Keith Olbermann bows out.

The country's 24-hour political, pundit, perpetual-panic conflictinator did not cause our problems, but its existence makes solving them that much harder. ~Jon Stewart~

Those words from political satirist, Jon Stewart, were from the more serious portion of his rally to "Restore Sanity and/or Fear", where he talks about inflammatory news commentary.

Keith Olbermann seemed to take those words to heart. The next day Olbermann made the decision to suspend his "Worst Person of the Week" segment, which had become a central and inflammatory portion of his show on MSNBC. Olbermann brought that segment back, repackaged as "(Not Really) The Worst Person", only to cover Sen. Jay Rockefeller's statement about MSNBC and Fox:

There's a little bug inside of me which wants to get the FCC to say to Fox and to MSNBC, "Out. Off. End. Goodbye." It would be a big favor to political discourse. ~Sen. Jay Rockefeller.

We are all well aware of the news pundits' blame game in the recent tragedy in Tucson. This all showed us the underbelly of news commentary, as they all seemed to disregard the warnings of both Stewart and Rockefeller.

The hubris of 24-hour news, driven by their ratings, is their undoing. Olbermann seems to have the clairvoyance to see this and he is bowing out.

This, however, is nowhere near the end of this issue. Newspapers across the country are also seeing the writing on the wall as their subscriptions are dropping. Some commentary on that issue includes the environmentally-driven move away from the "dead tree" editions of major papers, but these media groups are also seeing a decrease in viewership online.

Where are these viewers going?

One theory is that there is a massive move towards Alternative Media and for good reason. One such alternative outlet is Alex Jones, a man labeled as a "conspiracy theorist". His network at Genesis Communications has exploded into the alternative media. Alex has a 4-hour daily radio show, that can be downloaded as podcasts, plus several websites. The three most popular websites are Infowars.com, PrisonPlanet.com and PrisonPlanetTV.com where you can watch his daily radio show as well as his many full-length documentaries.

Jones has spawned many other alternative news shows, such as Jack Blood's "Deadline Live", Doug Owen's economic news "Blacklisted News", Michael Herzog's "American Awakening" and even Gov. Jesse Ventura's "Conspiracy Theories".

What Mainstream media created in its 24-hour news was the institution of commentary. What is commentary? Short answer; it's what bar patrons do down at the local watering hole when they hash out society's woes over a glass of beer or wine. Having the Mainstream media institutionalize this act, took it away from the average citizen and made it their own. This leaves the average citizen to inject talking points from mainstream media, rather than reasoning the issues themselves. This created a void that Alternative Media is now filling.

I'm not suggesting that the average citizen is driven by conspiracy theories, nor am I suggesting that all alternative media is made up of conspiracy theorists. What Alex Jones brings to the table is a very diverse crowd of professionals in economics, politics and history who all talk about the issues in current and past events. Many of his guests are rather obscure in popular circles, but more and more they are now becoming mainstream. They talk about real issues and actually try to find solutions. Finding solutions, as Jon Stewart alludes to, is not on the agenda of Mainstream news commentary.

The attempt to come up with solutions is exactly what makes the Alternative Media so attractive. It is what was missing from the surrogate bar crowd, known as commentary news.

But what might make Alternative Media more dangerous than Mainstream Media is the very pejorative that it has been labelled: "Theorists". If people do not discern fact from fiction or apply objectivity to the alternative media, this could perpetuate what commentary started: Political Discourse.

If people can see alternative media as a complete circle of discussion, rather than mainstream media's open-ended discussion, then it can be a great tool for debate and, possibly, for solutions.

Alternative media treads where only bar patrons once treaded, into the realm of solving the world's problems. It is imperfect, but a progressive step in society. Reveal the problems and work together to fix them on a grand scale. In that view alternative media can be seen as a nationwide think-tank, involving everyone. One of Jones' main ideas in his show is to open up the program for callers for hours of discussion...and he doesn't screen any of those callers. He loves all the new directions that callers take the show.

If Keith Olbermann could see this, he could come back with his own alternative media show. He could be the harbinger of change in media. His action could lead others like Palin, Maddow, Beck, and all the other commentators to strike out into the fast-growing world of the alternative media. So long as they remember that they would have to offer up reasonable solutions to the problems they bring to the table.

