Magpie

Saturday, July 5, 2003

Oooooh, shiny!

Magpie's not going to give the slightest hint of where we're pointing you to. (If you don't have Flash, you might want to start here instead.)

Via Dublog.

| | Posted by Magpie at 10:53 PM | Get permalink

It might be a day late ...

But MB has cranked up the time machine over at Wampum and carried us back to 1991 yet again.

MIXED FEELINGS ARE VOICED BY RIGHTS LEADERS
UNCERTAINTY EXPRESSED ABOUT THOMAS'S VIEWS
Lynne Duke, Washington Post
July 2, 1991

Several black and Hispanic civil rights leaders expressed pleasure yesterday at President Bush's nomination of a minority jurist to the Supreme Court, but they said that -- unlike retiring Justice Thurgood Marshall -- Clarence Thomas appears to be no friend of the issues the rights community holds dear.

Noting that Thomas, 43, is black and grew up poor and disadvantaged in the South, John Jacob, president of the National Urban League, said, "I'm hoping that anyone sitting in...

| | Posted by Magpie at 8:14 PM | Get permalink

Trail of denial.

The Chinook people of the Pacific Northwest are celebrated in accounts of the Lewis and Clark expedition for their hospitality to the US explorers during a cold, wet, claustrophic winter's stay near the mouth of the Columbia River. Over the next 150 years, that hospitality was repaid loss of tribal lands, unratified treaties with the federal government, and the decision by bureaucrats in 1954 that the Chinook tribe no longer existed.

The Sunday magazine of the Seattle Times looks at how the Chinooks still exist, despite that government decision, and looks at efforts by the Chinook tribe to regain federal recognition and at least some of their old homelands.

In part, however, they are looking for money — federal dollars to build a legitimate tribal center, to operate cultural programs for kids, a health program for seniors.

And, ultimately, they dream of regaining just a piece of the coastal landscape they lost. "We accept what happened many years ago," says Lagergren. "But we'd like to get back some of what they took from us."

Casinos and federal programs aside, the Chinooks insist the fundamental issue is one of identity. "It's not right," says Lois Reed Saxton, of Port Angeles, who drives all the way to Chinook Country for council meetings. "A people as powerful and important as the Chinooks should not be allowed to vanish from the face of the Earth."

But, despite the attention drawn by the Lewis and Clark bicentennial, their crusade appears to be mostly uphill. They are just one of dozens of tribes, including Seattle's own Duwamish, who are seeking recognition from a Republican administration that is not friendly to Indian causes, especially those with dollar signs.

They face opposition from their old rivals, the Quinaults, who fear losing authority over their own reservation, a large portion of which is still owned by Chinook families.

| | Posted by Magpie at 7:48 PM | Get permalink

US intelligence 'twisted to exaggerate the Iraqi threat.'

In an article appearing in the Sunday NY Times, the former US ambassador who investigated a report that Iraq had tried to buy uranium from the African country of Niger says that Washington twisted inelligence reports to exaggerate the threat posed by the Saddam Hussein government.

Joseph Wilson was ambassador to Gabon in the early 1990s. His investigation of the Iraq-Niger connection came to the conclusion that it was 'highly unlikely' that any uranium purshcase had occurred. Nonetheless, Dubya and UK PM Tony Blair cited the 'fact' that Iraq was trying to obtain uranium as evidence for an Iraqi nuclear weapons program, and as a reason for the invasion of that country in March.

"Based on my experience with the administration in the months leading up to the war, I have little choice but to conclude that some of the intelligence related to Iraq's nuclear weapons program was twisted to exaggerate the Iraqi threat," Wilson wrote. [...]

Wilson, who helped to direct Africa policy for the National Security Council under former President Bill Clinton, said he was the "unnamed former envoy" who news media have said traveled to Niger in February 2002 to check the report of a uranium deal between the west African country and Iraq.

At the request of the CIA, which was to report his findings to Vice President Dick Cheney, Wilson said he spent more than a week meeting current and former Niger government officials and people associated with the uranium business.

"It did not take long to conclude that it was highly doubtful that any such transaction had ever taken place," he said.

Wilson said he reported his findings in detail to the CIA and the State Department. But in January 2003 Bush "repeated the charges about Iraqi efforts to buy uranium from Africa," Wilson said.

"If the president had been referring to Niger, then his conclusion was not borne out by the facts as I understood them," he said.

Wilson said that if the administration had ignored his information "because it did not fit certain preconceptions about Iraq, then a legitimate argument can be made that we went to war under false pretenses."

| | Posted by Magpie at 7:32 PM | Get permalink

Making friends and influencing Turks.

The AP reports that US forces in northern Iraq have arrested 11 Turkish soldiers and officers. A Turkish newspaper said the arrests were based on intelligence reports that the Turks were involved in a plot to assassinate the Kurdish governor of Kirkuk. US officials have so far not commented on the arrests, other than to acknowledge that the arrests occurred yesterday in the city of Sulaymaniyah.

The reaction in Turkey has been quick and angry. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called the arrests an 'ugly incident' and demanded the release of the Turkish troops:

"It should not have happened."

"For an allied country to behave in such a way toward its ally cannot be explained," he added. [...]

Erdogan said the latest seizures occurred Friday afternoon but did not give details, except to say the detentions came after "an issue over the municipality in Kirkuk."

In response to the arrests, Turkey closed its border crossing at Habur, the only place where the border between Turkey and Iraq can be legally crossed.

There is much bad blood between Turkey and the Kurdish rulers of northern Iraq. The Turks believe that the Kurds want to unify their portion of Iraq with the Kurdish portion of Turkey as an independent state. The Kurds charge the Turks with persecution of its Kurdish minority. (And, in fact, the European Union has demanded changes in the legal status of Kurds as a condition for Turkey's entrance into the EU.) Turkey has had military observers in northern Iraq since the war began — a fact that the Kurds resent. It is not known whether the Kurds provided the intelligence that led to the arrest of the Turkish troops.

| | Posted by Magpie at 9:17 AM | Get permalink

Friday, July 4, 2003

Happy July 4th from the Prez.

Dubya gave the nation just what it needed: more bellicose rhetoric about the never-ending war on terror.

Speaking at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, President Bush vowed to attack any "terrorist group or outlaw regime" that threatens America.

"We are on the offensive against terrorists... The United States will not stand by and wait for another attack or trust in the restraint and good intentions of evil men," he said. [...]

Flanked by fighter jets, attack aircraft and a Stealth bomber, President Bush reiterated his commitment to use force if he felt it was necessary.

"The enemies of America plot against us... We will act, whenever it is necessary, to protect the lives and the liberty of the American people," he said.

| | Posted by Magpie at 11:27 PM | Get permalink

'So what if Israel is the enemy?'

Haaretz correspondent Nir Rosen recently visited the Hebrew Department in Baghdad University's Faculty of Language. In talking to faculty and students, Rosen discovered the contradictions inherent in studying Hebrew in an Arab country.

Dr. Sabah Naji Asheikhly has headed the department for a year and a half. Now 48, with a warm smile and wearing glasses, Asheikhly began studying Hebrew in 1973. Like most undergraduate students in Hebrew, he did not choose his major but was forced into it. Having chosen to study in the Faculty of Languages but lacking the necessary grades or connections to be selected for one of the more desirable languages, he ended up saddled with Hebrew. But Asheikhly came to love the language, which he says was easy to learn because of its close relationship to Arabic. [...]

