Tell me if I'm wrong, but I'm afraid my line's being stolen out from under me. Has anyone else noticed how often the word "outrage" is being used by the press lately? It seems everyone is outraged about something these days.

Here's a sampling:
-- Howard Kurtz in the Washington Post a few weeks ago, see paragraph 5.
-- The Nation magazine has a weblog called "The Daily Outrage." (I started mine a month before they did...so there.)
-- And "howls of outrage," is a rather descriptive phrase - it's about half way through the article.
-- This one got it's own post when it happened, but I still love the subhead.
-- Where is the outrage? is a question I ask all the time - now I see Sen. Byrd wants to know too.
-- Living as close to the Long Island Sound as I do (about a 10 minute drive), I can relate to why these residents are outraged. They should be on the lookout for the shit that's coming down from Sacramento too.
-- Even the Miami mafia is outraged. (Might need to have a salt shaker nearby for this one.)

You see? It doesn't seem to end. Okay, so I'm lucky if I have six readers. (That's not including my two sisters or my dad who somehow "forget" that I have a blog, though I remind them weekly.) But I'm starting to think I should be doing this for a living. Any ideas?

I'm starting an "outrage" collection. Please send me ANY links to articles that rely on the word outrage - for better or worse. Not sure why I'm keeping track. Just am. It's not like I own the word or anything.

My older sister was outraged that I used a curse word in my previous post. She, and I do see her point, thought that it was unnecessary. Okay - she wasn't outraged at all - but it sounds better to say she was.

Anyway, thanks to my friend James, I now believe I have legal precedence for using such language. Or maybe not. She's still older than me by 18 months so I guess I better do as I'm told. Okay, you got me there too. I've never been a "do as your told" kind of person so I'll have to come up with some other excuse.

This is why your family shouldn't read your blog on a regular basis. Not that mine does - she only read it today because I sent her the URL. Otherwise, they all think I'm whacked. Even my husband Kevin thinks it's a little out there. We were driving somewhere the other day and he turns to me and says "I'm thinking of starting a blog of my own." I thought - this is great. Before I get any further, he adds: "It's called the Get A Life blog. And it will have one post - and only one post: 'If you're reading this you need to stop and get a life.' What do you think?"

I didn't laugh at the time but thinking about it now, and maybe you had to be there, but it was pretty funny.

I know they've reversed themselves already about pulling air marshals from Xcountry flights but I was too outraged about this not to post. If MSNBC got it right, it was the cost of overnight stays that led to the decision.

It's too costly to pay for a hotel room but the FBI can send two - yes two - special agents to investigate a journalism student in Georgia? For READING? And didn't anybody at the FBI have a fucking clue that if you interrogate a journalist they're likely to write all about it? And I mean ALL about it. These are the same guys who are fighting the war on terrorism? Good gawd, as my mother would say.

The making of a conservative, huh? One might find this a bit suspect coming from UC-Berkley, which is known for a few things, conservativism definitely not being one of them.

My most prized possession is a book called The Ninth Wave, written by Eugene Burdick, a Berkely professor who died in 1965. It was written almost 50 years ago but its message is more than relevant with what's happening today. Whenever I read about what's happening to Gray Davis, I get a shiver thinking how close Burdick's fiction may be fact. If you care at all about politics, read this book. It's out of print now but you can buy it used. I want to start a petition to get the publisher to reprint it but haven't gotten my act together yet.

Trotsky had it right when he wrote about Russia's Ninth Wave. Fucking Stalin. Who knows what might have been if Trotsky's view of the revolution had prevailed.

I read this article a couple of times. And I keep asking myself, how did I miss this one?

Finding fault with the press is one of my favorite pastimes - likely because I never really got that job at the Washington Post or New York Times. But it's also because they deserve it. This article in Online Journalism Review raises the "laziness" factor.

In my Watchblog post today, I note that short-staffed news organizations are forced to fill space and time - regardless of dwindling resources so I am somewhat sympathetic. And in the interest of full disclosure, email interviews are a life-saver and I am very dependent on online sources for some of my freelance assignments. So it was a good reminder for me not to get too...comfortable. But all of his points are well taken.

It's New York City; there's a shooting; a black man and a police officer are involved. Can you guess where I'm going with this? I saw this coming yesterday but didn't say anything out of respect for City Councilman James Davis' (registratoin required) family. But as it turns out, it appears to be Davis' brother that is blaming the "system" and claiming a "conspiracy" behind the shooting.

