“A serious failure in exercising judgment”
by matttbastard
An interim version of the Winograd report looking into Israel’s 2006 war with Lebanon was released on Monday. As many expected, the partial report doesn’t mince words in criticizing Israeli PM Ehud Olmert:
The prime minister, the report said, “bears supreme and comprehensive responsibility for the decisions of ‘his’ government and the operations of the army.”
[...]
Olmert also came under criticism for rushed actions at the outset of the war, and for failing to consult with either military or non-military experts.
“The prime minister made up his mind hastily, despite the fact that no detailed military plan was submitted to him and without asking for one,” the report said. “He made his decision without systematic consultation with others, especially outside the IDF, despite not having experience in external-political and military affairs.”
Olmert was also censured for failing to “adapt his plans once it became clear that the assumptions and expectations of Israel’s actions were not realistic and were not materializing.”
“All of these,” the report said, “add up to a serious failure in exercising judgment, responsibility and prudence.”
Olmert has already announced he has no plans to resign, instead promising to start implementation of the report’s recommendations, beginning with a ‘special cabinet session’ on Wednesday. Blake Hounshell makes the observation that former military Chief of Staff Dan Halutz has already stepped down, with Defense Minister Amir Peretz expected to leave his post in the near future (although recent comments from associates indicate Peretz may attempt to remain in power despite the report’s findings). Both officials were also singled out by the report for censure.
Yet, as Akiva Eldar notes, the Israeli PM is somewhat insulated from owning the blame for the war’s conduct due to the breadth of criticism doled out by the report. Also, one should not discount the Bibi factor:
The greatest asset of this coalition is opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu. Over the past few days, the same argument that always arises during political crises resurfaced: “What do you want – Bibi in power?”
“Stuck in the middle of nowhere”
by matttbastard
More on Iraq’s refugee crisis from Anna Husarska and David Case.
Sunday Hangover Blogging: Too Sketched For Substance Edition
by matttbastard
- Following a deadly month of violence in which at least 1000 civilians were killed in fighting, Andrew McGregor examines the various factions fueling the insurgency in Somalia.
- A must see episode of The Agenda: first, an interview with Canadian Senator Peter Stoller, author of a recent Senate report critical of Canada’s current African aid policy; next, one of the best discussions on the crisis in Zimbabwe I’ve come across as of late. Full episode available here.
- Proposed legislation allowing the reinstatement of low and mid-level Baathist civil servants is garnering controversy in Iraq.
Willful Indifference (UPDATED 04.30)
by matttbastard
So when is an act of (attempted) terrorism on US soil not nationwide front page news? When the perpetrator (and target) doesn’t fit the accepted narrative:
A 27-year-old man has been arrested and taken into federal custody in connection with a makeshift bomb found this week at an Austin women’s clinic that performs abortions, authorities said Friday.
[...]
The bomb was found Wednesday in a bag in the parking lot of the Austin Women’s Health Center. After an employee found the suspicious package, a bomb squad detonated the device. It was found to contain an explosive powder and two pounds of nails, said David Carter, assistant chief of the Austin Police Department.
Zuzu responds with the post of the day:
Had that bomb been found outside a post office or a school, the headlines would have been hysterically running on about ZOMG TERRORISM TERRORISM IS AL QAEDA INVOLVED? And the right-wing warbloggers would be pissing their pants and hyperventilating about profiling Arabs and banning Muslims from public life and dhimmitude and how if they had been there, they’d have stopped it with their concealed carry and their extra-super special powers of righteousness, just like they saw in a movie once and BOMB IRAN! and 9/11 CHANGED EVERYTHING!!! but they still have better things to do than join the military, but they’ll be happy to go into the woods and hunt Russians and shout WOLVERINES!!
But it’s an abortion clinic, so. Ho-hum.
For some reason, terrorism doesn’t count if it’s directed against women and their health care providers. It’s just not news, and the fact that it goes unremarked in the national media — and hell, even in the local media, as in the case of the Austin bomb — contributes to the idea that women are not important and that violence directed at women is not only to be expected, but to be dismissed.
As Zuzu outlines, it’s not terrorism if there are no Muslims involved, as this story from Alabama further illustrates:
Raids that resulted in the arrests of six alleged militia members and the seizure of hundreds of hand grenades and bullets were “much ado about nothing,” a defense lawyer said Friday.
A cache of ammunition that was confiscated – 2,500 rounds – wasn’t that large, and the scores of homemade hand grenades that agents seized could be made with powder from fireworks and components readily available in military surplus stores, attorney Scott Boudreaux said.
