Politics

Politically, I’m very liberal — about as far left as one can go without sliding into Libertarianism.

And the DNC 2004 begins

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Due to my current work schedule and lack of television, the majority of my exposure to the 2004 Democratic National Convention is going to be through the news sites and weblogs that I frequent. I did happen to catch the first couple minutes of Gore’s speech today during lunch, though, and liked his start. Well written, and he delivered it well, getting laughs from his audience in the right places.

I’ll be candid with you. I had hoped to be back here this week under different circumstances, running for re-election.

But you know the old saying — you win some, you lose some. And then there’s that little-known third category.

I didn’t come here tonight to talk about the past. After all, I don’t want you to think I lie awake at night counting and recounting sheep.

I prefer to focus on the future because I know from my own experience that America is a land of opportunity, where every little boy and girl has a chance to grow up and win the popular vote.

Every time I’ve seen Gore speak in the past couple of years, I think what a shame it was that he presented himself so blandly during the 2000 election campaign. Given the freedom to actually show some personality, the man does a good job…but for whatever reason, that just wasn’t allowed to happen during his presidential campaign, and at times I really think that that was as important to the eventual outcome as the voting issues became. If he’d been able to show a little more spark to combat Bush’s “guy next door” persona, the final tallies might not have been quite so close.

Or not. Who really knows?

Either way, though, one of the things that has worried me about Kerry is that he’s often struck me much the same way that Gore did in 2000 — very bland, and not terribly able to really fire up his base. Maybe I haven’t seen him at the right times, and he’ll start coming across better as things go on…but I’d hate to see that same perceived lack of personality bite him as badly as I think it may have bitten Gore.

iTunes: “All Good Girls (Joyous)” by Die Warzau from the album Afterburn: Wax Trax! Records ’94 and Beyond (1994, 6:06).

Terror in whose eyes?

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Over the past week, there’s been no small amount of online uproar over the story of one woman’s account of what she felt was a ‘dry run’ for another terrorist attack. The article, Terror in the Skies, Again? (and its follow-up Part II), has been linked to on hundreds of websites, e-mailed from one person to another, and generally spreading nearly as fast as the latest Internet Explorer exploit.

I’d seen and read the article, of course, but after reading it, I made the decision not to mention it here. As I read Annie Jacobsen’s “terrifying account” of a flight wherein nothing happened, it felt to me like little more than hysterical and possibly racist paranoia. Over the week, while it was gratifying to see others who read the article as I did (in this MetaFilter discussion, for instance, or this article in Salon), not surprisingly, those voices didn’t get nearly as much press.

Now, though, enough furor has been raised over the article that according to Eric Leonard of KFI News, air marshalls that were on board the flight have found it necessary to step forward and give their own assessment of the situation. There’s apparently no permalink to the article (bad news site! no cookie!), so here’s a copy:

LOS ANGELES | July 22, 2004 — Undercover federal air marshals on board a June 29 Northwest airlines flight from Detroit to LAX identified themselves after a passenger, “overreacted,” to a group of middle-eastern men on board, federal officials and sources have told KFI NEWS.

The passenger, later identified as Annie Jacobsen, was in danger of panicking other passengers and creating a larger problem on the plane, according to a source close to the secretive federal protective service.

Jacobsen, a self-described freelance writer, has published two stories about her experience at womenswallstreet.com, a business advice web site designed for women.

“The lady was overreacting,” said the source. “A flight attendant was told to tell the passenger to calm down; that there were air marshals on the plane.”

The middle eastern men were identified by federal agents as a group of touring musicians travelling to a concert date at a casino, said Air Marshals spokesman Dave Adams.

Jacobsen wrote she became alarmed when the men made frequent trips to the lavatory, repeatedly opened and closed the overhead luggage compartments, and appeared to be signaling each other.

“Initially it was brought to [the air marshals] attention by a passenger,” Adams said, adding the agents had been watching the men and chose to stay undercover.

Jacobsen and her husband had a number of conversations with the flight attendants and gestured towards the men several times, the source said.

“In concert with the flight crew, the decision was made to keep [the men] under surveillance since no terrorist or criminal acts were being perpetrated aboard the aircraft; they didn’t interfere with the flight crew,” Adams said.

