January 31, 2005

They're Lucky Orwell's Dead

What the BBC should ask themselves is why their mistakes almost always seem to tilt in the same direction? What they also ought to ask themselves is what a liberal really is and... oh, never mind.

UPDATE: Email from Lobstertom in the UK:

If you go to the BBC News front page,

and type 'apologised' into their search engine, or 'casualties,' or
'Iraq,' for that matter. You will NOT find the BBC correction about
civilian casualties in Iraq. For that, you must go to the 'Newswatch'
link, way down at the bottom left of the frontpage...

...so they don't include their corrections as part of their search
engine? Pretty slick, don’t you think?

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 6:32 PM
Comments (54)

Sympathy for the Devil

GayPatriot (disclosure: now an advertiser on this site) has an interesting post regarding Eason Jordan, CNN's Chief News Executive. We all remember Eason, don't we, the man who valued, some would say over-valued, his network's face-time with Saddam and his cohorts and then got rightly excoriated in the New Republic and elsewhere? That such an individual would be criticizing US servicemen is beyond disgusting, yet one more reason to regard what you see and hear on CNN with the utmost skepticism.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 5:19 PM
Comments (10)

New Political Movement Afoot?

The Diplomad sees a break out of comma-ism.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 10:18 AM
Comments (25)

Freedom of Speech is a Given

But if I were the parent of student at the University of Michigan subjected to this palaver, I'd sue for brain damage to my child.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:19 AM
Comments (10)

Are we bored already?

You bet.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:07 AM
Comments (8)

You mother was wrong...

... when she said "Stop fidgeting!"

Couch potatoes and computer users can jump for glee as according to a new study the simple act of fidgeting burns important calories that can keep people lean.

Mayo Clinic researchers recruited 10 lean and 10 mildly obese self-proclaimed couch potatoes to wear specially designed underwear that monitored and recorded their every movement over a period of 10 days. And also the study was conducted using high-tech underwear, which detect the smallest movements and take measurements every half second. Twenty people, half of them lean and the other half mildly obese, wore the garments nonstop for ten days as they went about their every day, normal activities. All participants were self professed 'couch potatoes' and none engaged in regular exercise The researchers found the obese volunteers tended to be less active than their lean counterparts.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:44 AM
Comments (11)

Extreme Short Run Thinking

Mickey may be right that Teddy Kennedy's dim-witted speech three days before the Iraqi election followed by John Kerry's typically hangdog reaction to the same event were preaching-to-the-choir for online fund-raising purposes, but I doubt it. And if he is, it's amazingly short-sighted. The Democrat's problem isn't money (they had plenty of that). It's voters. No money in the world can get them back what they lost in the last election when they lost people like me and many readers of this blog for the first time. (I used to think we were exceptional until I saw the results.) By making statements that appear on the wrong side of history they only push us further away. That is the kind of psychological misjudgment often made by extremely depressed people, which Kerry and Kennedy appear to be. They don't need more cash from the readers of the Daily Kos. They need some psychoanalysis... or maybe Prozac.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:12 AM
Comments (45)

From the Situation Room...

In the midst of live-blogging the Iraq election the other night, I received an email that got my attention. It was from the State Department situation room and, aside from the ego-flattering surprise that people so highly placed were reading this blog in the midst of such an event, it contained some disappointing (although not horribly surprising) information about CNN correspondent Jane Arraf.

Many of us had just watched Ms. Arraf waiting with what "seemed" like great dismay in front of an empty polling station in Mosul. The Iraqis were not turning out to vote. Then, an hour or so later, she popped up at another polling place in the same city that was crowded with voters, explaining that she had "switched polling places." But she hadn't. According to my situation room correspondent, her first venue was not a polling place at all. For whatever reasons (embarrassment? bias? both?), Ms. Arraf omitted this important fact.

My correspondent had sent me this information "off the record" and naturally I emailed him back requesting permission to publish during my live-blogging, but received no return mail. (Subsequently the same story appeared on The Corner. I don't know where they got it.) In truth, my correspondent had gone home. Today he sent me his permission along with the clarification that he was not from State, but a member of the DoD following the event in State's situation room that night in the interest of "interdepartmental amity." Many of the State Department people were against the war and my correspondent concluded: "I didn't think it would go over well if I was caught leaking good news to the outside world."

All I can say to that is - Welcome, Condoleeza Rice!

UPDATE: To be clear, I have not checked the veracity of my correspondent, but my memory of Ms. Arraf standing outside the alleged "polling place," describing completely blasé Iraqis (why wouldn't they be?) would tend to corroborate the email.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:34 AM
Comments (25)

Will the Dartmouth Mafia Step Up?

Although I am a devoted reader of the Volokh Conspiracy, it took Instapundit to point the way to a post there announcing the candidacy of one of their contributors, Todd Zywicki, for Trustee of Dartmouth College. Weirdly, there is an odd confluence of blogosphere personalities -- the three high-powered gentlemen of Power Line, your not-so-humble servant and "famous commenter" and now best-selling author Catherine Johnson -- who are alums of the "College on the Hill." Perhaps we could get something going for Mr. Zwywicki. I'm in.

UPDATE: Undergraduate support here. Is this a harbinger of blogging as a new entry point to univeristy Board of Trustees? [Not if they don't contribute a lot.-ed.]

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 6:54 AM
Comments (3)

Statue Talk

Here's something calculated to drive the Juan Coles of the world insane - the new mayor of Baghdad wants to put up a statue of President Bush as the symbol of freedom. The reasons for his gratitude are obvious, but I'd prefer something more generic -- a new version of Lady Liberty where the old statue of Saddam once stood. I can't think of the form just now but some young Marine playing soccer with an Iraqi kid wouldn't be bad. There are plenty of others. One thing seems certain - those who were whining that the Iraqis showed no gratitude to America for overthrowing their dictator are as wrong about that as they were about everything else. It just came a couple of years late. But it seems likely to last a long time.

UPDATE: Hovig, below, points out that the Saddam statue has already been replaced. I don't know where Baghdad's new mayor was intending to put his Bush statue, but there are undoubtedly good places for a new Lady Liberty.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 6:08 AM
Comments (16)

Arthur Chrenkoff's Good News Round-Up from Iraq

Unnecessary now? I wish it were true, but somehow I doubt it. Anyway, something to savor.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 5:59 AM
Comments (0)

January 30, 2005

Se Vende Al Jazeera

What was most surprising to me in this Steven R. Weisman report for the NYT was not that Al Jazeera may be on the block, but that the hugely popular (30 to 50 million viewers) Arab cable network is not profitable.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:04 PM
Comments (6)

No more "insurgents," please

In the wake of the Iraqi election, the use of the term "insurgents" by the mainstream media -- a conscious/unconscious attempt to cloak a rag-tag amalgamation of fascists, jihadists and common criminals in the romantic mantle of Pancho Villa -- should now be placed in the junk pile. "Insurgents," in most historical uses, has referred to groups trying to upset an illegitimate or semi-legitimate regime. That is no longer the case, if it ever was. It's time for the mainstream media to start calling the terrorists by their true names and ideological identities, such as they are. There is no justification any longer for the use of the euphemism "insurgents," unless you are writing pro-fascist propaganda.

UPDATE: The time has come for the press corps to admit that they have done a terrible job with the whole story. As Christopher Hitchens said this afternoon on the "Friends of Democracy" CSPAN airing: "The majority of the western press placed its bet on the word 'quagmire' and have not been able to get off it." No kidding. Only moments after he spoke, the host interviewed Alissa Rubin, the LA Times chief in Baghdad, and it was like pulling teeth to get her to admit pleasure in the electoral triumph of the Iraqi people. She sounded almost embarrassed. How sad and how pathetic.

The reification continues here.

MORE: Austin Bay - writing back in November - already knew the real name for "insurgents." He also knows his rock and roll.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 2:59 PM
Comments (43)

Uh-oh... you knew this was going to happen, didn't you?

Dennis the Peasant does the blog.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 1:55 PM
Comments (27)

Eligible Voters and Iraq

Before the spin doctors get a hold of the "how big was the turnout" question in Iraq (60%? 70%?) and use that to denigrate this great step forward that has just taken place, let's remind ourselves that turnout in recent US Presidential elections is barely over 50% of eligible voters and that in the nascent days of our democracy, 1824, it was 26.9%.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:53 AM
Comments (41)

Wowee!

72% voter turnout in Iraq. Democracy triumphs!

Don't gloat with your friends who said we did the wrong thing. (Okay, gloat a little). A special shout for Omar and Mohammed. You go, guys! You are a model!

Even Reuters is singing a different tune. This is incredible!

