We at Meet the Bloggers are very pleased to tell you that Michael Moore, the Academy Award-winning activist filmmaker of SiCKO and Fahrenheit 9/11, will be our special guest this Friday, August 22 and again on August 29. We'll also be joined by bloggers Liliana Segura (AlterNet) and Cheryl Contee (Jack & Jill Politics), as well as nationally syndicated author and blogger David Sirota. Watch Mike talk with host Cenk Uygur about issues he covers in his new book, Mike's Election Guide 2008. "With John McCain admitting that he has no idea how to use a computer," Mike said, "we'll be providing Sen. McCain a step-by-step tutorial on how to turn one on, log onto the internet, and send an e-mail."

Watch it live, or at your convenience by going to Past Shows after it has been posted.

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If so Meet the Bloggers Dot Org is very pleased to tell you that Michael Moore will be their special guest this Friday, August 22.

You can suggest text question or video questions for Michael Moore here. The best questions for him will win a Moore trademark hat (signed by Moore himself), or an autographed copy of his new book Mike's Election Guide 2008. You know I love a contest.

Hmmm.... I don't have a question yet. I might watch it just to get Michael Moore inspired again. I haven't really been super pro Michael Moore, like I used to be, not sure why. I remember I used to tell people I would intern for free for this guy and I rarely do anything for free. :)

Get inspired.

-Cara

Now we here of another online show called Meet the Bloggers from Robert Greenwald.

Don't miss this Friday's premiere of Meet the Bloggers, in which we'll be discussing whether Karl Rove should be sent to jail for failing to comply with the House Judiciary Committee's subpoena. Now's your chance to become part of the Meet the Bloggers community; send us your questions and comments before Friday's show for us to consider to include. Give input for our Friday show here: http://meetthebloggers.org.

I've often wondered if people had a choice between a new television or a new laptop and could only afford one of those items, which one would they pick. Which would you pick?

I'd have to go with the laptop. I can see pretty much anything I want to online anyway.

Just pondering about things this fine Thursday morning.

Robert Greenwald and the loco(a)s at Brave New Films-the folks who brought you Outfoxed, The Real McCain and other agit-flicks- are at it again. Their latest launch? Meet the Bloggers, an exciting, ambitious and live new online video show that seeks to expand the national political debate and discussion beyond the talking head set. As you can see from the title, bloggers -smart, courageous bloggers and thinkers (and yours truly, the not-so-courageous or smart bald writer)- will occupy a central place on the show, which will also feature a number of engaging and influential weekly guests, including Senator Harry Reid, Arianna Huffington, John Cuzak and many others. Beginning this Friday the 18th, the show will broadcast online every Friday and will focus on the kind of unconventional political opinion and analysis you come to the web for. The show will feature bloggers include The Huffington Post, Think Progress, Alternet, Jack & Jill Politics and Of América.

Check out the trailer and pilot below and tune in to what promises to be a brave new experiment in politics, media and the search for intelligent life.

Trailer

Jim Cossler spoke about the Youngstown Business Incubator's focus on business-to-business information technologies, and the adamantly "open-source" relationships he is building between innovative incubator residents. YBI holds its tenant companies accountable for playing well with others. "YBI is about connections," Jim said, and described his expanding campus in the heart of Youngstown which connects people inside the incubator through smart design of hallways and offices, through BBQ pits and greenspaces, and through the expectation that incubating companies help each other problem solve. I'm a sucker for an operation charging itself with making connections between innovators, but he takes it one step beyond by promoting YBI networking outside its building as well, using people-networks to efficiently reach out to make connections across Northeast Ohio and around the world. Even the artists springing up in YBI's backyard are being considered important to the process...perhaps it's time Cleveland, Greater Cleveland, and the entire Clevelandy-Cleveland+ region stops looking down its nose, and looks ahead to where Youngstown has gone in the meantime. Maybe we could consider following in their lead...

Craig Zamary's concept of a Green Energy TV site serving as a "YouTube for sustainability efforts" is exciting, and I am very interested to see how this company evolves. It's worth logging on just to scroll down the multitude of videos they house to find subjects of interest. I will have to settle for my own guess work on his long-term strategy, because the Green Energy TV business plan, unlike the open-source nature of all else YBI, is top secret.

