Look here for lineup of films set for the South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival March 9 – 17 in Austin, Texas,  They include “Election Day,” directed by Katy Chevigny,

a verite examination, following a dozen voters (including an ex-felon, a poll worker, and more) over the course of November 2, 2004 – from dawn until long past midnight. (World Premiere)

of which Maggie Bowman is producer.

Obama, riding an astonishing wave of glowing publicity for a candidate 21 months from an election, already has a bubble around him that is tighter than the one that surrounded Texas Gov. George W. Bush, who spent long hours of the fledgling days of his candidacy in bull sessions with reporters.

Oh boy.  This is Mike Allen’s perspective in The Politico, where he tells of catching up with Obama, who is running for president, for gosh sakes, after a hotel reception from which reporters were barred:

I introduced myself and said, “Good evening, Senator, may I walk with you?” He replied, “You can walk with me. That doesn’t mean you can ask questions.” I chuckled, thinking he was kidding. “But you can certainly walk with me,” he added. The Senator then underscored, “I’m sorry. I’m not answering questions.”

Even an innocuous “[W]hat [do] you want to accomplish this weekend”? got the brush-off.  No “press avail” this time, said O.  Allen concluded:

[A]s Hillary tries to pierce her bubble, however tentatively, Obama appears to be building one.

The Politico is an apparently hot new online publication whose political editor is former Sun-Timesman Roger Simon.  Allen’s experience and commentary are worth keeping in mind in this Obama instance.

Michael Yon from Iraq:

When I arrived in Mosul a few weeks ago, they were getting about 1 car bomb per week.  Now it’s up to about 1 per day. The fighting is intensifying here, and that’s the bad news. There is some good news, however: Iraqi Security Forces, though taking losses, are thoroughly punishing the enemy here.  Just a few days ago, the enemy launched a large and well-planned attack on a police station.  In late 2004 or 2005, such an attack would have been devastating – and was.  But this time, when the enemy demanded the Iraq Police surrender, the police responded with gunfire. Lots of it. After several hours of fighting, the enemy fled in front of their blood trails.

Yon will be writing more about this.  For now he suggests a new dispatch  “The Hands of God.”  with audio file of a conversation between American soldiers and Iraqi villagers after a homicide bomber attack.  For context he recommends Gates of Fire and Battle for Mosul IV.

My name is Jim and I am a compulsive reader of the daily newspaper. 

I read my ChiTrib.  I find on page one that the not-guilty finding in trial of Bridgeview Hamas supporters is “setback for Bush administration.” (subhead).  I find that a report’s forecast for Iraq is “grim,” according to “sources” who read a “classified intelligence document [that] points to further strife.”  (That’s a Wash Post story, by the way.)  And I find a big Chi Bears story (fancy that), with color pic, and on left a neither gloomy nor anti-Bush story (fancy that) about Chief Justice Roberts pushing for a “more private and less divisive” Supreme Court.  (Does the writer mean “divided”?)

I read my Sun-Times, mostly view it, that is: Great color pic on page one, “We are not terrorists” in big type, “Victory declared for former Chicago grocer as jury rejects major charges in Hamas terror trial” beneath it, a fifth its size at most.  (Page 3 AP story here, but pix are S-T’s)  What, no setback for Bush admin?  Pic is of men praying outside courthouse after grocer was acquitted of racketeering charges.  Mostly viewing it, because this is a TABLOID, brothers and sisters, and I am addicted also to tabloids.  Will anyone help me?

more more more

Two U.S. soldiers died Sunday when their helicopter crashed and about 250 insurgents were reported killed . . .

MICKEY KAUS: “Labor costs–and specifically work rules–are part of what’s killing all the unionized auto manufacturers while their non-unionized competitors thrive.” Work rules, I think, are more damaging than pay issues because they cost flexibility and make it harder to introduce new technology.

— from the very helpful Instapundit, which most mornings beats your daily newspaper, or at least is more rewarding (except for obits, and local crime, politics, teams).

This retrogressive, feet-dug-in unionism, I fear, is the problem.  What Walter Reuther the Socialist got his arm broken for in 30s picketing v. Big Capital became a millstone around neck of the masses, who profit most from growing productivity.  Life’s a B, ain’t it?

Was a gathering of newsgatherers last night at Holiday Inn atop Sun-Times on the river — 15th floor, vu is stunning.  Chi Headline Club gave out lifetime achievement honors.  It was a combination of -atti’s, liter- and glitter- (we all dressed nice) and newshounds past, present and to come.  The young were adequately represented.

These were clubbable news people honoring their own, as people do.  It was a high-church affair but not solemn high.  It helps when the honorees are people who talk straight and seem to say what they mean.  No cutesy needed apply.

* WGN radio farm-matters announcer for 47 (!) years Orion Samuelson announced himself “a Norwegian, so only halfway there” at 72.

* News writer and editor with three Chi dailies from the ’50s, retired since ’88, Ed Baumann [correction here:] said it had been his good fortune to spend half his life in the “second oldest profession in the world,” adding, “Think what heights I might have attained if my parents had had a girl,” here earlier misinterpreted as a crack at gender-based affirmative action. 

* Fotog Jim Frost of Sun-Times and TV newshen cum Sun-Times columnist Carol Marin looked appreciatively to their families there present.

* Chi Trib Sci writer and Pulitzer prize winner Ron Kotulak I am sure said something while I went to the men’s room, where a nice young man said hi to me, which is more than I get at the men’s room at Schaller’s on Halsted.  And more than I require.

Clarence Page of Chi Trib and syndicated-column and TV talk show fame lately and Trib plus Chi’s Channel Two fame back in “jurassic” times, as he put it, set the tone or picked the key — better flat than sharp on such an occasion — for the event.  He held up the literate part very well, moving things along briskly:

— Big affirmative action newsroom-hiring vehicle of the 60s was the urban riot: “Monochromatic” LA times drafted a messenger to go into the zone and see what the brothers were doing, got a byline promoting him to ad salesman.  The entrepreneurial Louis Lomax pitched a black-Muslim story to Dan Rather and got the assignment himself as free-lancer because (alas) Elijah Muhammad would not talk to a white reporter.  (Not sure I’d talk to Dan Rather either, but that’s another question.)

— “We used to be colored,” said Page, riffing on the Great American Name Game.  Then Negro, then black — “I mean black,” he said, looking grr-threatening for a second.  Then African-American –he called up his mother when this happened, delighted he was finally up there with other hyphenated people, Irish- and Italian– and the like.  Finally “people of color.”  “Full circle,” he exulted.

It just shows to go you: tone conquers all, and humor and common sense.  There’s a lesson for us there.

“Do you think Hillary Clinton would make a good president?” [Wolf Blitzer asked Dick Cheney]

“No, I don’t.”

“Why?”

“Because she’s a Democrat.”

Truth Detector: Drive-By Hysterics Over Cheney Interview.

In fact, I was saying that very thing just the other day . . .