Saturday, February 15, 2003
A Blogger Valentine Poem - From Kieran Healey:More than Dubya hates Saddam(via Jacob Levy at Volokh)
Or an Idiotarian hates a clue
Or Reynolds hates the A.N.S.W.E.R. icks
That's how much I love you.
I love you more than a Max can Speak
And more than a DenBeste bores
I love you more than Denton smirks
And more than Caruso roars.
As a Freeper hates a Camembert slice
And an OxBlogger hates a dove
As CalPundit hates a rainy day
That's how much you I love.
I love you more than a Volokh lurks
And more than a Skippy jumps
More than Mickey likes the inside dope
And more than a Kos daily stumps.
I swear to you by the stars above,
And below if such there be,
As Lott is loved by Mary Rosh
That's how you're loved by me.
posted by Mitch Berg 2/15/2003 07:49:59 PM
Second Stage - I was talking with a friend of mine earlier tonight. He wondered; "Why isn't the administration spinning Iraq as Stage Two in the War on Terrorism? I'd make more sense, and probably be more salable that way..."
And lo and behold, I flip over to Fraters Libertas (which is on a bit of a roll lately) - and Elder is asking the same thing.Afghanistan was the beginning. Iraq is another stage. All the while we're also going after Al Qaeda wherever and whenever we can. But after the situation in Iraq is resolved the war will not be over. Next on the agenda could be a push for regime change in Iran by supporting dissident groups there or it could be a move against Syria to get them to stop supporting Hezbollah, Hamas, and other groups that regularly attack Israel. North Korea will likewise be dealt with either through diplomatic and economic efforts to contain them or if necessary with the use of military force. Libya? Saudi Arabia? Possibilities as well. There won't be a "one size fits all" approach and each situation will be analyzed and handled differently. One hopes that once the ball gets rolling and a few more examples are made the process will move be hastened along and open conflict limited as much as possible.
In any case, Iraq will situate us to lean on ALL the big terrorist regimes. It'll take pressure off Israel - Iran and Syria will be justifiably nervous.
It all just makes sense - militarily.
There's just the matter of selling all the people who don't know or give a damn about the military side of things.
posted by Mitch Berg 2/15/2003 07:36:07 PM
The Years Pile Up - Reading the various accounts of the sentencing of Sarah Jane Olson/Katheen Soliah yesterday was jaw-droppingly depressing as well.
The only words spoken by the gaunt and graying Olson — who in earlier court appearances was demonstrative and chatty with her attorneys — came when asked if she would like to comment.
I can't blame Olson/Soliah for not being too talkative - it's gotten her into trouble in the past.
"No, I do not," the 56-year-old former St. Paul resident said before being sentenced to six years for second-degree murder.
The past year in prison has been a struggle for Olson, an inmate at the women's prison in Chowchilla, Calif., after her 2001 guilty plea to charges of attempting to blow up Los Angeles police cars in August 1975. She told probation officials she was exposed to tuberculosis. Olson also told probation officials she had been tested for breast cancer.
But I remember the furor her arrest caused here in the Twin Cities almost four years ago. The local left acted like Olson/Soliah's arrest was a gross imposition on her and their spaces. Their mellows were harshed, like, majorly.
The Pioneer Press article on the subject interviewed people at the Barnes and Noble on Ford Parkway - deep in the heart of ultra-liberal Highland Park. Said one customer:"She has to make a resolution,'' said Thomas Hanson, who lives across the Mississippi River in Minneapolis. "It's not the one she may have wanted, but it's time for her to resolve it by doing time."
"Not what she might have wanted?" This is a woman who, according to Jon Opsahl (the victim's son):...kicked a pregnant teller who was lying on the floor of that bank, not far from where my mother was bleeding out. Ms. Soliah would have us believe that it never happened, and if it did, it wasn't her fault the woman miscarried."
I don't think I can remember two words of concern from any Highland Park DFLer in the past three and a half years on behalf of the cops Soliah tried to immolate, or for Myrna Opsahl, or for the child who never came into the world due to Soliah's "foolishness".
That so many of my neighbors ever lionized this woman disgusts me. That so many still claim nodding understanding of her motivations depresses me.
posted by Mitch Berg 2/15/2003 11:56:03 AM
The Orange Life - In the past week, various government figures suggested that people start taking simple, prudent measures to protect themselves and their families from potential terrorist attack.
The response has been depressing.
A couple of friends of mine, otherwise intelligent people, have responded with some of the same clinkers I'm reading and hearing elsewhere.
Can you imagine anyone saying:
Sometimes my fellow citizens depress me.
And yet now that the government has followed Israel's lead in telling people how to build "safe rooms" in their houses to give the short window of protection against chemical weapons and biological aerosols, suddenly everyone is:
a) An expert on what chemical weapons can and can't do, and
b) A fatalist.
These are people, of course, who two years ago would have needed three tries to spell "VX Gas" correctly. They don't know what chemical weapons are, how they work, what their properties are...but they sure know that a "safe room" won't work.
posted by Mitch Berg 2/15/2003 11:37:39 AM
Friday, February 14, 2003
Valentines' Mood Music - Will the Thrill of Fraters Libertas has the almost-perfect Val's day music list:
1. Hanoi Rocks - "Self-Destruction Blues"
It's not a bad effort. Kudos, Will.
2. Social Distortion - "Making Believe"
3. Sex Pistols - "No Feelings"
4. Grandpa Boy - "Let's Not Belong Together"
5. Creedence Clearwater Revival - "Someday Never Comes"
6. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers - "A Woman In Love (It's Not Me)"
7. The Rolling Stones - "Love In Vain" (live 1969 version)
8. Merle Haggard - "The Bottle Let Me Down"
9. Count Five - "Psychotic Reaction"
10. The Stooges - "Not Right"
11. Motorhead - "Love Me Like a Reptile"
12. J. Geils Band - "Love Stinks"
But to that I'd need to add a few:
13. Aimee Mann, "Calling It Quits"
14. Springsteen, "Tunnel of Love" (or "Point Blank", or "Sandy"...)
15. The Clash, "The Card Cheat"
Suggestions eagerly sought. I'm going to need them.
Yep. Dateless.
posted by Mitch Berg 2/14/2003 11:02:02 AM
Faith, Interrupted - In these Oprahfied times, I found the Clara "Mercedes Killer" Harris verdict reassuring.
