Up too damn early this morning (I keep CA time when I take short trips East) and into a cab from Alexandria to Dulles. But my day got off to a great start in talking to the cabdriver, an Ethiopian immigrant who's been here for 16 years and brought his five kids over.

They're quite a burden on our economy - four have graduated college, one will graduate from Rutgers next year, three of them own their own businesses and all of them seem well launched in the world. He's incredibly proud of hem - as he ought to be - they don't smoke, don't dance, drink only a little, and work very damn hard - as he put it. He's homesick for Ethiopia, but admits that he's "an American now." And welcome...

That was kind of the tone of the whole trip for me. Meeting and talking to all kinds of really smart and interesting people.

On a meta level, the issue of the milblogs as a tool for exposing more of the story about the war than is seen in the MSM continues to grow. It's apparent that the military is locked in an internal struggle between those who see the milblogs as a valuable voice in the information war, and those who are afraid of losing message control because of them.

I deal with the exact same issue pretty much every day in my job, and one of the things I drill home is that you - the corporate, government, military you - has lost control of your message. It is being remixed, commented, critiqued, and flamed out in the Internets, and if those critiques, comments, or flames have any merit - they will get picked up an amplified.

So the answer is (to quote Von Riper again) to be "in command but out of control" - to influence and shape the dialog by participating in it, and realizing that while you may have the largest megaphone but not the only one. At some point the military leadership will get a clue...from talking to Blackfive, it sounds like it's happening sooner rather than later. The fact that President Bush recorded a message which opened the conference may be a clue as well.

But an amazing crew, and a few takeaways...

Soldiers Angels, Soldiers Angels, Soldiers Angels. Sign up, give money, do something. If you support the war or hate it, this incredible group of people is doing amazing work in supporting the troops in the most direct way possible.

Lots of good feedback on Victory PAC - we ought to be official, and have a bank account next week and everything. Let's see what comes of it, and have some fun. If I can get Blackfive, John from Castle Arrgh and Noah Shachtman of Wired to think it's a good idea - it's probably a good idea.

Oh, and I picked up the Tiger...(very big grin!)