ITS OFFICIAL: — U.S. Treasury secretary announces plan to take over troubled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac….Biggest Takeover in History—

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Federal officials on Sunday unveiled an extraordinary takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, putting the government in charge of the twin mortgage giants and the $5 trillion in home loans they back.

The move, which allows the Treasury to provide as much as $200 billion in capital to the two companies, marks Washington’s most dramatic attempt yet to shore up the nation’s housing market, which is suffering from record foreclosures and falling prices.

THE MCCAIN CAMPAIGN–THE NEW WILD WEST SHOW
COPS TARGET JOURNALISTS IN ST PAUL
THE BOOKS SARAH WANTED BANNED

SAN FRANCISCO: Last week, when Sarah Palin made her prime time debut, just a day or two before the head of the GOP campaign assured us that this election is NOT about issues but character, I realized something had clearly changed. The Republicans know better than to try to run on their unpopular record so they are reframing the election, throwing out one script and trying out a new one even as the Democrats keep saying “its all the same.”

It isn’t. We are now in the era of electotainment. (If I keep saying it, maybe it will sink in.)

Rather than vetting a running mate, the McCain campaign went in another direction. It decided to steal Obama’s rather vague change orientation and make it their own. Stealing plot lines is done everyday in Hollwood where ideas were cloned well before scientists discovered cloning. Next, they adopted The Democratic campaign to run against Washington even though they control it. They realize the depths of dissatisfaction out there so they co-opted that too, talking about how they “understand” that people feel let down.

The fashioned slogans to undercut Democratic themes. For them, the war is a non-issue because “victory” is near. Next. Taxes? They are against then but Obama is for them. Etc. To Obama’s call for better relations with the world, they say simply “country first.” (It sounds a bit like “America First” the line that those opposed to the US entering World War ll.) The McCainites are now everything to every one, isolationists and interventionists, peacemakers and terrorist killers.

Big John is also now Mr. Nice, Mr. Open and Mr. Civil, speaking of embracing Democrats and Independents (save the angry left.” Of course!) . At the same time his surrogates continue the bashing and swiftboating of Obama with an escalating level of nastiness and invented charges. One Southern Member of Congress even calls him “uppity.” Rupert Murdoch tells him Fox News will be fair just as the rhetorical knives come out.

But the piece de resistance was to find as very big must for every production, a leading Lady, a new face with a proven track record. She has to be attractive, appeal to younger voters and women. Poof, The casting was perfect. Enter at stage right, the “gal” that has it all: Governor, Mom, A Character, Executive, Folksy, Jesus loving and rifle toting. Purrfect, especially for a Party that wants to wreck government, not strengthen it.

Bristling with one liners including the false claim that she sold the State Plane on E-BAY (no one bought it and it was sold later for a loss). Why let facts get in the way of an embellished record? This Alaskan is pipeline of propaganda all by herself. She’s hip, she’s devout, she’s youngish compared to McCain she’s in love with her husband, and loving mother. (Well let’s not hit that theme too hard.)

ENTER THE NEW WILD WEST SHOW

The older Arizonan has now recreated one of the most popular phenomenons from years past, just reeking in Americana: The Wild West Show. He is the “maverick” reincarnation of Wild Bill (Buffalo Bill) Cody and she is a modern Annie Oakley, who can do anything he can do,,,and so it better—yes she can.! When this parallel struck me last week, I forgot that the show Annie Get Your Gun that brought our heroine into the modern age on screen and stage, has, as another of its key songs, There’s no Business Like Show Business, a perfect anthem in the age of the merger of news business and show business.

Wild Bill was a maverick of his time and a soldier not unlike McCain. He claims he killed 4280 Buffalo and was proud of being an “Indian fighter. He opposed slavery in Kansas while he scouted for Indians with the 3rd Cavalry and was, like McCain, considered a war hero. He claimed to have scalped a Cheyenne warrior in revenge for the death of General Custer. Unlike McCain, who also killed an unknown number of Vietnamese civilians—some US soldiers in Vietnam thought of them as Injuns or gooks— he didn’t go into politics but created the WildWest Show. And unlike McCain he ended up pushing for the rights of Indians and women.

His Wikipedia entry explains: “Buffalo Bill and his performers would re-enact the riding of the Pony Express, Indian attacks on wagon trains, and stagecoach robberies. The show typically ended with a melodramatic re-enactment of Custer’s Last Stand in which Cody himself portrayed General Custer.” He understood the power or showbusiness and was considered the in his day, the most famous celebrity on earth.

Today, literally today, Buffalo Bill is back as a cardboard figure in an art expo on a beach in San Francisco. And Guess who is with him?