His 17 year old daughter spoke:Lindsey Harris -- who lives with her mother and stepfather in Ohio -- told jurors she had a "great" relationship with her father.
Justice served, right?
"I talked to him on the phone every other day," she said. "We were the same person. We finished each other's sentences."
The teen testified that they shared interests, including music, athletics and dentistry.
"I planned to come to college down here and spend the rest of my life down here," she said. "Everything was planned. It was just perfect. And then it was ruined."
She told jurors of the harrowing minutes when, as a passenger in her stepmother's car, she recognized that her father would die.
"I saw his eyes," she said of the incident in the parking lot of the Nassau Bay Hilton. "I felt so bad that I couldn't help him. He couldn't get away. He was so scared and I couldn't do anything.
"It was terrifying. She was killing him. I would never see him again. I never got to say goodbye. I only got to spend 16 1/2 years with him. I had plans. It just wasn't fair."
Once she returned to the family's Friendswood home, she testified, she found her father's clothing in a garbage can -- placed there by a nanny on the instructions of Clara Harris.
The daughter said she brought the clothes upstairs and put them on her bed, then got her father's possessions from his bathroom and closet and brought them to her room.
"I felt like he was there with me," she said.
Maybe not. Attorney Dan Abrams on the Today show, reports that under Texas law, the jury can give any sentence from life without parole to probation - and while he figured probation was unlikely, he didn't figure it was impossible, given the jury's emotional state; jurors were reportedly crying as they delivered the verdict.
I wonder if probation would be on the table if the husband had did the driving?
posted by Mitch Berg 2/14/2003 07:56:26 AM
Anti-War Protester, Protests - This, via Instapundit, is an anti-war protester from Prague catalogueing his objections to the current anti-war movement:
On the one hand the left espouses equal rights for women, minorities and homosexuals; it lauds free speech and a vibrant independent press as essentials of civil society. The left is a guardian of the separation of church and state and a watchdog of the judicial process. So it finds itself in diametrical opposition to the nature of most Arab societies. But in the wake of this opposition, the left simply sticks its head in the sand rather than confront the reality that as globalization integrates the world order ever closer, we are hurtling toward a clash of civilizations unless the world comes to some sort of agreement on universal values. The left has failed to say that it will not stand for the oppression of women, the vicious repression of human rights and suppression of democratic principles. The only thing it can articulate is a naive and dangerous blame-America-first rhetoric as the root of all problems in the world today
Just another dittohead warblogger, right?
Wrong:It's not simply that I'm against the peaceniks and for invading Iraq. My ambivalence is based on a strong distrust of President George W. Bush's administration, a distrust so profound that I find it hard to support any policy coming out of the White House. I find its cynical exploitation of the Iraqi use of unconventional weapons against the Iranians and the Kurds self-serving in light of the U.S. government's having been far from critical when those war crimes took place. The hubris of the Bush administration and its unilateral tendencies are counterproductive and ugly. Its case that the Iraqi regime is linked to al-Qaida is dubious, and having the Bush administration filled with former oil executives makes people justifiably suspicious about its intentions in the oil-rich Middle East.
And for all that, he gets it:But those who claim that the question of invading is solely one of oil interest are mistaken. If the only thing America is interested in is oil in the Middle East, it would have sold out Israel many years ago. Instead, America's policy on Israel is one of principle in supporting the only democratic nation in the Middle East, particularly as it suffers from a wave of homicidal fanatics blowing themselves up and taking with them as many innocent civilians as possible.
Maybe it's being overseas that gives Mr. Hurewitz the perspective from which he can make a rational judgement. Maybe he's just smarter than some protesters.
Or maybe it's just not that hard a case for a rational person to make.
posted by Mitch Berg 2/14/2003 07:39:46 AM
Code Gray - Dave Barry asks "What if, for the past year or so, terrorists, working in U.S. factories, have been putting lethal biochemical agents on... duct tape?"
posted by Mitch Berg 2/14/2003 07:20:38 AM
Unilateralist Cowboys - The Japanese "go it alone".
Japan has warned it would launch a pre-emptive military action against North Korea if it had firm evidence Pyongyang was planning a missile attack.
And then - get this - the unilateralist cowboy Ishiba said:
Defence Minister Shigeru Ishiba said it would be "a self-defence measure" if North Korea was going to "resort to arms against Japan". ...it would be too late if a North Korean missile was already on its way.
Don't these people know they're destabilizing the world? They're worse than the terrorists, aren't they?
Has anyone notified ANSWER? Start printing "No Blood For Rice" signs! Let slip the dogs of sanctimony!
C'mon, loony left! Get out there! Protest this! You can do it!
Left?
Left?
Birthday Shopping Suggestions - Just a hint.
UPDATE: Expect the "Violence Policy Center" to put out a paper shortly.
posted by Mitch Berg 2/14/2003 07:12:37 AM
Thursday, February 13, 2003
Begorrah - Music's been the one common thread through the last thirty years of my life. Learning new instruments and new types of music have been my recreation, my mission, even my drug of choice.
I'm a very good guitarist. I play cello quite well, thank you. I have a rather unique but effective style on bass. I'm good on harmonica. I'm a capable drummer in the Charlie Watts sense of the term - I keep the beat just fine, and what else really matters? I don't embarass myself on mandolin. I'm pretty stinky on pennywhistle (I can play a couple of Pogues tunes), and can crank out a couple dozen songs on keyboards (I suck the least at Organ - years of following Danny Federici and Benmont Tench licks have shown me a few flashy little tricks that cover my incompetence. And I can do a couple things on the curan, a turkish folk instrument that's halfway between a balalaika and a sitar.
By any rational measure, I should be happy with what I can do, musically.
But there's always been something missing. Ahab had Moby Dick. I had the bagpipes.
Well, Tuesday night I started bagpipe lessons - free lessons, through the Minnesota Pipes and Drums. It's basically bagpipe boot camp; lessons are in four-month trimesters, with a test after each trimester. Flunk the test, and you have to take private lessons to catch up - no mulligans (which'd be Irish, anyway, and therefore trayf). Attrition is rumored to be high - worse than Green Beret training, by some estimates. And it's a 1-2 year program before I get to touch actual bagpipes (which are $800 on up, when I get to that point). I feel like I'm training to be a heart surgeon - and when you see the finger dexterity involved, it's probably not that bad a comparison.
