Month: November 2005

                    Washington State 26                   FINAL
                    Washington 22

I’m watching Fox News, and I see this.

Un-BEELEEEEVABLE.

I felt like I was in London watching a session of Parliament, rather than sitting in a hotel in downtown Philadelphia.

And so it is now with the U.S. Congress. Rabid animals, unhinged, undisciplined, with microphones. An exercise in irrelevance.

Yet, the day wasn’t completely wasted. Congress voted itself a pay raise.

Kick ‘em all out. Let’s start with a brand new Congress in 2006.

UPDATE: It’s 10:15 PM EST, and I’m watching Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) on CNN. Jeez, does this guy think he’s a rock star now or what? Knowing how things work, we’ll probably see him on the cover of PEOPLE Magazine next week partying with Tara Reid.

The ‘Open Source Media’ battle continues. Update here.

MORE: OSM back in the pajamas.

It’s been a long day, and the batteries are super low. Combine that with acclimation to a new time zone and it spells B-E-D. Gotta start the day tomorrow at 5 AM.

Until then.

“That which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet.” -– Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2)

Pajamas Media, a consortium of popular bloggers launched a new portal website today in New York City. They also announced a name change, Open Source Media. OSM’s ‘About’ page states that their mission is to expand the influence of weblogs by finding and promoting the best of them, providing bloggers with a forum to meet and share resources, and the chance to join a for-profit network that will give them additional leverage to pursue knowledge wherever they may find it.

Well, they pursued, and they found it – a name to call themselves by, which could be a name already called for, and claimed by, one Christopher Lydon.

A company that used to call itself Pajamas Media now calls itself Open Source Media, which is — scroll down to our legal notice — kind of exactly what we call ourselves. They’ve collected $3.5 million in venture capital, and, to celebrate their re-naming of our already-named name, they’re holding an event at the Rainbow Room.

So what to do. A couple of blogs — Atrios, Stephen den Beste, Dennis the Peasant, Begging to Differ, Homocon — have picked up on this already, unprompted, perhaps because if you Google “open source media”, we’re the third result. Presumably the new “Open Source Media” Googled their new name before they settled on it?

Don’t get us wrong; we didn’t invent the idea of working with bloggers to make media, we certainly didn’t invent the concept “open source,” and there’s plenty of room for everyone to do what we’ve been doing. But they chose the same name that we established in May and, seeing as how we work in the same industry, people might find that a little confusing. And that has us puzzled.

Uh, yeah.

Note Lydon’s ‘benefit of the doubt’ demeanor. Contrast this with the previously mentioned ‘Dennis the Peasant’. Let’s just say Dennis is clearly ready to spread a heap of menace on the ill named OSM.

Today’s “To Do” List…

…for all the citizen-jounalists of LINGERIE Media (yep, we’ve renamed the venture and, no, we haven’t done a trademark search either). I’d love to do it myself, but the Real World calls me:

1. Someone call or email Christopher Lydon at the real Open Source Media and alert him to the possible trademark infringement by The New Media Formerly Known As Pajamas. Email me results.

2. Someone call The New Media Formerly Known As Pajamas (be sure to call California, because we all know the New York office is a minimum wage telephone jockey in a boiler room) and ask if Pajamas/Open Source Media is affiliated with Christopher Lydon’s Open Source Media. Email me results.

3. Send me links to any live-blogging, etc. about the Launch Event. Pictures of any of the 230 bloggers who got stiffed punching out Roger would be appreciated.

4. Pictures of venture capitalists’ faces when they’re informed Roger f****d up the trademark search on the name Open Source Media would really be appreciated.

Heh.

So, what do we have here? There seems to be plenty of blog buzz about the OSM launch today, some positive, some not so positive, but I haven’t found a response from any member of the OSM relating to this name game.

Isn’t it ironic?

Bloggers, established bloggers, who have like, you know, used the Internet for a long time, who (in many cases) own their own domain names, seemingly forgot to simply ‘Google’ the name ‘Open Source Media’ before they registered osm.org and decided to brand themselves with a previously claimed identifier.

Apparently, they didn’t forget how to spend money. $3.5 million dollars in VC cash has been earmarked for the startup. Some wonder how much of the dough was used to fly member bloggers from all over creation and put them up in the ‘W’ hotel in NYC. That couldn’t have been cheap.