He recognizes the political complexities involved in such a sensitive language. "During Saddam's time, Israel was the main enemy of our country, so after graduation, students worked for the government in the ministries of information, intelligence or defense. The previous government encouraged students to work for it after graduation, and the government interfered with the graduate students' research projects. If a student wrote a single word that was not against Israel in his research, he would be subject to investigation and punishment.

"The people of Iraq were educated to hate Israel, and it is very difficult to create a link with Israel in politics, but maybe it's possible in the field of culture.The previous regime influenced whoever studied Hebrew and especially the teachers of the language. [...]

"I would like to visit Israel as a culture, but not politically, and I would like to visit its universities. The head of the Hebrew University's Hebrew department is an Iraqi Jew. I have studied Hebrew for 25 years, and I have never spoken with a native Hebrew speaker.

| | Posted by Magpie at 3:03 PM | Get permalink

Be careful what you ask for.

Magpie couldn't make this one up if she tried.

| | Posted by Magpie at 8:51 AM | Get permalink

Howdy.

A big ol' Magpie howdjado to The Lefty Directory, which is pretty much what it sounds like.

The directory has links to about 400 blogs on the left, so get over there and start taking a look at some of the others hoeing the same row as Magpie. (And yes, Magpie is listed: Way down near the bottom of the new additions.)

| | Posted by Magpie at 8:43 AM | Get permalink

Where are the WMDs?

The readers of the Washington Post have some ideas. The winners and runners-up in the Post's contest for the best answer are here.

"He changed the invoices and had them shipped to, and stored at, the National Records Center in Suitland, Md. All we need to find them is the right reference number. I believe they are next to the box which has the Ark of the Covenant." -- Alfred H. Novotne, an attorney with the Army at Fort McCoy in Wisconsin.

"A thorough search of the Gulf of Tonkin might be revealing." -- Kim Schmidgall, Oxnard, Calif.

Via veiled4allah.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:02 AM | Get permalink

Mikhaela.

She's got another new cartoon.

And after you've looked at it, head over to her blog for links to a mess of cartoons from other cartoonists, including one of an exploding Justice Scalia.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:01 AM | Get permalink

Power failure.

Iraq's recovery from the war is being hampered by power shortages, reports the Washington Post. While Baghdadis could usually count on having electricity for 20 hours a day before the war, now it's only available for eight hours a day or less. Last week, there were a couple of days when the capital was totally dark. These supply problems are common in the whole country, and are the result of several factors. One was the inability of Iraq to obtain spare parts for the power system during the decade of economic embargo after the first Gulf War, which has resulted in the continued use of antiquated equipment that's prone to failure. Another, is damage to the power grid sustained during the war — although US and Iraqi sources differ as to the extent of that damage. And since the war, that damage has been aggravated by looting and sabotage.

Without reliable power supplies, reconstruction efforts are slowed or must be put on hold altogether. Economic stability — let alone economic growth — is hampered. And confidence in Iraq's new rulers erodes as a result. The failure of the US to deliver dependable power since the war has raised the anger and suspicion of many Iraqis. The Post reports one Iraqi electrician as saying: 'Saddam understood the importance of electricity.The Americans don't.'

After the war, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which was given responsibility for restoring the electrical infrastructure, discovered that doing so was not as simple as fixing a few pylons. Looters had made away with crucial spare parts from several plants. There was no fuel for oil-fired units because the country's refineries were not working. The startup of some facilities required an initial boost of outside power, which was nonexistent.

Finally, by late April, U.S. and Iraqi engineers were able to start resuscitating power plants and lights began to dot Baghdad's skyline. By early last month, the plants were generating about 3,100 megawatts, about 1,300 of which were being sent to the capital. It was about half of the city's demand -- enough for shops to open, street lights to operate, air conditioners to hum and life to start returning to normal.

Then the next round of trouble began. Looters ripped down transmission wires to steal the aluminum and copper. Old power plants, which missed their annual spring maintenance because of the war, chugged to a halt. Sizzling summer temperatures caused a drop in the transmission system's efficiency. People bought large numbers of air conditioners and television sets, placing new strain on the system.

And most significantly, saboteurs believed to be loyal to Hussein started to attack the system by felling towers and cutting lines. U.S. officials here would not detail the number of cases of sabotage to the electrical infrastructure other than to call them significant. [...]

On Monday, the capital had just 400 megawatts to distribute. By Tuesday, the supply had fallen further, prompting the city's power distribution director to order that only hospitals, water plants and sewage treatment facilities be given electricity. Finally, on Tuesday night, technicians completed repairs to the broken line near Samarra, which helped raise the city's distribution to 800 megawatts today, Iraqi officials said. [...]

Ordinary Iraqis, however, find it difficult to believe that the U.S. military cannot find a way to keep the lights on all the time. "They brought thousands of tanks to kill us," said Bessam Mahmoud, a shopkeeper who sells packaged biscuits and candy on the sidewalk when the power is out. "Why can't they bring in generators or people to fix the power plants? If they wanted to, they could."

In Baghdad, the prevailing view on the street is that there is more than enough power to go around but the Americans are refusing to share it with Iraqis until attacks on U.S. troops cease. "They're trying to trade peace for electricity," said Hamid Mohsen, the owner of a smaller stationary store. "They're trying to tell us that if we don't give them peace, they won't give us power."

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:01 AM | Get permalink

A Molly Ivins Fourth.

Every Independence Day, Molly Ivins presents us with a column in which she celebrates 'not the majesty, not the glory, but the sheer improbable bliss of life in a free country.' Here's some of this year's edition:

I'd also like to speak to you this Fourth about patriotism. We've got some patriots here who are enough to give the word a bad name. Their ugly side is always brought out by war: the professional-patriot bullies have never been able to distinguish between dissent and disloyalty. In WWI, we had citizens who used to go around kicking dachshunds, on the grounds that they were "German dogs." You notice people like that never go around kicking German shepherds.

John Henry Faulk's late Cousin Eddie was an unreconstructed reactionary. He had a sign over his mantel that said, "Robert E. Lee Might've Give Up, But I Ain't." When Johnny challenged Eddie during Vietnam, saying dissent was part of patriotism, Eddie replied, "Dis-sent? Hell, yes, I believe in the right to dis-sent!H'it's in the Constitution! What I can't stand is all this criticism! Criticize, criticize, criticize. Why don't they just leave Lyndon alone and let him fight his war in peace?"

The current situation in Iraq reminds me of yet another of Cousin Eddie's immortal observations, "If them Veetnamese don't like what we're doin' for 'em, why don't they just go back where they come from?"

On the whole, I prefer not to be lectured on patriotism by those who keep offshore maildrops in order to avoid paying their taxes.

Now go read the rest.

Via Working for Change.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:00 AM | Get permalink

Thursday, July 3, 2003

Is anyone out there?

The chances of finding life in outer space may have increased, as astronomers report the discovery of a solar system similar to our own. According to the BBC, the new system includes a Jupiter-like planet circling a Sun-like star at a distance comparable to that at which Jupiter circles the Sun. The new planetary system is about 95 light-years from Earth, circling a star with the prosaic name HD 70642.