But I'm on a mission. I want to sit on my porch and serenade my neighbors.
Heh heh.
No, seriously - this is going to be fun.
posted by Mitch Berg 2/13/2003 06:06:45 PM
Awada Good It'll Do Ya - When I'm not writing Shot in the Dark, or job-hunting, I contribute to the "Political State Report". It's a group blog, run by überblogger The Daily Kos, and includes contributors from all political orientations from just about every state in the Union.
There's a bit of a discussion going on about Pat Awada's proposed cuts to Local Government Assistance between Lakeville moderate blogger Jeff Fecke and I.
In the Comments section, Fecke notes:And I just don't see Thatcher in Awada. I watched her debating on KTCA last night, and the Mayor of St. Cloud was eating her for lunch. She just doesn't have it. And more to the point, Minnesota is trending red, but we're not quite ready for the Quist wing of the GOP. If you doubt that, ask Brian Sullivan how his term in office is going. Or for that matter, Allen Quist.
I responded more or less like this:
I've met Allen Quist. Pat Awada is no Allen Quist.
For those of you from out of state - "Allen Quist" is a bedtime story Minnesota liberals tell their kids to scare them straight - a Christian Conservative who had a brief vogue in the early nineties; the GOP endorsed him for governor in 1992, and moderate extremist Arne Carlson ran and won the election as an unendorsed, independent Republican.
No, Pat Awada has aroused the ire of Minnesota's liberal elites; she's a woman, yet she's a conservative! She's not only a conservative - but she's been an extremely successful politician; she was elected mayor of Eagan in her late twenties, at a time when the DFL believed that it owned that demographic.
The DFL is spinning all the usual boogeymen against Awada - out-of-context recalls of remarks she made as mayor, painful race-baiting about her use of her maiden name during the election. (And the debate? Pfft. I've seen her tear liberals into long thin strips. Everyone has a bad night).
Here's what I think; Awada's the "bad cop", hoisting the trial balloon, running interference with her 41% LGA cut proposal. Pawlenty will seem "moderate" in turn, proposing a lower (but significant) cut.
By '06, with a rebounding economy, the budget crisis will be over, Pawlenty will be a hero, Awada will look like a visionary - the driver behind the winning strategery...
Is this blue-sky, wonky cloudbusting? Duh. I get to do that.
But I don't think it's that far-fetched - no more so than the notion that in 2003, 2/3 of Minnesota's government apparatus would be controlled by the GOP...
posted by Mitch Berg 2/13/2003 04:56:16 PM
My Kids' College Fund - Irish firms offering futures on Hussein's survival.
March futures are trading at $4.30, April contracts are at $7.40, those for May are at $8.20 and June futures are at $8.40, according to TradeSports Chief Executive John Delaney. That means traders see a 43 percent chance Hussein won't be in power by the end of March and an 84 percent chance he'll be gone by June 30.
Mind you, these aren't Vega$ odds - these are futures conracts, like those sold for orange juice or wheat or coffee.
About 42,000 Hussein futures have traded, Delaney said.
TradeSports settles the contracts based on information from the United Nations or U.S. government and checks that against three independent media sources. Delaney said TradeSports is considering offering futures on events in North Korea and the Middle East.
So who's going to be the first to call Josh Arnold's "Money Talk" to ask about this as an investment? Huh?
posted by Mitch Berg 2/13/2003 04:22:38 PM
Do the Math - So CNN has saturation coverage today of the 101st "Airborne" Division - the "Screaming Eagles" of WWII fame - shipping out for the Gulf. Correspondents are on the scene as Chinook helicopters, tarped to shield them from salt spume a sea, and Humvees and every other vehicle that the huge 101st uses, are loaded onto immense cargo ships for the trip.
During the last Gulf War, the 101st jumped via helicopter across the entire Iraqi army, to cut the road from Baghdad to Basra. The action cut off a huge chunk of Hussein's army along the northern coast of Iraq. One might expect the division, with its unparalleled airmobility, will have a fairly key role in any war that might break out.
So let's do the math:
So what does that make? Three weeks, perhaps?
Second week of March?
What do you think?
posted by Mitch Berg 2/13/2003 04:05:58 PM
Much Ado - The Democrats are playing Rebecca Otto's victory like VE Day.
"What we saw last night was a political earthquake," said House Minority Leader Matt Entenza, DFL-St. Paul, evoking the memory of the late U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone and the sweeping DFL defeats last November.
I think this is good news in disguise for Republicans.
Accompanied by Tuesday's victorious candidate, Rebecca Otto, and smiling colleagues, Entenza argued that Minnesotans now are not only engaged with the mammoth state government budget deficit, but also are fearful of Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty's resolve to balance it with cuts only and no tax increases.
Think about it - Otto won (with 22 percent turnout, no less) in a suburban, "soccer-mom"-heavy district where the GOP is deeply split between conservatives and RINOs. It was dicey for the GOP going into the special election.
Otto, aided by a wad of out-of-district DFL money and a dirty campaign, won. We know this.
But I think it shows how far the DFL needs to go to find something it can spin as good news. The only other material it has - budget cuts, unallotment, Auditor Awada's cutting of aid to local governments - is negative, and (it has to know) transient; a good economic upturn and it will all be forgotten, as the deficit most likely will be by 2006. Otto's victory is the only bit of positive news the DFL has to lean on - and the DFL has to be nervous about that.
My prediction; by 2006, Tim Pawlenty will be able to brag about the turnaround on his watch. Minnesotans will be better off; it'll be nearly unavoidable, the recession will be over no matter who is in office.
My predictions are notoriously inaccurate. But I have a good feeling about this one.
By the way - the other special election, to replace Dan MacElroy in Burnsville, went almost un-covered by the local media. Duke Powell - a long-time friend of Shot in the Dark - won. Congrats, Duke!
posted by Mitch Berg 2/13/2003 10:34:37 AM
The Good Democrat - Tom Lantos, Democrat from California, had this to say yesterday about our ally/frequent beneficiary, France:
Rep. Tom Lantos of California, said he was "particularly disgusted by the blind intransigence and utter ingratitude" of France, Germany and Belgium, which have blocked a U.S.-backed plan to improve Turkey's defenses against any attack from neighboring Iraq. The three countries, which favor giving U.N. weapons inspectors more time in Iraq, see the plan as making war more likely.