Even prosecutors say the ragtag group called the Alabama Free Militia had no intended target and was simply stockpiling munitions, said Boudreaux, who plans to meet this weekend with his client, Raymond Kirk Dillard, 46, of Collinsville, a supposed major in the paramilitary group.
Despite the relative indifference of the media and politicians, an SPLC report shows that in the ten years following after Oklahoma City bombing US law enforcement officials uncovered nearly 60 domestic terror plots involving members of the extreme right-wing. The Austin [American-]Statesman notes that in the first three months of 2007 there had been 32 reported incidents of “violence or disruption” directed towards abortion providers, according to National Abortion Federation figures. The Alabama militia group was caught with “130 hand grenades, a grenade launcher, about 70 hand grenades rigged to be fired from a rifle, a machine gun, a short-barrel shotgun, 2,500 rounds of ammunition, explosives components, stolen fireworks and other items“, as per AP.
Imagine the response from the LGF set if those arrested were swarthy brown Allah-worshippers, instead of lily-white Christians who fear teh black helicopters and love the unborn more than living, breathing women. Oh, wait, we don’t have to imagine (keep in mind, no weapons or bomb making materials were found in the so-called ‘Miami Seven’ arrests). If this ‘militia’ consisted of non-bubbas, or the anti-choice extremist who attempted to blow up the Austin women’s clinic were Muslim, the right-wing noise machine would have instantly whirred into an overdriven frenzy like it always does when there’s an Islam angle.
IEDs and armed insurgents on American soil; yep, nothing to see here. Hey, look – LAST SEPTEMBER we caught an al-Qaida higher-up! ZOMGWTFBBQUSA!!!1
Related: David Neiwert has more on US society’s cognitive dissonance when responding to domestic and ‘foreign’ (read: Islamic) terror.
Update 04.29: Many thanks to Cernig @ The Newshoggers for the acknowledgment. At least Stratfor is taking the attempted clinic bombing in Austin seriously:
Anti-abortion activists almost always have deeply held convictions based on their religious beliefs. A study of past anti-abortion attacks shows that once activists decide to commit acts of violence based on these convictions, they will not be easily dissuaded. Rather than be discouraged by a failed attempt like the incident in Austin, they often learn from their mistakes and adjust their tactics accordingly. Therefore, the group or individual responsible for placing the IED at the clinic is likely to strike again. [note: report was drafted prior to the arrest of Paul Ross Evans]
Dave Neiwert offers his expert analysis on both Austin and Alabama here.
Update 2: via OCSteve in ObWi comments – UPI:
Paul Ross Evans has no known ties to anti-abortion or extremist groups, The Austin American-Statesman said. Vicki Saporta, president of the American Abortion Federation, said the group is going through its records to see if he has ever been in the Austin clinic or made threats against clinics in the past.
News 8 Austin reports that Evans’ MySpace page “suggests he’s into tattoos, dislikes sports and doesn’t watch television.“
Update 04.30: Today’s Austin American-Statesman contains this piece on the reaction Evans’ attempted act of terrorism has garnered in his sleepy, idyllic hometown. Lufkin Police Sgt Stephen Abbott says of the deeply Christian Texas community “[doesn't] really have extremist groups”, referring to Lufkin as “the heart of the Bible belt.”
Perhaps not, but the antipathy of local residents towards abortion is apparent throughout the article, most notably when the town’s own brush with clinic violence is recounted:
In 2004, a 20-year-old junior college student council president was sentenced to probation for firing a high-powered rifle into the Planned Parenthood clinic, an incident that damaged the building but didn’t injure anyone.
Quote of the Day: Buying and Selling
by matttbastard
The fraud that was manufactured by our government officials and endorsed by our media establishment is one of the great political crimes of the last many decades. Yet those who are responsible for it have not been held accountable in the slightest. Quite the contrary, their media prominence — as Moyers demonstrates — has only increased, as culpable propagandists and warmongers such as Charles Krauthammer (now of Time and The Washington Post), Bill Kristol (now of Time), Jonah Goldberg (now of The Los Angeles Times, Peter Beinert (now of Time and The Washington Post), and Tom Friedman (revered by media stars everywhere) have all seen their profiles enhanced greatly in our national media.
And while Judy Miller became the scapegoat for the media’s failures, most of the media stars responsible for the worst journalistic abuses — from Michael Gordon to Tim Russert to Fred Hiatt to most of The Washington Post, to say nothing of the Fox stars and cogs of the right-wing noise machine — continue merrily along as before, with virtually no recognition of fault and no reduction in their platforms.
