The Few. The Proud.

The blogosphere is alive today with a story about a column of 30 U.S. Marines ambushed in Afghanistan by 250 Taliban fighters near the city of Shewan. Outnumbered 8 to 1 the Marines put the wood to the ambushers in an eight hour firefight. 20 Taliban were reportedly killed. No Marines died in the fight and only a handful were injured.
It would have been nice to have been able to read this in the popular press; however, it appears that none of the media conglomerates saw fit to cover or report the story.
It's just another example of how through selective editing--what they choose to report and what they fail to report--the media direct the consciousness of the public on the major policy issues of the day.
In Iraq the media were quick to jump on a story--later discredited--of how the Marines had allegedly massacred civilians. However, not a word about 30 young kids ambushed in Afghanistan who fight their way out against long odds.
I'll leave the question of media bias to others, but rest assured, as a young reporter, if I had sat on a great story like this, my boss would have been biased against my continued employment.
Just thought you might like to know.

The Meaning of Thanksgiving

On Tuesday, Nov. 26, the day before Thanksgiving, the Wall Street Journal ran an editorial entitled "The Desolate Wilderness," just as it has done for the last 47 Thanksgivings. It's really not an editorial. It's an excerpt from Nathaniel Morton, the record keeper of the Plymouth Colony, and William Bradford, its governor. Plymouth Colony was, of course, the woebegotten group of settlers in 1620 that gave Americans their tradition of Thanksgiving.

Since 1961 the Journal has published this excerpt on Thanksgiving along with its own commentary, "And the Fair Land," first written at the height of the Cold War and as relevant today as it was when John F. Kennedy faced off against Nikita Khrushchev. I hope this Thanksgiving you'll check it out online because it says so much about who we as Americans are and why we're this way.

"And the Fair Land" remains relevant through 5 decades because every Thanksgiving it speaks to the very character of America and Americans. We Americans like to think ourselves as the leaders of the developed world. But contrary to that, "And the Fair Land" points out that America "is one of the great underdeveloped countries of the world; what it reaches for exceeds by far what it has grasped."

It is this reaching beyond what we can grasp that has defined our national character. Think of the immigrants over centuries who left all they knew, never to see it again, for a chance to start over on these shores. That risk-taking gene has been passed down through centuries to us. Left behind were the non-risk takers. Americans are hard-wired to to work hard, aim high and achieve in ways some people can only dream about.

From Europe we get fine wine, crystal, and linens, products painstakingly developed by craftsmen over centuries. From America we get men on the moon and the Internet.

Those adventurers who set sail from Delftshaven in 1620 reached far beyond their grasp. A great and beneficent God protected them, nurtured them and shed his grace on them.

May we as a culture continue to reach beyond our grasp. And pray that God's grace continue to be with us.

Just thought you might like to know.

Let's Democratize Education

America is losing the education game to other industrial countries. Our current education model dates to the agrarian 19th century. Other countries do a far better job of turning out well educated graduates with the background necessary to compete in the 21st century. It's a matter of time until we start sending our kids abroad to be educated, as most less developed countries do today.


I thought of this a few days ago when Michelle and Barack Obama announced that they would send their two children to Sidwell Friends School in Washington, DC. Sidwell, with its tuition price tag of $30,000 a year has educated the children of many of DC's rich and powerful. In doing so the Obamas avoid having to consign their kids to a failing DC school system where for $13,000 per student per year taxpayers get one of the worst school systems in the country.


I have no problem with parents like the Obamas selecting a better school for their kids. I just wish that parents who lack their means had the same ability to select a better school than what the public system offers. In DC there is a program called the Washington Opportunity Scholarship Program that can provide vouchers up to $7,500 for students in failing schools to attend better schools. It's a good start.


The problem is that the Democrats in Congress want to kill the voucher program and deny DC parents the same ability to select a better school that the 44th President will have. The reason is that the teachers unions in this country oppose voucher programs. Since the unions are heavy supporters of the Democrat party, it seems unlikely that the Opportunity Scholarship program will survive.


