Say what???

I know pictures on Blogger can lack a certain, errrrrr . . . je ne sais quoi. I think the word is "resolution."

Thankfully for those of us with bifocals, you can click on the picture and see a larger version. For those who don't want to bother, here's what the story page on Omaha.com says:

BREAKING NEWS: First presidential debate schedule for Friday night

The first presidential debate schedule for Friday night, CNN is reporting this evening.

Details to follow.

GLAD TO KNOW IT. Now, what exactly does it mean?


UPDATE: OK, now we're getting somewhere, though I still don't know what the deal is with that first paragraph:

The first presidential debate is scheduled for Friday night, CNN is reporting this evening.

The Associated Press reported whether U.S. presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain would go forward with their highly anticipated debate remained unresolved late this evening after their White House meeting failed to conclusively produce an economic bailout agreement.

Details to follow.

REALLY, the debate is scheduled for Friday night? That's news? It's been scheduled for Friday night for a long time now.

The question has been whether the debate would go on, or whether the U.S. economy would plunge into a depression without one last chance for Americans to ramp up their level of small-D depression for the capital-D event.

'Dave . . . my mind is going. I can feel it.'

As was obvious to anyone who tried to log into the Omaha World-Herald's website, Omaha.com, during Wednesday's chaos in the Big O, the newspaper was having itself some HAL 9000 problems.

No word yet on casualties at 14th and Douglas.

The media watch blog of the alternative City Weekly took keen notice as well, linking to a West Coast media exec's scathing blog entry about Omaha.com:

The problems the Omaha World-Herald's online portal, Omaha.com, has had in handling large amounts of visitor traffic have been well documented. But now, more than just Nebraskans are taking notice.

"Reflections of a Newsosaur" is a blog written by Silicon Valley CEO Alan D. Mutter. The former city editor of the Chicago Sun-Times later became the second-in-command editor of the San Francisco Chronicle. Today, he is a managing partner of Tapit Partners, a two-man, think-tank that helps business owners create successful companies.

In a post titled, "Flat-footed in Omaha," Mutter takes the paper to task for problems he says were not technical, but editorial.

"The poor coverage evidently was caused by a lack of contingency planning on the part of editors, web producers, reporters, photographers and all the other people who are responsible for rapidly, thoughtfully and accurately gathering the information and visual assets necessary to tell a story like this in the age of multimedia."

FOLLOW THE LINK if you have a strong stomach, because the keelhauling to which Mutter subjects the hometown rag would make even Dick Cheney squeamish.

Thing is, the World-Herald didn't need no Blue State techno guru to hit it with the painfully obvious. I already did.

Back in May.

IT'S NOT THAT I'm comfortable with blowing my own horn -- or even particularly looking to do so. It's more a plea for recognition that maybe one or two of us here in Flyover Country might have a couple of brain cells to rub together, too.

Yep, we do obvious as well as anybody.

Uh huh.