Related: Bill Moyers: Buying the War; Mark Knoller: projecting denial (also via Greenwald). More post-Moyers fallout: Jon Schwarz calls out Oprah; Digby targets Tim Russert and American political journalism as a whole, calling it “an elaborate kabuki dance.”
Defiance
by matttbastard
Mexico City’s legislative assembly has voted to legalise abortion in the city, the capital of the world’s second-largest Roman Catholic country.
Lawmakers voted 46 to 19 in favour of the bill that will permit abortions of pregnancies in the first 12 weeks.
Mexico City previously allowed abortion only in cases of rape, if the woman’s life was at risk or if there were signs of severe defects in the foetus.
[...]
There are an estimated 200,000 illegal abortions in Mexico each year.
Of women who opt for illegal procedures, at least 1,500 women die during botched operations performed in unhygienic backstreet clinics.
Many victims of rape are denied access to legal abortion, a Human Rights Watch report said last year. [available here - mb]
This very welcome victory for reproductive freedom did not come about without struggle, nor is the fight over. Pope Benedict XVI wrote a letter to Bishops in the mostly-Catholic nation prior to the vote, imploring Mexicans to oppose the legalization of abortion in Mexico City, according to the BBC. And, as Reuters reports, the pontiff’s call was heeded by some:
Riot police kept rival groups of rowdy demonstrators apart outside the city’s assembly building. Weeping anti-abortion protesters played tape recordings of babies crying and carried tiny white coffins.
[...]
Church leaders threatened to excommunicate leftist deputies, mostly from the Party of the Democratic Revolution, who voted in favor of lifting the abortion ban, which will remain in force in the rest of the country.
Prior to today’s vote, the only other countries in Latin America sanctioning abortion-on-demand to women were Cuba and Guyana. Advocates for abortion in the region still face stiff resistance from religious and political elites under sway of a powerful religious lobby (though the past several years have brought incremental shifts). But preventing a legal avenue for women to procure a vital medical procedure doesn’t eliminate the practice.
Marianne Mollmann of Human Rights Watch wrote an op-ed last May for the LA Times detailing her experiences in Latin American countries where the reproductive rights of women are severely restricted, forcing many to put themselves at risk of both legal and lethal consequences:
“What do I care if abortion is legal or illegal?” Marcela E. told me in 2004 in Argentina, where abortion generally is banned. “If I have to do it, I have to do it.” The 32-year-old mother of three had a clandestine abortion after her husband raped her.
A community organizer in Argentina told me: “You will not believe what women end up putting in their uteruses to abort.” I wish I didn’t.
I have spoken to women who used knives, knitting needles, rubber tubes, even pieces of wood to pry open their uteruses. Some got access to abortive medicines that in theory lower the possibility of direct infection but that caused serious complications when they took them without medical assistance. Affluent women suffered fewer traumatic ordeals, often traveling to the U.S. for the procedure or sneaking off to upscale private Latin America clinics where, on paper, they had surgery for appendicitis.
[...]
…[V]ery few, if any, women get such “non-punishable” abortions because there are no clear procedures. Fearing that they’d be charged with a crime, many of the women I interviewed who might have qualified for a legal abortion because they had been raped or because their health was endangered by the pregnancy did not dare to out themselves as potential abortion candidates. They went straight for the illegal and mostly unsafe back-alley abortions. A large proportion of maternal mortality in Latin America is caused directly by the consequences of such unsafe abortions.
All this–the ongoing struggle, the callous disregard for the human rights of women, the consequences of denying access to safe, legal abortion–should be kept in mind as the US continues to pick the bones of Roe v. Wade.
File Under: IOKIYAR
by matttbastard
Fact: Chuck Norris wouldn’t recognize his own hypocrisy if it jumped up and sidekicked him in the stomach.
Hot Rod Lincolns Have a Heavy Carbon Footprint
by matttbastard
Commander Cody?! Get a haircut, hippy! It’s all about Roky Erickson, who will be rockin’ Coachella this upcoming weekend [edit: not that I'll be there to enjoy the devilish festivities. Le sigh.]
Bearish Opportunism
by matttbastard
A toast to former Russian president Boris Yeltsin, who passed on earlier today. Can’t count myself as an admirer, alas; ‘Chechnya‘ was the word I most associated with ‘Yeltsin’ for quite some time. (At least 35,000 civilians killed in the first war; another 500,000 displaced. Heck of a job, Borya.)
