A Gathering of Eagles III Here's a fuller version of the Gathering of Eagles press conference here in DC at the National Press Club, February 22. It's almost 20 minutes long, but worth the watch. Things seem to be picking up steam ... this could get real interesting.

Today's my first Blog Anniversary! Check here for my first post covering the rally in support of the Danish Government at the Danish Embassy here in DC, organized by Christopher Hitchens. It was during all the Mohammed Cartoons meshuggas. I had just bought my first camera ... a Sony CyberShot 7.2 MegaPixel (which has a video function as well as taking high resolution photos), and I trotted down to the Embassy to check it out and lend my own support. The video of Christopher Hitchens is at the bottom of the post, so keep scrolling. In between you'll see photos of both Hitchens and Andrew Sullivan who attended the rally. I'll repost the video here, too: Seems like more than a year. What a great time. Michelle Malkin kindly featured the post and off I went...this year's promising to be just as interesting. And then there's the election. Heh. I still use the Sony for most of my stills and some video ... now I'm generally using a Canon Elura 100 for most of the videos and a still-photo every now and then, though the resolution isn't great (compared with the Sony) when used for photos.

A Gathering of Eagles I attended the press conference for Gathering of Eagles, which is an event scheduled for March 17 ... concurrent with ANSWER's anti-war rally ... and is intended to protect the Vietnam Memorial from desecration by those thugs. The ANSWER rally starts at the Vietnam Memorial and ends at the Pentagon. At left is a photo of Larry Bailey, co-Chair of Gathering of Eagles. I'm processing some video. Richard "Dick" Becker, brother of Brian Becker ... National Coordinator for the ANSWER Coalition ... attended. We had a talk. Check back later! **** UPDATE **** Funny how Dick tries to dismiss the whole Gathering of Eagles event. Then again I just have to ask: if he is so unconcerned ... why was he there are the press conference? Just wondering. Here's an appeal by Larry Bailey to get people out for the rally: Here's the DC Channel 7 WJLA video on this subject:

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Dick Becker of course thinks that the spraypainting of the Capitol steps last month was a minor incident.

For Presidents Day, here's a video taken from a 16mm film my dad made of John Kennedy's funeral here in DC. There's no sound. I was in 3rd Grade at the time ... it's cliche but it's true: I'll never forget that moment. It was recess and I was on the swing set. My teacher, Ms. Connor, came out onto a balcony overlooking the playground and asked us all to come inside. She was very serious and sad ... scary for a kid that age. I remember clearly scrapping my feet and halting the swing as quickly as I could: then getting in line quietly with the rest of my class as we climbed the steps into the darkened hall leading to our classroom. I'm not sure what happens at those moments ... the brain must have some sort of function where it can capture critical info even in retrograde and post it as IMPORTANT for future review. Certainly, no one knows instantly and for certain at the exact moment of impact that such things will come back to haunt. Anyway ... my dad caught this. A perspective you'll not see anywhere else, though not necessarily of any more import. Just another citizen journalist standing where no one else has stood, or could stand. It must be in the blood. I never noticed before, though, that the horse was so fractious.

Blogger Meryl Yourish used (with permission and even assistance, of course) some of my audio for her podcast this weekend at Shire Network News. Click HERE. It starts between 1/2 to 2/3 the way through, though of course the whole podcast is worth the listen. And, no, I don't mind that she got my "name" wrong. Note the quotes and ignore the dramatic irony* ... especially you, Audrey.

*dramatic irony noun Irony that is inherent in speeches or a situation of a drama and is understood by [some of - ed.] the audience but not grasped by the characters in the play.