Tragedy begets political derision.

First and foremost, I wish to express my sincerest condolences to all who lost loved ones in Tucson and to all who have been affected by the horrific event there.

The media, however, seems to lack the same sympathy that most U.S. Citizens are expressing in this moment of tragedy. The attack has only moved into the political spectrum for them. The media is focusing its reporting on "who is to blame" and making it a political thing. Not one news outlet is focusing on the lives affected by this tragedy.

Judge John M. Roll; a defender of the 10th Amendment and State's Rights, is among the victims.

Rep. Gabriella Giffords; another defender of the 10th Amendment as well as a defender of the 2nd Amendment. May she make a full recovery.

Then there is the 9-year-old little girl, Christina Green, whose father expressed his wishes that the government not use this tragedy as an excuse to further repress the U.S. population. Upon hearing John Green express that sentiment, a columnist by the name Jeanne Sager attacked the parents for their actions. I won't go into her scathing article, but will post it for you to read: Should Christina Taylor Green Parents Get Off TV?

The BBC is even reporting "The Febrile Politics" of this tragedy and helping build the fervor against everyone's favorite target; Sarah Palin.

The Left is pointing blame at Fox News and the Right is pointing blame at MSNBC. In fact, if you look at the majority of the articles put out by the mainstream media, you'll see them all pointing fingers at one another and crying; "inflammatory", "hate-baiting", "fear mongering"... All the while, they collectively fail to realize that they are all to blame for the derision in this country.

Which brings us to the real problem: Who is the enemy? Well, it could be the ratings-driven media. It could be the activist media. It could, even, be the apathy of the media.

Solution? Find a new way. Get rid of commentary and activist media. Report the news and only the news. Sounds simply enough, but then when you look at the empires of capitalism surrounding these media outlets, you start to see that it would be next to impossible to ask our journalists to step away from their "hard-hitting" "insightful" "commentary" "ratings-driven" money machines.

There is a watch group that could be a good model for the answer to mainstream media: Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR), but they too cater to "both activists and journalists". The "active" media seems to be at the root of the problem. Is it time to get away from that? I tend think so, especially after seeing how they have acted in the face of this tragedy.

As for where we should put the real blame for the Tucson Massacre? The man in custody known as Jared Lee Loughner.

Navy Camaraderie.

I've been following a viral story about a Navy Captain who is being demonized for a humorous video. This is my view of this story.

If you haven't heard the story, it is about a lewd video that is unbecoming a Naval Officer. The officer is Captain Owen Honors and the video was part of a series of videos he made for the crew while serving in the capacity of Executive Officer of the USS Enterprise. I watched the video and it is clearly evident that it was created in a humorous manner that depicts the antics of shipboard life.

The problem is the lack of understanding of how the military functions. The #1 rule in the military is "Work hard. Play hard". The role of the Commanding Officer and the Executive Officer is to play "good cop/bad cop". The XO is always the "good cop" and one of his duties is to build camaraderie among the crew by being the master of "play hard" ceremonies.

Military men and women are a different breed, we don't play by the Politically Correct rules that most of the civilians do. This kind of fun, off-the-wall humor isn't offending to any of us, but it does, apparently, offend the general public. Much of the misunderstanding comes from not seeing the world of the military through the eyes of those who serve.

I have another, personal, experience that became misconstrued and was, and still is, used to demonize a U.S. President when he bolstered camaraderie. The civilian masses simply know the story as the "Mission Accomplished" fiasco aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. Here is the real story through the eyes of the military.

The Lincoln Battle Group deployed to the Indian Ocean, leaving San Diego on July 20, 2002. Our initial mission was to provide air and sea support for ground forces in Afghanistan. This was our role in Operation Enduring Freedom. We successfully flew thousands of sorties in keeping our troops protected from the sky. In November of 2002 we transited into the Persian Gulf to continue support of OEF, but to also participate in the decade-long Operation Southern Watch. Scuttlebutt was that we may extend the war on terror into Iraq. This is months before the civilians learned of this. We were set to "out-chop" from the 5th fleet and the operations in the combat zone in December. Rumors turned into actual preparation for a possible return to the Gulf to participate in the opening campaign against Iraq.