Others with far more clout (and personal experience with Yeltsin) than me have already begun to scrutinize his decidedly mixed legacy:
- Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev: We were able to do a lot, but we had serious differences – very big differences that the forces against perestroika and changes took advantage of.
- Russian President Vladimir Putin: He was a direct and brave national leader and in this, his positions were always open and honest to the very limit. … And all misfortunes and all sorrows, the difficulties and the problems of the people, he invariably took to heart.’
- Former President Bill Clinton: …I was struck by two things: his devotion to his country and its people, and his willingness to look at the facts and make a tough decision he thought was in Russia’s long term interest. Fate gave him a tough time in which to govern, but history will be kind to him because he was courageous and steadfast on the big issues – peace, freedom, and progress.
- President George W. Bush: President Yeltsin was a historic figure who served his country during a period of momentous change. He played a key role as the Soviet Union dissolved, helped lay the foundations of freedom in Russia and became the first democratically elected leader in that country’s history.
- Zargan Bugaeva, 36, of Grozny, Chechnya, whose husband and mother died in Russia’s war against Chechen separatists: You never should say anything bad about the dead, but Yeltsin left behind nothing good. … For me, Yeltsin was a criminal who was never punished for his crimes.
IMO, the most fitting (if not bitter) eulogies (apart from the mute despair of Zargan Bugaeva) come from Sergei Boguslavsky and Vladimir Melnikov, two Muscovites who each represent opposite poles of the social strata:
[Sergei:] …I don’t recall anything heroic about him, because there has never been any heroism. Not even when he climbed that tank in Moscow in August 1991 to thwart the hard-liners’ putsch. There has been an enormous and stunning political intuition and cunning. He always felt how things would turn out — and that was why he was always capable of turning the situation his way.
[...]
[Vladimir:] “There wasn’t anything heroic about him fighting Gorbachev either — in fact, he continued what Gorbachev started. Gorbachev ruined the Soviet Union. Yeltsin ruined Russia. He led to having this country robbed and pilfered. He hasn’t done anything good to us. All he has done has been negative. The new rich have benefited under him. But he has done nothing for the ordinary people.”
If Only Someone Had Told Him He Looked Pretty
by matttbastard
No surprise here – Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich both blame teh evul lib’ruls for the VA Tech massacre. Small wonder, since both right-wing icons have made respectable careers out of reflexively blaming liberals for pretty much everything since the Fall. But no, the truth is it’s all the feminists’ fault.
According to Sarah Baxter of the Murdoch Times, an emasculated American culture has bred a generation of psychopathic misfits not pretty enough to be Breck Girls. For those who don’t like to click links (for shame!), Baxter’s article heavily relies on the soundbite wisdom of Camille Paglia (and noted sociologist Francis Fukuyama [?!]) to conclude that the ‘heavily manicured’ world of VA Tech is emblematic of an overly ‘feminized’, politically correct society that fails to recognize, as Paglia puts it, “the mix of male sexual aggression with egotism and the ecstasy of self-immolation”*:
Paglia believes the school Cho attended would have been no better equipped to deal with frustrated young males. “There is nothing happening educationally in these boring prisons that are fondly called suburban high schools. They are saturated with a false humanitarianism, which is especially damaging for boys.
“Young men have enormous energy. There was a time when they could run away, hop on a freighter, go to a factory and earn money, do something with their hands. Now there is this snobbery of the upper-middle-class professional. Everyone has to be a lawyer or paper pusher.”
Cho is a classic example of “someone who felt he was a loser in the cruel social rat race”, Paglia says. The pervasive hook-up culture at college, where girls are prepared to sleep with boys they barely know or fancy, can be a source of seething resentment and alienation for those who are left out.
“Young women now seem to want to behave like men and have sex without commitment. The signals they are giving are very confusing, and rage and humiliation build up in boys who are spurned again and again.”
The sex, Paglia argues, “is everywhere but it is not erotic”, as can be seen by the sad spectacle of Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears flashing their lack of underwear during a night on the town. “It’s not even titillating. It’s banal and debasing.”
Perhaps Paglia is right – I mean, if any one is acquainted with banal debasement and egotism run amok it’s her. Maybe if Cho had done less sissy writin’ and more manly wood-choppin’ he wouldn’t have been so violently frustrated by sexually (passive) aggressive co-ed succubi cruelly emulating the knicker-free exploits of Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan (without allowing Cho to join in on the GGW-esque festivities – cockteases!) So put down that pen and pick up an axe, Junior – lest ye become feminism’s next martyr.