Yup, sharpshooter Annie Oakley. I also never expected that I would run into the original Annie here in San Francisco after writing about her last week. I felt like I conjured her up from the dead. She’s not alive, of course, but a perfect life size copy stands in a public exhibition on Ocean Beach along the Pacific. It was there, in 1902, that Cody brought his Wild West Show to town and lined up l00 Indians in war dress on horses on the beach for a photo op. Annie was there. A famous picture of this sensational moment memorialized the survival of the wild west in the modern era. Western artist Thom Ross saw the photo 40 years ago, and it stuck with him.

He has now recreated–ore perhaps reimagined– the photo on the same beach with larger than life art pieces which when viewed from a distance are a perfect optical illusion, not unlike the Republican campaign. The San Francisco Chronicle took a picture of his version and ran it along side the original on page one.. Almost a perfect match.

The artist told me that back then the Indians volunteered to be in the show because they had been defeated and “had nothing better to do.” And besides, he said, “they got a trip to Europe. How else could Indians get to Europe.” Ross, dressed in period costume likes Palin and says he is a conservative. The GOP convention was a costume drama too with Cindy McCain dolled up in borrowed clothes and jewels worth, according to Vanity Fair, around $300,000.

As the Republicans reignite the culture wars, San Francisco at least fought back. The local TV news didn’t seem to cover singer Michael Franti’s annual POWER TO THE PEACEFUL concert in Golden Gate which reminded me of Frisco in the 60s, With support from Pacifica Affiliate KPFA, more than 50,000 people came to the part to hear Speahead and Ziggy Marley and others stir it up with rebel music.

It was a great time. Your news dissector was even jumping around putting hands in the air and waving them like I just don’t care.. I felt like the only one there without tattoos but what seemed clear is that progressive music and politics still has a big base in the Bay Area.

OTHER NEWS IN SF

Even as the ativist Cindy Sheehan, who lost her son in Iraq, is challenging SF pol and House Majority leader Nancy Pelosi, Pelosi was off in Japan meeting Hiroshima survivors.

Less visible are the difficult strains progressive are facing. It was painful to walk through the ruins of the New College in the Mission District which collapsed after thirty years as an excellent alternative. Internal conflicts and contradictions within the faculty and student body brought it down. Some of the politically correct critics were so self-righteous about being right that they destroyed the institution inorder to save it.

It was also distressing to visit KPFA which has served this community o well for so long and find one more internal battle dividing its staff and volunteers over an incident involving the police. It was the only media outlet reporting on the police state tactics and repression aimed at protesters in the Streets at the Republican convention. You can listen in at KPFA.org.

Environmentalists here were frustrated when tree sitting did not stop the destruction of a grove of old trees in Berkeley which are being cut down by the University of California to make way for a new gym. Another historic site, The Peoples Park is now a home to the homeless and drug addicts. There will be a conference here on remembering the 60’s next week. It was not surprising that singer Michael Franti and Spearhead close their great new album with a song he describes as a prayer to not lose faith. It is quite moving but also sign of the times.

It was hard to feel very optimistic when the Chronicle reported that there are now 25,000 unemployed people in San Francisco, a number that jumped up by 50% since the start of the year. (This is as of July. Unemployment jumped to 6.1% in August.) The economic decline is already here with the State and City cutting back right and left. The city’s big Banks. the Bank of America and Wachovia recently reported the loss of more billions.

PROMOTING PLUNDER

In a sense it was, sadly, a perfect time for me to try to promote my new book PLUNDER about our deepening economic calamity. (Incidenatlly, if any of you agree with the concerns I have been raising for over a year on this issue, please help me get the book out. I would welcome speaking gigs, paid if possible, book parties and publicity assistance. Write dissector@mediachannel.org

I was on LINK TV which has expanded its programming and website at Link.org. They do the show MOSAIC on news from all sides in the Middle East and are using the model to introduce more global sources of information. I worked with Wendy and Toni and others all are among the great people there who are very dedicated to independent media. I introed a show they are doing with my film IN DEBT WE TRUST and did a program to showcase my new film RECOUNT DEMOCRACY (on the 2000 election.) See Link.org.

I was also on the lively morning show at KPFA with Aimee Allison and then later on KALW’s weekly media wrap up, hosted by the extremely well informed Rose Aguilar. Its the best show of its kind on the air and should go national. I was on with Tina Sussman of The LA Times live from Baghdad and the Nation’s John Nichols who was covering the McCain campaign. Unlike other press shows, they bring indy journalists and mainstream reporters together and offer a fusion of more in-depth reporting and media critiquing. It was a good feeling to get my ideas out there on the collapsing economy. I seem to be on more foreign outlets than American ones these days.

