I find anyone who would take PETA's word for their own activities to be either naive or suckered in by their propaganda. The idea that PETA feels it has the right to investigate companies, send in people with recording equipment, and then demand criminal charges be brought should frighten the hell out of anyone.
Only police agencies have the legal right to deceive and use electronic recording equipment secretly. While some states may permit sole knowledge recording, many do not. So there is no legal basis for PETA to act in the way that they do. What they rely upon is emotion. They want you to defend their criminal acts "to save animals". They want you to believe that computer programs can replicate the human body. They use their fame to indoctrinate school children with animal rights propaganda.
None of this is based on logic, the law or reality.
There is a vast difference between what a news organization does and what PETA did and people need to keep this in mind to avoid jail. While it may make you feel better to cheer these people on, this is so incredibly wrong and dangerous, people need to think hard before giving them a hand. No one wants animals to be treated cruelly, but all we have to say such acts have taken place is the word from a person working for an organization which believes that sheep shouldn't be sheared.
Usually, news organizations interview people and rely on whistleblowers. They check records, This can take months, even years. Then, the give the subject the chance to respond. They are careful to make sure what is depicted is accurate and conforms to the law. With a big series, you can spend months before it can see print. The Daily News had been investigating Bernie Kerik for six months and didn't say a word. Not one. Why? Because they weren't finished. The averge 60 Minutes expose takes nearly six months to complete.
Their undercover was not a whistleblower. She had worked there specifically to indict the company for animal cruelty and get the evidence.
Now, people, unthinkingly, have assumed that they're telling the truth.
Just because they make a claim, and have some video does not mean they are either honest or accurate in their depictions. PETA has a radical agenda which it freely announces.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), with more than 800,000 members, is the largest animal rights organization in the world. Founded in 1980, PETA is dedicated to establishing and protecting the rights of all animals. PETA operates under the simple principle that animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, or use for entertainment.
PETA focuses its attention on the four areas in which the largest numbers of animals suffer the most intensely for the longest periods of time: on factory farms, in laboratories, in the clothing trade, and in the entertainment industry. We also work on a variety of other issues, including the cruel killing of beavers, birds and other "pests," and the abuse of backyard dogs.
PETA works through public education, cruelty investigations, research, animal rescue, legislation, special events, celebrity involvement, and protest campaigns.
Would trust your medical care to people who think one can gain knowledge of living beings completely through computers?
More and more students from elementary school to veterinary and medical school—are taking a stand against dissection before it happens in their classes.
Cut It Out!
Hearing a lot about violence in schools? You can do something to help: Cut out dissection! 20 million animals—frogs, cats, mice, dogs, and others—are violently killed and shipped off to schools, where young people are given scalpels and told to slice up the animals’ bodies as part of biology, anatomy, and other courses.
What do dissections teach? Not much … except that it’s OK to chop up animals. In California, investigators brought up the possible connection between a series of cat mutilations and the cat dissections at the local high school. That wouldn’t surprise us: In his last interview before his death, Jeffrey Dahmer said that he became fascinated with blood and guts when his school gave him a knife and a dead animal to cut apart in biology class.
What happens to the animals before the schools place their orders for bodies? PETA did undercover investigations at biological supply companies, which sell animal bodies and parts, and found nightmarish acts of animal cruelty, including the drowning of rabbits and cats embalmed while they were still alive. Check it out for yourself in this video. Schools that purchase animal bodies for dissection are paying for animals to be tortured and killed. It’s that simple.
This from an organization which admits killing 85 percent of the animals in their own shelters in 2003. Which routinely distorts their case and makes the crassest comparisons like chicken production and the Holocaust.
Many of you want to take the word of this woman working for this organization and make her a hero. You would view a report on pornography issued by Focus on the Family with derisive suspicion. You would laugh at a claim by the NRA that gun control is a failure. Yet, you take PETA's word that the company they illegally infiltrated was breaking the law.
What PETA does is dangerous as hell, and only a few of you get it. Would you like to have your Wiccan services infiltrated and then used in a Focus on the Family video about witchcraft? Would you like to have a few drinks in a bar turned into you having an alcohol problem?
I consider PETA extremists, but even if it was the Young Republicans, I would be just as wary. PETA could have done a real investigation, like Amnesty International, they could have been both professional and legal in their conduct, but that's dull. That wouldn't have any heroes. All that would have is results.
All of you people praising this woman hasn't even considered much of what she gathered would probably be kicked in a trial and her testimony tainted by her illegal actions. The only reason she acted in the way she did was that it gets good copy for PETA and a story with a nice hook. Actual prosecution for real animal abuse is quite unlikely now.
What PETA does, like all extremists, is hide their agenda. They play on your emotions and ignorance. They play on your love for animals to get away with criminal acts and the crassest public behavior, even misinforming children that milk will harm them and dissecting animals will turn them into killers. This is nothing like a fair or ethical public debate. Many of you who decry the pro-life movement's tactics, cast a kind eye on PETA doing the same, if not worse.
Is it really any better to indocrinate children to believe that milk will make them sick or to show them an aborted fetus?
Has any of PETA's undercover work led to criminal prosecutions? Or did they agree to leave one company alone?
The problem with PETA's above the law stand is that it doesn't work. Their "evidence" is unreliable, they make horrible witnesses in court. A good defense attorney can ruin their credibility in an hour. Imagine how a rural jury would react to people who suggest fishing is murder. That fish have feelings. They would be laughed off the stand., especially with the prevelence of catch and release fishing. Then there are their contributions to the ALF and other groups.
I'm all for preventing animal cruelty, but PETA's antics nausiate me because that's all they are. They aren't interested in real change, but a radical abolition of the right to eat steak and own a dog. They are extremists and people need to think long and hard for taking their word about anything., At any time.
By BONNIE PFISTER, Associated Press Writer Mon May 30,11:54 PM ET
TRENTON, N.J. - Lisa Leitten is finished living her double life. For the past three years, the soft-spoken, 30-year old moved from Missouri to Texas to Virginia, applying for jobs at businesses dealing with animals. She gave her real name, and some real details about herself: a master's degree in animal psychology and prior work at a primate sanctuary in Florida.
What she didn't reveal was that she was also working for an animal welfare organization, and that she wore a hidden camera to document instances in which animals were treated with what she calls horrific neglect and cruelty.
Leitten called her last assignment for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals her most wrenching: nine months in a Virginia lab owned by Princeton, N.J.-based biomedical firm Covance Co. There, she says, monkeys were denied medical care and abused by technicians. The company denies the claims, says it treats the animals properly and has accused Leitten of illegally working under cover.
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For what she says was her final assignment, Leitten was hired as a primate technician for Covance.
Leitten's camera work, and the report issued by PETA, depict frightened monkeys being yanked from their cages and handled roughly by aggressive, often cursing technicians.
She says she watched animals suffer with festering wounds, and that tubes were forced into their sinuses for research medicine to be administered, causing them to scream, bleed and vomit. Monkeys were housed alone in cages that were hosed down with the animals still inside, dripping and shivering, she said.
Laurene Isip, a Covance spokeswoman, says the company has complied with animal welfare regulations for its half-century in business, and doubted the credibility of PETA's charges.
The company called Leitten's actions illegal. Legal experts agree.
"As an employee she has a legal right to be there, but she's there to fulfill and execute on the tasks and responsibilities give to her by her employer. She's not there to fulfill her own private agenda," said Scott Vernick, a Philadelphia lawyer specializing in professional responsibility and legal ethics.
Bruce Weinstein, who has written four books on ethics, said even noble ends do not justify deceptive means.
"The question is, can those perhaps noble ends be achieved legally and ethically? Can one legitimately document abuses that occur without pretending to be someone one is not, or breaking the law, or videotaping things surreptitiously?"
.......................... "It's a risk we're willing to take," Sweetland said. "If it weren't for these investigations, no one would no what was going on."
When PETA is sued and bankupted, do not be surprised. Because this is illegal, and could be considered criminal fraud if they got really nasty. Zealots act as if the law doesn't apply to them. I predict they will find out that this isn't the case.
Remember, this woman was specifically hired in a way which didn't let the company know she was a member of PETA. While PETA may think this is OK, the company can claim she acted in a fraudulent manner
By TERENCE HUNT, AP White House Correspondent 5 minutes ago
WASHINGTON -
President Bush called a human rights report "absurd" for criticizing the United States' detention of terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and said Tuesday the allegations were made by "people who hate America."
"It's absurd. It's an absurd allegation. The United States is a country that promotes freedom around the world," Bush said of the Amnesty International report that compared Guantanamo to a Soviet-era gulag.
In a Rose Garden news conference, Bush defiantly stood by his domestic policy agenda while defending his actions abroad. With the death toll climbing daily inIraq, he said that nation's fledging government is "plenty capable" of defeating terrorists whose attacks on Iraqi civilians and U.S. soldiers have intensified.
Bush spoke after separate air crashes killed four American and four Italian troops in Iraq. The governor of Anbar province, taken hostage three weeks ago, was killed during clashes between U.S. forces and the insurgents who abducted him.
Bush said the job of the U.S. forces there is to help train Iraqis to defeat terrorists.
"I think the Iraqi people dealt the insurgents a serious blow when we had the elections," Bush said. "In other words, what the insurgents fear is democracy because democracy is the opposition of their vision."
I think the people who hate America are sitting in Washington, not London
Because some of the US's most prestegious law firms tend to agree that something is very wrong in Gitmo.
The issue here is not the rote denial, but the increasing pressure to address the issue. Because this is all going to court and the Bushies are nervous.
Anastasia Barone remembered the thick padlocked chain around her neck, her husband's steel-toed boot striking her over and over in the face, and then the dizziness that overcame her as she slowly slipped into unconsciousness on the tile floor of her Dix Hills basement.
For nearly six hours, Barone's husband, Anthony, kept her bound to the bottom of a spiral staircase with an inch-thick, padlocked chain, as their 8-year-old son tried to help his mother, she said. In the next room, separated only by unlocked, wooden sliding doors, were two 50-pound leopard cubs her husband had bought about six months ago.
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Suffolk County SPCA officers and Huntington animal control agents removed the animals from the feces-filled, windowless, basement room, with inadequate ventilation, said Roy Gross, chief of Suffolk County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
Gross said the leopards are listed as endangered and that a new state law bans keeping such wild animals as pets.
At full size, the male leopard could grow between 80 and 150 pounds and the female between 60 and 100 pounds, Gross said. They are capable of taking down other animals twice their size, he added.
"These animals are very capable of injuring and killing someone," Gross said. ". . . They are not to be domesticated, and Siegfried and Roy is a perfect example of that."
Anthony Barone is believed to have purchased the animals from someone in Manhattan and was in the process of buying two black leopards, Gross said.
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This moron wanted four wild, endangered animals in his home? Bad enough he beat his wife stupid, but those cats could have killed his family when they reached full-size. I mean, he's as bad as the guy who kept a tiger in his project apartment, having no clue as to how dangerous that is.
The WaPo, according to David Sirota of the Center for American Progress, is going to push their reporter, John F Harris's, book on Clinton with two large take out stories about nasty things he said and his wandering dick.
For some unknown reason, the fact that Bush is a congenital liar seems not to bother the Beltway Kool Kids Klub. The fact that 1650 dead have come from Iraq seems not to bother them. The fact that he ginned up a crisis to destroy social security doesn't bother them either. Nor do they get that if Clinton, Bill Clinton, had run against George Bush, Clinton would have won in 2000, 2004 and well into the future.
The irony of this is that the Kool Kids Klub didn't like Clinton because he didn't kiss Sally Quinn's ass. Quinn, the man stealing slut, like Pamela Harriman, is allowed to now give lectures in morality, when men used to pass her around like a Maxim. She's allowed to sneer at the Clintons because they didn't take her all that seriously. I think the reason is that the Clintons didn't go to her dinner parties or some such nonsense.
The Beltway crowd misses one key point, one a reasonably sentinent child could explain.
America is unique in this sense: we hate our national capital. Washington is a negative word in the American lexicon, code for everything complicated and wrong. And this is not new. Mr Smith goes to Washington depicts the place as a corrupt sewer. Most countries have an envy/resentment relationship with their capital. Not America. If you want to say bad government, just say Washington. People will understand.
The reason for that is simple. Washington exists only as a seat of government. New York is the cultural and financial capital, LA, the entertainment capital, Boston, the academic capital. Washington plays a very limited role in the country's life. But to the people who work there it is the center of the world.
There's a very simple reason Bush can lie like he does and the Beltway keeps their mouth shut.
The Beltway Sniper.
That scared the Beltway crowd far more than 9/11. It totally destroyed their sense of security. After all, the Pentagon was isolated, but John Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo brought fear into every Washington home more effectively than 10 plane crashes. It allowed a kind of gnawing fear to infect the chattering classes in a way that the mass deaths of others could not. The idea of a random sniper killing at will was truly unnerving, especially after 9/11. It so shook the confidence of the chattering classes there, that they were far more open to stories about Saddam the boogieman.
Remember, DC is the only place where people have power without responsibility. A bond trader has to actually make money. A movie director has a couple of hundred people and a few million dollars riding on his work. But in Washington, a pundit can influence policy and never live with the consequences. They can prmote abstinance and never see the increased numbers of STD's which will come from that.
So when Muhammad and Malvo ran wild, these cosseted, isolated people were stunned to the very core of their being. So, psychologically, believing Bush's fairlytales of war were just that much easier because the world was an unpredictable place. After all, violence in DC is restricted to the darker quarters of the capital. So when Bush came up with WMD, most of them went along, in raw, naked fear.
Now, that the war is a disaster, they are torn between the desire to see a democratic Iraq and the Banquo's ghost of Vietnam. So they remain silent, unwilling to call Bush the liar that he is. Because they cannot say that the Iraqi people must be left to their own fate, having bought Bush's story, and they cannot deny this is looking like 1967 more every day. So it is best to say nothing.
As far as nasty stories about Clinton goes, we didn't give a shit then, we certainly don't give a shit now. It only makes them look as weak and stuipid as we already think they are.
I was eating breakfast and on my way to shop for some food when I got a frantic phonecall from my mother.
"What?"
"Your sister called. She's in Connecticut"
"What?"
"She's coming. Finish your shopping fast. I need your help"
Now, I had suprised my mother yesterday with dinner from M&G Diner, a hole in the wall on 125th Street with the best fried chicken in the city for her birthday. Lucky I did.
So I figured today would be a nice day for some fishing in the Harlem Meer, pack a lunch, catch some sun.
Until the frantic call.
So I shop and then await my sister, her boyfriend and my niece and nephew.
Now, Jen had been offering to take the kids to MOMA for nearly a year. And since they never came down, we never had the chance to do it. So here they come, and Jen was asleep. She's been having a rough month or so, and I figured I wasn't going to wake her up. I'd wait until they actually showed up.
So around 2 PM, they all show up. We go up to see my mother and we stay there for all of five minutes.
Why?
Because my sisters have a habit of being glacially slow in going places. As in they say they're going, and then they go three hours later. Jen and I are actually pretty good about time and action. If she says she's going someplace, she's there early, if not on time.
I was hoping to catch her out of the house and in the Village, so she could meet us.
She was dead asleep. She didn't wake up until 2.
So thinking on my feet, I decided to go to the Met, which is a short trip from my house.
I have been going to the Metropolitan Museum of Art since childhood. So I know how to get around there. Which was good, because we only had a couple of hours.
Now, my niece, who's eight, loves art. She has several art books and her favorite artists are DaVinci and Van Gogh.
My nephew, who's 9, is just curious and since they're close, he supports his sister. But I had to figure out a way to keep them both interested. So the plan was to hit arms and armor, which most boys like, and then the Impressionists and post-Impressionists.
When I paid to get in, the ticket taker said "oh, kids, they'll love the mummies"
I said "no, she," I said, my hands on her shoulders, "she likes Van Gogh"
He smiled.
Jen calls me back.
She had just woke up and wasn't going anywhere. Well, it was a crapshoot, based on catching her out and about, not in sleephead mode. Which she was.
We talked for a few minutes, after being shooed to the lobby, and she apologized profusely for being a sleepyhead.
"I don't do last minute well," she said.
I laughed. I do last minute great. But that's me.
So we go through the Arms and Armor exhibit and I show the kids the various swords and armor and explain how people stopped wearing it. Most of the examples are from the late 16th Century or later and therefore decorative. They liked the inlaid gold and gems, as I explained the difference between rapiers, sabers and broadswords.
I then explained why armor went out of fashion as we looked at the wheelguns and flintlocks. One shield was filled with holes, bullet holes and crossbow bolt holes. My nephew got the point. We then looked at the ceremonial swords, which were more ranks of office than weapons. I pointed out the engravings on some. Then I showed the kids the decorated six guns and Pennslyvania rifles and powder horns. We then looked at the horse armor. I explained how the horses wore breast plates and helmets.
We then looked at the Middle Eastern and Asian Armor and I explained how they differed from the western armor we had seen before. When we got to the Japanese and Chinese Armor, the kids had seen examples on Cartoon Network. It's the rare kid who doesn't know what a samurai was now. Then I explained the difference between the western swords and a Japanese katana. But as I said, they were familiar with them.
Japanese Armor
We then went to the cafeteria. Which would have been fine if I was with Jen. I was with my eight year old niece and nine year old nephew. They were not going to eat ham and brie for lunch. Or a salad.
Three sodas, two cookies, a piece of pound cake and two bags of chips was $17.50. But they liked the cookies.
We then went to see the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists. We looked at the Romantic paintings and I told them to remember how many details they saw in the painting.
We then walked past some Manets into a room with Renoirs. I asked my niece to look at a painting and tell me what she saw. And I explained that what was missing was detail. The earlier paintings looked like photos. The Renoir had more color and less detail, even though you could see what it was.
As we walked along, I stopped at a Seurat. I then asked her to look at all the colors in the painting. I then explained that the painting represented an impression of what the artist saw, not a detailed reproduction. We had looked at some Romantic landscapes earlier. So when we started to look at Impressionist landscapes she started to notice how the detail was subtracted from the painting as the number of colors grew.
Finally we looked at some Van Goghs. Now, I recognized them instantly, but my niece was unsure. So I said read the card. Which she did. So as we walked from painting to painting I explained how Van Gogh used different styles and the colors he chose. When we got to a self-portrait, I showed them how Van Gogh used a lot of colors in this self-portrait and my niece saw how the colors were used to create other colors. Van Gogh Self portrait with Straw Hat 1888
Finally, we stopped at one of my favorite paintings, Monet's Rouen Cathdral, one of series he did. Again, I asked my niece to notice how he used color to create his painting.
After this, we were hungry, and after a souvenir stop, we got hot dogs. Three for $7.50
We got home and they were soon on their way.
When I talked to Jen, she had yet to shower. It was almost five.
I called her later to find that she was making coke can chicken, with lemon and rice and barley. She siad the McCormack's Chicken rub made an adequate substitute for my vaunted spice rub, which I have to make her more of soon.
I promised that since the kids will be returning soon, I would give Jen advance notice so I could take the kids to MOMA and the NBA store. My niece and Jen don't care much about that, but my nephew.....he does.
Jen here.
Just got off the phone with Gilly, and before I take a Sonata (damn, sleeping late on holiday weekends messes up my sleep cycle...) I gotta post a few clarifications/defenses:
--Gilly and I do indeed plan on taking The Kids to MOMA as soon as I get more than 30 seconds notice that they're in town.
--Gil, does that restaurant that you took Mom to do chicken and waffles?
--Yes, I am a huge sleepyhead on weekends. But I did in fact bathe and shop for the upcoming week (shop, that is, I bathe every day).
--Dinner: A sliced Roma tomato, brown rice and pearl barley cooked together with fleur de sel (gift from Mom), and Coke Can Chicken done as follows:
Take your chicken and wash and dry it. Rub with lemon, open CLEANED UP can of Coke. Rub chicken with Coke, then another squirt of lemon. Wear chicken like a sock puppet on your non-dominant hand while rubbing in McCormick's Spice rub with your dominant hand on the chicken.
NOTE if you have something better than McCormick's Poultry Rub, let's say, oh, some of the toasted or non-toasted spice rub that your editor/partner in Blogging has been promising you since Xmas, even though you even saved and washed the empty bottles from last time, and you've only bugged him about a zillion times about, like a toddler wanting the latest Barbie item, then by all means use it. I, however, had to use the McCormick's this time.
Then, set the chicken up on the can, like you just shoved the can up its butt or something. It should sit upright with no balancing. Make sure to pour out about 1/3 of the can of coke into the pan as well first. Put the giblets in the same roasting pan as the chicken. Also put in the lemon halves, cut into pieces. If you have room, shove a piece of lemon in the top of the neck cavity above the can if you want.
Roast it till done, at whatever temperature your oven behaves itself for as long as it takes. My old gas oven is so fucked up, I can't use the rangetop and the oven at the same time (a point I will bring up to my LL as soon as I sign my 2-year lease extension tomorrow), so I use Around 375 for Around 45 minutes.
When the chicken is eventually ready, take out CAREFULLY and tent with foil until you won't burn yourself to the bone going near it--at least 10 minutes. Using tongs and help, get the can out of the chicken without burning yourself. Gilly cuts his open; I use chef's tongs and a fork.
And yeah, I know they make special Thingies to Do this More Cleanly and whatever, but I'm cheap, and I figure if I only do 2 or 3 of these a year I won't be getting any more toxins than any other average day in NYC.
Oh yeah don't forget to cover/disable your smoke alarm as the singeing sugar really sets em off.
--Oh yeah and Gilly: Please fix your cell phone answering message and drop that disc in the mail :)
--One more shout out to Thomas in Berlin: I promise to get my VOIP working eventually and NOT send you my phone bill. Feel better!
Nitey Nite BlogFans! Happy short work week for our US viewers...and if anyone can find a link to the story I just saw on the news just now (must be too new for the night) about the guy who chained his wife in the basement with his two pet leopards in Dix Hills, Long Island, please send it to Gil to tag up.
thought you'd get a kick out of this - apparently, elvis costello got himself into a bit of hot water the other day by delaying a show so he could watch the liverpool match:
Booing, beer throwing and Liverpool won the cup!
Some key facts first - the ticket said doors open 7:30, no support. The European Cup final was on TV. Elvis is an enormous Liverpool FC fan who were in the final.
So here we are and at 8:10 the support band takes to the stage, plays a few songs and comments that they are such-and-such and were here while Elvis watches the football. They were a good little band and the crowd gave them a warm reception.
Then Liverpool got the football score back from 3-0 to 3-3 and there was 25 minutes of normal time left. Will he wait that long? Yes he did. Slow hand clapping between background music and the crowd of middle-aged nice people started to get annoyed.
Then full time came, the TV's went off and the band took to the stage to a bit of booing. Elvis went to the microphone and shouted "Norwich, I have only one thing to say to you - Let's Be Having You" - a comment made by the Norwich Football Club Director, celebrity cook Delia Smith, at a recent match. This was met with more booing and a pint of beer being thrown over Costello, who was startled and almost amused. So we were back in 1979 and it was brilliant. The beer thrower was hustled out by Security and Costello walked the stage, coming to the side and mouthing "Come on you F*%$&ing W*%^ers". The band was now electric and they were rattling through the set.
Half an hour later a rumble went through the crowd and a roadie came on from the side of the stage with his thumbs up, Liverpool had won the cup on penalties after extra time. This led to an impromptu version of You'll Never Walk Alone with the crowd singing along.
After two hours the set was finished. A blistering concert with no encores, but time was up as the venue had an 11:30 finish time.
I spoke with Pete Thomas after the gig and he commented that it was surreal playing as they could see the only TV from the stage and new the score as it happened. He agreed that it had been a very crisp set with a few "Muddy Waters moments" where he thought to himself "Hmm we seem to have missed a chorus and a few verses". I told Pete that it was really nice to meet him as I had seen him play often, the first time being in 1978, to which he commented "I think we played the same set tonight".
Lots of highlights in the music, but just a wonderful unrepeatable night. Great stuff.
more here under "gigography/recent appearances/5-25-2005/norwich uea":
When Americans think they are sports fans, remember this story. Not only does Elvis Costello watch the game despite a full house, he antagonizes the crowd as well. And then gets them to sing the Liverpool song "You'll Never Walk Alone". Which was pretty amazing considering Norwich's season in the Premiership. It's stories like this which keep me writing about soccer.
Update: Elvis Costello writes his side of the story
I can’t say that our entrance to the stage was greeted with wild acclaim. The lights finally went down and the booing actually increased. The lights came up and at first glance the people of Norfolk seemed to be divided into two sub-groups. Those who like to eat biscuits and go to bed early after a little light jiving and a handful of the kind of untamed flatlanders who are sometimes portrayed in Seventies horror films brandishing flaming torches at a lynching.
It had been suggested by my Chelsea-supporting friend that I might further ingratiate myself with a Norwich crowd by echoing the recent emotional outburst of Delia Smith. So my opening remark was “Let’s be having you” and I promptly received a glass of water across the neck of my guitar.
Now I have had many things thrown at me over the years but none of them has been less terrifying than half a glass of lukewarm water. At least it could have been some beer, preferably still in the bottle. I’ve had people seriously intent on killing me, and not just in the late Seventies, when a man wasn’t dressed without a hatchet in his head at couple of our more lively gigs. As recently as “Woodstock 3” , in 1999, Nieve and I faced down what looked like an irate mob of method actors auditioning for a remake of Apocalypse Now. Once the audience have their faces painted green and twigs in their hair, you know you are in deep trouble. Those crazy kids seemed to want to maim us for no other reason than that we were older than them. They were throwing full cans of lite beer and Diet Coke at us, but we pressed on regardless and managed to get out of town unscathed before they started to enact any of the more grisly scenes from Lord of the Flies.
Back in Norwich, it started to become apparent that some people had not got the message about the late start. The drunk who threw his glass of water was ejected by security but not before I identified him, in strictly literal terms, as “a tosser”, along with a couple of other adjectives that might have offended some Daily Mail readers, even if they are not usually that prominent at my shows, because I hate their guts. The offender was promptly taken outside and beaten to a pulp . . . by his girlfriend, who was angry about missing the show.
Once we got rolling, the boisterous start gave a different flavour to the show, although the Imposters played with their customary swagger and panache, not unlike the Liverpool team of the Hansen/Dalglish era. I tried my best to keep my eyes from the TV screen over the bar at the back of the room but the words “Oh s***, he’s missed” might have accidentally crept into the lyrics of Good Year for the Roses .
And suddenly it was all over. I could see people in the bar area punching the air and a rolling cheer overwhelmed the applause for Kinder Murder. Our security man, Paddy Callaghan, capered in the shadows at the edge of the stage with a balletic grace that belies his frame and this was all the confirmation I needed to cue You’ll Never Walk Alone, a song that we had never performed before as a band.
Since drudge is all excited, let's remind ourselves of the Quinn article he's referring to. It stands as probably the biggest self-indictment of the beltway kool kids ever written:
"This beautiful capital," President Clinton said in his first inaugural address, "is often a place of intrigue and calculation. Powerful people maneuver for position and worry endlessly about who is in and who is out, who is up and who is down, forgetting those people whose toil and sweat sends us here and pays our way." With that, the new president sent a clear challenge to an already suspicious Washington Establishment.
And now, five years later, here was Clinton's trusted adviser Rahm Emanuel, finishing up a speech at a fund-raiser to fight spina bifida before a gathering that could only be described as Establishment Washington.
"There are a lot of people in America who look at what we do here in Washington with nothing but cynicism," said Emanuel. "Heck, there are a lot of people in Washington who look at us with nothing but cynicism." But, he went on, "there are good people here. Decent people on both sides of the political aisle and on both sides of the reporter's notebook."
Emanuel, unlike the president, had become part of the Washington Establishment. "This is one of those extraordinary moments," he said at the fund-raiser, "when we come together as a community here in Washington -- setting aside personal, political and professional differences."
Actually, it wasn't extraordinary. When Establishment Washingtonians of all persuasions gather to support their own, they are not unlike any other small community in the country.
On this evening, the roster included Cabinet members Madeleine Albright and Donna Shalala, Republicans Sen. John McCain and Rep. Bob Livingston, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan, PBS's Jim Lehrer and New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, all behaving like the pals that they are. On display was a side of Washington that most people in this country never see. For all their apparent public differences, the people in the room that night were coming together with genuine affection and emotion to support their friends -- the Wall Street Journal's Al Hunt and his wife, CNN's Judy Woodruff, whose son Jeffrey has spina bifida.
But this particular community happens to be in the nation's capital. And the people in it are the so-called Beltway Insiders -- the high-level members of Congress, policymakers, lawyers, military brass, diplomats and journalists who have a proprietary interest in Washington and identify with it.
By Jonathan Weisman Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, May 30, 2005; Page A04
President Bush's congressional allies on Social Security are limping into the week-long Memorial Day recess, battered by public opinion polls yet hopeful that a rising awareness of Social Security's long-run financing problems will propel a legislative solution.
But with just 49 legislative days left before Congress's planned adjournment, the odds are still against Bush securing the centerpiece of his domestic agenda, Republican lawmakers concede.
"I don't know if we can get it done this year," said Rep. E. Clay Shaw Jr. (R-Fla.), a member of the Ways and Means Committee. "I don't think you could get a third of the Congress to vote for any one plan at this point."
"They've made slight progress," said Rep. Michael N. Castle (R-Del.), a moderate, "maybe 'slight' being the key word."
Social Security was supposed to be the focal point of the Bush domestic agenda this year, but passage of a plan to secure its long-term financing and add private investment accounts has grown more complicated in recent weeks as Republicans appear increasingly willing to challenge the White House on issues including expanded stem cell research and the reimportation of prescription drugs.
White House spokesman Trent Duffy said Washington is exactly where Bush strategists thought it would be right now on Social Security, with a rising awareness of the system's problems and Congress entering a summertime legislative push.
Duffy pointed to poll numbers showing an increasing percentage of the population identifying Social Security's finances as a growing problem. But those same polls show the public strongly against Bush's proposals and highly critical of his handling of the issue. If anything, public opposition appears to be hardening. The senior lobby AARP has gained nearly 400,000 members -- 20 percent more than it expected -- since the beginning of the year, when it launched its campaign to sink the Bush plan, said AARP spokeswoman Christine M. Donohoo.
When Congress returns next Monday, the fate of Social Security restructuring will be in the hands of the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee, not the White House. Moderate Republicans are convinced that Ways and Means Chairman Bill Thomas (R-Calif.) will stitch together a large package of savings incentives, private pension changes and tax breaks for long-term health care that will be popular enough to win majority support for more controversial benefit cuts that will secure Social Security's financial future. If necessary, they say, Thomas will jettison the central plank of Bush's plan, private investment accounts financed out of the existing payroll tax.
