Sunday August 29
A Vulnerable President
John F. Harris and Mike Allen of the Washington Post ask:
Series of Misjudgments Cost President His Lead. It's a good question. They say its because Bush is running on the War in Iraq and is perceived to be more partisan than presidential. I think it's because folks are figuring out he's as much an opportunist as any other politician -- for instance, resisting the 9/11 Commission and then refusing its recommendations until suddenly reversing himself.
But in this election, I still believe that in a choice between two flip-floppers, the electorate will "dance with the one that brung 'em." Kerry is much more of a chameleon than Bush, and despite anger at Bush he won't translate that into a winning margin unless he makes a stand on principle. Unlikely, but sadly not unexpected.
Posted by glenn at The Buck Stops At the Top
The Bush Administration has long claimed that the embarassing and internationally harmful abuse of detainees in Iraq by the U.S. Army resulted from a few low-level and over-enthusiastic enlisted personnel. But Long Island's Newsday, hardly a bastion of liberalism, editorialized today about the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal, laying out the case for why the Bushies are just plain wrong.
But responsibility goes farther up the line than that: All the way to President George W. Bush.
"The abuses were not just the failure of some individuals to follow known standards, and they are more than the failure of a few leaders to enforce proper discipline," the Schlesinger panel said. "There is both institutional and personal responsibility at higher levels." Actually, at the highest level
Bush set the stage for abuse in February 2002 when he declared that the Geneva Conventions did not apply to al Qaeda prisoners and the Taliban were unlawful combatants unqualified for prisoner of war status. "When the man at the top says the rules don't apply, abusive excesses are a predictable result," says Newsday. The conclusion is unremarkable. What is striking is that, once again, no one in the White House or the Pentagon will admit to mistakes or accept responsibility.
In other cultures, government officials would have resigned immediately, perhaps even comitted hari kari. But not in the Bush Administration. No nothing, hear nothing, see nothing for these leaders. Rumsfeld even denies that there were any abuses during interrogations. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution concludes that "Rumsfeld refuses to admit it, but the horrors of Abu Ghraib lead right back to his doorstep." The guy's funny, but he's got to go.
Nice Tits
This is hilarious. Check out www.nice-tits.org. Not at all what you (dirty minded reader) may expect!
Saturday August 28
No "I" in Team
Now that the U.S. men's Olympic basketball team has lost three games, poorly -- when America had won the gold medal in almost every Olympics and had not lost even a single game since NBA players first qualified in 1992 -- the dirty secret is out. They just can't play the game. Basically, It's Fundamentals [washingtonpost.com]. From basketball's inclusion in the Olympics in 1936 until this summer, the United States had won every gold medal save three -- in 1972, in a controversial loss to the Soviet Union, 1980, the year of the boycott, and 1988, in Seoul.
That's now well and truly over. As yesterday's Argentinian winner summarized:
That emphasis on individual talent and endorsement deals has turned NBA players into a morass of poor shooting and inept passing, punctuated by an occasional highlight-reel dunk. Even NBA commissioner David Stern agrees, saying "We have a great, great team here," but adding, "I shouldn't say that. We have 12 great basketball players."
And it's not a question of race. American's won't cheer for this team because it is not a team, rather a loose collection of overpaid, pampered one-on-one players. As Mike Wilbon cogently observes, Americans:
The NBA likes to ask if "you've got game." The real question is, does the team have skill. This sad assemblage of trash-talking U.S. basketball jammers is neither skilled nor a team.
Friday August 27
The Truth About Swift Boats
Earlier this week, outspoken Sen. John McCain, who lost the 2000 Republican presidential nomination to George W. Bush, blasted the ad campaign run by the self-named Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, saying he is "sick and tired of reopening the wounds of the Vietnam War." Then McCain called the ads "dishonest" and urged Bush to condemn them. And chief Bush campaign lawyer Ben Ginsburg was forced to resign after it became public that he advised the Swift Boat group about their ads, despite Bush's denials that there was any link between his campaign and the smear attacks.
But the Bush connection goes far deeper. Funding for the Swifties came primarily from a pair of Texans, Bob Perry, a Karl Rove intimate of long standing, and Harlan Crow, a trustee of Bush 41's presidential library. The group's principal public relations honcho, Merrie Spaeth, was the spokeswoman in 2000 for a group that spent some $2 million on ads attacking McCain. Indeed, the Vietnam controversy is just a replay of the same tactics Bush employed against McCain in South Carolina in 2000, when he used shadow-group ads suggesting that McCain -- imprisoned for five years in the "Hanoi Hilton" -- was not a true war hero and had fathered an illegitimate black child. (Not true for McCain, but now we know that the late Strom Thurmond, that architect of segregation, had an out-of-wedlock child with a black woman he kept hidden for decades.)