The air marshals did, however, check the bathrooms after the middle-eastern men had spent time inside, Adams said.

FBI agents met the plane when it landed in Los Angeles and the men were questioned, and Los Angeles field office spokeswoman Cathy Viray said it’s significant the alarm on the flight came from a passenger.

“We have to take all calls seriously, but the passenger was worried, not the flight crew or the federal air marshals,” she said. “The complaint did not stem from the flight crew.”

Several people were questioned, she said, but no one was detained.

Jacobsen’s husband Kevin told KFI NEWS he approached a man he thought was an air marshal after the flight had landed.

“You made me nervous,” Kevin said the air marshal told him.

“I was freaking out,” Kevin replied.

“We don’t freak out in situations like this,” the air marshal responded.

Federal agents later verified the musicians’ story.

“We followed up with the casino,” Adams said. A supervisor verified they were playing a concert. A second federal law enforcement source said the concert itself was monitored by an agent.

“We also went to the hotel, determined they had checked into the hotel,” Adams said. Each of the men were checked through a series of databases and watch-lists with negative results, he said.

The source said the air marshals on the flight were partially concerned Jacobsen’s actions could have been an effort by terrorists or attackers to create a disturbance on the plane to force the agents to identify themselves.

Air marshals’ only tactical advantage on a flight is their anonymity, the source said, and Jacobsen could have put the entire flight in danger.

“They have to be very cognizant of their surroundings,” spokesman Adams confirmed, “to make sure it isn’t a ruse to try and pull them out of their cover.”

KFI reporter Jessica Rosenthal contributed to this report.

Copyright 2004 KFI NEWS. All rights reserved.

(via Atrios)

Good reason

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As far as me and the vice presidency is concerned … I spent a number of years in a North Vietnamese prison camp in the dark and (was) fed scraps, and I don’t know why I would want to do that all over again.

— Senator John McCain, addressing rumors he might replace Cheney as Bush’s running mate.

iTunes: “Only Time, The (Live)” by Nine Inch Nails from the album Familiar Sting (1994, 5:13).

Oh, snap! It’s getting kind of hectic up in this piece.

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This may be the funniest thing I’ve read lately…

At this point, according to observers, both statesmen decided—by seemingly unspoken mutual consent—to abandon the gutter patois of the common carnival worker and to resort instead to an eminently more quotable (but, to those not versed in the vagaries of hip-hop idiom, more confusing) exchange of viewpoints.

“Oh, it’s like that?” Mr. Cheney queried.

“Whut? Whut?” Mr. Leahy shot back.

“Once again,” Mr. Cheney replied (quite obviously quoting a lyric from Ice Cube’s 1990 album, “AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted”), “it’s on.”

As a quick-thinking senatorial aide switched on the Senate’s public-address system and cued up the infamous “Seven Minutes of Funk” break, Mr. Leahy and Mr. Cheney went head-to-head in what can only be described as a “take no prisoners” freestyle rap battle.

(via kottke)

The New York Times posts a Mea Culpa

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It’s always nice to see one of the ‘big boys’ admit that maybe, just maybe, they could have dug a little deeper into the goings-on in the months before we invaded Iraq.

Over the last few months, this page has repeatedly demanded that President Bush acknowledge the mistakes his administration made when it came to the war in Iraq, particularly its role in misleading the American people about Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction and links with Al Qaeda. If we want Mr. Bush to be candid about his mistakes, we should be equally open about our own.

…we agreed with the president on one critical point: that Saddam Hussein was concealing a large weapons program that could pose a threat to the United States or its allies. We repeatedly urged the United Nations Security Council to join with Mr. Bush and force Iraq to disarm.

As we’ve noted in several editorials since the fall of Baghdad, we were wrong about the weapons. And we should have been more aggressive in helping our readers understand that there was always a possibility that no large stockpiles existed.

[…]

Saddam Hussein was indisputably a violent and vicious tyrant, but an unprovoked attack that antagonized the Muslim world and fractured the international community of peaceful nations was not the solution. There were, and are, equally brutal and potentially more dangerous dictators in power elsewhere. Saddam Hussein and his rotting army were not a threat even to the region, never mind to the United States.

iTunes: “Don’t Go” by Bypass Unit from the album Reinventing the 80’s (1997, 5:52).