Thomas's package could put intolerable pressure on Democrats to break with their leadership and come to the negotiating table, said Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.), another committee member. Already, Teamsters President James P. Hoffa has suggested that organized labor should not stand in the way of dialogue on Social Security changes, and two Democrats -- Reps. Robert Wexler (Fla.) and James P. Moran Jr. (Va.) -- unveiled their own Social Security plan last month. "I just want to issue a clarion call to Democrats: Get ready, because Bill Thomas will ultimately deliver a product that most mainstreamers in the U.S.A. will find compelling," Foley said.
Why? There is no deal Bush can accept which will past muster with the Dems. Notice the contradiction: public opposition is hardening, while the Dems will face "intolerable" pressure to break with their leadership.
Really? Where is this pressure going to come from? I mean, I wouldn't take Mark Foley all that seriously. He still denies having a boyfriend.
They are planning to cut benefits.This is going to scare old people shitless. Why would the Dems feel the need to go along with a benefits cut? Moran and Wexler got their wrists slapped and ignored. The GOP has no good way to sell benefit cuts.
Here's the deal: Bill Thomas is going to propose cutting social security benefits. Once that becomes the issue, the GOP should plan on losing the House. Because once you dump private investment, you just have benefit cuts. Who the hell is going to support benefit cuts? You can gussie it up any way you choose, but it's a benefits cut.
The best thing in the world is to be able to ride this issue into the 2006 election cycle. Because even in red diistricts, you will be able to elect people to save social security. Instead of realizing this is a failed plan, they want to ride it to defeat. I say spur them on.
NEW YORK - Even God is vulnerable to low television ratings. CBS' decision this month to cancel the drama "Joan of Arcadia" after two seasons has baffled and angered its fans. Many are peppering CBS and anyone who will listen with e-mails trying to find some way to keep the series alive.
It's a long shot, at best. The series where God appeared to Amber Tamblyn's title character in the guise of average people won critical praise and an Emmy nomination, but couldn't reach beyond a dwindling cult of supporters.
Fans said they appreciated a drama that talked about spirituality without being preachy, that included God but didn't take religious sides. Several parents wrote that it was one of the few quality shows on television they felt comfortable watching with their children.
"I liked that it gave my daughter and I ethical things to talk about without having to bring them up, things like premarital sex and spirituality," said Dawn Richards, 44, who watched regularly with her 14-year-old daughter at home in Boca Raton, Fla. "It's a great springboard."
Angela Williams, who works at a domestic violence shelter and lives in Boody, Ill., organized an e-mail and telephone campaign to support the show. The 24-year-old scheduled her Friday nights around the series and said a lot of her friends did, too.
We feel your pain, say the folks at CBS.
"It was one of the toughest programming decisions we have had to make in the last couple of years because qualitatively, everyone here loved the show and was proud of the show," said Chris Ender, CBS entertainment spokesman.
But they couldn't ignore its ratings decline, he said. During its first season, "Joan of Arcadia" averaged 10.1 million viewers, respectable numbers for Friday, a quiet night for television. This year, viewership sank to 8 million, according to Nielsen Media Research.
That was lower than "Father of the Pride," "Dr. Vegas" and "Hawaii" — all series that went to their graveyards long ago.
The most important number may be this one: 53.9.
That's the median age of the "Joan of Arcadia" viewer, nearly three years older than the typical CBS viewer.
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Thank God they cancelled this nonsense. I always called it Joan of Schizophrenia. Because she was fucking nuts. She was talking to the voices in her head.
Even before the fighting on Sunday, the government of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari appeared to have opened a new and potentially hazardous chapter in the war. Announcing the crackdown last week, government officials said the operation would move Iraqi troops "from the defensive to the offensive" in the war, and show Iraqis that the leaders they elected in January were capable of providing the security that just about every opinion poll in recent months has shown is their highest priority.
But the operation met with skepticism even before it started.
For one thing, few believed the government could commit the 40,000 soldiers and paramilitary police officers it had promised, since the American command's latest official count of the number in Baghdad Province, reaching deep into the countryside beyond the capital itself, totaled only slightly more than 30,000. Many Iraqis said they suspected that the government was overstating its abilities in the hope of stemming rising popular anger in the face of the new insurgent offensive.
There has been another fear, one rooted in the country's shifting political landscape. Essentially, the operation begun Sunday involves a government led by two religious parties with strong ties to Iran, commanding new American-trained army and paramilitary police forces that are heavily Shiite, taking on an insurgency that is almost entirely Sunni Arab.
The potential for a further sharpening of sectarian tensions has been unavoidable, despite assurances by Dr. Jaafari that the Shiite leaders intend to govern in a way that draws Iraq's religious and ethnic communities together.
The concern appeared to be at least partly born out on Sunday, as truckloads of Iraqi soldiers and police officers in camouflage fanned out across the city, setting up checkpoints and moving in force through neighborhoods long known as insurgent strongholds, raiding homes and carrying away suspects.
One man in Amariya telephoned The New York Times to say that people in his neighborhood believed that the sweeps were inspired and led by the Badr Organization, a shadowy militia group founded in Iran that is an offshoot of one of the two governing Shiite religious parties, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.
In 1971 the US supported the South Vietnamese invasion of Laos. It was an utter disaster. Lam Son 719 ended with ARVN troops in full retreat and US helicopter crews scared witless of the flak they had met up with there.
One of the more bizarre aspects of the Iraq war has been President Bush's repeated insistence that his generals tell him they have enough troops. Even more bizarrely, it may be true - I mean, that his generals tell him that they have enough troops, not that they actually have enough. An article in yesterday's Baltimore Sun explains why.
The article tells the tale of John Riggs, a former Army commander, who "publicly contradicted Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld by arguing that the Army was overstretched in Iraq and Afghanistan" - then abruptly found himself forced into retirement at a reduced rank, which normally only happens as a result of a major scandal.
The truth, of course, is that there aren't nearly enough troops. "Basically, we've got all the toys, but not enough boys," a Marine major in Anbar Province told The Los Angeles Times.
Yet it's also true, in a different sense, that we have too many troops in Iraq.
Back in September 2003 a report by the Congressional Budget Office concluded that the size of the U.S. force in Iraq would have to start shrinking rapidly in the spring of 2004 if the Army wanted to "maintain training and readiness levels, limit family separation and involuntary mobilization, and retain high-quality personnel."
Let me put that in plainer English: our all-volunteer military is based on an implicit promise that those who serve their country in times of danger will also be able to get on with their lives. Full-time soldiers expect to spend enough time at home base to keep their marriages alive and see their children growing up. Reservists expect to be called up infrequently enough, and for short enough tours of duty, that they can hold on to their civilian jobs.
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For a generation Americans have depended on a superb volunteer Army to keep us safe - both from our enemies, and from the prospect of a draft. What will we do once that Army is broken?
WASHINGTON, May 29 - In the last few months, the small commercial air service to the naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, has been carrying people the military authorities had hoped would never be allowed there: American lawyers.
And they have been arriving in increasing numbers, providing more than a third of about 530 remaining detainees with representation in federal court. Despite considerable obstacles and expenses, other lawyers are lining up to challenge the government's detention of people the military has called enemy combatants and possible terrorists.
A meeting earlier this month in New York City at the law firm Clifford Chance drew dozens of new volunteer lawyers who attended lectures from other lawyers who have been through the rigorous process of getting the government to allow them access to Guantánamo.
The increase in lawyers for Guantánamo detainees was set in motion last June when the Supreme Court ruled against the Bush administration and said the prisoners there were entitled to challenge their detentions in federal courts.
The rate at which lawyers have stepped forward for the task may be a reflection of the changing public attitudes about Guantánamo Bay and its mission.
"In the beginning, just after 9/11, we couldn't get anybody," said Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, a group based in New York that is coordinating the assigning of lawyers to prisoners. The earliest volunteers, Mr. Ratner said, were those who regularly handled death-penalty clients and were accustomed to representing the reviled in near-hopeless cases.
But in recent months, some of the nation's largest and most prominent firms have enlisted in the effort and devoted considerable resources to it, including Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering, Hale & Dorr; Clifford Chance; Covington & Burling; Dorsey & Whitney; and Allen & Overy.
"People are now eager to take this on," Mr. Ratner said. The law firms are bearing all the expenses, he said.
All white shoe law firms. This is going to burst open like a boil by next year.
By Tara Bahrampour Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, May 29, 2005; Page A01
The pranks teenagers play on each other are almost rites of passage -- making crank phone calls, scrawling scary messages on lockers and toilet-papering a friend's yard are usually seen as harmless adolescent mischief and come with few repercussions.
But in the past two weeks, two students in Arlington have been arrested -- and were still being detained this weekend -- after their apparent pranks were taken more seriously. Both involved instant messages, or IMs, the on-screen form of real-time computer communication that takes up hours of American teenagers' lives each day and that allows them something a crank call doesn't always: anonymity.
On May 18, a 15-year-old Yorktown High School boy sent an anonymous IM to a friend, threatening to harm her and others at school. She told her parents that night, and police evacuated Yorktown the next day, swarming the school before the boy turned himself in. He is being held without bond at the Northern Virginia Juvenile Detention Home in Alexandria on a felony charge of making a written threat to kill.
A few days later, on May 24, Washington-Lee High School was locked down for the afternoon after three students reported receiving similar threats via IM. On Thursday, police arrested a 13-year-old Swanson Middle School student, a brother of one of the recipients, and charged him with the same felony count and harassment by computer, a misdemeanor. He is being held without bond until a second arraignment scheduled for Tuesday.
The arrests have exposed a new gray area for teenagers. They live in an age when it is delectably easy to use an anonymous screen name to freak out their friends -- and in a society that has learned the hard way to take threats of violence seriously.
Parents need to explain to kids that the internet is a public space. Anything you say online can come back to haunt you. Even jokes.
And while this may seem excessive, what happens when you ignore this and you have a sea of bodies the next day. It's not an easy choice. But I'm also convinced the kids had no idea it would be taken this seriously.
Some retirees climb mountains. Others sail around the world.
Dan Freeman has a dream, too - hitting a different bar three or four times a day.
The 60-year-old Brooklyn man is on a quest to have a drink in 1,000 watering holes this year, and he's chronicling his boozy adventures on his blog, "1000 Bars."
The News tagged along with Freeman this week on stops 525 through 527, downing beers at three Manhattan bars he had yet to visit.
"I don't understand those people who say they're retired and bored," Freeman said, taking a sip from a bottle of Heineken at Bellevue, a bar in Hell's Kitchen.
On pace to hit the mark on his 61st birthday in December, Freeman is savoring his tour of city bars - from corner dives to Irish pubs to a lesbian bar he unwittingly patronized.
"Someone in there said to me, 'You know you are in a lesbian bar,'" he recalled. "And I said, 'Well, okay, can I get a drink?'"
Freeman, who retired from the consulting firm he owned, said he had always wanted to sample as many city bars as possible. With time on his hands, and his wife's permission, he embarked on a drinking man's dream.
"We got our first three bars on a milk run on New Year's Day," Freeman said.
Nightly, the white-haired retiree maps out his drinking destinations. After a morning workout, he folds "Jimmy's Best Irish Pub Guide" into his pocket and goes on his way.
He follows a few rules: Always travel by subway or bus; drink only at a bar, and limit yourself to one drink at each place.
Since it's a holiday, I want to get away from the death and destruction for a little while.
When my friends graduated from college we drank in 15 bars in eight hours. I was hammered at the end of it.
I want to get this out of the way to not profane Memorial Day. I don't want to think about these people on a day we should remember 1,649 Americans who died in the service of their country
Recently, there have been calls for supporters of our folly in Iraq to enlist. Their usual reaction is to act as if we were expecting a heart-lung donation. Cries of "why didn't you enlist to support Kosovo" and other pathetic nonsense usually follows to justify their rank cowardice.
The sad part is that these people understand the military about as much as they understand cricket. They read some hack like Max Boot or some minor historian like Victor Davis Hanson and take them seriously. They like the war porn, but can't go beyond that.
They think just because they hear it on the news, it should be true. There are 40K Iraqi troops going to close off Baghdad. Really? Ever look at a map of the city? It has seven million people at least.
One of the things which distrubs me the most about the chickenhawks is their casual use of terms like Islamofascist. A word which has no meaning. All it does is reek of trying to make this into WWII redux and it isn't. This is a political battle with some military aspects. The idea that we're stopping terrorism in Iraq is insane. We're just training new terrorists to be more effective.
But what is most draining, and discouraging is the lack of value they place on other people's lives. Iraqis, Americans. They think cruelty is a mark of manhood instead of revealing their weakness and timidity. They think releasing pictures of the dead and naming those who have made the supreme sacrifice for their country is some how wrong.
What is wrong is their cowardice, their craven embrace of violence for other people, and their unAmerican idolitization of empire. Their distorted, corrupt vision of America, one which is neither responsible nor just is a blight on all of us. When you hear a fat piece of shit like Limbaugh, or a snake oil salesman like Savage minimizing torture, their cowardly souls are exposed to the world. The problem is that there are many, many people who think this is tough talk. They think this helps matters.
Which is why I have such disdain for draft dodging hippies. I'm not talking about the true war resisters who risked jail or the vets who protested the war or even the people who fled to Canada. I'm talking about the bandwagon hippies, people who went with the crowd, with no convictions of their own. So when being a hippie was played out, they became businessmen and sneered at the vets. They never took account of their own actions and how they affected others. When they put the vets at the back of the line, they acted as if they deserved that.
I remember the time in 1981 when the hostages from Iran got a ticker tape parade. That started the Vietnam Vet movement. They were pissed that hostages got a parade and they didn't. So they held one themselves. My bet is when this is all said and done, Iraq vets will do the same and all the people who said they supported them will bitch about the traffic jam and closed streets. After all, all they can do is think of themselves anyway.
But they will be nowhere to be found when that headless body is discovered on a Baghdad street and they won't be at the funeral. They won't be saying "I'm sorry my words got your son tortured to death and decapitated." Nope, they won't be around to see the consequences of their words.
As for the warbloggers waiting for a draft: cowards, the lot of you.
Unless you're disabled, you have no fucking right encouraging others to die in your stead. If you weren't cowards, you'd be in the military, not whining about Kosovo or some other bullshit. The Army's recruiting isn't getting any better, and they need YOU. Not the kid from Wal Mart, not the ROTC grad. They need war supporters to take this seriously and walk away from their lives to serve their country directly.
But that won't happen. Because they are cowards. They hide behind the bravery of others and use it as a shield to deflect criticism. "Why if you attack my views, you don't support the soldiers."
My reply to that is "fuck you, gutless bitch." I've never heard a soldier run behind civilians to defend the war, so why are you hiding behind them.
I wonder how many warbloggers have given a dime to ANY charity related to the Armed Forces, or sent a package overseas. I bet none, because, like bareback riding champion Andrew Sullivan, "they're his servants". They're not people, with families, but servants and for some of the warbloggers, sprites. Not even real.
I was watching the Discovery Times channel last night and they had a documentary on Special Ops. One of the SEALS said "you know, you have to give 100 percent to the teams and to be a father, you have to give 100 percent. And you see how those numbers add up." Then, he said "that's why there's a 75 percent divorce rate in the SEALS. You're supposed to be home for a month, and that turns into a week, and then you're home for a week and it turns into two days and you have to go when you get that call. A lot of the wives can't put up with someone who's never home."
Now, to a warblogger, this means nothing. Nothing at all. Because they're supermen.
To a normal person it means that these guys sacrifice their families for their job, and if they want to save their families, they will leave their job.
These people are so cowardly, so craven, they fear remembering the dead will end their fantasies of world power, as well it should.
I remember when they dedicated the WWII Memorial on the Washington Mall. One of the things which struck me was the number of 80 year old men in tears. People we all consider heroes. But to them, the memories of their youth held great pain, the loss of their friends and family in violent ways in far away places. They served their country at great risk, and survived. But the pain they felt never ended, even at the end of their lives.
When these chairborne cowards prattle on about strength and toughness, concepts they are truly unfamiliar with, I like to remember these old men. They have shown that throughout their lives. Too bad such character is left to books and movies these days. It certainly doesn't exist among the chickenhawks.
A U.S. Faith Initiative for Africa Secretary of State Rice and black pastors discuss a joint effort to fight AIDS. By Peter Wallsten and Tom Hamburger Times Staff Writers
May 29, 2005
WASHINGTON — Escalating its courtship of a politically powerful constituency, the Bush administration is teaming up with some of the nation's best-known and most influential black clergy to craft a new role for U.S. churches in Africa.
The effort was launched last week, when more than two dozen leading African American religious figures met privately with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and senior White House officials at the State Department, according to administration officials and meeting participants.
The hourlong session focused largely on how the administration's faith-based initiative could be expanded to combat the spread of HIV and provide help for tens of millions of children orphaned by the epidemic across Africa.
Some of the pastors said it was a matter of national security — that those orphans were susceptible to recruitment by Islamic extremists unless they could be exposed to churches such as theirs.
The gathering yielded no formal financial commitment from the federal government for the Africa effort. But participants said it marked a new era of engagement by black clergy with U.S. foreign policy.
The Rev. O'Neal Dozier, pastor of the Worldwide Christian Center in Pompano Beach, Fla., and a longtime Republican, said Rice's decision to huddle with the pastors gave them a "mandate" to craft Africa policy. He said the group had laid plans to meet again soon with State Department officials.
A senior aide to Rice, James Wilkinson, said the meeting reflected her belief that more African American organizations "need to get involved in the president's Africa agenda." Administration officials described it as a natural step in an Africa policy that has gained heightened priority under Bush in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and in the face of the growing AIDS epidemic.
If it goes forward, the collaboration could result in a substantial expansion of black church participation in the faith-based initiative, from a largely domestic focus to a broader overseas portfolio that pastors believe could make hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars available for the churches to combat AIDS and related social ills internationally.
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The meeting was dominated, however, by evangelical pastors — many of them, like Bishops T.D. Jakes of Dallas and Charles E. Blake of Los Angeles, known to national television audiences.
White House strategists view black ministers as a path into a voter bloc that has traditionally been Democratic but is conservative on social issues such as abortion, school vouchers and same-sex marriage.
A relatively small group of sympathetic pastors has enjoyed extraordinary access to Bush and his top aides. Now, as the GOP outreach grows wider and more aggressive, some Democrats accuse the White House of expanding the promise of government grants to woo political support.
"I am concerned that this may be another enticement offered by the administration to African American clergy along the lines of the faith-based initiative," said Rep. Major R. Owens (D-N.Y.), a member of the Congressional Black Caucus.
Sending U.S. grants to well-established faith-based groups in Africa such as Catholic Relief Services is nothing new. But a former diplomat who handled Africa policy under President Clinton expressed concern about an initiative that might favor denominations that were politically friendly to the administration.
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Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman maintains a heavy schedule of meetings with black religious and political leaders and travels nearly every week to speak at historically black colleges. In addition, African American pastors are being courted by white evangelical church leaders, including the Rev. Louis P. Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition and James Dobson of Focus on the Family, who seek — and find — allies for their opposition to gay marriage and abortion rights.
In the first years of the Bush administration, many Democratic strategists dismissed the Republican outreach to blacks as pandering. But they no longer wave off its potential.
Some analysts maintain that the GOP's success in boosting the black vote for Bush in Ohio last year from 9% to 16% — an increase attributed to outreach to black pastors — secured the president's reelection. To fight back, the Democrats and their allies have launched an array of countermeasures, including last week's conference with ministers and the Congressional Black Caucus.
"We did not want these ministers to be in a position where they come to Washington, meet with the White House and just pass the black caucus," said Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), who is heading the group's outreach to pastors.
Cummings said the caucus was establishing regional forums, which would begin this summer, to educate clergy on national issues.
This month, a separate organization of black ministers backed by the liberal group People for the American Way met to mobilize black church opposition to President Bush's judicial nominees.
The group met May 6 at the Washington Hilton hotel to hear Democratic leaders, members of the Congressional Black Caucus staff and the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People blast Bush administration policies.
The leader of the black ministers' group, the Rev. Timothy McDonald III of Atlanta, said the effort was necessary to build a "countervailing force" against efforts by the GOP and their allies to woo black church leaders.
"We're losing ministers every week," McDonald said.
Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada has hired three new staffers to reach out to faith-based groups, including African American constituencies.
All this is about money. These corrupt motherfuckers are looking for a handout. That's it. They don't give a shit about AIDS at home, with their relentless homophobia, now they give a shit about Africa. Give me a fucking break.
The day will come when these sellouts face the wrath of their congregations for their naked greed. Or when they ask the GOP for something they will never get, like voting rights for ex-cons.
The Bush adminsitration is getting their parishoners children killed in Iraq and all they care about is having their TV megachurch. Well, the same racists who were pro segregation are now anti-gay and if they want to jump on that bandwagon, when they get treated like all blacks get treated by the GOP, with contempt and disdain, well, they were warned. The GOP has acted as if blacks were their mortal enemies and these money blinded fucks now want to cash in to get another custom suit and fancy cars. Living off the collection plate isn't enough for them. Now they have to sell their soul to the GOP as well.
May 28, 2005 -- The 18-year-old son of one of the city's most high-powered commercial real-estate brokers was charged in Manhattan yesterday with running a lucrative bogus-driver's-license ring — out of his father's Murray Hill three-bedroom. ........................ "Someone should teach him a lesson," he snarled into the phone at lunchtime, as he noted his son would have to spend "five, six more hours" in custody before bail could be posted.
The father politely declined to talk to reporters, then turned angrily to his son's defense lawyer, Theodore Goldbergh.
"Do they really have to print something about this?" he complained. When the lawyer shrugged, Mendelson railed, "I'm going to call Mort Zuckerman's office!" and started dialing away.
Mendelson is the retail-leasing agent for a number of properties owned by Mort Zuckerman, the chairman and publisher of the Daily News.
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Manhattan prosecutors say Matthew and four of his buddies charged $150 to $200 a pop for fake New York state driver's licenses — and made additional money selling the computer programs needed to create the forgeries for $6,000.
................. Matthew personally sold four licenses to an undercover cop May 21 — collecting $600, Rosen said.
Matthew completed the sale despite being told by the undercover that the licenses were for illegal aliens, the prosecutor said.
Fuck this little asshole and his father. He's lucky he's not in federal court facing Patriot Act charges. I know these little shits wanted to go drinking on the Upper East Side like all their Prep School buddies, but when he was asked to sell to illegal aliens, he just took the money like a low-rent skell.
This kid needed $600 like I need to gain weight.
Conscienceless little fuck.
Why am I pissed? Remember our friend Mohammad Atta? Well, he had nice fake papers. So do a bunch of criminals from tree-jumping rapists to AQ members. And it's greedy bastards like young Matthew Mendelson who are selling them the papers.
And what does daddy do? He runs to call his buddy Mort Zuckerman to keep his skell son's name out of the papers. Not even caring that his son is a greedy little fuck who would allegedly do anything for a fast buck. After all, this might hurt his Ivy admission chances. I mean, the world would be a poorer place with out Matthew getting an Ivy degree. We can't be deprived of his intellect.
I'm sure daddy's high powered lawyer and high powered friends will find a way to make this all disappear, while a working class kid would be facing real time for this.
My bar owning friends see these fakes all the time. Most don't get through. So it's pretty much a waste of cash. I mean, he doesn't need a fake driver's licence for a job washing dishes or anything like that. He just wanted to show off. I hope that impresses the judge.
I'm no fan of the Patriot Act, but it would cause me no loss of sleep if this wound up in the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. After all, 9/11 changed everything.
Indonesia's President Megawati Sukarnoputri, faced with rising heroin, methamphetamine, and ecstasy use, as well as rapidly increasing rates of HIV/AIDS infection among the island nation's 230 million inhabitants, has tightened her embrace of a repressive drug war approach to drug policy. In a blistering speech at a national seminar on drugs at the State Palace in Jakarta on October 29, Megawati scolded the country's drug war coordinating agency, the BKNN, for its failure to stop illicit drug use, demanded harsher sentences for drug offenders, recommended the death penalty for some, and suggested the Indonesian military, best known for its brutal efforts to suppress separatist populations in places like East Timor and Aceh province, could be asked to lend a hand against the new foe.
...................... Some anti-drug activists are also pushing to amend the country's 1997 laws No. 5/1997 banning psychotropic drugs, such as ecstasy and speed, and No. 22/1997, banning narcotics. Henry Yosodiningrat, chairman of the anti-drug foundation Granat, told the Jakarta Post that a committee reviewing those laws would call for the introduction of mandatory minimum sentences.
Indonesian drug laws provide for sentences of up 20 years for marijuana offenses and for the death penalty in narcotics trafficking or conspiracy cases. But according to local press accounts, most simple ecstasy, methamphetamine, or heroin possession cases result in prison terms ranging from one to five years. According to Agence France Press, last year five men had been sentenced to death for drug crimes, but none had been executed. Earlier this year, a 27-year-old Frenchman received a life sentence for smuggling 3.85 kilos of hashish into the country.
There are real social pressures in Indonesia to demand tough drug laws. One of which is staring our Australian friends in the face. Bashir the Bali bomber got two years because if he served more, it may lead to social upheaval. One of the best tools fundamentalists have to use is drug abuse. They point to that as a reason to make jihad. The Indonesians seem eager to import failed American policies as a last resort to deal with their drug problem.
Now that Frenchman smuggled in less dope than Corby is accused of doing, and got life. But Corby got the miminum 20 years for marijuana possession, when she could have been sentenced to death for smuggling. What the Australians are forgetting in their screetching but the Indonesians certainly aren't, is that they have a serious drug problem which hasn't been worthy of attention in the West. The fate of Orangutangs has gotten more air time. Now, it's the same kind of "how dare you treat us like your own people" argument heard when Westerners face Third World justice. And while it may impress Australians, it doesn't make much of an impression in Indonesia, and instead, may ensure her a lengthy jail sentence.
Since someone sent me to Wikipedia , let's quote from it:
Schapelle Corby said that the customs officer pointed at her bag and asked her brother if the bag belonged to him. Corby replied that it was hers. She opened her bag without being asked by the customs officer.
The customs officer, Gusti Nyoman Winata, gave a different version of the event. He said that he asked Corby to open her bag and she opened up an empty compartment of the bag. When he demanded a different compartment of the bag to be opened, she tried to prevent him from performing his duty. Corby's defence rejects these claims.
According to Professor Tim Lindsey, Director of the University of Melbourne's Asian Law Centre, the prosecution had a prima facie case against Corby, established merely by her possession of the narcotics, regardless of her knowledge. In a lecture given at Melbourne University (http://harangue.lecture.unimelb.edu.au/ilectures/ilectures.lasso?ut=707&id=19721), he said "Suffice to say that being caught with drugs on you, whether strapped to you or in a bag that is your property, is probably going to be sufficient in most instances for the prosecution to establish a prima facie case. The question then arises as to how that prima facie case is answered by a defence team."
The defense wanted to use this as evidence
John Patrick Ford, a remand prisoner in Port Phillip Prison, Australia, has given evidence in Corby's defence. Ford previously worked as a public servant for the (Australian) Child Support Agency (CSA), a department of the Australian Taxation Office, before his conviction.
Ford stated that he overheard a conversation within a prison between two men and alleges one of the men planted the marijuana in Corby's boogie board bag in Brisbane with the intent of having another person remove it in Sydney. Ford went on to state that a simple mixup resulted in the marijuana not being removed and subsequently being transported to Indonesia, all without Corby's knowledge. Once in Indonesia the marijuana was quickly located by Indonesian customs officials.
Ford stated that the drugs were owned by Ron Vigenser, who had been a prisoner at the same jail as Ford (but was recently released) but has refused to name the man who he states planted the drugs for fear that he, and possibly Corby, would be killed if he did so. Vigenser has strenuously denied any connection with the drugs in the Australian media and has reportedly given a statement to the Australian Federal Police.
...............
The AFP commisioner Mick Keelty caused controversy on May 11 when he stated that a key aspect of her defence (that the drugs were planted in her bag by baggage handlers) was not supported by the available intelligence. [7]
.............
The fact that Corby is young, white, female and attractive has led to allegations that she is receiving sympathy and support from the media, government and public that is not afforded to other Australians imprisoned around the world. There are also allegations that the attention and sympathy especially from the Australian public and media may be related to xenophobic sentiment and a unfair mistrust of Asian legal systems. Specifically there is a perception among some legal experts that some of the negative perceptions of the case may be due to a misconception of the inquisitorial system used in Indonesia which originated from the Dutch colonial system, as opposed to the adversarial system used in Australia especially related to the incorrect perception that Corby was not persumed innocent [8] (http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2005/s1350655.htm). There are also allegations of an strong bias by the Australia media who frequently mention the specifics of the Corby defence but fail to mention important aspects of the prosecution case such as the allegation she initially claimed the drugs were hers.
This level of interest, however, can also be partly explained by what was often considered to be a weak prosecution case against Corby and that perceived inefficiences in the handling of evidence - in particular the inability to test for fingerprints on the bag containing the marijuana - were evidence of systemic failures of the Indonesian legal system and that a fair trial had not been afforded to Corby.
However there is also the dissenting opinion that although there may have been some shortcomings in the prosecution case, this does not overide what they consider to be an overwhelming strong prosecution case combined with a weak defence relying primarily on hearsay and non specific evidence [9]
The problem with Corby's case is that she has no real defense. Jailhouse conspiracies of hearsay, claims of crooked baggage smugglers. None of this would be allowed in a US court as a defense. It would be tossed. Sure, the forensics might be better, but the fact is that she held the dope in her possession when questioned by customs. How it got there is not the prosecution's concern. She has to have a reasonable defense for the drugs in her possession at the time of her arrest. And Ford's refusal to name the guilty party for fear of death is ludicrous. If he had the evidence, he'd be placed in witness protection, and given Corby's new fame, it is unlikely anyone would attempt to kill her.
For all the screaching about how I didn't understand the case, no one actually mentioned her pathetic defense claims. The lawyers here can tell you what would happen to a US defendant with such a case. They would be offered a plea bargain for jailtime. I think if she had landed at LAX with the same story, she would be headed for a few years in jail.