Most of the time activists are right when they talk about NYC cops and blacks and violence in this city. So I'm more outraged about this because people won't listen to it the next time it happens for real. But I might be more outraged at Good Morning NY (Fox of course) who gave Davis' brother so much air time this morning. I think he's almost as disturbed as Askew was.

My prediction: this is going to get even uglier. I know, I know. I have a knack for stating the obvious.

I think Eric Alterman's post today about William Kristol, Dick Gephardt and McCarthy in Altercation is among the best I've seen. Is it plagiarism if you copy your own father? Never mind. The connection that Alterman makes is enough.

I also have a personal connection to McCarthy. It's the reason I'm here at all in a real sense. It was 1954 and my mom was attending Trinity College in DC and my dad was at Georgetown Law School. In a group date that brought about five or so couples together at the Bayou on K Street (my mom was pissed; she thought they were going to Andrews Air Force base or something much more refined for her Worcester, Mass. taste).

The conversation inevitabely turned to McCarthy and my mom and dad were the only two at the table to be -- get this -- outraged at what was happening. My dad recalls that my mom had the right ideas but no scholarship to back her up - but the right ideas were enough. And he swears he told his roommate later that night that he'd met the woman he was going to marry. True story.

I don't get this. Another high-ranking government official admits to not doing his job in relation to the 16 words in Bush's SOTU address. And both times, GWB has said he fully supports the person and there will not be any reprecussions. I really don't get this - isn't ANYONE responsible anymore?

Because consequences are a part of being responsible. So you can fuck up with no consequences? I feel like Hawkeye Pierce in one of my favorite M*A*S*H episode's - the one where he makes Radar call Harry S. Truman in the middle of the night to ask one question: Who's responsible? Do you think they'd put me through?

And there's a nasty thought in the back of my mind - Bush is just saying that for the cameras - and in fact George Tenet and Stephen Hadley will be fired. I'm not sure which is worse.

Two things that outraged me today on the way home from work, sitting in I-95 traffic and listening to AM radio: CBS Radio leads with the headline "Two Done, One to Go" and reports that GWB is "very pleased" to hear the news that Saddam's two sons were killed in a gunfight. I don't in anyway believe these two should be spared or were any less dangerous than their father. But I can't help but feel that I'm trapped in a real life video game and that our president is just another frat boy with a joystick.

And why do I have a hard time believing that this news will somehow stop the almost daily murder of an American soldier?

I'm not fully committed yet but now that Buffy has run its course, I'm liking Showtime's new series Dead Like Me. It's got real potential, as Kit DeLuca would say (can you guess the movie?) Not quite as much as Six Feet Under - but it's close. And Tru Calling looks like a promising show this fall. Do I detect a pattern here?

Great column by Frank Rich in today's New York Times. While the headline - Why Liberals Are No Fun (registration required) - may be a little off-putting to some, he makes two key points - one is that rage (ie, outrage) is building among Democrats and two, that in politics, timing is everything. It's a lesson I learned well while working on the Mondale-Ferraro and Dukakis-Bentsen campaigns. Just one criticism - I don't think he answers his own headline. Believe me, I'm liberal and I think I'm loads of fun. Okay, maybe not loads but I've got a hell of a sense of humor. Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

You never want to hear the word "meltdown" in connection with the workings of democratic government. But that appears to be exactly what happened yesterday. I'm starting to wonder - who isn't outraged nowadays?

And I can't WAIT for the floor debate on this one. But why should anyone be surprised at this - Tom DeLay gets away with that kind of Gestapo tactic - why shouldn't everyone else? Boy oh boy - when's the revolution coming, my friends? Before we know it, this won't be a democracy anymore.

Been meaning to post since Friday morning. Bruce was awesome. I'm not a fanatic but went with my sister who is. All I know is that it sure is fun. Great set list for the July 17 show - he played Growin' Up AND Rosalita, which is rare and also happens to be my favorite song and my sister's favorite song, respectively. Pretty unbelievable.

Now it's not too often that news stories make me laugh right out loud. But this article sure did. My sister at one time called me a "suppos-ed" Catholic. Is that the same as middling?

Posting Thursday night? Can't - going to see Bruce (registration required).

Back in 1995, I went to work for Cablevision, whose chairman at the time (Chuck Dolan) had a vision for providing hyperlocal news to Long Island communities. In theory, it was great. In practice, it sucked.