And the epidemic is spreading!

But there is still trouble in paradise. Via Hugh Hewitt, the headline of my hometown LAT this morning is "Who's Dying in our War?" [The MSM-ed.] And John Kerry sounds like a reactionary jerk. And this man seems equally irrelevant. Why doesn't he give his billions to medical research rather inflict his narcissistic opinions on us?

Great coverage from Blair. This photo from Cigars in the Sand says it all:

Big losers today - Administration of the University of Michigan (employers of Juan Cole) and Teddy Kennedy's cardiologist (it will be hard to keep the Senator on his diet after his humiliation). Big winner for similar reasons - Barbara Boxer's cosmetic surgeon. Big cartoon winner (not Boondocks, obviously).

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:37 AM
Comments (112)

January 29, 2005

Election Blogging

Ten minutes until the opening of the polls... I am watching Fox News where Geraldo has been up since before dawn in Baghdad covering the election. Rivera gets a lot of bad press, but the man has guts and he has a heart. In the old days he was considered a liberal... and he still is in my book. It's his critics who have gone the other way. I'm glad to have him as my guide to Iraq this morning (night here in LA) because I know that democracy is more important to him than party poltics, as it should be for all of us. I'm exceited. More to come.

CNN has Amanpour, a woman who makes my stomach turn. They have crews set up in front of polling places in Baghdad and Najaf. It would seem that the violence would start early in order to discourage voting. But so far nothing.

7:10 (Iraq time) - watching IRaqi interim pres Ghazi Al-Yawar voting inside the Green Zone. Who could blamed him?

7:12 - Back on Fox... showing people voting in Baghdad and somewhere else... so far no violence... fingers crossed.

7:15 - Sunni officials voting early to show the Sunnis that they should vote. Good idea.

7:17 - Scary moment on Fox with Tony Snow talking to correspondent in Baghdad interrupted by a loud noise -- it was US helicopters. What an incredilbe world we now live in - everything so far yet so close.

7:20 - Fox is reporting random gunifre. Doesn't seem like much. I find this election more exciting than our own. IT's the risk factor, I guess.

7:21 - I know everyone will, but feel free to join in. This is a group project. No single person could keep up with these events. You will see things I don't and understand things I don't.

7:23 - Is this going to be an historic day in world history. It's quite possible, isn't it?

7:24 - Fantastic view from drone of "insurgents" running for their lives. Smart psyop.

7:25 - Just had this strange thought that the arrest of Zarqawi will be announced today. Wishful thinking?

7:30 - Oops. Live coverage seems to be diminshing. We now have to listen to Jane Arraf. Not for me, thank you.

7:35 - Iraqis have 111 choices in their election. I've never had to deal with that many candidates, except for the California Recall Election. Now there's a thought - Arnold for Prime Minister of Iraq. That would take care of those "insurgents." And maybe the Iraqis have more liberal laws about aliens running.

7:36 - one out of three candidates must be a woman. Not bad.

7:40 - Looks like no violence but few voters so far. Of course it's very early.

7:42 - continued images of an empty polling place in Baghdad (on Fox) juxtaposed with commentary bu more liberal Arabs advocating democracy. What about the people? Walid Phares is enthusiastic, however.

7:47 - Strange to see Clinton suddenly appear on HEadline News, walking about Davos. Evidently he admitted his error in Rwanda - could have saved two or three hundred thousand lives. Yes, he could have. Bush stepped up in IRaq. Times have changes.

7:43 Tony Snow talks about sudden pro-democracy shift by the NYT. It's about time. Let's hope it's permanent.

7;45 - There are currently 675 people on this site, so I guess I should continue, although things are a little slow. Now Snow is having a discussion of Ted Kennedy's ultra-reactionary demand for a pullout from Iraq only days before the election.

7:53 - Adam Schiff, Democratic Congressman from Glendale, CA, is being very forthright in his support of the elction.

7:55 - Judging from the uptown dress of the voters, Fox looks to have it's camera at the Beverly Hills of Beghdad polling station. I don't blame them, but too bad they didn't have the guts to set up in the middle of working class Iraq (well, maybe not Sadr City).

8:02 - Now I finally understand... what we have been looking at is the so-called Copnvention Center, not a normal polling place. More people were even coming in and out of a polling place in Sard City. (running out of battery - will be off line for about three minutes)

8:07 - Some asshole on CNN has just announced that this is the "nightmare scenario" because some polling place in Baquba isn't open yet. This character... don't know his name... seemed almost smug that something was going wrong.

8:11 - Great day for the Kurds. They deserve it!

8:13 - It's amazing that CNN still uses Brent Sadler for its coverage. Doesn't he miss his buddy Saddam?

8:15 - Fox is not as good as CNN at location coverage. Murdoch doesn't seem to care. Too bad. This leaves a real hole in American television journalism. Maybe the blogosphere will fill it some day.

8:22 - Everyone is saying this vote is far from perfect, but what is a perfecdt vote anyway? I have no idea.

8:18 - Wouldn't it be interesting if the level of violence for the day is low, really low? What will the media say? Probably, as AManpour already hinted, that the country was under the equivalent of martial law. Therefore it's meaningless. But it's not.

8:24 - I feel bad for the Iraqis being photoraphed and televised as they vote. Not just because of the obvious risk, but because of the general feeling of exposure. I wouldn't like to be filmed voting, particularly, and I've been doing it for thirty-five years.

8:28 - First violent incident reported on Fox. Hard to know if it's anything.

8:30 - Since this election, at least in America, is a cable news event, how ab out Zocor and Viagra for each Iraqi who votes (now you're getting punchy, Simon).

8:33 - One polling place hit by mortars. Still no word on casualties.

8:38 - Seems like the "Insurgents" are making some noise. The suicide bomber was stopped at a checkpoint. Good. But will the people come out to vote?

8:41 - Discussion of corrupt police who will set bombs at polling stations from the inside. Sounds like LA in the Forties... well, maybe not. The issue at this early point, it seems to me, is that if there is a relatively low level of violence but the people still do not vote, what does that mean? There are many ways to spin that and I'm sure we will see all of them.

8:45 - It's weird watching an election when you really have to no horse in the race (no candidate). You're only hoping a lot of people will vote and that they will be safe.

8:50 - Looks like a real line to vote in Sadr City. (Not as long as the one I saw today in front of NBC in Burbank waiting to be on some reality show, but long enough.)

8:55 - The idea that anyone is still interested in Jesse Jackson's opinion about anything amazes me.

9:00 - Frankly, I miss Geraldo. He is still the best guide for this event.

9:o1 - Yes! Geraldo back from a jammed polling place. He's inspired. It's the BErlin Wall and the Civil Rights era... I want to believe you Geraldo. I want to believe! Now he's calling it Rocky.

9:02 - Geraldo admits he is only at one community (Western outskirts of Baghdad) so doesn't speak for all of Iraq... but what I like about this man is he wants the world to be a good place. Sounds stupid, doesn't it, but in our media it is unfortunately a rare thing. Way to go, guy. All your exs will now excuse you.

9:05 - Now it's the nefarious Chelabi, the man who is supposedly guilty of so many things but never actually gets convicted of anyting... well, once in Jordan, I guess... and now here he is apparently headed for the Iraqi Assembly. Fascinating. He and Geraldo seem to love each other. Two rascals. But loveable today, neverthless.

9:10 - Another suicide bomber. A couple of police were killed with the psychopath who did this. Sad. Still, doesn't seem like very much is happening. Early turnout is supposedly heavy.

9:12 - Now that the NYT is waking up (a little) I wonder if Europe will follow. I think it's possible.

9:16 - Watching the line of Kurds voting makes you cry.

9:21 - I know it sounds corny, but those of us in the blogosphere--readers, writers, commenters--who supported our government's actions in Iraq and suffered the opprobrium of friends and family, were called warmongers and chickenhawks, this is a time to celebrate. This is what we wer fighting for in the war of opinion. It's not much, especially compared to our brave troops, but it something.

9;30 - Mrs. Francke, the Iraqi Un Ambassador, is filled with optimism. Let's hope. Meanwhile, on CNN, the Iraqis are drowning out Jane Arraf. Good for them.

9:35 - Some reactionary bozo on CNN is complaining that one suicide bomber got through this morning. What a drip.

9:40 - Mubarak is getting dissed on Fox. He deserves it. IRaq gets democracy. Why not Egypt? Time to eliminate hypocrisy from foreign policy. We're on the way.

9:43 - There is an appalling Baghdad correspondernt on CNN who seems almost desperate for things to go wrong, but they're not. He keeps going on and on about the danger.

9:54 - Of course, this is also a great day for Paul Wolfowitz. It vindicates him.