Testing for fingerprints is seriously overrated and would be deemed unnecessary in the US as well. Why? Because she was caught with dope in her property. Property she admitted was hers. The defense might test the bags, but that could hurt, not help her case. Why? Because the issue is now in doubt. Remove the doubt and she's done for. How people thought being caught with dope is a weak prosecution case is beyond me. I was told as a child not to deliver packages for strangers, because I was going to be the one going to jail if it had dope in it.
There is a A$1m offer for any information on her case. So I'm supposed to think drug dealers wouldn't rat each other out with that kind of money on the table? OK.
What I think happened is that she got a case of the stupids and thought she could make a quick buck or was talked into it. Because she was a "good girl" she underestimated the risks. She may have been told customs was lax.
Now, I don't think this is fair. I don't think that she should serve 20 years for being stupid. And as this article points out, only the small fry do time in Indonesia
In 1997 the Indonesian drug laws were revised to include a death penalty. The law has never yet been used on well connected, big time dealers. Rather, unwitting pawns duped into trafficking, those without ‘backing’ from above or money with which to buy their freedom, can receive a death sentence.
Understanding drug problems in Indonesia is complicated by the well-known ‘secret’ that drug dealing is tied to politics and the security forces. Many police and soldiers test positive for drugs in their urine (usually Ecstasy, amphetamines or low grade heroin). High ranking officers have been caught red-handed smoking SS or putauw with noted dealers. I have frequently been offered high quality drugs by court officials and police who admit with no embarrassment that they use and sell confiscated drugs. This ‘official’ involvement reaches right into the Suharto family palace. The former president’s grandson, Ari, and his wife, Maya, have been accused of trafficking and of using ecstasy and SS. Assorted generals and other leaders are widely recognised as providing ‘backing’ for drug traffickers and distributors. It is no surprise that major dealers rarely get more than one year in prison — if any time at all.
With official channels weak and ineffective, the Indonesian masses take the street battle against drugs into their own hands. After all, it’s their own children and safety at stake. Beginning in 1999, the public learned that drug addiction did not just happen to rich kids. Once reports hit the press that elementary school children were being lured to take ‘courage-building pills’ and that sentences for convicted dealers were so light, a major backlash began. In 2000, the Minister for Youth and Sport said that drug users may be dealt with through street justice, thus giving official sanction to actions outside of the law. By 2001, at crossroads and entrances to all communities, residents hung banners with slogans such as ‘Destroy drug users and dealers’, ‘Drugs: Indonesia’s number one enemy’, ‘Drug-Free Community’, and ‘Death to all Drug Users and Dealers’. In 2002, a crowd of 2,000 Jakartans took an oath ‘to wage war against the distribution and abuse of drugs’.
I think two things: one, Corby is more likely a stupid woman who got greedy and is being punished vastly out of proportion for the crime she has been convicted of.
Two: I think the Australian campaign for her release has done more harm than good. She was caught with dope in her property. People go to jail for that. Australians are screaming about how unfair her trial was, and it may well not have been fair, but to be honest, a US trial would have ended the same way, with a conviction. Without a way to reasonably blame someone for the drugs in property she owned, I can't see how she walks away in the US, forget Indonesia. Conspiracies without facts is not a reasonable explaination. The case is simple: a woman is stopped with drugs on her property. Her defense is that they were planted. Yet, the defense offers no firm evidence of this conspiracy, despite a national upheaval and $1m on the table.
But in all the uproar, no one explained to the Australians how tricky a political issue drugs are in Indonesia. Indonesia is racked with a drug crisis it cannot solve and is emulating the worst of the US policies. There is evidence of widespread corruption, yet a need for the government to be doing something. So they can make Schapelle Corby a big, fat example. They have all the drug dealers they need. They don't need young Westerners on the make to cut into their business and spread drugs even more.
No one ever commits a crime thinking they will be caught and punished. But what exactly does the Australian public want? A lower sentence? Outright release?
What is the Indonesian government, as corrupt as it is, supposed to do when someone is caught smuggling red handed and then offers hearsay evidence as a defense. Even the Australian police cannot tie the drug ring to Corby's property and they clearly had every incentive to do so.
Make no mistake, I think 20 years is horrible for such a silly, ill-thought out mistake. Two would be fine. But her defense isn't credible. She has no proof her story is anything more than just that. In that case, what is the Indonesian government supposed to do? Take her word for it?
Oh yeah, here are the other Australians awaiting trial and disposition of sentence:
* Andrew Chan, arrested April 17, 2005 and awaiting trial * Si Yi Chen, arrested April 17, 2005 and awaiting trial * Schapelle Corby - sentenced on May 27 2005 to 20 years imprisonment for drug trafficking of 4.1kg of cannabis * Chris Currell, 37 on March 21 2005 sentenced to 6 months imprisonment for planning to export 70,000+ pseudo-ephedrine pills to Australia * Michael Czugaj, arrested April 17, 2005 and awaiting trial * Tach Duc, arrested April 17, 2005 and awaiting trial * Massimo Mancini, arrested December 2004 for possession of 1g heroin * Thanh Nguyen, arrested April 17, 2005 and awaiting trial * Matthew Norman, arrested April 17, 2005 and awaiting trial * Chris Packer, arrested for failing to declare firearms, released * Scott Rush, arrested April 17, 2005 and awaiting trial * Andrew Say, arrested, for possession of 60g of marijuana * Martin Stephens, arrested April 17, 2005 and awaiting trial * Myuran Sukumaran, arrested April 17, 2005 and awaiting trial * Chris Wardill, 27, arrested December 2004 for possession of four ecstasy pills
There's a line from Risky Business: "never fuck with a man's livelihood". Seems Daniel Okrent has done just that
In Daniel Okrent's parting shot as public editor of The New York Times, he levied a harsh charge against me: he said that I have "a disturbing habit of shaping, slicing and selectively citing numbers in a fashion that pleases his acolytes but leaves him open to substantive assaults."
He offered no examples of my "disturbing habit," and maybe I should stop there: surely it's inappropriate for the public editor to attack the ethics of one of the paper's writers without providing any supporting evidence. He responded to my request for examples with criticisms of specific columns. Those criticisms were simply wrong: in each of those columns I played entirely fair with my readers, using the standard data in the standard way.
That should be the end of the story.
I want to go back to doing what I have been doing all along: using economic data to inform my readers.
PAUL KRUGMAN Princeton, N.J., May 24, 2005
Did he think he would let a slur on his reputation pass unnoticed? Or unresponded to? Okrent is a coward and a hack for the approach he took, but the major error he made was to attack Krugman's main area of expertise.
Ok, take the blogosphere's favorite economist, Atrios. Now, I can say his cats are ugly and he has a funny haircut and sleep soundly. But if I say he lied using economic figures, I damn well better have proof. Why? Because he's a trained economist and I'm attacking his reputation in a defamatory way if I can't.
Krugman makes his living as an economist. To accuse him of using false or fraudulent figures could be considered defamatory, and if proven, be grounds for dismissal from both the New York Times and Princeton. After all, tenure doesn't protect fraud, does it?
Now, I think Okrent was fed that horseshit by Krugman's wingnut enemies. But they aren't the ones who are going to be sued for defamation of character.
I cannot understand someone who is given a position of public trust using it in a way to settle scores. I usually don't buy the jealousy angle, but I think Okrent resented that Krugman is wildly popular and he was scorned by many.
Now, if he said Krugman was a shitty cook and would starve without his wife, fine. True or not, it's an opinion. But when you accuse a professional of acting in an unethical and possibly dismissable way, you better have a ton of proof. Because if Krugman sends a demand letter, Okrent should be really fast in signing it. Because it is obvious he was talking out of his ass.
The Times editors should have also made Okrent give examples to prove, both this attack and the equally unfair attack on Dowd. Letting him run that column without a response was grossly unfair to two of the best writers at the Times.
By Kirstin Downey Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, May 28, 2005; Page A01
More than a third of the mortgages written in the Washington area this year are a risky new kind of loan that lets borrowers pay back only the interest, delaying for years repayment of any loan principal. Economists warn that the new loans are essentially a gamble that home prices will continue to rise at a brisk pace, allowing the borrower to either sell the home at a profit or refinance before the principal payments come due.
The loans are attractive because their initial monthly payments are tantalizingly low -- about $1,367 a month for a $320,000 mortgage, compared with about $1,842 a month for a traditional 30-year, fixed-rate loan. If home prices fall, though, borrowers could lose big.
"It's a game of musical chairs," said Allen J. Fishbein, director of housing and credit policy at the Consumer Federation of America. "Somebody is going to have the chair pulled out from under them when they find prices have leveled out and they try to sell, only to find they can't sell for what they paid for it."
About 54 percent of home buyers in the District purchased their homes using interest-only loans so far this year, according to LoanPerformance, a San Francisco-based company that tracks loan originations nationwide. About one-third of buyers in Maryland and Virginia are buying with interest-only loans.
Just five years ago, only about 2 percent of home-purchase loans in the Washington area involved interest-only terms.
Mark Zandi, chief economist of Economy.com, said buyers are turning to interest-only loans because real estate has become so expensive -- but that real estate is becoming so expensive partially because of the use of these new products.
"It largely reflects the inability of families to afford a home with a plain-vanilla mortgage," Zandi said. "This is a way for people to get into what are extremely expensive homes."
The bubble is back.
People are now taking financial risks which cannot be supported.
And I would bet many of these people are speculators looking for a quick turn around.
So when the bubble bursts, as it eventually will, people will be forced into bankruptcy
SYDNEY (AFP) - Australia's leaders have warned retaliation against Indonesians over Schapelle Corby's conviction for drug smuggling would not be tolerated, as experts predict the case will test recently-improved ties between Canberra and Jakarta.
There was public outrage in Australia at the 27-year-old beauty therapist's conviction and 20-year jail sentence for smuggling 4.1 kilograms (nine pounds) of marijuana into the resort island of Bali last October on a flight from Brisbane.
Australian television networks broadcast the court's judgement live, focussing on the weeping face of Corby who, opinion polls show, is believed to be innocent by more than 90 percent of Australians.
Police heightened security around Indonesian diplomatic mission in Australia ahead of the verdict.
After the judgement was announced, Greens senator Bob Brown organised a protest outside the Indonesian embassy in Canberra and talkback radio lines were clogged with callers saying they would boycott Indonesian products and no longer holiday in Bali.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said public concern about the conviction should not spill over into attacks on Indonesians because a backlash would be counterproductive.
"Indonesian staff should not be threatened, Indonesian government officials should not be abused or threatened," he told reporters. "To do that type of thing is entirely counter-productive.
"There is a long way to go in this case and overreactions of one kind or another is not going to help at all."
..................... Downer said the Australian government would offer Corby's defence team the use of two senior lawyers who specialise in Asian law to assist in her appeal.
It will consider requests for cash to pay for the appeal.
Also, Australian officials would meet their Indonesian counterparts on June 6 to negotiate a prisoner transfer agreement that would allow Corby to serve her sentence in her homeland.
Downer said he had sympathy for Corby but he was relieved she had not been sentenced to death.
She claimed that someone put it in her bag, yet was nervous when she got searched. Right. More likely she was used as a mule by a boyfriend instead.
Western governments demanded South East Asian countries pass and enforce these laws after the Vietnam War to prevent the spread of drugs and smuggling. Yet, they only expected the laws to be enforced on Asians and go batshit when Westerners are facing these draconian laws.
Well did they think that these laws were never going to be used on Westerners? Of course Aussies believe she was framed or some such thing. Because they simply don't believe Indonesian law should apply to them any more than Americans believe Mexican law should apply to them.
The problem for Indonesia is that it is caught between two things: Western government demand for strict anti-drug policy and the rather relaxed attitude Westerners actually have towards drugs. And the Indonesians, being poor, need the funds to "fight" drugs and the tourist money. Schapelle Corby is caught between the two and may well pay for this with her life. The Indonesian government is appealing, as is their right, and may seek the death penalty.
Of course, there haven't been any wire service articles about how the Indonesians feel when their citizens are caught in Australia breaking the law.
Now, Canberra has to, after years of anti-immigrant sentiment, make a special case for Corby, when Indonesians in Australia have had no such help. Think some resentment might follow? I wonder how seriously Australians would take this if the situation was reversed.
May 28, 2005 -- Pakistani sailors asked cops for help locating a missing seaman — and found him in a Central Park jail cell last night, where he had been busted for allegedly assaulting a teenage girl.
Nadeem Ahmed, 30, turned up at the Central Park Precinct station house at 72nd Street after sexually assaulting a 14-year- old Massachusetts high-school student around 6 p.m., police said.
That's not what they promote as a Fleet Week activity.
Actually, that kind of incident is rare during Fleet Week. I guess he thought this was his chance to commit a crime and get away scot free.
By Walter Pincus Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, May 28, 2005; Page A01
Two Army analysts whose work has been cited as part of a key intelligence failure on Iraq -- the claim that aluminum tubes sought by the Baghdad government were most likely meant for a nuclear weapons program rather than for rockets -- have received job performance awards in each of the past three years, officials said.
The civilian analysts, former military men considered experts on foreign and U.S. weaponry, work at the Army's National Ground Intelligence Center (NGIC), one of three U.S. agencies singled out for particular criticism by President Bush's commission that investigated U.S. intelligence.
As long as you tell Bush what he wants to hear, you will be rewarded. So do you think Bush really understands the war in Iraq?
ATLANTA (AP) -- A homicide suspect who spent 56 hours perched on an 18-story construction crane was in custody early Saturday after police climbed the structure and arrested him, authorities said.
"Apparently, he was thirsty," police spokesman Sgt. John Quigley said.
The man, identified as Carl Edward Roland, got onto the crane around 5 p.m. Wednesday and told police he was thinking of killing himself by jumping, Quigley said.
Shortly after his arrest, police were still trying to determine how to get him down. "I'm not sure if he's coming willingly or if we have to strap him to something," Quigley said.
Roland, who was on the crane without food for more than two days, will be examined by a doctor before being released to authorities in Pinellas County, Fla.
Roland is wanted by the sheriff's department there in the death of ex-girlfriend Jennifer L. Gonzalez, 36, whose body found Tuesday. An arrest warrant affidavit accuses Roland of strangling Gonzalez and dumping her body in a pond behind the apartment complex where she lived
Well, he is presumed innocent, but then, he did quit his job and ask for a gun to kill her, according to the cops. Climbing up on a tower doesn't exactly make the case for innocence. Crazy Nancy was laughing her ass off over this. It seems crane man tied up traffic in Atlanta for two days.
A Yonkers mother whose soldier son was killed in Afghanistan is being denied membership to a group of moms of felled servicemen and women - because she's not a U.S. citizen.
American Gold Star Mothers, a 77-year-old, Washington-based organization, insisted yesterday that rules are rules.
But some veterans are so upset that a grieving mom would be excluded because of her citizenship that they've asked the Justice Department's civil rights division to investigate.
"I think a son is a son is a son and a mother is a mother is a mother," said Ben Spadaro of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2885 in Eastchester, who has championed the fight to change the group's rules. "I don't want to hurt anyone," he told the Daily News. "We're just a bunch of old men who want see a wrong righted."
Ligaya Lagman lost her son, Army Staff Sgt. Anthony Lagman, when he was killed during a firefight on March 18, 2004. He was 27.
........................... She also asked of Lagman: "Why wouldn't you want to became an American citizen?"
Lagman, who is caring for her husband who is sick with cancer, could not be reached for comment yesterday. But her surviving son, Chris, told Westchester's Journal News: "All she wants is recognition as the mother of this fallen soldier."
Lagman's denial by the group drew a stern rebuke from Rep. Eliot Engel (D-Westchester) who said excluding the Yonkers mom "smacks of xenophobia and is in stark contrast to what Ms. Lagman's son fought and died for."
OK, the rule was specifically created to exclude immigrant families. It was racist in intent. And it is a blight upon the organization that it remains. They wanted to exclude Catholic immigrants at first, then non-white immigrants later on.
I think the rule is going to change, because that comment from the Gold Star Mothers is telling. Her citizenship should not be an issue given her son's sacrifice as an American. Peter Jennings became an American citizen two years ago. People's reasons vary, but this is a rule which needs to end.
When stormtroopers have guns, everyone will have guns
This is from Corked Bats. It makes a point I have long believed.
Friday, May 27, 2005
Colonialism Ain't What It Used to Be
When the British decided to force "open the door" to trade with China in the mid-19th century, the traditional Chinese government had no guns. The Opium Wars were one-sided conflicts in which the British practiced "gunboat diplomacy"--send in the gunboats, shell, repeat and then force diplomatic concessions. And it worked. The Chinese government could not match the British Navy and was forced to make concessions in a series of treaties. The British got richer and more powerful. This kind of hard power was the advantage that European technological development had given the British as they built a vast empire during the 1800s, encountering people who had no guns across the globe.
This is just one illustration of just how much the world has changed since then (perhaps I am understating here): the European powers practiced a form of imperialism in the 19th Century in which many of their adversaries had no guns. During the twentieth century, we saw the end of the European empires as colony after colony revolted or was granted independence. In Indochina and then in Algeria for instance the French were defeated by the people they had previously occupied. Many historians site World War II as the major cause of the decline of the European ability to successfully defend their empires. The colonies became financially burdensome, especially as they drained military resources when they revolted.
But since the fall of these empires, another fact has been lurking under the surface--though popular media tends to focus on nukes, biological weapons, unmanned drones and other high-tech gadgets. The fact is that nearly everywhere you go on Earth, people now have guns. One report from 1997 claims that there exists one gun for every twelfth human being on the planet. The reason why this is significant is that whether you have unmanned drones, smart bombs, fly-by-wire, stealth airplanes etc or not, you probably do have lots of guns. And guns are still as lethal as ever for "boots on the ground," so they represent power if people have the will to use them. In other words, the technological gap has in a very practical sense shrunk between superpowers and underdeveloped countries.
With the pervasiveness of small arms worldwide, the possibility of a deadly insurgency emerging in any conflict is greatly increased (all you would need is the political will and a bit of networking to make it go). The key here is that it does not matter nearly as much now as it did back when we fought people without guns if the US military is far superior technologically than our enemies because if our presence is unpopular, they will be able to wage the kind of low-level insurgency that the Iraqis have managed--they can get guns. There are enough small arms in Iraq to keep the insurgency going for over a decade, according to Juan Cole.
I don't take this development to mean that we can never win a war in this new era of worldwide small arms, just that it makes the political/cultural components of conflicts so much more important than hard power and technological advantages. The politics frame the strategic situation. If we lose the politics, we risk losing the possibility of decisive military victory by inspiring violence from small arms-armed insurgents (which of course feeds back and hurts the politics). This is what I meant in part by talking about the "fundamental political dynamics" after the Iraqi election--I argued that we had lost the politics and therefore we have already lost the war. I think that subsequent events have fleshed out that view.
To me, the real "failure of imagination" on the part of the administration is one of the assumptions that led us to Iraq in the first place--that because of our technological superiority, we would be able to manage a 19th century-style expression of hard power and that we could fight a war for freedom while torturing prisoners even though small arms are pervasive worldwide. We would be wise to acknowlege that simple ass-kicking is no longer good enough to win wars; we must also win over the opinions of the occupied.
Fossils at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History have been used to prove the theory of evolution. Next month the museum will play host to a film intended to undercut evolution.
The Discovery Institute, a group in Seattle that supports an alternative theory, "intelligent design," is announcing on its Web site that it and the director of the museum "are happy to announce the national premiere and private evening reception" on June 23 for the movie, "The Privileged Planet: The Search for Purpose in the Universe."
The film is a documentary based on a 2004 book by Guillermo Gonzalez, an assistant professor of astronomy at Iowa State University, and Jay W. Richards, a vice president of the Discovery Institute, that makes the case for the hand of a creator in the design of Earth and the universe.
News of the Discovery Institute's announcement appeared on a blog maintained by Denyse O'Leary, a proponent of the intelligent design theory, who called it "a stunning development." But a museum spokesman, Randall Kremer, said the event should not be taken as support for the views expressed in the film. "It is incorrect for anyone to infer that we are somehow endorsing the video or the content of the video," he said.
The museum, he said, offers its Baird Auditorium to many organizations and corporations in return for contributions - in the case of the Discovery Institute, $16,000.
AAAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHH.
Are you fucking kidding me? Scientists need to scream bloody murder about this.
Is the Smithsonian's reputation worth $16,000?
Imagine this nonsense happening the American Museum of Natural History or British Museum.
Randall, of course they see it as support. Are you a fucking moron? These people live to wedge their way into organizations. They will use this against your work like a club.
This needs to become a major, major point of protest for the scientific community.
TELEVISION programmers are looking to make the Web a lot more like TV.
On Tuesday, the emerging-media group at Scripps Networks, part of the E. W. Scripps Company, plans to introduce an all-video Web site that will use programming from its Food Network, Fine Living, HGTV and DIY Network brands, as well as new clips.
A major advertiser in Scripps offline media, General Motors' GMC division, has paid for a video showroom on the site and a presence throughout it.
Others are likely to follow, as advertisers show a growing interest in the approach. "One of the biggest drivers for online advertising the first time was Web sites advertising on other Web sites," said Peter Petrusky, director for advisory services at PricewaterhouseCoopers. "This time it's being buoyed by the offline brand builders like Coke, Honda, Nike, Visa and Nestlé."
Alexia S. Quadrani, a senior managing director at Bear Stearns who follows the publishing and advertising industries, predicted more traditional publishers would follow the lead of Scripps. "You are seeing a lot more content go online because there is a demand for it," she said.
Web video - once too halting to bother with - is much easier to look at now, as high-speed Internet access spreads.
More than 34 million homes in the United States, representing 29.9 percent of households, had broadband connections last year, according to eMarketer, an online research provider. By 2008, eMarketer projects, broadband will be in 69.4 million homes, or 56.3 percent of households.
Web surfers have proved their willingness to watch live sports online for more than an hour at a time, said Bart Feder, president and chief executive at FeedRoom, a provider of broadband video technology to clients like NBC, Reuters and Telemundo.
The people who visit a Telemundo site to find video synopses of its Spanish-language telenovela soap operas watch for an average of 20 minutes at a time, he said. "That suggests that the quality is such that people are very happy to consume video content on their computers," Mr. Feder said.
Here we go again.
First, I wouldn't trust eMarketer for shit.
Second, they wanted to do this before and it crashed. The penetration still isn't wide enough nor is video good enough to make this work.
Gov. Bob Taft of Ohio has distanced himself from a Republican fund-raiser after a scandal involving rare coins and workers' compensation.
By JAMES DAO Published: May 28, 2005
COLUMBUS, Ohio, May 27 - For nearly a decade, Thomas Noe has been the Republican Party's man to see in northwest Ohio, a confidant of governors and a prodigious fund-raiser for legislators, judges and just about every Republican statewide elected official.
James Conrad, above, resigned as head of the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation this week. The bureau made two $25 million investments in rare-coin funds held by Thomas Noe, a prominent fund-raiser.
He also happened to be a dealer in rare coins. And in 1998, the Ohio Workers' Compensation Bureau agreed to invest in a rare-coin fund that he controlled as a way to hedge its holdings in stocks and bonds, an investment that experts have called highly unorthodox.
But this week, Mr. Noe's lawyers said that as much as $13 million of the state's $50 million investment in his two funds could not be accounted for. Mr. Noe, meanwhile, has become the focus of at least six investigations or audits involving either his handling of the coin investments or his campaign fund-raising. Federal investigators are also looking into his contributions to President Bush's 2004 campaign as a "Pioneer," raising more than $100,000.
And suddenly, Republicans who once stood staunchly at Mr. Noe's side, and at his fund-raising parties, cannot seem to run from him fast enough.
"I am outraged, angered, saddened, and I'm sickened by what we learned yesterday from Mr. Noe's attorney," Gov. Bob Taft said on Friday about the revelation of the missing millions. "If he is guilty of criminal conduct, he should receive the most severe punishment possible." ..............................
The three Republicans trying to replace Mr. Taft in next year's election - Auditor Betty Montgomery, Attorney General Jim Petro and Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell - have all received thousands of dollars from Mr. Noe and his wife, Bernadette, in recent years, according to state campaign records. All three have opened audits or investigations into Mr. Noe's coin funds or campaign contributions.
And on Friday, Mr. Blackwell called for the federal Justice Department to take control of the investigations, suggesting that his rivals, Mr. Petro and Ms. Montgomery, are too close to Mr. Noe to investigate him.
"This growing and disgraceful scandal reaches into the highest levels of our government," Mr. Blackwell, who has received more than $3,500 from the Noes since 1995, said in a statement. Spokesmen for Ms. Montgomery and Mr. Petro said they have pursued their investigations as aggressively as possible and said that any contributions from Mr. Noe would not cloud their objectivity.
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Ah, but when Rastus was asked about this insane investment, he said it was okay dokey with him.
Let me boil it down to simplicities here: investing in coins is risky and generally unwise. For the state to invest in them is simply crony capitalism. It should have never been permitted and the state officials here violated their fiduciary duty by investing in them. The feds should be investigating them as well as Noe. And Rastus is just as guilty as the rest of them for this hairbrained investment scheme.
There is no reason ANY state money should have been invested in coins, physical coins. Unorthodox is a kind word for fucked up.
Now, she had planned to go to the Cooper-Hewitt museum, which is close to my house, but then she changed her mind.
This was not my idea. I'd been on the Intrepid and a carrier is a carrier.
I'd seen the sailors wandering around, looking for booze and women (men) and shopping (women, married people). The thing which surprises me, even though I know it's true, was the age of the sailors. They are so young. It's like you just walked into a high school or something. The Marines looked even younger.
I like the sailors when they're tourists, because most of them have never been to a city the size of New York, the trip here is a highlight of their cruise. And the one's I've talked to in the past are always jazzed to be here.
Every year, the Navy holds Fleet Week in New York, so the sailors can see the city, the city can see the sailors, and it kicks off the summer. Actually, it's the meeting of horny teenage boys and eager adults. And with don't ask, don't tell, sailors flood the West Village looking for drinks, only drinks. They barely notice the lack of women in said bars.
If you're drinking this weekend in Manhattan, you will trip over teenaged sailors. If you're interested, some may even go home with you. Horny beats picky every time. Usually, bar owners let the kids drink. And they are kids. The age of these Marines and sailors is going to surprise you when and if you see them.
So, I got to the dock and went though the security check. The big thing was turning off cell phones and no bottles. The same security check I used to go through when I was going to the VA, so I knew the drill. Dump out your pockets, drop the metal, let the SP wave a wand over you.
The ship is berthed a dock usually used for cruise ships, so you go upstairs, and there are Seabees doing Port Security and Shore Patrol and some US Marshals.
As you walk to the ships, people are selling t-shirts, and various Naval branches are showing off their wares.
The Navy SEALS had their sniping rifles, if you want to see a Barrett and live in NY, this is your chance. But what caught me was the kid handling the supressed USG 23 pistol. He was about 11-12 and this was the coolest thing he'd ever done. The other weapons were pained desert tan, so they'd been fired at some point.
The SEALS were eager to explain their jobs.
As were the Marines on the flight hanger deck.
Usually, there is only a security detachment on a carrier, but the Marines bought their gear. A M198 howitzer, AMTRAC, some trucks, and for the kids, M-16's, armored vests, and machine guns. I asked the Marine standing by the GPMG if he was a gunner. But he was a radio operator instead. I didn't handle it, I did handle the M203. Make no mistake, real guns are heavy. As the kids found out.
Because there were a lot of kids. Kids and older adults. Not a lot of people my and Jen's age. A lot of former sailors and Marines. a lot of families, but few of emlistment age to 40.
As anyone who has been on aflight hanger deck can tell you, it is a large, large space. Usually jammed with aircraft, but empty today.
I sat in the AMTRAC for a while as kids clambored on and off. Little kids, toddlers. All I could think of was the WaPo reporter and how she'd just gotten out of one of them before the Iraqis blew it to shit. I cannot imagine the noise and heat of one in Iraq. But it is smaller than you think. As I sat there, all I could think was that people were in one of these for real today.
All the Marines killing tools were there. Mortars, machine guns. I saw a kid in a Humvee behind a .50 cal.
You got up to the flight deck by using the flight elevator.
Like everything else on a carrier, it's an operation. A group of us would walk on, the sailors would make sure that we didn't lean on the decorative Belgian gates, because they were there to keep people from the edge, not stop them from falling.
There was a little bump on the ride up, but it was a pretty smooth ride. I had hesitated for a moment, then I realized they bring up F-18's every day on this thing. As I stood there, I saw Jen's head on the flight deck. She yelled for me and I waved. When I got there, we walked around the flight deck and I showed her some of the planes and helicopters. We went on a CH-53 and a former sailor explained the need for seatbelts.
All of these vehicles are a LOT smaller in real life than they seem on TV. They are cramped and dingy, and filled with equipment. They may cost a million or more, but they look, at least on the inside, like a hooptie.
As we left, I explained to Jen how I felt.
"Let's get the fuck out of here, it's depressing."
"Why?"
"Because some of these kids are going back to Iraq."
She agreed. As we walked to the other flight elevator, I said, "Why the fuck did you want to come here? I know it's not something I would have done."
"Oh," she said "I remember the Kennedy from when it came into New York Harbor after 9/11"
That was a very good reason for me.
Everyone was polite, a lot nicer than the rent a cops in Cleveland, Jen said.
I think anyone who thinks of these people as some kind of robot killing machines need to see them in action. They need to see them talk to kids and explain their jobs. Most of all, they need to see how young they are, how very young.
I have a feeling of guilt after going to the Kennedy. That somehow, we let these people down. That we didn't do enough to protect them. It was an odd feeling, but one I had all the same.
The whole vibe was creepy, kids handling guns, kids in uniform. If Bush had a consicence it would bother him to send these kids to war for a lie.
Continuing a trend of writing blog posts criticizing people who I'm soon going to be collaborating with (more on that later, as the kids say). By way of introducing my criticism, let me say that I really like the conclusion of Kenny Baer's latest New Republic column:
Bush and the GOP provide that vision: the terrorists are evil; democracies are good; America will defeat evil and support and spread good. It's simple, but extraordinarily compelling, especially to pro-Israel voters. Strategically, the Democratic answer to Bush's idealism can't be realpolitik (after all, these voters know that interests can change more easily than beliefs). Ideologically, it's not the answer either. Democrats have fought for generations to bring values into the practice of foreign policy, from Wilson trying to make the world safe for democracy to Truman's stand against Soviet expansion and Clinton's launching an air war to stop a genocide in the Balkans--and shouldn't allow Republicans to take that mantle. Democrats need to remember that for decades they have been able to speak to Americans' deep sense that we are a unique "city on a hill" and a "light unto the nations." Democrats must reclaim that heritage and make the case that Republicans have undermined America's moral standing (and, by extension, our security) both in the world and at home. If they do that, Democrats not only will win over security voters of all faiths and win elections, but they also could once again become the automatic choice of the chosen people.