Congratulations to Midtown Brews for keeping a vital forum alive and thriving!

Since July 2005, Courtney has been reporting for Fox News in Baghdad. She has covered this story for all sides. She was at Saddam Hussein’s trials. She has documented the explosion of sectarian violence and the players involved. And she has been embedded repeatedly with US troops, charting the course of military strategy as the US Congress looks on. She knows the system well enough to get to the right places at the right times.

When not in Baghdad, she has gone on air for Fox from Jerusalem, London and New York both as a reporter and on air analyst.

She received her masters from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.

Not because of 9/11; I just happened to have changed jobs that September. I was actually on vacation in Sicily when the Twin Towers got hit. Having come to FOX from Time Magazine, I was new to television — but got a lot of help from Rome producer Mario Biasetti, who’s been working in TV longer than I’ve been alive. I also got sent quite often to our Jerusalem bureau, to give a hand covering the intifada — so that meant a lot of live television experience in a very short period of time.

I survived “Papal April”: the death of Pope John Paul II and the election of Benedict 16th in 2005, although it was actually a three-month ordeal, as John Paul first went into the hospital in February. I spent a lot of time in a wet and cold parking lot outside the Gemelli Hospital, and if it had lasted much longer I would have also ended up in the hospital.

I’ve been lucky to cover a few other big stories as well: Madrid train bombings, Paris riots and the war in Lebanon. I actually arrived in Lebanon the same day the war started, which was pretty good timing. I was planning on staying for five days — I think I had a pair of khakis, a pair of shorts and a swimsuit — and we ended up there for five weeks. But no complaints; it was a great story and I’d love to go back.

When I worked for Time it was normally just myself and my notebook as I reported a story. Occasionally, for a very big interview, a photographer would come along. Television is all about teamwork. I thought about that the other day when we did a story at Ferrari headquarters, about test-driving one of their hot new cars on the company's race track. Mario Biasetti shot the piece with a small camera, and I managed to give him a bit of a scare when I took the Scuderia 430 into a tight turn at about 100 m.p.h. Since I was leaving for Jerusalem the next day, I brought the tapes with me. Editor Ronen Shpizman and producer Yonat Friling did a great job putting it together.

Our bureau in San Francisco is small — just me, my producer Miranda Coykendall and our videographer / editor Tom Whittaker, which makes for a tight, streamlined crew that gets the job done fast and efficiently. We've had many interesting assignments, from features like the rise in popularity of miniature cattle, to breaking news like forest fires and floods.

We mainly cover "fair and balanced" stories, which in San Francisco, include recent efforts to reduce the presence of the U.S. military in public schools, and opposition to turning the historic battleship USS Iowa into a floating museum, to a year-long demonstration at UC Berkeley by a group of "tree sitters" to block the construction of a new sports facility on campus. We cover many legal stories, from the Scott Peterson trial, to the Michael Jackson case, to the scandal surrounding disgraced Democratic fundraiser, Norman Hsu.

I would say that one of my favorite memories working at FOX came during the time I was covering the Scott Peterson trial. I was doing nightly reports for "On The Record," usually as the lead story. When Greta took vacation time, she supported the idea to have me fill in for her, which I did, and that was a thrill.

I treated the New York-based crew to an after party and enjoyed the moment.

I left New York and came to Washington in the fall of 2001, after covering the World Trade Center attack. No one knew how long I would stay in D.C., so after a month the top brass at FOX let me go home to get more clothes and underwear.

Over the years, I’ve been given a nickname: "the Terror Pixie." I don't know if it's the pixie haircut or the topics I cover, but somehow it has stuck. Although the issues I report on are very serious, there is a lighter side from time to time — and I’ll bring it to you whenever I can!

He's covered wars in Kosovo and Afghanistan, the search for Natalee Holloway in Aruba and numerous hurricanes on the Gulf and Atlantic coasts. Born in Wisconsin and raised in Florida, Serrie describes himself as a "Southerner by choice." He studied political science at Emory University in Atlanta and worked at local TV stations in Florida, South Carolina and Georgia before coming to Fox. He enjoys telling the rest of the world stories about the people, politics and social issues of his fascinating, and often misunderstood, part of America -- the Southeast.