Personally, I think there is a connection between the economy and what happened in the Streets of ST Paul where the federal government and its Homeland Security bully boys pumped in millions to train and incite the local cops with tough tactics and infiltrators. I think this was a testing ground for crowd control because the real fear in Washingtnon is not with the black block or anarchist street fighters but with what will happen when more Americans run out of credit and money and realize that it was government policy and corporate crime that did them in. Why aren’t people talking about this scenario and the contingency plans that are being made. Crime is alreadly going up and mass protests can’t be far off once this election is over.

You heard it here first.

More –at least 50 deaths– in Haiti as Ike smashes into Haiti. Storm heading to Cuba, and Maybe USA…Another evacuation in Florida

NBC REPORTS THAT PETRAUS EXPECTS MORE TROOP WITHDRAWALS IN IRAQ | PENTAGON EXPECTS TO CONCEDE MORE AFGHAN DEATHS IN AFGHANISTAN…

Flying back on the plane, I saw Joe Biden shunt off criticisms on MET The Press of his conflicts of interest and support for the bankruptcy bill. Tom Brokaw tried to press him but he was ready with answers before the questions were even asked . Tom disclosed that they had invited McCain and Palin but both some to have declined. The Republican convention was denouncing NBC as you will recall. I guess that General Election is too left for them. It was reminiscent of the rap the Fox Business Channel was trying to lay on CNBC for being anti0-business. Ironically, Tom Brokaw who has in the past enjoyed calling me Danny The Red may now by on the receiving end of this type of baiting.

Comments Mark Crispin Miller:

The story here is not just that Gov. Palin was the only one of the four candidates who didn’t do a Sunday morning press show. The story is that Team McCain is already behaving with
the same blunt arrogance that we all know from having watched Bush/Cheney operate these last eight years. They have always acted with impunity, time and time again dismissing the
concerns of the majority with undisguised contempt. (”So?”)

Palin is expected to agree to a network interview this week.

OTHER VIEWS

FREEDOM THE PRESS, ST PAUL STYLE

David West writes:

St. Paul isn’t a war zone where journalists get fired upon and lose their lives because a camera over-the-shoulder looks like an RPG launcher from the distance, this was a properly accredited network news team, wearing credentials and a vest with the words “PRESS” in big fat bold letters on their chest getting fired upon in an American city.

The crew (a photographer, soundman and producer) was on a city street sidewalk (perfectly legal) filming the protesters marching down the street. The police confronted the protesters and started firing tear gas, pepper pellets and stun grenades at them.

The large crowd dispersed into a neighboring parking lot and the media followed them.

A police officer in full riot gear comes charging at the crew thrusting his baton towards the chest of the producer. The producer identifies herself as press and throws up the credentials she’s wearing around her neck.

“I don’t give a fuck who you are, get the fuck out of here,” the officer shouted, pushing her. Other cops run up with their guns pointed and start pushing the press into the crowd of protesters.

This was the scene the entire night.

The media would follow the protesters and the police would point their weapons at them and fire directly towards them. At one point in the evening an officer runs up to a group of cameramen filming and drops a flash grenade in the middle of them and runs away. The grenade went off in a bright flash and bang, slightly injuring a few of the photographers.

The entire evening journalists were pushed, shoved, intimidated, shot at, abused and finally arrested.

The officers corralled the group of some 300 protesters, along with some 50 working press, onto a bridge and sealed it off from both directions—forming a line of police in full riot gear on each side with weapons drawn.

The cops started shouting at everyone to sit down and put their hands up, saying that they were to be arrested.

The media professionals did what they have always done in this situation, they filed out of the crowd to the edge and continued taking their pictures.

The police became more irate and started to throw flash grenades onto the bridge. At that point you can hear the journalists start talking among themselves.

“I think they mean us to,” said one reporter.

“You got to be fucking kidding me,” said another in response.

“Bullshit,” said a soundman.

The press started shouting at the police identifying who they were.

The police continued their threats, finally saying that they would come in using force if they didn’t sit down.

Journalists started to sit down, still recording the scene, all getting on the phone to report in what was happening.

I heard the photographer over the camera’s microphone in a shaky voice explaining the situation to the newsroom. He sounds scared and confused.

“Yah they’re going to arrest us all… including the press,” he says to the person on the phone.

You can tell that the person on the other end of the conversation can’t believe it.

“We told them we’re press, they don’t care,” the conversation continued.

A Japanese crew was still standing; one of them was carrying a ladder used to see over crowds to get a better angle.