That is what Democrats should do. But in the broader context of the column, Baer offers a very strange reason for doing it -- that this step is necessary to halt the erosion of Jewish support for the Democratic Party. All else being equal, of course, halting said erosion is a good thing. But it'd be mighty odd to orient one's entire approach to national security for that reason. Among other things, erosion of Jewish support for Democrats isn't really a huge problem. The areas where Baer sees it happening -- New York City, Northern New Jersey, some inner NYC suburbs -- just aren't vulnerable terrain. It's almost impossible to imagine a scenario where Democrats lose an election because they lost New York (which is to say that if they lose New York, they'll have lost enough other stuff that winning New York wouldn't have won the election). The reason to do what Baer suggests is that it's right on the merits.
Politics and policy aside, I think those of us who'd classify ourselves as being among the more "hawkish" brand of liberals have a media strategy problem. Roughly speaking, a lot of Democratic voters don't like us very much. What we need to do is convince more liberals that they should like us. That means spending more time trying to convince liberals of the merits of our views, and less time re-enforcing the impression that we're just opportunists searching for votes out there in some ill-defined center. Give the people a convincing argument for a plausible hawkish policy (Kosovo, for example) and plenty of liberals will come along for the party.
Let me start by saying that I like Big Media Matt. He's a nice kid. But he's wrong, talking out of his ass actually.
Matt, if you are "hawkish", I think there are recruiting station in Boston Common, Times Square and off the Mall in DC. Any one will accept your enlistment. Because if you are going to support interventions, you need to get your ass in the Army and support it as an 11B. This is real life. You can sit on your ass and proclaim policy and not be taken seriously, or you can get a commission, lead a platoon for a couple of years and have real world experience. Because, otherwise, you are pretty much a chickenhawk suggesting poor people die for your ideas. And I think you're smarter and better than that.
Kenny Baer is an idiot. I would suggest that he read Russell Weigley and Williamson Murray before putting pen to paper. Then for light reading, some Stephen Ambrose, maybe toss in Ronald Spector.
Then, when finished, read Hackworth's full bio, Andrew Krepenivich, Andrew Bacievich and Patrick Cockburn.
When finished, he should end his reading with Daniel Yergin's The Prize.
Why? Because he knows fuck all about the military, forget strategy. Baer could be talking about his period for all his supposed knowledge.
First of all, Jews are not a monolith and all the Jews who want to live in Israel live there. The AIPAC crowd dominates Washington, but they have little sway in New York. We see nuance here and there are more than one opinion on Israel.
Second, "security" Dems need to state the obvious: Bush's policies have failed. Thay have made the country far more dangerous than need be. By their racism and imperialism, they have made the US far less secure. The US needs a very different and cooperative military, and one with radically new weapons to meet a new threat, light infantry armies mobile in light vehicles. We need a radical rethink of how we fight wars.
You need to cut the bullshit out about National Service and the disguised draft. You aren't sending your kids to Ft. Leonard Wood under ANY circumstance you can avoid. Stop seeking to send the poor there. America has had a draft for about 43 years of it's existance. That's it. Raise the pay, lessen the impact of IRR and improve family lives and once the war is over, people will join again.
Matt, there is NO plausible reason for a hawkish policy and if you think Kosovo is it, you're wrong. We were stopping a civil war between the drug funded KLA and the criminal Serbs. It took the better part of a decade to get to that point. Bosnia was turned into an abettoir before the US jumped in. We watched people bring concentration camps back to central Europe before we dropped a bomb. And then we moved with our allies.
The reason most Democratic voters don't like you is because you seem to keep finding ways to get their kids killed while sitting behind a desk. Ever been in a VA hospital? Well, that's where the victims of your ideas wind up.
American troops need a mission where there are three goals:
1) Stop agression Aggression is destabilizing to US economic and foreign policy. Stopping it is not acting as the world's policeman, but ensuring peace and stability when needed
2) Peacekeeping The US needs to take an active role in peacekeeping and ensuring that peacekeepers have the force needed to quell disputes.
3) Logistical support for other militaries The US has the ability to move other armies to trouble spots without risking massive loss of US life, and not taking a role in regional conflicts where we have no major stake.
The Democratic hawks are fools trying to sell an already discreted package. I don't want to emulate a failed foriegn policy which going to destroy the US Army twice in 30 years. Why would anyone want to say we have a varient of that utter and complete failure.
Democrats have to define national security as prosperity at home and alliances abroad, with an army which is trained and equipped to fight the next war, not the last one.
Republican foreign policy has been all talk and failure. Do Israelis sleep secure at night? Do Iranians have free and fair elections? Is Cuba a democracy?
All GOP failed policies. Every one.
We talk big, and for the most part, people run. But when they don't, like the NVA and the Iraqis, they find out we do not have the will they do. And one hopes that the Iranians don't find this out the hard way. Or the US soldiers in Iraq.
American foreign policy needs to be smarter, for one thing. We have to be serious members of the world community. We cannot pick and choose to join the ICC and the Kyoto protocols. We need to be credible, in word and deed. We need to stand behind our ideals, like closing Guantanmo and using the Internation Criminal Court, to endorse them, to bolster them.
Swinging dick imperialism is advocated by those who will never be at the sharp end of it. We need more friends. Friends who will disuade our enemies from attacking us, by standing side by side with us, as they did after 9/11. We need to be honest brokers, as willing to respect Islam as we do Christianity.
Stephen Ambrose described the American Army of 1945 thusly: "Whenever someone saw an American helmet, that meant they were free". That is the greatest legacy of the US Army in World War II, that when American troops rolled in a German or Italian town, or Okinawan village, that we were there to do more than kill and destroy, but to help. That Filipinos, Karens and Kachins, and Yugoslav partisans could fight side by side with us, knowing we had no designs on their land or people and only wanted them to share the freedom we were fighting and dying for.
It was not perfect. It was not ideal. But as we brought home the POW's and liberated concentration camps, we knew what we had done was right, without question or hesitation.
Imperialism is fool's gold. The worst war the US fought until Vietnam was the Conquest of the Philippines. We murdered and raped and pillaged to subject them for over three years. Now forgotten, it is one of the darkest legacies of US military and foriegn policy.
I am for a strong, effective foriegn policy, which not only includes allies and respect for human rights, but an Army which is trained and equipped to fight effectively, one where soldiers do not get loans for armored vests, do not uparmor their vehicles with "hillbilly armor" found in Iraqi scrapyards and coated with god knows what chemicals. Or field expedient gun trucks. Soldiers who do not fire with abandon with rifles which may jam.
The Group of Soviet Forces Germany is a memory. Why do we still train to fight it? A real foreign policy, a real, tough, democratic policy would build on success, not failure, call the GOP policy for what it is, a quagmire, not only in Iraq, but North Korea, Iran, the West Bank.
The time has come to call the GOP policy for the fraud it is and frame "toughness" as a way to promote and protect this country without claiming an imperial right. The right has failed and the left needs to state that and offer real, credible alternatives.
Measuring the Impact of Blogs Requires More Than Counting May 26, 2005
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First, let's step back and consider why we're counting blogs at all. You no longer see articles that attempt to demonstrate the legitimacy of the Web by stating how many Web pages there are. But blogs are still in the process of entering mainstream consciousness, so numerical credibility is important; bloggers themselves cite the statistics a lot.
It turns out that counting blogs isn't as hard as counting Web pages. When writers who use common blogging software want their blogs to be publicized, they choose to automatically "ping" computer servers for companies like Technorati Inc. (www.technorati.com) and Intelliseek's BlogPulse (www.blogpulse.com), whose goal is to measure and index blogs. Then Web users can go to those companies' Web sites and run searches to find blogs that have written about topics they're interested in. BlogPulse now indexes about 11 million blogs world-wide; Technorati, about 10 million. Over the past six months, both have seen a doubling in the number of blogs on the Internet.
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Pinning Down Readership
The number of blogs doesn't tell us much about the medium's relevance. How many people are reading blogs?
In a telephone survey of U.S. Internet users last fall, the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that 27% of respondents said they read blogs. (Users were asked: "Please tell me if you ever do any of the following when you go online. ... Do you ever read someone else's web log or blog?") But in the same survey, Pew asked: "In general, would you say you have a good idea of what the term Internet 'blog' means, or are you not really sure what the term means?" Just 38% of Internet users answered "yes." Of the 27% who said they read blogs, about 40% answered "no" to the blog-awareness question.
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In an update to the survey earlier this year, Pew reported that 25% of Internet users said they read blogs -- a small decrease from the 2004 results. The blog-awareness question wasn't asked that time around. Multiplying the results with Pew's estimate for the total number of Americans online yields an estimate of about 32 million American adults who read blogs. That number is frequently cited in press coverage of blogs.
How Important Are They?
Even if millions of Americans read blogs, there are very few individual blogs that have a significant number of readers. Several Web sites attempt to rank blogs for popularity, but it's not always clear how they arrive at their numbers.
Little Green Footballs (littlegreenfootballs.com) -- Charles Johnson's conservative blog that rose to the top echelon of blogs with its coverage of CBS's flawed report on President Bush's National Guard service -- is ranked No. 4 in rankings published on The Truth Laid Bear, a site often monitored by bloggers. But Little Green Footballs is 12th on Technorati's top 100 list. Both rankings evaluate blogs based on how often they are linked to by other Web sites, though Truth Laid Bear limits its universe to an "ecosystem" of about 23,000 blogs, thereby diminishing the number of blogs in contention and the number of incoming links.
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ComScore Media Metrix and Neilsen//NetRatings are the sources most often used by online advertisers to track unique visitors. Neither tracks blogs as a matter of course, though comScore did look up traffic for 13 prominent blogs in April, upon my request (I picked ones from the top of the various rankings). Just five met the company's minimum threshold for statistical significance of about 150,000 monthly visitors. Media and gossip site Gawker had the most, with 304,000 unique visitors. The others that cleared the cut: Defamer (287,000), Boing Boing (250,000), Daily Kos (212,000) and Gizmodo (209,000). Among those that didn't were prominent political blogs Instapundit, Power Line and Eschaton. (I asked NetRatings about the same 13 blogs, and it had reportable data only for Defamer, Daily Kos, Boing Boing and Gizmodo -- and the sample sizes didn't meet standards for statistical significance.)
ComScore and NetRatings both recruit panels of online users who agree to install software that monitors their behavior. The companies use sampling techniques similar to those of political pollsters.
By point of comparison, comScore says the New York Times's Web site had 29.8 million unique visitors in April.
The point is missed with all these numbers. It doesn't matter who reads the Times as much as who reads Harpers and National Review. It is the demographics and not the number of readers which matter. And for blogs, those numbers are higher than the Times and the magazines of opinion. Who is the thing which is going to sell adspace, not raw reader numbers. Because the difference is stark enough to interest ad buyers because of the demos, even if the raw numbers tend to be small.
Dadahead raises a point about profitability, but one of his comments raises a question: if blogs make money, what makes you any different than a freelancer.
I would hope nothing, except not dealing with an editor and deadlines. I would hope more professional writers would turn to blogs and would be able to get paid for their work. Blogging is just a tool, not a way of life. If the money is there, professionals will become bloggers.
By STEPHEN WADE, AP Sports Writer Thu May 26, 1:54 PM ET
LONDON - English soccer officials are pressing European soccer's governing body to allow Liverpool to defend its Champions League title next season.
Liverpool beat AC Milan 3-2 on penalty kicks Wednesday night in Istanbul, Turkey, after trailing 3-0 at halftime, for its fifth victory in Europe's most prestigious club competition — and first in 21 years.
Under UEFA's rules, Liverpool doesn't qualify for the tournament next season. The Reds finished fifth in England's Premier League, and only the top four teams qualify — Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester United and Liverpool's bitter crosstown rival, Everton.
"Liverpool are the European champions and we believe as European champions they should get the chance to play in the Champions League next season," England Football Association chief executive Brian Barwick said Thursday. "This is a difficult situation, but we had an extraordinary match, it's thrown up an extraordinary issue and it needs an extraordinary solution."
UEFA spokesman William Gaillard said he doesn't expect the qualifying rules to be changed.
"We cannot change the rules in the middle of the season," he said in a BBC radio interview. "We cannot take a team from another country out of the direct qualification because we would like to put in a fifth English team."
However, UEFA president Lennart Johansson said earlier this month that Liverpool could get a wild-card berth if it won the Champions League. UEFA's executive committee meets on June 17-18 in Manchester, England, to discuss the matter.
I think everyone wants to see Liverpool defend their title for a couple of reasons, one it's important to have a virbrant Liverpool for the EPL and Europe. Two, it is simply a good story with a great narrative.
HELSINKI (Reuters) - Shoppers in Finland raided shelves for toilet paper Wednesday in fear of it running out as a lockout of workers kept the Nordic country's paper mills shut.
"As soon as we get a delivery, the packages vanish off the shelves. The big bags go first," said Hille Laine, manager of a central Helsinki shop which had no tissue paper products left.
Paper makers enforced a four-week lockout on May 18 following a two-day strike by workers.
Estonians, Swedes, guard your toilet paper, the Finns are coming.
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Two American soldiers were killed Thursday night when their helicopter was shot down near Baghdad, while another chopper was hit but landed safely, the U.S. military said.
The two pilots were the only ones aboard their aircraft when it went down, said Capt. Patricia Brewer, a military spokeswoman in Baghdad. She said their bodies have been recovered.
The two Task Force Liberty helicopters were struck by small arms fire at 10:50 p.m. after responding to troops in contact with enemy forces near Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, the military said
My younger brother, 40, is an anxious, depressed social recluse. He lives with his dog in a basement apartment alone. He never answers his phone. He only returns calls if it's urgent. He is getting more obese by the day, smokes and hacks and coughs, may be drinking. He now smells, doesn't cut his hair. He's so anxious, he'll do anything to avoid discussing real issues (his) and talks only about superficial things. ...............
From almost the day after their marriage, my brother seemed to abdicate and begin retreating. He didn't seem to worry anymore about putting effort into being positive, energetic, doing things. He became a lazy, withdrawn and bitchy guy who saw his work as his main obligation. True, his work required a lot of social energy; it required interacting with a lot of people; but he didn't seem to have anything left for his wife. After years of this and a general decline that saw him more and more withdrawn -- never returning calls to family or friends, so that eventually he had no friends left -- his wife left him. A week or two later, our father, whom he also neglected over the past years, died; months later, he was fired. ...............
Big Sis
______
Dear Big Sis,
What strikes me about your brother is that within a matter of months he lost his wife, his father and his job. That would be a setback for anyone. Some people would bounce back fairly soon. They would get another job and work through their loneliness and grief on their own time. Others might be seriously shaken, but would at least maintain their standard of living and basic hygiene. He went into a tailspin. I wonder why.
It could be that he is clinically depressed. If at all possible, have him examined. The stress of events may have triggered an episode. But I must be careful with such speculation; not only am I unqualified to diagnose, but as a writer, my bias is toward meaning, not pathology. So perhaps this is not illness at all. Perhaps it is a kind of journey
Journey? Yeah, like open heart surgery is a new weight loss program.
He's suffering from clinical depression. He needs help, medical intervention.
You can read the rest of Tennis's nonsense if you want, but this is just fucked that his editors don't demand he actually talk to a mental health professional before writing one word. Journey? Is he a fucking idiot? My God, this is irresponsible advice.
Retired Army Lt. Col. Charles Krohn got himself in trouble with his superiors as a Pentagon civilian public affairs official during the first 3-1/2 years of the Bush administration by telling the truth. He is still at it in private life. He says not to blame the military recruiters for the current recruiting ''scandal.'' Blame the war.
''Army recruiting is in a death spiral, through no fault of the Army,'' Krohn told me. Always defending uniformed personnel, he resents hard-pressed recruiters being attacked for offering unauthorized benefits to make quotas. In a recent e-mail sent to friends (mostly retired military), Krohn complained that the ''Army is having to compensate for a problem of national scope.''
The Army's dilemma is maintaining an all-volunteer service when volunteering means going in harm's way in Iraq. The dilemma extends to national policy. How can the United States maintain its global credibility against the Islamists, if military ranks cannot be filled by volunteers and there is no public will for a draft?
Krohn's e-mail describes the problem: ''Consider the implications of being unable to find sufficient volunteers, as seen by our adversaries. Has the United States lost its will to survive? What's happened to the Great Satan when so few are willing to fight to defend the country? Surely bin Laden et al are making this argument, telling supporters victory is just around the corner if they are a bit more patient. And if they're successful, the energy sources in the Mideast may be within their grasp.''
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In contrast, Krohn is a lifelong Republican who actively supported George W. Bush's presidential candidacy in 2000. He specified in his e-mail that ''I'm not now blaming'' President Bush or Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for the situation. ''We have a problem that transcends politics,'' Krohn added.
...................... That means the problem goes beyond mechanics of recruiting and the details of volunteer service and is found in the war itself. Paraphrasing Rumsfelds' comment about going into battle with the Army we had, Charles Krohn said: ''The war we have now is not the war we started off with. It's much more serious.''
The root of this is simple: Bush never asked anyone for anything. Now, it's too late. If he had asked for enlistments after 9/11, he would have gotten them. He would have gotten that personal sacrifice. Now, it is far too late. The blame lies directly on Bush and Rumsfeld. They picked this war and they will have to deal with the consequences of it. Which is basically the end of American imperial power.
But the problem is that this isn't defending the country. It's a colonial war. And no one is running to fight that war.
Soldiers in a democracy can only be asked for so much. If this was about Afghanistan, these issues would not exist. No one is going to want their child to die or be crippled by an Iraqi IED.
The Army is running out of time. Months, not years. By next year, this will degrade the Army.
Recruiting abuses come from a reality that Wal Mart is now more appealing than two tours of Iraq. No one blows up an IED in Wal Mart.
Add on to that the problems vets have had upon return, and the Army is simply unappealing. It's even unappealing to Air Force and Navy personnel. The Blue to Green program is a failure, so much so you don't even hear about it.
This has nothing to do with this article, but it's a great picture I bet copies will be in the bedrooms of kids all over Liverpool, except those who root for Everton.
The good professor comments on blogs and ads. I'll discuss the article he refers to and my own thoughts later.
Carl Bialik of the WSJ has an article on attempts to count various things about web logs, including how many there are, how many Americans read them, how much they are linked to, and what their readership is. Many of these questions are driven by Madison Avenue (i.e. US advertising firms) who are interested in the medium's advertising potential.
As I see it, the problem for advertisers is that blogging appears to be a form of narrow-casting. They like broadcasting. You place an ad on even a low-ranking cable television show like Star Trek Enterprise (while it was still limping along) and about 3 million people see it every week. You place an ad on even a popular weblog like MyDD and Blogads says that it has 146,000 page views a week. (Technorati.com measures its popularity rather by looking at how many other blogs link to it.)
Many of the problems of measurement are probably intractable, but the advertising issue has already been solved by Henry Copeland of Blogads, with the concept of networked ads (which I prefer to call blog-casting). Any group of bloggers can set up a network, as the Liberal blogs have done. Altogether the Liberal Blog Advertising Network can provide an advertiser with a million or so page views a week in one fell swoop. The ads once taken out will appear on all the blogs maintained by members of the network, so they become a form of broadcasting, or blog-casting. Blog readership is demonstrably growing, and pretty soon such networks will be able to compete at least with cable television for ability to reach viewers.
Bialik says some advertisers want to measure unique hits rather than page views, because they don't want to pay for the same person to see the ad more than once in a week. Why? A weekly rate actually benefits advertisers. The ad is there continuously 24/7, rather than once for 30 seconds as in television, and it cannot be bad for readers to see it repeatedly. As for the page view issue, no one can be sure what it is measuring. Page views are counted every time a browser accesses a site (though at my server, my number for "referrals" or browsers coming to the site from elsewhere is higher than that for page views for some odd reason).
Lots of people read weblogs at university computer labs, internet cafes, or at offices with joint computers, so that one internet protocol number may in some cases actually represent several different persons over the day. Moreover, my understanding is that a lot of big service providers, such as Comcast, cache pages the first time they are accessed by a customer and thereafter tend to serve the page from their cache at their server, so that a lot of readers of a weblog may not reach all the way to the bloggers' original server, to be counted as a unique hit. And, it is now possible for readers to copy the entire page/entry and to email it as html, ads and all, to friends. A lot of that is done, and it is impossible to measure. Still, I think that between tools like technorati.com and counting page views, some estimation of advertiser value can be arrived at that will make the business model work.
Do I worry about blog advertising corrupting the medium?
Not very much.
In my view, corporate news media have been harmed by media consolidation (having only a few owners, all of them big wealthy corporations) far more than by advertising. It is an editorial decision whether to insist that the news division make 15 percent profit or whether to keep it as a loss leader. They had advertising in Bill Paley's day, too, but at that time CBS news was a big, relatively independent operation. If you have only 5 CEOs making that decision for virtually all television news, and if they are competitors, then there is a real danger that they will all sacrifice news to profit.
But because the price of entry is so low, you can never have ownership consolidation in weblogging. It will always be a distributed medium and therefore very difficult to control. If professional bloggers emerged who came to be unduly beholden to their advertisers and started not covering certain stories or spinning them for the sake of their sponsors, other non-professional bloggers would just step into the breach. If corporate media bought up a few big bloggers, they would still have to compete against literally millions of independents, and if any of the independents was providing what the audience wanted better, the traffic would shift to them. In the world of weblogging, any form of censorship actually creates opportunities for those immune to it.
Technical limitations and expense make it almost impossible for anyone now to start up a new 24 hour a day news channel. But anyone can start a blog. I expect journalist cooperatives (both professional and amateur) to emerge over time that do podcasting, and eventually webcasting with video, finally breaking the current semi-monopoly in broadcast news.
So it seems to me that blog-casting with regard to advertising, but retaining lots of independent blogs is the best of all possible worlds. And advertising blog-casting may finally begin addressing a key problem in the business model, which is that blog advertising rates are ridiculously low. Bloggers are essentially offering a front-page panel for what a small classified ad would cost in a small town newspaper, and the circulation rates may be similar.
Bill Maher now. And perhaps Jon Stewart next. I just get the feeling that the media suppression of Newsweek and others might even move to suppressing fake news, comedy shows, and cable tv. I read this transcript last week and was rolling. I can't imagine that this is "treasonous."
From the AP.
WASHINGTON (May 24) - A congressman says comedian Bill Maher's comment that the U.S. military has already recruited all the "low-lying fruit" is possibly treasonous and at least grounds to cancel the show.
Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., takes issue with remarks on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, first aired May 13, in which Maher points out the Army missed its recruiting goal by 42 percent in April.
"More people joined the Michael Jackson fan club," Maher said. "We've done picked all the low-lying Lynndie England fruit, and now we need warm bodies." ... "I think it borders on treason," Bachus said. "In treason, one definition is to undermine the effort or national security of our country."
In a statement released Monday night, Maher defended his support for the American armed forces.
"Anyone who knows anything about my views and has watched my show knows that I have nothing but the highest regard for the men and women serving this country around the world," Maher said in the statement.
Bachus said he was appalled after watching a rerun of the show shortly after returning from a visit to Germany, in which he met with a paralyzed American soldier in the hospital. He has since written to Time Warner, HBO's parent company.
"I don't want (Maher) prosecuted," Bachus said. "I want him off the air."
Congressman, how many of your relatives and friends have you encouraged to enlist?
You should be travelling your district and holding meetings with recruiters to help them get as many men and women as possible. If not, you are not serious about this issue. If you think enlistment is important, you should ask your supporters to send their children into the Armed Forces and to request duty in Iraq. Otherwise, what are you really saying? And I mean enlist immediately, quit their jobs, drop out of college, whatever they need to do to serve the country.
By LYNN ELBER, AP Television Writer 34 minutes ago
LOS ANGELES - Carrie Underwood, the country sweetheart who beguiled national television audiences with her strong voice and bright smile, is this year's "American Idol," defeating Southern rocker Bo Bice in the show's finale Wednesday night.
The Oklahoma native received more viewer votes than runner-up Bice, of Alabama, after Tuesday's final round, snaring the title and a record contract.
A tearful Underwood choked out a brief "thank you," then spoke with a song. She reprised "Inside Your Heaven," which both she and Bice performed in Tuesday's final round. The judges thought Bice outsang her; the voting audience obviously disagreed.
A 22-year-old college senior, Underwood became the talk of her hometown of Checotah — and the choice of fourth-season "Idol" voters — as she delivered almost uniformly consistent performances each week.
"She has more of the star quality," said Cindy Monteleone of Chicago, who was among hundreds of people who dropped by the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood to watch former "American Idol" contestants arrive for the show's taping.
I watched the rebroadcast of the Liverpool-AC Milan game instead. That was high drama.
But I wanted to post this because both candidates sucked.
They were mediocre talents at best, and neither could carry a tune.
Bo Bice was ridiculous, not vaguely, oddly ridiculous, but a very ridiculous clown who looked like he stepped out of 1973, but without the chops or talent of Three Dog Night.
Carrie Underwood is a tuneless singer who should have a hard time making a career in country, where singing is actually required.
I know it's as much about image, but the lack of talent, wedding singers at best, was surprising. When people are one range singers, they should lose. But the lack of musical education is so profound, people just accept what is placed in front of them as music, without any knowledge of what truly talented people can do when challenged.
After the invasion, Iraq was flooded with Bibles and U.S. citizens teaching the Iraqis the errors of their ways. They would save the morally-corrupt Iraqis and get them away from their religion of Islam.
The missionaries have paid a price. In March 2004, four U.S. Baptist missionaries were killed in Iraq. The following month, seven South Korean Presbyterians were kidnapped, but eventually released. Two months later, a South Korean evangelical Christian was beheaded.
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Let me highlight a few statements made from its "Bibles for the Middle East" section:
* People in this part of the world are desperate for such materials. 2004 was declared the Year of the Bible throughout the Arab world and interest is high. Thousands of people are seeking to receive a copy of the Bible.
* So, with a new year before us and so many opportunities on the horizon, would you consider a gift of $50 to get 25 Bibles into the hands of people in spiritually dark countries? Whatever you could do would be a tremendous blessing during a time of great spiritual hunger.
* People in these nations are hungry for God’s Word, our staff are willing to risk their lives to deliver it. Another section called "Iraq Schoolbags" offers the following statements:
* Praise God with me. Because thanks to your prayers and gifts, the doors are open to share the love of Christ with the next generation of Iraqis — young boys and girls who are open to new ideas and who are the future teachers of their nation.
* Continuing a strategy first launched last year, their goal is to distribute 100,000 school bags to these little ones, each fitted with urgently needed paper, pencils, and other school materials, along with evangelistic children’s books. In this way, just weeks from now, thousands of future Iraqi leaders will have the opportunity to come to know Christ.
* I’m sure you praise God with me for this excitement and for the fact that, thanks to this distribution, a generation of Iraqis is finally hearing the Truth about Christ.
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U.S. bombs and missiles destroyed the physical portion of Iraq. Now, zealous missionaries are trying to destroy the belief system of Iraq. Fortunately, for the Iraqi people, neither ploy has worked to destroy their will. Resistance works at many levels.
It is pure madness. This is regarded as a grave insult to Muslims. People will die cruel deaths behind this.
Liverpool beat AC Milan 3-2 in a penalty shoot-out to win the Champions League after sensationally coming from three goals down at half-time.
Paolo Maldini gave Milan a first-minute lead and Hernan Crespo's double gave Milan a seemingly unassailable lead.
Steven Gerrard gave Liverpool hope and Vladimir Smicer and Xabi Alonso levelled in a seven-minute spell.
Jerzy Dudek then saved from Andrea Pirlo and Andriy Shevchenko in the shoot-out to clinch a stunning victory.
It capped an amazing turnaround, with Liverpool looking out of contention after they were completely outclassed in the first-half.
Liverpool's advance to the final was a major shock as they invaded the established order of Europe's footballing elite - over-turning the odds against Juventus and Chelsea to reach Istanbul.
And in a show of character that broke Italian hearts they claimed the trophy for the fifth time - a feat that ensures the trophy will now stay at Anfield permanently.
A hearty round of applause to Liverpool.
This is a great day for them and a good day for the EPL.
I left during half time because I had an appointment, and I though AC Milan had it in the bag. I'm watching the rebroadcast now. Those goals were simply amazing.
It can only help the EPL to have a vibrant, contending Liverpool.
I cannot wait to see what happens when they get home. Shades of 1975 I bet. It's been a long time since Liverpool has had such a big win. It's been ManU and Arsenal for the last decade.
I was looking through Sports Illustrated today and they had a big picture of Arsenal winning the FA Cup, and an interview with US international Eddie Johnson. They even had an illustration of an all-black international side. Which certainly challenges a lot of the perceptions about the US side. I would love to see them play in Spain.:)
But what I think is that there is beginning to be a sea change about soccer in the US. Ten years ago, soccer was a feature. Now, the SI editors treat it like any other major sport. Which means minds are changing. Part of that is the Fox Soccer Channel as well as massive participation by people in all social classes. Johnson grew up dirt poor in Florida.
While it may not replace American sports, interest in soccer is growing. Enough to support the only dedicated free sports channel on cable/sattelite and get regular coverage in the US media.
YOU know those hot dogs that you know and love, and can't wait to eat this time of year? The ones served at Katz's Delicatessen, Gray's Papaya, Papaya King, the legendary Dominick's truck in Queens and the best "dirty water dog" carts?
They're all the same dog, manufactured by Marathon Enterprises, of East Rutherford, N.J., the parent company of Sabrett. They may vary in size, preparation and condiment selection (and Papaya King has Marathon add a secret spice to its mixture), but they're the same ol' dog. In fact, until a few years ago, Marathon made Nathan's hot dogs.
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Many hot dog lovers around the country love franks made with beef and pork, either stuffed into natural casings or skinless. I think they are mushy, soft and underseasoned, but Walter's, a beloved pagoda-shaped hot dog emporium in Mamaroneck in Westchester County, splits and grills a hot dog made from beef, pork and veal.
So what constitutes a great hot dog? To me, it's a grilled, kosher-style frank served on a lightly toasted bun with slightly spicy mustard and a homemade onion or pickle relish that is neither too sweet nor too hot. The Old Town Bar on East 18th Street not only toasts the bun that encases its grilled natural-casing all-beef Sabrett dog, it butters it as well. Sublime! Sauerkraut is also fine atop my dogs, though every once in a while I crave one prepared Southern style, with cole slaw. My ideal dog should fit neatly into its bun, sticking out by at most an inch on each end.
