Friday, July 09, 2004



It is exactly 60 years since Rudolf Vrba's and Alfred Wetzler's successful escape from Auschwitz, an escape that brought to light accounts of Hitler's extermination camps.
The testimony given by Messrs. Vrba and Wetzler forced representatives of the democratic world to face facts that many did not want to believe, even after the end of the war. Thanks to them and countless numbers of other witnesses, the horrors and extent of the Nazi final solution are universally known.
Like the Nazi Holocaust, the crimes and brutal reality of Soviet communism were also outlined and understood, thanks to the writings of Arthur Koestler, Alexander Solzhenitsyn and others...
Fortunately, people who use direct eyewitness testimony in attempts to expose the greatest crimes against humanity can be found in each era and all over the world.

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Let the de-linking begin: John Kerry and the Lost Kos
A violent squall sprang up in Blogistan earlier this year over comments made by a wonkish blogger named Markos Moulitsas Zuniga of the Daily Kos. He typed something impolitic about four contractors in Fallujah, Iraq, whose charred, mutilated corpses made for a perverse photo-op on the front page of The New York Times, as well as leading the news on CNN. The dead men weren't there on orders, Moulitsas, a military vet, pointed out. They weren't there to rebuild Iraq. They are there to wage war for profit.
With the Internet being the Internet, his comments spread at the speed of data. The fact that a blog could be de-linked from a presidential candidate's official website (and actually had advertising to lose) is noteworthy -- it shows that blogs have indeed arrived as a force to be reckoned with...

America's War With Blogistan [ courtesy of Daily Kos Kos]
• · See Also Rupert Murdoch's print media pulling Dewey Defeats Truman moment [via Europe pioneered the Internet as a mass medium, but the U.S. has made the best use of it ]
• · · See Also Is civility an endangered species in the blogosphere?
• · · · Trust me - I'm a journalist What The Media Are Doing To Our Politics
• · · · · Shot, and Drowned in the Political Dark Room: McGavin's sacking just doesn't add up. I don't think it is acceptable to be kept in the dark ...
• · · · · · Google Search Coolest River & Surf Operators
• · · · · · · See Also Political bloggers