9:55 - Susan Estrich is a tone deaf reactionary. WHat kind of bullshit is she talking right now about we didn't go to Iraq to bring democracy. Speak for yourself Susan. IF you expect people like me to ever go back to the Democratic Party, wise up. You sound stupid and out of it.

10:00 - Okay, I'm signing off now. I'm going to need a good night sleep to be able to listen all the spin doctors turn a victory for democracy into some kind of partisan nonsense. I salute you all. And I salute the Iraq people. Thanks for joining me. I hope I'm around for more nights like this.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:49 PM
Comments (154)

Too Much Time on the Internet

Google the following first names (only) of bloggers: "Glenn," "Tim," "Jeff," and, er, "Roger."

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:44 AM
Comments (20)

Weak Insurgency So Far

As of 6PM Saturday Baghdad time, the carnage predicted for the day before the election has not transpired. Eight Iraqis killed, bad as that is, cannot be counted as a high total under these dramatic circumstances. The "insurgency" does not seem to be that powerful. Of course, the intimidation factor is another thing and we shall see the results of that, measured in voter turnout, tomorrow.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:18 AM
Comments (24)

Root, root, root for the AWAY team....

TigerHawk has an interesting grammatical analysis of this morning's New York Times editorial on the Iraq election, which exposes what we might call a subtextual ambivalence about this weekend's event. I can understand this. The leaderships of The Times and similar traditional publications are conflicted. They are certainly in favor of democracy and yet if this election is even relatively successful and three or four years down the line Iraq is struggling along as a fledgling democracy, possibly even instigating further democratic reform in the Middle East (maybe it already is among the Palestinian Authority), then they will have been revealed to have been on the wrong side of history.

But as an ambivalent as the NYT may be, their language is nothing compared to James Zogby, President of the Arab American Institute, whose desire for the elections to fail resides only centimeters from the surface of his words: "There are deep divisions that exist, divisions that are so deep and pronounced that this election,
instead of bringing people together, may very well tear them apart."

UPDATE: Compare Zogby's negativism to this: "On Sunday, the sun will rise on the land of Mesopotamia. I can't wait, the dream is becoming true and I will stand in front of the box to put my heart in it."

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 5:55 AM
Comments (27)

January 28, 2005

Another Reactionary from the Cartoon World

Some of us hope for democracy in Iraq. Others don't.

UPDATE: I was referring to this cartoon dated January 28, but the one above (for the 29th) is no charmer.

MORE: Jeff does a remix.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:56 PM
Comments (33)

While Iraqis start to vote...

... peace seems to be breaking out in the Holy Land.

In its most dramatic response yet to new Palestinian policies against violence, Israel ordered its army Friday to stop offensive operations in the Gaza Strip and scale them back sharply in the West Bank.

The army was ordered to stop targeted killings and arrests of wanted Palestinian militants unless they present an immediate threat to Israeli lives, to lift an unspecified number of roadblocks in the West Bank to ease movement and to reopen all three crossings into the Gaza Strip.

Apparently Arik has decided to see if Abbas is for real:

The Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, said Thursday night: "I believe that the conditions are now ripe to allow us and the Palestinians to reach a historic breakthrough in the relations between us."

We'll be watching. MEANWHILE: Hamas wins big in Gaza elections. What does this mean? Strange as it seems, it may force Abbas and Fatah into an alliance with the Israelis.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 6:43 PM
Comments (8)

The Business of China Is Business

Which China? Well, both.

Commercial jetliners from Taiwan and China took off today for the first non-stop flights in 55 years across the narrow strait dividing the arch-foes, raising hopes for permanent air links and better ties.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 5:53 PM
Comments (1)

Frankencense and No Mirth

Hindrocket evidently appeared on Al Franken's Air America (not to be confused with Team America) show today. I missed it, but according to Hind:

Franken was interested in one subject only, himself, and devoted the entire time to quizzing me about posts we have done over the years that mentioned him. Unfortunately, the only time I've ever mentioned Franken in a post was a year and a half ago, and I had no memory of it, which didn't exactly make for scintillating radio.

I don't get Franken's popularity or importance or whatever it is. It's not his old school (yawn) traditional liberalish opinions that don't sound as if they've changed one jot since he entered junior high that bother me. They're okay, if dull. There are certainly a lot of people who agree with him. What I don't get is why he's considered funny. He never makes me laugh. And that's not because of his politics. Margaret Cho--as whacko as she sometimes is--can put me on the floor, especially when she talks about her mother. Franken sends me reaching for the remote, no matter what he's talking about. His bozo-brained non-interview with Hindrocket is another example of why Franken is in the wrong business. Maybe he should be a CPA and Dennis the Peasant (a CPA) who comments on here should be a comic. Dennis is a lot funnier.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 3:48 PM
Comments (17)

What's the Caption?

Neapolitan Football Fans Argue Merits of New Goalie from Castelluzzo

Wrong, obviously. (Sorry I couldn't come up with a better joke, but it's early in the morning here in LA and I have to go to a meeting across town. Perhaps you can do better.) No, this is a discussion among the audience after what Friends of Democracy's correspondent Kasem tells us is Iraq's first-ever political debate. (Okay, now the jokes start rolling. But I'll resist.) Everyone interested in this election (and who isn't) should bookmark the Friends of Demcoracy site for on-the-ground coverage as this amazing and historical event goes forward.

Meanwhile, some people continue to worry that real democracy cannot be born in violence. We'd all like revolutions to be velvet and orange, but then America and France, born in violence, still seem to be trucking along.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 6:47 AM
Comments (28)

January 27, 2005

As Dorothy Parker once said...

Jeff Jarvis emailed to point me to his post about his recent contretemps with Eric Alterman. Jeff knows me well enough to know it's the kind of thing that would send steam coming out of my ears -- and it did. But because of sound advice from my wife, daughter and cardiologist, I told myself to calm down. Alterman's reactionary drivel is not worth elevating my blood pressure. There was nothing I could ever do about Alterman anyway, except not read him (which I don't already). Then I started to laugh, remembering this immortal couplet from Dorothy Parker:

I'd rather flunk my Wasserman test
Than read a poem by Edgar Guest.

That's how I feel about Alterman.

UPDATE: Here's one of Mr. Alterman's allies.

MORE: The California murder rates are here.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:10 PM
Comments (39)

The Numbers Game and How It Is Played

This may be a controversial post, so let me start with the obvious: Every person who dies in war is a tragedy, to his or her family, to him or herself, to all of us.

Now let us examine Iraq.

On the brink of its first democratic election, indeed the first democratic election ever in Arab state discounting the Palestinian Authority, Iraq is supposed to be in the midst of a hideous conflagration caused by a powerful "insurgency." As of today the Associated Press reports:

Insurgents stepped up attacks Thursday against polling centres across Iraq, killing at least a dozen people in the rebel campaign to frighten Iraqis away from participating in this weekend's election. One U.S. marine was among those who died.

A dozen people--sounds bad. No matter that one sad, disturbed individual was able to kill eleven people in Glendale, California yesterday by changing his mind on his suicide, this "insurgency" must be "powerful." But wait. Turns out these deaths were spread across seven provinces in a country, we have been told ad infinitum, is roughly the size of California with a somewhat smaller (two-thirds) population. I'm not sure how many violent deaths occurred across California today, but I wouldn't be surprised if the total came close to Iraq's and, as far as I know, there is no war going on here (Well, maybe "Million Dollar Baby" versus "The Aviator). Furthermore, if some of the tougher gangs in East Los Angeles decided to go all out, I'd wager they could do a helluva lot more damage in one hour than those "insurgents" did in a whole day and never leave LA County.

Doesn't seem like much of an "insurrection" when you look at it that way, does it? The mortality stats don't amount to much compared to Vietnam or Rwanda or Cambodia, not to mention World War II where some count the number of dead at fifty million. The biggest one-day toll for American troops was an accidental helicopter crash--horrible, but it could have happened in Camp Pendleton.

Yet some are looking for an "exit strategy," as if disaster has struck and we have already lost. I don't get it. I wouldn't want to have been fighting beside those people at the Battle of the Bulge. But more importantly, I don't know how to explain those people to the good citizens of Iraq, those seventy to eighty percent who have indicated a desire to vote. Is the idea to give up now? I wonder if, deep down, what those seeking an immediate "exit strategy" really fear most is that we will actually be successful. They would rather the Iraqis suffer than they be embarrassed or, horror of horrors, lose an election.

UPDATE: Soxblog amplifies.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 3:39 PM
Comments (121)

Jury Blogging

Early this morning I was at the Stanly Mosk Superior Court Building in downtown LA because my number came up for jury duty. In past years, I have always somehow "lost" the government mailings about this duty -- my work was too important, at least to me -- but I had heard from friends you couldn't get away such a laissez-faire attitude anymore. They stick you with a stiff fine. So I went. And although I did postone serving a couple of months because of business commitments, I was more impressed than I expected to be about how prospective jurors were treated. Sure the city court had many aspects of the dingy bureaucratic experience we have all come to expect when dealing with public services in this country, but they did seem to make an effort to be respectful and welcoming to jurors. The jury room has Internet bays (paid, of course) and a scattering of library books for those who didn't bring their own. (But no Twelve Angry Men or I, the Jury that I could see.) And the videos they showed the jury pool were patriotic, but nauseating. They made you actually want to serve. I'm now looking forward to going back and not to write a book or movie about the experience -- we've had more than enough of those -- but more for my own edification and to feel I've done my part.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 2:44 PM
Comments (15)

Sorry for the low blogging today....

If it's not one thing, it's another. Yesterday I had server problem; today there was a power outage in the Hollywood Hills. (I know. Other people have serious problems.)

Back online in about an hour.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 12:55 PM
Comments (1)

January 26, 2005

Theo Van Gogh Murder Trial Opens

Predictably, US media are barely covering it, but the Dutch blog DutchReport has excellent reporting and analysis with explanations of the Dutch legal system for readers outside Holland. I'll be checking in with them as the trial progresses.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 4:09 PM
Comments (17)

Bitter Rice

The just resolved Condi nomination struggle of 2005 somehow reminded me of the great Giuseppe De Santis movie of 1949. Maybe there's something about the name Rice that makes people angry. But I have had another thought about why Condi became such a lightening rod. The Dems are afraid of her as a presidential candidate in '08 and wanted to take her down a peg as soon as possible. After all, according to Forbes anyway, she is the most powerful woman in the world -- and that was before she was Sec'y of State (No. 2 - Wu Yu of the Chinese Politburo; No. 5 - Hillary Rodham Clinton; No. 10 - Carlton Firoina of Hewlett-Packard).

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 3:37 PM
Comments (60)

Austin Bay emailed...

... to say that I might find the "CRITIQUE OF FATIGUE" section of this post on his blog interesting. I did indeed -- and think you might too. (Sorry for the continued "comment" problems.)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 3:11 PM
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We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties

NOW RESOLVED THANKS TO DR. JOHNSON.

Remember that from the early days of television? Well, the blogosphere is at about that point and -- you may have noticed -- we are "experiencing difficulties" with our comments. We're working on it (or rather the folks at Php Webhosting are).

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 12:11 PM
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Qu'est-ce que c'est Auschwitz?

From an article in yesterday's Financial Times (link only good with trial subscription):

One year ago on these pages, Edgar M. Bronfman, president of the World Jewish Congress, warned of surging anti-Semitism in Europe, a phenomenon most thought had disappeared more than half a century ago. This week we commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Auschwitz liberation; at the same time, a BBC study has found that nearly half those surveyed have never heard of Auschwitz, suggesting that the memory of the Holocaust remains unacceptably corralled in a Jewish ghetto.

I don't know what percentage of the American public has heard of Auschwitz. Probably similar to Europe. But Auschwitz is not in Montana; it's in Poland. And there's never been anything quite like it in the history of the human race (except maybe Treblinka).

(HT: Catherine)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 10:09 AM
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Sharon-Abbas Summit in Two Weeks?

The PA has said as much to the press. I'm hoping that it happens and I'm hoping that things move forward without a Palestinian bloodbath. There's plenty of time to be cynical when things fall apart.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:26 AM
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January 25, 2005

For the Byrd(s)

If I had been a member of the Ku Klux Klan, I would have been so ashamed of myself I would have spent the rest of my life cleaning out toilets for Third World orphanages or some such. But then I can't imagine having joined anything as wretched as the Klan, so maybe I would have ended up a self-righteous bloviator in the US Sentate. Virtually my entire adult life Robert Byrd has been in the US Senate and virtually every time I hear him speak my skin crawls, thinking of what he did. When I hear the press praise him as a great statesman, I want to throw up. Some things are just unforgiveable to me, like being a Klansman or a Concentration Camp Guard. (Sorry, I'm not a Christian. I don't forgive such things.) So the spectacle of this man criticizing anybody on their values is anathema to me, but the spectacle of him lecturing a black woman is just sick. It is also incomprehensible that the Democrats would let him do it.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:51 PM
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The Orange Revolution Goes Mesopotamian

The jet to the left here is the Ukrainian-'born' Antonov An-225. Allegedly it is the largest aircraft currently flying (shades of the Spruce Goose). It is seen here leaving Baghdad Airport for its home after having dropped off ballot materials for the forthcoming election. (I guess they're anticipating quite a turnout.) Besides showing the thrilling connection between the Ukrainian election and the Iraqi one, I take some (very distant) pride of authorship for this photograph, which was taken with my old Canon G-4 by the more than capable hands of Mudville Gazette. People have accused me of being a "chickenhawk" for advocating the war in Iraq, but not going myself. Well... I did send my camera. Click the link to Mudville for more on the Iraq-Ukraine connection.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 4:02 PM
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Big Spender from the West

You can't help but admire Bill Gates and his wife Melinda for putting up 750 million to support child immunization programs in developing countries. Maybe the guy is going to give away the bulk of his fortune, as he has promised, and in a smart fashion.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 10:27 AM
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Oscar Blogging - Scorsese In, Moore Out

Well, the nominations are out -- 5:30AM in Los Angeles and nary a publicist was asleep. The (sort of) big surprise was eleven nominations for Martin Scorsese's The Aviator. The somewhat bigger surprise was zero nominations for Michael Moore's 9-11. Maybe the Academy was shamed out of it by Team America!

As a member of the Writers Branch, I was entitled to nominate five films in the categories of Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay and Best Adapted Screenplay. Here's how I voted in order of preference. I don't always make a full five nominations because I don't have strong enough feelings about five films in that category. You can read the actual results here.

BEST PICTURE
Million Dollar Baby
The Aviator
The Incredibles
Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind
Team America (Yes, it was erratic, but it was original!)

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind
The Aviator
The Incredibles
Collateral
Hotel Rwanda
(Liked Hotel Rwanda a lot, btw. In retrospect, I think I should have voted for it for Best Picture nomination)

BEST ADAPTED
Million Dollar Baby
Sideways

In all this year my votes were more in concert with the Academy than usual. Don't know what that means except in some years they vote for movies like Chicago. To be fair, I should have voted for The Incredibles number one for Best Picture, because I am sure in future years it will be the most watched movie of 2004. [How can you be sure about that?--ed. I can't.]

UPDATE: CommentaryPage, linked by Instapundit, has some quick and dirty analysis of why the Academy shut out Moore. It's worth reading. Let me add one thing -- Moore was never really part of Hollywood. He is sui generis, a self-taught maker of (semi) documentaries. Most who are thought of as "Hollywood" are not documentarians to begin with. They are fiction filmmakers, show people. They adopted Moore for a short while to make a point which is now fading even for them. Most people in Hollywood now see, although maybe they won't admit it, that democracy in Iraq is extremely important. For Moore, it's over.

UPDATE: That old cynic Gerard thinks it's all about the money... Not in my Hollywood.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 6:36 AM
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January 24, 2005

Dept. of Couch Potatoes

Sheryl and I have just installed a Panasonic 42-inch plasma screen monitor in our bedroom hooked up to a Sony surround sound DVD player that shakes the bed like those old devices they used to have in motel rooms. Suddenly some of those Academy DVDs I dismissed so quickly are looking like... hey, why didn't I vote for this? (Of course, nothing could save The Phantom of the Opera.)

We went for EDTV because, frankly, you can't tell the difference from HDTV when you're more than five feet from the screen (at least I couldn't). We also bought the stripped down Sony with the wall speakers because the floor ones were just more clutter. And I don't regret it because if the sound was any bigger, we would levitate. I have to admit the whole thing is great and just another indication that in the future no one is going to leave the house. What does this mean? I'm not sure, but I sure wish I had had the courage of my convictions a week ago and invested in this company.

Small tip to anyone contemplating this form of rank consumerism in the near future: Buy a monitor, not a TV. For those who don't know... and among the readers of this site, judging from responses to the Firefox post just below, many people here know a helluva lot more about this than I do... the monitors do not have tuners and (usually) speakers. You don't need them. The satellite or cable boxes have tuners and better speakers come with the surround system. You just saved yourself five to six hundred dollars.