It's worth noting that Lantos was born in Hungary, and still speaks with a thick Magyar accent that seems incongruous coming from a Californian.
"If it were not for the heroic efforts of America's military, France, Germany and Belgium today would be Soviet socialist republics," Lantos said. "The failure of these three states to honor their commitments is beneath contempt."
I don't think it's a stretch to note that the European nations that have been most forthright in supporting the US on Iraq have been nations like Lantos' native Hungary - former Warsaw Pact subjects like Poland, the Czechs, Slovakia, Latvia, Romania and the rest.
posted by Mitch Berg 2/13/2003 09:01:26 AM
Garage Tragic - Joe Soucheray is one of the more original personalities on the radio today. If you're from the Twin Cities, you're probably heard, or at least heard of, "Garage Logic" on KSTP-AM.
At it's best, it's wonderful. Soucheray, the mayor of the fictional town and anti-PC colony after which the show is named, lampoons pomposity and overweening PC in government, the schools, and society. His producer, "Rookie" (so dubbed by former KSTP morning guy Jesse Ventura) used to grate on me - I don't think ignorance about math or current events is entirely a "bit", and sometimes it leaves me gritting my teeth on the rare occasions I get to listen. But he's a talented impressionist and a great foil for the acerbic but crusty Soucheray.
At its worst, it's like sitting in the back lot at Garrison Keillor's studio. Guys calling in to describe their new garages at length. Old fellas calling in to start their cars on the air, revving them up over the phone (note to all of you: Chevettes and F15s sounds pretty much the same through a phone line). Simplistic snap judgements about complex issues of the type that'd make Dr. Laura blanche in horror. Old guys calling in to declare "I think [fill in subject] is a bunch of crap...", or to re-iterate Soucheray's own conclusions for an hour at a pop.
Such was Tuesday's show. Soucheray joined a crowd of pundits questioning the government's advice to stock up on duct tape and plastic sheeting, against a potential nerve gas attack. One caller asked "where the hell does this come from", a question Soucheray jumped on himself, ridiculing the whole notion of building a safe room against chemical attack.
I had to ask - do they also make fun of keeping blankets, candles, matches and Snickers in the trunk when going on a winter trip? Of keeping candles and flashlights around the house in case an ice storm knocks out power? Of course not.
It's the notion that it's the government giving the advice that stuck in Soucheray's craw, from what I heard. Which in many areas is a perfectly OK reaction. But this one...
Where did it come from? I'll anwer that - the idea came from Israel. There, where terrorist attacks have been a way of life for 35 years, safe rooms are pretty much a fact of life.
Many pundits have attacked the whole idea - the Chicago Tribune article quotes Presdiential hopeful Gary Hart, of all people (carrying his criticisms of the administration without noting he wants the job, incidentally):Hart said. "So that's why they're down to duct tape . . . It's almost back to the duck-and-cover days of the nuclear exchange in the '50s, kids ducking under desks," he said, referring to the civil defense rehearsals that were common in schools during the Eisenhower administration.
Hart is an idiot, as are most of the people who criticized Civil Defense in the fifties - and many of those criticizing the "Duct Tape" suggestions. In each case, the recommendations, from "Duck and Cover" to "Safe Rooms" were prudent response to an immediate threat, similar to telling people to get into a ditch or basement in the event of a tornado; the advice doesn't, and can't, answer "what if there's a propane tank next to the ditch, or if the tornado is sooooo huge it sucks out out of there anyway? Or if the house collapses in onto the basement? Or there's a big box of scorpions that get blown into the basement with you? Huh? HUH?"
"We look back on that now and think it was a joke," Hart said. "I think 10 or 20 years from now, we'll look back on the duct tape as a joke." He acknowledged, however, that it was important for people to make an emergency checklist for themselves, including keeping some cash on hand as well as important papers.
First things first; A duct tape and plastic "safe room" doesn' have to protect you indefinitely. Chemical weapons generally disperse fairly quickly - if you're more than a few miles from the source of the gas, it can be a matter of minutes to hours. Your plastic sheeting only has to hold the gas off for a little while.
Biological attack? Even more so. If you're not at the epicenter of the aerosol distribution, the odds are much better that you'll be exposed by an infected person.
Nuclear attack? If it's a ground burst, and if you're beyond the range of the thermal pulse and immediate blast effects (which, with a small nuke of the type most likely to be used by terrorists, is a matter of much less than a mile, sometimes hundreds of yards), the plastic sheeting will keep out the particles of fallout, while being in a basement itself shields you from ambient radiation.
Will rolls of plastic and duct tape guarantee your safety against every eventuality? Obviously not. The only thing that will do that is complete victory over all terrorists and nations that'd do us ill, and putting all domestic wackoes in jail.
But while we're waiting, it's the simple, prudent measures that'll protect most of the people, most of the time - if they need protection at all.
Soucheray's skepticism is usually on target. But it can also be misguided - and in this case, just a little bit complacent. You'd think he, among everyone, would know better.
It Ain't Easy Being Green - Joschka Fischer is Germany's foreign minister. He's also a longtime leader of Germany's Green party, helping to lead it to the electoral surge that put him in the governing coalition.
But it's his past that's the most interesting part, according to Mike Kelly:In 2001, Stern magazine published five photographs of you in action that day. What these pictures depicted was described by Berman, in a deeply informed 25,000-word article, ``The Passion of Joschka Fischer'' (The New Republic, Sept. 3, 2001). The photos showed you, Mr. Fischer, inflicting a ``gruesome beating'' on a young policeman named Rainer Marx: ``Fischer and other people on the attack, the white-helmeted cop going into a crouch; Fischer's black-gloved fist raised as if to punch the crouching cop on the back; Fischer's comrades crowding around; the cop huddled on the ground, Fischer and his comrades appearing to kick him ...''
Kathleen Soliah was hardly alone in having a dirty, violent past. I suspect there's some skeletons in the closets of a lot of leftist leaders that are wearing Che Guevara t-shirts...
As Berman reported, Mr. Fischer, you rose in public life as an important figure in the anti-American, anti-liberal, neo-Marxist, revolution-minded German radical left of the generation of 1968. This was the left that produced and supported the Baader-Meinhof Gang (or Red Army Faction), which, as Berman wrote, ``refrained from nothing,'' including ``kidnappings, bank holdups, murders.'' You were not a terrorist yourself, but you were a good and active friend to terrorists, weren't you, Mr. Fischer?