What is it about Vietnam veterans that brings out the worst in George W. Bush and his supporters? Bush Camp Steering Familiar Path [Star-Ledger]. Vietnam for them is "the war without end." It doesn't end because unscrupulous political hatchet-men keep drudging up old memories. We should focus on today's wars and today's problems. Bush doesn't want to, however, because that would expose the dark underbelly of his campaign -- that America is still in Iraq, with no clear plan, to do the very liberal "nation building" Dubya swore he would never engage in as president.
Realizing that the tide has turned against him, Bush is trying to backpedal and change the subject, proposing yesterday that both campaigns join in challenging the so-called 527 groups, like the veterans and some Democratic and Republican groups, that use unregulated "soft" political contributions from wealthy donors and special interests to influence campaigns. But that is not the issue with the anti-Kerry veterans. The issue is Bush himself -- his refusal to condemn a patently false attack, his willingness to try to reap political rewards on the cheap, his utter lack of leadership (or shame) in brushing off the role played by his close political aides. And his disingenuous reopening of old scars from a war a long time ago in a jungle far, far away, one he worked real hard to avoid fighting in.
Thursday August 26
Sportsmanship or Incompetence?
Once again, the Olympics have been tainted by a judging scandal. Paul Hamm, who won the gold medal in the men's all-around gymnastics competition with an inspiring comeback after falling during a vaulting routine, is now being pressured to give back the medal. Hamm Asked to Give Gold Medal to Korean Rival [Guardian Unlimited]. It is clear that the judges screwed up, incorrectly calculating the score of a Korean gymnast, giving him the bronze. But the Korean team waited 48 hours before protesting, and the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) refused to change the scoring, since their rules have no provisions to alter results once completed.
Case closed. Or one would think. Today, that same FIG body wrote to the US Olympic Committee, saying that returning the medal voluntarily "would be recognised as the ultimate demonstration of fair play by the whole world." Well, they make the rules, and everyone knows them. Do we change a SuperBowl result if the head coach doesn't ask for a replay? No. Do we change a World Series if the umpire blows a disputed third-strike call? No. I think the USOC response was perfectly appropriate, calling the request to give back Hamm's gold medal "improper, outrageous and so far beyond the bounds of what is acceptable that it refuses to transmit the letter to Mr Hamm." Peter Uberroth, USOC chairman, rightly said that the whole affair "reflects the International Federation's own incompetence." And then FIG president Bruno Grandi, who wrote the letter, was quoted as replying:
What a bunch of inconsistent boobs. Now, even worse is that during this mini-firestorm, no one seems to be focusing on the real tragedy in the gymnastics competition. Russian Alexsei Nemov, winner of 12 Olympic medals (4 gold, 2 silver and 6 bronze) over the years, had been shut out in Athens so far and steeled himself to perform perhaps the most spectacular high-bar routine in history -- what television commentators called "phenomenal," "unreal" and "a very special Olympics moment" -- that included a total of six release moves (more than any other competitor). But the judges gave him a mark of just 9.725, below all the other athletes, so obviously warped that the crowd loudly jeered for 10 minutes, forcing the IOC to intervene and orchestrate a correction. But even then, the score was adjusted so little (.037) that Nemov still finished out of the medals.
Nemov didn't protest, but instead rose to ask the crowd to quiet down, clasping his hands in tribute. A truly class act. That one finger to the lips by the Russian did more to illustrate the real meaning of sportsmanship than the transparently disingenuous morality of the FIG. Nemov was followed by Hamm, who amazingly performed extremely well with the crowd still jeering and whistling, and got a silver medal. He lost the gold under an arcane tie-breaker system after sharing the top score with an Italian gymnast. Hamm didn't protest. And the still-complaining Korean athlete? He folded under the pressure, botching his single release move, breaking the routine and stumbling badly on his dismount. This from someone who claims he should be considered the best all-around gymnast in the world! As the NBC color analysts observed, "Hamm has never messed up a high bar routine that badly in his life."