PS: Have yet to confirm how much Cho paid for his haircut.
Update: Brad @ Sadly, No! provides the ‘duh!’ response:
Cho’s actions were not the symbolic deeds of a young man being forced to live under the tyranny of a “feminized” culture. They were the actions of one highly disturbed individual who didn’t get the psychiatric treatment he needed, who managed to get his hands on a pair of semi-automatic weapons, and who then went out and killed people. That’s it. There is no Greater Lesson to be learned from the whole horrible incident. Stop trying to project your own feelings about gender politics onto this tragedy.
*Does Paglia keep a Rolodex full of this tripe handy for quick reference during interviews? Kee-hrist.
Bless Me Father…
by matttbastard
A confession: I went temporarily insane after the Liberal Party of Canada’s leadership convention this past December. Chock it up to Harper Derangement Syndrome, coupled with a healthy dislike of NDP leader Jack Layton. I felt (and, to a certain extent, still feel) that anyone would be an improvement over the current Tory government (hellbent on rupturing the fabric of Canadian society in the name of neo-conservative free market pathology), but the Dippers haven’t displayed any substantive desire to form the next Canadian government.
So, as detailed (with embarrassing naivety) here, I requested an application to join the Grits, swallowing my (many, many) misgivings with a nauseous gulp and no little entryist rationalization. Since that brief moment of delusional clarity, the form has sat, unsent, on my desk, gathering dust. I’d periodically look over the details and wonder if I could honestly reconcile my dedication to social democracy with the Grits’ distasteful laissez-faire economic and policy platform. The more I read, the more it became apparent that, despite certain misgivings with the contemporary Canadian left, I am most certainly not a liberal, small or capital ‘L’; I am a proud socialist in the Tommy Douglas tradition. To join a liberal democratic party (even one drifting leftward under the leadership of Stephane Dion) would be an unforgivable betrayal of my core beliefs.
Do I regret my brief flirtation with liberalism? Hell yes. I’ve deeply questioned the integrity of my beliefs over the past few months, and on several occasions nearly convinced myself that I was doing the right thing. But I’ve realized that the Grits will never be a worker-friendly party, regardless of CAW President Buzz Hargrove’s pragmatic support; the Grits are too deeply beholden to amoral corporate interests to give anything more than lip-service to workers, women, and the poor (to say nothing of the environment).
All that is great–three cheers for finding my way back on course again–but the current NDP leadership (read: Jack Layton) and platform (especially its unequivocal support of Quebecois self-determination) still doesn’t reflect what I think best represents 21st century internationalist social democracy. Former leader Ed Broadbent’s grand vision of a market-based economy (not a market-based society) balanced with an uncompromising dedication to democratic socialist public policy seems light-years away from the Dippers’ recent ideological floundering. Combine that with Layton’s tendency to overly relish what amounts to perpetual spoiler status within a minority Parliament and (hopefully) you can see why I’ve been reluctant to renew my party membership these last few years.
So where does this leave yours truly? I still believe the environment (specifically climate change and sustainability) is the core issue facing Canada in the coming decade (with electoral reform–another area where my views and the Grits’ are separated by a wide chasm–placing a close second). Yet despite holding no little respect for former president executive director of the Sierra Club and current Green Party leader Elizabeth May, the Green’s core vision of decentralized government and drastic tax-cuts is not something I can support in good faith. Therefore, as of now, I (reluctantly) identify as a (small ‘I’) independent. I will keep voting NDP for the foreseeable future (my riding is not likely to swing Tory, and I’ve campaigned in the past for currrent Dipper MP Irene Mathyssen, who IMO has distinguished herself in Parliament by holding Heritage Minister Bev Oda’s feet to the fire over drastic Tory cuts to Status of Women Canada) ; I’ll continue to support the drive to replace Canada’s antiquated first-past-the-post electoral system with some form of proportional representation.
But until the NDP cleans house from the top down, I can’t in good faith throw my unequivocal support behind the party.
Brothers From Different Mothers
by matttbastard
Via Jim D @ Shiraz Socialist:
“In unions in different countries, we call each other by different names. Some unions use the word ‘comrade’ , others use ‘colleague’. And many use the terms ‘brother’ and ’sister’ to describe fellow union members.
“Are we simply using these words because we always have, or do they still have any real meaning?
“I ask the question because in the last few days one of our brothers has been brutally tortured and murdered, and another one, an innocent man, jailed.