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Nathan's Famous hot dogs are still in Coney Island, but also in fast-food kiosks all over the country. The Nathan's in Coney Island still serves an excellent natural-casing all-beef hot dog. But it also makes a skinless all-beef dog that is a pale imitation of the real thing. These not-so-hot dogs are available in supermarkets, at many ballparks in the region and - gasp! - at some Nathan's franchises in the tristate area.
Papaya King has been serving its inexpensive yet exemplary natural-casing hot dogs since 1939, seven years after Gus Poulos, a Greek immigrant, opened Hawaiian Tropical Drinks at 86th Street and Third Avenue. The Gray's Papaya minichain was started by a former Papaya King partner in 1973. They each serve the Sabrett dog grilled, on a bun that isn't quite as toasted as I would like. I can't taste the extra spice in the Papaya King hot dog, but its mustard is spicier. Many other hot dog emporiums have opened with papaya in their name, and many of them, including Papaya Dog, serve the ubiquitous natural-casing Sabrett.
Empire is also sold in most supermarkets.
This is the annual debate over the best hot dog in New York.
Oh yeah, dirty water dogs don't count. They have their charms, the saltiness being boiled out of them, but no one takes them seriously. And after 30 odd years of eating both Grays and Papaya King, I can't tell the difference, except for price. Oh yeah, the Papaya King roll is pretty fucking toasted. Sometimes burnt. What I don't like about Papaya King is their addition of things like cole slaw and cheese. Cheese was a Nedicks thing. But you can avoid them for the traditional toppings.
OK, can people explain one thing: why do the people of Chicago hide their hot dogs under a salad?
By DANIEL YEE The Associated Press Wednesday, May 25, 2005; 11:42 AM
LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. -- Runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks was indicted Wednesday on charges that she lied to police about being kidnapped, two counts that could mean up to six years in prison.
A grand jury indicted the 32-year-old woman on one count of making a false police report, a misdemeanor, and one count of false statement, a felony, said Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter.
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This indictment does not rule out a possible plea agreement to lesser charges, Porter said. Authorities had said they were talking to the Wilbanks family about a possible deal. .......................
Several state and county agencies already said they will not ask her to reimburse them for a total of $10,000 spent in additional search costs. But the city of Duluth still is seeking repayment of about $40,000 and Mayor Shirley Lassetter said her city attorney has been in negotiations with Sartain
Man, I guess they aren't into forgive and forget.
I never thought this story would have legs, but it does. I think the anger comes from her framing innocent people.
Now what will Nancy Grace say? Ooops?
All her business will be out in the street.
And as for the marriage? I wouldn't count on it happening any time soon. Or ever. Especially when all the details of her life, her sex life, will be worth money.
Madison - Wisconsin's tax-supported health care program for the working poor spends millions of dollars each year covering the health costs of employees of some of the state's largest companies, such as Wal-Mart and Aurora Health Care.
According to new figures from the state Department of Health and Family Services, the 10 employers with the most participants in BadgerCare cost the state about $6.4 million a year.
In April, about 2,919 employees and their dependents were enrolled in the state program from those 10 companies, with more than 40% of the employees working for discount retailer Wal-Mart.
The cost shifting comes at a time when Wisconsin's Medicaid program is in crisis, facing a $650 million budget gap over the next two years.
Some contend that many of the BadgerCare enrollees are making job transitions and are exactly the population the program was intended to cover.
Nonetheless, state officials remain concerned that businesses struggling to cope with soaring health care costs are making it harder and more expensive for workers to sign up for health care coverage, prompting more low-income employees to seek public aid.
"They're always looking for ways to save costs," said Jason Helgerson, executive assistant to Health and Family Services Secretary Helene Nelson. "That's not just bad for the state, but bad for the business themselves to make that choice," because employees want to work for companies that provide good benefits.
BadgerCare is intended to provide health services to residents whose incomes are too high for enrollment in the state's standard Medicaid program for the poor, elderly and disabled.
To be eligible for BadgerCare, an applicant's family income must be below 185% of the poverty level, or $17,704 for an individual and $35,797 for a family of four. A family would not qualify if it has access to a group health insurance plan for which the employer pays at least 80% of the cost.
Those with incomes above 150% of the poverty level, or $14,355 for individuals and $29,025 for a family of four, pay a premium of about 5% of their income for BadgerCare coverage. Those below that level pay nothing.
Chart One thing stands out with the chart: Target has 80 employees eligible for the state's Badger Care program, KMart has 102 people. WalMart has 809. 10 employees for every one of Target's, eight for every one of KMart. The next largest company has under 200 employees using state aid.
It is clear that Wal Mart drains state resources to avoid the cost of health care.
It's official. Conservatives no longer have a monopoly on complaints about a liberal media bias. In the wake of Newsweek's bungled report that U.S. military interrogators "flushed a Koran down a toilet," here is Terry Moran, ABC's White House reporter, in an interview with radio host and blogger Hugh Hewitt: "There is, I agree with you, a deep anti-military bias in the media ..."
In all my years in journalism, I don't think I have met more than one or two reporters who have ever served in the military or who even had a friend in the armed forces. Most media hiring today is from universities, where a military career is regarded as bizarre and almost any exercise of American power is considered wrongheaded or evil.
Instead of trampling Newsweek - the magazine made a mistake and corrected it quickly and honestly - the focus ought to be on whether the news media are predisposed to make certain kinds of mistakes and, if so, what to do about it. The disdain that so many reporters have for the military (or for police, the FBI, conservative Christians, or right-to-lifers) frames the way errors and bogus stories tend to occur. The anti-military mentality makes atrocity stories easier to publish, even when they are untrue.
Terry Moran sits in Washington every day while his collegues run around and risk getting killed by the Iraqi resistance and US Army. And the Army shooting you is a lot better than having your head chopped off. Which is a daily risk. Daily as in when you wake up in the morning, going to bed at night is a gift. A Washington Post reporter left an Amtrac minutes before four Marines were killed and 10 wounded. The last time I remember Moran talking, he was shitting his pants about the Washington sniper a couple of years ago. I think it's a gross insult to say reporters have a bias against the US military.
Now, by repeating this lie, elicited by the cockgobbler Hewitt, Moran shgould rightfully be shunned by he collegues.
Leo must be uncurious, because the newspaper business has a number of vets working for it. About the same as any other industry, and a lot less than GOP Hill Rats.
And unfortunately for John Leo, Newsweek got the sourcing wrong, the allegations have been in print for over a year. But it is not "untrue".
And his absolutely ridiculous lie that a military career is regarded as "bizarre" a fucking crock of shit. The Ivys are bringing back ROTC for God's sake. I think it's safe to say that colleges are filled with vets, people who served in the military to go to college. I knew several in school and after. So I don't know what the fuck Leo is blathering about.
But let's get on to another point: this bullshit about an anti-military bias. Moran can prove he's not a chickenshit by going to Iraq, where snipers grow on trees and they train them over the internet. But when I watch the news, I don't see any bias against soldiers, any stories about rape and checkpoint shootings, anything which widely deviates from the idea that Americans are decent people, even when some of that is bullshit. There are a couple of incidents where US soldiers were filmed shooting the unarmed, but nothing happened.
And it was the same during Vietnam. The problem was that people saw the killing, not that US troops were unhinged animals, killing and raping like the French did. But the actual reports were usually interviews with soldiers and more positive than negative. When I sat down to watch CBS's documentary on Vietnam, I was stunned that it was so positive and pro-military. Soldiers were a lot more anti-military than the press. The problem was showing the truth.
The idea that the chickenhawks have to hide behind is that someone is lying about Iraq and Afghanistan and they aren't. The truth is ugly, but cowards like Moran and Leo, people who sit at desk and smear the incredibly hard and brave work of their peers should be regarded as uncutuous liars and scoundrels.
I would argue that the US press has bent over backwards to protect the military from their failures. The only good part is when the press reports on the abuse of soldiers, but no one could think getting a kid a place to live after nearly dying in Iraq is anti-military. Unless you're a member of the Beltway Kool Kids Klub.
Malcolm Glazer tonight laid bare the extraordinary details of the borrowings required to complete his £790 million ($1,445B)takeover of Manchester United.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers owner has already stated he intends to use United's assets as security against a £265 million ($484.725m) loan from bankers JP Morgan.
But, in the details of his formal offer document which was released to shareholders on behalf of Red Football today, Glazer has revealed a succession of steepling interest charges that take the approximate overall cost of the money lent on that loan alone to a massive £570million($1,042B)
And that figure does not include a bridging loan of £18.9 million ($34.5m) which has to be paid back in March next year, plus another £90 million ($164M) as a credit and capital expenditure facility, which had never previously been mentioned and could be used to fund the much-heralded stadium expansion.
And there is still another £275 million ($503m)in preferred securities, which it is anticipated he will refinance almost as soon as the deal is done.
If United fans were shaky about the prospect of the 76-year-old American business tycoon running their club prior to Saturday's FA Cup final defeat to Arsenal, those fears will be acutely exacerbated now, with it estimated that the club's debt alone will turn out to be an horrific £650million ($1,189 Billion), over six times the amount which almost sent Leeds to the wall.
It confirms why Red Devils chief executive David Gill described Glazer's business plan as `aggressive' and `potentially damaging' to the long-term interests of the club.
Yet, amazingly, Gill is likely to be charged with delivering the massively increased profits Glazer is convinced are available to the world's most profitable soccer club.
The money isn't there. Not for a billion dollars in debt. No TV deal, no EU league could generate that kind of money. Unless he plans to have a month of EPL games in the states with massive PR, there is a limited interest in soccer, and that interest is divided between the Mexican League, Serie A and La Liga as well as the international game.
I don't care what kind of marketing plan he has.
I also think the NFL have to question the wisdom of this and the financial viability of the Tampa Bay Bucs with this deal.
This has the makings of a Kirsch Media level disaster here. Glazer is sure banking on selling the ManU name, which to most of the world is like a new Yankees owner trying to capitalize on that rather familiar brand.
Liverpool are poised for their biggest match in 20 years when they meet Italy's AC Milan in the Champions League final in Istanbul on Wednesday. The Reds are England's most successful club in Europe with four European Cup victories in five attempts.
They last made the final of Europe's top club competition in 1985 but the match with Juventus was marred by the death of 39 fans in riots. AC Milan have a superior European record having won the title six times.Up to 30,000 Liverpool fans are descending on Istanbul.
About 20,000 will watch the game in the Ataturk Stadium while thousands more, unable to get tickets off touts, will throng the streets of the city.
I hate AC Milan and the team's owner. So let's go Reds. Let's hope they bring the trophy back to Anfield Park.
BY KATE MEYER and LISA L. COLANGELO DAILY NEWS WRITERS
Coming soon to a cinema, Laundromat or nail salon near you: free condoms, if city officials get their way.
"We can stop the HIV epidemic with the tools that we have today," Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden said yesterday. "We know that condoms prevent HIV - let's get them out everywhere."
Making free condoms available at such public places was one of the recommendations in a 44-page draft report issued yesterday by the New York City Commission on HIV/AIDS, which includes city health officials, researchers, AIDS service organizations and persons living with the disease.
............................... Conservative Republican Thomas Ognibene, who wants to repeal Bloomberg's smoking ban, said the mayor is out of touch with the Republican Party.
"Is there anything he can do that's more left wing that can put him in more disrespect with the right wing?" said Ognibene, who is challenging Bloomberg in the primary.
Ognibene is an asshole to begin with. So what is he running on, the get AIDS ticket?
The manufacturer of a .50-caliber sniper rifle boasts that it can bring down an airplane with a single shot, and that's just one of the things about it that worries local lawmakers.
"There is no reason to have this [sniper rifle] in a civil society - in our society," said Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-Mineola), who compared the rifle to a Humvee, saying that it is "the best of the best" in terms of sniper rifles.
She and other Democratic lawmakers are hoping to outlaw the rifle with a proposed state law called the Anti-Terrorism and Aviation Act. They say the gun could also be used to wreak havoc on chemical plants or oil storage facilities.
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The NRA did not respond to a request for comment by press time. In a marketing brochure, the sniper rifle's manufacturer, Barrett Firearms, boasts it has the ability to take down airplanes with a single shot. The 34-pound rifle can be bought legally by an 18-year-old in New York. ........................
"It is the most powerful [small-arms] weapon in the military arsenal and that is where it belongs," Eddington said. "You don't shoot deer with a bullet like that. If you did, you would cook it."
McCarthy, a former Republican. ran for office when her Congressman refused to help her with gun control after her husband had been murdered on the LIRR. She's one of Congress's most staunch advocates of gun control and a dogged opponent of the NRA.
What non-Class 3 license holder needs a Barrett? What,. are they afraid of rampaging jud....deer?
Juan Cole points out why the traitor Jonathan Pollard, long a cause for the Israeli and American Jewish right, should remain deep in the jail cell he so richly earned.
As for their demand that Jonathan Pollard be freed from US prison, where he is serving a life sentence for delivering mountains of classified information to Israel (and thence to the Soviet Union), it is monstrous. Pollard inflicted incalculable damage on the United States and is one of its most dastardly traitors. High-ranking US officers with an intimate knowledge of the case told Seymour Hersh that there is no doubt that documents he provided to the Israelis ended up in the hands of the Soviets. This happened either because Israeli intelligence peddled them to Moscow or because Israeli intelligence itself was penetrated by the KGB. By sending highly classified material out of the United States (for tens of thousands of dollars in a private account), Pollard initiated its transfer to Moscow as surely as if he had just dropped it off at the Soviet embassy. Pollard should never be released, and anyone who demands his release is no friend of the United States. Giving the signal that it is all right to spy intensively on the United States would be the worst possible move in these parlous times.
Seymour Hersh explains exactly what Pollard gave to Israel, and the Soviets through them.
The documents that Pollard turned over to Israel were not focussed exclusively on the product of American intelligence -- its analytical reports and estimates. They also revealed how America was able to learn what it did -- a most sensitive area of intelligence defined as "sources and methods." Pollard gave the Israelis vast amounts of data dealing with specific American intelligence systems and how they worked. For example, he betrayed details of an exotic capability that American satellites have of taking off-axis photographs from high in space. While orbiting the earth in one direction, the satellites could photograph areas that were seemingly far out of range. Israeli nuclear-missile sites and the like, which would normally be shielded from American satellites, would thus be left exposed, and could be photographed. "We monitor the Israelis," one intelligence expert told me, "and there's no doubt the Israelis want to prevent us from being able to surveil their country." The data passed along by Pollard included detailed information on the various platforms -- in the air, on land, and at sea -- used by military components of the National Security Agency to intercept Israeli military, commercial, and diplomatic communications.
At the time of Pollard's spying, select groups of American sailors and soldiers trained in Hebrew were stationed at an N.S.A. listening post near Harrogate, England, and at a specially constructed facility inside the American Embassy in Tel Aviv, where they intercepted and translated Israeli signals. Other interceptions came from an unmanned N.S.A. listening post in Cyprus. Pollard's handing over of the data had a clear impact, the expert told me, for "we could see the whole process" -- of intelligence collection -- "slowing down." It also hindered the United States' ability to recruit foreign agents. Another senior official commented, with bitterness, "The level of penetration would convince any self-respecting human source to look for other kinds of work."
A number of officials strongly suspect that the Israelis repackaged much of Pollard's material and provided it to the Soviet Union in exchange for continued Soviet permission for Jews to emigrate to Israel. Other officials go further, and say there was reason to believe that secret information was exchanged for Jews working in highly sensitive positions in the Soviet Union. A significant percentage of Pollard's documents, including some that described the techniques the American Navy used to track Soviet submarines around the world, was of practical importance only to the Soviet Union. One longtime C.I.A. officer who worked as a station chief in the Middle East said he understood that "certain elements in the Israeli military had used it" -- Pollard's material -- "to trade for people they wanted to get out," including Jewish scientists working in missile technology and on nuclear issues. Pollard's spying came at a time when the Israeli government was publicly committed to the free flow of Jewish emigres from the Soviet Union. The officials stressed the fact that they had no hard evidence -- no "smoking gun," in the form of a document from an Israeli or a Soviet archive -- to demonstrate the link between Pollard, Israel, and the Soviet Union, but they also said that the documents that Pollard had been directed by his Israeli handlers to betray led them to no other conclusion.
BAGHDAD, Iraq, May 24 - Eight American soldiers were killed in attacks by insurgents over the past the two days, the military said today, as a renewed wave of violence continued.
U.S. forces secured the area where a bomb-rigged car detonated next to a convoy of American soldiers in eastern Baghdad.
Four soldiers died in two separate attacks in central Baghdad today, and another four were killed south of the capital on Monday.
Two Iraqi civilians were also killed in Baghdad today when a car bomb exploded near a police station.
Today's attacks came after at least 33 people were killed on Monday in car bomb blasts aimed at Iraqi Shiites in what appeared to be the latest attempt to exploit the sectarian divisions that have tormented the country.
Three United States soldiers with a Task Force Baghdad convoy were killed when a car bomb exploded at about 1:30 p.m. today in the central part of the city, a military spokesman said.
About an hour later, in the same area of Baghdad, gunmen shot and killed an American soldier at an observation post. The soldier later died from his wounds, said the spokesman with Task Force Baghdad, Sgt. First Class David Abrams.
Also today, the military said that four soldiers assigned to the Marines were killed on Monday when a roadside bomb exploded near their vehicle during combat operations in Haswa, about 25 miles south of Baghdad.
The two Iraqi civilians died when insurgents attacked a police patrol in southeast Baghdad near the Alwiyah police station, an officer with the Interior Ministry said. Seven civilians and a policeman were wounded.
The attack took place outside a school for girls, but the ministry officer said it was clear that the target was the police patrol.
All told on Monday, attacks across Iraq killed at least 43 people, including Waiel al-Rubaie, a senior aide in Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari's administration, and his driver, who were shot to death in the Mansour district of Baghdad. The American military said three American soldiers were also killed in the northern city of Mosul on Sunday
Sorry I failed master That's OK, we'll make America Christian another day
Ok folks, I know some of you are disappointed that the Dems made a deal, but you're missing the point.
First, all the deal does is allow for a vote, not a guaranteed confirmation.
Second, with 45 Senators, you can only do so much. Any deal is a good deal under those circumstances.
But that's not why we won this.
This stopped James Dobson.
A lot of you are glossing over the point about how dangerous this man is to the Republic. He's a theocrat and a dominionist. He wants to deny basic religious rights to anyone who isn't a Christian, and the craven lust for power of Bill Frist has allowed this man unprecidented access to the levers of government.
Anyone who has any question about what he has planned just need to google the words Air Force Academy and religion. There, a clique of fundamentalists insult jews and openly tries to convert others. The AFA is spitting distance from Focus on the Family headquarters. And despite the evidence of this open religious bigotry, the fundies on the AFA staff fired the chaplain who complained, sending her off to Okinawa or some such place.
Idiots like Janice Rogers Brown, if confirmed, will embarass themselves on the court with their insane rulings, kind of like the pathetic mess Clarence Thomas is.
But if Jim Dobson can pick judges, the Handmaid's Tale comes a month closer. For those who don't remember, the Handmaid's Tail is a story about a future Christian America where women are severely rerpressed. When it was published and then the movie came out, it was seen as slightly ridiculous sicence fiction. It's not so silly now, because we have Senators who want an America just like that.
Dobson is the most dangerous man in America today. He has money, followers and access to the White House and Congress. And he is an absolute idiot. He understands nothing about America which is complex or subtle. 24 would confuse him, Desperate Housewives would be slander, Queer as Folk, gay propaganda. His vision of Ameica would be foriegn to most of us.
So when I see that his handpuppet Frist is humiliated in public, forgive me if I don't care if the price is a couple of wingnut judges. Stopping Dobson is far more critical.
Dobson and his allies spent millions to support Frist and his plan to end the fillibuster. They had that near treasonous Just-Us Sunday, an event Frist should have kept clear of by miles and didn't. Even his own caucus was shocked that he patricipated in such an anti-democratic event.
Forget the judges, even the SCOTUS, Dobson's plans go way beyond that. He doesn't want to just control judges. He wants to be the kingmaker of the GOP. He doesn't just want conservative judges and legislators, he wants dominionist judges and legislators. He wants to make his endorsement critical for election. It's that simple. He wants to be able to punish moderates and run slates of candidates loyal to him.
Look, everyone want the Dems to get the big victory, but that is seeing the trees for the forest. The thing I want to see is James Dobson stopped before he starts dictating what's on TV and what women can do with their bodies. This man is an absolute maniac and his lust for power dangerous.
What happened last night is that the GOP moderates woke from their two-month slumber and realized that Dobson was going to destroy their institution for his political gain. He doesn't care about Congress, and he doesn't have to live there.
You can argue the point about the Dems tactics. All I care about is one result, weakening James Dobson. All else is irrelevant.
Having read that idiotic piece by Keith Thompson now being printed all over the right blogosphere, and seeing a Kos posting on single issue groups, It reminded me of why I grew so frustrated with the remnants of the New Left as I grew up.
First, let's get the myths out of the way. The New Left didn't end the Vietnam War. Most of the protests were ineffective, even harmful to the anti-war movement until 1970. Most people held the hippies in disdain, judging them as hedonists at best and traitors at worse. But the hippies, which later definied the anti-war movement, were a very small part. You had the super-serious SDS folks, the Vets against the War, Panthers and other radicals, and the church based groups. The idea that the anti-war movement was a bunch of Ho-worshiping radicals is false at best and slander at worst. Some of these folks existed, mostly people like the Stalinist David Horowitz, but in the end, it was middle class parents and church groups who broadened the movement against the war.
The anti-war movement's greatest success was the 1974 elections, when a new guard of liberals entered Congress.
But when I read stuff like Thompson, it comes to mind why the New Left failed.
In the past, movements from the left were working class based. The unions and the communists were from the working classes. The New Left came from the middle class, and when they tired of their Bohemian lifestyle, they went to law school or joined daddy's firm, cut their hair and entered the middle class. With Carter's amnesty, even thoses who fled to Canada, could come back home without stigma. They claimed to be changing the system from within, but in reality, social justice became less of an issue as their income climbed.
Why are single issue groups so dominant in Democratic politics? There's a simple answer: that's where the money is.
The worst thing which ever happened to the left was the rise of Ralph Nader.
Why?
Because he took the best and brightest and turned them from concerns about broad social justice to corporate accountability. No, cars shouldn't blow up, but we have a country where people can work and not have health insurance. It's nice that cars get recalled, but to make that happen, the concerns of minorities and women had to take second place.
It was Nader who led the way to single interest groups as the way to influence Democratic politics. He was revered for his words, and words soon came to dominate the way the left handled issues. Action had become passe. When people did act, they would hold marches and rallies. While the right sought to influence policy with a network of think tanks. They knew they couldn't engage in mass action, so they sought to limit the terms of the debate. While Nader was complaining about pills, the right was making foriegn policy. The left aslo became Washington focused. It all came down to this bill or that bill and not actually involving people. The right did so with direct mail, talk radio, and eventually churches.
The nadir of this was the candidacy of Michael Dukakis. A weak wonk, who valued his wife more than being honest about her severe alcoholism, cologne drinking Russian alcoholism. Bush ran over him because he had no answer for simple, common sense questions.
The Democratic Party also embraced elitism. Sure, you could be any color you wanted, as long as you went to Harvard. The Dems had access to tbe best and brightest and got them. The problem was that they had no clue as to how most people lived. So while the GOP was reaching out to churches and unions and working people, the Dems were filled with ideas they could not translate into the real world. It was almost impossible for the working class to work for the Democratic Party on the miniscule salaries paid by House and Senate members and interest groups. The income alone created a brutal self-selection on who worked for the party.
Now, I know many of you love Howard Dean, but the 2004 Dean and the 2005 Dean are two very different people. The reason Kerry went as far as he did and Dean stalled out in Iowa is simple: Kerry had the unions. Kerry's people could talk to their neighbors. Dean's people couldn't. Dean, for all his honesty and charm, was poorly served by his staff, who were, for the most part, the same kind of failed elitists who had ill-served the Democratic Party for so long.
If anyone doubts this, let's take a short trip in the wayback machine and visit the article which claimed Kos was paid by the Dean campaign to say nice things.
It was the Dean ex-staffers who sought to sink a knife in the back of one of the most effective activists in the Party. They ran to the WSJ to attack him. Led by the volunteer coordinator no less. This kind of unforgivable sabotage is what happens when elites are challenged. Kos and his partner, Jerome Armstrong, were outsiders, not former Hill Rats, not part of the Ivy League club. So they got sandbagged in print.
If Kos's law degree had been from across the Charles, and not from BU, you can bet this would have never started. I call it the Michael Moore effect. A lot of the left's former activists like their working class mute and compliant. How dare Moore actually have an opinion about economics. He's not one of us, and now he's rich. He's not supposed to make money. People should feel exploited by him. A real leftist wouldn't enjoy having money.
The reason people are flocking to Move On and ACT is simple, they work. They are effective.
The left has not been much of that until the last few years.
The nadir of this lunacy? The battles over Pacifica. Here you have this resource, and it is, to be kind, mismanaged in the extreme. Weak, divided leadership, constant begging for cash, an inability to expand their narrow base, and embracing an equally destructive kind of elitism. It wasn't the Washington kind, but of the "struggle". I once heard people defend Sendero Luminoso on WBAI and it stunned me. How anyone could defend a murderous cult is beyond me. But real change was always defused with marches and rallies and talk. No real pushing for change, no real work in the community. In the name of "people's radio" there was no organization, no leadership and eventually, constant infighting.
People should have been outraged that WBAI, the Pacifica flagship station, moved to Wall Street. What a fitting symbol for the kind of myopia which has affected the far left. We're radicals and we're on Wall Street.
The battle for KPFA was even more ridiculous. Going off the air, people being locked out, all of this horrible infighting which can only get in the way of any kind of activism. Navel gazing as political debate is revolting.
This, of course, turned off many liberals who would gladly support people who were doing something. All these people did was talk, talk and occasionally march.
All this pointless debating in lieu of action turned a lot of people off.
Blogs have breathed fresh air into the left because it creates two things:
One, a forum for actually doing things. I don't agree with ANSWER or Indymedia's politics, but, ANSWER, despite its flaws, actually does something. Unlike the navel gazing of the Pacifica Crowd, ANSWER can get things done. Their little stunt at the Ingauration was deeply appreciated.
Indymedia deserves no small amount of credit for actually covering the RNC last year. They risked arrest to cover a story and they are shaking off the lethargy of the WBAI/Counterpunch crowd. Counterpunch is another outfit of talk big, do little. They have conspiracies everywhere and have no plans on beating them back. It's like a club of let's watch the evil people and tell everyone how bad they are and they will rise up and stop them.
Most people, however, for various reasons, aren't really going to join their bandwagon. They like the idea of less ideological conformity and more of a sense of contributing. Which is why Meetups were so successful until they decided to charge for them, creating a 95% drop off in membership. The left didn't really trust in people power, despite all of the sloganeering. I mean, I heard umpteen calls for people power, yet the same people remained in charge for years. They liked democracy as long as they were the people in charge.
Blogs exchange information and encourage action, real, valid, political action. Letters and phone calls may not seem like much, but they work. They can change a lot more than protest after protest by a few people.
Two, blogs allow people to speak. The old new left was a top down model of activism. The "leaders" would decide what was right, and everyone else would follow along. Blogs create ideas, people engage each other and have a stake in what happens. The old new left wanted followers. Even WBAI was and is filled with people who want to lead, whom, they don't care and what for, doesn't matter as long as they get to be in charge.
Which is why an old Trotskyite like Horowitz switched sides. The right gave him a movement and some followers and he was willing to do their bidding. Michael Savage, another old leftie was eager to switch teams when there was money and power, even illusory power, involved. They joined the "winning" team. Hell, there was a long, hard road before them of people who had advocated the worst kind of leftist politics and then became rightists.
Blogs toss this all on their head, because it allows people to organize and work together without needing a "leader" to follow. So all the little Tom Haydens of the future can't exactly get people in a room and pretend to lead them. There is a great deal more democracy with the blogs than with the movements of the past because there are just so many more voices.
Why do I believe this? Blog readership exploded after the election. Once people calmed down, and the media couldn't charge we were wild eyed conspiracy freaks, our collective power just exploded. While Powerline embarassed themselves and Jonah Goldberg turned into a tool of ridicule, Kos, Atrios and Josh Marshall became more credible because of their work. Instead of retreating and blaming people, they kept working. The same old tired lefties, using politics as fashion statement and personal expression planned to go to Canada or some other foolishness. Luckily, such overt cowardice was limited, and most people became resolved to fight Bush. And as they did, it was easy to get some ideas and discussions on the blogs.
What blogs and the 527's proved was that the collective action of many, beat the ideology and money of a few. The Democrats have been narrowcasting for years, picking this cause and that, and not seeing the larger picture. Mainly because there were no tools to see that picture. Now, the Dems have found their own direct mail, but with nearly minimal costs. The blogosphere's reach is limited, but their multiplier effect is not. Stories come from it, more people read blogs every day, politicians now read them.
This sea change from the old new left, which was top down, is amazing. So I fully expect a lot more former draft-dodging hippies to blather on about how the "left left them". Well, here's the news, that left left everyone, most of us still choose to not endorse the GOP and their culture of greed and death.
By PATRICK D. HEALY and JENNIFER MEDINA Published: May 24, 2005
Under heavy pressure to run against Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2006, Jeanine F. Pirro, the district attorney of Westchester County, said yesterday that she would not seek re-election this fall but would instead enter the United States Senate race or another statewide contest next year.
Such a half step toward an announcement is unusual, but Ms. Pirro, a Republican, apparently calculated it to be in her interest after weeks of pleas from party leaders in Albany, New York City and Washington who are eager to mold her as a new Republican star in advance of the 2006 races.
New York Republicans were in a rare mood of excitement and anticipation yesterday, after months of worrying that they might be left without a high-profile candidate if Gov. George E. Pataki chooses not to seek re-election next year.
Some went so far as to describe Ms. Pirro as this year's version of a younger Mr. Pataki, who was a little-known state senator in 1994 when, with the guidance of party strategists, he went on to vanquish a Democratic legend, Gov. Mario M. Cuomo.