Also, if you're buying plasma, be prepared for relatively poor reproduction of blacks, even with the Panasonic, which is reputed to that best. Still, movies look great on it, even the "plush" The Phantom of the Opera (for five minutes until Madeleine said it was putting her to sleep).

One other thing, thus far there are only about eight HDTV channels hereabouts through Adelphia cable. One of those is some version of HBO. The surround sound plays very well through our system and the picture looks as good as the DVDs. Even better is KCET, the local PBS station. For some reason, they have mastered HDTV better than the networks.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 5:11 PM
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Calling Chuck Berry!

Help me, information, get in touch with my Marie
She's the only one who'd phone me here from Memphis Tennessee
Her home is on the south side, high up on a ridge
Just a half a mile from the Mississippi Bridge

Help me, information, more than that I cannot add
Only that I miss her and all the fun we had
But we were pulled apart because her mom did not agree
And tore apart our happy home in Memphis Tennessee

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 4:01 PM
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Que Pasa, Hombre?

I missed Meet the Press yesterday and only this morning saw the "strange" excerpts on Drudge featuring the comments of Bill Thomas, the loose-lipped chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee from Bakersfield, CA. Mr. Thomas seemed to be advocating, or at least floating, sex and race based payouts for Social Security.

Being a suspicious type, I moseyed over to MSNBC to read the entire transcript to make sure Thomas wasn't being quoted out of context. [Why would you do that?--ed. Oh, you know... just for fun.] Well, he wasn't. Thomas was indeed putting forth the idea that women might get smaller checks because, on average, they live longer. Leaving aside the odd Methusalah-like male who might be stuck in the same old rusty wheelchair at age 98, this is one of the more tin-eared comments I have ever heard a politician make. (Earth-to-Thomas, women are the majority.) It's hard to tell what he was talking about in the race area, but I'm glad Russert didn't probe. I don't want to know. Anyway, by the time whatever changes kick in, 2040 or so, let's hope we're finally and forever in a race-blind society.

Meanwhile, in all this partisan brouhaha over Social Security, one thing suddenly struck me (probably struck a lot of others a long time ago). Those of us who are lucky enough to have business or union pensions (like Members of Congress and the Writers Guild of America, for just two examples), which almost always pay out vastly more money for our retirements than Social Security, know that those plans depend for their future stability on prudent stock investment. I don't hear anyone complaining about that - from either side of the aisle.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:06 AM
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January 23, 2005

Dept. of Prodigies

Blake Ross, one of the developers of Firefox, the new web browser taking the Internet by storm, is only 19! He started as a web designer at 10. Good on him. I use speedy Firefox to post on this blog, not to mention read lots of others (yes, and legacy media sites too)-- and in the three months or so since downloading it, I haven't had (touch plastic!) one virus.

Still, young genius has its downside. As Ross, now a sophomore at Stanford, tells the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

"All my computer science professors are expecting straight A's, even in classes that have nothing to do with the Internet."

My advice to Blake: quit school. Hey, it worked for Bill Gates. He had a long run with Internet Explorer until Firefox came along.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:57 PM
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Johnny Carson, R. I. P.

As remembered by my favorite media columnist.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 4:59 PM
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Huis Clos

As is so often the case, Mark Steyn has this week's mots justes:

The Democrats' big phrase is "exit strategy." Time and again, their senators demanded that Rice tell 'em what the "exit strategy" for Iraq was. The correct answer is: There isn't one, and there shouldn't be one, and it's a dumb expression.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 1:55 PM
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Dept. of What's Important

The election in Iraq -- the importance of which cannot be over-estimated -- is soon upon us. For "Ground-level election news from the people of Iraq" (who better?, I'm bookmarking "Friends of Democracy." That's Omar, Mohammed and Ali, of Iraq the Model and Free Iraqi working together with many of their compatriots to bring us their side of the story.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 12:26 PM
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Today's Pop Quiz

Which President wrote:

"It is vital that we take every possible action ourselves and in concert with other nations designed to assure against acts of terrorism. It is equally important that we be prepared to act quickly and effectively in the event that, despite all efforts at prevention, an act of terrorism occurs involving the United States, either at home or abroad."

Hint: Among his advisers on the issue was Rudolph Giuliani. Answer here.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 10:39 AM
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The Myth of the Foreign Correspondent

Two ears, a tail and a hoof go to Tim Blair for his witty deconstruction of a Washington Post article by Jackie Spinner (yes, that's her real name--not a parody, as it should be in this case). Spinner's report is about the claims of one "educated Iraqi" about the behavior by American soldiers who discovered his porno collection. They did nothing (other than allegedly--no corroboration--juxtapose the porn with the Koran). The Iraqi hit his mother, obviously for the "crime" of learning about his activities.

This article would seem to be another exercise in conscious/unconscious self-destruction by the mainstream media. Jeff Jarvis has an interesting post in which he sees it as evidence for the proposal for "open sourcing" in reporting (i. e. you can see the reporters raw notes online and evaluate them). I'm all for that, but I think there's something deeper at play here...

Pace all the money being spent by the NYT, WaPo, etc., what we are witnessing is the decline or even demise of the "Foreign Correspondent," so romanticized by us Hollywood scriptwriters (see under Hitchcock). A great example of this was the recent Ukrainian revolution. I don't know about the rest of you, but I learned a great deal more about what was going on from blogs like this one than from any newspaper. The reasons were obvious--the people on the ground knew more. Why wouldn't they? They had been there all their lives. The Jackie Spinners of the world arrive to be told what's going on (in a language they quite frequently don't know). Yes, these "blog correspondents" are biased, but who isn't? We, the consumers of news, are always left to deal with the writer's prejudices. Even the best of the MSM reporters carry bias with them. They acknowledge it themselves. And no, I don't think they're all as bad as this man in a foreign correspondent's trench coat. But I wouldn't be surprised if pretty soon they go on the "endangered species" list. I'll be too busy reading foreign "blog correspondents" like this one and this one to worry about it.

UPDATE: Dept. of Spinning the Spinner. Charlotte in the comments (ain't the blogosphere grand!) has done a little research on Journalist Jackie, who is apparently a recent grad of the Berkeley "J" School. What do the students learn in these places, je me demande...

MORE: Iowahawk should take this all a bit more seriously. Oh, well...

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:42 AM
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Will She or Won't She?

There are plenty of conflicting reports about an Israeli-Palestinian ceaseefire with some saying Abbas has made a deal with Hamas, et al, and others denying it. Whatever the case, such a thing hasn't been under serious discussion for some time. Why now? Why are even the Euros suddenly pressuring the Palestinians to lean on their terror factions? It doesn't have to do with all that wild "freedom talk," does it, by some President who is raising eyebrows even from his own party?

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 5:01 AM
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And I thought it was about compassion...

The Pope has reaffirmed the Catholic Church's stance against the use of condoms even after a Spanish Bishop said they could help in the fight against AIDS.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 4:50 AM
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More "Zarqawi Wowee"

Sounds like something I used to smoke in the Seventies, but it's another tape from the possibly jailed/possibly not religious psycho killer. The question is - is it real or is it Memorex?

Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has declared a "bitter war" on Iraq's parliamentary elections in an audio tape posted on the Internet.

"Candidates in elections are seeking to become demi-gods while those who vote for them are infidels. And with God as my witness, I have informed them (of our intentions)."

Demi-gods, eh? Well, he's got a point there. [Was he talking about Tom Delay or Nancy Pelosi?--ed. You decide.] But whether he is real or Memorex this version of Zarqawi sounds shrill and frightened, like a man whose side is losing. On second thought, maybe Zarqawi's just like any pol in the waning days of a campaign, throwing "Hail, Mary!" passes, the Islamic version anyway. Last week he called top Shi'ite cleric Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani a "satan". Or maybe he's just auditioning for a part in the next South Park movie.

UPDATE: Austin Bay takes this all a bit more seriously -- as he should.

MORE: Andrew Stuttaford with an enlightening compare-and-contrast.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 4:13 AM
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January 22, 2005

Hall of Horrors for a Saturday Night

This blog has many disturbing links to Islamic terror sites across the Internet. We use the Web to chat about our paltry opinions. They have other purposes.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:32 PM
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The Mesopotamian Rumor Mill

I don't know what to make of this AP report that continues to flog the rumor that terror master Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is in the custody of the Iraqi government. I'm skeptical, but stranger things have happened.

Iraq's interior minister on Saturday refused to comment on rumors that the top terror leader in the country had been taken into custody.

