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Wait, This Just Came to Me
I've had a thought. Democrats are bad at being mean. And we all end up discomforted.
Hold on to the Chicken
I know these days it can be difficult to keep faith, in people, in possibility. These are trying times, to be sure. At least, my friends, we have the Subservient Chicken. You say "dance" and he breaks it down, you say "run" and off he goes. I call it hope.
(By way of Steve Sachs.)
One First Street N.E.
WASHINGTON, April 28 -- It is 59 degrees but bright on the steps of the Supreme Court at 10:30 a.m. on this late April morning. To the right side of the small complex, on the lower plaza, a middle-aged man in colonial 'founding fathers' dress and ghost-like makeup reclines in a cardboard casket, amidst a small gathering of demonstrators. On the center plaza at the top of the steps, just outside the doors, hundreds wait quietly in line for a chance to witness the court hear arguments in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld and Rumsfeld v. Padilla on whether the federal government can lawfully hold an American citizen without access to lawyer or trial. On the left, 100 feet across the lower plaza from the demonstrators, a handful of local telecommunications lawyers and community activists announce the launch of a program that will bring free wireless Internet access to the National Mall.
Best Thing Ever
I'm sitting outside the Supreme Court, connected through Open Park.
The Cloud is Coming, the Cloud is Coming
Man, I hope this works:
The Open Park Project (Open Park) is a new Washington D.C. non-profit organization founded to bring wireless Internet access to the public and the museum community on the National Mall.
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I was about to start collecting for one of them wireless motorbikes.
What? Too Swedish? What?
Above: National flags of Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, Iran, Syria, and the proposed new national flag of Iraq.
Gray Hats
One of the things I'm trying to do, as I go about my living, is come up with a good understanding of Washington. After about two and a half years of study, here's what I have: it's us versus them. It might be hard for those unfamiliar with official Washington to entirely grasp the flavor of the situation. The best I can come up with is that the enmity that one side holds for the other is that which most Americans might reserve for their understanding of pure evil -- the same sort of general sentiment that I think was behind the decision of the mayor of Inglis, Florida, to issue a proclamation banishing Satan.
There's
more...
It's Cause I Like Words
Damnit I like quotes. And crunchy Cheetos. Washington Post columnist Mary McGrory died recently and she's said to have liked this one:
"Do not fawn upon the rich, and do not be fond of mingling with the great."
Thomas a Kempis
Overheard at the Big Damn Women's Rally
"Truth is a durable thing."
- Madeline Albright
"The most important day of your life isn't your birthday, it's election day."
- Dolores Huerta
"Mr. President...We reject your vision of the world."
- Susan Sarandon
"What happened to live free or die Republicans?" (paraphrased for now)
"When women vote, Democrats win."
- Camryn Manheim
"Dime con quién andas y te diré quién eres. Tell me who you walk with and I'll tell you who you are."
- Anthony Romero
More later.
I'm Quick in Baltimore
At the Orioles game on Friday night, we walk in the stadium to hear "Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States". Now, my gut reaction is one of "ugh", but that's a good story to tell my dad. (As an aside, but for the $6.50 for 10 ounces of Guinness, a night at Camden Yards is a slice of heaven. They make bats right there in the park, sell rib backs right of the grill, and play "Thank God I'm a Country Boy" during the seventh inning stretch. ) Out jogs the President. Martin Sheen that is, looking every bit a real President right down to the pleated pants. The scoreboard lights up with "President Josiah Bartlet". A bit much, I think -- I've got a bunch of respect for the office.
There's
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Speaking Truth to, Aw, Nevermind
Sometimes I get stuck on news stories. Every so often one comes around that
just gets to me and I relish every absurd fact and new detail.
Like Elizabeth Smart. I was hooked on that one for a good couple of months,
had to know just what it was she said when they found, how exactly she went
from living on the streets one day to giving harp performances the next. I've
still got all sorts of questions about that whole thing. But she's so young
it's unseemly to talk too much about it.
The latest one is that of Jack Kelley, the star USA Today reporter who,
as it turns out, pretty much just
made up most of the stuff he wrote.