In the not very distant future…

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One sunny day in 2005 an old man approached the White House from across Pennsylvania Ave, where he’d been sitting on a park bench. He spoke to the US Marine standing guard and said, “I would like to go in and meet with President Bush.”

The Marine looked at the man and said, “Sir, Mr. Bush is no longer president and no longer resides here.”

The old man said, “Okay” and walked away.

The following day, the same man approached the White House and said to the same Marine, “I would like to go in and meet with President Bush.”

The Marine again told the man, “Sir, as I said yesterday, Mr. Bush is no longer president and no longer resides here.” The man thanked him and, again, just walked away.

The third day, the same man approached the White House and spoke to the very same US Marine, saying “I would like to go in and meet with President Bush.”

The Marine, understandably agitated at this point, looked at the man and said, “Sir, this is the third day in a row you have been here asking to speak to Mr. Bush. I’ve told you already that Mr. Bush is no longer the president and no longer resides here. Don’t you understand?”

The old man looked at the Marine and said, “Oh, I understand. I just love hearing it,”

The Marine snapped to attention, saluted, and said, “See you tomorrow, Sir.”

(via amberglow)

Photographers Protest at the Ballard Locks

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How wonderful. I can’t claim total inspiration for this, as all I did was point to the article regarding Ian Spiers’ run-in with Homeland Security while photographing the Ballard Locks, which brought it to the attention of Myk O’Leary of Life, it is a Travesty. After reading that article, however, Myk is organizing a peaceful protest at the Ballard Locks.

In response, I will be trying to organize a photo shoot at the Locks as a means of protest. Anyone else who cares about our rights as Americans to photograph interseting PUBLIC subjects are welcome to join me. If you are a photographer in Seattle, please consider coming.

If you are hesitant (and this is fair given what already happened) at least pass this on to others you know who may want to come along. Feel free to post the link to any and all boards that may have folks who would come (I’ll be posting to dpchallenge in just a few minutes after this post goes live.)

DETAILS: Sunday August 1st, 2004 1PM – 4PM We’ll meet at the front gates at just before 1PM, if you’re late, just look for the gaggle of tripods inside the property by the locks.

I’ll do my best to be there. Thanks, Myk.

iTunes: “Ya Mama” by Fatboy Slim from the album Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars (2000, 5:38).

The TSA: Security, or petty thieves?

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Fellow weblogger John Hoke had an interesting experience with the TSA yesterday while flying from LaGuardia to Dulles…

One screener asked to manually inspect one of my bags, knowing that I had nothing in it that was prohibited based on the TSA’s own site I allowed the search. This inspector found a lighter that I was given by my step daughter for our first Father’s Day together. It was a cigar lighter that did not run on Liquid Fuel, but gas. (Unabsorbed Liquid fueled lighters are prohibited based on the above PDF). He looked at it and exclaimed, “Wow I have always wanted one like this”. Then proceeded to tell me that he had to confiscate my lighter.

I calmly explained that it was not on the list of items that are prohibited on his own Department’s website. He replied he was allowed to use his judgement (what little of that there apparently is) and he was confiscating it. I requested to speak with his supervisor as he was not wearing any TSA identification, no name badge, not badge at all.

The supervisor came over and the screener was confiscating it, end of story. Tried to be helpful in that unhelpful supervisory way.

…I will be writing (and posting here) a letter to the TSA, even though I was told by the supervisor “Go ahead and complain, there is nothing you can do to us.”

Seems to me that this is pretty simple — petty thievery, compounded with harassment and the overbearing attitude that any amount of power will instill upon the small-minded. More and more, the TSA seems to be less concerned with actually providing any amount of security, merely using the power they’ve been granted to harass, humiliate, and steal from anyone coming through the gates of the airports. Sad.

And on a semi-related note, who comes up with these lists of what can and can’t be admitted on the airplanes? My mom came through Seattle on her way Florida from Anchorage a couple of months ago, and I was flabbergasted to see that she was allowed to bring her knitting needles on the airplane. Sure, “knitting needles” sounds innocuous enough — but these were two six-inch long metal spikes connected by an approximately eighteen inch metal wire. Two stabbing implements and a very effective garrote, in other words, should someone choose to use them as such. Yet these are allowed? Just bizarre.