While all of the 100-plus planetary systems discovered so far contain gas giants similar to Jupiter, they circle their stars in elliptical orbits that make it unlikely that Earth-like planets could exist at a distance favorable for life. In the new system, however, the gas giant is in a circular orbit, and researchers believe that there may be small rocky planets circling closer to HD 70642. If they exist, however, current technology is not precise enough to spot them.

"This is the closest we have yet got to a real Solar System-like planet, and advances our search for systems that are even more like our own," says Hugh Jones of Liverpool John Moores University, UK, who helped discover the new world.

The planet was found using the 3.9-metre (12.8 foot) Anglo-Australian Telescope in New South Wales, Australia. The discovery is being announced at a conference in France. [...]

The discovery of a system that bears a very close resemblance to our Solar System demonstrates that searches for exoplanets are good enough to find Jupiter-like planets in Jupiter-like orbits.

It will encourage astronomers to develop the techniques and space missions required to find smaller Earth-like planets, and look for signs of life on them.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:19 PM | Get permalink

Don't celebrate the economic recovery yet.

New figures show that the US economy continues to slump. According to the Labor Department, the jobless rate is at a 9-year high, as employers cut 30,000 jobs in June. This puts unemployment at an offical rate of 6.4 percent — it had only been expected to rise to 6.2 percent. The last time so many people were out of work was in 1994, when the economy was recovering from the post-Gulf War recession that began under Bush the First.

Some revised figures only underscore the poor job market. Last month, the Labor Department reported a drop of 17,000 jobs in May. It turns out that the real figure was 70,000 jobs, a considerable difference. (Magpie wonders what Wampum will have to say about this revision.) The largest job losses were in manufacturing (down 56,000 jobs) and the information industries (down 10,000 jobs).

But wait. There's still more: New unemployment claims also went up. While new claims had been expected to rise slightly this week — from 409,000 to 410,000 — the actual figure was 430,000.

None of this can be good news for Washington. Dubya had been hoping to ride to re-election on an improving economy, but the new figures seem to show that improvement isn't anywhere in sight. Commenting on today's figures, one economist told Reuters: 'It's ugly on the surface and uglier when you look inside.' Democrats will be unlikely to let the bad performance of the economy under Dubya's ministrations go unnoticed.

There is one vaguely bright spot on the economic front, according to Reuters.

The Institute for Supply Management said its index of non-manufacturing activity surged to 60.6 in June from 54.5 in May. A reading above 50 signals growth in the service sector. [...]

"The services sector may begin to generate some jobs in the second half of the year. I think we could be seeing better employment numbers down the road," said Gary Thayer, chief economist at AG Edwards & Sons in St. Louis.

Magpie notes, however, that more service jobs is not something to be bragging about. Jobs in the service sector tend to be low-paid, with few benefits and a low rate of unionization. Given that the biggest current job losses are in manufacturing and high-tech, where pay is high and benefits are good, today's economic figures indicate a continuing shift of US workers from high-paid to low-paid work, with a corresponding loss of benefits.

This crowgirl wonders what spin Dubya's administration is going to put on today's numbers.

Update: Wampum's take on today's economic news is here.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:17 PM | Get permalink

Ann Coulter.

Magpie doesn't usually read Coulter, because our tolerance for stupidity is pretty low. And given who's in the White House these days, we use that tolerance up pretty quickly.

But when we ran into a post on General Glut's Globblog saying that Ann Coulter had written a column rehabilitating red-baiting Sen. Joe McCarthy, Magpie had trouble believing that even Coulter was that much of an idiot.

Well, Coulter is that much of an idiot. And not content to say that leftist historians have besmirched McCarthy's reputation, she even brings up the old right-wing charge that the Democratic Party had 'connived' with the communist conspiracy.

| | Posted by Magpie at 1:41 AM | Get permalink

Iraq's oil.

Is it going to Kuwait? xymphora points to this article about a South Florida man who's been looking at a lot of satellite photos.

"You look for patterns. Patterns tell you things," says Brandli, who has masters degrees in meteorology, aeronautics and astronautics, and the author of "Satellite Meteorology" for the Air Force's Air Weather Service in 1976. "With night photos, you can distinguish natural gas burnoff, which looks globular, from city lights. And suddenly, over just a few weeks, we've got this straight line of lights leading all the way to those beautiful wells in southeastern Iraq.

"If you're building pipelines, you've got to have power, you've got to have light -- trucks and personnel and food and all sorts of support. If I had to bet, I'd say it looks like we're running Iraqi oil through Kuwait. It would make sense, because Kuwait's got its infrastructure intact."

| | Posted by Magpie at 1:36 AM | Get permalink

Try this.

Just a simple Google search. You want to look at the very first item.

Via This Modern World.

| | Posted by Magpie at 1:14 AM | Get permalink

Ride 'em, cowboy.

Dubya tells those Iraqis what's what.

"There are some who feel like that the conditions are such that they can attack us there. My answer is bring 'em on," Bush said. "We've got the force necessary to deal with the security situation."

Let Magpie get this straight: If we want to make the Iraqis who are taking potshots at US troops stop doing it, the best course of action is to dare them to shoot at the troops again?

This crowgirl seems to be spending a lot of time lately wondering what they smoke in the nation's capital.

Update: Electrolite points to this quote from someone who was obviously paying attention:

"I am shaking my head in disbelief. When I served in the army in Europe during World War II, I never heard any military commander -- let alone the commander in chief -- invite enemies to attack U.S. troops," said New Jersey Democratic Sen. Frank Lautenberg.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:52 AM | Get permalink

'Only in America.'

Writing in the July 4 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education, historian Eric Hobsbawm uses his 40 years of visting and living in the US to talk about the US at the current height of the 'American Century.' There's so much to think about in the article that Magpie had a hard time picking an excerpt.

As a historian I know that behind this apparent shifting stability, large and long-term changes are taking place, perhaps fundamental ones. Nevertheless, they are concealed by the deliberate resistance to change of American public institutions and procedures, and the habits of American life, as well as what Pierre Bourdieu called in more general terms its habitus, or way of doing things. Forced into the straitjacket of an 18th-century Constitution reinforced by two centuries of Talmudic exegesis by the lawyers, the theologians of the republic, the institutions of the U.S.A. are far more frozen into immobility than those of almost all other states. It has so far even postponed such minor changes as the election of an Italian, or Jew, let alone a woman, as head of government. But it has also made the government of the U.S.A. largely immune to great men, or indeed to anybody, taking great decisions, since rapid, effective national decision-making, not least by the president, is almost impossible. The United States, at least in its public life, is a country that is geared to operate with mediocrities, because it has to, and it has been rich and powerful enough to do so. It is the only country in my political lifetime where three able presidents (F.D.R., Kennedy, Nixon) have been replaced, at a moment's notice, by men neither qualified nor expected to do the job, without making any noticeable difference to the course of U.S. and world history. Historians who believe in the supremacy of high politics and great individuals have a hard case in America. That has created the foggy mechanisms of real government in Washington, made even more opaque by the sensational resources of corporate and pressure-group money, and the inability of the electoral process to distinguish between the real and the increasingly restricted political country. So, since the end of the U.S.S.R., the U.S.A. has quietly prepared to function as the world's only superpower. The problem is that its situation has no historical precedent, that its political system is geared to the ambitions and reactions of New Hampshire primaries and provincial protectionism, that it has no idea what to do with its power, and that almost certainly the world is too large and complicated to be dominated for any length of time by any single superpower, however great its military and economic resources. Megalomania is the occupational disease of global victors, unless controlled by fear. Nobody controls the U.S.A. today. That is why, as I write my autobiography, its enormous power can and obviously does destabilize the world.

Via also not found in nature.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:44 AM | Get permalink

Inuit or Eskimo?

Rachel Attituq Qitsualik explains why the difference isn't just a matter of 'political correctness.'

I answered a letter a while ago, from someone at a museum in Alaska.

They wanted to know why Inuit dislike being called "Eskimos." After all, many Alaskans don’t mind being called Eskimos and even seem to dislike the term "Inuit" when southerners try to apply it to them, however well-intentioned.

I am not at all surprised at the confusion. The ascendancy of Inuit culture, through good reportage and the establishment of Nunavut, has conditioned southerners to say "Inuit" instead of "Eskimo." Southerners have complied beautifully, but at last they are running up against peoples, related to Inuit, who insist that they are Eskimos.

The confusion derives from this sticky fact: Inuit are not Eskimos and Eskimos are not Inuit.

Via rabble.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:33 AM | Get permalink

Why should we care if Dubya buys the election?

An editorial in The Nation looks at the Republican fundraising machinery that's expected to raise almost US $200 million for Dubya's re-election campaign, and makes it very clear why we should be worried.

Nothing like this has happened since the robber barons and the trusts united behind William McKinley's 1896 campaign. Back then, Senator Mark Hanna, chairman of the Republican National Committee, invented the first truly national campaign fundraising machine, setting precise assessments for contributions from banks and other businesses that feared Democrat William Jennings Bryan's populism. Hanna, who famously quipped, "There are two things that are important in politics. The first is money and I can't remember what the second one is," raised $6 million to $7 million for McKinley, which in today's dollars would be about $150 million. By comparison, the reform group Public Campaign points out that Bush's $200 million will be more than all the private money raised by the Republican presidential nominees since Watergate, adjusted for inflation. It's not for nothing that Karl Rove describes Mark Hanna as his political hero.

So what? says the corporate right. As the President's spokesman, Ari Fleischer, said, "I think the amount of money that candidates raise in our democracy is a reflection of the amount of support they have around the country." The issue, however, isn't just how much money a candidate raises but where it comes from and how it skews the candidate pool and the political debate. Bush's money machine--as we went to press he was on track to garner more in a few weeks than all nine Democratic candidates raised in the first three months of the year--is a measure of his popularity only among people who can afford to write $1,000 or $2,000 checks. That group is less than one-tenth of 1 percent of the population, and far wealthier, whiter, older and more likely to be male than the general population. America's financial elite is well represented in this "donor class," and its interests in tax breaks and regulatory rollbacks are given disproportionate attention because of its contributions.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:21 AM | Get permalink

Taking judicial sides in the culture war.

In These Times has an excellent piece by law professor Vincent Samar, looking at the ramifications of the US Supreme Court's Lawrence decision. According to Samar, that decision is important not just because it drove a stake through the heart of homosexual-only sodomy laws, but because of the way the justices made that decision. Much as conservative critics of the decision fear, Samar believes that the Lawrence ruling endangers laws that allow discrimination against lesbians and gay men in the areas of employment and parenting — and, of course, in the area of marriage.

More surprising was Kennedy’s invocation that Western Europe had years earlier struck down such laws. Kennedy’s extraterritorial references are significant in that they acknowledge that the issue the court is dealing with had already become part of a much larger international way of thinking about human dignity and the way humans deserved to be treated simply by being human. [...]

Such moral thinking by the Court is not that unusual, except that in this case it represents an appeal to a much broader level of moral concern. The court’s holding in Lawrence clearly repudiated, in the words of dissenting Justice Antonin Scalia, the view that "a particular practice [traditionally viewed] as immoral ... could be a sufficient reason for upholding the practice." In its place, the Court substituted a constitutional foundation-and a broad moral vision-that is far more inclusive of the various ways different people might frame their lives. The court quoted Casey: "At the heart of liberty is the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life." What made Bowers so wrong, according to the court majority, was that its "continuance as precedent demeans the lives of homosexual persons," both by denying them respect and by putting them in a position to be discriminated against in a way that heterosexuals are not. In Justice Kennedy’s words, "The case does involves two adults who, with full and mutual consent from each other, engaged in sexual practices common to a homosexual lifestyle. [Lawrence and Tyron] are entitled to respect for their private lives."

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:14 AM | Get permalink

US states struggle with budget problems.

While California's budget problems have been making headlines because of their implications for national politics, and the political survival of its Democratic governor, the state is hardly the only one in the country facing budget difficulties. The collapse of the 1990s economic boom and the resulting effects on state tax bases is causing fiscal problems nationwide, as the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

In addition to spending cuts and tax increases, "another major theme is short-term gimmicks," said Chris Atkins, director of tax and fiscal policy for the American Legislative Exchange Council, an association of conservative state legislators.

Kansas shifted $213 million in school payments by one day, from June 30 to July 1, to kick them into the next fiscal year, Atkins said, while Illinois sold bonds to cover state payments to its pension fund. The states have mostly tapped out their rainy-day funds and by tying up their expected tobacco settlement payments, are fast running through that onetime windfall.

"The states that use short-term gimmicks are going to find themselves much worse off because they're just putting off the problem," which makes the budget holes that much bigger next year, Atkins said.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:05 AM | Get permalink

New political splits in Iran.

Writing in EurasiaNet, journalist Ardeshir Moaveni looks at the fractures that have opened up in Iranian society as a result of the recent student-led demonstrations. According to Moaveni, both reformists and religious conservatives are having to develop strategies for dealing with that unrest (and its fallout) in the context of the continuing struggle to lead the country.

Criminal proceedings against detainees could begin in the coming days and weeks. In the meantime, reformists have expressed concern that conservative authorities may exert pressure on detainees to make forced confessions implicating reformists and "foreign forces" in an elaborate plot to overthrow the government. Such confessions could strengthen the conservatives’ efforts to hinder democratization initiatives supported by many Khatami loyalists. The unconfirmed reports of videotaped confessions, and hardliners’ swift efforts to bar reporters from the protests, have reinforced this suspicion.

Reformist leaders are divided over political strategy. Some, including the five-member Students’ Caucus in parliament, want to closely align with the students’ cause. Another faction, led by Parliament Speaker Mehdi Karrubi, maintains that too much solidarity with students could hamper reformists’ overall efforts to gain concessions on free speech and independent media from the conservatives.

While Khatami and his allies struggle with tactics, some political observers suggest that important elements in the conservative camp are reluctant to press on with the crackdown, fearing that if events turned bloody Iran could find itself more vulnerable to foreign interference.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:04 AM | Get permalink

Hard times in the Central Valley.

The California town of Mendota used to know good times. It was the center of the state's cantaloupe-growing region, and the local packing houses were kept busy. Packers had money to spend, and local businesses thrived. As the LA Times reports, however, those days are gone.

Like many other towns in the Central Valley, Mendota didn't share in California's economic boom of the 1990s. Instead, it slid downhill as the farm economy faced environmental problems and competition from lower-priced foreign produce. These days, one out of three Mendota workers is unemployed. And the possibility that much of the surrounding farmland will be taken out of production means that the employment situation is unlikely to get better any time soon.

