February 28, 2005

"History in the making - may optimism triumph"

That is the headline from some news analysis in tomorrow (Tuesday Mar 1) morning's The Daily Star of Lebanon. How could you express this moment in history better? And how about this from the Star's article:

Where do we go from here? Who will fill the political vacuum yesterday's events have left? Hariri's sister, MP Bahia Hariri, who spoke both eloquently and movingly in the stormy parliamentary session that preceded the government's resignation, is being talked about as a possible candidate for the premiership.

Whoever it is will have the trust of the people in a way that few politicians can ever enjoy. Let us hope this optimism, this trust and this moment is not betrayed. To paraphrase Karami's last words as prime minister, May God preserve what the people of Lebanon have achieved.

I don't want to sound self-satisfied, because that's always dangerous and I'm really not anyway (self-satisfied, that is). But I'm beginning to feel sorry for all my friends and former friends who thought I'd gone crazy when I supported the war in Iraq. They must be feeling left out, although I am sure many of them block the news out or make sure it is sufficiently leavened with bad news not to disrupt their world views. After all, we'll all be dead relatively soon in the grand scheme of things and it doesn't matter much what any of us think anyway. But isn't it nice to be on the optimistic side of things, rooting for human freedom?

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 5:48 PM
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Priorties of the Sclerotic Mind

CNN's Website thinks Michael Jackson is more important than what is happening in Beirut.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 2:32 PM
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Crunch Time for the Mainstream Media

In the last three years, Afghanistan and Iraq have gone more or less democratic, Libya has stood down on nuclear weapons, Ukraine has gone democratic, the Palestinian Authority and even Egypt are making democratic noises and now a near-fascist pro-Syrian regime has resigned in Lebanon. Will all of this work out perfectly? Of course not. Nothing in history moves in a straight line. But this is a rather remarkable achievement of epoch proportions and is clearly the result of a strong US foreign policy.

And our traditionalist mainstream media, for the most part, has opposed it all the way. How will they now react?

UPDATE: Something interesting from Haaretz:

Israel Radio reported Monday that Beirut's government had agreed to resign last week, but that the commander of Syrian intelligence in Lebanon had forbade it from doing so.

An additional thought: special attention is probably being paid to satellite imagery of the Bekaa Valley. WMDs on the move?

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:28 AM
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Syrian Fascists Against the Wall

Who cannot been inspired by the demonstrations in Beirut today? Will this be the next Ukraine? We don't know yet, of course, but Bashar & Company cannot be happy.

MEANWHILE: Lebanons pro-Syrian government has resigned! Of course to CNN the big news is still the suicide-bombing in Iraq. How obvious can they get?!

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:58 AM
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Dept. of Digging You Own Grave

From EUPolitix.com: EU green light for Iran-Russia nuclear deal

Brussels has confirmed it will not oppose the civilian nuclear deal reached between Russia and Iran on Sunday, clearing the way for Teheran's only atomic reactor to come on stream next year.

"Our understanding is that the recent deal between Russia and Iran is compatible with our own approach since both sides have made it clear they will fully respect international rules and regulations on non-proliferation and most importantly that Bushehr will operate under the close supervision of the IAEA - the UN's nuclear watchdog - the International Atomic Energy Agency."

Oh, good. Maybe Benon Sevan could supervise. I understand he's got some free time.

MEANWHILE: The Israelis have discovered another car packed with explosives outside Jenin. assuming it to be work again of Islamic Jihad. These people are desparate to have miserable lives. Any sign of possible improvement and they go, well, ballistic. Lest you think this is off topic, a simple reminder - Islamic Jihad is supported by Iran and Syria.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:40 AM
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No More Oscar Blogging

With this horrifying news from Iraq - puts things back in perspective quickly. Of course, Arthur Chrenkoff has the other side of the story, but 125 killed is a big number.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:18 AM
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February 27, 2005

Live Blogging Oscar... for now..

Okay, I'm weak. I just said I wouldn't live-blog the Oscars and here I am staring like an idiot at my new plasma screen at 4:24 in the afternoon, watching an event that is taking place literally within five minutes drive from my house at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood.... five minutes on a normal day anyway because today half the streets are tied up, making it more like fifteen... the duration of a brisk walk downhill from my house.

I'm listening to Roger Ebert interview Johnny Depp now. I wonder how he (Ebert) does it year after year... the same dull questions. I love movies but talking about them always seems somewhat dumb. I mean what is there to say, really? It's only a movie. Some are good, most bad. Well, there's a lot to say, but it's not the kind of thing you would talk about at the Oscars.

So far the most interesting figure to me is Hilary Swank, because she looks like a real person, not a STAR, but she really is in the deepest sense.

People have asked me what it was like when I was nominated. I barely remember and not because it was 15 years ago. The amount of hype and glitz is just so overwhelming you can't process it. And, as a writer, the media is not that interested in you anyway, so you bob down the red carpet in a semi-conscious condition hardly able to realize you are there. I never expected to win that evening (and I didn't), so I wasn't especially tense, but it was kind out of body experience.

5:16 = It hasn't even started yet and already it feels like a long evening. Does anybody really care who wins these awards, other than the nominees themselves and their friends and family? But it is nice to see Don Cheadle there. I am always pleased to see people you would never expect to see nominated for Oscars, but who deserve them, like Cheadle.