There's
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Linear Thinking Can't Tie My Shoes
John O'Neill is a Vietnam veteran and, as a recent CNN article tells us,
"a man who served in the same Navy unit as Sen. John Kerry." O'Neill has been spending his time of late going around saying thoughtful things like: "[Kerry] couldn't tie the shoes of some of the people in Coastal Division 11." Keep on reading that same article, and you get to the description of O'Neill as "a Houston lawyer who joined the Navy's Coastal Division 11 two months after the future senator left Vietnam." Quick reread and, yes, two months after Kerry had left Vietnam. As a fellow veteran, O'Neill might be in a position to comment on Kerry's actions as something of a war protester after he was back in the States. But having not actually witness the man do one single thing for one single second in theater -- you know, saving lives, taking lives, during the actual, you know, war -- seems like it might make it difficult to come to the conclusion that "I saw some war heroes ... John Kerry is not a war hero."
There's
more...
Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V, and We're Done
An April 2 Republican National Committee fact sheet on the economy contains the bullet point "America has a choice: It can continue to grow the economy and create new jobs as the President's policies are doing; or it can raise taxes on American families and small businesses, hurting economic recovery and future job creation." An April 9 U.S. Treasury 'Tax Day Reminder' press release is tagged with the lines: "America has a choice: It can continue to grow the economy and create new jobs as the President's policies are doing; or it can raise taxes on American families and small businesses, hurting economic recovery and future job creation."
(By way of Josh Marshall by way of Boing Boing by way of Tex formerly of the Well.)
UPDATE: Treasury to Investigate Press Releases
Ask and It Shall be Given You, or Not So Much
I do love a thoughtful response. The question:
NBC's David Gregory: Mr. President, I'd like to follow up on a couple of these questions that have been asked. One of the biggest criticisms of you is that whether it's WMD in Iraq, postwar planning in Iraq, or even the question of whether this administration did enough to ward off 9/11, you never admit a mistake. Is that a fair criticism? And do you believe there were any errors in judgment that you made related to any of those topics I brought up?
The answer:
The President: Well, I think, as I mentioned, it's -- the country wasn't on war footing, and yet we're at war. And that's just a reality, Dave. I mean, that's -- that was the situation that existed prior to 9/11, because the truth of the matter is, most in the country never felt that we'd be vulnerable to an attack such as the one that Osama bin Laden unleashed on us. We knew he had designs on us, we knew he hated us. But there was a -- nobody in our government, at least, and I don't think the prior government, could envision flying airplanes into buildings on such a massive scale. The people know where I stand. I mean, in terms of Iraq, I was very clear about what I believed. And, of course, I want to know why we haven't found a weapon yet. But I still know Saddam Hussein was a threat, and the world is better off without Saddam Hussein. I don't think anybody can -- maybe people can argue that. I know the Iraqi people don't believe that, that they're better off with Saddam Hussein -- would be better off with Saddam Hussein in power. I also know that there's an historic opportunity here to change the world. And it's very important for the loved ones of our troops to understand that the mission is an important, vital mission for the security of America and for the ability to change the world for the better. |
- President Addresses the Nation in Prime Time Press Conference (April 13, 2004).
Seeing Wisdom in the Words of, Sweet Mary, the Attorney General
"I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them." - I. Asimov
"Me too." - J. Ashcroft
"After I became attorney general in February 2001, it became clear that the FBI's computer technology and information management was in terrible shape. The bureau essentially had 42 separate information systems, none of which were connected.
Agents lacked access to even the most basic Internet technology. These problems didn't just hamper interagency communication, they hindered information sharing in the Justice Department, the intelligence community, and communication with state and local law enforcement. It's no wonder, given the state of this technology, that the Phoenix memo warning that terrorists may be training in commercial aviation was lost in the antique computers at the Washington headquarters." - Testimony before the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, Attorney General John Ashcroft (April 13, 2004).
Something Like Writing Your Own Job Description
I finally got around to watching Journeys with George last night, and I admit that I audibly gasped when Alexandra Pelosi said something along the lines of "[t]hat's the dirty little secret of journalism — when you’re the reporter covering the campaign, if he wins, you’re the White House press corps." This I did not know. Now I'm thinking this means that the same group of journalists, reporters, and producers that spend a year or more working as an adjunct unit of the candidate's campaign, largely crafting out of whole cloth the public picture of that man or woman, are the same group of folks we're counting on to doggedly and deeply interrogate that candidate as president, should, of course, he or she somehow manage to get elected to that job. Interesting.