President Obama and the Democrats could make a huge statement in January that we have indeed entered a post-partisan era by saying no the National Education Association and continuing the program. Let's give other kids in DC the same chance for a better future as the Obama kids will have.

Just thought you might like to know.

Why Do We Have a Department of Energy?

Thirty years ago, Congress created the Department of Energy. The purpose of the Department of Energy? To Lessen the Nation's Dependence of the Nation on Foreign Oil.

Here we are thirty years later, through 5 administrations--both Democrat and Republican-- and we're more dependent than ever on foreign oil. The Energy Department is a total failure. In a sector--government--synonomous with failure, the Energy Department, as Linus of the Peanuts crowd might say, is the failurest.

Here's the problem: This Carter-era white elephant costs taxpayers $24 billion a year. It employs 16,000 government workers and over 100,000 contract workers. I can tolerate someone's failure and total ineptitude if it doesn't cost me any money.
But when I think of the problems facing this country, including health care, crumbling infrastructure, a failing education system, and paying for the Bailout of the Week, it seems that we could put that $24 billion to better use.

Hey, President-elect Obama, the Energy Department's run out of gas. Time to shut it down.


Just thought you might like to know.

Five to be released from Guantanamo

According to an article in the Washington Times, a federal judge has ordered five detainees at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility released. One of the men is Lakhdar Boumediende. Boumediende was the plaintiff in a landmark Supreme Court decision in June granting the Guantanamo detainees the right of habeus corpus. Boumediende's case was kicked back down to the lower court where U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, a Bush appointee, order him, along with four other detainees, released. The Justice Department says it will appeal.


If memory serves me, this makes the Busadministration something like oh-for-three on these illegal enemy combatant cases. There is no doubt that 0-3 would land a baseball player back on the bench. I'm not sure what it does for the Justice Department. I'm sure all the Bush bashers, leftover '60s protesters and left wingnuts will look at this as vindication of their hatred of the 43rd president. But save your celebrations for January 20.


For me it points out the stubborness and wrongheadedness of Democrats in Congress for thwarting the President's judicial nominations for much of the last eight years. During this Judicial reign of terror court appointments have gone unfilled and the business of justice delayed while Democrats paid back all of their left-leaning supporters--the pro-choice lobby, the education commisariat, the environmental madarins, and all those consumed by some irrational fear of conservatism.


But the Boumediende decision by the Roberts Court and today's decision show that the rule of law trumps everything else. It's a pity that Democrat senators on the Senate Judiciary Committee like Vice President-elect Joe Biden and Ted Kennedy never had enough faith in that principle or independence from special interests, to resist handicapping our federal court system for the last 7 years.

Just thought you might like to know.

Just Thought You Might Like to Know

This blog is dedicated to the memory of Mr. Fred Palmer, a pioneer of radio, a broadcasting Hall of Famer and my first boss in the communications industry. Mr. Palmer hired me in 1981 as a news director at radio station WATH in Athens, OH. Mr. Palmer was a delight to work for and taught me more about the business world that I could have learned at the Harvard Business School.

Every weekday I would host a 60 minute news and information show for which Mr. Palmer would provided an opinion piece. His standard outcue was always "just thought you might like to know."

Well, I did like to know. And I learned a lot. So, Mr. Palmer, this Blog's for you.
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One of the good things of being in the communications industry is the ability to travel around this great country. I just returned from a nine-day trip to San Diego and New Orleans. Hightlight of my trip was the 11th annual EBT The Next Generation conference which I help manage on behalf of my client, the Electronic Funds Transfer Association.

The conference was held at the beautiful Marriott Mission Valley in San Diego.

201 people attended the show, which featured over 20 sessions devoted to ways to use electronic payment technology as a replacement for paper-based government payments.

This technology, called Electronic Benefits Transfer, or EBT, is one of the best examples of how technology can make government work better and more efficiently.

Just thought you might like to know.