"Jeanine could mount a tremendous challenge to Hillary Clinton, and I feel confident enough to say that Jeanine could beat her," said Stephen J. Minarik III, chairman of the New York State Republican Party. "Anyone who knows Jeanine recognizes her as the giant killer she would be."
Ms. Pirro, 53, said at a news conference at the Westchester County Courthouse in White Plains that she would forgo seeking a fourth term as district attorney so she could challenge Mrs. Clinton or enter another statewide race next year: the race for governor, her aides said, if Mr. Pataki chooses not to seek a fourth term, or for state attorney general, to face whoever emerges from a crowded field of Democrats.
Ms. Pirro's decision to move beyond Westchester politically also signaled confidence among her and her aides that she could overcome what they acknowledged was significant baggage created by her husband, Albert J. Pirro Jr., a lobbyist in White Plains, who was convicted in 2000 of income tax fraud and served 11 months in a federal prison. But Democrats were skeptical, saying that Mr. Pirro's past would be especially problematic if Ms. Pirro were to run for attorney general.
Some Westchester Republicans said yesterday they thought she was considering the attorney general's race, given her three terms as district attorney. But those urging her to run against Mrs. Clinton have more power, influence and money behind them.
Political operatives at the White House and the Republican National Committee have told state Republicans that Ms. Pirro would be a strong candidate for Senate. Ken Mehlman, the chairman of the committee, recently called Ms. Pirro to urge her to consider running, and other Republicans with ties to the White House - including Mr. Pataki - have made entreaties to her, according to high-level New York Republicans.
As their thinking goes, Ms. Pirro, who has won votes across the political spectrum, is better suited than any New York Republican to take on Mrs. Clinton, being a telegenic, intelligent and well-spoken woman who lives in the suburbs and supports abortion rights.
HER HUSBAND IS MOBBED UP.
Are they fucking kidding? Her husband did jail time.
This is just fucking crazy. She was just screetching in the Daily News about her husband and how his problems aren't hers and how he's not a mob associate, even though they say different. Given Clinton's popularity, this could be a TREMENDOUS FUCKING PROBLEM.
Minarik is a moron. And the White House underestimates the Clintons at their peril.
WASHINGTON May 23, 2005 — Centrists from both parties reached a compromise Monday night to avoid a showdown on President Bush's stalled judicial nominees and the Senate's own filibuster rules, officials from both parties said.
These officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the agreement would clear the way for yes or no votes on some of Bush's nominees, but make no guarantee.
Under the agreement, Democrats would pledge not to filibuster any of Bush's future appeals court or Supreme Court nominees except in "extraordinary circumstance
This is a major defeat for the theocrats.
This is what happens when amateurs play at politics. Dobson was under the delusion that he could control the Senate with his money and Bill Frist's dick in his pocket. This didn't work.
The Dems don't have the bodies to challenge and win this outright, which is why the wingnuts Brown and Owen will get their votes. But Frist looks weak and indecisive and most importantly foolish.
First, the Schiavo mess, then failing to even control his own caucus. What kind of weak leadership is he providing? Making an alliance with the antischrist and failing is not a good way to get support in the future.
Of course, there's a lot of whining about how the Dems don't fight, but part of fighting is to know when to not fight. Like the Schiavo mess, the GOP had set a trap, this time, undone by their own side.
Their reward will, of course, to be challenged by Dobson's lackies in their next race. If successful, we should get some seats back.
But the Democratic leadership looks sane and rational here. They're the ones who drove the compromise and worked with Republican moderates. The Republican leadership wanted to shut the Senate down to get their way. Who are more effective leaders? Frist, who is in the pocket of extremists, or Reid, who can lead his party to compromise.
Update: Wingnut breakdown. They are screaming about not giving money to the GOP, calling McCain a traitor (think about the irony of that) and other such nonsense. Frei Republik, She-bitch Goldberg, Assrocket, they're all screaming about the great GOP sellout.
Laugh along as you read the comments from the She-bitch site:
You dishonorable senators have betrayed my President. I despise what you have done and am pledging my utmost to get you out of MY GOVERNMENT.
Your egos are laughable on T.V. We DON'T value what you have done so stop acting like you just did something great.
You shredded the Constitution and empowered the children of the dnc.
If the deal involves every single nominee getting an up or down vote and none being withdrawn, then it may be OK. If it doesn't, the GOP just lost my money too.
How disgusting and cowardly can you possibly get? It's time to find "New" Republicans to take these fools down. When are they up for re-election and when are the primaries?
McCain, Warner, these guys have grown old and have lost all testosterone. These are two invertebrates who we need to be rid of. Maybe McCain thinks he won't run again due to health reasons. But they have certainly cooked their own gooses in the Republican Party. Out with them. Get out the recall petitions. I can't sign, but I'll send money for an opponent.
I heard the "Plagerist" Biden on Hugh's show a bit ago and he considered Gingsberg a moderate. That tells you all you need to know about who they consider extremists on the right-anyone right of her. This is a bad deal that is going to explode right in the faces of these moderates.
By Josh White Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, May 23, 2005; Page A01
Former NFL player Pat Tillman's family is lashing out against the Army, saying that the military's investigations into Tillman's friendly-fire death in Afghanistan last year were a sham and that Army efforts to cover up the truth have made it harder for them to deal with their loss.
More than a year after their son was shot several times by his fellow Army Rangers on a craggy hillside near the Pakistani border, Tillman's mother and father said in interviews that they believe the military and the government created a heroic tale about how their son died to foster a patriotic response across the country. They say the Army's "lies" about what happened have made them suspicious, and that they are certain they will never get the full story.
"Pat had high ideals about the country; that's why he did what he did," Mary Tillman said in her first lengthy interview since her son's death. "The military let him down. The administration let him down. It was a sign of disrespect. The fact that he was the ultimate team player and he watched his own men kill him is absolutely heartbreaking and tragic. The fact that they lied about it afterward is disgusting."
Tillman, a popular player for the Arizona Cardinals, gave up stardom in the National Football League after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to join the Army Rangers with his brother. After a tour in Iraq, their unit was sent to Afghanistan in spring 2004, where they were to hunt for the Taliban and Osama bin Laden. Shortly after arriving in the mountains to fight, Tillman was killed in a barrage of gunfire from his own men, mistaken for the enemy as he got into position to defend them.
Immediately, the Army kept the soldiers on the ground quiet and told Tillman's family and the public that he was killed by enemy fire while storming a hill, barking orders to his fellow Rangers. After a public memorial service, at which Tillman received the Silver Star, the Army told Tillman's family what had really happened, that he had been killed by his own men.
SPOKANE, Wash. - Over the course of his adult life, Jeff Martinelli has married three women and buried one of them, a cancer victim. He had a son and has watched him raise a child of his own. Through it all, one thing was constant: a factory job that was his ticket to the middle class.
It was not until that job disappeared, and he tried to find something - anything - to keep him close to the security of his former life that Mr. Martinelli came to an abrupt realization about the fate of a working man with no college degree in 21st-century America.
He has skills developed operating heavy machinery, laboring over a stew of molten bauxite at Kaiser Aluminum, once one of the best jobs in this city of 200,000. His health is fine. He has no shortage of ambition. But the world has changed for people like Mr. Martinelli.
"For a guy like me, with no college, it's become pretty bleak out there," said Mr. Martinelli, who is 50 and deals with life's curves with a resigned shrug.
His son, Caleb, already knows what it is like out there. Since high school, Caleb has had six jobs, none very promising. Now 28, he may never reach the middle class, he said. But for his father and others of a generation that could count on a comfortable life without a degree, the fall out of the middle class has come as a shock. They had been frozen in another age, a time when Kaiser factory workers could buy new cars, take decent vacations and enjoy full health care benefits.
They have seen factory gates close and not reopen. They have taken retraining classes for jobs that pay half their old wages. And as they hustle around for work, they have been constantly reminded of the one thing that stands out on their résumés: the education that ended with a high school diploma.
It is not just that the American economy has shed six million manufacturing jobs over the last three decades; it is that the market value of those put out of work, people like Jeff Martinelli, has declined considerably over their lifetimes, opening a gap that has left millions of blue-collar workers at the margins of the middle class.
And the changes go beyond the factory floor. Mark McClellan worked his way up from the Kaiser furnaces to management. He did it by taking extra shifts and learning everything he could about the aluminum business.
Still, in 2001, when Kaiser closed, Mr. McClellan discovered that the job market did not value his factory skills nearly as much as it did four years of college. He had the experience, built over a lifetime, but no degree. And for that, he said, he was marked.
He still lives in a grand house in one of the nicest parts of town, and he drives a big white Jeep. But they are a facade.
"I may look middle class," said Mr. McClellan, who is 45, with a square, honest face and a barrel chest. "But I'm not. My boat is sinking fast."
Without college, even community college, employment, even in traditional blue collar jobs is increasingly limited.
In foreground from left, Mohandas K. Gandhi, Subhas Bose and Vallabhbhai Patel at the 51st Indian National Congress in 1938. Bose is believed to have died seven years later.
By John Lancaster Washington Post Foreign Service Monday, May 23, 2005; Page A12
CALCUTTA -- Asha Pachiasia has a problem with Gandhi.
Sure, she said, the frail, cotton-robed independence leader -- known as "the Mahatma" -- did his part and then some, leading the nonviolent rebellion that drove British colonial rulers from the subcontinent in 1947.
But as a hero and symbol of India's freedom movement, Pachiasia said, Mohandas K. Gandhi leaves something to be desired.
"I don't believe so much in Gandhi's policy of just showing the other cheek," said Pachiasia, a 47-year-old Montessori teacher. "I think now Indians are more aware that we should have fought for our freedom. I see how the Americans celebrate the Fourth of July. Mentally, we are still in the chains of the British Raj."
Pachiasia's attitude helps explain her presence the other day at a popular new movie on another, lesser-known icon of independence, Subhas Bose. A Cambridge-educated aristocrat who launched his political career here in the capital of West Bengal state, Bose rejected Gandhi's pacifist ways in favor of violent revolution, to the point of forming a rebel army and joining forces with the Axis powers in World War II.
A controversial figure in the West, where his choice of allies won him few admirers, Bose is enjoying a surge of renewed interest and popularity in India. The new film -- "Bose: The Forgotten Hero" -- is the latest in a series of books, magazine articles and other tributes to "Netaji," or "the Leader," as Bose is generally known.
Directed by veteran Indian filmmaker Shyam Benegal, the 3 1/2 hour, $5.5 million epic -- an exceptionally costly film by Indian standards -- focuses on Bose's war years, when he made a daring escape to Nazi Germany via Afghanistan and later led his ragtag followers in quixotic battle against British forces in the jungles of Burma.
"It was a great adventure story," Benegal said by telephone recently from Madrid, where he was attending a retrospective showing of his work. Bose "had this impossible dream."
In part, the public's fascination with Bose reflects continuing questions about his disappearance and presumed death in a plane crash, shortly after the Japanese surrender in 1945. Fueled by reports that he might have survived, the mystery has been the focus of several government inquiries, the latest of which is slated to report its findings soon.
But the biggest reason for Bose's renewed popularity, analysts say, probably has more to do with India's changing self-image, from an underdeveloped, aid-dependent champion of the Non-Aligned Movement to a rising economic power with nuclear weapons and an increasingly important role on the world stage.
In that context, Bose -- a militant nationalist and revolutionary -- has become for many Indians a more compelling symbol of India's independence struggle than the ascetic and pacifist Gandhi, especially among the fast-growing middle class
The problem with turning Bose into a nationalist hero is that he embraced fascism and the cult of militarism as a means for India's liberation. While the idea of the INA may have been appealing, the actual service of the INA was tragic. The Japanese didn't exactly treat them well. And in creating a new myth for Bose, you have to gloss over the fact that the INA was willing to kill fellow Indians as well as work with the Nazis and Japanese.
I wouldn't be so quick to embrace him as a hero, but clearly, the disdain he was held in by the West was never true in India.
Rude Pundit wrote this and it knocked me on my ass.
Alas, Hogan's Heroes. And poor LeBeau. He never stood a chance. The second that Sgt. Schultz discovered the receiver in the coffee pot and then sputtered a report to Colonel Klink, who then discovered the comically obvious bugs in his office, LeBeau's fate was sealed. But there was so much to go through before the sweet kiss of death finally sucked the last breath from the ill-fated Frenchman.
Sure, when Klink called Col. Hogan to his office, Hogan expected to do the usual song and dance - flatter Klink, make implicit threats about the Commandant's status within the Luftwaffe, plant yet one more bug, wink at Helga, Klink's big-titted secretary (would Hogan have it any other way?), head back to quarters, and send more messages to the Allies about Nazi plans. Except not this time. No, when Hogan entered Klink's office, the monocle was off and Gestapo Officer Hochestetter was there with two big guards. Hogan wasn't sure what happened when the first rifle butt hit him in the nose, but the next thing he knew, his clothes were being cut off him and a hood was being placed on his head. He heard the Germans laughing at his cold, frightened, shriveled cock, disappearing like a turtle head into his body. Then Hogan made his biggest mistake.
Every other time Hogan had invoked the Geneva Convention (for instance, "Colonel Klink, I must protest as a violation of the Geneva Convention the private interrogation of my men by a Gestapo officer"), Klink had crumbled like a house of cards. But when he tried this time, he was slammed face down on the Klink's desk as the Commandant exhaled a frustrated, "Hooogannnn. I'll show you what we think of the Geneva Convention." And then Hogan heard a thick sheaf of papers being rolled tightly. Well, this is poetic, Hogan thought, just before he felt the searing pain of the Geneva Conventions being shoved into his ass. Schultz protested briefly, but Klink asked the bumbling Sergeant what he would say to any investigators.
Hogan would not crack. He would not give up the names of anyone who had collaborated with him to enable the Allies to stop so many attacks, so many Nazi plans. By the time they threw him into the freezing cold cell, near the cells where LeBeau, Klinch, Newkirk, and Carter cowered, all naked, all chained into forced kneeling positions, Hogan had been beaten repeatedly, he'd had electrodes attached to his nutsack, he'd been half-drowned over and over, but he wouldn't give them a name. Even when they raped him with Klink's swagger stick, Hogan stayed true to his men, his mission.
God, the way the months progressed after that. The dogs they used on Klinch, the way they bundled Newkirk and Carter up in the middle of the night and sent them to Nazi areas of Northern Africa, where they would be tortured and mutilated until they gave up every bit of info they had and lied about so, so much more. How many times can you be hung by your ankles, had your balls pressed in a makeshift vice, your asshole probed with broomsticks, snakes, and ballpeen hammers, how much can you take until you are willing to say anything, sign anything, consign your family to death. Carter lasted about six months until the poor, dim bastard didn't have anything else to make up and he took one electric shock too many. It was worse for Newkirk. He lived until just about the end of the war, when, in a panic, the Gestapo sold him to a caravan of lonely Bedouins.
But LeBeau. The Gestapo decided to use LeBeau as a way to soften up Hogan, that tough motherfucker. They screamed at him, kept him awake for three, four days at a time. They forced him to stand for hours and hours and every time he fell, they would kick him in the side of his leg. They'd chain him by his arms and legs, a modified rack, and force him to sing "Deutschland Uber Alles," to call himself a "filthy Jew," and more. When he'd shit himself, they'd force him to roll around in his own shit and then hose him off with freezing water. They would take him down occasionally, to show him to Hogan, to question him some more. LeBeau would twitch, his muscles stretched to uselessness, uncontrollable. The twitching would enrage his interrogators, and they would beat him more. When Schultz finally started beating him, LeBeau just gave up. His official cause of death was a heart attack, caused by blood clots from all the torture. C'est la vie, eh?
Hogan was sent home after the war. When he is asleep, when he is awake, he hears screams, from his men, from himself. Fifty years of screams. And he thinks he's lucky.
Remember: Hogan's Heroes were guilty. They committed espionage. They thwarted the Germans every chance they could. The Germans in this version were being good soldiers, according to the paradigm the Bush administration has created. They were trying to stop imminent attacks on their own men. Hogan and the other prisoners wouldn't have given up any information if the niceties of the Geneva Convention had been followed, right?
And if they had been innocents, if LeBeau had simply been driving past Stalag 13, delivering wine, well, that's just collateral damage. It's a shame, but, god, don't you understand the price we must pay to sleep safely at night?
Down and out with Iraqi forces On patrol with Iraq's ragtag army, a reporter discovers why American troops will not be coming home anytime soon.
- - - - - - - - - - - - By David Axe
May 23, 2005 | On the afternoon of Jan. 27 in the Sunni city of Baquba, north of Baghdad, U.S. and Iraqi forces are hosting what they call a "peace day" at a provincial government building near one of the most dangerous parts of the city. The event is an opportunity for known insurgents to sign a pledge against violence in exchange for amnesty from arrest. Outside, Iraqi police and soldiers patrol the wide, garbage-lined streets on foot and in battered trucks that weave through traffic.
At an intersection just yards from the peace-day proceedings, a compact car pulls up alongside a police truck and explodes, scattering debris and body parts and riddling the police truck with shrapnel. Four policemen are gravely injured. Passersby drag them bleeding into a nearby shop while U.S. and Iraqi forces and ambulances race to the scene. For several minutes after the explosion, Iraqi cops speed up and down the street in their ubiquitous pickup trucks, firing machine guns at God knows what.
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Establishing reliable security forces elsewhere in Iraq has proved a difficult and sometimes Sisyphean task. Despite the wave of deadly attacks, U.S. commanders maintain that the number of Iraqis volunteering to enlist continues to far outnumber the places available in training courses, which are aimed at bringing the number of Iraqi forces to about 300,000 by the end of next year.
But getting Iraqi forces to perform is another matter. "The Iraqi security forces were close to meeting their force-structure goals last summer," Pike says, "but then the goals went way up and the forces on hand collapsed."
Pike is referring to the widespread flight of Iraqi police and army troops in the aftermath of the November 2004 battle for Fallujah.
"It all happened in two weeks," says Lt. Col. Bradley Becker of the meltdown of Iraqi police and army in his area. Becker commands a battalion of the 25th Infantry Division from Fort Lewis, Wash. Since October, Becker's battalion has patrolled the dusty approaches to Mosul, an area known to U.S. soldiers as Q-West, after its most important town, Qayyarah.
In early November, in the wake of the battle for Fallujah, Q-West, which had been pretty peaceful to that point, "fell apart," in the words of Maj. Kevin Murphy, 36, Becker's operations officer. Rather than stand and fight, most police in Q-West dropped their weapons and ran. They never came back.
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Today, Iraqi forces in Q-West are "capable of semi-independent operations," in Murphy's estimation.
What a "semi-independent" operation looks like is demonstrated on the cold night of March 25, near Qayyarah. Tom Burns, a second lieutenant in the 25th Infantry Division, leads a joint American-Iraqi patrol looking for smugglers and insurgents on the area's remote, dusty roads. The Americans are in two speedy, heavily armored Stryker vehicles; the Iraqis trail behind in pickup trucks. Every couple of miles, the Strykers have to idle to let the pickups catch up, eliciting rolled eyes and muttered epithets from Burns and his crew.
Spotting a good vantage point atop a steep hill that only the Strykers can mount, Burns, 22, decides to leave the Iraqi trucks guarding a secondary road. But in the spirit of cooperation -- and just in case he needs someone who speaks Arabic -- Burns gestures at several young Iraqis to climb into his vehicle. Gazing back at the Iraqis he's leaving behind, Burns shakes his head and mutters, "Like little lost sheep."
Equipment for Iraqi security forces is in short supply. Deputy police chief Josef Hussein, working out of a compound in Qayyarah that is within blocks of several police stations destroyed in attacks, complains that his troops lack transport, radios and machine guns. American officers in Qayyarah have promised Hussein that they will do all they can to meet Iraqi forces' needs. But privately, the same officers admit to me that funds are short.
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Even harder than motivating individual police and soldiers has been finding able leaders. Two Iraqi army battalion commanders in Q-West deserted their units last fall. To fill the gap, Becker awarded a colonel's commission to Ra'ad, a Kurdish private security contractor who voluntarily fought insurgents during the meltdown. Ra'ad has done a fine job since then, according to Becker, but he's the exception to the rule, and Americans continue to lead Iraqi units in all but the most permissive of environments. During the January elections, 1st Infantry Division officers in Baquba took charge of poll security at many locations despite repeated promises to let the Iraqis handle it themselves.
According to several Army officers I spoke with, U.S. soldiers across Iraq continue to take the lead even in small-scale combat operations -- a tacit admission that Iraqi forces simply aren't up to the task. Often this means that individual American noncommissioned officers, or NCOs, sideline their Iraqi counterparts. From January to May this year, I often saw this taking place while patrolling with U.S. and Iraqi forces in the Sunni triangle, and in northern and eastern Iraq. ................................
Back in Baquba, in the wake of the suicide bombing that gravely injured four Iraqi cops, Army reporter Sgt. Kim Snow from the 1st Infantry Division watches Iraqi police recklessly roar up and down the street in their pickup trucks, firing their weapons at nothing. It's become clear that the sole suicide attacker, who now lies in pieces among the burning wreckage, was the only threat in the area. The rounds from the Iraqis' weapons rain down on the surrounding streets, where civilians are quickly scattering into buildings.
Snow grimaces at the spectacle. "Business as usual," she says.
Let's get down to it, the best leaders are in the resistance. They have some really capable leaders who don't need 20 months forget 20 years to become effective. It seems the people who have their shit toghether and can run operations are not on our side. The people who can't lead and need a payday, work for the Americans. The Iraqi resistance is drawing from the same pool of people, yet they are able to run daily operations without pause.
Leaving the left I can no longer abide the simpering voices of self-styled progressives -- people who once championed solidarity
Keith Thompson
Sunday, May 22, 2005
Nightfall, Jan. 30. Eight-million Iraqi voters have finished risking their lives to endorse freedom and defy fascism. Three things happen in rapid succession. The right cheers. The left demurs. I walk away from a long-term intimate relationship. I'm separating not from a person but a cause: the political philosophy that for more than three decades has shaped my character and consciousness, my sense of self and community, even my sense of cosmos.
I'm leaving the left -- more precisely, the American cultural left and what it has become during our time together.
I choose this day for my departure because I can no longer abide the simpering voices of self-styled progressives -- people who once championed solidarity with oppressed populations everywhere -- reciting all the ways Iraq's democratic experiment might yet implode.
Because the only democracy is the vote. The Iraqi government is a joke, a cruel, ineffective joke closer to the Kerensky government than a democracy. Democracy is not a gift, it is earned. The Iraqis aren't even interested in defending it. Just staging the ground for the civil war.
My estrangement hasn't happened overnight. Out of the corner of my eye I watched what was coming for more than three decades, yet refused to truly see. Now it's all too obvious. Leading voices in America's "peace" movement are actually cheering against self-determination for a long-suffering Third World country because they hate George W. Bush more than they love freedom.
Like many others who came of age politically in the 1960s, I became adept at not taking the measure of the left's mounting incoherence. To face it directly posed the danger that I would have to describe it accurately, first to myself and then to others. That could only give aid and comfort to Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter and all the other Usual Suspects the left so regularly employs to keep from seeing its own reflection in the mirror.
Another draft dodging hippie? Fuck him. Fuck him and everyone like him. He's never had a hard day in his life. I didn't know a single male adult of age to go to Vietnam that didn't, and this is well into my 30's.
...........................
I began my activist career championing the 1968 presidential candidacies of Robert Kennedy and Eugene McCarthy, because both promised to end America's misadventure in Vietnam. I marched for peace and farm worker justice, lobbied for women's right to choose and environmental protections, signed up with George McGovern in 1972 and got elected as the youngest delegate ever to a Democratic convention.
And avoided all service in Vietnam. Yet, despite that, he feels the need to endorse this war. How many of his family members are serving in Iraq, Djobuti or Afghanistan? I would bet none. Not one member of his family is serving in combat. He didn't serve in Vietnam. Yet, now he's for war. Let him send his family to this war to support it. It is vile for someone who avoided combat when it was his turn to now suggest that others go and die. When he was opposing the Vietnam War, I can bet that he didn't give a damn about the grunts in Nam, or when they came back.
..............
A turning point came at a dinner party on the day Ronald Reagan famously described the Soviet Union as the pre-eminent source of evil in the modern world. The general tenor of the evening was that Reagan's use of the word "evil" had moved the world closer to annihilation. There was a palpable sense that we might not make it to dessert.
When I casually offered that the surviving relatives of the more than 20 million people murdered on orders of Joseph Stalin might not find "evil'" too strong a word, the room took on a collective bemused smile of the sort you might expect if someone had casually mentioned taking up child molestation for sport.
I've been a liberal all my life. There has never been a day I didn't think Soviet communism wasn't fucked and evil. I don't know where he found these idiots, but if that's the circle he ran in, he should be embarassed.
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Stated simply: The force wielded by democracies in self-defense was declared morally equivalent to the nihilistic aggression perpetuated by Muslim fanatics.
Where was this? When was this? Among a few of his idiot friends?
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All of this came back to me as I watched the left's anemic, smirking response to Iraq's election in January. Didn't many of these same people stand up in the sixties for self-rule for oppressed people and against fascism in any guise? Yes, and to their lasting credit. But many had since made clear that they had also changed their minds about the virtues of King's call for equal of opportunity.
Because it was a fucking fraud speeding the road to civil war. Electiing a shia theocracy is not something to be proud of. One so blinded by the need for revenge, they are unable to actually act like a government.
......................
Wait, it gets better. When actor Bill Cosby called on black parents to explain to their kids why they are not likely to get into medical school speaking English like "Why you ain't" and "Where you is," Jesse Jackson countered that the time was not yet right to "level the playing field." Why not? Because "drunk people can't do that ... illiterate people can't do that."
So black people are now like illiterate drunks. It's nice to see his racism on display. Why not "level the playing field"? School districts. Are black school districts as well funded as whites? No? There goes your playing field.
When self-styled pragmatic feminist Camille Paglia mocked young coeds who believe "I should be able to get drunk at a fraternity party and go upstairs to a guy's room without anything happening,"
In short, I should do risky, stupid things and have no penalty attached to them. Sounds like a call for personal responsibility to me
He is also by most measures one of the most conservative senators. Brownback speaks openly about how his horror at the genocide in the Sudan is shaped by his Christian faith, as King did when he insisted on justice for "all of God's children."
But the fact that he is a tool of the Dominionists goes by the wayside.
...........................
Just another clown looking for a pay day. Fucking coward now wants to send other people's children to die for some vague idea that Islamic Theocracy is democracy. He didn't want to go to Vietnam, now he thinks other people's children should die in Iraq. He's a coward and a fool and sbould be mocked for that. Anyone who opposed the Vietnam War, much less refused to serve in the military, has no moral right to support this war of choice. He climbed on the backs of Vets who served this country while he went on with his career. They suffered, partly because of his actions, and he got away clean. I have nothing but utter contempt for this gutless hack.
He didn't leave anything. He's just gone in search of a payday.
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates sees mobile phones overtaking standalone MP3 players and views the raging popularity of Apple Computer's iPod player as unsustainable, he said in an interview published Thursday.
"As good as Apple may be, I don't believe the success of the iPod is sustainable in the long run," he said in an interview published in Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
"You can make parallels with computers: Apple was very strong in this field before, with its Macintosh and its graphics user interface--like the iPod today--and then lost its position," Gates said.
Apple has around two-thirds of the global market for MP3 music players, which store thousands of songs on pocket-sized disk drives or smaller flash memory chips. Apple sold more than 5 million iPods in the last quarter.
But it faces increasing competition not only from the likes of Sony, whose iconic Walkman dominated the personal audio market for two decades, but also from mobile-phone companies integrating MP3 players into handsets.
Partly in response to pressure from Apple, Microsoft is now positioning itself to be a key player in the growing market for digital movies, pictures and music.
It is working with partners such as Samsung to provide its Windows Mobile smart phone software to nearly 70 handset makers.
"If you were to ask me which mobile device will take top place for listening to music, I'd bet on the mobile phone for sure," Gates told the newspaper.
Gates made similar comments in an interview with CNET News.com earlier this week.
In the United States, however, Microsoft smart phones have been overshadowed by Research In Motion's BlackBerry wireless e-mail device, which has sold 3 million so far.
Two words: battery power.
Phones need intermittent power, MP3 players consistant power. I think that while Gates is right about the iPod's days being limited, he's wrong about the unidievice. Phones are small, this would increase their size. It also creates a device which will either be constantly recharged, or too large to carry comfortably.
The iPod works because it is a simple device and relatively cheap. The more features you add, the more it costs.
Sony's problem is DRM. It cripples their players.
But no company can keep that kind of market domination forever. While I don't see Nokia beating them, someone will, lower price point, better reliability, something.
Michael Howard in Baghdad Monday May 23, 2005 The Guardian
US military commanders are planning to pull back their troops from Iraq's towns and cities and redeploy them in four giant bases in a strategy they say is a prelude to eventual withdrawal.
The plan, details of which emerged at the weekend, also foresees a transfer to Iraqi command of more than 100 bases that have been occupied by US-led multinational forces since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
However, the decision to in vest in the bases, which will require the construction of more permanent structures such as blast-proof barracks and offices, is seen by some as a sign that the US expects to keep a permanent presence in Iraq.
Politicians opposed to a long-term US presence on Iraqi soil questioned the plan.
"They appear to settling in a for the long run, and that will only give fuel for the terrorists," said a spokesman for the mainstream Sunni Iraqi Islamic party.
....................... A report in yesterday's Washington Post said the new bases would be constructed around existing airfields to ensure supply lines and troop mobility. It named the four probable locations as: Tallil in the south; Al Asad in the west; Balad in the centre and either Irbil or Qayyarah in the north.
US officers told the paper that the bases would have a more permanent character to them, with more robust buildings and structures than can be seen at most existing bases in Iraq. The new buildings would be constructed to withstand direct mortar fire.
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How do you have a base when you can't resupply it?
No Iraqi government will tolerate a long term stationing of US troops unless the US wants four Khe Sanh's.
The artillery is sitting in depots, ready to be used. The US tries to stay, those mortars will turn into 122mm shells and the Iraqi government will be helpless to prevent it. Mortar fire will be the least of their problems.
By Mark Mazzetti Times Staff Writer Sun May 22, 7:55 AM ET
KILLEEN, Texas — Army Capts. Dave Fulton and Geoff Heiple spent 12 months dodging roadside bombs and rounding up insurgents along Baghdad's "highway of death" — the six miles of pavement linking downtown Baghdad to the capital city's airport. Two weeks after returning stateside to Ft. Hood, they ventured to a spartan conference room at the local Howard Johnson to find out about changing careers.