Navy deployments, unlike the Army deployments, are 6 months long and our time was up and we headed for Perth, Australia to spend Christmas there. The news, that Christmas, was dominated by Bush's ultimatums for Iraq to disclose all documents related to their nuclear program. We knew the odds of us going back were high and when we pulled out of Australia to head home, Admiral Kelly told the crew that if we were to be called upon for action in Iraq we would have to re-surface the flight deck. The point of no return on our way home was Guam. If we stopped there it would be to re-surface the flight deck and we would turn around and head back to Iraq. We never made it as far as Guam.

It was New Years Day and we hadn't even made it to Indonesia when we realized that we were heading south again. We were on our way back to Perth to resurface our flight deck. It has become known as the "Big U-Turn" and Admiral Kelly quipped "Get Over It!".

We returned to the Gulf to "relieve ourselves on station" January 20th, the very same day we were scheduled to pull into San Diego to end our "war cruise". The rest is history known as "Shock and Awe".

We did our job and we did it well. Ground forces were in Baghdad when we finally "out-chopped" for the second time on the same cruise and were relieved by the USS Nimitz, on station. We had over 300 reporters onboard with us that planned to stay with us because we were going to end our record-breaking deployment by making a record-breaking run across the Pacific to return home. We made that run in three days and we were welcomed home by the President of the United States, our Commander in Chief, George W. Bush. Our 6-month initial mission and our secondary 4-month mission had both been accomplished and we returned home with all souls onboard, we didn't lose any crew members which is a rarity even on peace-time deployments. A banner was placed on the "island" (superstructure) of the ship that declared "Mission Accomplished". This was an announcement for the Lincoln Battle Group's mission status. It felt good to finally be home.

After Bush's speech to the nation from the flight deck, he spent nearly an hour with us on the flight deck as the Secret Service agents tried to wrangle him down to his other engagements. During this meet-n-greet Bush pointed up to the banner and stated; "I'm going to catch hell for that, you know." We didn't really know, but it soon became evident that our mission status had become misconstrued to represent the mission status of all our brethren still fighting the war on terror, which simply wasn't the case.

Now, you've read the events as seen through the eyes of the military and seen how things get misconstrued. Does XO Honors' "lewd" video still garner a harsh condemnation?

The Montana Fort Assiniboine.

Author's note: This is an old blog that I wrote back in November of 2007. I'm dusting it off and reposting it to show some of the history of the Hi-line and to also get something up that will help me fall back into my "groove" so to speak.

To have simply named this article "Fort Assiniboine" would have been too ambiguous, as there is another Fort Assiniboine further north in Canada. This is the story of the U.S. Ft. Assiniboine near Havre, Montana. Most of my research is simply looking for articles and references to Fort Assiniboine and my realization of the two different forts occurred to me when reading an entry in Father Pierre Jean DeSmet's journals about his description of Ft. Assiniboine and it didn't describe the one near Havre. Father DeSmet (of historical importance to the Bitterroot Valley) was describing lakes and streams and large mountains....describing the second oldest fort in Alberta, Canada.

The namesake of Fort Assiniboine is a quite remarkable tribe of the Great Sioux Nation. Some times referred to as the Assnipaw, the Ojibwa word for Stone Sioux, primarily because they would use fire-heated stones to boil water for cooking meat . The Assiniboine were found in the vast Great Northern Prairies of North America.

They were allies and trading partners with the Cree, often warring alongside the Cree in their battles against the Gros Ventre (pronounced gro-von) and later the Blackfeet. Ironically, the Assiniboine now share Fort Belknap Reservation with the Gros Ventre in North Central Montana.

During the expedition, Corp of Discovery, led by Lewis and Clark, there were rumors that the Assiniboine were a hostile people and the Corp made every effort to avoid these people, and never encountered them during their expedition. Later in history, it was discovered that the Assiniboine were not as hostile as once believed and became great trading partners with the Europeans that were moving into the area.

The following is the story of the large fort that was named in their honor, Fort Assiniboine.

