JEFF JACOBY offers a very nice valedictory to Arthur Chrenkoff:

The success of the series, Chrenkoff told me, took him by surprise. ‘‘I couldn’t believe that no one had done it before,’’ he said. ‘‘I’m usually not a pioneer. … But there was obviously a niche there that needed filling.’’

That ‘‘niche’’ — a widespread interest in the things going right in Iraq — was obvious. So why didn’t Big Media fill it?

Why, indeed? Here’s more from StrategyPage:

Other bloggers, like Michael Yon, have been providing coverage not seen in the media. Some of the military commands are also reaching out to the blogosphere as well, bypassing the legacy media.

The silent majority these days not only is willing to speak out, it is gaining the means to do so via talk radio and the internet. And the vocal minority – particularly the legacy media – is finding out that their volume is not drowning out things that were ignored in past wars.

That matters.

MORE ON PORK: A reader sends this from today’s CongressDaily PM:

Seeking to assuage their political base, White House officials met with House Republican conservatives today to discuss ideas for offsetting the spiraling cost of hurricane relief and reconstruction. According to sources familiar with the meeting, OMB Director Bolten met with Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana, the Republican Study Committee chairman, Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas, who heads up the group’s budget task force, and Rep. Jeff Flake of Arizona. On Wednesday, the group unveiled spending cut options dubbed “Operation Offset,” that were quickly praised by conservative spending watchdog groups. But House Republican leaders were generally lukewarm to the plan, and administration officials did not comment. The White House meeting demonstrates the Bush administration’s concern with eroding support among conservatives because of the explosion in federal spending on its watch.

They should be concerned. I’d advise them to get in front of this issue before it’s too late.

MARK TAPSCOTT: “Hurricane Katrina was America’s worst natural disaster, and it may also generate the biggest federal boondoggle ever — unless President Bush moves now to apply the FOIA to every tax dollar spent rebuilding.”

Transparency is key.

HERE’S MORE on the Iraqi oil trust idea.

IN THE MAIL: James Patterson’s Restless Giant: The United States from Watergate to Bush vs. Gore.

SOME VERMONT PORK identified in the Rutland Herald. The PorkBusters campaign is mentioned.

UPDATE: Bill Hobbs notes some Tennessee pork: “As politicians look for federal spending to cut in order to pay for rebuilding the Gulf Coast after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Lipscomb University – where I was enrolled for three-plus years back in the mid-1980s – ought to step up and give back the $3 million it is getting from the government to build a parking garage.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: More Tennessee pork.

MOVIE SEEKS BLOG REVIEWERS: The PR folks for the forthcoming Joss Whedon (Buffy, Angel, etc.) science fiction movie Serenity are inviting bloggers to advance screenings. (List of cities here via an Excel document that didn’t quite format right, but it’s legible). It’s free, and all they ask is that you blog something, good or bad, about it.

If you’re interested, email ’em at and they’ll put you on the list. I’ll be going to a screening in Knoxville.

UPDATE: More legible list of screenings here. And here’s a Daniel Drezner post about the trailer.

UPDATE: They’re full now (Friday p.m.) so if you haven’t emailed ’em you’ve missed your chance. Apparently the blog-response was phenomenal.

Heh. Indeed.

PORK UPDATE: “Senate OKs Coburn Measure to Shine Light on Pork; Now House, Bush Approvals Needed to Become Law.” Sounds like the ball is in the Bush/Delay court.

Uh oh.

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL’S ONLINE STORM TRACKER is now free.

PORK UPDATE:

Western Colorado’s chunk of the $284 billion highway bill that Congress passed this year is necessary for the region’s development, U.S. Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo., said Wednesday. . . .

“I’m not willing to cut any of the projects,” said Salazar, also a member of the Democratic Blue Dog caucus, which opposes Congressional spending on credit and justification for pet projects.

