Scrubbing the record

Progressive media is all a buzz. What happened to KPOJ morning host, Heidi Tauber? It seemed like a usual week on the radio. Monday some politicians were again at pains to explain what Bush is still doing in office. On Tuesday, Senate Candidate Jeff Merkley's paid media guy was engaging in the usual weekly shilling for his clients (and forgetting to disclose his paid relationships). Wednesday ended quite normally with an interview of Willy Week's editor, Mark Zusman and these closing comments from THC; Thom, Heidi and Carl:

Thom: In our third hour, everything you know is wrong... Barry Reid is going to tell us how to disappear... in America...

Heidi: OOooo!

Thom: Legally.

Carl: I'll be listening to that.

Heidi: You have Barry Reid on your national show. Tomorrow on the local morning show we have Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid who is our guest.

Thom: Who would like to disappear!

Carl: Yeah! THC with you on AM 620 KPOJ Portland's progressive talk station.

Thom: Thom Hartman National coming up next.

Heidi: We'll see you tomorrow.

And Heidi Tauber hasn't been heard from since. Thursday morning it's suddenly "Carl and friends." Not a single mention is made of Heidi's absence. Perhaps she's on vacation? Going to check out her blog, we find every mention of her on 620kpoj.com has been scrubbed. It's like she never existed. Heidi's been "disappeared"! Quick, find Barry Reid! While KPOJ takes the Fifth, other tongues are wagging (er... fingertips are tapping) over at OregonMediaInsiders.com

I first thought of Cecil B. Demille's "The Ten Commandments." It wasn't enough for the father of Ramses to ban Moses into the wilderness. He had to order every reference to Moses stricken. In the days before [Delete], this most often required a chisel.

"Let the name of Moses be stricken from every book and tablet. Stricken from every pylon and obelisk of Egypt. Let the name of Moses be unheard and unspoken, erased from the memory of man, for all time. "

So let it be written. So let it be done!

Maybe there's a more recent analogy. In Orwell's classic 1984 (otherwise know as Rove's Playbook), we learn the dangers of press merging into politic.

“He who controls the present, controls the past. He who controls the past, controls the future.” George Orwell

It is disturbing to note how the producer behind KPOJ's morning show, Paul Pimentel, seems to be altering the record. I recall in the past hearing something on the the show and going back later, unable to find the sought after sound clip. At first, I thought it was just me. Before long, others were sharing with me their same suspicions that Pimentel has been scrubbing the broadcast of unwanted speech.

Paul Pimentel

In a most recent instance (today), a caller (Tom) was offering his nominations for Weasel of the Week. He had two in mind. He first nominated Jeff Merkley. Seems the Speaker didn't like Tom's free speech and threatened to sue! Next he nominated "the management of KPO-" before he was cut of by Pimentel. If you go back and listen to the broadcast (end of today's third hour) you'll only hear the following:

"Carl: Tom, your weasel nomination? You're on the air.

Tom: I have two. My small weasel of the week would be Jeff Merkley for his overly litigious effort to silence my anti Gordon Smith / pro Steve Novick message that I tried to pass out. //nip// ... //tuck//"

Now first, where as I wholeheartedly agree with the caller, this was NOT East Bank Thom.

Secondly, it seems pretty clear that the caller was trying to voice his opinion about the management of KPOJ. (Weasels!)

Now I don't want to get sued, but it's my theory that the "Tom" who called is none other that KPOJ sponsor Tom Dwyer. I hear this guy's ads almost every day and I think I can recognize his radio voice (although the phone adds a different quality.) If I am correct, that's a pretty admirable thing for Dwyer to do. Now I'll happily write a retraction, but I'd much rather be right (and reward Dwyer with my business. My pickup needs servicing!)

Kari Chisholm: POWNED and Sealed

Jeff Merkley's web guru, Kari Chisholm of Mandate Media just had his ample kiester handed back to him. As Merkley contiunes to flounder in the polls, his campaign is responding the only way the DC establishment knows how; go on the attack. Cue the scary music and out of context quotes. Talk about how "angry" your opponent is. And then take your negative attack online. But it seems that BlueOregon's chief cook and salad spinner went a bridge to far on the internet super highway. Seems he lifted the code from the actual Novick for Senate site and took the credit for himself. I'm not saying that he stole anything. He's just lazy (and uncreative).

By all accounts, Chisholm learned well from his mentors, the Clintons. It takes a burned village to save a campaign.

The Novick staffer who created the authentic website took issue with Kari's hand in the internet cookie jar. He published an open letter to BlueOregon's Kari Chisholm on the Daily Kos.

"On the recent attack website you launched for Jeff Merkley, novickinsultsdemocrats.com, you used a substantial amount of work that I, and others, created for the Novick campaign and claimed credit for it as your own... "

[Update: Kari responds (sort of) with a denial, an updated attribution and a counter attack.]

-kari. p.s. I'm pretty sure that's the state seal in the header of the real Novick site. You might consider removing it, per state law.

[Updated updated. Kari's attempted cheap shot went "poof."]

Merkley, the choice of "humans"

For a brief moment in time, it appeared that the Team Merkley scored the most valuable endorsement of all (that is, until the Lefties win out and "aliens" get the right to vote).

I've noted before that Mr. Kamberg's keyboard seems to lack the letters S - T - F and U. And now it appears, sometimes E.

Blue0 chief cook and salad spinner swooped in for the late night assist. But did Kari "Full Disclosure" Chisholm forget something in his attempt to bolster his client's cred?