During railroad expansion in the 1870s many Lakota Sioux fought the survey and construction crews that were found in the Black Hills area of the Dakotas. The Lakota had defeated the Cheynne in 1776 and had taken the land known as the Black Hills. The Black Hills were very sacred ground for the Lakota and the "white man's" trespasses were not welcome.

During the economic Panic of 1873, the U.S. Government sent General George A. Custer and the U.S. 7th Cavalry to the Dakotas as a deterrent to the Lakota attacks. The first clash in what would become the Black Hills War occurred on August 4th, 1873. This is were history gets a little fuzzy, because it was Gen. Custer that discovered gold in the Black Hills, in 1874, during an expedition and while under different auspices. This discovery led the U.S. to attempt a purchase of the Black Hills, which the Lakota refused and this was the beginning of the Black Hills War, a year after the 1873 battle that supposedly start it.

General Custer and the U.S. 7th Cavalry were completely defeated by the Lakota at the Battle of the Little Bighorn on June 25th, 1876.

The following year, near the Milk River in North Central Montana, a massive fort "rose out of the ground."

Fort Assiniboine was constructed as a result of the devastating loss at the Battle of The Little Bighorn.

Chief Sitting Bull, the spiritual leader of the Lakota Sioux that led the attack at Little Bighorn, had fled to the Cypress Hills just over the Canadian border, to hide from the repercussions that were sure to follow the defeat of the 7th Cavalry. The U.S. Cavalry needed to construct a large fort to thwart any attack that Sitting Bull may engage in. The fort was also part of General William Sherman's vision of a line of forts along the Northern and Southern borders of the United States.

The fort was constructed on the edge of what is now The Rocky Boy Reservation (Chippewa Cree). Indians in the area were so impressed by the speed with which the soldiers, led by Colonal Broadwater, were fabricating bricks on the spot to building the structures, that they described it as the fort "that rose out of the ground." Over a four year period, 104 buildings were constructed on Fort Assiniboine, under the direction of L.K. Devlin, a civilian architect hired by the U.S. Government.

Fort Assiniboine was the largest post in the U.S. at the time of its construction. It also was constructed without a perimeter wall, unlike the other frontier posts. The reason for this was that Fort Assiniboine was an Offensive fort and not a Defensive fort. At it's peak, Fort Assiniboine was home to 36 officers and 720 enlisted.

Of those enlisted men of the fort, were two units of the 10th Cavalry, known as the "Buffalo Soldiers". The 24th and 25th units were stationed at Fort Assiniboine between 1895 and 1897. These "black" soldiers had been given their name by local Indians who referred to their curly hair and likened their fighting abilities to that of the sacred buffalo.

The First Lieutenant in charge of the Buffalo Soldiers was also the most famous military man to ever serve at Fort Assiniboine, John J. Pershing, also known as "Black Jack", a nickname given to him later while teaching at West Point, it is a softer version of the more bigoted moniker that he was originally given.

While at Fort Assiniboine it has been written that Pershing showed his superior marksmanship while on many hunting expeditions in the region, taking impossible shots at the local Prong Horn (antelop) and killing them with one shot. During his orders at the fort, Pershing's only expedition in the Indian Wars was to round up a renegade band of Chippewa Cree that had been spotted in the area of Great Falls, Montana and leading them back to Canada. In June 1897, Pershing was assigned to West Point as an assistant instructor in Tactics. He was not a popular officer there because the cadets thought his discipline was too strict. John J. Pershing went on to become the highest ranking officer in U.S. military history. His appointment to General of The Armed Forces during World War I was a specially designed rank, a Gold Five Star which has never been achieved before or since.

Another important reason for the construction of Fort Assiniboine was the Nez Perce. The Nez Perce, led by Chief Joseph, were trekking their way across Oregon, Idaho and Montana to escape to Canada after the Battle of Canyon Creek, where they had defeated Colonel Samuel D. Sturgis.