Obviously a Tom Delay fan. Meanwhile, a challenge to Republicans:

But the real debate isn’t happening in Congress as a whole – it is unfolding within the Republican Party. The debate will shape the future of the GOP. If Republicans – the one-time party of small government and fiscal restraint — cannot support spending cuts now, then they will officially signal their abandonment of fiscal conservatism, a once valued part of the Republican platform. . . .

Bloggers, too have latched onto this theme. A coalition of bloggers have launched a website called “porkbusters.” The site lists every member of the House and Senate by the name and has a column next to the name for “committed cuts,” or sacrifices. Currently, the only member of Congress listed with a “committed cut” is House Minority Leader, Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).

Many Republican members of Congress must be asking themselves, “Is Nancy Pelosi the best fiscal conservative this Congress has to offer?”

Heh. Indeed.

RITA UPDATE: “4:00am Update – Roads still packed, lines still long, Rita still a bitch.”

Some forecasts have the storm sliding up toward Louisiana. There’s also this: “I am about 60 miles inland and they’re predicting 120 mph winds here. Building codes only require the homes be built for 75 mph winds.”

That seems inadequate for, well, anywhere.

CHESTER LOOKS AT new horizons in war reporting. I don’t know why we’re not seeing this caliber of reporting and analysis from Big Media.

DARFUR UPDATE:

Darfur rebels claim that soldiers and pro-government tribal militia are increasing their raids on villages, killing, raping and stealing as they do. At least 30 villagers have been killed in these raids in the last week. The government denies any responsibility. The UN and AU observers confirm that there has been an increase in violence in Darfur in the last month, but has a hard time confirming specific claims by the rebels. The government blames all the violence on rebels or bandits. There are bandits operating in the region, but pro-government militias, and soldiers, have been spotted attacking non-Arab civilians as well.

I still think we should send the rebels guns and trainers.

MICKEY KAUS: “It’s as if Gary Hart and Bill Clinton (and Theodore Lowi) had never existed, as if ‘constituency liberals’ like Mondale and Harkin had been routinely winning the presidency while Carter/Clinton ‘policy liberals’ were the rare Democrats who’d lost, as opposed to the only Democrats who’d won.”

HERE’S VIDEO of the JetBlue emergency landing. Here, too.

PORKBUSTERS ON CNN: Ian Schwartz has the video.

RAY KURZWEIL’S BOOK comes out tomorrow. Here’s a post on Kurzweil by Tyler Cowen (“It is no longer intellectually acceptable not to know his major arguments.”). And here’s a review from Kirkus. And here’s my interview of Kurzweil.

UPDATE: More thoughts from Matthew Yglesias. And from Kevin Drum. (I liked this comment, which echoes this column.) The blogosphere is certainly buzzing.

ANOTHER UPDATE: More blogosphere buzz here: “The book might alternatively be titled ‘The Modern Futurist Consensus: a Review’ . . . My own two cents thrown into the ring say that the class of future portrayed in TSiN is something of a foregone conclusion. It’s quite likely that we’ll all be wildly, humorously wrong about the details of implementation, culture and usage, but – barring existential catastrophe or disaster – the technological capabilities discussed in TSiN will come to pass.” There’s much more.

NO ACTUAL SPECIFICS in response to her porkbuster questions, but Sissy Willis grades her elected representatives (Sens. Kennedy & Kerry, Rep. Capuano) on form. Grades are mixed.

Minnesota reader Monte Myer emails:

I just got off the phone with Senator Coleman’s office (Minnesota). We have 9 Million in pork going to bike trails. The only thing they said was that it was virtually impossible to rescind something like this (it takes 2/3rds vote). He didn’t sound that interested, but said he would pass on my message to the Senator.

Not much of a response. I was hoping for better.

Indeed. More of these as they come in — please put “Pork Response” in your subject line, and please don’t use that subject for anything but reports of what your Senators / Congressperson said on this.

Meanwhile, N.Z. Bear posts some thoughts on what we’re trying to do: