Magpie

Saturday, September 27

Trouble ahead for someone in the White House, it appears.

The story about how a CIA agent's identity was leaked in order to retaliate against her husband is starting to get legs. After more than 24 hours of NBC/MSNBC hanging with the story alone, one of the country's 'newspapers of record' has picked the story and moved it along some. And from content of the article in the Sunday edition of the Washington Post, it looks like the White House is going to have its work cut out for it in terms of damage control.

A quick update for those of you who are wondering what Magpie is talking about: On Friday, NBC/MSNBC reported that the CIA asked the Justice Department to investigate claims that a leak that exposed the identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame came from the White House. Plame, an expert on WMDs, is the wife of former ambassador Joseph Wilson. Wilson is the man who, in July, kicked the supports out from under Dubya's claim that Saddam Hussein had tried to buy uranium from the African nation of Niger. (Dubya cited that 'fact' in his State of the Union address, as one of the reasons why a war with Iraq was necessary.) Shortly after Wilson went public, syndicated columnist Robert Novak published an article revealing that Plame worked for the CIA. Novak denies the White House was the source of the leak, but other reporters have told Wilson differently.

Now that we're up to date, here's the interesting tidbit from the new Post story:

A senior administration official said two top White House officials called at least six Washington journalists and revealed the identity and occupation of Wilson's wife. That was shortly after Wilson revealed in July that the CIA had sent him to Niger last year to look into the uranium claim and that he had found no evidence to back up the charge. Wilson's account eventually touched off a controversy over Bush's use of intelligence as he made the case for attacking Iraq.

"Clearly, it was meant purely and simply for revenge," the senior official said of the alleged leak.

So who is a 'top White House official'?

Based on Magpie's experience from her reporting days, we're talking top members of Dubya's staff, cabinet members, or some similar post. Or maybe someone in the vice-president's office. Whoever it was, we're almost certainly talking about someone who has regular, direct contact with Dubya. This isn't to say that Dubya knew what was going on — only to show how high up the two unnamed officials are.

(In our poking around the web about this story, we see that Atrios reached much the same conclusion about the officials' postions. Scroll down the post to 'Update II.')

The article also includes some of a recent interview with Wilson about the leak:

Wilson said he believes an inquiry from Cheney's office launched his eight-day mission to Niger in February 2002 to check the uranium claim, which turned out to be based at least partly on forged documents. "The way it was briefed to me was that the office of the vice president had expressed an interest in a report covering uranium purchases by Iraq from Niger," Wilson said in a telephone interview yesterday.

He said that if Novak's account [of the leak] is accurate, the leak was part of "a deliberate attempt on the part of the White House to intimidate others and make them think twice about coming forward."

"There is a whole group of intelligence analysts who have spoken anonymously to the press about such things as pressure they felt when Cheney and others may have come out there," Wilson said. "They have not attached their names to their stories, and this is clearly designed to let them know that if they were to come out publicly or if they were to respond to the various congressional statements that they wanted to hear from these people in hearings, that they can expect the same thing from the White House."

| | Posted by Magpie at 10:46 PM | Get permalink

Connecting the 'anti-terror' dots.

Back on Sept. 15, Magpie noted that prosecutors in the US are using the provisions of the Patriot Act and similar state-level laws to go after crimes that have nothing to do with terrorism. Now TalkLeft is connecting a NY Times story about similar uses of the Patriot Act with another story in the same issue about how terrorists are supposedly giving up money-laundering in favor of generating untraceable cash. When the two stories are put together, you can see what Dubya, Ashcroft, and cronies are really up to.

Go read the post.

| | Posted by Magpie at 10:25 PM | Get permalink

Mirror, mirror, on the wall.

Who's the most dangerous of them all?

Well, according to this new deck of cards from France ...

Via Follow Me Here.

| | Posted by Magpie at 2:25 PM | Get permalink

A few words about Iraq, Dubya, and $87 billion.

The Peking Duck has some choice ones.

More: Over at Pacific Views, Mary offers her thoughts on pretty much the same subject.

| | Posted by Magpie at 2:14 PM | Get permalink

True, even considering the source.

This post at Suburban Guerrilla totally cracked Magpie up. Follow Susan's link and see why.

Note: The link seems to be bloggered. You want the post about the stopped clock.

| | Posted by Magpie at 2:01 PM | Get permalink

New to the blogroll.

But definitely not to the blogosphere.

Atrios is indispensible. Magpie should have put his blog (Escahton) on the blogroll long ago.

Go read him. Now.

| | Posted by Magpie at 1:30 PM | Get permalink

When the going gets tough, Colin Powell offers you a hearty handshake.

Excerpt from an editorial in Friday's NY Times:

Americans and others in the world are glad that Mr. Hussein has been removed from power. If Iraq can be turned into a freer and happier country in coming years, it could become a focal point for the evolution of a more peaceful and democratic Middle East. But it was the fear of weapons of mass destruction placed in the hands of enemy terrorists that made doing something about Iraq seem urgent. If it had seemed unlikely that Mr. Hussein had them, we doubt that Congress or the American people would have endorsed the war.

This is clearly an uncomfortable question for the Bush administration. Yesterday, Secretary of State Colin Powell met with Times editors. Asked whether Americans would have supported this war if weapons of mass destruction had not been at issue, Mr. Powell said the question was too hypothetical to answer. Asked if he, personally, would have supported it, he smiled, thrust his hand out and said, "It was good to meet you."

You can draw you own conclusions.

[Free reg. req'd.]

| | Posted by Magpie at 1:25 PM | Get permalink

CIA asks for probe of White House leak.

MSNBC reports that the CIA has asked the Justice Department to investigate claims that the White House leaked the identity of a CIA agent. The agent in question is Valerie Plame, an expert on WMDs. Plame is the wife of former ambassador Joseph Wilson, who in July torpedoed the White House's story that Saddam Hussein had tried to buy uranium from the African nation of Niger. (Dubya cited that 'fact' in his State of the Union address, as one of the reasons why a war with Iraq was necessary.)

Wilson has charged that the White House leaked his wife's identity in retaliation for his revealing what he knew about the supposed Iraq-Niger connection.

[C]olumnist Robert Novak published an article in which he revealed that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, was a covert CIA operative specializing in weapons of mass destruction. "Two senior administration officials told me Wilson's wife suggested sending him to Niger to investigate," Novak wrote.

The White House has denied being Novak's source, whom he has refused to identify. But Wilson has said other reporters have told him White House officials leaked Plame's identity.

NBC News' Andrea Mitchell reported Friday night that the CIA has asked the Justice Department to investigate whether White House officials blew Plame's cover in retaliation against Wilson. Revealing the identities of covert officials is a violation of two laws, the National Agents' Identity Act and the Unauthorized Release of Classified Information Act.

So who was responsible for the leak? At a forum sponsored by US Representative Jay Inslee of Washington last month, Wilson made it clear who he believes was responsible for the White House leak:

At the end of the day, it's of keen interest to me to see whether or not we can get Karl Rove frog-marched out of the White House in handcuffs. And trust me, when I use that name, I measure my words.

To the best of Magpie's knowledge, Rove has not responded to Wilson's charge.

| | Posted by Magpie at 11:40 AM | Get permalink

Is another innocent man being ruined?

That's the question being asked by many Chinese Americans after the arrest of Capt. James Yee, a US Army chaplain. Yee ministered to 600 Muslim prisoners at Guantanamo, and was arrested by the FBI after his most recent trip to the Guantanamo Naval Station. He was allegedly in possession of classified documents, and has been charged with sedition, aiding the enemy, spying, espionage and failure to obey a general order. Yee may also be charged with treason.

All of this reminds Chinese Americans of another espionage case involving one of their own, says Daniel Lam in a report for Pacific News Service. Wen Ho Lee was a physicist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. In 1999, he was arrested by the FBI for allegedly downloading information about nuclear weapons and passing that information on to China. After holding Lee in solitary confinement for nine months, the government was forced to release him. Eventually, the 59 counts of espionage against Lee were reduced on to a single count of improperly downloading a document, to which Lee pled guilty. Most observers believe that Lee accepted the guilty plea to get out of jail, and that the US government pressed that final count as an attempt to rescue a failed prosecution. Many Chinese Americans believe that Lee was arrested and charged largely because of his race.

Helen Zia, who co-wrote with Dr. Wen Ho Lee, "My Country Versus Me: The First-Hand Account by the Los Alamos Scientist Who Was Falsely Accused," sees similarities with the Lee case. "Both are Chinese Americans who worked for the government in classified, highly sensitive settings, and they were both accused and arrested for possession or mishandling of classified information -- which immediately turned to accusations of espionage and even treason." But the army chaplain is more vulnerable, she says. "Yee is also Muslim, with a Syrian-born wife, at a time when the U.S. is at war in the Middle East." [...]

In the meantime, many Chinese familiar with the Wen Ho Lee case fear a trial by media. "The New York Times and TV news found Dr. Lee guilty before he was even indicted," says Cecilia Chan, head of Justice for New Americans, an immigrant-rights groups in San Francisco. "He lost his job even before he went to trial. I don't want the media making the same mistake by waging a witchhunt against Captain Yee."

The effect of the arrests of Dr. Lee and other Chinese scientists due to racial profiling, Chan adds, "is that now, few Asians want to join government institutions. How many Chinese will want to go to West Point if they see what's happening to Capt. Yee?"

Phil Ting, director of Asian Law Caucus, is also watching the case with concern. "The New York Times article about Yee insinuates certain amount of guilt already," he says. Ting adds that in some ways, Captain Yee's situation is worse than Dr. Lee's because after 9/11, government power over civilian and military personnel increased. "If it's a closed military tribunal, I wonder if Yee will be getting due process."

| | Posted by Magpie at 10:41 AM | Get permalink

US begging and arm-twisting hasn't drummed up any 'allied' troops for Iraq.

So 15,000 National Guard troops have been told to get ready for duty in Iraq. 10,000 of these troops will be in the country by October 12. The remainder will be sent if the ephemeral third multinational division doesn't materialize by November.

We're not holding our breath waiting for that multinational division to show up. And we wonder if the tab for these 15,000 troops is on top of the US $87 billion that Dubya has asked Congress to ante up.

Via Reuters.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:09 AM | Get permalink

Friday, September 26

More on Black Box Voting's problems with Diebold.

As we've mentioned over the last few days, election equipment and security company Diebold has been making life difficult for the folks at Black Box Voting because of their posting of an internal memo that, at the least, would seem to call the 2000 presidential result in Volusia County, Florida into question. Not only was the site off the web for a day, but it turns out that a huge amount of files have been confiscated at Diebold's behest.

Siva Vaidhyanathan's blog has more. Given that Diebold is the company that's providing election technology all over the US (and in some other countries, too), you might want to read the post to find out what sort of company may be helping count your next vote.

Via NathanNewman.org.

Update: Also check out the post called 'DMCA Used to Shut Down Blackboxvoting.org' at Black Box Voting. (Sorry, we can't sort out a direct link to the post.)

Even more updated: Good news. They've gotten access to their files and expect to have them posted at their dot-org site soon.

| | Posted by Magpie at 6:41 PM | Get permalink

Over at Wampum ...

It's the Stalled Recovery edition of Flashback Friday. The more things change (since 1991, at least), the more they stay the same.

U.S. POVERTY RATE UP
MEDIAN INCOME FALLS
CENSUS FINDS FIRST INCREASE IN POOR SINCE '83
Spencer Rich, Washington Post
September 27, 1991

Poverty in the United States rose sharply last year for the first time since 1983 and median household income dropped, the Census Bureau reported yesterday in a comprehensive statistical confirmation of the effects of the recession.

The figures represent increased unemployment, lower wages and more households with only one income and represented unwelcome -- although not unexpected -- news for the White House.

"You can interpret data in many different ways depending on your political...

And in case you weren't sure why that 1991 news item got Magpie's attention, check this out this Reuters story.

| | Posted by Magpie at 6:31 PM | Get permalink

Uh-oh.

One of our visitors today googled in on the search terms 'shooting + magpie.'

[Magpie pulls shades down, crawls under desk]

| | Posted by Magpie at 5:08 PM | Get permalink

Missing the point.

Sappho's Breathing has the scoop.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:45 AM | Get permalink

Making sense of the California recall.

Magpie's copy of the current New Yorker hasn't arrived in the mail yet, so we thank Suburban Guerrilla for pointing us to this excellent piece about Ahhh-nold and the California recall, in which Hendrik Hertzberg makes us much sense out of the matter as anyone we've read.

If Arnold Schwarzenegger ends up becoming Governor anytime soon (the power passes, if it does, as soon as the election results are certified), it won’t be because of the brilliance of his campaign, which, in contrast to his long march through show business, has been cautious and conventional. Like Davis a year ago, he is banking on the haplessness of his opponents. He could have taken advantage of the fact that the recall spared him a Republican primary to make a kind of political Inchon landing, going straight for California’s atomized masses of alienated independents and disaffected Democrats; instead, he has chosen to run as a party man, an off-the-shelf moderate-to-conservative Republican. The Progressives who invented the recall were profoundly hostile to the whole idea of political parties. It was part of the Progressive creed that party machines were evil and elections should be nonpartisan. The irony is that, a century later, the result may depend on which of the two traditional parties can enforce more discipline. If the Republicans stay split, Schwarzenegger probably loses. If they don’t, he probably wins. Another possibility is that Davis beats the recall but Schwarzenegger comes in first on the replacement side of the ballot. If that happens, Arnold won’t get to be Governor this time. But he’ll be back.

More: At Pacific Views, Mary has some comments about Schwarzenegger's attitude toward women.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:38 AM | Get permalink

Thursday, September 25

The increasing US income gap.

Magpie was going to write a post about the report on income and tax trends in the US put out by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and how it shows the biggest income gap between top and bottom income levels since 1929. But blogging around, we see that Nathan Newman has already done a better job than we would have. With a graph, no less.

His post is here.

| | Posted by Magpie at 11:37 PM | Get permalink

Sound bites.

Kicking Ass has a fast-and-dirty selection of quotes from Democratic presidential candidates made during the debate earlier tonight.

Magpie liked Al Sharpton's:

We've read Bush's lips. They lied.

| | Posted by Magpie at 11:28 PM | Get permalink

Edward Said dies.

Scholar and Palestinian spokesperson Edward Said has died from leukemia. He was 67.

Obituaries in the Arab press are here, here, and here.

Others taking note of Said's passing include the UK Guardian, NY Times, and the BBC.

More: The Electronic Intifada's obit for Said is well worth reading, too.

| | Posted by Magpie at 11:14 PM | Get permalink

Aussie PM backtracks on Iraq WMDs.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Prime Minister John Howard is backing off from his pre-war assertion that Iraq was producing WMDs. Howard's change is ahead of the official release of an interim report the Iraq Survey Group. That report is expected to say that there is no evidence that the Saddam Hussein government possessed or was producting WMDs.

Howard's new line echoes that coming from Washington and London, where governments are also under attack by critics for having exaggerated Iraq's weapons capabilities in order to make the case for war.

Mr Howard told Melbourne radio he had yet to see the report of the Iraq Survey Group, although it will be passed on to Australia. "But I certainly believe that there will be evidence found that they had programs."

But finding documentation that Iraq did at some stage have a weapons program differs from pre-war assertions by the Howard Government that the weapons existed and continued to be produced.

When Mr Howard committed troops to war in March he said Iraq had "begun renewed production of chemical warfare agents, probably including mustard, sarin, cyclosarin and VX".

Five months before the war, when Australia was already helping the US plan an invasion, he said: "There is no doubt on the evidence, on the intelligence material available to us, that not only does Iraq possess chemical and biological weapons, but Iraq also has not abandoned her nuclear aspirations."

During the war, the Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, said: "I certainly think the chemical, and probably biological, weapons exist. I don't think there's any doubt about that."

| | Posted by Magpie at 11:15 AM | Get permalink

UN cutting back operations in Iraq.

The UN is pulling many of its international workers out of Iraq because of worries about their safety. Its remaining work in the country — mainly humanitarian aid — will be carried out by Iraqi nationals. According to the BBC, UN officials are expecting there to be 'a heavy political impact' from the decision.

Correspondents say the decision is a blow to United States' claims that the security situation in Iraq is under control, and is likely to undermine efforts by US President George W Bush to increase the UN role in Iraqi reconstruction

It comes at a time when many world leaders are at UN headquarters in New York voicing concerns about the way the US-led coalition is running the country.

| | Posted by Magpie at 11:02 AM | Get permalink

Can you explain again why we should hand you that $87 billion?

The following is an excerpt from US Sen. Robert Byrd's opening remarks at the Senate Appropriations Committee's hearing on Dubya's request for an additional US $87 billion for the 'war on terror.' Byrd is the senior Democrat on the committee; he made his remarks on Monday.

(You can find the full text here.)

If the President's $87 billion request is approved, the deficit for Fiscal Year 2004 could reach $535 billion. That assumes spending the $164 billion Social Security surplus in the streets of Baghdad. Such a deficit totals nearly $2,400 for every person in this country, almost $10,000 for every family of four. Just a few short years ago, we had eliminated annual deficits and were on a glide path to wiping out the debt by 2008. But that financial security has been destroyed in this Administration's fiscal "shock and awe" campaign.

The President's unsubstantiated justification for his war in Iraq has left the nation questioning the White House's current efforts. The Administration was wrong, it seems, on its claims of an Iraqi broad-scale, advanced weapons of mass destruction capability; the Administration was wrong on its claims that American soldiers would be welcomed with open arms as liberators; and the Administration remains wrong in its refusal to share authority and responsibility for the restoration of Iraq with the rest of the world. We obviously cannot accomplish this task alone; yet, that is exactly what we continue to attempt. It is no wonder that the country is losing confidence and patience in the President's Iraqi program. Many of us on this panel have seen what a loss of public confidence and trust can do to a war effort, to a government, and, indeed, to the fabric of a nation. I saw it in Vietnam. Have we not learned the lessons of our own past?

Despite the best hopes for an Iraqi democracy, we have begun to realize the worst fears of occupation. Hit-and-run murders of American soldiers. Guerilla tactics. Sabotage. We have forged a cauldron of contempt for America that may poison the efforts of peace throughout the Middle East and, indeed, the world. Winning the war has proved, by comparison, a far easier task than winning the peace. We had the weapons to win the war, but we have not shown the wisdom to win the peace.

What has become tragically clear is that the United States has no strong plan for reconstruction and no clear concept for maintaining order. America is stumbling through the dark, hoping by luck to find the lighted path to peace and stability in Iraq.

Via Working for Change.

| | Posted by Magpie at 9:13 AM | Get permalink

Thick skin & Irish music.

Over at The Session, there's a very interesting discussion thread on how to deal with the slagging that can go on at Irish music sessions. People are mostly talking about ways to cope when that inevitable slur against one's playing gets delivered, but along the way they're dropping in some stories about great slagging.

A couple of examples are in order, we think. First, stories:

The neatest slag I ever came across was when oul Pakie Deignan [Packie Duignan] was asked if he could play Annie's Song by a crowd of Germans in a pub in Drumshanbo. He said he might remember it after a bottle of Guinness and a wee Powers. The eejit German got the drinks in for Pakie who then gave a wonderful rendering of the aforementioned tune, his flute waving majestically to the rhythm.

Nearly everyone in the bar was in stitches except the poor Germans who thought it was great!!

Then there's the one about the argument settled by Peter Horan. He was asked what he thought of Matt Molloy; to which he replied 'Ach sure poor oul Mattie, he could have been a flute player'.

Then some good advice:

4) This music is a meritocracy, not a democracy. In other words, it's *not* primarily concerned with making sure that everyone gets "their fair share." It is rather concerned with making the best music possible, and if that means that some folks play a lot and some folks play little, that's the way it goes.

If you want to play more, learn more tunes.

If you want to feel confident that you can withstand what other d*ckheads might be saying about you, learn more tunes.

If you think that someone's being a jerk to you, ask yourself "does s/he have tunes I need to learn", and if the answer is yes, put up with the crap and learn more tunes.

In trying to find a link for Packie Duignan, Magpie ran into a fine website we'd never seen before: A Guide to the Irish Flute. Check out the many interviews with flute players and flute makers.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:34 AM | Get permalink

Looking at Dubya's books.

At Talking Points Memo, Josh Marshall muses on the upshot of Dubya's precipitous fall in the polls over the last couple of months.

I'm hearing many conservatives say now that the White House political office is off their game. But I see no real evidence of this. The problem is more fundamental. For quite some time this White House has functioned like a heavily leveraged business, an overextended investor that suddenly gets a margin call. To extend the business metaphor, the White House has been surviving not on profits but expectations of future profits or, in other words, credibility. The White House has been able to get the public to sit tight with a lot of objectively poor news (a poor economy, big deficits, bad news from abroad) on the basis of trust.

But a combination of the manifest incompetence of the planning for post-war Iraq and the dishonesty of the build-up for the war have become increasingly difficult to defend or deny. And that's struck a grave blow against the president's credibility.

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

We love it when Dubya gets bad news.

A new poll has his approval rating down to 49 percent.

Magpie wonders just how far down the Prez will go before hitting bottom. Zero would be nice, but we don't really expect it and certainly won't hold our breath waiting.

More: At Wampum, MB takes a look at how Dubya's numbers stack up against those of his recent predecessors in office.

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

Wednesday, September 24

The California recall just gets stranger all the time.

Darrell Issa, the Republican member of Congress who bankrolled the recall signature campaign, is urging Republicans to vote No if both Arnold Schwarzenegger and Tom McClintock stay in the race.

"If there are two Republicans in this race when people cast their votes, there is an absolute guarantee that Cruz Bustamante will be the governor,'' Issa said to the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco Monday night.

Via little red cookbook.

| | Posted by Magpie at 11:32 PM | Get permalink

The US made us do it.

Amnesty International has issued a new report on the human rights situation in Yemen. While the organization doesn't let the country's government off the hook for mass arrests, illegal detentions, and other violations of human rights since the 9/11 attacks, it does give some credence to Yemen's claims that these violations are largely due to US pressure.

From Amnesty's press release on the report:

Security forces in Yemen embarked on mass arbitrary arrests, detentions and deportations of foreign nationals in the immediate aftermath of the 11 September 2001 attacks. Those arrested included women and children as young as 12. The arrests were carried out without the judicial supervision required by law and those detained were invariably subjected to lengthy incommunicado detention and interrogation, during which some claimed that they were tortured or ill-treated.

Meanwhile, the US government continues to hold scores of Yemeni nationals in Guantánamo Bay with total disregard of their fundamental human rights, and has turned a blind eye to the similar practices carried out by the Yemeni authorities in their own country, as elsewhere.

"The US must take immediate steps to restore the rights of Yemeni and other nationals held in Guantánamo Bay and urge the Yemeni Government to do likewise for those held under similar circumstances in Yemen," Amnesty International stressed.

And from the report itself:

Amnesty international is concerned that the Yemeni Government has sidelined the rule of law and its human rights obligations in the name of "fighting terrorism" and "national security". It has given the green light to the security forces, particularly the Political Security, to act with impunity in total disregard for the law and the role of the judiciary. Mass arbitrary arrest, detention, and deportations have taken place and continue to take place. More than 200 people, many of them arrested nearly two years ago, continue to be detained without charge or trial and denied access to lawyers or the courts to seek justice.

What is more disturbing about these human rights violations is that they are being carried out as a deliberate policy by the government. The rationale for this situation presented to Amnesty International by the authorities in Yemen was that the government had no option but to break its own laws and its international human rights obligations in order to "fight terrorism" and contain the risks of a US military attack against Yemen. Amnesty International believes that sacrificing human rights can never be the solution.

The government of Yemen cannot be exonerated for the human rights violations which have occurred and continue to occur in the country since 11 September 2001. However, Amnesty International believes that the US Government's security policy towards Yemen has also played a significant role in the deterioration of the human rights situation in the country. It has carried out apparent extrajudicial killings in Yemen. It has close security cooperation with Yemen security forces with no apparent consideration for the upholding of universal human rights. It is detaining scores of Yemeni nationals in Guantánamo Bay with total disregard of their fundamental human rights, and has turned a blind eye to the similar practices carried out by the Yemeni authorities in their own country, as elsewhere.

You can find more information about Yemen here, here, and here.

Via also not found in nature.

| | Posted by Magpie at 11:04 PM | Get permalink

Black Box Voting.

It's back, after disappearing yesterday because of an attempt by election equipment manufacturer Diebold to keep material critical of the company offline.

Black Box Voting has criticized the security of Diebold's computerized balloting systems, especially the lack of a paper trail and apparent susceptibility of the software to tampering. Diebold apparently doesn't think people should be free to criticize their company, despite the stuff about the Bill of Rights plastered all over their corporate website.

| | Posted by Magpie at 10:43 PM | Get permalink

The occupation of Iraq takes a toll on the occupiers, too.

In Asia Times, Jim Lobe reports on the growing anger against the US occupation that is feeding the Iraqi resistance, and on how dealing with that resistance is affecting US troops.

Pro-US Iraqis (including members the US-appointed Governing Council) increasingly see a long occupation of their country — and the resulting increase in anti-US feelings among everyday Iraqis — as dangerous to their political futures. Many US field commanders are also worried about the long-term effects of occupation, says Lobe, especially in terms of how Iraqi resistance and the stress of occupation duty is affecting the morale and discipline of their troops.

[L]ast week, US army troops opened fire without warning on an Associated Press reporter and photographer riding in two separate cars marked "press" in Khaldiya, where the police chief had been assassinated a few days earlier.

"As attacks against them continue, US soldiers are sometimes resorting to deadly force in a reckless and indiscriminate way," said Joe Stork, acting director of the Middle East division of Human Rights Watch (HRW), which investigated the incident.

In a separate incident investigated by HRW, an Iraqi national who works for the New York Times was physically assaulted and thrown to the ground twice by US troops at a military checkpoint set up shortly after an explosion had killed a US soldier and wounded another.

While no one was killed in the two last incidents, they tend to confirm reports that US troops in key parts of the country are increasingly jumpy, or as described by the driver of one of the AP cars. "The Americans were very nervous and frightened. They are very confused and suspicious of everything."

Those feelings contribute to a dangerous dialectic of their own, according to counter-insurgency specialists, who warn that the more nervous troops become, the less able they are to establish confidence with the people whose trust and cooperation they need in order to carry out their mission.

As one unidentified officer told the Philadelphia Inquirer last week, "Soldiers who have just conducted combat against dark-skinned personnel wearing civilian clothes have difficulty trusting dark-skinned personnel wearing civilian clothes."

| | Posted by Magpie at 9:47 PM | Get permalink

No WMDs in Iraq.

The BBC is reporting that the unreleased interim report of the Iraq Survey Group has found no evidence of Iraqi WMDs.

Magpie is sure that Dubya and Blair will now increase their insistence that since Saddam Hussein was thinking about making WMDs, the war was still necessary. We bet the evidence has already been manufactured.

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

Sending poison across the border.

In 1900, it wouldn't have seemed likely that, by the end of the century, millions of people would live in huge cities in the US Southwest. And, except in the minds of optimistic boosters, the region's future as a major agricultural area would have seemed about as likely as a blizzard in July. Only the existence of the Colorado River made it possible to make such drastic changes in an inhospitable region.

Farms and cities in the Southwest have such an appetite for Colorado River water that, in some years, the river doesn't have the oomph to make it all the way to its delta at the Gulf of California. And even in good years, the Mexican portion of the river contains only a small fraction of its former flow. As a result, the once-rich riverine ecosystem in the delta is on its last legs, most of it having turrned into salt flats as the flow of the Colorado waned over the last 70 years. The last remnant of this old ecosystem is the Cienega de Santa Clara, a 12,000-acre wetland that hosts a diverse array of animals and birds. Mexico designated the Cienega as a biosphere reserve in 1993.

Now, reports High Country News, the US may be planning to restart a currently mothballed desalting plant near Yuma, Arizona, and send a flood of toxic brine down a canal into Mexico. Critics of the plan say that the brine will destroy the Cienega.

Under the terms of a treaty, 10 percent of the Colorado's average flow is reserved for Mexico. Much of that water has been used at least once on fields in the US before it arrives in Mexico. In southwest Arizona alone, agriculture uses enough water to produce 35 billion gallons a year of slightly salty runoff. Since the treaty would require the US to remove most of this salt before returning the water the Colorado, it's been easier to release 35 billion gallons of fresh water from Lake Mead to meet the treaty obligation with Mexico. Instead of going into the Colorado, that slightly salty water from fields in Arizona goes down a canal into Mexico and dumps into the Cienega de Santa Clara. That water is what has kept the Cienega alive while the rest of the Colorado delta ecosystem has literally turned to dust.

The problem now is that there is a drought in the Southwest, and there soon won't be enough Colorado River water available to meet the needs of the region's cities and farms, while still meeting the treaty obligation with Mexico. As a result, the US Interior Department is considering restarting the Yuma desalinization plant to treat the runoff from Arizona fields, sending the treated water to the Colorado and the salt down the canal to the Cienega, in the form of toxic brine.

If that [restarting the plant] happens, the cienega will get only a third as much water — and that water will be three times as salty, according to the Interior Department’s own proposal, which was approved by the House of Representatives in July. In a letter to Congress, Norton acknowledged that restarting the Yuma plant “would be met with substantial controversy” because it “may degrade” the cienega’s ecology.

That’s an understatement, according to Ed Glenn, a scientist with the University of Arizona’s Environmental Research Lab who has studied the area since 1991. He says he’s already worked on several federally sponsored studies that clearly show the cienega would be ravaged by the desalter. “That water would not meet any kind of standards for discharge in the U.S.,” Glenn says. The cienega’s vegetation would disappear: “It would become a repository for selenium-laden, poisonous water.”

You can find more information on the Colorado River delta and Cienega de Santa Clara here and here.

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

See no evil. Hear no evil.

Matthew Cheney at Occasional Subversion caught an appalling tidbit from the interview with Dubya that aired on Fox News on Monday night.

Bush said he insulates himself from the "opinions" that seep into news coverage by getting his news from his own aides. He said he scans headlines, but rarely reads news stories.

"I appreciate people's opinions, but I'm more interested in news," the president said. "And the best way to get the news is from objective sources, and the most objective sources I have are people on my staff who tell me what's happening in the world."

Kinda explains a lot of things, doesn't it?

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:16 AM | Get permalink

Tuesday, September 23

Very interesting ....

Yesterday, Magpie referred you to Black Box Voting to see their comments on a memo that apparently shows that election equipment manufacturer Diebold was aware of a massive miscount of Al Gore's votes in Florida in the 2000 election — a miscount substantial enough to change the results. (See this Magpie post for more.)

Well, we hope you looked yesterday, because today Black Box Voting is offline, due to a dispute with Diebold.

Funny thing, that.

| | Posted by Magpie at 10:56 PM | Get permalink

Press freedom in the 'new' Iraq.

The US-sponsored Governing Council is shutting down the Iraqi operations of Arab broadcasters Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya. The Council is accusing the two satellite news stations of promoting terrorism. A spokesperson says the Governing Council hopes that other news outlets 'will take a lesson' from this action.

"Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya have breached the guidelines by endangering stability and democracy and by encouraging terrorism," the Council said in a statement.

"The Governing Council has decided as a warning and a temporary measure to ban Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya from covering council activities and official press conferences, and to deny their correspondents access to ministries and council buildings for two weeks," the council said in a statement The council would closely monitor the channels' output, it added.

A spokesman for the council chairman earlier said the two stations' Iraqi operations would be closed down temporarily, for promoting political violence and putting "terrorists" on their screens.

The extent and length of the sanctions are unclear. Some news sources are reporting two weeks, some a month. Some are saying that the action bars the broadcasters only from reporting the activities of the Governing Council and its subordinate bodies; others report that the shutdown is total.

It's not clear whether the US has approved this action. US occupation honcho Paul Bremer can veto decisions of the Council, if he desires. Bremer has so far said only that he is 'not aware' of the decision.

Al-Jazeera has condemned the Council's move, calling it a violation of democratic rights and journalistic freedom.

Speaking to CNN, Aljazeera spokesperson Jihad Balout said, "my organisation is dismayed at this decision, and we certainly believe that there are several victims to the decision, firstly the truth, because it will be missing ... and the second one is the freedom of the press."

"Al-Jazeera has been under pressure ever since day one of its existence, although it really adopts and practices the same principles of freedom of the press, and democracy and multiplicity of views as always advocated and asked people to do."

US officials have been critical of the two satellite channels, saying they give too much prominence to anti-US attacks and provide a forum for members of the ousted government of Saddam Hussein.

"At the end of the day, we are not in the business of censoring news and information, especially from our viewers. I think it's incumbent on us to give our viewers out there as full a picture as possible, and as balanced [a] picture as possible and as comprehensive as possible," Balout added.

Journalists' groups are dismayed by the sanctions against the Arab broadcasters. The Committee to Protect Journalists calls the move 'troubling.'

''Penalizing news organizations sends the wrong message and raises serious questions about how Iraqi authorities will handle the broadcast of negative news,'' CPJ Mideast program coordinator Joel Campagna said Tuesday. ''The authorities should be encouraging open media.''

Paris-based media advocacy group Reporters without Borders condemned the decision as ''an attack on freedom of the press. Such measures augur badly for the Iraqi government council's intentions when it comes to rapidly setting up democracy in Iraq.''

Via Reuters, ABC (Australia), Al-Jazeera, AP.

| | Posted by Magpie at 10:25 PM | Get permalink

The recall in California.

It's back on.

| | Posted by Magpie at 7:33 PM | Get permalink

Keeping 'em behind the buses.

That's apparently the theory that the US Secret Service uses when dictating the location of so-called free speech zones to be used by people protesting at appearance by Dubya or Cheney. A lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of four activist groups charges that the Secret Service keeps protesters out in the boonies, while allowing administration supporters to get right up close. By doing so, says the ACLU, protesters are prevented from getting their message to Dubya or Cheney, or to the media that cover their visits.

"The pattern we found was at presidential and vice presidential appearances, protesters were restricted to areas where they were out of sight, out of earshot and often out of mind," said Witold J. Walczak, legal director for the ACLU's Greater Pittsburgh chapter.

"Protecting our nation's leaders from harm is important. Protecting our nation's leaders from dissent is unconstitutional."

Said Secret Service spokesman John Gill: "The Secret Service does not comment on pending litigation. However, we have a long-standing policy of recognizing the constitutionally-protected right of the public to demonstrate and voice their views to their elected officials."

Magpie wonders how the Secret Service reconciles its 'long-standing policy' with these examples from the ACLU's factsheet on the lawsuit. (The factsheet lists 11 other examples of the preferential treatment given to administration supporters, as well.)

Stockton, California: On August 23, 2002, at an appearance in a local park to support a Republican gubernatorial candidate, protesters were ordered behind a row of large, Greyhound-sized buses, which placed them out of sight and earshot of their intended audience. They were advised that if they went to the other side of the buses, a location visible to those attending the event, they would be arrested. People who carried signs supporting the President’s policies and spectators not visibly expressing any views were allowed to gather in front of the buses, where event attendees could see them. Local police told the protesters that the decision to force them behind the buses had been made by the Secret Service.

Neville Island, Pennsylvania: On September 2, 2002, protesters were sent to a “designated free speech zone” located on a large baseball field located one-third of a mile away from where President Bush was speaking. Only people carrying signs critical of the President were required to enter and remain. Many people carrying signs supporting the President and his policies were allowed to stand alongside the motorcade route right up to where the President was speaking. But when retired steelworker Bill Neel refused to enter the protest zone and insisted on being allowed to stand where the President’s supporters were standing, he was arrested for disorderly conduct and detained until the President had departed. The ACLU of Greater Pittsburgh represented Neel and had all charges against him dismissed. Local police testified at his trial that the security policies, including the protest zone location, were dictated by the Secret Service.

The ACLU's press release on the lawsuit is here.

| | Posted by Magpie at 7:06 PM | Get permalink

Sometimes you just have to wonder.

Magpie just got this in our email:

Important notice

We have just charged your credit card for money laundry service in amount of $234.65 (because you are either child pornography webmaster or deal with dirty money, which require us to layndry them and then send to your checking account).

If you feel this transaction was made by our mistake, please press "No".

If you confirm this transaction, please press "Yes" and fill in the form below.

Enter your credit card number here:

Enter your credit card expiration date:

It's so brazen and badly written that you almost have to admire it.

| | Posted by Magpie at 6:54 PM | Get permalink

More than you might want to know about Irish fiddling.

Magpie went off to a workshop with Irish fiddler Kevin Burke on Saturday and, prodded by a curious reader, we're going to give sort of a consumer review of the workshop. (As she pointed out, we do list 'Irish music' up in this blog's title.) Keep in mind that we've only been playing the fiddle for a couple of years, so your mileage might vary considerably.

For those of you not familiar with Kevin Burke, he's one of the best-known Irish fiddlers around. He's been prominent in Irish traditional music since the 1970s, with a career that includes stints with the Bothy Band, Open House, Patrick Street, and the Celtic Fiddle Festival. Kevin's solo recordings are highly regarded, especially 'If the Cap Fits' and 'Up Close.' While his fiddling incorporates a variety of elements, it largely falls into the Sligo style, which uses quite a bit of ornamentation, especially rolls. His intonation is the envy of many fiddlers.

(If you want to know more about Kevin Burke, check out his website. For more on Irish fiddle styles, you couldn't do much better than this wonderfully opinionated article by Caoimhín Mac Aoidh.)

From having met Kevin a few times before we took up music and having talked to friends who'd been to one of his workshops, we had some idea of what to expect: a lot of talking, and little or no hands-on learning. We decided to be optimistic and took our fiddle anyway, but it turned out that the grapevine was right. We didn't need it.

If you've never met Kevin, he's a droll character, and very unassuming about his talents as a fiddler. He has a matter-of-fact way of discussing technique which often belies the fact that he's thought about the subject at hand a lot. Saturday's workshop began with him walking into the room, sitting down in the chair in front of us, and asking: 'So what do you want to talk about?', like he hadn't thought about the workshop at all. (Of course, he later started referring to a set of notecards.) Rather than discuss everything he told us, we'll focus on just a few things that we found particularly useful. (Magpie takes full responsibility for any garbling or misunderstanding of what Kevin said.)

Tune rhythm: He made a point of demonstrating how bowing isn't the be-all and end-all of rhythm; that the rhythm is inherent in the tune itself. He took a couple of tunes and played them with really long bow strokes, catching an entire long phrase on each stroke, and slurring the notes into each other. Even without using the bow to emphasize particular notes or to put spaces between notes, each tune was easily discernable and most of the places where you'd want to change bowing directions or linger on a note were quite obvious.

Rolls: Kevin doesn't distinguish between long rolls, short rolls, etc. In terms of the tune they're in, they all take up the same amount of space. The big issue with rolls, he thinks, is relaxation. He finds that a lot of fiddlers who have trouble with their rolls try bearing down harder in order to get the fiddle to give them that damn roll, and this only makes the roll more difficult. What's needed instead is a very light touch, flicking the strings like you were getting a mote of flour off a dark garment.

He casually dropped in info about how to do an open-string roll, which we'd never figured out ourself and were quite pleased to learn. He also showed us a good exercise, going up and down a scale, rolling each note. (Magpie is suffering mightily with that one.)

Sliding from one note to another: A lot of the time, Kevin isn't sliding, even though it sounds that way. Instead, he has his finger poised about the next note, and very slowly (comparatively) puts pressure on the new note while he's taking his finger off the old note. It sounds about the same as a slide and, for this fiddler at least, is way more controllable.

While we didn't get to work on any tunes in the workshop, Kevin played pieces of at least a half-dozen familiar tunes in demonstrating stuff he was talking about. And at the end, he did break down 'Farewell to Ireland,' playing it slowly at first and then at speed. Given that our fiddle teacher has us working on that tune right now, this was particularly useful.

So would Magpie recommend going to one of Kevin Burke's workshops? We're going to be a weasel and say, It depends. If you are an advanced fiddler, you may not get much from a workshop. If you are just beginning, most of what he presents will likely be over your head, although if you tape the workshop, you'll undoubtedly find things useful as you get more experience playing. If you're somewhere between, you'll get a lot to think about and a few things to try out. (We apparently had a better workshop experience than one of Magpie's readers who, while admiring Burke's fiddling greatly, didn't care at all for him as a teacher.)

The main weakness of Saturday's workshop was that Kevin didn't spend any time ascertaining what level we were all at. Just asking how long each of us has been playing would have given him a better idea of what we needed. (We suspect that he could have dispensed with the discussion of tune types, for example.) On the other hand, he obviously cares a lot about the music, and about conveying what he knows to other fiddlers. And, unlike some other musicians we've had workshops from, Kevin cares whether people understand him, and works hard to make sure that everyone goes away with the stuff he thinks is important.

On top of that, he's really funny. His stories about his trials and tribulations tying to learn classical violin when he was young were almost worth the price of admission by themselves.

Note: If you are within driving distance of Portland, Oregon, Kevin Burke is giving lessons between now and February. You can find out more here, on the Artichoke Music website.

| | Posted by Magpie at 2:17 PM | Get permalink

Why count votes when you can just make the totals up?

Salon has an excellent interview with Bev Harris, who has been researching the election equipment industry. She's the person who first identified the problems with Diebold's electronic vote tabulation equipment.

[Salon:] So what was the flaw?

[Harris:] Specifically the flaw was that you can get at the central vote-counting database through Microsoft Access. They have the security disabled. And when you get in that way, you are able to overwrite the audit log, which is supposed to log the transactions, and this [audit log] is one of the key things they cite as a security measure when they sell the system.

[Salon:] So you can break in and then hide your tracks.

[Harris:] You don't even need to break in. It will open right up and in you go. You can change the votes and you can overwrite the audit trail. It doesn't keep any record of anything in the audit trail when you're in this back door, but let's say you went in the front door and you didn't want to have anything you did there appear anywhere -- you can then go in the backdoor and erase what you did.

[Salon:] Who would have access to this? Are we talking about elections officials?

[Harris:] A couple situations. Obviously anybody who has access to the computer, whether that's the election supervisor, their assistants, the IT people, the janitor -- anybody who has access to the computer can get into it.

A trip over to Body and Soul will get you comments and more links on this topic.

[Subscription or ad view req'd. for Salon].

| | Posted by Magpie at 8:19 AM | Get permalink

Banned Books Week, Sept 20 – 27.

These were the most challenged and banned books in the US during 2002, according to the American Library Association:

1. Harry Potter series, by J.K. Rowling, for its focus on wizardry and magic.
2. Alice series, by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, for being sexually explicit, using offensive language and being unsuited to age group.
3. "The Chocolate War" by Robert Cormier (the "Most Challenged" book of 1998), for using offensive language and being unsuited to age group.
4. "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou, for sexual content, racism, offensive language, violence and being unsuited to age group.
5. "Taming the Star Runner" by S.E. Hinton, for offensive language.
6. "Captain Underpants" by Dav Pilkey, for insensitivity and being unsuited to age group, as well as encouraging children to disobey authority.
7. "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain, for racism, insensitivity and offensive language.
8. "Bridge to Terabithia" by Katherine Paterson, for offensive language, sexual content and Occult/Satanism.
9. "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry" by Mildred D. Taylor, for insensitivity, racism and offensive language.
10. "Julie of the Wolves" by Jean Craighead George, for sexual content, offensive language, violence and being unsuited to age group.

The ALA reminds us that for each challenge reported there are as many as four or five that go unreported.

Magpie suggests these links to find out more about Banned Books Week:

The American Library Association explains why you should care if books are banned.

The New York Public Library suggests some banned books for you to read.

Amnesty International tells how you can help some writers who've suffered more than being banned.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:23 AM | Get permalink

Busy guy.

South Knox Bubba has so much going on that he had to make a generic post. It works for us.

A lot of stuff happened. Some of it was mentioned in the newspaper and on the TeeVee and Cable news. Some of it is good, but most of it pisses me off. The rest of it is just depressing.

Bush and his cabal are morons. The economy is looking better, no wait, it isn't, oh wait, it is. A lot of Democrats are running for President. Bill O'Reilly is a major tool. Christie Whitman is the Bruce Cutler of organized environmental crime. Terrorists are active all over the place. Some of them are getting caught. Some are talking.

Saddam engineered 9/11. No, wait, he didn't. Saddam and Osama are still at large. More American soldiers are killed in Iraq, but the rebuilding is going swell and is right on schedule. The ~~WMD~~, er, ~~evidence of WMD~~, er, ~~WMD programs~~, er, ~~evidence of WMD programs~~, er, memos suggesting evidence of the possibility of suspected WMD programs will be found any day now.

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

Monday, September 22

Life in Afghanistan just keeps getting better and better.

The UK Guardian's John Pilger has an update on how things are going in 'liberated' Afghanistan.

Marina is a leading member of Rawa, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, a heroic organisation that for years tried to alert the outside world to the suffering of the women of Afghanistan. Rawa women travelled secretly throughout the country, with cameras concealed beneath their burkas. They filmed a Taliban execution and other abuses, and smuggled their videotape to the west. "We took it to different media groups," said Marina. "Reuters, ABC Australia, for example, and they said, yes, it's very nice, but we can't show it because it's too shocking for people in the west." In fact, the execution was shown finally in a documentary broadcast by Channel 4.

That was before September 11 2001, when Bush and the US media discovered the issue of women in Afghanistan. She says that the current silence in the west over the atrocious nature of the western-backed warlord regime is no different. We met clandestinely and she wore a veil to disguise her identity. Marina is not her real name.

"Two girls who went to school without their burkas were killed and their dead bodies were put in front of their houses," she said. "Last month, 35 women jumped into a river along with their children and died, just to save themselves from commanders on a rampage of rape. That is Afghanistan today; the Taliban and the warlords of the Northern Alliance are two faces of the same coin. For America, it's a Frankenstein story - you make a monster and the monster goes against you. If America had not built up these warlords, Osama bin Laden and all the fundamentalist forces in Afghanistan during the Russian invasion, they would not have attacked the master on September 11 2001."

Via Occasional Subversion.

| | Posted by Magpie at 11:57 PM | Get permalink

New to the blogroll.

We've been keeping an eye on the US Democrats' Kicking Ass weblog, and have been pleasantly surprised to see that whoever's in charge is doing a good job.

We liked this post from earlier today:

Set your VCRs tonight to record what's sure to be a great episode of History's Greatest Hypocrites on the Fox News Channel. In a taped interview set to air this evening, President Bush accuses Senator Edward Kennedy of contributing to "uncivil" discourse after Kennedy dared to point out the obvious fact that Bush exaggerated the threat of terror to justify his war in Iraq. Bush slammed the respected senator in the latest episode of a coordinated, two-year campaign questioning the patriotism of those who criticize the administration.

Bush himself has said Democratic senators aren't interested in the security of the American people, Dick Cheney has called Democratic comments "incendiary" in a time of war, John Ashcroft has said his critics "aid terrorists," and the Republican party ran ads questioning the courage of Max Cleland — a senator who in Vietnam gave three limbs for his country.

Bush's hypocrisy was understandable, however, since it occurred in the comfort of a right-wing TV interview conducted by the Fox News anchor [Britt] Hume — a man who once downplayed the deaths of US soldiers in Iraq by stating falsely that our troops have less a chance of dying there than ordinary citizens have of being murdered in California.

| | Posted by Magpie at 11:46 PM | Get permalink

Watch those hands!

Over at Salon, cartoonist Carol Lay points out the importance of hand gestures in building Dubya's public image.

Magpie wondered when someone was going to use that last picture in a cartoon.

[Subscription or ad view req'd.]

| | Posted by Magpie at 11:30 PM | Get permalink

More bad poll news for Dubya.

According to a new USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll, Dubya is no longer the obvious favorite heading into the 2004 presidential election. According to the poll, Democrats Wesley Clark and John Kerry lead Dubya slightly, and Howard Dean, Richard Gephardt, and Joe Lieberman trail Dubya narrowly. In all five match-ups, however, the difference between Dubya and the Democratic challenger are within the poll's margin of error — in other words, Dubya and the Democratic candidates are in a statistical dead heat.

