Blog-lite: This weblog got on a plane right after posting that last rant against Richard Clarkes promotional apology, so I was not able to welcome the visitors from Jeff Jarvis’s BuzzMachine when he linked to it with the note that “I’m angry.” And I guess I am.

I also had an angry travel moment this afternoon as the mid-town Club Quarters hotel I was booked in informed me that I did not have a room there (despite pre-paying for it). So, I take back those nice things I said about the hotel chain a few weeks ago. (However, I still like their free wi-fi.)

Ironically (considering my unusal post earlier today), I find myself this evening staying in the hotel chain’s location about five blocks from Ground Zero. My inconvenience seems small again.

Travel tomorrow means no blogging.

Oh, yeah. And too bad about Vanderbilt’s exit from the men’s NCAA tournament.

Off topic warning - Dick Clarke’s American Grandstand: (Credits to Nashville DJ Gerry House for that heading.) Try as I do to keep this weblog free from news commentary, the last few days of my failed attempts to avoid the promotional steamroller supporting Richard Clarke’s book has led me to leave the sidelines on this outrage. If his “apology” to the 9/11 victims doesn’t prove he’ll stoop to any depths to sell a few books, then nothing will.

One of the reasons I’m willing to go public with my outrage at Clarke’s apology is the reaction to it of Jeff Jarvis, one of my blogger-guideposts on topics related to 9/11. He writes this morning:

I haven’t said much about Clarke because I haven’t yet decided what I think of what he’s saying. But I have to say that as his apologize sat on the stomach like a bad burrito and came up this morning like a burp, I came to think that his apology was disingenous, melodramatic, and ultimately divisive.

I couldn’t agree more. I did not see the video of the hearing, but the radio news report I heard described him turning to some familiy members of 9/11 victims seated in the gallery and saying:

I also welcome the hearings because it is finally a forum where I can apologize to the loved ones of the victims of 9/11, to them who are here in the room, to those who are watching on television. Your government failed you. Those entrusted with protecting you failed you. And I failed you. We tried hard, but that doesn’t matter, because we failed. And for that failure, I would ask, once all the facts are out, for your understanding and for your forgiveness.

Okay, Mr. Clarke. The government that failed those families has now dedicated billions of dollars and hundreds of lives of its courageous military to stamp out those who threaten our shores. In all theaters of battle, young American soldiers and sailors have printed the the words, “We shall never forget” on weapons, vehicles and military aircraft in honor of those who died on 9/11.

Mr. Clarke, what similar level of resitution have you displayed for your failure other than an attempt to cash in on that tragedy with your book promotion? And now, on the graves of those victims, you grandstand an apology to promote its marketing efforts.

So therefore, Mr. Clarke, I suggest you do this: Announce today that ALL PROCEEDS of the book (not just a portion of the profits, but ALL PROCEEDS) will go to one of the funds that have been set up for the families of the victims…or another specific charity that will help give meaning to your disingenous apology.

Canadian magazine update: Because one of the five regular readers of the rexblog is a Canadian, I always like to point to stories about the magazine industry there. Like this one, for example, that reports, “The Canadian magazine business is so tight knit, when one editor catches the travel bug it seems the entire industry packs its bags.”

(via MediaBistro)