"No comment," the minister repeated.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 3:55 PM
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Trust But Verify

Something is happening in the Palestinian terrritories. What it is ain't 'xac'ly clear, as the song goes but.... Skeptical as we have a right to be, for now we should be doing our best to encourage Mahmoud Abbas. He's a lot better than Arafat so far -- even Benjamin Netanyahu admitted as much on Neil Cavuto's show last night. This latest New York Times report spreads the optimism:

Israel and the United States praised the effort by the new Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, to halt rocket and mortar attacks on Israeli civilians as more Palestinian policemen were sent on Saturday to patrol Gaza's borders.

Well, good. I know its way too early to say, but just maybe the atmosphere is changing. Maybe the Palestinian people are looking over at Iraq and are reacting quite differently from the negativists in our MSM. Where our media pessimists see "Insurgents," the Paleos see fascistic, thuggish Arabs murdering other innocent Arabs. Many of them don't want that - for good reason. What our MSM has defined as our "immoral" war in Iraq may already have caused a positive climate change in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict (coupled with the death of the Caudillo, of course).

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:41 AM
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January 21, 2005

Separated at Birth

Iraqi interim prime minister Iyad Allawi and Italian film director Bernardo Bertolucci

(hat tip: Sheryl)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 12:03 PM
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Old Terminology - The Four Reclaims

I agree with most of the points in my friend John Powers' new LAWeekly article: A Vision of Our Own/Four ideas for the left to redefine itself. Why shouldn't I? I've been accusing what we still call the "left" of being "reactionary" for some time now. John writes:

Whether it's rewriting the tax code or privatizing Social Security to solve an imaginary "crisis," the right has become the agent of change.

In contrast, the left has become - there's no other word for it - reactionary.

He goes on to detail four areas of necessary liberal/left improvement, to get back in the game, as it were: reclaim virtue, reclaim freedom, reclaim pleasure and reclaim utopia. (In Maoist parlance - The Four Reclaims!) What John does not say is how they should go about doing this.

Perhaps there is a reason for that. Perhaps it's because what John is trying to reclaim is nothing but an empty name. There is no there there. The ship of ideology has moved on or maybe sunk. Liberal? Conservative? Left? Right? Who cares? It's so 1873. We live in a time when someone like me finds more to applaud in a Bush speech than Peggy Noonan. John Powers, in his heart, may be closer to Bush than Peggy as well. His criticisms of Bush seem perfunctory - oh my gosh, he uses the language of an MBA - yet John acknowledges that an election is being held in Iraq which we should all support. I couldn't agree more. And as history will no doubt record: No Bush, no election. The rest, as the grandmothers say, is bubbe meises. (via Glenn)

UPDATE: Austin Bay provides a good antidote to Noonan. He also has a link to a Times of London article which is worth following.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:35 AM
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January 20, 2005

Palming the Ace

Like "good burghers" of the Mainstream Media, the Washington Post buries what is surely the most important story (other than the inaugural) of January 21, 2005--"Most Iraqis Remain Committed to Elections, Poll Finds"--on page thirteen of their newspaper. You can't even find it on the front page of their website where such "important" matters as "Homeless Man Poses as Student" are linked. You have to do a full search to locate it, but it's there -- although it is more than a little bit understated, because you'd think, when the WaPo's headline reads "Most Iraqis Remain Committed..." they were talking about fifty-two or three percent of the vote, maybe even sixty, but they're actually talking about 80%! The actual writer of the article is far less circumspect.

An overwhelming majority of Iraqis continue to say they intend to vote on Jan. 30 even as insurgents [sic] press attacks aimed at rendering the elections a failure, according to a new public opinion survey.

The poll, conducted in late December and early January for the International Republican Institute, found 80 percent of respondents saying they were likely to vote, a rate that has held roughly steady for months.

Well, gag me with a spoon. Maybe Omar and Mohammed were right when they assured the group that had come to meet them at my house that most Iraqis were actually interested in democracy, some of them even grateful that they had been liberated from a homicidal dictator. Maybe the nay-sayers, the various Boxers and Moores, were on the wrong side of history all along, were indeed reactionaries wearing the "false flag" of progressives like wolves in trendy sheep's clothes. But I don't want to gloat... especially not now... Victory in this war is a long way off and actually I'm glad the WaPo buried the story on page thirteen. We don't need to hear about it now. The expectation game is going to be played to a fare-the-well with the Iraqi election and you can bet that if only 70% percent of eligible Iraqis vote, some self-righteous schmuck will take the 80% percent figure and declare the election a disaster, when we all know that it's been a long time since more than 70% of the population came out to vote in Brooklyn or even Brentwood.

CORRECTION: The link to this article is now on the front page of the WaPo website with the headline: IRAQIS COMMITTED TO ELECTIONS. The "MOST" is gone.

UPDATE: The Belmont Club comments on an article in The Nation that takes a different view of the elections.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 11:40 PM
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NPR Doesn't Think I Exist...

... or a fair number of the readers of this blog either. I listened to some of their Inauguration coverage this evening while stuck in traffic. For nearly ten minutes the only Bush supporters they interviewed sounded like they just stepped out of a Holy Roller tent and couldn't think of anything else to say about the occasion than "Thank you, Jesus!" It was almost comical. That's one helluva revival meeting. That real, live agnostics or even normal garden variety deists could have voted for Bush seemed outside the realm of possibility to the woman doing NPR's commentary. This would be fine (though dumb) if this were Air America or Pacifica Radio or even CBS. These networks are owned by their stockholders and/or their listeners and they are entitled to their opinions and biases. But this is National Public Radio -- we pay for this. I don't care which side is in office, it's time for NPR and PBS to skip the pseudo-objective political commentary and stick to cultural programming. How about a good production of Cosi Fan Tutte?

UPDATE: Armed Liberal had his own run in with NPR.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:24 PM
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Is Google Taking over the World?

Maybe. But they're making it more convenient in the process. Picasa 2, which I just downloaded gratis, seems to be a superb organizer program for the digital photographer. Their Quick Fix capability seems even better than Photoshop Elements. Of course, serious editing is another matter...

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 10:44 AM
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Texas Two-Step

Like Andrew, I noticed yet another poll this morning about whether Bush is a uniter or a divider. But unlike Sullivan, I didn't get particularly exercised by the unsurprising revelation that our people are split on this issue. When, in reality, have they not been? Well, back in '72 when I was a McGovern supporter and the country seemed united against us, I suppose. And then in the very immediate aftermath of 9-11. But other than that we seem to live in a divided country, no matter what the President does--or his opposition, for that matter. Is Barbara Boxer a uniter or divider? John Kerry? Well, you decide.

But further down in the poll, something did disturb me:

54 percent said the [inaugural] celebration should be toned down this year, compared with other inaugurations, because the country is at war. Forty-five percent said the inauguration should be held just as in other years, and 1 percent had no opinion.

I'm a party sort of guy. I wouldn't mind buying myself a new pair of alligator-skin Tony Lamas and heading over to one of those black tie Texas shindigs. [You weren't invited.-ed. I noticed.] And yet... I sympathize with those fifty-four percent. These are uncommonly serious times and part of the President's job is to remind the people that they are. We are arriving at a crunch point in Iraq. All kinds of forces are working behind the scenes to make us pull out. Less (but not no) Texas two-step and more gravitas are called for. And less conspicuous consumption. And, of course, there's the little matter of the tsunami....

UPDATE: Bush's inaugural address seems to me a good one, particularly these simple and clear lines:

We are led, by events and common sense, to one conclusion: The survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands. The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world.

I do not see the world in exactly Bush's theist terms, but if his committment to freedom comes from a Higher Authority, that's fine with me. I care about his actions.

MORE: Excellent post (as usual) by Charlie (Colorado) below, pointing out how the present inauguration in actually cheaper than the Clinton inaugural in 2005 dollars. Am I suprised? Not at all.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:39 AM
Comments (59)

January 19, 2005

Not So "Eyeless in Gaza"

An interesting development just occurred in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. According to Haaretz:

Israeli and Palestinian officers met at the Erez crossing last night to coordinate the Palestinian troops' deployment to halt the Qassam rocket fire at Israeli targets.

Yesterday for the first time in a week, no Qassam rockets were fired at Sderot.

What does this mean? It's hard to tell yet. But even this much is unlikely to have happened under Arafat. Debka, not surprisingly, has a more cynical view:

Israeli and Palestinian Gaza sector security chiefs meet Wednesday night for first time in months. Israeli general Cochavi will stress to Mussa Arafat need for Palestinian constraints to avert Israeli operation.