Go on and Hear the Hearings, or at Least Kitchen Confidential
In what seems like a real-live act of public service, Audible.com is offering free audio downloads of the first eight September 11 Commission hearings. (Or, for something less sad and more about chefs, the Anthony Bourdain book is $19.95.)
Thirteen Months Equals Too Damn Long. It's More than a Year, You Know.
Looks like tomorrow night the President will hold a solo press conference on the Administration's actions in the time leading up to the attacks of September 11, 2001 -- his first such appearance since March 6, 2003. Now, I've never been too good at counting months -- at a past job at a non-profit where I worked with a lot with census data, I had a strip of paper running atop my keyboard that read "1 = January, 2 = February..." -- but I took some time to count it out carefully and it seems as if that makes it a full 13 months since the last presidential press conference.
There are certainly ways other than the solo appearance for a president to communicate with the American public -- through his or her spokesperson at press gaggles, in speeches to supporters, by way of senior officials on Sunday programs, and in the occasional State of the Union address -- but this sort of press conference is an eminently knowable forum in which the president stands up and says, as this president did in that March 2003 appearance, "I'm pleased to take your questions tonight, and to discuss with the American people the serious matters facing our country and the world" and both the members of the press corps and the public at large assess the president's inclinations and moods on matters both small and large.
It seems to me that the modern American presidency is an active, full-time, participatory position, one that, in the best of times, is hired for by the American people, and I think it's fair that the responsiveness and at minimum availability of the man or woman holding that position be counted as one measure of job performance. (A quick search reveals that while our two immediate past presidents tended to hold far more solo press conferences, in the face of adversity, our most recent past president was not quite the champ I might have hoped he’d have been. Oh well, no matter.)
Monday Morning Quote
We kick off the week with the sweet wisdom of Slim Shady:
"You just a baby, gettin' recruited at eighteen. You're on a plane now, eatin' their food and their baked beans. I'm twenty-eight, they gonna take you 'fore they take me. Crazy insane or insane crazy? When I say Hussein, you say Shady."
- Square Dance, Eminem
Goood Question
"There are a lot of very, very fine -- 2 billion Muslims. Most of
them, we know, are very fine people. Some don't like us; they hate
us. They don't like what modernization does to their culture. They
don't like the fact that economic prosperity has passed them by.
They don't like some of the policies of the United States government.
They don't like the way their own governments treat them.
And I'd like you to elaborate a little bit, if you would, on how
we get at the source of the problem. How do we get at this
discontent, this dislocation, if you would, across a big swathe of
the Islamic world?"
- Lee H. Hamilton, Vice-Chair, National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (April 8, 2004).
Wait, This Right Here is a Point that Makes Sense
"But when it came right down to it, this country, for reasons of history and culture and therefore law..." (emphasis added)
-National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice (April 9, 2004).
Monday Morning Quote
Republicans are men of narrow vision, who are afraid of the future.
- Jimmy Carter
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March 2004 | Main
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Of Note: Facebook Activism [AlterNet], Tag Magazine, Broadband Virginia, Progressive Voices Interview: John Wonderlich
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Wait, This Just Came to Me
Hold on to the Chicken
One First Street N.E.
Best Thing Ever
The Cloud is Coming, the Cloud is Coming
What? Too Swedish? What?
Gray Hats
It's Cause I Like Words
Overheard at the Big Damn Women's Rally
I'm Quick in Baltimore
Speaking Truth to, Aw, Nevermind
Linear Thinking Can't Tie My Shoes
Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V, and We're Done
President Talks on Hiding Stuff and Some Other Things that Happened
Ask and It Shall be Given You, or Not So Much
Seeing Wisdom in the Words of, Sweet Mary, the Attorney General
Something Like Writing Your Own Job Description
Go on and Hear the Hearings, or at Least Kitchen Confidential
Thirteen Months Equals Too Damn Long. It's More than a Year, You Know.
Monday Morning Quote
Goood Question
Wait, This Right Here is a Point that Makes Sense
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