Here's a quick glance of what life is like for an FNC reporter, always on the go!

[video 9157 w=400]

Comme Yann est un mec sympa (pour ceux qui ne le connaissent pas, les autres savent à quoi s'en tenir je ne vais pas essayer de leur vendre la bête), juste après avoir signifié que j'y serai je vous préviens aussi.

Et je vais laisser ce post flotter jusqu'au 16 décembre.

Yann dit :

J-4 bis

Meet me at the oxford arms

Je serais samedi 16 decembre à 20 heures à l'oxford arms, 9 place des martyrs de la resistance à bordeaux pour manger un fish and chips.

Je vous propose de me retrouver si ca vous dit pour manger ou prendre un verre, comme t'y veux. Je ne réserve rien, vient qui veut, faire ce qui lui plait....

Saurez vous affronter ce nouveaux concept??? ;)))

yann

Ps je ne vous demande qu'une chose, si un de vous est sur de venir qu'il me le dise par mail, histoire que je sois sur de ne pas être totalement seul avec mes frites sinon ca risque de tourner court, car je ne me sens pas trop l'ame d'une peneloppe (oui solette)....

.

Des discussions diverses qui ont animé la compagnie; celles autour du Net ont porté sur 20six.fr qui semble disposer de bugs qui rendent la vie difficile aux rares qui lui restent fidèles, Technorati qui semble bouder certains blogs sans raison apparente, on a dit un peu de bien de Blogger et beaucoup de bien de Wordpress.com, papoté du coup médiatique de Nicolas avec l'interview publiée le 14 juillet, un peu des Piles, de publication papier à partir de blogs...

Google Calendar a envoyé le pense-bête que j'avais programmé pour rappeler aux distraits la réunion, a défaut d'avoir envoyé les invitations !
Mais au moins deux personnes n'ont pas pu le lire. Ainsi le peu d'envie que j'avais de tenter de l'utiliser encore à disparu. Beber doit me passer la liste de mails qu'il a constitué, pour que je puisse diffuser les annonces des prochaines réunions plus largement.
Je reviens à iCal.

Joachim a eu en cadeau, pour célébrer son millionième meuh, une vache, Myriam, qui ne-fait-pas-meuh mais qui s'illumine quand on lui touche les pis :-) Enfin, elle s'illuminait en début de soirée, vers la fin sa batterie montrait des signes évidents de faiblesse, Fwak ayant abusé de ses pis ;-) La photo a été postée in situ grâce à l'accès O'Spot.

Il s'est avéré qu'en société LunaVorax est loin d'être le dépressif qu'on peut attendre de voir d'après le contenu de son blog, il a eu le sourire aux lèvres tout le long de la soirée.

La prochaine pour le 1er Septembre ? (punaise, ça sent déjà la rentrée...)

Ah oui, j'allais oublier, un avis aux commerçants qui ont des tables côté rue Rode: le passage du service des poubelles est une pollution sonore et olfactive qui est un gros problème, aggravé par la chaleur.

Voir aussi :

• Chez Trait de Jupiter
• chez Cendrinox

Those were my first instructions at FOX News. It was 1996. I was a junior at NYU, and a waitress at the CyberCafe in Soho. "FOX News Sunday" was making its debut, and wanted to use the — then novel — Internet cafe as a gathering place for a live audience to ask the in-studio guests questions via remote. If you caught that first show, that's my step-uncle nervously asking about the latest in the Clinton vs. Dole race for the White House. And that's my thumb holding the microphone.

Eleven years later, I've done everything from powdering guests to dodging katyushas while working for FOX News Channel. In just the past 3 days alone I've listened to a professor describe in detail how he beat his wife to death, interviewed a Boy Scout Troop leader about the organization's stance on homosexuality, and walked some of the most dangerous streets of Philadelphia with volunteers who are trying to stop the violence. Every day is an adventure.