Champions and sportsmen don't complain. They perform in real-time and accept the results. Hamm and Nemov epitomize that ideal, which should be the Olympic ideal as well. It's the incomptent judges and the sporting bureaucrats who are diminishing sportsmanship here with their bumbling. And the Korean team wants to change the rules after the game has been played. Nemov and Hamm should be treasured, not criticized, and the Koreans can go fuck themselves.
Sunday August 22
Swift Boats and Political Principles
It took more than two weeks for John Kerry to respond to attacks from the the so-called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth charging that his Vietnam War medals were fraudulent. This is remarkably inept -- the opposite of the 1992 Clinton War Room strategy of James Carville and George Stephanopoulos. But more importantly, this whole affair illustrates the unseemly, superficial nature of politics today and this year's presidential race. No one can dispute that Kerry went to war while Bush, Cheney, Clinton and many others did all they could not to. That's really all that matters.
What is actually going on, I believe, is that conservatives still cannot get over the fact that the antiwar movement of the 1960s was successful and that American foreign policy -- which for decades propped up dictators with military forces -- was irrevocably changed. They're still fighting the Vietnam politcal war, still angry that the Pentagon was shown to be an embarassing bunch of boobs, and still can't understand why Americans do not like to fight wars thousands of miles away in third-world countries when there's no real, direct threat to American interests. Maybe that's because those same crticisms can legitimately be made against today's War in Iraq.
From my perspective, anyone who did not come back from Vietnam distressed at U.S. foreign policy and ready to get the troops home was delusional. So I think that Kerry's 1971 Senate testimony challenging the rationale for the Vietnam fiasco was heroic, whether or not he deserved three Purple Hearts. The sad irony is that he's such a chicken-shit that he won't say that and refuses to stand up now for what he so passionately believed then. Perhaps because, after decades in the Senate, he doesn't believe in anything passionately anymore. That may not make him unfit to be president, but it is a good explanation for the meandering, watered-down nature of his campaign.
People don't vote for candidates who don't stand for anything. If Kerry wants to win, he's got to do way more that just counter-attack; he's got to take a stand on something important.
Thursday August 19
Hyping Phelps
Swimmer Michael Phelps didn't hype himself -- the media did. Phelps never claimed he would break Spitz's record of seven gold medals, but he's got four already. The 19-year old has proven to be a tremendous athlete and, more importantly, a great sportsman.
As former IM olympian Tom Dolan writes in Sports Illustrated:
Phelps Has Far Exceeded Expectations [SI.com ]. Right on, Tom. The gracious, unassuming attitude of this athlete, coupled with his unfailing drive to win and non-ostentatious patriotism, is a fine antidote to the lazy professional dolts currently populating the US basketball team.
Wednesday August 18
24/7 Reality
David Meier writes in Fool.com about News Corp.'s announcement that it is launching a 24/7 all-reality televsion network, "I abhor the whole reality-TV concept." I just don't get it. TV is about entertainment, and reality television is about as entertaining as web-cams. Who gives a shit about a naked Richard and other losers getting "voted off the island"?
This is sick stuff. If reality TV is America, then we're all Neros watching Rome burn around us. It's a sure sign of a bankrupt society. Just that instead of barbarians at the gate, 1,600 years later we've got them on the tube.
Jacko and Probable Cause
Michael Jackson's lawyers lost their attempt to suppress evidence gathered in a search of his Neverland Ranch when the presiding judge ruled today -- based on the complaint filed by a 13-year old boy alleging sexual abuse -- that police had probable cause to believe a crime had been comitted. Judge Rules Police Had Probable Cause To Search Michael Jackson's Ranch [MTVcom].
This was a no-brainer. Yet another illustration of why some lawyers, who are content to make ridiculous arguments, give my profession such a bad public reputation. Oh, and the defense attorney was fined by the court for refusing to halt a line of cross-examination the judge ruled was irrelevant. That's both unprofessional and silly. Makes the lawyer, his client and the whole system of justice look bad. Maybe it is.
Mistakes Were Made
Yasser Arafat acknowledged Wednesday that the Palestinian Authority had made mistakes, but "the rare admission appeared to be aimed more at deflecting criticism about his corrupt government than making real changes." Arafat Admits Mistakes in Speech to Parliament [washingtonpost.com].
And there, I naively thought from reading the headline that something may have changed in the Middle East. Not. But at least now some Palestinians are as upset for Arafat's bureaucratic incompetence and intransigence as the Israelis have long been for his overt support of Hammas and other terrorist organizations.