The cops threaten to bring him down with force, calling the ladder a weapon.

The Japanese crew looks scared, they all scream “Press, press!” at the police.

More scared voices among the media, pan to the protesters, and then the feed went black.

My colleagues last night had every reason to be scared.

How much of this was even reported by the mainstream outlets? I think that was one of the questions this strategy was designed to test.

Answer: not much.

STIRRING THE CULTURE WAR AS A STRATEGY

This strategy is calculated. So Opines NYU Journalism professor Jay Rosen:

John McCain’s convention gambit is now a culture war strategy. It depends for its execution on conflict with journalists, and with bloggers (the “angry left,” Bush called them last night) along with confusion between and among the press, the blogosphere, and the Democratic party. It revives cultural memory: the resentment narrative after Chicago ‘68 but with the angry left more distributed. It dispenses with issues and seeks a trial of personalities. It bets big time on backlash.

At the center of the strategy is the flashpoint candidacy of Sarah Palin, a charismatic figure around whom the war can be brought to scale, as it were. In fact the Politico is reporting just that: Palin reignites culture wars.

I have no idea if the ignition system will work; nor do I claim that “this is what they were thinking” when they made the decision to nominate Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.

PARALLELS ANYONE?

Bill Bowles: offers some parallels

The parallels with the situation in Europe prior to the outbreak of WWII surely cannot be avoided, for not only do we have an economic crisis that closely resembles the ‘29 Crash in its magnitude, the US-engineered invasion of South Ossetia could very well be a prelude to more dangerous provocations on the part of the US, in much the same way that German support for the fascist coup in Spain served as a testing ground not only for Hitler’s military machine but also to sew chaos and to test the reactions of two of the leading imperialist powers of the time, Britain and France. For what they all shared was a hatred of Bolshevism and ultimately, that’s what WWII was really all about, the destruction of the Soviet Union.

So is history repeating itself, perhaps not as farce but as an even greater tragedy?

SAM GARDINER ON IRAN AND THE ELECTION

My press sources and reading tell me the current strategy is heavily focused on covert operations and that we may soon see an operation done covertly that will demonstrate to the Iranians there is a price to pay for their behavior. That is clearly consistent with the Cheney view of how the world should be handled. (Suskind’s book) Also, after the Georgia thing it seems fairly clear the Russians would be very reluctant to support another sanctions package.

There is the issue of the MEK. I have seen the Maliki position as being a statement of independence from the United States and a wish to strengthen connections with Iran r ather than as something the US might have agreed. I would add that this week Pakistan and Iran have agreed to cooperate on counter-terrorism. Jundollah, the free Baluchistan movement, is in their category of a terrorist group. The US has backed Jundollah operations inside Iran. It’s another case where we have not been able to influence support for our groups.

Finally, one could also speculate that the quiet may be ending. During his current trip Cheney has been making the point that Russian arms sales have gone through Iran and Syria and ended up with Hezbollah. That is a good way to cover all the bad guys, but it also resurfaces Iran as the sponsor of terrorism. Last week the Israel Project began running television ads very much in the pattern of pre-Gulf II stuff. One shows missiles landing in the Midwest. In other words, we could be seeing the “wisdom” of the White House in pre-Gulf II that you can’t sell a “war” in August. It’s now September. It seems to me the next week is important, and we will begin to see the direction the White House will take between now and January.

I continue to believe the White House will find Iran as a way to generate support for McCain and Republican candidates. The badder the Iranians can be made to appear, the more talk-to-them seems to be out of touch. In a video that was shown at the Republican convention the issue of terrorism was rais ed. In about 15 seconds, the piece started with the Iranian hostage situation and ended up with 9/11. The obvious implication is that Iran is somehow connected to 9/11.

ATT: GOVERNOR PALIN: A PHOTO HISTORY OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS

RANDY FERTEL OF NEW ORLEANS ON GUSTAV

COMMODITIES BUBBLE

Mortgage Giant Overstated the Size of Its Capital Base

Gretchen Morgenson and Charles Duhigg, The New York Times: “The government’s planned takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, expected to be announced on Sunday, came together after advisers poring over the companies’ books for the Treasury Department concluded that Freddie’s accounting methods had overstated its capital cushion, according to regulatory officials briefed on the matter.”

WAS JAMES CARVILLE A SPY FOR THE GOP IN ‘04

Commodities bubble burns big investment funds

NEW YORK (AP) — The deflating commodities bubble is claiming its first
casualties as large investment funds absorb staggering losses from bad bets
that prices for oil, precious metals and grains would keep going up.