Please give until it hurts...

LOTR: Return of the Ring

So that neighbor with a friend who bought a metal detector on the spur of the moment gave me a call this morning informing me she had dropped off said gadget on our back porch. I was a goin' prospectin' so I saddled up and skidaddled. I was soon man handling the Bounty Hunter Tracker IV. It had a switch, two dials and a meter. I tossed two pit, a nickel, a dime and a penny on the ground, flipped the switch, played with the dials, waved the wand and watched the meter... beep... beep-beep... beep.

I first employed the blind chicken strategy. Could be here! Beep... scratch. Could be there! Beep... dig... sigh. Then I did the unthinkable. I sought out the instructions. Gawd bless the interwebs. I found the manual online and learned that I wasn't supposed to be searching for a Beep... I needed to be listening for a Bzzzzt.

Here a bzzzt... there a bzzzt... But nowhere a sustained bzzzzt until...

I had come to peace with misplacing my partner's piece of eight... I didn't feel great, but I made my lemonade... and it was sweet. Still, I'm delighted to again be the Lord of my Ring. And it came with a nice tale... a trilogy as it turned out. I love my neighbors. I love my neighborhood.

In first grade, Mrs. Goodrich used to play the sing along piano for all classes assembled. I am reminded of...

Love is something if you give it away
You end up having more

It's just like a magic penny
Hold it tight & you won't have any
Lend it, spend it & you'll have so many
They'll roll all over the floor.

Magic Penny
(Malvina Reynolds)

Endorsements

President: Barack Obama
OR-Sen: Steve Novick
OR-01: Mark Wyleczko
OR-03: Joe Walsh
OR-05: Steve Marks
Secretary of State: Vicki Walker
Attorney General: John Kroger
Portland Mayor: Sam Adams
Portland City Commissioner 1: Charles Lewis
Portland City Commissioner 2: Nick Fish
Portland City Commissioner 4: Randy Leonard
OR-Senate-21: Diane Rosenbaum
OR-House-42: Teddy Keizer

A tale of two rings

Check out my endorsements! [click here]

A funny thing happened on the way to the weekend. It was just a week ago today when I planted my wedding ring somewhere in the back yard. In something reminiscent of Poltergeist, it appears that our humble abode sits atop some vortex which delights in swallowing up baubles.

I was out sweeping the front porch (and I never sweep the front porch), as a neighbor passed by... walking her little girls down the block. She stopped to talk and gestured toward our lawn sign garden when all of a sudden, fling went her wedding ring into a weed ridden, leaf filled flower bed.

She and I were on our knees tout de suite pawing through the dandelions and tulips. My neighbor's concern heightened when we didn't immediately strike gold. I told her of my recent jewelry mishap and told her to continue on with the girls and I would continue the treasure hunt. Before long, I found her diamonds in our rough.

When I reunited wedding band with bride the look of relief was priceless. She had already contacted a friend who herself had lost her ring shortly before giving birth. Before night fall, she had a metal detector procured and all lived happy ever after.

I love happy endings.

Heidi's Victory Garden

Just as Iraq has been occupied for five years, I myself have been occupied... preoccupied.

It has been an extended period of personal loss.

Standing as a visible metaphor is our garden. Once diversely vibrant and full of life which sustained; corn, squash, carrots, tomatoes... the works.

The yard is still full of life, of the type that chokes other life off; weeds, crabgrass and blackberry vines.

It's a jungle out there.

Last year I began a clean-slate campaign to eradicate this unwelcome wilderness. I got as far as laying waste to the entire lawn. I hit a snag trying to remove the last of the hops. They've been in the ground a good four years or so. I never knew they were bamboo's evil twin, spreading like wildfire underground. Try as I might, I just couldn't get the mother plant out before the long, dark and wet Winter set in.

An out of town friend stopped by yesterday for a little TGIF, a country girl as it happens to be. I showed her the pitiful site which is our outback. She couldn't help but pull up a weed here and there, root and all. I shamed myself into action this morning. I would conquer this mother of all hops today. My implement, a trenching shovel. But no matter how deep I dug, she clung tight to the earth. This thing had a tap root reaching half way to the 2008 Summer Olympics. I decided to cut my losses and cut the mother out of the hole I was beginning to dig. One by one I played moyel on the roots with a limb trimmer. Eventually, I came to IT... a tap root so thick, I considered getting a chainsaw. Wedging the tool between my legs like some sort of Thighmaster, I finally separated the shrub from the soil.

I... Am... Mighty!

Today, I broke ground on a Victory Garden. And I hearby name her "Heidi." As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again!

But this victory did not come without loss. Somewhere amidst the struggle, I lost my wedding band. Somehow, I'm at Zen with it. Some time in the past, I'd be having a cow, but now... I know what's important. My ring is a symbol of what's most important. Absent the token, what's most important still is present. My Partner and I have already talked about replacing this, the reminder of what is truly irreplaceable.

I am reminded of a scene from Harold and Maude. The infatuated lover bestows upon the object of his affection a token of his esteem, a ring he made at the fair bearing the words "HAROLD LOVES MAUDE." Full of gratitude, she tosses it into the water saying, "So I'll always know where it is."

My Partner is also my college sweetheart, and as for his golden gift, I'll give finding it the old college try. It's really not lost however, nor even misplaced. For now, it's a treasure in Heidi's Victory Garden.


[Update: One week later...]