Tuesday August 17
Old Wine in New Bottles
Today controversy erupted over the Homeland Security Department's new "virtual border" system that is supposed to use biometric technology to identify visitors to the United States and link disparate databases at INS and other agencies into a seamless whole. Calling the US-VISIT program "a striking failure," Rep. Jim Turner lambasted DHS for naming Accenture as the prime contractor for a project that could be worth as much as $10 billion in coming years. "It appears that in their rush to get something out there quickly, they've gone down a path that's basically a repeat of our old technology systems."
What this illustrates is a problem inherent in all technology-driven applications. If all that is done in re-architecting a system is to develop new interfaces for legacy databases, then the information-retreival problems of the old systems never go away. As Forrrester Research reports, "When discovered midproject, data defects and data structure anomalies in legacy databases lead to time and cost overruns." In technical terms, a "mismatch between instance information and schema information." Duh! It's not much unlike what happened to Microsoft when it tried to build Windows 95 on top of old DOS code. Not until Windows NT and later Windows XP, which started fresh, did things really get straightened out.
So the lesson for government, once again, is to learn from the private sector. Except this time, don't try to emulate them. Learn from their mistakes. Ten billion dollars is a lot to spend when you're just putting old wine into new bottles.
Monday August 16
Pampered, Gutless and Second-Rate
This is why I have stopped watching professional basketball in the U.S. With yesterday's trouncing of the American Olympic basketball team by Puerto Rico -- which led by as much as 21 points in the fourth quarther -- the inherent weakness of a game in which players try only for slam dunks and ESPN highlights was glaringly obvious for the world to see. Mike Wilbon calls it "the end of an era," saying that:
Well said, Mike. The latest incarnation of the so-called Dream Team (and actually, this one is neither) got just what it deserved. They can't even shoot a 12-foot pull-up jumper, and the best 3-point shooter on the team was 47th in the NBA. A simple zone defense did them in, easily, from the start. It was sad, but oddly gratifying to watch. Nothing is going to change today's sports culture that celebrates these pampered, overpaid athletes, but yesterday revealed the vacuousness of their limited skills in stark detail.
internet Goes Down
Starting today, Wired News will no longer capitalize the "I" in internet. At the same time, Web becomes web and Net becomes net. It's Just the 'internet' Now [Wired.com].
Wired explains that "in the case of internet, web and net, a change in our house style was necessary to put into perspective what the internet is: another medium for delivering and receiving information. That it transformed human communication is beyond dispute. But no more so than moveable type did in its day. Or the radio. Or television."
I don't disagree, but changing conventions here is far more revealing than Wired lets on. While the Internet (before) was revolutionary, the internet (now) is just part of everyday life. Coupled with today's somewhat contradictory news that a majority of people still do not use internet search engines for information retrieval routinely, I think this development means that the first phase of the internet's development is well and truly over. Most pundits felt that phase ended in 2001 with the dot.com meltdown, but this small change in punctuation is actually far more significant. Or at least symbolic.
Sunday August 15
One Toke Over the Line
A nice treat for those among us who still aspire to the ideals of the 1960s. Cannabis Extract Shrinks Brain Tumours [New Scientist].
Saturday August 14
Your Mission, Mr. Phelps
As the 2004 Athens Olympic games opened amid relief that the construction was finally finished and extremely tight security measures, the athletes at long last got started. And the right way, if you ask me. With swimmer Michael Phelps winning the 400 IM -- his first stab at eclipsing the record seven gold medals earned by Mark Spitz in 1972 -- the games are looking good, I think. They are also the first Olympics with every event covered on television, which should make for some very late nights!
Wednesday August 11
Vacation
Hey, I'm finally getting a break, at the ocean in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, so no blogging for a little while.
Friday August 6
Terrorism Anxiety
Living in Washington, DC, I am confronted often with visible signs of the effects on America and our lifestyle of the terrorism threat and the security steps taken by the government in response. Many of the streets near the U.S. Capitol, where I lived for nearly a decade, are now closed. The route on which I used to commute to downtown is now barricaded with armed checkpoints. More roads were closed yesterday on 15th Street near the Treasury Building. It looks like Beirut. [View Map].
But Thursday was particularly difficult, even though I stayed in the 'burbs. The news of new terrorism raids, captures, plots and counter-reactions just kept coming. Two jihadists arrested in Albany in a sting trying to buy a shoulder-launched guided missile. Houses in several cities raided for evidence of the 2001 anthrax attacks on the U.S. Senate. A major al Qaeda leader, along with 12 other suspects, captured in London. And an anti-western cleric, number 12 on the list of Saudi Arabia's 26 most wanted, was arrested without any resistance as he sat in a cafe in the kingdom's mountainous Abha province, close to the Yemen border. Meanwhile, and likely as a result, oil prices rocketed to new highs as the financial markets wrestled with all this uncertainty.