Lured by a headhunting firm that places young military officers in private-sector jobs, the pair, both 26, expected anonymity in the crowded room.
Instead, as Fulton and Heiple sipped Budweisers pulled from Styrofoam coolers next to the door, they spotted nearly a dozen familiar faces from their cavalry battalion, which had just ended a yearlong combat tour in Iraq. ....................
Combat experience
The 1st Cavalry Division was considered for the assault on Baghdad in 2003 but ended up staying stateside as commanders in Washington and the Middle East decided to pare down the invasion force.
When the division was notified that it would be heading to Iraq in 2004, a year after the fall of Baghdad, the 1st Cav's officers thought they had missed out on the action.
"I thought we were going to be the third string of the JV," Heiple said.
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Heiple, a native of Jonestown, Pa., said he would not have traded for anything the experience of leading troops in combat or of earning the 1st Cavalry's trademark Stetson hat and gold spurs — given to cavalry soldiers when they have served in a combat zone.
Yet, with these achievements behind him, the Notre Dame graduate said he was looking for a life with more stability. Heiple decided while he was in Iraq that he would leave the Army when his commitment expires next month. He plans to move with his girlfriend to Austin, where he hopes to attend law school at the University of Texas.
Heiple's decision to leave the Army did not come suddenly. At 26, he felt his window of opportunity to change careers was closing. The more he thought about it, the more convinced he became that he wanted to follow a different path.
"I can only wait so long," Heiple said.
Fulton spent eight years of his youth in the Congo, where his father worked as a bush pilot. His family relocated to Haiti in 1990 and spent three years there before they were evacuated before U.S. troops landed on the island in 1994.
Fulton then moved to Redlands, Calif. When he was in high school there, the military piqued his interest and he visited an Army recruiting station. His test scores led one recruiter to suggest that he instead apply to West Point. During his senior year, the late Rep. Sonny Bono (R-Palm Springs) nominated Fulton for his military commission to the armed forces academy in New York state.
Fulton returned from Iraq in March and went on a cruise to Mexico with his wife during his 30-day leave. His wife, Fulton said, wants him to leave the military more than anything.
In June, the two will move with their 3-year-old son to Ft. Knox, Ky., where Fulton will begin a six-month course on commanding armored units.
He will still have a year left of his Army commitment when the course is completed, yet Fulton admits that given the Army's current pace of deployments, he is leaning toward leaving the service.
"If West Point didn't have a five-year commitment," he said, "I'd probably be pursuing something else right now. I know my wife would like me to choose something else immediately."
Careers in the balance
A college graduate with an Army ROTC scholarship usually owes four years of active duty to the military, along with a period in the Army Reserves or National Guard. A West Point graduate owes five.
Army officials know that if they are able to persuade captains to remain in uniform a few years past their initial commitment, the odds are good they will eventually commit to a full 20-year military career.
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Capt. Eric Emerling, the battalion's fire support officer, is one of three captains who decided to leave after returning from Iraq. Emerling said he initially looked forward to a career in the Army. When he returned, his superiors offered him command of an artillery battery, a milestone promotion for a career officer.
But he and his wife decided in January that they did not want to commit to a future of "repeated deployments for the next 13 years."
"What tipped the scale is that I have a 2-year-old daughter. I want more stability for her," Emerling said by telephone, his little girl in the background competing for her father's attention. "I missed the first half of her life. I'm not willing to do that again."
The 27-year-old captain is moving to Connecticut, where he has a job with a landscaping company. He said he was concerned about the Army's future, with many of the military's young leaders planning their exits.
"I see how many people are getting out here at my local unit level. It's a bit of a worry," he said. "We lost a lot of lieutenants and captains."
People who stay in the army are probably going to lose their families. The wives can't deal with the stress of a third deployment. Once, they can deal with, twice, they can handle it, but a third time? That's it, families start to disintergrate. The waiting turns poisonous, dark and starts to corode marriages, people cheat, they start constant complaining about money. These men are facing a choice they don't talk about at West Point: marriage or the Army. And if they choose the Army, their families will go away.
The women don't say it, they don't say they can't handle the fear of death and the diminishing odds of survival, but divorce is the specter now haunting Army bases and members of the Guard and Reserve. Coming home to a foreclosed house, a repoed car and a failed marriage is one of the many gifts bestowed on soldiers by Iraq, forget the PTSD and odd diseases or missing limbs.
No one gives up a battery or company command unless they have a powerful reason, and saving one's marriage is it. A landscaping job for a man with a college degree and the chance at a career job, the one he's been working for since he joined the Army, well, he knew he couldn't do that to his wife again if he wanted a marriage.
A three-year-old boy became trapped in a toy vending machine, after crawling inside to get a stuffed animal when his mother wasn't looking.
James Manges created a diversion and slid down a chute into the crane vending machine in Elkhart, Indiana, where he played happily with the toys.
His mother was initially amused, and took photographs of her son, but became alarmed when no one could find a key.
Firemen freed the boy, but, his mother said, "he definitely didn't get a toy".
Two-second slip
Danielle Manges took James to the local Wal-Mart store at 0330, when he was unable to sleep.
He wanted money to get a stuffed toy out of a crane vending machine, and when his mother said no, he threw his drink on the floor and took advantage of her momentary distraction to make his move.
"Within two seconds he had climbed through the hole, into the chute and pushed the door shut so we couldn't get him out," she said.
James played happily among the toys and swung from the bars inside the machine.
His mother even went and bought a disposable camera to record the escapade, and other passers-by stopped to take photos too.
But when Wal-Mart staff found they had no key to open the machine, the fire brigade had to be called to force the vending machine open.
First, they go to the movies, now, they climb into machines in the middle of the night. Scary.
By Peter Slevin Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, May 22, 2005; Page A03
ROMEOVILLE, Ill. -- These fish jump. Oh, how they jump. It's common for an Asian carp to leap four feet out of the water and flop into whatever may rumble into its path, be it watercraft or fisherman. They also make a big splash. A 60-pounder is not unusual.
"Every day we go out on the water, the number of fish we see jumping around the boat is just astounding. It's incomprehensible," said Mark Pegg, a fisheries biologist for the Illinois Natural History Survey. "You just have to see it to realize there are that many fish jumping around you."
Near the Illinois River, Pegg and his colleagues inspected a 43-pound female, which he described as "a small one." She was carrying 2.2 million eggs, and she had plenty of company. "There were hundreds, if not thousands, of large females in this one inlet we were sampling."
The Asian carp is sowing fear in marine biologists and fishermen. Descendants of the fish, imported from China 30 years ago by catfish farmers in the deep South, escaped their pens when floodwaters rose and have been swimming north and procreating ever since, each day consuming as much as 50 percent of their body weight in plankton and other microorganisms.
The danger, experts say, is that the voracious jumping carp will overrun the waterways and other fish will starve to death. Here along the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, a gateway to the Great Lakes, government authorities hope to shock the carp into submission.
Literally.
At a construction cost of $9 million and an annual expense of $500,000, state and federal engineers are electrifying 500 feet of water to prevent the Asian carp from reaching Lake Michigan. Crews are using heavy cranes to lay 84 steel belts at the bottom of the 160-foot-wide canal. Transformers equipped with backup generators will juice the metal and create a pulsing electrical field.
"What we're doing here is plugging the biggest hole. This is something that deters the fish without killing them," said Charles B. Shea, project manager for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. "We can't make a 100 percent guarantee, but it certainly seems unlikely any fish could swim through this barrier."
By Jamie Stockwell Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, May 22, 2005; Page A01
A Prince George's County jury would not convict a man accused of stabbing his girlfriend to death because a half-eaten hamburger, recovered from the crime scene and assumed to have been his, was not tested for DNA.
In the District, a jury deadlocked recently in the trial of a woman accused of stabbing another woman because fingerprints on the weapon did not belong to the suspect. An Alexandria jury acquitted a man on drug-possession charges in part because a box containing 60 rocks of crack cocaine that he was accused of tossing from his car during a traffic stop was not tested for fingerprints.
Prosecutors say jurors are telling them they expect forensic evidence in criminal cases, just like on their favorite television shows, including "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation." In real life, forensic evidence is not collected at every crime scene, either because criminals clean up after themselves or because of a shortage in resources. Yet, increasingly, jurors are reluctant to convict someone without it, a phenomenon the criminal justice community is calling the "CSI effect."
"There is an increased and unrealistic expectation that every crime scene will yield plentiful forensic evidence," said Alexandria Commonwealth's Attorney S. Randolph Sengel, who talked to jurors after the drug trial. "As a result, we spend time now explaining to juries the absence of evidence." And when interviewing potential jurors, Sengel said, he and his team of prosecutors have "recently taken to reminding them that this is not 'CSI.'
I dated a woman who was studying forensic science and she detested CSI. It bore no resemblence to reality.
What people don't get is that much of the "science" on these shows isn't real. It's TV. It's created in FX workshops. While they have advisors who are scientists, for the most part, what people see is driven by plot and character, not the law, much less reality.
No police department has the time to test 60 bags of crack for fingerprints. That's not reality.
In the real world, there is a masive backlog of testing rape kits for DNA. There are only so many people trained to do this and only so much money for this. There are limits not seen in Hollywood.
But considering how DNA has freed people, being more aware of it is a good thing. However, there are limits of both science and the law.
Having decorated their huts with Mark Whitaker's shrunken head, and having confined Michael Isikoff in a little cage so that the tribal children can poke him with sticks, the rightie tribe has moved on--to the Newspaper Guild and Editor & Publisher.
The Rectitudinous Righties are not worked up over anything published as news by the evil "MSM," however. A week ago Linda Foley, national president of The Newspaper Guild, made some comments at a National Conference for Media Reform that put her on the tribal hit list. At the conference in St. Louis, Foley said of U.S. forces in Iraq:
Journalists are not just being targeted verbally or politically. They are also being targeted for real in places like Iraq. And what outrages me as a representative of journalists is that there's not more outrage about the number and the brutality, and the cavalier nature of the U.S. military toward the killing of journalists in Iraq. I think it's just a scandal.
It's not just U.S. journalists either, by the way. They target and kill journalists from other countries, particularly Arab countries, at news services like Al Jazeera, for example. They actually target them and blow up their studios, with impunity. This is all part of the culture that it is OK to blame the individual journalists, and it just takes the heat off of these media conglomerates that are part of the problem.
Like it or not, Ms. Foley is not pulling these charges out of her butt. Jeanne d'Arc has documented incidents that look suspiciously like journalist targeting. Please follow the link and read what she says. It is clear that either these journalists were deliberately targeted, or the troops involved were being unusually careless even by war zone standards. Certainly, it bears outrage. Investigation also seems in order. And proper investigation was what Ms. Foley requested; last month Ms. Foley sent a letter to President Bush critical of the "investigation" into these incidents so far.
I think Foley missed the point. I don't think the US is murdering reporters as part of a campaign in Iraq. If that were the case, Robert Fisk would have long joined the angels.
What I think no one wants to come to grips with is that the US has a shoot first, ask no questions later. They don't just shoot reporters, they shoot everyone this way, store owners, drivers, kids who look at them funny, families.
There is a great deal of individual discretion, but the crime comes in when commanders want to cover their asses and never investigate incidents which need honest investigation. In a zero-defect military, it can kill careers to admit American soldiers are shooting at anything they can. So they do these perfunctory investigations, maybe charge a few EM's and NCO's, and move on. Because no one is going to risk their career by admitting error.
The fact is that Americans kill with impunity in Iraq. The US doesn't investigate anything where the US will be found at fault. And the commanders clearly have an anti-press message they give to the troops. But what people do not want to believe, even on the left, is that the US military is incredibly sloppy. Giuliana Sgrena wasn't shot in a conspiracy, but by a lone National Guard patrol. Which happens every day. When the US kills the wrong people, they hand out some money and that's the end of it.
The reason the press keeps getting hammered for this is that they don't talk about the real issue: fire discipline.
The US has miserable fire discipline and few sanctions for violating it. If a kid gets a hair up his ass and decides he wants to blow a hole in the Palestine Hotel, who would stop him? Do you think his commander would investigate that breakdown in command and lose his chance at commanding a brigade? The system works against the honest. The soldiers know that the reporters rely on them for their very survival. They can't move around in Iraq unless they look Iraqi or have a phalanx of bodyguards. The risk of kidnapping is just that severe. They know they can push them around and they do.
The Army's method of training soldiers to shoot is the unwritten scandal of the Iraq war. Time and again, fire discipline has broken down and no one wants to see it, no one wants to address it. They want to deal with anything else, conspiracy theories, whatever, and not the fact that US soldiers, both Army and Marines, shoot first, second and third and do not ask questions. They shoot up hospitals, they shoot bird sellers, they shoot handicapped men and their families, they shoot children, they shoot cars. They shoot when they feel any threat, any. Journalists are just one more group of people they shoot with abandon.
The fact that so many Guardsmen and reservists are serving in front line units, makes this worse. NG officers are often regarded as second rate political hacks. Reservists are often officers who couldn't hack the Regular Army. And reservists shoot. They're already pissed at being taken from their civilian lives. They have no plans of dying in Iraq. And if they have to shoot every twig to go home, they will. And the reality is that their training is less than it should be. They don't have the intensive training of the regular units and their officers are not always the best and the brightest. Some are looking to kiss up to their bosses or keep their political masters at home, happy. And the RA will gladly throw reservists and Guardsmen to the wolves of a general court martial.
This is the effect of a zero defect military. No one wants to admit error, no one wants to admit that their unit screwed up. So if there is a sea of Iraqi bodies, and a few journalists tossed in, as long as the battalion commander makes brigade commander, all is right with the world.
By DANIEL COONEY, Associated Press Writer Sat May 21, 7:08 PM ET
KABUL, Afghanistan - Hours before flying to Washington for talks with President Bush, Afghan leader Hamid Karzai demanded greater control Saturday over American military operations in his country and called for vigorous punishment of any U.S. troops who mistreat prisoners.
He also said he wants the United States to hand over all Afghan prisoners still in U.S. custody.
In a volatile southern province, meanwhile, a U.S. soldier was killed and three were wounded in the latest in a string of attacks launched by loyalists of the ousted Taliban regime.
Speaking to reporters before his first visit to the United States since he was installed in December as Afghanistan's first democratically elected president, Karzai demanded more say over operations by the 16,700 U.S. troops still in the country, including an end to raids on the homes of Afghans unless his government was notified beforehand.
"No operations inside Afghanistan should take place without the consultation of the Afghan government," he told reporters.
Karzai — seen by his critics as an American puppet — issued the tough statement after fresh reports of prisoner abuse by American forces at Bagram, the main military prison north of Kabul, and anti-U.S. riots that broke out across the country earlier this month, leaving at least 15 people dead.
The unrest was triggered by a Newsweek magazine report, later retracted, that the Quran was defiled by interrogators at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and likely further fueled by long-standing complaints of heavy-handed search operations and the deaths of civilians in U.S. operations in Afghanistan.
There were fears a report in Friday's New York Times, based on the Army's criminal investigation into the December 2002 deaths of two Afghans at Bagram, could re-ignite anti-American manifestations.
Karzai said he was "shocked" by allegations of prisoner abuse by poorly trained U.S. soldiers at Bagram and vowed to raise the issue during his four-day U.S. visit that begins Sunday.
"We want the U.S. government to take very, very strong action to take away people like that (who) are working with their forces in Afghanistan," Karzai said. "Definitely ... I will see about that when I am in the United States."
Responding to the abuse allegations, Col. James Yonts, the U.S. military spokesman in Afghanistan, said: "The command has made it very clear that any incidents of abuse will not be tolerated."
.Will not happen, unless Karzai turns on the US, and since they keep him alive, that won't happen.
For some insane reason I thought this war was important.
If you doubted it before, you won't after you read this:
Op-Ed columnist Paul Krugman has the disturbing habit of shaping, slicing and selectively citing numbers in a fashion that pleases his acolytes but leaves him open to substantive assaults. Maureen Dowd was still writing that Alberto R. Gonzales "called the Geneva Conventions 'quaint' " nearly two months after a correction in the news pages noted that Gonzales had specifically applied the term to Geneva provisions about commissary privileges, athletic uniforms and scientific instruments. Before his retirement in January, William Safire vexed me with his chronic assertion of clear links between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein, based on evidence only he seemed to possess.
No one deserves the personal vituperation that regularly comes Dowd's way, and some of Krugman's enemies are every bit as ideological (and consequently unfair) as he is. But that doesn't mean that their boss, publisher Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr., shouldn't hold his columnists to higher standards.
I didn't give Krugman, Dowd or Safire the chance to respond before writing the last two paragraphs. I decided to impersonate an opinion columnist.
Any specifics for this smear of Krugman? Of course not. See, there is the difference between an honest man and a hack - Krugman puts his numbers out there for all the world to see. He can be fact checked. How in the hell do you respond to this bullshit which refers to precisely NOTHING! What a piece of crap Okrent is.
Oh, by the way, notice who escapes Okrent's criticism? Why our good friend David Brooks - the lyingest liar the New York Times has ever published on the Op-Ed page. Okrent is an unbelievable hack.
Okrent writes he was "impersonating an opinion columnist" in his attacks on Krugman and Maureen Dowd.
Well, that should not have been so hard considering he impersonated a newspaper ombudsman for the past 18 months.
Update [2005-5-21 20:14:28 by Armando]: And before someone accuses me of doing to Brooks what Okrent did to Krugman, I have detailed Brooks' lies in a tiresome number of posts. A quick search will reveal them to anyone interested.
So he was the public editor and he never raised these issues? Exactly what the fuck was his job?
Okrent should be very careful of accusing a Nobel Prize short list economist teaching at one of the nation's most prestigious schools of piping numbers. One might consider that libel or defamation of character if he can't prove his charges. Unless he has the unedited copy on CD somewhere.
Let me understand this: instead of ripping Miller and Gerth new assholes for their sloppy, near criminal reporting, reporting which may land Miller in jail and has gotten the Times sued, he goes after Krugman and Dowd? The Times thinks so much of them, they're planning to charge $50 a year to read them. Yet Okrent thought their commentary was an issue. While ignoring John Tierney and David Brooks? Is he fucking kidding?
A public hearing became contentious Friday as New Yorkers debated on a city proposal limiting large crowds on Central Park's Great Lawn.
The proposal -- depending on who you ask -- would either preserve the area's lush grass or chip away at free speech.
Elected officials, activists and preservationists made both arguments at the forum in Chelsea, held by the Department of Parks & Recreation. Much of the testimony seemed personal and, with emotions running high, some of that passion turned contentious, escalating at times to shouting matches.
Even before the hearing began, tempers flared as two men confronted each other. One screamed: "The people of New York own Central Park." The other, also yelling, countered, "You can have your First Amendment, but don't tear up the grass."
The battle stems from a Bloomberg administration proposal to limit large gatherings on the lawn to six events per year, at no more than 50,000 people at one time. Moreover, four of the six events would automatically go to the Metropolitan Opera and the New York Philharmonic.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg, on his weekly radio show, Friday said the limit was necessary because, among other reasons, it takes months for grass to recover after a major event. Bloomberg suggested other places for events, such as Prospect Park in Brooklyn or Flushing Meadow Park in Queens.
"There are big parks on Staten Island, up in the Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn . . .," he said. "Plenty of places for you to express yourself."
Bullshit. This is all about free speech and the increasingly intrusive Central Park Conservancy. They act as if they own the park and they do not. Fuck the grass, it can be replanted. Free speech cannot. Let Bloomberg go to Prospect Park or Flushing Meadows, both difficult to reach from most of the city. We all know that if it doesn't happen in Manhattan, it doesn't happen,. which is why the cops want to move rallies to any place BUT Central Park. And who are telling this crock of shit to. After those big events, there isn't a month between them. No fucking way.
Then the other two events will be sold to HBO or Disney. Like it has in the past. Garth Brooks. They had Garth Brooks in the park. He's not a bad guy, but he couldn't get arrested in New York. Let Mariah Carey ask for a concert on the Great Lawn and see what happens. Please.
Sheldon Silver, speaker of the State Assembly, called yesterday for a "Marshall Plan" to revitalize Lower Manhattan, demanding that the city and the state make it their top priority to restore its role as a thriving commercial and financial capital.
In an impassioned speech at a breakfast meeting on Wall Street, Mr. Silver, whose district includes downtown, said governments at all levels had to take dramatic steps to redevelop Lower Manhattan. The Pataki administration and the Port Authority should pledge to lease an entire new building on the World Trade Center site, he said. State and city government, he said, should use billions of dollars in Liberty Bonds, tax breaks and rent incentives to lure businesses to ground zero and Lower Manhattan.
And they should do so, he said, at the expense of all other redevelopment projects, including Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's highest priority, the West Side, site of a proposed stadium for the Jets that would serve as a centerpiece of the city's bid for the 2012 Olympics.
"We need a comprehensive plan - a vision - for Lower Manhattan; not merely an economic strategy, but more of a Marshall Plan," Mr. Silver said. "Above all else, I want downtown to regain its stature as a world class business center."
In a stinging rebuke of the city's plans to build the stadium and to develop a new office district on the West Side, Mr. Silver said that "no other building project can take a higher priority" and "no public incentives for commercial development should be provided" for the Hudson Yards, where the city is planning the stadium. ...................................... Mr. Silver, whose approval would be required for the stadium project, plays a major role in Manhattan's redevelopment plans, and state and city officials have recently gone out of their way to court him with attention to downtown issues. His speech yesterday at a meeting of the Association for a Better New York came amid an escalating tug of war: the speaker and the Senate majority leader, Joseph L. Bruno, have misgivings about the stadium; state and city officials are pressing for its approval.
Shelly Silver is going to kill the West Side Stadium. It is clear as a bell from this. The Trump intervention is just the latest sign that the whole process has not only bogged down, but is going nowhere because of Bloomberg's open disinterest. Since he can't control what goes on there, he acts as if he has no stake in it. Which is amazing. Bloomberg has spent so much energy on a pointless stadium, a football stadium for a team with sold out tickets for the next decade, that he has forgotten that he works near an open pit.
Dan Docteroff, who is pushing this boondoggle, is working for his real estate friends and not the city. Bloomberg has totally bought into his vision. Silver has not. He and Bruno are actually looking at this vanity project and don't like much of what they see, like the MTA land giveaway, for one. But most importantly, they are absolutely frustrated at the lack of movement at Ground Zero.
This is no small deal. New York's economic heart is in lower Manhattan and Bloomberg's plans for the West Side should be secondary. Also, the idea should be to build a new stadium, which the city does need, to replace Shea, not jump the Jets to the head of the line. This is long overdue. Bloomberg should have been cut off at the knees a year ago on this.
BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe - In the weeks before parliamentary elections in March, the leaders of this threadbare nation threw open the national larder, wooing voters with stocks of normally scarce gasoline and corn and a flood of freshly printed money.
The day before elections in March, motorists on a gas line in Bulawayo pushed their cars forward. Gasoline has become scarcer since the voting.
It may have helped: the ruling party, President Robert G. Mugabe's ZANU-PF, was installed for another five years. But Zimbabwe's Potemkin prosperity has evaporated since the elections, replaced by penury and mounting signs of economic collapse.
Here in the second largest city, lines of cars stretch a quarter mile and more at fuel-parched service stations, and drivers spend the night in their cars' back seats lest they lose their place in line. Milk, cooking oil and, most of all, corn, the national staple, are a distant memory at most stores. At one downtown grocery, tubes of much-prized American toothpaste are kept in a locked case.
Zimbabwe's currency, which traded on the black market at 120 to the dollar in April 2002, went for 6,200 to the dollar last December, 12,000 on April 1, and 17,000 in early May. By mid-May a single American dollar brought as much as 25,000 Zimbabwean dollars, though the rate has since steadied at about 20,000.
........................... For years, of course, Zimbabwe's economy has been a chewing-gum and baling-wire affair, with 70 percent unemployment, triple-digit inflation and a currency no foreign creditor will accept. Prosperity has been receding since the late 1990's, when the government's attacks on international creditors and its seizure of commercial farms set off a cascade of economic backlashes.
Past economic plunges have provoked food riots, gas-line protests and government crackdowns. This time the government has sent the police to quell mobs outside groceries and gas stations, and started rounding up street merchants who deal too openly in black-market goods and selling currency at illicit rates.
Yet some say that the current crisis, perhaps the worst since the economy began foundering, may mark a turning point. Zimbabwe's main economic problems - capital flight, a dire shortage of foreign exchange with which to buy imports, and turbocharged inflation - are now so severe that they are eroding what remains of the industrial and agricultural base.
Probe Finds 'Rendition' Of Terror Suspects Illegal
By Craig Whitlock Washington Post Foreign Service Saturday, May 21, 2005; Page A01
STOCKHOLM -- The CIA Gulfstream V jet touched down at a small airport west of here just before 9 p.m. on a subfreezing night in December 2001. A half-dozen agents wearing hoods that covered their faces stepped down from the aircraft and hurried across the tarmac to take custody of two prisoners, suspected Islamic radicals from Egypt.
Inside an airport police station, Swedish officers watched as the CIA operatives pulled out scissors and rapidly sliced off the prisoners' clothes, including their underwear, according to newly released Swedish government documents and eyewitness statements. They probed inside the men's mouths and ears and examined their hair before dressing the pair in sweat suits and draping hoods over their heads. The suspects were then marched in chains to the plane, where they were strapped to mattresses on the floor in the back of the cabin.
So began an operation the CIA calls an "extraordinary rendition," the forcible and highly secret transfer of terrorism suspects to their home countries or other nations where they can be interrogated with fewer legal protections.
The practice has generated increasing criticism from civil liberties groups; in Sweden a parliamentary investigator who conducted a 10-month probe into the case recently concluded that the CIA operatives violated Swedish law by subjecting the prisoners to "degrading and inhuman treatment" and by exercising police powers on Swedish soil.
"Should Swedish officers have taken those measures, I would have prosecuted them without hesitation for the misuse of public power and probably would have asked for a prison sentence," the investigator, Mats Melin, said in an interview. He said he could not charge the CIA operatives because he was authorized to investigate only Swedish government officials, but he did not rule out the possibility that other Swedish prosecutors could do so.
The basic facts of the Stockholm rendition were reported last year; this article is based on newly released documents from the parliamentary probe that provide elaborate details about an operation that normally unfolds entirely out of public view and about the government deliberations that preceded it.
Why did the Swedes ever agree to this in the first place?
By BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 44 minutes ago
BAGHDAD, Iraq - The U.S. military condemned the publication Friday of photographs showing an imprisoned Saddam Hussein naked except for his white underwear, and ordered an investigation of how the pictures were leaked to a tabloid. Some Iraqis expressed anger, but President Bush said he did not think the images would incite further anti-American sentiment.
More revealing pictures were published Saturday in the British tabloid, The Sun, including one of Saddam seen through barbed wire wearing a white robe-like garment, and another of Ali Hassan al-Majid, better known as "Chemical Ali," in a bathrobe and holding a towel.
Regardless of any effect the images may have on Iraq's insurgency, they were certain to offend Arab sensibilities and heap more scorn on an American image already tarnished by the prisoner abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib prison and allegations by Newsweek, later retracted, about desecration of the Quran at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
"It is clear that the pictures were taken inside the prison, which means that American soldiers have leaked the pictures," said Saddam's chief lawyer, Ziad al-Khasawneh. He said the photos "add to acts that are practiced against the Iraqi people, and of course we remember what happened in Abu Ghraib and we remember what happened in Guantanamo.
What Bush doesn't get is this: no matter who the Arab, public humilation is a major social taboo. They kill rape victims for shaming the family. So this society is going to enjoy Saddam shamed in a way no Arab would shame his worst enemy? Are you fucking joking?
Calling Arab dogs, exposing Saddam, this is an offense to Arab pride and we need them not to feel disrepected by us.
The soldiers? They just want to get paid. They may come to regret it when they are jailed, however. There is always someone with a scheme in a unit. Always. Why is anyone surprised?
Nothing is more hopeless or courageous in politics than seeking an authentic middle ground on the abortion issue. That makes Thomas R. Suozzi a hopeless case or, as I would insist, one brave politician -- and especially so as the United States Senate tears itself apart over judicial nomination battles in which discord about abortion has played such a central role.
The 42-year-old Nassau County executive is a churchgoing Catholic who believes that abortion should remain legal. He is also a Democrat who thinks that government should take concrete steps to make it easier for women to choose against abortion. He's proposing that his suburban jurisdiction on Long Island spend some serious money to make that happen.
A politician who takes both these positions risks putting himself in the political crossfire, which is exactly what Suozzi did last week in a remarkable speech at Adelphi University. By gambling on offending everyone, this New Yorker just might move the national abortion debate to more constructive ground.
"As a Democrat, I do not often find it easy to talk with other Democrats about our need to affirm our commitment to the respect for life and how we need to emphasize our party's firm belief in the worth of every human being," he said. "As a Catholic, I do not often find it easy to talk with other Catholics about my feeling that abortion should and will remain safe and legal, and that we should instead focus our efforts on creating a better world where there are fewer unplanned pregnancies and where women who face unplanned pregnancies receive greater support and where men take more responsibility for their actions."
............................
Will Suozzi's argument get anywhere? It was a good sign that Long Island's Roman Catholic bishop, William Murphy, called Suozzi's speech "important and, on the whole, very helpful." Abortion rights groups were more ambivalent, worrying, wrongly I think, that anyone suggesting abortion is a problem somehow undercuts the pro-choice position.
............................... As he put it in his speech, "Anyone who really wishes to reduce the number of abortions has an obligation to help those women who choose not to have an abortion yet find themselves alone."
Here's the problem: there is no middle ground.
If you believe abortion should remain legal, you do not believe a fetus is a life.
If you believe abortion should be illegal, you believe it is murdering babies.
There is no middle ground, no point of negotiation. How do you negotiate killing babies as a right.
Pro-life groups also oppose sex education and contraception. In fact, the new move is to restrict access to birth control on a pharmacist by pharmacist basis.
Suozzi is seen as conceeding the argument, not negotiatiing anything. The pro-life people seem him as capitulating, not searching for agreement. These people want to end abortion, the more that they can convince people to move down that road, the happier they are. So, sure, they will agree to a deal or two, but their goal is to move you to end abortion and birth control.