“In Mexico, Santiago Rafael Cruz, a 29-year-old union organizer from the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC, AFL-CIO) was brutally tortured and murdered. Santiago was a successful organizer in the USA who moved down to Mexico to run the union’s office there. His activities aroused the hostility of those who fear the growth of trade unionism among farm workers, and generated attacks in the media, threats of deportation, robberies and intimidation, culminating in this terrible crime.
“Santiago has a family in Mexico, a mother father, sisters and brothers. But his family is much larger than that; it includes all of us. We must grieve together with his family, and we must fight together with them as one large family to ensure that the Mexican government prosecutes those responsible, and ensures the safety of union activists in that country.
“Please take a moment to send off your message today:
http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=232
“About the same time that union-hating murderers were ending the life of this courageous young man in Mexico, on the other side of the world Iranian security forces lured union activist Mahmoud Salehi into the local prosecutor’s office on the pretext of discussing plans for this year’s May Day celebrations. Salehi, a former president of the bakery workers’ union in the city of Saqez, was then arrested and put in jail for a year with a three year suspended sentence on top of that. His crime was that in 2004 he organized a May Day demonstration.
“Tell the Iranian authoritiesto release Mahmoud Salehi now, and to drop all charges. Send of your message by clicking here:
http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=231
“I doubt very much if Santiago and Mahmoud ever met – and yet they are brothers. One now languishing in an Iranian prison, the other in a Mexican grave.
“If these two men were not just fellow trade union members but actually your brothers, the sons of your mothers and fathers, how would you react? I know you wouldn’t be silent – you would be up in arms and the whole world would know your anger and pain.
“Please pass this message on. Let’s tell the Mexican and Iranian governments that we in the international trade union movement are a single family, and we will not tolerate our brothers and sisters being tortured, jailed or murdered anywhere in the world.
“Eric Lee”.
More on Cruz and Mahmoud from the AFL-CIO and and the Iran Workers’ Solidarity Network.
‘A swimming pool of blood.’
by matttbastard 
Photo: AFP
A wave of bombings in Iraq kill up to 200 people, including 140 who perished when a car bomb ripped through a market in the largely-Shia Sadriya district. A similar attack on the same market this past February resulted in the deaths of 135 people. In other (more positive) news, Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki announced that Iraq forces will inherit the quagmire take over security operations in all provinces by the end of this year.
What, no applause?
Update: More from Hilzoy, who points to this CNN article reporting that al-Maliki has issued an arrest warrant for a “top army officer” as a result of “the weakness of security measures put in place to protect civilians in al-Sadriya”.
VA Tech Round-Up
by matttbastard
- Despite prior stalking complaints from several female students and a declaration of ‘imminent danger’ by a state magistrate that led to a brief involuntary detention, Cho Seung-Hui passed his instant background check with flying colours, allowing him to legally purchase the firearms used in the massacre. So obviously the way to prevent a similar incident from occurring is to allow students to carry concealed weapons on campus. Hey, why stop there – what about handguns in hospitals, airports, or places of worship? More from Think Progress and Michael Stickings [link corrected].
- Via zuzu @ Feministe, early pursuit of the now-debunked ‘estranged girlfriend‘ angle may have lead to the lengthy delay in warning students and faculty about a shooter on the loose.
- James Fallows on how a US columnist’s misidentification of the VA Tech killer quickly provoked a repressive panic by Communist officials in China.
- Paul McLeary asks a pertinent question: “What happens when an i-Reporter gets hurt?”
- Boing Boing reports that media firms are already snapping up Google Adwords keywords that tie into the VA Tech shooting. I’m sure the families of the fallen are comforted by the consideration. ‘Do No Evil’. Indeed.
- update: MSNBC posts pictures of Seung-Hui that were part of a package sent to NBC News during the two hour gap between the first and second shootings.
Hey, Derby – Rambo III Wasn’t A Documentary
by matttbastard
This Corner post confirms what many have suspected for some time now: self-described ‘chickenhawk’ John Derbyshire is severely allergic to reality. John Cole and Steve Benen provide an antidote to the burning stupidity.
Via Memeorandum.
Late Night Logic: ‘Holes in the psyche’
- More birth pangs: The political response to last week’s bombing in the Green Zone has “revealed an increasingly disoriented and dysfunctional Iraqi government“, says the Christian Science Monitor. related: Is the two-thirds majority rule in Iraq’s parliament fueling sectarian division? Felix P. Sanchez explains the case for ‘simple majority rule‘.