This stuff has got to wear people down. Civilization has gone through worse periods, but I wonder whether the British citizens huddled in the Underground to escape Nazi bombs felt the same say. Today, the enemy is faceless, invisible and seemingly everywhere. Not knowing what or when to fear is difficult.
Thursday August 5
Gag the Courts
I for one am getting sick and tired of courts in this country issuing "gag orders" that prevent parties, witnesses and lawyers from talking to the press. The judge in the Kobe Bryant rape case widened his gag order yesterday to cover the victim's lawyers and colleagues of the trial lawyers. What this means is that, once again, the media will not be permitted to talk to the folks who know best what's going on in the case.
The rationale always given for these kinds of restrictions is that they are necessary to a "fair trial." Yes, trials must be fair. But if there really are people who would decide a case based on TV and media reports, then they should be kept off the jury in the first place. Every survey I have seen says that juries are extremely conscientious and almost always come up with the right result, regardless of what the media circus reports.
There's no conflict between fair trial and the First Amendment. Only between luddite judges and the First Amendment.
Wednesday August 4
What Took Them So Long?
With millions of spam messages each day peddling fake Viagra (usually spelled V!agr.a or some such nonsense to try and get around email filters), Pfizer is finally going after online peddlers of counterfeit versions of its market-leading ED medication. Pfizer to Sue Online Sellers of Fake Viagra [CNN.com]. This activity has been going on for at least 5 years, during which Viagra has seen new competition emerge and Pfizer has seen its stock price and profits relatively flat. So what has the company been waiting for? Any CEO who just sits around while pirates are burying his leading product in piles of fake junk should be retired, lynched or both.
Tuesday August 3
Something Old, Something New
Yesterday the U.S. government raised the terrorist threat warning, disclosing chilling "new" intelligence that al Qaeda was planning to attack major financial instiutions in New York, Washington and Newark. As the New York Times reported, "Counterterrorism officials and experts said they had noticed a shift in the statements attributed to Al Qaeda's leaders, and their allies, in recent months." Today, it became clear (from Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge himself) that the intelligence on which the warning was based is at least four years old and pre-dated the 9/11 attacks. Terror Alert: How Four-Year-Old Information was Transformed into Clear and Present Danger [Independent.co.uk].
During the briefing one official, described only as a "senior intelligence official," said: "The new information is chilling in its scope, in its detail, in its breadth. It also gives a sense, the same feeling one would have if one found that somebody broke into your house and over the past several months was taking a lot of details about your place of residence and looking for ways to attack."
The official added: "[The information demonstrates] al Qaeda is meticulous in its efforts and since 9/11 there has been an effort made to ensure that they have the information that they need in order to carry out attacks."
Ridge says he is not "playing politics" with terrorist threats. There's no reason not to believe that, especially given the economic disruptions that the extraordinary security precautions at the World Bank, the New York Stock Exchange and other major financial locations entails. But then why were the Sunday background briefings premised on "new" intelligence about al Qaeda activities "since" 9/11? Ridge may not be playing politics, but someone sure seems to be playing fast and loose with the facts.
A Head Case
Ah, I got one of these last week, before I even knew that Arnold Schwarzenegger was suing the manufacturer to prevent further distribution. Governor's Bobblehead Says Farewell to Arms [SFChronicle.com]. The bobblehead figurine depicted the "Governator" himself in suit an tie, holding a semi-automatic weapon with an ammo belt slung across his shoulders. After a court settlement, the item has already been removed from the online store at Bosley Bobbers, where I purchased mine, but eBay still has lots listed -- of course at prices already four to five times list!
Monday August 2
Music Going Wireless?
The technology has been around for awhile, but the clebration of convergence between cell phones and MP3 players is way overblown. The Cellphone's Next Makeover: Affordable Jukebox on the Move [NYTimes.com].
People said the same thing about cell phone cameras and games. Yes, they're cute and sometimes fun. But the inherent limitations of the cell phone form factor makes these multi-function devices either larger than useful (see Treo and BlackBerry PDA/phones) or far short on quality (see most Sprint phone cameras). That won't stop folks from trying them out, but I think the idea of a single, portable device that does everything is destined to failure because the devices don't do anything WELL.