No one bothered to ask community journalists whether a weekly news format could be transformed into a 24-hour, 7-day a week news channel. The answer is no. Instead of a news program, it ended up looking like a TV bulletin board from 1986 (with nice color pictures added). I always said that if your grandmother picked her nose, we'd cover it. But we also covered house fires, toxic waste dumps, handicapped parking permit scams - and local personalities. Those were the best stories. I said at the time the concept would have worked beautifully as a "local hereos" station or, even better, as an online, digital newspaper - since the channel aka Neighborhood News12 - was all digital before most people in television even knew what digital was.

Needless to say, Neighborhood News12 is no more. So now I read that hyperlocal news sites are catching on. Sigh.

If I were Tom DeLay, I'd be keeping a lower profile, especially when the subject is credibility. Because if you ask me, DeLay's interference and misuse of public resources in the Texas Legislature scandal hasn't been blown up enough.

And I'm getting sick and tired of being told by Republicans that criticizing the president means I support Saddam Hussein. It's insulting and...evil. I keep hearing Woodward (or was it Bernstein) talking about the White House during Watergate: "it's another non-denial denial."

This makes me feel warm all over. The man who quite possibility (update: possibly) is the best obfuscator of all time will offer advice to corporate executives (registration required) on...get this...how to deal with the media. Because NOT answering reporters questions is JUST as important as answering them, don't you know.

Maybe Enron, WorldCom and the rest could hire him with the money that's no longer available to fund their employees' retirements. And I could be mistaken, but I think there's a section in Sarbanes-Oxley that forbids just this kind of hire. I'm pretty sure. Okay, so there's not. There really should be though. Not that it's any skin off my nose, but all you CEOs who read my blog - and I know you're out there - consult with your corporate counsel before getting in bed with this guy. Or don't. Whatever.

Ari - good luck, god bless. we hardly knew ye.

My sister swears someone overheard the conversations in the rental car driven by my mother during their visit to Ireland last month. Almost verbatim, she said. If you're planning a trip to Ireland, or just enjoy a good travel feature, this article is worth reading.

UPDATE: Mon Jul 14: I changed the link to a more appropriate location just for my pal RG.

I don't know where to begin with the whole Iraq-Niger uranium debacle (or should I say spectacle?) Experience tells me that when a politician makes a statement "standing behind" someone, the object of those kind words is usually one foot out the door already. My sense here, though, is that CIA Director George Tenet is in no danger of losing his job over this. So I guess it's okay to allow false information through - and face no consequences for doing so. The press keeps referring to Tenet as "the fall guy." That implies...a FALL. If he stays where he is, which I admit remains to be seen, you can't call him a fall guy.

Bush had declared that this is over. I LOVE that concept. "It's over." The president will tell the press and the public what's newsworthy and what's worth investigating. Think of all the time it will save us if we just all sit down, shut up and do what GWB tells us to do. Think of how simple life would be if we could ALL decide when something's over. But the problem with me is, when I decide something's over, it's rare for anyone else to agree with me. So maybe I'm more bitter than outraged? Nah...

But I am struck by one thought - why didn't Bill Clinton find a loyalist to claim he'd (or she'd) suggested a presidential blowjob in the Oval Office and then found a willing service provider for the President of the United States, arguably one of the most stressful, tension-filled jobs on the PLANET. And then Clinton should have just told the press and the public - it's over, someone's taken responsibility, it's over. No Ken Starr, no grand jury, no blue Gap dress, no impeachment.

But the Clinton episode did produce one good thing - and what I believe should be the tagline for our generation: Define what "is" is. And once again, we're being taught a lesson about the awesome power of words. Rumsfeld says what Bush said about uranium was "technically correct." This could be dismissed as a case of simple semantics - but that would be tragic. Because someone(s) made the subjective decision in crafting that SOTU speech of what was acceptable and what crossed a line. They were wrong. And there should be consequences when you're that wrong.

So, being the idealist that I am, I again hope "these 16 words" - (Tenet and Rice obviously read from the same script) - prove to be the undoing of GWB's popularity and will help bring down the current administration. I'm overstating, I know. But now they're REALLY starting to piss me off.

It is my profound hope that Tom DeLay and his staff get what's coming to them. If Trent Lott can be tossed out like yesterday's garbage, I'm hoping for jail time for DeLay and the as-yet-unnamed staffer who made the call to the FAA.