- ‘It’s gender, stupid!’ Contra Tony Blair (who, believe it or not, was once a socialist), the cult of masculinity bears primary responsibility for the rise of gun culture in the UK, not the ‘black community’, as Beatrix Campbell explains.
- Via Pogge: Dave at The Galloping Beaver on his experiences in combat and, subsequently, with PTSD: “There is no glory. There is only a lifelong regret and a wish that things had been different.” One of the best posts I’ve read this year.
bonus vid: Scala and Kolacny Brothers, “With or Without You”
Quote of the Day: Punk is Deader Than Jesus Edition
by matttbastard
You’ll go by the phone kiosk and you’ll hear young men having these very strange, almost surreal arguments or discussions with their wives over something like, “Hey the garage is leaking, how do we fix that?” And what she maybe doesn’t understand is, maybe that guy just got ambushed, like half an hour ago, and he’s shaking from the adrenaline, and he’s just calling her just to hear a familiar voice, and she’s like, “We gotta get the sprinklers fixed.” And he’s like, “Oh, OK … . I love you.” He just wants to get back to the ground. And that’s what makes me angry, is what all of this is doing to these very young families. It just makes me mad. It makes anybody mad. So whenever I hear some of these people who say, “Oh, you all don’t have the stomach for war,” or whatever, it’s like, you know, if you’re sane and civilized, I don’t think any person in their right mind has the stomach for this crap. To have a stomach for it–Stalin probably had a stomach for it.
Ok, sure it’s only Henry “I-sold-out-before-selling-out-was-cool” Rollins, but still – TNR?! Is this part of Franklin Foer’s desperate campaign to revamp the staid, overly starched image of a magazine better known for giving a platform to faux-mavericks and DINOs? Perhaps he’s trying to tap into the Spackerman demographic of aging hardcore kids who’ve infiltrated the Beltway media in recent years.
Yep, nothing says “edgy” and “contemporary” like an interview with an over the hill publicity fiend who looks like a tattooed Reed Richards on ‘roids; Vice ain’t got nothin’ on Frankie and Co.
Bonus vid: Black Flag, back in the good old days when Hank still had a neck.
Mmm, Cream Pie…
by matttbastard
Markos Moulitsas has a very tiny, shriveled, disease-ridden penis.
More from meme propagator Mark Gisleson and Feministing’s Jessica Valenti, who (rightly, IMO) labels Kos’ thinly-veiled ‘she was asking for it’ logic “a sexist cliché”.
Via zuzu @ Feministe.
Update: MB Williams rounds up the (almost uniformly negative) response. Elsewhere, Mark points to this Talkleft post from Big Tent Democrat, who is shocked, SHOCKED that Jessica Valenti would ‘dishonestly’ label Kos a misogynist!
Priorities.
by matttbastard
If it felt like the US cable news media became ‘all-Anna-Nicole-all-the-time’ during the month of February, well, your instincts were at least partly correct. MediaBistro’s TVNewser blog points to this recent study by the Project for Excellence in Journalism, which, according to the Associated Press, found that “cable news programs devoted 22 percent of their airtime to the Smith story from Feb. 8 to March 2, double the amount given the second-biggest story, the presidential campaign… .”
The biggest offender? Fox News (surprise surprise) with nearly 1/3 of its programming focused on the death of Anna Nicole (FYI: it was teh DRUGS!!!1 Shocking, I know.)
Flashback: Think Progress compares the MSM’s disproportionate coverage of the death of Anna Nicole and events in Iraq that occurred on the same day.
Update: Courtesy Spiegel Magazine, Larry King has some interesting things to say about the Anna Nicole feeding frenzy and what it says about the state of modern broadcast journalism:
SPIEGEL: How do you prepare for the guests on your show?
King: Not much. By the way, (he says turning to his assistant) what’s on the show tonight, Bridget?
Assistant: Anna Nicole Smith, her autopsy report is coming out today.
King: Oh, no, not again. I hate this show, but it’s the news of the day, so we have to do it. It takes no brains to do Anna Nicole Smith tonight. There is no inventiveness to it, no challenge.
SPIEGEL: Why don’t you just refuse to do these tabloid stories?
King: Of course I could say no. But then they (the network) would say you’ve got to keep up with the ratings. And I do understand what they are facing. You win some, you lose some. But if they were to go too far, then I wouldn’t do it. A colleague once told me that, “If I put a couple having intercourse on TV at 9 p.m., I could win tonight.”
SPIEGEL: The character of news has changed, hasn’t it?
King: That’s the downside.
SPIEGEL: Even a star like you is powerless to stop it?