In 1976, to protest the death in prison of Baader-Meinhof founder Ulrike Meinhof, you planned and participated in a Frankfurt demonstration in which, Berman wrote, ``somebody tossed a Molotov cocktail at a policeman and burned him nearly to death.'' You were arrested, but not charged. In 2001, Meinhof's daughter, Bettina Rohl (who gave those damning photos to Stern) told the press that you were responsible for the throwing of that firebomb. Other contemporary witnesses, Berman reported, said that you ``had never ruled out the use of Molotovs and may even have favored it.'' You denied it, for the record.
In 2001, the German government put on trial your old friend Hans-Joachim Klein, who had been an underground ``soldier'' in the Revolutionary Cells, an ally of the Red Army Faction and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The Revolutionary Cells helped in the murder of the Israeli Olympic athletes in Munich in 1972, and Klein himself took part in a 1975 joint assassination operation with Carlos the Jackal in which three were killed.
posted by Mitch Berg 2/13/2003 07:46:37 AM
Wednesday, February 12, 2003
Merch - I love this stuff...
posted by Mitch Berg 2/12/2003 11:28:43 PM
Merch - I love this stuff...
posted by Mitch Berg 2/12/2003 11:28:43 PM
You Otto Know Better - Stillwater-area DFLer Rebecca Otto bucked recent trends in winning the special election in the Stillwater area. She won a majority of votes in an election that drew less than a quarter of elegible voters.
According to Laura McCallum's MPR story on the subject:Republican Matt Dean, a Dellwood architect, says he thinks Otto won partly because of negative campaign ads. "My opponent said in literature that I don't care about the public schools because I send my children to private schools. Well I don't; I send them to the public school. It's a very verifiable fact, and it's obviously a disregard for the truth."
On the Jason Lewis show a few minutes ago, Dean added that he (and House Majority Leader Steve Swiggum) filed a protest against the Otto campaign for that claim. Apparently, says Dean, the damage was done.Another campaign brochure showed a man wearing a tutu and ballet slippers, and accused Dean of "toeing the party line" and being a puppet of Republican extremists. Dean disputes the extremist label; he says polls show most Minnesotans want the Legislature to cut spending instead of raising taxes. He also says it's not extreme to want to repeal the Profile of Learning show-what-you know graduation standards. Otto also supports repealing the Profile.
A man in a tutu?
The DFL are portraying a man in a tutu as a negative image?
Hmmmm.
posted by Mitch Berg 2/12/2003 06:07:55 PM
Starbucks Patrons Scribble for Peace - In about 1815, Ludwig Van Beethoven, commenting about the role of artists, said that artists should be elevated above the rest of society - even paid from the public treasury. Their role, he felt, was that important, and their views that vital.
Some artists still feel that way.
Poets Against The War is a group of artists that seek to oppose their war through...er, poetry. They believe that via poetry will come international understanding, and a better worl...
...oh, who are we kidding. It's about politics:Only the day before I had read a lengthy report on George Bush's proposed "Shock and Awe" attack on Iraq, calling for saturation bombing that would be like the firebombing of Dresden or Tokyo, killing countless innocent civilians. Nor has Bush ruled out the use of nuclear weapons.
The site is full of amazing garbage - and that's even before you get to the poetry.
I believe the only legitimate response to such a morally bankrupt and unconscionable idea is to reconstitute a Poets Against the War movement like the one organized to speak out against the war in Vietnam.
By the way, the site is educational, in that it highlights the incredibly sorry state of modern poetry.
The far left is calling in all its markers.
posted by Mitch Berg 2/12/2003 05:01:48 PM
Tuesday, February 11, 2003
Billings - In this space in the past, I have expressed less than complete disagreement with Laura Billings of the Saint Paul Pioneer Press.
It's time I fixed that.
The reporter's dictum is to cover the who, what, when, where and why of a story. Today's Billings editorial covers the who, and some what - while ignoring a lot of inconvenient wheres, whats and whys. Jessica Lange is against it. So is Susan Sarandon.
Ever read Jackie Harvey? He's a fictional columnist in "the Onion", a humor 'zine from New York (nee Madison). The fictional Harvey's schtick is that he quotes - and mis-quotes - stars and starlets completely disingenuously, with a wide-eyed joy at the wonder of the whole entertainment industry; it's like reading a column on Pokemon written by a third grade boy.
Bonnie Raitt's not in favor of bombing Baghdad. Neither are Michael Stipe, Madonna and Martin Sheen, who plays a president on television but thinks the real one is a "moron.''
When it comes to the impending war on Iraq, a phalanx of famous faces is speaking out against it
Billings' column reminds me of Harvey - the same uncritical, ingenuous acceptance of the word of a "star" as the word of gospel, against the benighted dissidents - like giving credence to a psychiatric diagnosis given by Martin Sheen.
Let's pursue this: Which means that everything they say is being blasted by pro-war pundits, who believe celebrities should confine their opinions to the Zone diet and stay out of demilitarized zones.
Three points here:
To wit: Take for instance the shellacking that singer Sheryl Crow recently got after appearing at the American Music Awards in a T-shirt sequined with the message "War is not the answer.'' As she told reporters, "I think war is based in greed and there are huge karmic retributions that will follow. I think war is never the answer to solving any problems. The best way to solve problems is to not have enemies."
Had Moonbeam Birkenstock (St. Catherines, Class of '73) spoken about "Karmic Disturbances" ensuing from bombing Iraq, she'd have been laughed off the set by any sentient reader - or, for that matter, any Pioneer Press columnist. But since it's Sheryl Crow...suddenly, it's credible? Though Jesus Christ, Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. all expressed similar thoughts, they didn't have the misfortune of living in a world with FOX News. Conservative critics were worse to her than music critics, referring to her as a "noted geopolitical strategist" who "probably thinks Saddam Hussein is a New York City cabdriver.''
Two points:
Seeing a pattern here?It's true, she might not have been especially eloquent on the subject, but neither is our own president. Just a few days after the Crow flap, Bush was quoted saying the United States had to go to war against Iraq because of Saddam Hussein's "willingness to terrorize himself [see Update, below].'' It's a safe bet no one on FOX News made fun of him.