Rewind time here with me if you will to September of 2003. The network sent me to Virginia Beach, Virgina to cover Hurricane Isabel, which at one point, if my recollection serves me correctly, was classified as a major hurricane, exceeding category 3 strength. As Isabel approached land however, she quickly fell apart. And by the time the storm got to Virginia Beach, Isabel was barely at hurricane strength, with wind gusts hovering around seventy miles per hour. That said, a weak hurricane is still a HURRICANE, and I wanted to demonstrate the power of these storms to our viewers. So, I put some protection over my eyes in the form of goggles, and then ventured in between two buildings on live TV, informing the audience I was about to go into a wind tunnel, so that our viewers could see the strength of Isabel for themselves.

It was not a pretty TV moment. To many out there, it was a snippet straight out of Comedy Central. I not only had trouble standing upright, I had to fight to keep on my pants, and I said so on the air. Some of the “omniscient” TV critics of America would later assail me for what they characterized as a made-for-TV charade. But a lot of people seemed to get a good laugh at my expense.

The day after the storm, my wife called me in my hotel room to tell me that this video snippet had been played on Jay Leno and Jimmy Kimmel. My response was something like this: “I don’t care. More than 30 people died in this storm. And millions of people don’t have electricity at this moment. I don’t understand why people are making fun of all of this.”

It’s only now that can I laugh about Isabel. And like it or not, it’s been one of the more talked about moments of my career. Heck, even the folks of the FOX Fan web page put together a special spread on the incident. Check it out here. What are your thoughts?

Don’t get me wrong, I do indeed enjoy a good laugh. I just don’t like it to be at the expense of those who are vulnerable. That’s why I think some of my most memorable work at FOX, personally speaking, has come amid situations of incredible hardship for those impacted.

1) Hurricane Katrina. Best way to describe it might be to rip a quote from a blog I filed from New Orleans during the first Mardi Gras after Katrina. Here's what I wrote at the time.

“Saturday, February 18, 7:30 a.m. —“The Good. The Bad. And the Ugly.” Sure, it’s a classic Clint Eastwood flick, but in my case, I tell people I have covered Katrina in reverse order: the ugly, the bad, and the good. Including the hurricane itself and its catastrophic misery, as this is my fifth trip to New Orleans. In the six months since the storm, I have probably logged about two months here, two months I will never forget.

The Ugly

I have seen the desperate wade through a chest-high stew of water, in the searing late summer heat, with squealing infants on their backs. I have seen guns brandished by people who were not members of the law — they certainly weren't protecting their property or defending their lives in that empty Ryder truck — and with that assault rifle pointed our way. And I have seen men and women with badges, aimlessly walking through a night of absolute darkness, with supermarket carts full of their few salvageable possessions. Then, there was the bedraggled middle-aged man, whose face I will never forget, who took an empty jug, dipped it into the ornamental pond outside a hotel, and parted his lips as he brought to his mouth that jug filled with the dark filth of a liquid that had survived the same hurricane he did. We stopped the inevitable.”

Here are two more Katrina related blogs of mine if you care to read more: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,185371,00.html
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,185702,00.html

2) Another story that’s up-front and center for me, encased in that oval dome above my neck: Last summer’s conflict in the Middle East between Israel and Hezbollah. Best way to reflect on that experience, might be to dig up a snippet from one of my blogs from then. The date was August 11th. I filed this from Kiryat Shmona, Israel.

“It was a hurried conversation with Mom. I tried to assure her I was okay. It’s a good thing she’s on vacation and far away from her TV. I don’t think she’d be able to stomach the reality of this war, or at least my reality. The air raid siren wailed. I hung up, and raced up the stairs.

Flak jacket. Check. Helmet. Check. Time to hustle out the door.
It happened in an instant.

ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzz. The unmistakable and violent sound of an incoming Katyusha rocket screamed over my head. There was no time to think — just barely enough time to dive. BAM! I don’t remember the next few fractions of a second, as I dropped to the ground, but I do remember picking myself up off the pavement.
It was the closest of calls. A hit 200 yards away. Smoke poured out of a building. Adrenaline coursed through my body.”
Anyway, this journey together in the blog world should be an interesting one. I’m always flattered when viewers take interest in my work and reach out with comments. Good or bad, it doesn’t matter. I’ll enjoy interacting with you. After all, thick skin is mandatory in my industry, a career choice where you NEVER want to get caught with your pants down!