State officials wrestling with a $38-billion budget shortfall have no money to spare to help [business owner and mayor Joseph] Riofrio and his town. At the same time, the town's agricultural economy is crumbling — the result of years of poor irrigation practices, which have turned much of the land here into a salty wasteland.

"We've been in the grocery business for 60 years and it's been getting worse and worse. It's like someone is choking us," Riofrio said. Usually, at this time of year, "we're making bucks, putting money away. Now, we're only making enough to make ends meet."

The fate of the city is entwined with the fate of Riofrio's store: As go his sales, so goes sales tax for Mendota.

Property taxes, the other prime source of money for local governments, have taken a hit as high-value farm land leaves the tax rolls.

The local school district must pay off $8 million in bonds with reduced revenue. Meanwhile, if population drops because there are fewer farm workers, the district will get less enrollment-based funding.

If this dust-devil of cause and effect spins any tighter, Riofrio fears, only a federal bailout will save Mendota.

"If not," he said, "then we're going to die."

Councilman Alfonso Sierras admits he has "entertained the thought and envisioned the day" when the city is forced to disincorporate. It hasn't come yet, but he's not sure it's out of the question either.

"It's teetering," Sierras said. "With some help, we can meet the challenges. On the other hand, if none is forthcoming, I really don't know, you know?"

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| | Posted by Magpie at 12:02 AM | Get permalink

The spectre of same-sex marriage is haunting the presidential candidates.

The LA Times reports that the recent US Supreme Court decision overturning Texas' sodomy law is forcing presidential candidates to deal with the issue of same-sex marriage. None of the candidates support it — although Gov. Howard Dean supported Vermont's civil union legislation — and all of them are hoping to avoid the issue. Republicans mostly fear alienating their supporters among the religious right, and Democrats have a large constituency among lesbians and gay men.

When Democratic contenders roundly praised the Supreme Court ruling last week, conspicuously absent from many comments was the issue of gay marriage.

Lieberman's statement was typical: "The court," he said, "moved us a step closer to giving gays and lesbians a full, fair place in our society." But he did not say what the next step should be. A campaign spokesman declined Wednesday to elaborate.

If candidates are reticent on the subject, activists are not.

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in May published a study declaring that as a group, the Democratic candidates were more supportive of equal rights for gays than any previous batch of White House aspirants.

But Sean Cahill, who edited the report, said gay and lesbian voters ? an influential force within the party ? should demand more.

"We want people to use this and go to Howard Dean in a forum or John Kerry and say, 'Why don't you support marriage?' " Cahill said. "Look Joe Lieberman in the eye, and say, 'Why are you not with me on this?' "

Similarly, many social conservatives have grown restless at what they view as Bush's muted response on gay rights' issues.

They were disappointed that the administration did not support the Texas anti-sodomy law as the Supreme Court considered the case, even though Bush as governor backed the law.

They wanted the White House to more strongly support Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) when he became embroiled in controversy in April after an interview in which he linked consensual gay sex to adultery, bigamy and incest.

Now they want Bush and his administration to be more outspoken in opposing gay marriage.

"Try as they might, they're not going to be able to avoid the issue," said Ken Connor, president of the Family Research Council.

One of the wild cards in all of this is Canada. Currently, same-sex marriage is legal in the province of Ontario, and federal legislation is expected soon to extend the right to marriage to lesbians and gay men nationwide. Lesbians and gay men from the US are already getting married in Ontario, and at least some of these couples are expected to go to court to force recognition of their marriages in the US — the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act notwithstanding. Candidates may find it hard to avoid the issue of same-sex marriages for the US once the court cases begin.

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| | Posted by Magpie at 12:00 AM | Get permalink

Wednesday, July 2, 2003

Losing faith.

BBC Baghdad correspondent Peter Greste has a story today on how Iraqis are losing their faith in US pledges to bring freedom to their country. The lack of security and basic services are causing many to question the priorities of the US occupation government, reports Greste, and they are suspicious of continually changing plans for a new Iraqi government.

"The problem is that the Americans talk of leaving, perhaps in five years," one Iraqi doctor told me. "But they never explain how they're going to do it.

"They never tell us how they are going to set up an independent government and give us back our political power and control over our own country." [...]

"I don't care about why it's not happening," said Abdullah. "The fact is that things are either no better and in some respects worse than under the old regime.

"And it seems to us that oil comes first for the Americans. Our welfare is second."

For many, the failure to draft a clear plan to transfer power simply reinforces that impression.

For all the words about "fully establishing freedom", the belief here is that the Americans plan either to never leave, or only go when there is a suitably compliant puppet administration in place.

| | Posted by Magpie at 1:04 PM | Get permalink

Return of the blob.

Marine scientists in Chile are puzzling over the 12-meter wide remains of some sort of sea creature, reports the BBC. Whatever it is was spotted by the Chilean navy when it washed ashore a week ago. It was first thought to be a whale carcass, but further examination showed that the creature probably doesn't have a backbone.

"We don't know if it might be a giant squid that is missing some of its parts or maybe it's a new species," Elsa Cabrera, a marine biologist and director of the Centre for Cetacean Conservation in Santiago, told Reuters news agency.

The mass is too big to be a whale skin and does not have the right texture or smell, she said.

Magpie strongly suggests going to the BBC story and taking a look at the picture. We didn't really comprehend how big the creature was until we enlarged the image. Wow.

| | Posted by Magpie at 1:03 PM | Get permalink

See no evil.

Apparently operating on the theory that if you don't compile statistics on a problem, that problem doesn't exist, the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration has eliminated rules that would have required employers to report repetitive stress injuries among their workers. Those rules were slated to go into effect in 2001, but were put on hold in the early days of Dubya's administration. The AP reports that OSHA will replace the mandatory reporting with voluntary guidelines that affect only those businesses that the agency considers 'injury prone.'

The move "continues the Bush administration's head-in-the-sand approach to ergonomic injuries," said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney.

"Just because the government is not going to require employers to track these injuries and just because the government is not going to enforce a safety standard doesn't mean that workers will stop becoming ill or permanently disabled on the job," he said.

Employers would have been required to record ergonomic-related injuries, which include disorders of the muscles, nerves, tendons, ligaments, joints, cartilage and spinal discs, except those caused by slips, trips, falls, motor vehicle accidents or other similar accidents.

This crowgirl is certain that the repetitive stress problems in her wrists have nothing to do with bad ergonomic design of the computers and workspaces that have been required by her jobs over the last two decades.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:21 AM | Get permalink

New poll may be bad news for Dubya.

A new poll shows that the US public's belief in Washington's rationale for the Iraq war is waning. The poll by the University of Maryland showed that just over half — 52 percent — of people thought that Dubya and his aides were 'stretching the truth, but not making false statements' about Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction. Another 10 percent thought that the administration presented evidence 'they knew was false.'

Similarly, the poll found that 56 percent of respondents thought that the administration stretched the truth or made outright false statements about Hussein's ties to Al-Qaeda.

Claims of terrorist connections and WMDs were fundamental to the rationale for war on Iraq presented by the US and UK governments before the invasion.

Via Hindustan Times.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:11 AM | Get permalink

One we missed.