Because the President's slips of the lip are well-known, quite possibly a type of Attention Deficit Disorder, and amply documented by the likes of Ms. Billings to boot. Now - does anyone honestly think Ms. Crow was the victim of a brain-to-tongue disconnect? Sean Penn, who seems to have replaced Barbra Streisand as the most hated liberal on talk radio, was in for worse ridicule after the actor placed an anti-war ad in the Washington Post in October. "Bombing answered by bombing, mutilation by mutilation, killing by killing, is a pattern that only a great country like ours can stop,'' Penn wrote in an open letter to the president. He followed up in December with a trip to Baghdad, an attempt to educate himself about the real causes and consequences of a war in that region.
While Mr. Penn has every right to educate himself in any way he wants, and to travel wherever he will (so far), I also retain the right to call his conclusions simplistic and, I believe, the result of being an inadequately educated man who is capable of being easily manipulated.
For his troubles — his earnest intention of finding a peaceful solution, rather than a war that will surely lead to the deaths of thousands of innocent Iraqis — he has been called a "traitor." No doubt his ex-wife, Madonna, can expect the same treatment when she releases a new single this week with a strong anti-war message.
Madonna's upcoming effort promises to be...treason? No. Merely a noxious, intellectually-bereft effort to regain lost currency - her stock in trade. Taking it seriously as political speech is a long walk off a very short intellectual dock. The conservative "Drudge Report" says the video shows her dressed in fatigues and throwing grenades in a landscape of limbless men and women.
We don't! There are intelligent celebrities! One of them became the greatest president of the last half of the 20th century!
The question I have is, why do we so easily dismiss the opinions of famous people, as if they're nothing but "limousine liberals"? (Itself a laughable epithet, as if conservatives are all driving around in Corollas, or being ridiculously rich discounts your opinion on political issues.)Streisand is continually derided for mixing up Iran and Iraq, and yet no one complains when the president says Iraq was responsible for 9/11. Does anyone remember al-Qaida?
Does Ms. Billings remember the Secretary of State's speech last week? Though there is a strong anti-war movement in this country, it is also strangely muted. And no wonder.
Pundit, blame thyselves. If you find it a cynical, benighted exercise...well, the right learned the lessons of the Clinton Administration well - for better or worse.
The way the administration has framed the argument, as good against evil, simply asking why (Why us? Why now? Why them? Why not North Korea?) casts the questioner on the wrong side.
Yesterday: Opposing President Clinton equalled a desire to throw children out in the cold, and evict old people into the street.
Today: Disagreement with the President "casts the questioner on the wrong side". Ms. Billings, meet the Carville/Begala Petard. Would you like your hoisting now, or after the ten o'clock news? Standing up against this march to war takes a big voice, a big ego and maybe even big box office. No wonder Hollywood seems perfect for this casting call.
I urge Ms. Billings to juxtapose that sentence against her previous invocation of Martin Luther King, Christ and Gandhi. Think about it. After getting a lifetime achievement award in London, actor Dustin Hoffman said, "I believe — though I may be wrong because I am no expert — that this war is about what most wars are about: hegemony, money, power and oil.…
Yep. "Wag the Dog" concerned a completely fictional war. I have 3,000 reasons this isn't the same.
"I believe that administration has taken the events of 9/11 and has manipulated the grief of the country and I think that's reprehensible.''
Critics say a guy like him has no right to weigh in on the issues of the day; as he says, he's "no expert.''
But when it comes to understanding the spin doctoring and cynical manipulations that go on in D.C., Hoffman may have more expert standing than he lets on.
Did you ever see him in "Wag the Dog"?
And Colin Powell is linking those 3,000 dead with Saddam Hussein.
No dog. No wag.
By the way - I know this blog gets read in the Pioneer Press newsroom. Feel free to forward this to Ms. Billings: I welcome the chance to debate this issue with her, via email or any other interactive means. And say "Hi" to Nick Coleman from his favorite blogger, while you're at it.
)I also welcome the Easter Bunny, a free lunch, and Marisa Tomei on my doorstep in a black teddy for all the good it'll do me, but hope springs eternal...)
UPDATE: A correspondent writes about Bush's alleged slip:The following is more likely a mistake on the part of the person writing down the pres's words than an error on the part of the president. Add a comma after "terrorize" and the clause makes perfect sense. So, either the transcriber/journalist was an idiot when it comes to grammar, or he heard what he wanted to hear and slandered the pres.". Billings said" "Bush was quoted saying the United States had to go to war against Iraq because of Saddam Hussein's "willingness to terrorize COMMA himself..
This makes sense to me.
posted by Mitch Berg 2/11/2003 04:45:35 PM
Musical Observation - I loved The Donnas the first time I heard them...
...when they were called The Clams, in 1986.
Jeez - I wonder what Karen Cusack's doing these days?
You've Got To Learn To Learn To Do As You Are Told - So almost three weeks ago, I filled in for Bob Davis at KSTP-AM. Today, the program director and I are meeting to go over the tape of the show.
On the one hand, I have to figure that if I was really truly horrible, he wouldn't waste the time.
On the other hand, maybe I violated some FCC regulation, and they're going to haul me downtown on the spot.
On the other other hand, maybe he hates listening to tapes of me just as much as I do (ask anyone in radio - giving yourself a rectal exam with an icicle is pure joy compared to listening to your own "airchecks", or show tapes), and just feels the need to vent.
On the other, other other hand, maybe I'll just relax and see what happens.
On the job front - still no offers from any software companies - so if you're a CIO whose products are dedevilled by user acceptance and requirements analysis issues, drop me a line.
Y'know - while you stil can!
More real politics/current events this afternoon.
posted by Mitch Berg 2/11/2003 10:38:53 AM
Monday, February 10, 2003
Tartakovsky - I have a couple of shameful admissions to make here.
First - I have almost no nostalgia for the Saturday Morning Cartoons - the stuff people my age (and not much younger) used to watch every weekend morning. (Or, for that matter, almost any other TV from the seventies). The nadir, of course, was the endless parade of wretched Hannah-Barbera cartoons of the sixties through the eighties - artless, witless, pointless drivel that can be summed up by saying that "Scooby Doo" was the best of the lot, and I even hated that with a passion by age ten or so. Flat, hackneyed animation, interchangeable story lines and shrill, dull characters that made Barney the Dinosaur seem relatively engaging (then and now) - by the time they inflicted Hong Kong Phooey and Wacky Races and Scrappy Doo on us, I'd learned the joy of playing outside on Saturday mornings, never to return.