DEBKAfile adds: No real action expected from Mussa Arafat, including Palestinian security deployment on Gaza-Israeli borders. He does not accept Abbas' authority - only that of PM Qureia, who has left country to avoid ordering security services under his control to halt terror.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 5:29 PM
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The Boxer Non-Rebellion

When my agents were circulating the proposal for the book I'm writing - which is in part about my political migration - one rather famous editor at a big publishing house rejected it by saying "I don't understand why he changed." I've been at the lit game for too many years to take these things personally, but that was a head scratcher since my reasons filled about half my twenty-page proposal. Had she read it? (Well, maybe she hadn't.)

An alternative explanation is that she had read it but the words made no impact. Bad writing? Again, possible (although several other publishers were interested and one ultimately bought it). In any case, this particular rejection had gone the way of myriad similar events in my life, into deep memory, only to surface again yesterday when I was trying to calm myself down about two news events, both related to a woman named Boxer.

I have learned by hard experience not to blog with steam coming out of my ears. And sometimes I even heed this knowledge. But these two women strained my patience until I remembered the New York editor. Neither Boxer - Barbara of the Senate or Sarah of The New York Times (part time anyway) - is capable of processing the world around them. Times have changed but they have not. Senator Boxer goes on and on about missing WMDs as if democracy in the Middle East was an inconsequential side issue. Writer Boxer opines blithely about Iraqi bloggers as if they didn't exist as real people. Both these women have been reified. Their fusty brand of liberalism is no longer a political or moral view, but simply an "object of opinion," a stance of no more moment than sports fandom and equally substantial. Other human lives are beside the point. How they appear to themselves and their supporters is everything.

UPDATE: Ali responds to Sarah Boxer here. I wonder if Ms. Boxer has learned anything from this experience.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:39 AM
Comments (61)

January 18, 2005

Kofiklatura Up Against Wall - Part II

No, I had no advance knowledge of today's announcement that Iraqi-American Samir Vincent had struck a plea bargain with the Justice Department in return for information on Oil-for-Food criminality, though it sure makes yesterday's post seem prescient.

The exact nature of the charges to which Vincent will plead is not yet known. Vincent will agree to help the prosecution as part of the deal, officials said.

According to the report, Phoenix was awarded 1.5 million barrels of oil in 1999 and 2000, netting Vincent $1 million. Vincent and Phoenix received vouchers for 7.9 million barrels of oil, for a profit of $3.6 million between 1997 and 2001, according to the report.

More to come momentarily.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:12 AM
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Lord of the Fatuous

Listening to John Kerry interrogate Condoleeza Rice at her confirmation hearing would be a hoot if it didn't go on for so long. Kerry's funniest one-liner was that Arab leaders told him their generous offers of help in Iraq were being ignored by the Bush administration. And he delivered it without giggling. Another funny line was when "John the Good" informed us about what Sunnis think. His Arabic was impeccable.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:58 AM
Comments (67)

January 17, 2005

Is Seymour Hersh Being Played?

Sometimes it seems as if Seymour Hersh -- the seeming bete noire of the Bush administration -- has an open "leak line" from disgruntled CIA agents and surly State Department officials permanently plugged into his ear. When I heard about his latest infusion of goo in The New Yorker this morning, to wit that the US is spying on Iranian nuclear installations and trying to figure out what to do about them (planning special ops, air raids, etc.), I thought "Here he goes again, leaking top secret information!" But then I thought - duh, what top secret information? Is it possible that any US administration, Democrat or Republican, at this juncture in history would not be directing its intelligence agencies to take a long hard look at Iranian nukes and game plan how to deal with them? Of course not. In fact it would be at the very top of anybody's agenda.

So then why The Big Leak? Well, if I were someone in the government who wanted to announce that we were taking a tough line and had some nasty surprises for the mullahs (to scare them, of course), but didn't want to make this an official public policy statement, what would I do? I'd leak it to Seymour Hersh and count to five.

Am I wrong? The President of the United States has now essentially corroborated Hersh.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 6:26 PM
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The Kofiklatura Up Against the Wall

Maybe I spoke too soon (again!) earlier today when I expressed a certain skepticism regarding the forthcoming Volcker Report on the UN Oil-for-Food scandal. The Financial Times has a somewhat more ominous take on what's in store for the Kofiklatura. (How's that for a neologism? I like it if I do say so myself.)

The man appointed to oversee a management shake-up at the United Nations has warned that it must brace itself for wide-ranging reform amid criticism that extends beyond the ranks of the American right.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Mark Malloch Brown warned the UN that there could be worse to come and that its management would feel the consequences from an investigation into allegations of corruption in the "oil-for-food" programme, which the UN administered for Iraq. (hat tip: Amazon #24)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 5:41 PM
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Big News from the Middle East

Mahmoud Abbas has apparently ordered Hamas and other terror groups to stop the violence. Israeli forces are therefore suspending activites in Gaza. If true, this is an important first step, but the Al Aqsa Brigade is already resisting. Will a Palestinian bloodletting be in the offing?

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 11:31 AM
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Tom Pechinski asks...

Why is the media silent about this?

UPDATE: Interesting. In some ways I'm glad this investigation is being conducted quietly, away from media scrutiny for now.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 11:04 AM
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Safire on "The Depressed Press"

William Safire -- unlike, say, Bill O'Reilly -- doesn't seem the slightest threatened by blogs.

On the challenge from bloggers: The "platform" - print, TV, Internet, telepathy, whatever - will change, but the public hunger for reliable information will grow. Blogs will compete with op-ed columns for "views you can use," and the best will morph out of the pajama game to deliver serious analysis and fresh information, someday prospering with ads and subscriptions. The prospect of profit will bring bloggers in from the meanstream to the mainstream center of comment and local news coverage.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 10:04 AM
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Take Your Golden Globe and Shove It!

Anyone who doubts that Hollywood has become a soulless, hard-nosed business run by corporate technocrats who wouldn't know an editing room from a bomb shelter ought to read this report from Page Six. Even Clint Eastwood is having trouble getting his movies made by the very Warner Brothers where the box office generated by his films must have built several buildings. If not Clint, who?

But speaking of the Golden Globes, Sheryl saw this amusing interchange in Lloyd Groves' column:

Foxnews.com's Roger Friedman pointed out in a recent column that the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, an odd band of 93 journalists and quasi-journalists who run the Globes, enjoys nonprofit status even though it rakes in millions and lives high on the hog courtesy of a long-term contract with NBC.

"But it is my business," Friedman parried.

UPDATE: Viewers were evidently not interested in these bozo awards either.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:40 AM
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Inside Jobs - The Volcker/Thornburgh Connection

Internal investigations of organizations are in the end too often instruments of damage control. They take the truth only so far, in order not to jeopardize the existence of the organizations that pay for them. We have a recent example in the Boccardi/Thornburgh investigation of Rathergate for CBS in which we have the spectacle of a former US Attorney General signing onto a report which can find no definitive evidence the National Guard documents were forged (as if we lived in an alternative universe).

Coming up, however, is a yet more significant report - Paul Volcker's Oil-for-Food findings for the United Nations. If we are to believe this article by Claudia Rosett and George Russell, who have been following the scandal as closely as anybody in the press, the jury is still out on how definitive Mr. Volcker's invstigation will be:

Perhaps Paul Volcker, head of the United Nations-authorized inquiry into the U.N. Oil-for-Food program, was speaking solely of graft when he said recently that the internal audits of Oil-for-Food contained "no flaming red flags." But if he meant anything beyond outright criminality, he was surely wrong.

The problems unveiled go well beyond those in the already much-discussed audits of the Oil-for-Food inspectors hired by the U.N. Secretariat to oversee Saddam's oil exports and relief imports, who according to the United Nations' own auditors too often charged too much and inspected too little.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:02 AM
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The Blair Witch Hunt - Thought Crime 2005

I read on Instapundit this morning that Tim Blair's site has been hacked and all his posts forever destroyed. (Go have a look -- it's eerie.) The individual(s) who did this are basically rapists; the violation is almost that personal. But I hope Tim does not take it that way and is up and blogging in ten minutes. I'll be over there gobbling up what he has to say. He's indispensable.

UPDATE: Well, maybe it wasn't a "thought crime" after all. Blair's back! [Boy, were you hot under the collar.-ed. Hey, I'm sensitive about these things.]

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:22 AM
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Dr. King

It's hard to believe people resisted celebrating the birthday of the man who was quite possibly the most important American political figure of the Twentieth Century. More than any single person, MLK helped to overcome the greatest blight on our history and to cleanse us of our shame from it at the same time, a truly extraordinary achievement. Dr. King deserves a place on Mt. Rushmore as much as any President.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:01 AM
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January 16, 2005

It's the Golden Globes - yawn...