On September 30th, 1877, the same year that construction started on Fort Assiniboine, The Nez Perce, camped out in the Bears Paw Mountains near Fort Assiniboine, spotted their pursuer, Colonel Nelson Miles. Without enough time to retreat, but enough time to fortify, the Nez Perce prepared to battle Miles' forces. The outcome of this battle, The Battle of the Bears Paw, was Chief Joseph's surrender and Chief White Bird's fleeing with 50 Nez Perce to Canada

At the end of this battle, Chief Joseph handed his Winchester rifle to Colonel Miles and is quoted as saying: "I am tired; my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever."

After the Surrender of Chief Joseph and a majority of the Nez Perce, Fort Assiniboine's mission included, not only the threat from Chief Sitting Bull, but also the threat of Chief White Bird and a hand-full of Nez Perce.

Today there isn't much left of Fort Assiniboine. In 1916 a portion of it was ceded to the Rocky Boy Reservation and its buildings were torn down. A larger portion was ceded to Hill County Montana as part of the 10,000 acre Beaver Creek Park, the nation's largest county park. The few remaining buildings on the post are under the use of the Montana State University system as an agriculture experimentation facility. Tours are rare, but I am planning to see those buildings someday.

The plight of the Nez Perce is an excellent segue to my next blog which will also tie my Bitterroot heritage to that of Havre. Be on the look out for my Nez Perce blog.

"The Imperial Cruise" Review.

I was recently given the book The Imperial Cruise written by James Bradley, the same author who brought us Flyboys and Flags of Our Fathers.

Bradley's father, John, has been enshrined in the annals of U.S. history as one of the men who raised the flag on Mount Suribachi on the Pacific island of Iwo Jima. James wrote of those tales and thrilled movie-goers with the big screen versions of those books. In The Imperial Cruise, James intends to uncover the events that led to that "day that would live in infamy", December 7, 1941. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor ushered the U.S. into a world at war and Bradley's question was "Why?" and the book he wrote after his discovery is fascinating to say the least.

The crux of the book explains the expansion of two U.S. doctrines of the late 19th century, The Monroe Doctrine and Manifest Destiny, to the maritime claims of the Caribbean and the Pacific. The man at the center of this expansion is the visceral image of the pioneering U.S., Theodore Roosevelt. Bradley paints the life of the "Rough Rider" with narrower strokes than previous biographies and focuses on Teddy's Teutonic leanings and exposes his racially-driven motives to expand the U.S. sphere of influence beyond the western shore, "following the sun". The conquest of the Philippines and the absorption of the Hawaiian islands were stepping stones to the "Open Door" doctrine into the Orient and China in particular. He referred to it as "civilizing the Orient".

Bradley makes a brilliantly resourced case for the covert actions of T.R. and his yes-man William Taft in making deals behind the backs of Congress. These deals were with the Japanese in their conquests against Russia and Korea, in an effort to create a safety zone or buffer between Czarist Russia and the islands of Japan.

Bradley also relies on Samuel Clemens a.k.a. Mark Twain, the outspoken anti-imperialist who wrote seething critiques about the Moro Massacre in the Philippines, by using his stories to re-paint the fervor of the conquest of the Philippines.

What I find of further interest beyond what Bradley put together were the avenues that could be extended beyond WWII and the Korean war. The Moro were a Muslim group within the Philippines and still control the southern islands of that archipelago. Also, the Chinese "Open Door/Closed Door" U.S. relations created in the very early years of the 20th century. Many reasonable people would tell you that this is all antiquated and has little influence on relations a century later, but I say that once an idea has been unleashed upon the world, it is very hard to put back in the box. What Roosevelt called "civilizing of the world" we still call "spreading democracy". I would surmise that the doctrines espoused in 1900 are still sought today. To that I say history is not something we should emulate, it is something we should avoid and move beyond, especially if it is replete with imperial ideals.

The Imperial Cruise

The Uncle Who Has Inspired Me.

I've blogged before and I enjoyed it enough that I got burned out doing it. This past month I've perused the writings of my uncle Dave and have been re-inspired to return to the art of writing. My thoughts wander through history, politics and everything involved therein, as will be apparent soon. I consider myself an amateur anthropologist searching for that ever shifting zeitgeist in the human populace.
I intend to put my thoughts and opinions into words as well as to share photos and videos. I have much to say and I hope to gather a following of like-minded folks.

Visit Dave Folsom.