Perhaps it was the style of animation; a lot of the old Tex Avery Warner Brothers' animated shorts weren't a whole lot better in terms of story, but their animation was relatively glorious, and forgave a lot of writing sins (and sometimes the writing wasn't bad, either). But after about the age of eight, I pretty much hated every single cartoon.
The new wave of cartoons hasn't done much more for me, either. I love The Simpsons, of course - and I've seen maybe twenty episodes in all the years the show's been on. As to most of the others; I hated, Hated, HATed Ren and Stimpy, and the occasional clever moment in Spongebob Squarepants can't quite get over the show's lousy animation and twenty-something fratboy mien. Still, they're all works of art compared to the rest of the dreck you find on the Cartoon Network - garbage like the execrable Hey Arnold, the putrid filler like Cow and Chicken or CatDog, and the vile Ed, Edd and Eddie, all of which vie for space with the endless bilge-scrapings of from the Hannah-Barbera vault (and, Good Lord, they've even exhumed Captain Caveman, heaven help us).
And yet, just when I'm about to block the Cartoon Network from my TV, along comes Genndy Tartakovsky.
Dexter's Laboratory and The PowerPuff Girls, are nearly alone among recent cartoons in that they don't fill me with a desire to find those responsible and have them hewn down on the street - they're actually clever enough that they don't make me bitterly regret the time I waste watching them. They're clever, full of in-jokes that keep me laughing along with (and even ahead of) the kids, and genuinely fun to watch.
Perhaps best of all, though, is Samurai Jack. It's drawn in the same flat, headache-inducing style that all cartoons of the last 40 years have shared (except the Disney film epics and their video spinoffs), but there's a cleverness about all three of them that make me ignore it. And Samurai Jack is best of all; they mix very clever action and some fascinating post-Matrix-style animation style with some incredibly literate, engrossing story lines. Last night, for example, was a futurized telling of the story of the Battle of Thermopylae (Spartan king Leonidas and his 300 heroes who died to a man holding off the Persians in antiquity). Simultaneously wierd, styllized, funny and literate, it's the first time I've sat still for a half hour of cartoon since...
...well, since I was eight, watching the Saturday morning cartoons.
posted by Mitch Berg 2/10/2003 09:39:58 PM
City Aid Cut - Pat Awada, the new State Auditor, is getting busy. As a lot of us knew she would.
Today, she's proposed a 42% cut in state aid to cities. And a lot of city government stakeholders aren't at all happy about it. But the real story is, why they're unhappy.Republican State Auditor Pat Awada is recommending a 42 percent cut in local government aid to cities, arguing that the program has subsidized excessive spending and lower taxes for certain cities at the expense of others.
Awada, a conservative Republican who was a lightning rod for the fiscal right wing of the GOP when she ran Eagan, is keenly aware of one immutable rule from Economics 101, something a lot of local government figures and pundits have forgotten - subsidize something, and the subsidy will get spent. Fast. And people will ask for more.
In a special report released by her office Monday, Awada divided all spending by cities between essential and nonessential services. She found higher levels of spending on nonessential services, which include such things as parks, libraries and anti-poverty efforts, among those that receive more state aid.
She defined essential services as general government, public safety and roads.
``Simply put, it's pretty clear that the more local government aid you get, the more you spend,'' said Awada, a former mayor of Eagan [a middle-to-upper-middle class suburb of St. Paul], which receives almost no LGA [Local Government Aid]. ``It has rewarded and encouraged spending.''
She said her office considered recommending eliminating the program entirely, but decided it was politically unfeasible. The proposal would cut aid to 103 cities.
Local Government Aid, of course, enables cities to spend more money, while hiding the taxation within the state's overall tax structure. In other words, the local government gets to have its spending cake, while eating it by shunting the dirty work of collecting the actual money involved off onto taxpayers statewide.
The usual suspects aren't happy about this:John Sundvor, a lobbyist for the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities, said if enacted, such cuts would be mean a combination of service reductions and property tax increases for most cities outside of the Twin Cities metropolitan area.
In other words; governments of cities that are highly dependant on LGA to support their own spending will have to be accountable to their voters for the money they spend - because they'll have to raise it directly, rather than hiding the taxation. That may not go over so well in Greater Minnesota, where the traditional dictum has always been "make high taxes as painless as possible".
``It would mean a major devastation to the regional centers in Minnesota,'' he said, noting that cities such as Austin, Worthington, St. Cloud and Rochester fund services including libraries, airports and hospitals that surrounding communities depend on.
I predicted this last year, around election time, and I'll reiterate it; Pat Awada will be Minnesota's first female governor. She has been the figurehead of Minnesota's swing to the right - and the Auditor position is a traditional springboard to higher office in Minnesota.
posted by Mitch Berg 2/10/2003 08:20:59 PM
The Anti-War Left - This is from the San Francisco Indymedia site, citing a Reuters report about a CIA counterterrorism agent being killed in a live-fire training accident in Afghanistan. Indymedia is a large, far-left extremist umbrella site.
Good News:CIA Officer Killed in Afghanistan Grenade Accident
Many of the "Anti War" left take umbrage at suggestions they "hate America". I can appreciate that.
by :) Friday February 07, 2003 at 03:26 AM
Ok, only two CIA agents dead, but its something. With so much bad news in the headlines its nice to read some good news like this every once and awhile.
So when will the left acknowledge that people like this not only exist, but drive a good chunk of the anti-war movement?
posted by Mitch Berg 2/10/2003 10:27:09 AM
Sunday, February 09, 2003
The Military Girl - Stand aside, Cheryl Crow. Move over, Matthews.
Madonna's on the scene.
The mercurial diva, whose latest efforts at reinvention haven't exactly kept her on the front page of "Variety" or the top of the charts (anyone remember "Swept Away"? Anyone out there who can name any of her last three albums? Me either), seems to see the upcoming war as her latest vehicle:"She's taking it all the way this time," one source said over the weekend, "pushing all of the buttons... It is a sweeping political commentary on the modern 'American Dream' and how 'nothing is what is seems.'"