I wrote earlier this week that the Oscars are not corrupt. The Golden Globes, on the other hand, are -- if you count the pique of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association... that group of locust refugees from Nathaniel West that gives the Golden Globes... as bona fide corruption. I learned this the hard way about fifteen yers ago, during my one brush with Hollywood award fame, when Enemies, A Love Story appeared. Angelica Huston, one of the stars of the movie, was invited to a lunch by the HFPA but demurred because she was busy shooting a film and didn't feel she could take time off. Their members, who have a notoriously ambivalent attitude toward work, felt slighted. Result: no nomination for Angelica or for anybody connected with the film. The Academy gave us three. So if you watch or are watching the Golden Globes tonight, keep in mind this is more than the normal exercise in silliness. Perhaps this year too it will have less predictive value for the Oscars. The Academy is voting early, with nominating ballots due almost at the same time as the Golden Globes.

MEANWHILE: An election update somewhat more important than the Golden Globes.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 6:23 PM
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After the Tsunami

One wonders if Israeli generosity to the largely Islamic countries that were victims of the tsunami will be remembered or even known by the citizens of those countries. Nevertheless, one Israeli inventor may have done more to prevent future disasters of this nature than any other human being. What a guy!

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 11:02 AM
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Anchors Aweigh!

If Time Magazine, as reported by Drudge, is correct in its handicapping of replacements for Dan "Tricky Dick" Rather as anchor of the CBS Evening News, the fusty solons of CBS are at least consistent. They continue their extraordinary ability to think inside the box. Not one original name appears on their list. But no matter. If they do wait sixteen months for frontrunner Katie Couric, the whole pompous concept of the six o'clock evening news may have gone the way of our friend the mammoth.

(If I had to make a choice from their list, it would be Anderson Cooper. But stop prolonging the agony. Put the beast to death.)

UPDATE: Also interesting in the report are rumors of a CBS/CNN amalgamation. Considering the recent past of CNN, it should be a perfect fit.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:43 AM
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Resigning from "The Club Dumas" - More Racism from "Old Europe"

When our friend Fausta of The Bad Hair Blog first pointed me to a post at the always-interesting Spanish blog Desde Sefarad about anti-Semitic comments by renowned Spanish thriller writer Arturo Pérez-Reverte, I was, of course, dismayed. Fausta was correct in assuming I would be a fan of Pérez-Reverte, whose novels always have intriguing backgrounds, notably The Club Dumas set in the world of rare book collectors. I didn't comment about it at the time because I didn't trust my Spanish translating abilities (although I certainly got the swearing--those words were some of the first I learned in the language). But the bilingual Fausta has now provided translations of her own, both from APR and Desde Sefarad.

As José Cohen of DS notes, APR's casual dismissal of Jews is not surprising because anti-Semitism has become chic in Spanish intellectual circles. I am sure Pérez-Reverte himself would shriek when accused of it. (There is plenty of casual anti-Americanism in his remarks as well--also chic.) What's particularly sad about Spanish anti-Semitism is that an extraordinary number of people in that country have at least some Jewish blood. Five hundred years after the Inquisition these people still seem to be in hiding to some degree -- mostly in hiding from themselves. The irony is that many of them are now self-described atheists or agnostics. They, of all people, should be free of the fear of racial opprobrium. But never underestimate the human need to be considered part of the "in crowd," whether that crowd be the Falange or The Club Dumas.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:45 AM
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January 15, 2005

Holocaust Lessons for Harry

When I was a little boy the first verses I ever memorized were: "They're changing guard at Buckingham Palace/Christopher Robin went down with Alice." My mother used to read A. A. Milne to me at bedtime. I guess that began a life of anglophilia. Even though I was a little Jewish boy, I had no idea of the anti-Semitic history of the British ruling class so darkly and elegantly portrayed in The Remains of the Day. It took many years until I learned about that. My first trip to London at age sixteen I had no real consciousness of it. I was too busy watching Olivier and Gielgud do A School for Scandal and, yes, seeing the changing of the guard. Later when I came to live in London, I was in Belsize Park, not far from heavily-Jewish Hampstead. It seemed like a good life to me.

I think, until quite recently, I was one of those Jews who leaned to not making a fuss when young idiots like Prince Harry displayed an insensitivity (putting it mildly) to my co-religionists. No more. The epidemic is spreading again and I can only nod my head when tabloids like the Daily News refer to him as "Heil Harry." It's time for the Royal Family, everyone's favorite tourist attraction, to go.

SECOND THOUGHTS: Ultimately, I agree with Lem below. This is not a time to defenestrate the Royal Family -- although they are rather vestigial, wouldn't you say?--but to educate. But how many chances do they get? I don't want to count how many we've given them.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 6:55 AM
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January 14, 2005

Hugh versus Bill!

An epic battle transcribed here. When you read it, I doubt you'll have too much trouble figuring out which side I'm on.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 10:21 PM
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The Palestinian Personality Disorder

Optimists like me got a body blow yesterday when Palestinian terrorists murdered six Israeli civilians only days after the election of Mahmoud Abbas. But we got an even harder blow from the pathetic response of Arafat's perpetual porte-parole Saeb Erekat, now apparently speaking for Abbas. "You cannot hold Mahmoud Abbas accountable when he hasn't even been inaugurated yet," he said.

Yeah, right. Abbas had been acting Prime Minister throughout the entire election period, pledging that whole time not to disarm the terrorists. Well, he kept his promise, evidently. Sharon had no choice but to cut contacts with Abbas until if and when he gets his house in order. Here's hoping the US will back up the Israeli PM. The Eurocrats, of course, are another matter.

[Speaking of Erekat, has anyone looked into the size of his bank accounts?--ed. Bigger than yours, I bet.]

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 2:48 PM
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Mohammed al-Dura Revisited

Who can forget the heart-rending video of the young Palestinian boy Mohammed al-Dura dying in the arms of his father after being shot by Israeli soldiers? Made by France 2, it became a symbol of Infiada II. For some time now, however, many people have cast doubt on the authenticity of this video. And now French TV [is] Allegedly Using Threats to Avert Fraud Probe:

French state-owned television is using what some call intimidation and threatened libel lawsuits to quiet calls for an investigation of TV images that showed the alleged shooting of a Palestinian boy by Israeli soldiers in 2000.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 11:12 AM
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Consumer Alert - A Special Post for Parents of College Students

When I read (via LGF) this morning's letter to The New York Post from Columbia Journalism Review Executive Editor Michael Hoyt -- in which Mr. Hoyt asserts "nobody really knows" if the Rather/NG documents were forgeries -- my immediate thoughts were for the parents of college students on their way to graduate school.

I don't know the exact relationship between the Columbia Journalism Review and the Columbia School of Journalism, but I imagine it to be a close one, so I did some quick research to find out what parents would have to pay to have their children "educated" at CSJ. Tuition turns out to be $34,104. Factoring in the New York City cost of living, you can expect to pay well over $50,000 a year. By comparison, the Harvard Medical School has a current tuition of $32,000. Seems like a better deal, to say the least. (Of course, the admissions qualifications may be "slightly" different.)

UPDATE: After reading this, Columbia Journalism would have to pay me thrity-four thousand to attend.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:01 AM
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Rathergate Redux

CBS had been pursuing the story for five years. Five years! The Manhattan Project took three. -- Charles Krauthammer

[It would be interesting to compare the life story of Charles Krauthammer with those of Dan Rather and Mary Mapes.--ed. Not to mention their IQs.] (via Instapundit)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:33 AM
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January 13, 2005

Buying Bloggers

Like most people, bloggers want and deserve to make money for what they do, but the report in tomorrow's WSJ that two bloggers -- Jerome Armstrong and Markos Zuniga of the Daily Kos -- were paid for their work as flacks by the Dean campaign is both distressing and pathetic. I don't care whether these bloggers may have "disclosed" their backing to one degree or another. The candidate's bucks still turn whatever they do into press agentry.

I never heard of Mr. Armstrong until this evening but I had read the Daily Kos a couple of times and never went back, not because it was "left wing" -- self-styled anyway -- but because I thought it was badly written. Now I know why. It was the work of a hack. And before anyone gets on a high horse, of course I find that Armstrong Williams character, the recently revealed recipient of Bush Executive Branch payola, to be equally repellent. I just had higher hopes for blogs. So it goes.

It also goes without saying that I never would accept money from any party or candidate to front for them on this blog. Of course that's easy to say because nobody ever asked me. Nevertheless, I thought the whole point of blogging is not selling out to anyone on your blog, not even an editor or a publisher. The minute you do that you might as well chuck it in. Go do infomercials. They pay better and the most damage you can do is giving some people false hopes about getting six-pack abs. I don't know much about Zuniga's abs, but these days