King: Sometimes it’s easier for management to take the easy way. If you want to do a show on the Middle East you will not get good numbers. Even though you can certainly say that the Middle East is certainly more important than Anna Nicole Smith. Who would deny that?
SPIEGEL: How do you deal with the competition?
King: An absurd competition has broken out between the talk shows. They have Anna Nicole’s brother? Then we need her doctor. Or sister. But it isn’t important. I mean, it has no effect on your life. Would we have done that years ago? In my radio days and in early television maybe one show would have been done about Anna Nicole. But Anna Nicole Smith wouldn’t have been a figure 40 years ago because she didn’t do anything. So it’s a story because it’s a story. Corporations today are run by accountants. In those days they were run by broadcasters, and they understood better what a broadcaster did. Now it comes from accounting and accounting is all about the bottom line
Wonder if King would be so candid and outspoken if this interview had been with a domestic media outlet?
Spare change.
by Isabel LaCoeur
One thing that has always disturbed me is the amount of contempt that people express towards the homeless, and how utterly acceptable it is to express it. No one bats an eye, it seems. It’s as though people think that they themselves are immune to financial crises or unexpected disasters. I can think of dozens of reasons why someone would end up in the unfortunate situation of living on the streets, yet most people’s imaginations seem only to stretch so far as “They just don’t want to get a job.”
Do you know how hard it is to get a job with no address? If that is too hard to fathom, I wouldn’t suggest trying to answer the riddle of how to get an address without a job.
“Even if I WERE homeless, I would never sink so low as to hang out on the streets, dirty and begging,” you might think to yourself. I would disagree. If you were homeless, hungry, had finally run out of people who would help you, and had come to the bleak realization as to how poor the resources for the homeless are in your city, you would beg. You would beg as though your life depended on it. Because IT WOULD.
It’s attitudes like “Homeless people are lazy, and deserve to be where they are because they have no ambition” that help ensure that the federal and municipal programs that help the poorest among us will continue to languish, underfunded. If few tax-paying, voting individuals care, then what incentive is there for the various levels of government to care either?
(I’m not even going to touch upon the stigma directed towards mental illness, that is an entirely different post altogether.)
“A full contact sport”
by matttbastard
Despite the confident assurances of Gen. Petraeus and and Sen. McCain (kudos to Ware for calling everyone’s favourite faux-maverick out), the security situation in Iraq remains highly problematic (to say the least). Countering the misplaced (perhaps disingenuous) optimism of some US officials, BBC News reports today that civilian casualties rose by 13% in March, bringing the total number of deaths almost back up to pre-surge levels:
Data compiled by several ministries put civilian deaths in March at 1,861 – compared with 1,645 for February.
The apparent ‘success’ of the ‘surge’ (the BBC notes that despite the nationwide increase in civilian deaths, violence in Baghdad is down 25%, according to US military officials) may be largely illusory:
A BBC correspondent in Baghdad says insurgents seem to have shifted their focus outside the capital to avoid recently introduced security measures.
[...]
US military commanders had expected a switch in tactics, and the latest figures released by the interior, defence and health ministries appear to bear that out, says the BBC’s Jonathan Charles in Baghdad.
[...]
Health ministry estimates for civilian deaths in violence in January and December were both more than 1,900.
I’m sure both Petraeus and McCain feel completely secure strolling through the markets of Baghdad, what with their respective heavily-armed security contingents on high alert the entire time. (Too bad the average Iraqi doesn’t possess the same luxury.) But, like Ware, I’d love to see either one attempt an unaccompanied morning constitutional through the heart of Iraq’s capital.
Something tells me both would refuse without hesitation.
Related: Keith Olbermann has a typically pointed response to Sen. McCain’s overly rosy assessment of on-the-ground conditions in Iraq:
Update: Paul Rogers notes that the decrease of sectarian violence is likely partially due to both a temporary tactical maneuver on the part of the Mahdi Army and internal instability:
…[T]he Shi’a militias that make up the so-called Mahdi army of Muqtada al-Sadr have been largely withdrawn from action, senior officials in the movement have gone to ground, and Muqtada al-Sadr himself has kept out of public view. This does not mean that this powerful faction has accepted the notional new reality of US power; it is much more likely to be a temporary tactic that actually allows the US forces to concentrate its energies more on curbing the Sunni militias.
At the same time, Pentagon sources report rifts in the movement which they claim are inhibiting its ability to function effectively (see Ann Scott Tyson & Robin Wright, “Mahdi Army rifts extend Iraq calm“, 29 March 2007).
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