We're primarily a breaking news bureau and we stay pretty busy. Most of our time is spent in our region but we are sometimes sent to other areas depending crew/staffing needs. I'm exciting about blogging and letting you guys know the ins and outs of our "normal" life in the field!

I was there when the Twin Towers fell, I was there when the first shots were fired across the Iraq-Kuwait border, I was there when Katrina's waves receded from the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, I was there hours after the bridge collapsed in Minneapolis.

I've also been on the field for dozens of World Series games and watched Mark McGwire hit his record breaking home runs, before they were tainted by steroid rumors. I love seeing and listening and learning and conveying the sights and soundbites with intelligence, insight and humor ... and I'm looking forward to my next assignment, wherever it is.

The worst moment I had in front of the camera was also my first time live on TV for FOX – so I’m not likely to forget it! It was Thanksgiving 2004 in Mosul with cameraman Tommy Doig. I had just started interviewing some soldiers, and talking to the anchors back in New York when a couple of helicopters decided to land close by. Of course, the engine noise drowned out the questions, which meant I couldn’t hear a word the anchors were saying. I was convinced my first live report on FOX had been cursed. But the same thing happened to a reporter from CNN a couple of hours later, so I didn’t feel too bad in the end!

Earlier this year, I met three amazing children in Ramadi. Each one had a combat-related injury and little chance they’d get the medical help they needed any time soon. Nine year old Abdul lost his right eye after being shot in the face. Five year old Mustafa took a bullet through the throat. And 12 year old Ayad had all the bones in her legs crushed – as well as being horribly burned – in a roadside bomb attack. The spirit of resilience in these children was quite remarkable, and it was impossible not to be touched by their plight.

The question I get asked most often is “how do you cope with the heat?”

When the temperatures rise to 140 degrees in the summer, I frequently find myself wishing for a reporting assignment in the Arctic! Back in June, I went to Anbar province with cameraman Pete Rudden and producer Martin Francis. One of the marines we met told us it got so hot, the mercury in his thermometer exploded out the end of the glass. By contrast, Iraqi winters can get pretty chilly, and it often rains – which is my favorite kind of weather – maybe it’s because I’m Scottish?

The end product that viewers see on television from Iraq is really just the tip of the iceberg. Behind the camera there’s an amazing group of people who make it all happen so smoothly – cameramen, producers, engineers, security and local Iraqi staff. Over the years, these people have become more than colleagues and friends, they’ve become family.

But over the course of four years at FOX, I have not only increased my vocabulary with a glossary of terms from the television news industry — I have been given the opportunity to travel all over the country, and the world, producing news.

The Los Angeles bureau is my home base — but the enormity of the region it covers keeps all of us staffers regularly on the road. Ours is the "Western Region" — California, Arizona, Nevada, Alaska, Washington, Oregon and, yes, Hawaii (but please save your snickering — I have produced two big stories there and have never had a moment to lie on a beach or sip a Mai Tai. As our Coordinating Producer, Don Fair, is fond of saying, Hawaii has so little TV news technology, it's like producing in a third world country).

I have also traveled overseas on assignment, and it is this type of travel that always makes me marvel at how cool my job is. I have been to Colombia, where our crew hiked through a jungle filled with guerilla insurgents, only to come across multiple cocaine labs; I have tracked drug smugglers in Mexico; I have lived in Israel for a month; I have been tear-gassed in Venezuela. It's not always glamorous, but it's always interesting.

If you watch the news, you know the stories. What you don't know are the stories behind the stories ... and in the next few months, you won't believe some of what you're going to read.

Moving to Texas (from Philly) last year was an education. Kris Gutierrez and our photographer have done their best to inculcate me with a sense of local culture. They play country music (non-stop) on road-trips. We eat Whataburger at almost every opportunity and recently, I had the occasion to try the "real" Dr. Pepper. Apparently, this is only made in Dublin, Texas, where it's cooked up with cane sugar instead of corn syrup. Kris and the photographer assure me it's much tastier than the stuff the rest of the country is subjected to. They've also introduced me to Texas BBQ (outstanding) and sweet tea (addictive). I managed, on my own, to find the state brew, Shiner Bock.