Better Late...

And late it is. What a strange day. I got up at 0400 this morning and watched a lot of C-SPAN, including Discovery’s safe return…in its entirety. I’m glad C-SPAN ran the NASA feed because I’d have missed it otherwise; no NASA Channel on basic cable in P-Town. I’d been up nearly six hours by the time The Return of Discovery was over, so I decided to lay down for “just a little while.” Ha! Two-plus hours later… And I’ve yet to make my rounds of the ‘sphere.

I caught an interesting installment of C-SPAN’s Q & A series this morning. Brian Lamb interviewed Steve James (producer and editor) and Sgt. Zack Bazzi, of the TriBeCa Film Festival Grand Jury prize-winning film, The War Tapes. Well worth watching, if only for the 19 minutes of footage from The War Tapes (out of a 94-minute movie). Here’ the blurb on the Q & A web site, brief as it is:

Steve James & Sgt. Zack Bazzi discuss "The War Tapes." This is a documentary featuring three New Hampshire National Guardsmen who were given cameras to record their year deployment in Iraq.

If you’re a regular reader of Laurie’s blog, you know all about The War Tapes. I learned some interesting stuff watching Mr. Lamb interview these two gentlemen, such as the New Hampshire National Guardsmen, using 20 Sony high-end consumer digital video cameras, shot over 800 hours of raw video while they were deployed to Iraq. Those 800 hours of video were edited down to a film that lasts only 94 minutes! I also learned that some of the guys deployed to Iraq had better internet service there than they have at home, something I can relate to, in a second-hand sort of way. The War Tapes will be available on DVD, too, so that eased my mind a bit. I was disappointed there’s no showing anywhere near P-Town, but now? No worries! Streaming video and a program transcript are available on the Q & A web site.

While we’re on about C-SPAN… Washington Journal featured back-to-back interviews with Imad Moustapha, the Syrian ambassador to the US, and Bill Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard. The Syrian ambassador put on about as revolting a display of unmitigated Ba’athist Bullsh!t as one could ever hope to see or even imagine. And, in so doing, he took a direct shot (read that: insulting) at Mr. Kristol in response to the moderator’s question about Kristol’s editorial in this week’s Standard. The funny thing is this: Kristol followed the ambassador, as noted above. The ambassador was walking off the set as Kristol was walking on, and the stage microphones were muted. Words were definitely exchanged but the audience couldn’t hear them. As Kristol sat down, he and Peter (the moderator) exchanged a couple of words and grins, accompanied by a dismissive gesture from Kristol towards the direction of the departing ambassador. Oh, how I wish the mikes had been ON! (Links to videos of the interviews are available here.)

Speaking of microphones… Tell us how you really feel, Mr. President! Sad to say, this is news…but let me be just one guy in what is no doubt a chorus of millions: Way to GO, Dubya!