Now let me say this – I’m friends with a lot of the bloggers who make up OSM, and I visit their individual blog sites often, but I too am just a little confused as to what in the world these folks hope to achieve with this new conglomerate of the blogosphere.

And the name thing, Oy Vey! In the immortal words of Ricky Ricardo, “Someone’s got some ’splainin’ to do”.

UPDATE: Here is OSM ‘splainin’.

UPDATE II: Looks like OSM’s ‘splainin’ didn’t ‘splain anything. The story continues.

UPDATE III: OSM puts the pajamas on once more and reverts the name.

Cheney Unleashed.

When push comes to shove, you better hope it’s not Dick Cheney who’s being shoved. Drudge has prepared remarks by the Vice President which were delivered tonight.

Here’s my favorites.

The suggestion that’s been made by some U. S. senators that the President of the United States or any member of this Administration purposely misled the American people on pre-war intelligence is one of the most dishonest and reprehensible charges ever aired in this city.

Someone had to say it and Dick did. He used two of the best words – Dishonest and Reprehensible. Indeed.

What we’re hearing now is some politicians contradicting their own statements and making a play for political advantage in the middle of a war. The saddest part is that our people in uniform have been subjected to these cynical and pernicious falsehoods day in and day out. American soldiers and Marines are out there every day in dangerous conditions and desert temperatures – conducting raids, training Iraqi forces, countering attacks, seizing weapons, and capturing killers – and back home a few opportunists are suggesting they were sent into battle for a lie.

The President and I cannot prevent certain politicians from losing their memory, or their backbone – but we’re not going to sit by and let them rewrite history.

ABSOLUTELY! Dick restates what George W., did earlier this month, but with muscle. He’s hit the nail on the head. If only we could extract the Veeps voice inflection and implant it into the President’s brain. I have no doubt that George W., could read a speech like this, he could even be passionate about its points, but he’s somehow screw up the delivery enough to mask the strength in the meaning of the words. Dick did it. He said what needed to be said.

Cheney for President! (if only)

I’ve arrived in the City of Brotherly Love. It’s only 1:25 AM EST (10:25 PM for us West Coasters). I expected to be here earlier, but I had a lay over in Houston and that Texas weather did a number on us. So, after a delay of about an hour or so, we were underway. Once I got to Philly it was smooth sailing.

I only caught a moment of this story (glancing at the TV in Bush International Airport). Looks like more caving to me. Why are Republicans on the hill so easily distracted?

I see that Bob Woodward continues to do whatever necessary to stay relevant. Funny how no one wants to talk to him anymore now that the whole ‘Deep Throat’ mystery is solved. Heh.

Bravo Ken Mehlman, Bravo.

Business begins at 8:45 AM. I’ll check in tomorrow sometime.

Today was as busy as I thought it would be (and it ain’t over yet). I’m on a plane early tomorrow and won’t be in a hotel room with broadband until late, so don’t expect to see much of me around here. I’ll check in when I can.

Thanks for hanging around here. I appreciate it.

Via AP

A strong earthquake shook northern Japan Tuesday morning and the country’s Meteorological Agency issued tsunami warnings.

The magnitude 6.9 quake struck at 6:39 a.m. (4:39 p.m. Monday EST), the agency said. The U.S. Geological Survey put the magnitude at 7.2. There was no immediate explanation for the discrepancy. The quake hit at a depth of about 15 miles and was centered off the coast of Sanriku in northern Japan, 330 miles east of Tokyo, the USGS said.

The agency said a tsunami could reach Japan’s Pacific coastlines between 7:10 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. (5:10 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. EST Monday) in Iwate, Miyagi, Fukushima and Hokkaido, the agency said.

The agency said the tsunami could be as high as 20 inches. Such waves are often barely noticeable in the ocean but can rise to greater heights once they arrive at shore.

There were no immediate reports of injuries, according to national broadcaster NHK.

MORE: CNN | Fox News | MSNBC | ABC News | CBS News |

So, you’re probably wondering why things are so darn quiet here huh? Well, tomorrow I’m heading out of town for Philadelphia and I’ll be there a week doing business related things. So, today is filled with trip prep and all that jazz. If I get a chance I’ll be blogging tonight.

(If there are any Philly-based bloggers who want to meet-up, let me know.)