Alas, a Blog had a great post on Monday about how the 'men's rights' movement is spinning a study on how divorce affects children's emotional well-being. Specifically, the study looked at how kids are affected when parents move more than one hour away from each other. While the the study showed that the only children who did worse than average were the kids who lived with their fathers, men's rights advocates massaged the data to make it look like all children were adversely affected by parents' moves. Make sure to check out the full post.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:07 AM | Get permalink

A bitter fence.

Haaretz reports on how the lack of jobs in the occupied territories is forcing some Palestinians to help build the security fence that separates Palestianian and Israeli areas.

Abu Farouk pointed toward the dozens of workers engaged in building the security fence near his village. They are residents of Zabuba who, with their own hands are enclosing their village with the fence from the west, north and east.

"The fence is bitter," he says, "but the workers' economic plight and the need to feed their children is even more bitter and they have no choice. There are hardly any people from the villages in this area who work inside Israel and if the residents of Zabuba don't work on the fence, others will. Believe me, it is worse to see the children crying."

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:04 AM | Get permalink

Leading Iraqi cleric condemns US plan for new constitution.

Iraq's leading Shia cleric says that US plan to appoint the members of a council that will draft the country's new constitution are 'fundamentally unacceptable.' Ayatollah Ali Sistani published his fatwa against the plan in Bagdad newspapers on Tuesday.

Paul Bremer, head of the occupation government, had announced plans to appoint 30 members of a 'governing council' whose duties would include supervising the drafting of a new constitution. The ayatollah's fatwah would seem to throw a monkeywrench into those plans.

"The occupation officials do not enjoy the authority to appoint the members of a council that would write the constitution", Ayatollah Sistani said in the fatwa. "There is no guarantee that this council would grant a constitution that accorded with the highest interests of the Iraqi people and would express their national identity, among the pillars of which is the foundation of the pure religion of Islam and noble social virtues," he added.

He called for a general election "so that every eligible Iraqi can choose someone to represent him at the constitutional convention that will write the constitution. Then there must be a public referendum. It is incumbent upon all believers to demand the realisation of this important matter, and to join together in achieving it," he said.

Until now, the ayatollah's post-war pronouncements have dealt with public morals. He called on Iraqis to stop looting and avoid revenge killings. In May he issued a fatwa calling on Iraqis not to join political parties because their agendas were not yet clear.

Shias make up the single largest group in the Iraqi population. Pre-war US planning reportedly assumed that any occupation of Iraq would be supported by the Shias. The failure of the occupation to deliver on promises of democracy, and provide security and basic services have soured the Shia community on the occupation.

Via UK Guardian.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:03 AM | Get permalink

Iraq looting continues.

No, we're not talking about antiquities. We're talking about pretty much everything else that isn't nailed down.

The San Francisco Chronicle has an excellent article on how looters (including many 'legitimate' Iraqi business owners) are making fortunes by sending Iraq's wealth out of the country. That looting, the newspaper reports, is being aided by the Kurdish authorities in the northern part of the country, while the US military and the occupation government turn a blind eye.

"Bulldozers, everything -- I'm ready to carry anything, even an airplane," boasted one of the busiest smugglers at the Haj Umran border crossing as he supervised the arrival of a half-dozen of his fully laden trucks.

The man, who was interviewed Saturday and asked that his name not be published, said the best bargain he was offering that day was a 1983 Komatsu D155A bulldozer. He said he had purchased from a middleman in Irbil, the capital of the Kurdish region, for $10,000 and had arranged to sell to an Iranian merchant for $34,000. The final price, to judge by a quick survey of listings of used construction equipment on the Internet, is about one-third below the average cost in the Middle East for that year and model.

Asked whether the bulldozer was looted, the smuggler said, "Of course, but don't ask me where. Everything here was looted."

Stroking his ample belly and waving a satellite phone as he talked, he said with a wide grin: "Some people say this makes me a war criminal, but so what? It's good fortune, and it's my work."

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:02 AM | Get permalink

Huge Hong Kong protest against new 'security' law.

Over half a million people marched through the streets of Hong Kong to protest againts a proposed security law. Hong Kong protests generally number in the few thousands at the most, so the size of this protest indicates growing discontent with the current Hong Kong administration.

The security law is required under Article 23 of Hong Kong's post-colonial constitution. That law will make it illegal to disclose protected information and state secrets, allow the government to ban local branches of groups labeled subversive by Beijing, and give police the right to search people's homes without a warrant. Many in Hong Kong believe that it will end the degree of freedom that Hong Kong has compared to the rest of China, and that the supression of dissedent views will become as common in Hong Kong as in China as a whole. In addition, leaders of Hong Kong's business community fear that the law will affect the flow of information that Hong Kong depends upon in its role as a financial and legal gateway to the Chinese mainland.

Many Hong Kong people see the anti-subversion measure as a betrayal of the "one country, two systems'' form of government that was promised—along with Western-style civil liberties—at the Hong Kong handover [from British rule].

"My daughter asked me why we have to march,'' said 36-year-old advertising worker Joanne Chow. "I told her it's for freedom, for our future. It's a tragedy if we have to live in a society where we dare not speak our minds and fear persecution.''

The administration of Hong Kong chief administrator Tung Chee-hwa has faced growing unpopularity since his recnet appointment to a second term as leader by a selection committee hand-picked by the communist government in Beijing. Many in Hong Kong blame Tung for the Hong Kong's current economic woes, and for mishandling the SARS epidemic. Many demonstrators called for him to resign.

The huge size of the Hong Kong march surprised many observers.

"This is phenomenal -- a much, much bigger demonstration than I have seen here before," said Paul Harris, political scientist at Hong Kong's Lingnan University. "It shows just how the people feel about" the legislation.

"Hong Kong people can be cynical and sometimes sceptical about how much of an effect of any change they can make. Nevertheless, they have braved the heat and turned out in force to show their opposition" to the bill, he said.

Harris said the protest also reflected deepening public dissatisfaction with the government of Hong Kong chief executive Tung Chee-hwa.

"This is a reflection of a much wider issue -- it also attacks the government," Harris said. "The government can't simply ignore such outpouring of animosity. Mr. Tung is clearly out of touch of the reality in the ground."

It was this broader protest against Tung's administration that should ring the loudest bells among the government in Hong Kong and China, said academic Joseph Cheng.

"I believe that this type of situation will much erode the legitimacy of the administration of Tung Chee-hwa," said Cheng, a political science professor at Hong Kong City University. [...]

"It's too early to say yet, but it's possible that the Chinese leadership will have to re-evaluate their support for Tung," Cheng warned.

Even if the protest succeeds only in deposing Tung, Cheng says the pro-democracy campaign in Hong Kong would be entitled to feeling a sense of victory.

"It means that the Chinese leadership will have to become more receptive to public opinion in Hong Kong," Cheng said.

"People will feel less impotent and it will encourage them to continue the fight for democratic reform."

Some democracy activists are not as optimistic as the academics, however, and doubt that the large protest will stop the momentum toward enactment of the security law. Tung's opponents concede that he controls enough votes to pass the security law in the Legislative Council, and many believe that he will just try to outwait protesters.

Law Yukai of the Human Rights Monitor said that Hong Kong's democracy movement had to continue putting pressure on Tung or risk losing even more rights than will be taken by the security law.

"If the community gathers and continues to show opposition to the (Article 23) law and the government, we can still maintain our freedom," Law said.

