's focus on Guy Fawkes and the famous 'Gunpowder Plot' to blow up Parliament back in 1605 (the movie was supposed to open on the 400th anniversary of that event--November 5th, 2005--but it was inexplicably moved back to the following April). Both times when we were stationed in the UK, my wife and I lived on a military installation and did not get to truly experience English life like the Brits did. We did our share of traveling and going off of the base, but we didn't get that sense of communion with our temporary hosts as someone who lived next door or had over for meals. However, I do remember one year where I noticed fireworks in the distance on a cold November evening. Being a typical 'yank', I thought that Americans were the only ones that used such pyrotechnic displays to commemorate important occasions (like the 4th of July--which in itself is a weird thing to experience when you are physically standing in the country that we broke away from). At work the following day, I asked around my duty section about what I saw the previous night and was then first told about one of history's most famous anarchist/terrorists.

The film uses the lines from a popular British childrens' rhyme that perpetrates the event:

Remember, remember, the 5th of November
The Gunpowder Treason and plot;
I know of no reason why Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.

So that's where my Tuesday went...well worth it...

What about tonight? More errands after work (our son turns 16 tomorrow and we normally wait until the last minute to plan for such occasions) and a quick run out to the local Taco Bell to pick up some dinner drained any surplus creative energy I might've stored up for blogging. I did catch MSNBC's 'Countdown' broadcast and Keith Olbermann's on-air skewering of Donald Rumsfeld's remarks at the American Legion convention this past Monday (tonight was his first night back from a long weekend away). During that speech, the Secretary of Defense evoked mental imagery and drew deliberate analogies between today's dissenters of the White House's Iraq war strategy and the Chamberlain government of 1930s Britain (the main proponents of 'appeasing' Hitler during his early annexations of his neighboring countries). Olbermann took those comparisons one step further and equated the Bush Administration to those same British politicians in terms of ignoring intelligence and being the only true arbiter of 'truth' in today's political landscape. The video is already posted online and I'm sure it will evoke a 'digital tsunami' of commentary, both pro and con, before it fades to the backburner when another 'crisis' or sensational story grabs the nation's short attention spans.

Listening to such political rhetoric reminds me of Godwin's Law, which states the following:

As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.

I believe this axiom could be rewritten to fit the 2006 political landscape:

As a politician's platform precipitiously falls out of popular favor and the potential for defeat increases, the probabability of comparing his/her opponent to Nazis or Hitler approaches one.

They (the Nazis or their infamous leader) are the last remaining 'politically correct' group that can be attacked without fear of retribution in this country (homosexuals are just now being allowed to depart that exclusive 'club'--to the detriment of the religious right). However, when you throw out that remaining 'trump card', you are in essence telling your opponent one of two things: a) that you possess no other rational or relative facts for use in defending your own perspective; or b) you are old enough to remember the Nazis and their effects upon your own life or the world at that time.

The '4th Reich' is not the exclusive property of either of America's major political parties. West Virginia Democratic senator Robert Byrd mentioned the Nazis in a floor speech defending an attempt by Republican senators to limit speeches on judicial nominees as part of their proposed 'nuclear option' threat during the recent Supreme Court nominee deliberations. Byrd referred to his GOP colleagues as the 'tyrannical majority' and revived the imagery of Hitler and Mussolini for consumption by the media. In his case (he's 89 years old), he easily meets the b) criteria stated above and, in my opinion, did not trespass into 'desperation' territory. In comparison, Rumsfeld used his epithets as a 'boogie man' to plant the seed of fear into those already in the White House's fold as well as others who may still be undecided on their policies or are starting to lose faith. While Rumsfeld may barely qualify for the latter above, the rhetoric he spewed easily exemplifies a) and the dearth of solutions from the Bush Administration on Iraq and other pressing national issues.

Wow...it's now Thursday (12:25AM)...Wednesday's gone...with a birthday tomorrow, I'm guessing it'll be Friday before I get another chance to put thoughts to keyboard...

Has it REALLY Been Almost Five Weeks?!?

As I've said in a previous posting, I really underestimated the sheer amount of time involved with providing daily inputs to an online blog. My last entry took me a week to put my thoughts into words and that effort has to come out of the 24 hours I'm alloted each day. With my other responsibilities weighing on me, I must choose between what will be accomplished and what will wait until the next day. Needless to say, blogging has not been near the top of my to-do list...until this evening.

What has rustled me out of my 'slumber'? A lot has happened locally and in the world in the 34 days since I've logged in. Our family took a long-deserved vacation down to San Antonio and Houston during a 2-week sabbatical from my job. We used to live in the 'Alamo City' during a military assignment in the late '80s and early '90s (our oldest child was born there). We got the chance to have dinner with our former neighbors (they have two children of their own) and the years seemed to melt away during our shared time at the restaurant.