Which is why I was surprised at all the caterwalling about NARAL not supporting pro-life Dems and being a "special interest" group. NARAL takes its stands for a reason, men have no problem tossing away the rights of women. So while Bob Casey is running against someone truly wacko, he should not be surprised if Chuck Pennachio gets enthusiastic support from NARAL. Jim Langevin should not be surprised that women refused to support his bid for Senate from Rhode Island. A lot of people misunderstand the role of NARAL. They endorse candidates on a individual basis.based on their criteria.
Women should be deeply suspicious of those who would toss their rights away for political expediency.
And I would explain something to all those people pissed at NARAL: electing a pro-life Dem is not going to appeal to them because he opposes their cause. Any more than electing a pro-gun control Republican helps the NRA. Just because he's a Dem is not good enough. Why did they jump in the RI race so early? Because Chaffee is a reliable vote. You can see the big picture that electing Dems will help their cause, but they cannot take that risk. They know Chaffee votes their way, so they backed him. He is a solid vote for them. Simple as that.
Dionne is a smart guy, the one Washington pundit I actually respect. He has a doctorate in Poly Sci. But this is a case of his beliefs getting in the way of reality. He wants to reconcile his Catholicism, like Suozzi, with abortion. Well, that ain't gonna happen. The people driving the issue want to destroy abortion. They don't want to talk about it, have a chat or anything like that.
Any deal they make is about one thing: ending abortion. No matter what they say, they are not going to quit until they are stopped or get their way.
TV reporter Arthur Chi'en was canned by WCBS/Ch. 2 yesterday after he shouted the F-word at two meddlers who horned in on his live shot.
Chi'en was in the middle of a 6a.m. broadcast about MetroCard scammers when two men sneaked up behind him with a sign promoting radio shock jocks Opie & Anthony.
For a few moments, as the knuckleheads heckled him and gave the finger to the camera, Chi'en kept his cool and continued talking.
But as soon as he finished his report, he spun around and shouted at the intruders: "What the f--- is your problem, man?"
If he thought the WCBS control room had already cut to tape, he was wrong. The expletive went out over the air.
"Sorry about that distraction before," Chi'en said when he returned.
The apology apparently wasn't enough for WCBS, especially when the Federal Communications Commission is cracking down on obscenity.
"He's been terminated," station spokeswoman Audrey Pass said.
................
Do people get suspended any more? Come on, this is ridiculous in the extreme. He lost his temper after being hassled by morons. It was a mistake, not a firing offense. Lie about WMD, keep your job, Say fuck and lose it. Is it any wonder that people no longer trust the news?
New York's top lawmakers have been warned: Mess around with the West Side Stadium and the Olympics are lost.
The nation's chief Olympics official emphasized that New York City will lose any chance of holding the 2012 Summer Games if the proposed stadium isn't approved before the host city is selected - and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno would be to blame.
"The [International Olympic Committee] has made it clear that without full approval of the proposed Olympic stadium before the IOC vote, New York's bid will not be successful," U.S. Olympic Committee Chairman Peter Ueberroth wrote in a May5 letter to Silver and Bruno.
In the letter, obtained by the Daily News, Ueberroth warned "the IOC will simply not take the risk of awarding the Games to a city that has not secured the necessary approvals for this marquee Olympic venue."
Failure to approve the proposed stadium, Ueberroth continued, "would grievously damage New York's Olympic bid and America's Olympic movement."
....................
Yet the logjam in Albany is clearly angering NYC2012, the city's bid committee, whose leaders welcomed Ueberroth's letter.
"To ignore the forceful statements of America's most respected Olympic leader only shows that the delays are pure politics," a senior NYC2012 official told The News on condition of anonymity.
Yawn.
The stadium is going to face years of legal challenges anyway. So they might as well move on to Paris.
"How many boys claim or witnesses claim they saw Jackson's hands down some kid's pants? ...
A number. A number. Can anybody give me a number?
-- Nancy Grace
With all the porn, pajamas and Culkin-related distractions in the Michael Jackson case, it's easy to forget that his criminal trial is similar to thousands of others conducted every year. There were opening statements, witnesses for the prosecution and defense -- and after a few more weeks of testimony, a jury will weigh the evidence and let the world know if the singer committed the crime.
Unless you're one of more than 500,000 viewers each night watching CNN Headline News, where Nancy Grace talks as though she determined the celebrity's guilt a long time ago.
Since CNN earlier this year positioned "Nancy Grace" as the centerpiece of the Headline prime lineup, the channel has enjoyed a short-term ratings bonanza. But if executives in charge of the once-respected cable news station are getting a good night's rest, then they haven't been watching her bizarre coverage of the Michael Jackson trial and a dozen other sensational cases.
If one looks at every page of every transcript since "Nancy Grace" debuted three months ago, the program more closely resembles a torch-bearing mob than the "legal issues" show that CNN promised. Grace has created her own parallel universe in which guests are berated for advocating due process, panelists are invited back frequently if they make ad hominem attacks and suspects are seemingly guilty until proven innocent.
"I just wonder," Grace said on her April 7 program about Jackson, "how much money and how much celebrity does it take to make people totally ignore what's under their nose?"
"Talk about garbage and luggage in your past," she added a minute later. "There's Michael Jackson getting his star on the Walk of Fame. If I'm incorrect, correct me. But isn't that where he took his chimp as a date?"
..........................
Grace's mob-mentality panel discussions aren't illegal, or even especially unique. In picking Grace's show as the prime time centerpiece for Headline News, they're using the same hateful-language-attracts-viewers template that Bill O'Reilly has used to win the time period. But Grace's rants are even more dangerous, because they turn the simplest principles of our judicial system upside down.
On an April 14 show, Grace moderated a short panel discussion about the prospects of the death penalty for a Florida man connected to a missing girl, even though authorities at that time declined to even name him as a suspect in the case.
It's only a matter of time before her decision to choose heroes and villains before the story has unfolded ends badly, the way it did for journalists who piled on exonerated Olympic bombing suspect Richard Jewell. Grace cast the missing Jennifer Wilbanks as a sympathetic figure, and look how that blew up in her face.
"Well, look, I don't have a degree in being a police chief. But I can tell you this much: This is not cold feet, all right?" Grace said on April 28, less than 24 hours before the bride-to-be proved her wrong. "This is not cold feet. I know that much."
No, there's a difference. It really doesn't matter if O'Reilly expounds on Ludacris, or George Clooney or Don Cheadle. Grace is commenting on active investigations and people who may well be innocent of any crime. Her consistent belief that the charged are guilty will lead CNN into legal trouble. The problem is that some of these cases are not straightforward and her accusations may lead to the innocent being convicted or Grace libelling someone.
I think that Grace is a sad, barely emotionally stable person. Giving her a TV show is like hiring a drunk to guard a brewery.
Wilbanks is sympathetic in the way that the mentally ill are sympathetic, that's not going to harm Grace. It's the next Central Park Jogger case which will ruin her. She will lead the charge against someone innocent, later proven innocent and the lawsuits will then fly. It isn't that she thinks the charged are guilty, hell, most people charged are guilty. That's not the problem. The problem is that she will not consider that they may actually be innocent. She keeps attacking those involved in crimes as if they are all guilty, and that isn't the case. Grace's own demons, as well as her incredible lack of legal ethics, sanctioned three times by the 11th Circuit Court, will lead to a serious financial disaster for CNN. I liked it a lot better when I could leer at Rudi Bahktiar doing the news. She's pretty, and sane.
Grace is a disaster waiting to happen, especially without the controls they apparently had on her on Court TV.
Even as the young Afghan man was dying before them, his American jailers continued to torment him.
The prisoner, a slight, 22-year-old taxi driver known only as Dilawar, was hauled from his cell at the detention center in Bagram, Afghanistan, at around 2 a.m. to answer questions about a rocket attack on an American base. When he arrived in the interrogation room, an interpreter who was present said, his legs were bouncing uncontrollably in the plastic chair and his hands were numb. He had been chained by the wrists to the top of his cell for much of the previous four days.
Mr. Dilawar asked for a drink of water, and one of the two interrogators, Specialist Joshua R. Claus, 21, picked up a large plastic bottle. But first he punched a hole in the bottom, the interpreter said, so as the prisoner fumbled weakly with the cap, the water poured out over his orange prison scrubs. The soldier then grabbed the bottle back and began squirting the water forcefully into Mr. Dilawar's face.
"Come on, drink!" the interpreter said Specialist Claus had shouted, as the prisoner gagged on the spray. "Drink!"
At the interrogators' behest, a guard tried to force the young man to his knees. But his legs, which had been pummeled by guards for several days, could no longer bend. An interrogator told Mr. Dilawar that he could see a doctor after they finished with him. When he was finally sent back to his cell, though, the guards were instructed only to chain the prisoner back to the ceiling.
"Leave him up," one of the guards quoted Specialist Claus as saying.
Several hours passed before an emergency room doctor finally saw Mr. Dilawar. By then he was dead, his body beginning to stiffen. It would be many months before Army investigators learned a final horrific detail: Most of the interrogators had believed Mr. Dilawar was an innocent man who simply drove his taxi past the American base at the wrong time.
The story of Mr. Dilawar's brutal death at the Bagram Collection Point - and that of another detainee, Habibullah, who died there six days earlier in December 2002 - emerge from a nearly 2,000-page confidential file of the Army's criminal investigation into the case, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times.
Like a narrative counterpart to the digital images from Abu Ghraib, the Bagram file depicts young, poorly trained soldiers in repeated incidents of abuse. The harsh treatment, which has resulted in criminal charges against seven soldiers, went well beyond the two deaths.
The US Army had a special obligation to make sure Afghans were not mistreated. This wasn't just being humane, but tortured people have no incentive to cooperate with anyone who harms them. Instead, you got kids who thought it was ok to smack around brown people for sport.
Another "Tart, Shallow Tell-All" by a Shallow Tart
World O'Crap came up with this bit of insanity and you have to read it in its full glory, Keep in mind Shapiro hasn't had sex yet. Maybe I'll write a book on being a member of the DAR or how to get through your period. He's gonna be one truly ill freak when he does. Maybe he's got urges he needs to repress, a special feeling for that person which he can't admit, even to himself. Why he no longer watches basketball, how he dreams of shaved heads and sweaty bodies and glisening, dark skin, holding him, trapping him, exciting him in a way beyond words. Or maybe he longs to be controlled, a tall, blonde woman telling him his every move as he serves her every need. Whatever it is, it's a freak show. Just as long as he's not a plushie. Lord, that would be too much to take.
Oh, and speaking of cheap and salacious summer books, here's some more info about Ben Shapiro's racey, new roman a clef, Porn Generation: How One Young Man Prostituted Himself to the Religious Right For Spending Money.
Thursday, May 19, 2005 Posted: 9:09 AM EDT (1309 GMT)
MONTGOMERY, Alabama (AP) -- A pregnant student who was banned from graduation at her Roman Catholic high school announced her own name and walked across the stage anyway at the close of the program.
Alysha Cosby's decision prompted cheers and applause Tuesday from many of her fellow seniors at St. Jude Educational Institute.
But her mother and aunt were escorted out of the church by police after Cosby headed back to her seat.
"I can't believe something like this is happening in 2005," said her mother, Sheila Cosby. "My daughter has been through a lot and I am proud of her. She deserved to walk, and she did."
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The father of Cosby's child, also a senior at the school, was allowed to participate in graduation.
Jen
This is what the ChristoFascists really want. Note that the baby's FATHER was allowed to grad ceremonies, but not the mother---who didn't abort, just like Jeebus told her--was in no way rewarded for following doctrine or even acknowledged for staying in school.
Fuck the ChristoFascists of all stripes and religions!
Fucking hypocrites. Now she should sue their asses off. So what are they saying, she should have had an abortion? I thought that was a sin for Catholics. Why is it that police are now used as bouncers? Her mother and aunt did exactly what to be escorted out. They just didn't have the balls to kick the girl out.
This is the armband that Russians helping the German Army wore. Being caught with one was a death sentence. However, the Germans viewed these unlucky people as expendible as well. Steve
During the German invasion, thousands of Soviet soldiers were surrendering or deserting their post. By August 1941, there were closed to half a million Soviet prisoners of war. Because of the sheer quantity of prisoners taken, the Germans had placed them in temporary internment camps.
The internment camps were unsafe since hundreds of thousands of Soviets prisoners were dying from starvation and disease. Many of the Russian prisoners volunteered for German military service. The Germans took this needed manpower, since casualties were amounting on the Eastern Front. The German Army used these volunteers as auxiliaries called "Hilfsfreiwillige."
The Russian prisoners who volunteered were used for such duties as laborers, cooks, interpreters, guards, etc.
Then unless they were lucky, shot, either by the Germans who had no room for them and tired of feeding them, or pissed off Red Army troops or partisans. A sad fate in a desperate time.
When I read Kevin Drum's latest missive, this came to mind.
Because there seems to be a group of people who think that they can cooperate with the opposition and get away with some kind of deal.
I don't mind politicians looking to cut a deal, well, because that's their job. But when I read the missives of Amy Sullivan and Kevin Drum, they say nice, moderate things about insane, immoderate people.
They say they're Democrats, they say they endorse the party, but then they want to talk to people who want to destroy it.
I don't want to have a discussion on values with the fundies, I want to prevent them from imposing their values on me. I don't want to coddle newspapers who are not my friend, but challenge them.
These people are not interested in a discussion, they want to win, they want to win and destroy everything we value in the process. It is not my fault the GOP invited them into the tent. However, it's their tent and when we're talking to people who believe the Grand Canyon is 6,000 years old, we're not able to have a rational discussion. Neither are they, as they will find out this week, either in losing the fillibuster fight or watching Senate business crawl to a halt.
There were people who wanted to actually bend to this debate. I mean, come on, these folks are not going to bend. They're fighting the Jews, er, the "cultural elite" because they want to bring God's Dominion on the earth, screw the constitution, the law and everything else. I mean, if you think you can talk to these maniacs, you might as well get an armband, with a gold cross and an elephant on it which says "In service to the Republican Party". Because you're little better than a Hiwi, helping these people ruin this country and thinking you can save your neck in the process.
When these people come back to their senses, and stop waving Jesus like this is Jerusalem 1189, then we can talk. But until then, we better act like Saladin and see these Crusaders in $500 shoes as what they are, deranged lunatics trying to impose their will on us. This is not about values, but imposing a theocracy.
Fundies have always been a part of American life. Always will be. But usually, they don't get much power. A craven GOP let them, and now we either stop them or regret it.
So stop talking to me about compromise. There is none to be had with these people. They see us as evil and want to destroy us. Simple as that. Either get an armband and go help the GOP with "compromise" or fight for what you're supposed to believe in.
By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent 1 hour, 17 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - Republicans and Democrats injected racial politics into the struggle over President Bush's judicial nominees and the Senate's filibuster rules on Thursday, underscoring partisan differences while compromise-minded senators from both parties pursued an elusive agreement.
"The attempt to do away with the filibuster is nothing short of clearing the trees for the confirmation of an unacceptable nominee to the Supreme Court," said Democratic leader Harry Reid. He accused the president of an attempt to "rewrite the Constitution and reinvent reality" with his demand for a yes-or-no vote on all nominees.
.............................. "Why are they afraid to put a black woman on the court?" asked Bishop Harry Jackson, chairman of a group of black pastors, standing next to Majority Leader Bill Frist at a news conference outside the Capitol. Referring to Janice Rogers Brown, a California Supreme Court judge whom Bush has named to the federal appeals court, he called her "not only a legal hero for black America, she is a legal hero for all America."
Frist, R-Tenn., did not mention Brown's race in his own remarks. He said Democratic treatment of her nomination was "unnecessary, uncivil. It is injustice. I pledge to you here today that I will do everything in my power to see that it stops."
He made his comments after members of the Congressional Black Caucus said he had declined to meet with them to discuss the issue. An aide said Frist was speaking on the Senate floor at the time. The Democratic lawmakers proceeded to a news conference where they released a letter to the Tennessee Republican arguing that his call for a partial ban on judicial filibusters "would be particularly offensive to people of color."
There was irony — as members of the caucus noted — since the historic civil rights legislation of a half-century ago was passed only after supporters overcame filibusters by conservative Southern Democrats and like-minded Republicans.
"The filibuster was systematically used when Senate minority rights meant the denial of the rights of African-Americans," caucus members wrote. "We cannot and will not stand down when Senate minority rights are proposed to be overruled against a Senate minority that seeks to protect the rights of African-Americans."
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While Frist and Reid are not party to the discussions, both have been monitoring them. Senate officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Reid had been forceful in private discussions with Democrats, trying to make sure that any compromise would maintain their right to filibuster future Supreme Court nominees while foreclosing Republicans from attempting to change the filibuster procedure.
No she isn't. Brown is an insane ideologue who merely happens to share a skin color with 30 million people. Her interests and ideology will harm most of those people. This is a woman who's beliefs are nearly fascistic and do not respect the Consitution.
Why does Jackson, on the Bush payroll, want us to support Brown merely for her skin color and not for her qualifications.
The CBC did the right thing, because supporting her is counterproductive to the people they represent.
And we shouldn't go mucking around in this institution and changing the way we've done things, particularly when it comes to the balance of powers between the three branches of government. And the independence of one of those branches of the judiciary. we must tread very carefully before we go radically changing the way we do things that has served this country well, and we have radically changed the way we do things here.
Some are suggesting we're trying to change the law, we're trying to break the rules. remarkable. remarkable hubris. I mean, imagine, the rule has been in place for 214 years that this is the way we confirm judges. broken by the other side two years ago, and the audacity of some members to stand up and say, how dare you break this rule.
It's the equivalent of Adolf Hitler in 1942 "I'm in Paris. how dare you invade me. How dare you bomb my city? It's mine." This is no more the rule of the Senate than it was the rule of the Senate before not to filibuster. It was an understanding and agreement, and it has been abused. In a sense, what we see here on the floor of the united states {16:30:35} (mr. santorum) { not an official transcript }
Santorum is yet another Republican allergic to history.
In 1942, the Nazi Armies owned Europe, they were marching to Stalingrad, which would be the site of one of the bloodiest battles in history. Comparing Senate rules to this is like shitting on the WWII memorial. This isn't the equivilent of Hitler saying anything. The cheap use of history shows the Senator from Tyson's Corner needs to read his history closer. In between trying to murder people by pimping for Accuweather and dragging his dead fetus around for a bit of family show and tell, he wants to denigrate history and sacrifice as well. We all know Santorum wants to sit in the big house, but he's just another blowdried freak who thinks Jesus speaks to him personally and he's the lord's servant.
How easily he compared his collegues to oh, Nazis. You mean John Kerry and Tom Harkin are gonna show up to his house with some of their war buddies and toss hin into a van? He's gonna do slave labor for Micahel Moore? Clean Barbra Streisand's house? Exactly how are his Democratic collegues like the Nazis? Are they meeting at Greenbrier for the final solution of the Republican Party? Are camps being built in the Sonoran desert for Republicans and will they have their property stolen?
Santorum, like so many Republicans, forget that being a public official has responsibilities which go beyond party. One of them is to not unfairly malign the loyal opposition. That is a responsibility of goverrnment, of his office. And he seems not to get it.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Violent animal rights extremists and eco-terrorists now pose one of the most serious terrorism threats to the nation, top federal law enforcement officials say.
Senior officials from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms (ATF) and Explosives told a Senate panel Wednesday of their growing concern over these groups.
Of particular concern are the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and the Earth Liberation Front (ELF).
John Lewis, the FBI's deputy assistant director for counterterrorism, said animal and environmental rights extremists have claimed credit for more than 1,200 criminal incidents since 1990. The FBI has 150 pending investigations associated with animal rights or eco-terrorist activities, and ATF officials say they have opened 58 investigations in the past six years related to violence attributed to the ELF and ALF.
In the same period violence from groups like the Ku Klux Klan and anti-abortion extremists have declined, Lewis said.
Yes, the animal rights people and ecoterrorists have dominated the web with their rantings. I am frightened of a network of ALF members shooting judges and burning crosses. Save us, FBI save us.
The Klan is less virulent, but still very dangerous and committed to violence, just like the radical anti-choice people. These groups cause property damage. They don't kill people, the Klan does.
The second thing is that hardly any of the ordinary taxpayers and transit riders subsidizing this glittering playground on the Hudson will be able to see the Jets play there. This is not like Yankee Stadium, where you can actually go to a game. Unless you've already got season tickets (or unless you're wealthy and can afford one of the staggeringly expensive luxury suites), you're out of luck.
The Jets' Web site couldn't be clearer about this. Under the heading "Waitlist Policy," it says: "The New York Jets are sold out on a season ticket basis. There are NO individual game tickets available. If you are not a season ticket holder, you may join our Waitlist. There are currently over 10,000 people on our Waitlist."
You have to pay $50 a year just to be on the waiting list. The wait is approximately 10 years. And after waiting 10 years, the maximum number of tickets you can buy is four. Does this sound like a good deal for a stadium that you're helping to pay for?
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The third thing you need to know about this stadium is that it's part of a proposed Far West Side development scheme that would be in direct competition with the struggling effort to rebuild the downtown area devastated by the Sept. 11 attacks. The implications of this have not been fully analyzed by the stadium zealots.
Sheldon Silver, the speaker of the State Assembly and one of the three top state officials who must sign off on the stadium, said that the potential conflict between the West Side proposal and the redevelopment of "ground zero and its surrounds" (which he represents) is one of several reasons he feels that the stadium proposal "does not make sense."
He could have saved most of this column and concentrated on the last part.
When will the media hold Bloomberg accountable for his complete disinterest in the lagging pace at the Ground Zero. His desire to build a football stadium has managed to dominate the city's entire development agenda. Developing the far West Side should be secondary to WTC. Every second spent developing the West Side sends a mesage that developing the WTC area is not a priority.
Pataki's disintertest at his lackies inability to get things going has allowed Donald Trump to jump in the development process there. If there was stronger leadership, this could not have happened. The mayoral candidates need to stress how Bloomberg's obession with a useless building is causing a loss of tax revenues and real development for the city.
By Jonathan Finer Washington Post Foreign Service Thursday, May 19, 2005; Page A24
BAGHDAD, May 18 -- A senior U.S. military official told reporters Wednesday that the recent surge in violence in Iraq followed a meeting in Syria last month of associates of the Jordanian insurgent leader Abu Musab Zarqawi.
The rash of bombings and assassinations across the country this month has killed more than 450 people and shattered a period of relative calm after Iraq's Jan. 30 parliamentary elections.
Zarqawi "wasn't happy with how the insurgency was going. The government was getting stronger and coalition forces not being defeated," the U.S. official said, according to news service accounts of the briefing, which was given on the condition that he not be named.
The disclosures followed comments made by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who during a visit to Iraq on Sunday expressed concern about the "gathering of terrorist networks" in Syria. Last weekend, U.S. Marines wrapped up an offensive in northwestern Iraq, near the Syrian border, aimed at uprooting sanctuaries for foreign fighters who had crossed into the country.
Zarqawi leads the group al Qaeda in Iraq, which has asserted responsibility for many of the insurgency's deadliest attacks. The U.S. military has put a $25 million bounty on his head. Reports that he had been wounded or killed during the recent Marine offensive have been denied in Internet postings.
The U.S. official who briefed reporters Wednesday said that it was unclear whether Zarqawi attended the meeting in Syria but that his lieutenants were encouraged to step up attacks on U.S. and Iraqi forces, particularly with car bombings. Insurgents have carried out 21 car bombings in Baghdad this month, compared with 25 in all of 2004, the official said.
As usual, All CENTCOM lies and prevarications are in red.
Did you all see the report on the Iraqi sniper manual?
Zarqawi didn't do that. He doesn't know how to.
I would suggest that he's a bit player with a big mouth and the real resistance is led by former Iraqi Army officers.
By Thomas B. Edsall Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, May 19, 2005; Page A16
House Republicans are gearing up to push campaign finance legislation that would scrap post-Watergate restrictions on the total amount of money individuals can donate and parties can spend on candidates.
House Democratic leaders, who see the GOP gaining a huge financial advantage, yesterday protested the bill, as did campaign finance advocacy groups.
Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), the bill's chief sponsor, said the measure makes a "a few modest changes" in the 2002 campaign finance law that "will restore freedom and fairness to the political economy of our nation."
But Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) wrote House Democrats that the bill, to be taken up next week by the House Administration Committee, would "enable wealthy individuals and interests to pour unlimited amounts of hard money into elections
The irony is that if the GOP gets their way, Democrats may well benefit. Wealthy individuals pouring hard money into elections no longer means rich Republicans alone. If they want to start that up again, they may be surprised at the results
By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, May 19, 2005; Page A03
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee is accustomed to getting its way. The powerful lobby has run smoothly and quietly for half a century, successfully championing the close ties between Israel and the United States.
But this is a different time. On the eve of the organization's annual convention, traditionally a self-congratulatory event, many AIPAC supporters are wringing their hands over a federal probe into allegations that two of the group's employees may have passed classified information to Israel.
"In my heart of hearts I believe that AIPAC will continue to be strong; it's not a fly-by-night operation," said Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism. "But this has obviously been a blow. As long as this remains unresolved, with these charges swirling around, the unease will continue."
"I genuinely hope that this does not impact the effectiveness of the organization; its role is too important," agreed Neal Sher, a former executive director of AIPAC. "But one has to be concerned. Uncertainty is very problematic."
Both men, and the pro-Israel Jewish community in general, worry that the disclosures could weaken AIPAC and its efforts to promote U.S. support for the Jewish state.
Such doubts are unusual for the organization, which has long been counted as one of the country's most effective lobbying groups. It ranked consistently among the five most influential interest groups in Fortune magazine's poll of Washington insiders (alongside such better-known lobbies as AARP and the National Rifle Association). A recent survey by the National Journal ranked AIPAC No. 2 among Democratic lawmakers and No. 4 among Republicans.
Yeah, a charge of espionage usually might cast a pall over an ethnic organization. Something about proving canards about dual loyalty and all that.
While the White House has been jumping all over Newsweek for telling the truth, they have ignored the far more damaging actions of their house organ, the Washington Times.
ISLAMABAD: A cartoon in The Washington Times lampooning Pakistan's role in the US war on terror has turned into a rallying point for nationalist passions and hidden anti-American sentiments here.
The "offensive" cartoon (published May 6) shows a US soldier patting a dog (Pakistan) that holds Abu Faraj Al Libbi (a terrorist linked with Al Qaeda) and saying, "Good boy ... now let's go find bin Laden."
President George W Bush had described the arrest of Al Libbi - the third-ranking leader in Al Qaeda who was arrested in Pakistan this month - as "a critical victory in the war on terror".
A survey carried out by Online news agency revealed hurt national pride, with people cutting across the class divide vocally demanding that the government quit supporting the US in its war against terrorism.
"I think the Pakistan-US relations on the war against terrorism would not continue any more. The US is wary of admitting that Pakistan helped the US to find out its enemies," said Nazeer Ahmed, a lawyer.
For Muhammad Ali, a student of Quaid-e-Azam University, the cartoon belittles Pakistan' anti-terror efforts and exposes how much the US values Pakistan's role in the war in terror.
For some reason, this much more serious breach is all but ignored in the US media.
By Paul Duggan Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, May 19, 2005; Page A01
Michelle Turner, mother of four public school students in Montgomery County, said it is her job, her responsibility, her life's purpose to shield her sons and daughters from corrupting influences. And the world, in her view, is teeming with them.
Which was why she decided long ago to be a stay-at-home mom; preserving "strong, traditional family values" and raising her children "to be good people" is a full-time undertaking, she said. It demands tireless vigilance.
There are lots of rules for the Turner siblings living in Wheaton, ages 10 to 17 -- rules about TV, movies, books, magazines, music, language, clothing, friends, religion. "This is how my husband and I have chosen to do it," she said, sitting in her kitchen one recent afternoon.
"You don't pop out a baby and expect it to raise itself," she said. "I made the commitment to be their mom, and to be here to teach them things that my husband and I wanted them to learn, to teach them about the church, about God." And to teach them this: "God has given us the ability to procreate, to bring children into a family. . . . And as far as the homosexual issue goes, our bodies are not meant or created to be used in that way."
The Turners' devout beliefs used to hold sway only around the dinner table, where the family gathers nightly for meals. Then Turner, 50, helped organize, and became president of, Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum, one of two groups that recently succeeded in derailing, at least temporarily, the Montgomery school board's plan to revise sex education in eighth and 10th grades.
The board wants to foster discussions of homosexuality, portraying same-sex attraction as natural and involuntary for gay people, as something that is common and acceptable. But Turner and other opponents said science has not proved that homosexuality is genetic, that more likely it's a choice. They said that the curriculum ought to present their beliefs, as well, and that students should be taught that it is possible to avoid, or to get out of, the gay lifestyle.
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In her kitchen the other day, as she held forth on her parenting philosophy and the hard work involved in sticking with it, Turner chuckled. "Oh, my golly! Yeah, this is brutal. Between the music, and the trash on TV, in the movies. . ."
For example, she said, she and her husband, Grant T. Turner Jr., 46, a real estate consultant, prescreen movies for their children and check Web sites that warn about potentially objectionable scenes and language in films.
So when do her kids go absolutely batshit. Chafe? Shit, these kids are gonna go nuts. They have no independent decisionmaking skills.
Wouldn't it be ironic if one of her kids were.....gay? Isn't it usually that way.
When we last left Jessica Culter, who was working as a Hill Rat/whore, she was posing for Playboy and regaling us with tales of paid anal sex. Now it seems that she is being sued by an ex-boyfriend.
The consequences of kissing and blogging? Robert Steinbuch, a staff attorney for Sen. Michael DeWine, has filed suit against infamous Washington blogger Jessica Cutler, aka Washingtonienne, for disclosing intimate details about their relationship, one of several she detailed in her Web postings. Cutler, who referred to Steinbuch primarily as "RS" in her blog but didn't disguise certain telling facts about him (his occupation, his place of residence, the fact that he is a twin), tattled to the world that Steinbuch was into spanking, hair-pulling, submissive women, dirty talk and handcuffs, though Steinbuch says she took his alleged predilections out of context. "It is one thing to be manipulated and used by a lover, it is another thing to be cruelly exposed to the world," he contends in his (truly fascinating) suit, posted here. (The Smoking Gun)
This should get the award for dumbest motherfucker of the year.
The LAST thing you should EVER want is to discuss your sexlife in court. Her lawyers can investigate his life to prove her charges. So what she talked about their sex life. All this is going to do is confirm every detail.for our amusement. She took money for sex, which affects her credibility. Suing is just too dumb for words. If I was Culter, I'd sweat the legal action, but hire a good lawyer to inform him of what a trial would be like. If he's as smart as his resume, he'd want no part of this.
b