In more cheery news for Dubya's opponents, the president's overall approval rating is at the lowest point of his presidency, with 50 percent giving him a thumbs-up, and 47 percent disapproving. His approval rating has dropped 10 points since early August, which may not augur well for Dubya's re-election prospects.

| | Posted by Magpie at 11:19 PM | Get permalink

The real story about Iraq. So to speak.

Currently on the Harper's webite is Sam Smith's article, 'The Revision Thing', which is a history of the Iraq war told entirely using quotes from Dubya and officials in his administration. Every quote is a lie.

It was entirely possible that in Iraq you had the most pro-American population that could be found anywhere in the Arab world. If you were looking for a historical analogy, it was probably closer to post-liberation France. We had the overwhelming support of the Iraqi people. Once we won, we got great support from everywhere.

In the same print issue of Harper's (but not online, unfortunately) is an article by Kevin Baker called 'We're in the Army Now: The GOP's Plan to Militarize Our Culture.' The last sentence is: 'In the end, we'll beg for the coup. ' That's a military coup that Baker is referring to, and he makes a chillingly persuasive case that the decline in democratic values in the US, coupled with the militaristic leanings of the current administration, could be leading the country in that direction.

Magpie suggests picking up the October Harper's and reading the rest of Baker's article.

| | Posted by Magpie at 10:05 PM | Get permalink

16,000 negative votes for Gore in Volusia County, Florida?

Mark Crispin Miller excerpts an interesting email message, allegedly a response from Diebold vice president Talbot Iredale concerning irregularities in the presidential tally from Volusia County which used a Diebold system to count its election results. A Volusia County election official had asked Diebold how Al Gore's total wound up being -16,022 votes. That error would have been more than enough to change both Florida's election results and the national outcome of the 2000 presidential election.

If this message is authentic, the implications are huge.

Note: Crispin's permalinks seem to be bloggered, so scroll down to the post called 'ELECTION THEFT 2000! A NEW BOMBSHELL!'

Thanks to Body and Soul for the tip.

Update: Black Box Voting has some comments on the memo. Look for the post called ' Did Diebold's Buggy Software Cost Bush [sic] the Election?'

| | Posted by Magpie at 9:50 PM | Get permalink

A thought about 'homeland security.'

Magpie was prowling around on a public radio mailing list when she ran into this interesting question posed by a news person from the US Midwest. To paraphrase: Given all those times that the US terrorism warning level has been bumped up to orange (the second-highest rating) on the basis of vague rumors, how come the warning level stayed at yellow on the second anniversary of 9/11 — the day after a video of Osama bin Laden surfaced, in which he called for more attackes on the US?

Not that Magpie would ever insinuate that the administration manipulates the warning system to exploit the public's fear of terrorism for partisan political gain.

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

That Cajun spot on your radio dial.

In another life, Magpie spent almost 20 years working on-air in community radio. So when we listen to radio, we look hard for interesting things to listen to. With the corporatization of radio in North America (particularly in the US), it's been getting harder and harder to find anything worth our while.

Last fall, Magpie drove across Canada and then back across the US, and we were struck by how much things had changed with radio since our last long road trip, in 1996. Most of those distinctive (and often oddball) local radio stations we'd heard on the earlier trip were gone, replaced by satellite feeds from central studios in New York or California. It got to where, with some of the rock and country satellite feeds, we knew which song we would hear next, even though we'd never listened to a particular station before. The satellite feeds were just that pervasive and that boring.

While Canada had the CBC and, out west, one of the best community radio stations Magpie has ever heard (CKUA), there were only a few US stations that impressed us. In western Massachusetts, there was WRSI, an eclectic commerical station (Dar Williams wrote her song 'Are You Out There?' about a couple of their DJs). Driving through eastern New Mexico on I-40, we heard an oldies station whose call letters we don't remember, but which had the most fascinating combination of good music, live DJs, and listener phone calls we've ever heard. And coming into Memphis, Tennessee, we heard a smokin' blues show on WEVL. But mostly, we noticed the sameness and blandness of US radio — even the public stations.

In Sunday's Washington Post, there's an article that told us about a station we wished we'd been able to hear on that road trip. It's KBON in Eunice, Louisiana, which cranks out Cajun music and swamp rock 24 hours a day.

In the small broadcast booth, Paul Marx rattles away in English and Creole French. Marx, a veteran Louisiana DJ, opened this station in 1997 and invented its homegrown format against the advice of many a radio bean counter. Now he's hailed as a savior of the culture. He waves us in and, as he does with many out-of-towners, puts us immediately on the air.

"Bonjour! Have you had any crawfish yet?" We had, fortunately, the night before, and so we spent 10 minutes on the special joys of having crawfish essence dripping off your chin, your fingers, your elbows. "Did you suck the heads? You did?! Ohhhhhhhhh, cher!" he exults, and off he goes in French, leaning into the foam-covered mike. I pick up the words "Washington" and "petite filles" before he cuts to a commercial:

"Baby chicks! Baby chicks! Baby chicks! Ms. Emily at Fisette's Feed and Garden Center in Opelousas has just received a large shipment of baby chicks. Get your baby chicks now and by this winter they'll be just the right size for the gumbo pot."

The Post article about Eunice and KBON is here.

And KBON's website is here. Magpie strongly recommends clicking the 'Listen Live' link.

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

Sunday, September 21

Do you know where your civil liberties are?

Thanks to TalkLeft for calling our attention to the Sacramento Bee's series this week on the post-9/11 conflict between civil liberties in the US and the administration's 'war on terrorism.' Today's article (the first of four) is here.

The FBI is counting mosques, and law enforcement has asked hundreds of libraries about your reading habits.

There are secret lists governing whether you can get on an airplane, secret surveillance of e-mail and the Internet, and new warrants allowing the government to search your home, your bank records and your medical files without your knowing it.

When FBI agents were told last year that terrorist training included scuba diving techniques, the agency asked for -- and got -- the names and addresses of more than 10 million Americans certified as divers.

Immigrants nationwide have been jailed indefinitely over visa violations that in the past would have been ignored, and about 13,000 face deportation.

Others have languished in cells while officials lied to their families about where they were.

And thousands have fled the United States, seeking refuge in Canada.

For countless American citizens and immigrant residents, the echoes of Sept. 11, 2001, continue to resound in what a growing number of critics contend is a loss of basic civil liberties stemming from the federal government's anti-terrorism campaign.

"The government is treating us like we are all terrorists," said Kourosh Gholamshahi, a 36-year-old Sacramento resident and Iranian immigrant who spent nearly a year in jail over a deportation order he ignored. "We are not all the same ... What kind of Constitution is this? What kind of democracy is this?"

Critics, both liberal and conservative, say it's a democracy that has gone too far in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks by giving the federal government enormous new powers and scope in the areas of law enforcement and surveillance.

| | Posted by Magpie at 5:58 PM | Get permalink

Iraq for sale.

The US-backed Iraqi administration is going to allow foreigners to have 100% ownership of businesses and industries. This decision includes allowing the sale of Iraq's banks, but excludes the oil industry.

Given how wonderfully well privatization has worked in the US, Magpie doesn't see a particularly bright economic future for the average Iraqi.

Via BBC.

| | Posted by Magpie at 11:10 AM | Get permalink