After we returned, I attended a work golf outing at a local country club. Since these events usually start early in the morning, I had to get up at 5:45AM for a 7:00AM departure. When I turned on the television, the first thing my foggy mind noticed was that I was seeing a British news channel on my set (we used to live in the UK and I am familiar with their screen logo) in place of MSNBC. As the fog of slumber started to lift from me, I started to comprehend something 'big' was happening. Video of passengers standing outside of Heathrow Airport was being shown and the superimposed text indicated something to do with a terrorist attack either happened or was pre-empted. At 6AM, the US news channels started to do their own coverage of the events out of Great Britain. I had to peel myself away from the screen in order to shower and leave for the course so I had a long 'blackout' period where I was 'stuck' with the then-current information until I could get to a radio, television or computer several hours later.

As it turned out, the alleged terrorists were nowhere near carrying out their intended actions (no passports or tickets) but the U.S. told the Brits to round them up as soon as possible (Scotland Yard wanted to continue their surveillance to determine if there were more individuals involved than those already identified). As more information was trickled to the media, some news outlets openly wonder if this is another attempt by the Bush administration to push bad or embarassing news off the front page of the nation's newspapers (the recent defeat of Iraq War supporter Joe Lieberman to an anti-war challenger in the Connecticut Democratic senate primary) by superseding it with another 'victory' in the on-going global war on terror. As the host stated, their listing of terror warnings could also coincide with the opening of major chain stores (more on that below); however, the sheer number of coincidences is startling to anyone who chooses to accept the notion that elected officials might choose to put their political needs before the safety of their constituents.


The Greene Town Center finally opened to the public this past Thursday after resolving a lengthy dispute over tax incentives with the Beavercreek School District. Located approximately halfway between two existing malls along Interstate 675 on the outskirts of Dayton, this venture hopes to increase our retail appeal to those outside of the local area and bring commercial prosperity (jobs, money) to the region to reverse recent economic downtrends. Detractors believe this new shopping facility will only attract customers from the older malls and hasten Dayton's already steady demise to its surrounding suburbs. We haven't ventured over there yet but it does look nice (at least from the photographs we've seen in the DDN--which has been non-stop 'Greene' since the cover story in last Sunday's edition). In fact, the coverage has been so over-the-top that today's op/ed page had a special section specifically addressing readers' comments about the fervor of the paper's advocacy for this new shopping center.

On Friday night, I participated in my first fantasy football (FFB) draft. As a person who normally follows the sports pages, channels and websites, I was totally unprepared for the depth and breadth of statistics, ratings and opinions a FFBer must have access to in order to pretend to be an owner/general manager of a football team. We have 10 teams in our league split between two divisions. Each team drafted 18 'players' (some of your picks are entire defenses of current pro teams) and assigns their starters in preparation for our first week of the season (coincides with the NFL schedule). Since I'm a Philadelphia Eagle fan, most of my picks revolved around them (Donovan McNabb as one of my quarterbacks, kicker David Akers, and the entire defensive team). LaDainian Tomlinson was my first round pick (I had the #3 overall) since Larry Johnson and Shawn Alexander were already taken. I even worked out a draft night trade (got Adam Vinatieri for Shawn Graham--turns out that the other 'owner' lives in the same apartment building as the Bengal kicker). I don't know how the season will play out but I know I will have something to talk about around the office come Monday morning.

We are also in the mid throes of (hope Jon Stewart doesn't mind too much) 'Indecision 2006'. With the fate of the Congress (and Bush's second term--and perhaps his presidency if impeachment is in the cards) hanging in the balance, Ohio once again will be a major focal point in the national election process. Already, we have seen national 'heavyweights' in the state stumping for our statewide and Congressional candidates. John McCain was in Columbus last week with Mike DeWine dutifully in tow and he dropped a 'bomb' in terms of dissing the White House on their 'misunderestimations' about the Iraq War--never mind that McCain echoed those same sentiments in the immediate aftermath of the fall of the Hussein government in the spring of 2003.

We can expect plenty more from both parties (Hillary, Edwards, Giuliani, maybe even the president himself) in the coming weeks. The airwaves are already getting their fair share of 'mud' from the campaigns. The station I listen to at work has been targeted by the Blackwell for Governor campaign so I get to hear them try to 'out-value' an ordained minister at least three to four times a day (guessing the frequency will increase as November 7th aproaches). DeWine was already cited for 'doctoring' a photo of the Twin Towers (a cheesy graphic with fake smoke superimposed over a photo of the buildings prior to the attack) in an attempt to taint his opponent (Rep. Sherrod Brown- OH13) and his Congressional voting record on terrorism-related legislation. With so much as stake in both Columbus and DC, I'm guessing we've only scratched the surface of the all-out war that is surely to come.

I know I've probably missed some other things but those can be topics for another day...nice to be back!