Just watch what you take on the planes these days, folks — and hope you arrive at your destination with everything you left with.

iTunes: “Genauso Wie Ich (Future Pop)” by Beborn Beton from the album Tales From Another World (1994, 5:55).

U.S. Grammar School Interim Report to Parents

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(This piece is attributed to Nancy Greggs of The Guardian UK. I found it on BOP, who could only locate another copy at ToppleBush, though a quick Google also found copies on Democratic Underground and LiveJournal. Since there’s no real “original” to post, I’m reposting it here. It’s worth it.)

United States Grammar School Interim Report to Parents

Dear Mr. and Mrs. G.H.W. Bush,

Once again, it is that time of year when we update the parents of our students on their child’s progress, and we regret to inform you that your son, Georgie, is not doing as well as we’d hoped and expected when he embarked on his four-year program at our school.

As you are well aware, Georgie was installed as class president at the start of the school year, despite the fact that the majority of his fellow students did not vote for him. We foresaw problems immediately, but were assured by several school board members (who, as we understand it, are friends of your family) that this would not result in any real difficulty. Unfortunately, they have been proven wrong.

In the area of scholastic achievement, despite our best efforts, Georgie is still reading and speaking at a grade level far below our usual standards.. At this point, we are not sure if his failure to learn is due to laziness and a lack of ability to apply himself to his studies, or if he simply lacks the intellectual capacity to improve in these areas.

His oral presentations to the class are particularly troubling; it is apparent that Georgie has not read the necessary materials, and he often simply fabricates facts to hide this shortcoming. In oral exams, he tends to repeat the same answers over and over, e.g. “The economy is good; jobs are on their way,” indicating a profound failure to keep up with the Current Events portion of the curriculum.

Georgie also tends to fabricate elaborate stories about himself – which, admittedly, can sometimes be very amusing. During a school celebration last May, he delighted his fellow students by coming to class in a little “flight suit” (just like the grown-ups wear!), and had everyone in stitches with his story about the family dog having eaten his report card from military pre-school!

On the whole, however, Georgie does not play well with other children. His “leadership” in the classroom continues to divide many students, one against the other. Other study groups, such as our French and German-language classes, are no longer willing to cooperate with Georgie’s group, even though they have traditionally done so in the past.

Your son also displays a lack of taking responsibility for his failings, and seems unable to appreciate the consequences of his actions. Although he was provided with the best textbooks on the subjects of the Economy, Job Creation, The Environment, et cetera, these books were damaged or completely destroyed within a matter of months. Georgie insists that he “inherited” these books in poor condition, despite all evidence to the contrary. (In fact, these same textbooks were previously used by one of our very best students, who actually returned them in better condition than he found them!)

During his first few weeks with us, Georgie quickly became part of a group of other “problem students.” Despite warnings, he has consistently befriended children whom we consider to be “bad elements,” such as Little Kenny Lay and a foreign-exchange student named Chalabi. Both of these youngsters have been expelled from other schools due to their involvement in cheating other students out of their lunch money. We feel that these kinds of relationships can only lead to no good, and hope that you will advise your child accordingly.

Georgie often displays aggressive behaviour in the schoolyard, and recently assaulted a student in another school district, completely unprovoked. When asked about this incident, Georgie insisted that the other child was armed and dangerous. When investigation into the matter proved otherwise, Georgie changed his story several times: he was just trying to “democratize” the other child, the other child’s school was harboring gang members, and so on. Quite frankly, his story on this topic has so changed from week to week, we simply can’t trust his word at all anymore.

Georgie’s friends, while not great in number, are very loyal, but tend to be over-protective. If any of the other students point out Georgie’s failing grades, these friends simply shout them down and tell them not to speak at all. When Georgie was summoned to the principal’s office several weeks ago, he insisted that his “best friend” come with him. We feel that it is in Georgie’s best interest to learn to stand up for himself; failure to do so could seriously damage his ability to handle a leadership role in his adult years.

As you are aware, final exams will be held in November, and Georgie’s past performance leads us to conclude that he will not be able to achieve the grades necessary to continue on with another four-year term at our institution.

Yours Truly, Ms. J.Q. Public, Assistant Principal