"But if after this huge turn-out the people just shut up, then the damage it will do will be far greater than anything Article 23 can inflict."

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:01 AM | Get permalink

Tuesday, July 1, 2003

136 reasons to come home.

To Canada, that is.

For Canada Day, the Toronto Star asked Canadians living abroad to tell them what they missed most about Canada.

117. Our accents

"I like to freak out my friends by slipping in-to a Newfie accent — no one can understand a word I say." (Harvard student Emma Wendt of Chester Basin, N.S.)

"The Canadian signature is written on my speech. I had not realized how much of an accent Canadians have, especially upon returning. It is more than 'about' and 'house,' but seems to reside in the way Canadians have a sharper way of finishing words. We do not let words linger as we say them. It is a-bout, not a-booouuuut." (University of California at Berkeley student Bradley Bryan, of Victoria, B.C.)

"I miss not being asked where I come from, as my Quebec accent doesn't seem to bother my fellow Canadians." (Harvard student Isabelle Morin of Montreal)

| | Posted by Magpie at 11:20 PM | Get permalink

US blamed for mosque explosion in Iraq.

An explosion that levelled a mosque in the Iraqi town of Fallujah is being blamed on US forces by town residents, reports the BBC. That explosion killed an imam who lived at the mosque.

Fallujah residents claim that the explosion was caused by a US missile, but the commander of the US forces in the town denies the charge. Instead, the he blames an explosion in a building adjacent to the mosque.

Our correspondent says that whatever the truth the incident has fuelled anger at the Americans and some in Fallujah say they now want revenge.

Mourners at the funerals for those killed chanted "America is the enemy of God!" and "Avenge the killings".

The town has been a hotbed of tension since April when 20 people were killed by American troops during a demonstration.

Mohammad Owdeh, a local resident, told Reuters news agency: "These explosions are a message to the Americans because they have done nothing for the Iraqi people. There will be more and more explosions."

| | Posted by Magpie at 10:18 PM | Get permalink

Blogger ate them.

All of them. And Magpie didn't have any copies.

So that's why there's only been one post up 'til now today.

| | Posted by Magpie at 10:08 PM | Get permalink

Lunasa and Green Linnet heading for a clash.

The Irish Echo reports that traditional Irish music group Lunasa has charged Green Linnet Records with damaging their integrity and musical reputation by distributing an 'inferior' version of the latest Lunasa album. Green Linnet is the dominant label in the Irish music genre, and distributes Lunasa's recordings in North America. Lunasa's manager says that the label has received several cease-and-desist orders regarding this dispute, and is on their final warning before Lunasa asks a court to settle the issue.

Stuart Ongley, Lunasa's manager, said last week that the leading traditional music label has refused to acknowledge that the edition of "Redwood" for sale in North America is a "faulty copy" and that Green Linnet "refuses to use the correct artwork on the covers."

He added that the band is "owed tens of thousands of dollars" in royalties and for the master copy of "Redwood." Similar complaints by other artists signed by Green Linnet in recent years have led to at least one lawsuit being filed against the company and the American Federation of Musicians Local 1000 has represented complaints against Green Linnet since 2001.

Green Linnet owner and creative director Wendy Newton denied the allegations, which Ongley said would lead to a legal challenge if Green Linnet did not respond.

"I assure you, there is no story," Newton said, referring to Lunasa's allegations. "We have received no cease-and-desist notices. We have received threats."

Green Linnet is facing legal trouble from others of its artists. In February, lawyers for Eileen Ivers, Altan, Joanie Madden, Cherish the Ladies, and Mick Moloney filed a civil suit in New York, claiming that Green Linnet had not paid royalties to the artists for several years.

Also see this earlier Magpie post on Lunasa's Redwood album.

| | Posted by Magpie at 1:36 AM | Get permalink

Monday, June 30, 2003

Guerilla war? Quagmire? Where?

US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is getting a bit testy about criticism of the way the US occupation of Iraq is going.

In today's Pentagon briefing, Rumsfeld cut off a reporter who cited the Vietnam war during a question:

There are so many cartoons where people, press people, are saying, 'Is it Vietnam yet?' hoping it is and wondering if it is. And it isn't. It's a different time. It's a different era. It's a different place."

He also tried to counter reports that a guerilla war against the occupation may be developing:

He said the problems in Iraq are being caused by five categories of people: remnants of Saddam's government; tens of thousands of Iraqi criminals released before the war from prisons; ordinary looters; foreigners who have entered Iraq; and "people that are being influenced by Iran."

Rumsfeld said these five groups "are all slightly different in why they are there and what they are doing," saying this trait "doesn't make it anything like a guerrilla war or an organized resistance. It makes it like five different things going on that are functioning much more like terrorists."

Despite his assertion that there's no guerilla war — even though somebody keeps shooting at occupation troops — Rumsfeld tacitly acknowledged the extent of the problems in Iraq when he said that 'I really don't have a time line' for when U.S. forces will leave Iraq.

But perhaps the strangest part of the briefing was when Rumsfeld compared the the current state of Iraq with the situation in the U.S. between the Revolutionary War and the writing of the Constitution:

Rumsfeld said the United States faced "a period of chaos and confusion" in its early years, including a depression, rampant inflation, no stable currency and mob uprisings.

"It took eight years before the founders finally adopted our Constitution and inaugurated our first president," he said, adding later: "Were we in a quagmire for eight years? I would think not. We were in a process ... evolving from a monarchy into a democracy."

This crowgirl has to wonder what the Defense Secretary has been smoking.

| | Posted by Magpie at 6:03 PM | Get permalink

'Canada has been acting rather snotty of late.'

Just in time for Canada Day, Salon has Canadian Steve Burgess' call for the US to invade the Great White North. They've been asking for it, y'know?

There are plenty of reasons to invade your passive-aggressive northern neighbor. (Or "neighbour," as we spitefully choose to spell it. Doesn't that just piss you off?) But never mind -- thanks to the lessons learned in Iraq, reasons are no longer necessary. The Bush administration's labored justifications for the Iraq invasion, served up as convincingly as a chocolate-smeared 6-year-old's explanation of where the cookies went, proved to be utterly irrelevant. Most Americans, it turned out, were only too happy to kick some non-American ass and didn't really require an explanation. As a prelude to the invasion of Canada, Bush could merely produce satellite photos proving conclusively that American troops are bored. Good enough for most.

So why bother? An excellent question. The United States owns most of Canada already and, unless you're unusually fond of thick socks and earnest magazines, there's not much worth plundering. But the invasion of Afghanistan proves that when sufficiently provoked America will invade and conquer the most God-forsaken acreage imaginable. You might live in an Oklahoma trailer park in tornado season but if you flip America the bird, the troops will come.

(For US readers, Canada Day is July 1. It's kinda like their Fourth of July. Yes, they have fireworks, too.)

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| | Posted by Magpie at 12:12 AM | Get permalink

New to the blogroll.

Go on over and get acquainted with A Rational Animal. Lilith (and her mysterious partner) haven't been blogging for long, but they do sure know what they're doing.

Magpie had fun looking at the results of Lilith's Google search on 'evil Ann Coulter.'

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:05 AM | Get permalink

What Dean means.

Over at Whiskey Bar, Billmon has some interesting thoughts about the unexpected fundraising success of Gov. Howard Dean, one of the left-er candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination.