GREAT MOMENTS IN WORLD TRADE

JACKIE NEWBERRY IS DESPAIRING

Obama had a slip of the lip and said, “My Muslim faith” on George Stephanopolous’ show today as George introduced the subject of accusations that he was Muslim. The media and the right wingnuts are all over it. Where are they with the litany of lie after lie after lie that can be corroborated from the speeches of McCain, Palin, Romney, Giuliani, and Huckleberry? This does not even include 8 years of lies by Cheney, Bush, Rumsfield, Wolfawitz, Rove, Libby, Hadley, Gonzalez, ad nauseum…and these lies have been documented repeatedly by government report after government report. Watch 60 Minutes tonight for more revelations. I’m looking for a quiet island in the Pacific to move to if the Lying Thuggery party wins this November. I can’t stand much more.

HELEN ANDERSON WRITES:

While browsing through search engines, I came across your blog, which really has great resources. We just posted an article on Recession and Career. I thought I’d bring it to your attention just in case you think your readers would find it interestin

Title: Choosing a Recession Proof Career

URL: http://www.bankaholic.com/579/recession-proof-careers/

THE BOOKS PALIN WANTED BANNED AT THE WASILA LIBRARY

Here is a list, thanks to Cathe Ishino, of books that Sarah Palin tried to have banned from the Wasilla Public Library, according to the official minutes of the Library Board. When she was unsuccessful at having these books banned, she tried to have the librarian fired

As many of you will notice, it is a hit parade for book burners.

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Blubber by Judy Blume
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
Carrie by Stephen King
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Christine by Stephen King
Confessions by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Cujo by Stephen King
Curses, Hexes, and Spells by Daniel Cohen
Daddy’s Roommate by Michael Willhoite
Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Peck
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
Decameron by Boccaccio
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Fallen Angels by Walter Myers
Fanny Hill (Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure) by John Cleland
Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Forever by Judy Blume
Grendel by John Champlin Gardner
Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
Have to Go by Robert Munsch
Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman
How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Impressions edited by Jack Booth
In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
It’s Okay if You Don’t Love Me by Norma Klein
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
Little Red Riding Hood by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Love is One of the Choices by Norma Klein
Lysistrata by Aristophanes
More Scary Stories in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz
My Brother Sam Is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
My House by Nikki Giovanni
My Friend Flicka by Mary O’Hara
Night Chills by Dean Koontz
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
One Day in The Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Ordinary People by Judith Guest
Our Bodies, Ourselves by Boston Women’s Health Collective
Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy
Revolting Rhymes by Roald Dahl
Scary Stories 3: More Tales to Chill Your Bones by Alvin Schwartz
Scary Stories in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz
Separate Peace by John Knowles
Silas Marner by George Eliot
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
The Bastard by John Jakes
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
The Devil’s Alternative by Frederick Forsyth
The Figure in the Shadows by John Bellairs
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Snyder
The Learning Tree by Gordon Parks
The Living Bible by William C. Bower
The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
The New Teenage Body Book by Kathy McCoy and Charles Wibbelsman
The Pigman by Paul Zindel
The Seduction of Peter S. by Lawrence Sanders
The Shining by Stephen King
The Witches by Roald Dahl
The Witches of Worm by Zilpha Snyder
Then Again, Maybe I Won’t by Judy Blume
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary by the Merriam-Webster
Editorial Staff
Witches, Pumpkins, and Grinning Ghosts: The Story of the Halloween
Symbols by Edna Barth
MORE ON PALIN: THE PALIN FILE

FINAL WORD TO ANDY BOROWITZ

Pitbull Owners Blast Palin
Comparison ‘Offensive,’ Dog Fanciers Complain

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, who famously compared herself to a pitbull in her vice-presidential acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, appears to have antagonized a key voting bloc in the upcoming election, the nation’s pitbull owners.

While Gov. Palin’s assertion that the only difference between a hockey mom and a pitbull was “lipstick” drew a loud ovation from the Republican faithful in St. Paul, it raised the ire of the Pitbull Anti-Defamation League, a powerful association of pitbull fanciers who monitor the portrayal of pitbulls in the media.

“As someone who has owned pitbulls for the past twenty years, my jaw dropped,” said Carol Foyler, the group’s executive director. “Most of us are thinking the same thing: enough is enough.”

Ms. Foyler said that for pitbull owners who have grown weary of their prized dogs being defamed and mistreated, Gov. Palin’s wisecrack was the last straw: “We’re all like, first the Michael Vick thing, and now this.”

Glad to be back in New York. I left Frisco just before the latest earthquake—not a big one happily. Welcome your comments and any potential interns/trainees willing to help on the blog and our other projects. Write dissector@mediachannel.org