But that could just be because I hate everything that man represents. I could not be more outraged - and let's chalk another one up for our great Homeland Security department. Do you think one person involved might have said - "hey, wait a minute, our job is to find terrorists - not hunt down Texas Democrats." Or maybe to DeLay they are one and the same.

Rumsfeld warns that attacks will continue or get worse in Iraq. It couldn't have anything at all to do with our Schoolyard Bully-in-Chief egging 'em on, now could it?

I know I should be outside enjoying the beautiful weather in New York this weekend but I couldn't resist. How in god's name is this administration protecting us from terrorists when it can't prevent a stowaway -- on the PRESS PLANE?? Not only that, he climbed on board the press bus to the hotel before he was "reported" by someone from the WH travel office. Some observant journalists, huh?

This Doonesbury cartoon ran on June 30. I've been meaning to put it up since I saw it. I'm a horrible procrastinator. Bad, Ellen. Bad.

I unfortunately don't qualify for overtime - and seem to have been "working harder and longer for less money" since the dot com bubble burst. Editors are always considered exempt employees because the bastards...oh never mind.

But for the 8 million people that will be affected by this overtime change, I hope you vote "D" in November.

UPDATE, 11:06 AM: Not sure who to believe on this but the U.S. Dept. of Labor says 664,000 will be affected, give or take a few.

UPDATE: Sun Jul 13, 6:01 PM: Is outrage contagious? I sure as hell hope it is.

The absence of outrage is worth mentioning sometimes. Good news that Title IX will remain essentially unchanged, according to today's Washington Post. Which is good news. I feel for all those wrestlers out there but they really should look at the money spent on other men's athletic programs - rather than blame Title IX for dwindling dollars.

And I'm not so into conspiracy theories (yet) that I think this was a calculated move to win female votes for Bush next year. It appears that a group of people realized that age old adage fit here: if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

It's 7-11 Day . My sister, who works in DC, and I will travel to a 7-11 in our respective neighborhoods at some point today and have ourselves a slurpee. Usually around the same time. If we can manage it.

I once had the absurd notion that I'd like to run for a seat in the House of Representatives. At the time, I lived in Northern Virginia and its proximity to the Pentagon never made it a very hospitable place for Democrats - at least for any significant length of time. Nonetheless, I was young - I had a rich fantasy life and I had a crush on Tim Flynn, who said he wanted the same thing. So it all made sense at the time. I thought we'd be the first couple in Congress - unfortunately he was from California so it didn't last very long. Ah, youth!

Anyway - once again, I can safely say that I am grateful not to be counted among our esteemed Members of Congress. I love the way these guys work sometimes but protecting their own never seems to fall through the cracks. But I guess this is good news for my brother and sister - both of whom work for the federal government.

I don't know if I'm more outraged that they actually did it or that the Democrats provided "silent approval" and then bitched and moaned to the press after the fact.

BuzzFlash has its point of view - and they make no bones about what that is. I don't always agree but I respect where they come from.

And I love these lines from today's editorial: "It is a time when outrage and controlled anger are in order" and "Dean has a glint of anger in his eye, a bit of outrage, and speaks with passion. He shouldn't be such a rarity among Democratic leaders seeking high office, but he is."

This is what I've been saying: outrage is a good thing. Glad others are catching up.

This is why I love New York. Check out the Daily News front page and this article about the...well, nothing really.

I can usually count on the New York Post to have the best headline when this type of story comes along but the NYP editorial staff seems to be all consumed with the Kennedy-Cuomo breakup. (Just an aside, the story reads like the National Enquirer - not that I EVER read that but I've been told - and it was written by three reporters. Good gawd, as my grandmother from Massachusetts would say.) It's all too soap opera-ish for me, frankly. What is wrong with people - the selfishness of the so-called adults involved here is mind-blowing.

I can't stand it when this happens. I'm not able to have kids so it makes me so angry I can't see straight when parents or guardians commit such acts of brutality, neglect and/or stupidity. There's a special place in hell for them. There has to be.

I'll admit that the first season had some laugh out loud moments, which is hard for this anti-reality TV fanatic to admit. But I didn't watch one episode of season 2. And now they're back for a third? Why don't TV programmers know when to quit?

I'm not a big fan of the military - this comes from working for the Navy Department during college summers not through any ideological issue - but I can't help but wonder what in god's name could have happened concerning the Air Force's Boeing lease proposal to get Ralph Nader and Grover Norquist to agree on something. Maybe they're not as different as one might think. Or maybe it's July in the nation's capitol.