If someone had told me at the start of the year that by the middle of the year Howard Dean, the governor of tiny Vermont, would be rolling in dough while Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Insurance, would be scrambling to remain financially competitive, I would have been astounded. Pleased, but still astounded. The fact that Dean was able to collect much of his loot over the Internet -- bypassing the PACs and the bundlers and the influence peddlers -- is even more wonderous.

I'm still not sold on Howard Dean. If he wins the Democratic nomination, I fear his candidacy will be an epic disaster -- a romantic cavalry charge into the GOP's machine guns and barbed wire. But I can't help but be impressed by what he's done so far, and the cleverness with which he and his team have done it.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:04 AM | Get permalink

Talking shop at the bottom of the journalistic food chain.

Cartoonist Steve Bell of the UK Guardian has been on this side of the water, schmoozing with North American editorial cartoonists at the annual convention of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists. Bell was somewhat amazed by the meeting since there aren't enough editorial cartoonists in the UK to have an organization, let alone a convention. As he explains: '[M]ost of us are incapable of organising a piss-up in a brewery.'

Watching Fox makes you realise just how rampant the right is at the moment, and reading the New York Times, a supposedly great liberal newspaper, makes you wonder if they would ever say boo to a goose, let alone tell truth to power. It seems dull, ponderous and timid. It's also one of the few major papers without its own editorial cartoonist. It runs syndicated stuff, but that's not the same thing. Having its own editorial cartoonist is at least a sign that a paper is prepared to put somebody's nose out of joint now and again.

The net result of this timorousness, which is not exclusive to the New York Times by any means, is that Bush gets away with lies and murder while the press beats itself up about the ethics of Jayson Blair, the young, black New York Times journalist who notoriously faked stories.

There is a fascinating collection of awkward, censored and spiked cartoons from all over the US on display at the Andy Warhol museum in Pittsburgh, and it's striking how mildly controversial they are. They're good though, because they're clever, funny and right on the ball, and one can only despair at the level of editorial queasiness that required the suppression of many of them.

Bell's latest Guardian cartoon is here.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:04 AM | Get permalink

Camp Wellstone.

Here's a rather catty, dismissive story about Camp Wellstone, a training camp for political activists in Minnesota. Instead of focusing on what's actually taught at the camp, the frame that reporter Jodi Wilgoren uses for the story turns the place into a backwards-looking liberal folly filled with people who worship the dead progressive senator from Minnesota.

The camp deserved better. The New York Times certainly could have come up with a better story. And for Wilgoren's sake, Magpie hopes that the story was butchered by an editor, not written the way it appeared in the paper.

Though officially nonpartisan, Camp Wellstone is unabashedly liberal, or, in its preferred parlance, "progressive." The "other" candidate in curriculum materials is always a Republican. Photos of Nixon bring snickers; of Mandela, cheers.

Mr. Wellstone is not just an inspiration, but a constant presence. After quoting extensively from his speeches and writings in the opening session, Mr. Blodgett cued up a video to let the man himself explain.

At the end of a session on how to write a campaign plan, Heather Booth, a political consultant, offered her energetic but admittedly imprecise impression, waving her arms wildly, à la Wellstone, and shouting, "Keep on organizing, keep on fighting, keep on organizing, keep on fighting ? until we win!"

This crowgirl wonders if the Times would have given the same almost-flippant treatment to a camp training conservative activists.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:01 AM | Get permalink

Sunday, June 29, 2003

Iraqis not giving up their weapons.

Sources in the UK military tell the UK Guardian that the much publicized arms amnesty has been a flop. Under that amnesty, Iraqis were given two weeks to turn in any weapons larger than a rifle or pistol without penalty.

However, this has failed and is unlikely to make any headway until Iraqis feel secure, a prospect which at present is not even on the horizon, defence sources say. Military commanders also make it clear that they are angry at the failure of British and American civil agencies to deliver on promises to restore or renew Iraq's infrastructure, notably power and water supplies.

That, they say, is fuelling resentment among ordinary Iraqis, and increases the influence of groups with their own extreme political or religious agendas.

| | Posted by Magpie at 11:24 PM | Get permalink

Katharine Hepburn, 1907–2003.

Life, January 6, 1941.

Acting is the most minor of gifts and
not a very high-class way to earn a living.
After all, Shirley Temple could do it at the age of four.

Katharine Hepburn died earlier today at her home in Old Saybrook, Connecticut. She was 96.

Hepburn was one of the most influential and best loved American actors of the twentieth century. Her film career spanned six decades, and ranged from a series of screwball comedies in the 1930s, to her role opposite Humphrey Bogart in The African Queen, to an Oscar-winning performance late in her career in On Golden Pond.died

The NY Times obituary is here. A complete filmography is here.

A Biography.com profile, with extensive links, is here.

There's also a rather nice, but short, profile at the BBC.

[Free reg. req'd for NY Times.]

| | Posted by Magpie at 5:51 PM | Get permalink

Spectre of gay marriage is haunting the US Senate's Republican leader.

The homophobic backlash to the US Supreme Court's rejection of a Texas law against homosexual sodomy continues.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist says he will support a constitutional amendment banning gay and lesbian marriages. Such an amendment was introduced in the House of Representative in May. That amendment must be supported by a two-thirds vote of each house of Congress, and then ratified by thirty-seven states before it can become part of the constitution.

"I very much feel that marriage is a sacrament, and that sacrament should extend and can extend to that legal entity of a union between, what is traditionally in our Western values has been defined, as between a man and a woman," said Frist, of Tennessee. "So I would support the amendment." [...]

Frist said he feared that the ruling on the Texas sodomy law could lead to a situation "where criminal activity within the home would in some way be condoned."

"And I'm thinking of, whether it's prostitution or illegal commercial drug activity in the home, and to have the courts come in, in this zone of privacy, and begin to define it gives me some concern," Frist said.

Frist said the questions of whether to criminalize sodomy should be made by state legislatures.

"That's where those decisions, with the local norms, the local mores, are being able to have their input in reflected," Frist said.

This crowgirl has read about similar things being said by supporters of racial segregation laws in the 1950s and 1960s.

Update: TalkLeft's post on Frist's statements contains a list of the House co-sponsors of the 'defense of marriage' amendment. Magpie suggests getting hold of as many as you can and giving them hell.

| | Posted by Magpie at 1:48 PM | Get permalink

Ooooooh, shiny!

The National Library of Canada has a wonderful site about Canadian superheroes. With lots of illustrations!

In his second adventure, Captain Canada is redesigned, becoming a right-wing Neanderthal. Cap's associates are also transformed: Beav becomes a long-haired subversive and Pam, a flower child. The story, which focusses on the 1972 election campaign, sees Cap storm through the Ottawa counterculture.

Duped by a group of anarchists, Cap almost blows up the House of Commons, and then goes on a hippie-bashing rampage which begins with his immortal battle cry (printed in John Robert Colombo's first book of Canadian quotations) – "Beavers Up!" The story ends with Prime Minister Trudeau rescuing Cap from arrest.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:15 AM | Get permalink

These.

Magpie wants one.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:03 AM | Get permalink

Tokyo crow update.

Okay, it's not really an update, since this story from the Japan Times is older than this one Magpie cited in a post yesterday.

But the picture of the crow's nest made out of coat hangers has to be seen to be believed.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:01 AM | Get permalink