I love that. "Nothing is as it seems" - in other words, everything you know is wrong. You need to be a star, you see. Then, everything is as it seems. Got that?Dressed in commando fatigues, Madonna throws grenades as the disco beat pounds, claims a source. Limb-less men and women are reportedly shown, with bloody babies.
I'm going to take a guess and assume they're not the children of murdered dissidents...
One disturbing clip features Iraqi children. Fashion models are mixed with soldiers; sex, violence and war in new century sentiment.
Here's what I'm looking forward to; I once knew a Ukrainian guy who came to the US during the eighties. I remember his reaction to some of the anti-Reagan, anti-Western music and videos that were current at the time - stuff that ragged on Reagan and Thatcher, and pretended the Cold War was an evil sham. In particular, he reacted to the old Depeche Mode song "People are People", including it's video. There's a line in there, "Different people have different needs", which is meant to imply that some peoples around the world need dictatorships, and it's really not our job to change that. Sasha - a deeply philosophical person - heard this, and swore under his breath: "Eeez Booosheet. Noooboddy chooses Deeektaytor!. Zeez people? Dey fool of sheet!"
Ask the man who's been there, I guess. At any rate, I can hardly wait to see how Iraqis react, someday when they're free enough to see all the tripe that's being produced "on their behalf" by our perpetually concerned artistic community. Madonna spokeswoman Liz Rosenberg did not return repeated calls seeking comment.
Or at least carefully selected parts of it.
"AMERICAN LIFE is about freedom of speech," claims and insider. "It examines not only war, greed and ego, but it's self-reflective also. Madonna rejects her 'Material Girl' image once and for all, and warns of life in a material world."
posted by Mitch Berg 2/9/2003 02:53:16 PM
The "Secular" Hussein - One of the anti-war left's most facile tropes is the notion that Al-Quaeda detests Hussein because he's "secular".
Mark Steyn trashes that, among many other strawmen, in today's piece on the subject:The surprise was Powell's confident assertion of Saddam's links to terrorism and the presence in Baghdad for eight months of key al-Qaida personnel with links to the recently arrested ricin terrorists in Britain. The secretary of state was at pains to emphasize that these agents' recent schemes have been principally against European targets. In other words, nations that put their investment in interminable UN proceduralism do so at their own peril. If you accept what he says, then it moves the debate beyond Resolution 1441: If al-Qaida's in Baghdad, then that's not a UN discussion topic but a threat to U.S. security.
It's almost too absurd to have to remind people - dictators are motivated by survival, not ideology. Hitler and Stalin were allies for a time - against all conventional ideological wisdom. To say that Al-Quaeda and Hussein couldn't align together is Pollyannaish to an absurd extreme.
You can choose not to believe that, if you wish. The evidence is circumstantial, and as an unending torrent of alleged experts assure us nightly, the ''fundamentalist'' Islamists like al-Qaida revile ''secular'' Baathists like Saddam. That's a lot of bunk. For one thing, Iraq has recently produced a collector's item edition of the Koran written entirely in Saddam's donated blood. That makes him rather less ''secular'' a leader than, say, Hillary Clinton or Gerhard Schroeder. Anyone who regards Saddam's behavior these last two decades as a reliable indicator of the scale of his ambition will understand that he would have no ideological objection to making common cause with al-Qaida and several compelling reasons to keep them a going concern, if only as a distraction.
posted by Mitch Berg 2/9/2003 02:37:01 PM
Act Locally - This week - more on R.T. Rybak's attempt to hijack the MPD's communications, as well as some impressions of Minneapolis as a whole.
I wanted to write about it last week - but the job hunt has taken on a harder, more stressful edge lately. Hopefully this coming week will be better, in both the blogging and job departments.
posted by Mitch Berg 2/9/2003 10:52:43 AM
Vive L'Indie - Why is France still a diplomatic power? Because they were a significant nation on the winning side of World War Two, of course, back at the very end of their significance as a world power.
Today, they're an anachronism - an embarassing one.
Many pundits have asked - why is France a permanent member of the UN Security Council, but not India?
Thomas Friedman has an excellent article on the subject today:Throughout the cold war, France sought to differentiate itself by playing between the Soviet and American blocs. France could get away with this entertaining little game for two reasons: first, it knew that Uncle Sam, in the end, would always protect it from the Soviet bear. So France could tweak America's beak, do business with Iraq and enjoy America's military protection. And second, the cold war world was, we now realize, a much more stable place. Although it was divided between two nuclear superpowers, both were status quo powers in their own way. They represented different orders, but they both represented order.
And I love the closing graph:
That is now gone. Today's world is also divided, but it is increasingly divided between the "World of Order" — anchored by America, the E.U., Russia, India, China and Japan, and joined by scores of smaller nations — and the "World of Disorder." The World of Disorder is dominated by rogue regimes like Iraq's and North Korea's and the various global terrorist networks that feed off the troubled string of states stretching from the Middle East to Indonesia.If France were serious about its own position, it would join the U.S. in setting a deadline for Iraq to comply, and backing it up with a second U.N. resolution authorizing force if Iraq does not. And France would send its prime minister to Iraq to tell that directly to Saddam. Oh, France's prime minister was on the road last week. He was out drumming up business for French companies in the world's biggest emerging computer society. He was in India.
There's a thesis going around - Chirac and Schröder are opposing us in Iraq because they have something dreadful to hide.
posted by Mitch Berg 2/9/2003 10:51:07 AM
Political Talk - One of the better experiements in local electronic political discussion is PoliTalk. It's produced by Tim Erickson, a St. Paul guy who has a long-standing involvement in political communication.
PoliTalk is different from some of your typical political chat lists or email discussion groups: rather than serving as an open forum, Erickson serves up a topic at a time, a couple times a year, for a closed-ended discussion; discussions last a few weeks at the most. It's very structured in format - which means the discussion is a lot less free-wheeling than a Usenet group. But the signal-to-noise ratio is very high - as opposed to Usenet or, say, the rapidly-sclerosing chain of E-Democracy email listserves.
The next topic: Transatlantic Perspectives on Invading Iraq. Politalk discussions are worth the time, and I urge "Shot" readers to check it out, when things kick off this week.
posted by Mitch Berg 2/9/2003 09:29:27 AM
In attacking the reasons for war, no liberal commentator is capable of addressing more than one of the justifications at a time; to do so would introduce a context in which their argument can not survive
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