I've probably mentioned this before but I think I should have been a homicide detective. So I just thought I'd share this piece in the Boston Globe that combines three of my favorite subjects: murder, news and outrage.

I haven't talked much about it here but I've started writing for a new political weblog called Watchblog. I read about it on Doc Searls' blog and checked it out. With presidential campaign staff experience in the 1980s, plus about 15 years of writing experience, I figured this might be worth doing - volunteer of course. There was some vague promise of splitting a portion of ad revenue among the editors but I'm not holding my breath.

Well over the last week or so, there was a very interesting public, and eventually private, debate about political humor. I don't mind in the least if some person I've never meant doesn't think I'm funny. But I'm not sure I want to write for a weblog that requires me to get approval for my posts in order to make sure it passes some subjective humor meter. I've been in the business long enough - you want to edit my work, pay me for it first.

So on that note, I'm thinking of starting a second blog all by my lonesome that will focus solely on Campaign 2004. I doubt there will be anything earthshattering or if any news organization will be looking to me for unique insight. I could keep it as part of Outrage.com since what's happening in politics today - I can't even begin to rant about Bush's "bring 'em on" comment - is a major source of outrage for me. Maybe if Blogger had categories I could do it all in one. Will have to think a bit more on this one. Stay tuned.

I know, I know. It happens when I've gone a long time without posting. The outrage has to go somewhere, right? Well I see this story about flattened skull syndrome. And at first I'm saying to myself well it beats SIDS, doesn't it? But then I read that something like 48 percent of all infants are affected. Are you telling me half of the infant population has flat skulls?

On the drive north to New York, I take the Baltimore-Washington Parkway to avoid as much of I-95 as I can. As I'm approaching Baltimore, someone had altered the welcome sign. Now it reads "Welcome to Baltimore, hon." Is that perfect or what? (Don't answer if you've never spent any time in Baltimore.)

I have this whole guilt thing that happens when I go more than two days without posting. It's sort of like forgetting to feed your goldfish and coming in to see the poor thing floating on the surface. That's what I think will happen to my blog if I don't feed it regularly. Weird?

Anyway, even though it's been more than two days, I don't feel guilty today because I've just spent the last four days with my parents (and brother and sisters and my two great nephews) celebrating the 4th of July and my mom and dad's wedding anniversary. It's about a five and a half hour drive for me to get from my house to my parent's house in Northern Virginia. But on a holiday weekend it's usually a seven or eight hour drive (I made it just over six this time.) So it works out to two days of travel and two days of visit. Which sucks. I'm flying next time.

So Friday morning was spent getting ready for my parent's 45th wedding anniversary party on Saturday the 5th - my dad says at some point every year "I just wanted one more day of independence" and funny thing is I laugh with him every time I hear it - and Friday afternoon on the west lawn of the Capitol. It was nice - especially since my sister knows someone who hooks us up with Friends of the National Symphony passes. It's SO nice. And Barry Bostwick does a good job but I could have done without Dolly Parton's version of "When Johnnie comes Marching Home" - am I crazy or is that a Confederate Civil War song? The only thing missing was a Confederate flag and a salute to Strom Thurmond.

The day of my parent's anniversary party was unbelievably hot and humid - alright, not unbelievable if you've spent any time in the DC area. But it was great to spend time with my family and with friends that I hadn't seen in many years.

And they did a study about this because?

I've had trouble with this for some time but wanted to wait for the reviews. At the end of T2, all connection to terminators had been destroyed. So how are the machines supposed to rise in T3?

After more than 10 years, I feel more foolish than outraged, but outraged nonetheless, for believing that, in one dimension anyway, the apocalypse had been averted. And I don't care what anyone says, Linda Hamilton was the best thing about both of those movies.

So there's a possibility on Sunday that hackers will attack 6,000 websites in six hours. It's hard for me to believe that these guys really don't have anything better to do.

I've been deliquent. I've been trying to be very good about posting every day. My parent's are celebrating their 45th wedding anniversary on Saturday, my commute to work is now averaging two hours (instead of the reasonable 90 minutes it had been) per day and my new cat insists on purring in my ear between 4 and 5 a.m. each morning. Okay - enough excuses. The real reason I've not posted? I'm an editor for the Democratic blog on Watchblog.com - but given recent events I'm not sure how much longer that'll continue. Especially if it means neglecting my first love.