As for the dresses, my six and a half year old daughter Madeleine says "They look pretty but they don't look comfortable."

Wolfgang Puck's "smoked salmon Oscar" looks pretty good.

Chris Rock is bombing. He's not funny and he doesn't understand movies....

Oprah is not laughing. I don't blame her. This is endless and stupid.

Beyonce is singing quite well. ANd she looks great. Don't know if this is the same as when I was nominated, but when the camera is off the audience, people are being marched around and seated in different seats.

I didn't vote in the best song category, but I must say the French song sounded better than most. It's been a long time since the movies had great music that was original. Ray obviously has great music but it sure ain't new.

One of the reasons I don't like Rock is the "black thang" as he does it sounds so old. Pryor did this shtick much better twenty-five years ago. Enough already. The movie business is filled with terrific black talent and has been for years. Rock acts like there is still something controversial about all this. What, exactly?

I love the Edith HEad character from The Incredibles doing the costume design award. I voted for Lemony Snicket in this as well. As I said earlier, LS had great "tech credits" as they say in the business. But as predicted The Aviator won this category. Great job too.

I am writing right now, before the award is given, that Blanchett will win for The Aviator, just to risk making an ass of myself, although I voted for Sophie Okenedo.

Well, risk rewarded, I suppose. She's a terrific actress and did a good job. Kudos to Tim Robbins for keeping his mouth shut about politics. Is there a new worry abroad in Hollywood that they could be alienating people? Don't know, kemosabe.

Dinner time. I don't wwant to spill my chicken all over the computer. There are others doing this, I understand. I'm out of this for now. Will say the editing award should have gone to Collateral. But, as predicted, it went to The Aviator, which was a half hour too long. But, hey, in the end, it's all about opinions. Ciao.

Back: Just wanted to say Taylor and Payne seem like nice guys. As predicted, they won for Sideways. I voted for Million Dollar Baby. Spider-Man 2 deserved to be nominated in the writing category, even though it won in visual effects (hey, another one I actually voted for --it's been a while, although I started out well.)

Hooray for Sidney Lumet - an OScar well deserved and a speech well delivered. Some wonderful acting in his movies. Didn't Newman look great in that clip from The Verdict?

Jeremy Irons is actually funnier than Rock, never thought I'd say that.

For those who don't know, the whole Academy does not vote for Best Live Action Short, only those who show up for the nominee screening. That would be (guessing here) about five percent of the membership.

Kate Winslet is my favorite actress of the moment - a glorious performer and glorious looking. The cinematography award for The Aviator was inevitable. Robert Richardson made Oliver Stone's career years ago. Scorsese obviously didn't need as much help. But Richardson is a great DP and one can only say - great hair!

Hayek and Cruz together. I prefer Hayek on all levels. Ray gets a sound award? Okay, that's a surprise. I don't get it.

Santana in a cornball Che t-shirt. So far, I like the French song best. This is dull schmaltzy fare. If Che hadn't died young, people wouldn't worship him so blindly and we wouldn't have to listen to this sentimental crap. Deep down the whole Che cult is just about looks. Can you imagine people still running around in Che t-shirts if he had just been some ordinary looking guy?

Finding Neverland, a movie I could barely sit through, wins for best score. I think I predicted that (it's getting late). Met the guy who won at a dinner party. He was interesting. This is the kind of film where you remember the score because the movie was tedious.

AM I wrong or was that a much shorter number of movie industry dead this year? No Theo VAn Gogh, of course, but his contribution to the cinema was certainly not on the level of the others cited,not by a long shot. Still, a short list and I found the Yoyo Ma addition slightly pretentious for the occasion.

Prince gives the best song. Well, no "Singin' in the Rains" here. They gave the Oscar to the song from The Motorcycles Dairies. The composer sang his own song a lot better than the others. I saw him smirking during the Santana performance.

Sean Penn takes on Chris Rock for his snide and dumb comments about other actors at the beginning.

Best actress: I thought both Swank and Winslett were great. I voted for Swank but could have gone the other way. Liked both movies a lot. Swank is fascinating person. I think she will be moving us in films for decades to come. She has really got it. Special kudos to her for thanking the writer Paul Haggis. Swank reminds me of some of the great actresses of the forties. It's not about looks.

ANother great younger talent just been honored. Charlie Kaufman. He is the most original voice in American film now, bar none. Malkovich, Adaptation, now Mind. THAT is impressive. What's next? Directing, I know. Let's hope Kaufman is smart enough to give himself as good a script as he gave other directors.

Has Clint just gotten started? His mother's 96. What genes. This victory for this incredible man has one simple message: never think about retiring.

The amazing thing about Million Dollar Baby is that it was made in 37 days. Some people wouldn't make the movie if offered only that much time.

Big Winner tonight: Clint Eastwood. Big loser: Chris Rock.

And hey, it didn't run too late.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 4:22 PM
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Live-Blogging Oscar?

Several people have emailed to ask if I would be live-blogging the Academy Awards. No way. It's not nearly interesting enough for that. And what if I fall asleep? I have no incentive to stay awake. I don't have any money in a pool this year.

But I am interested to see if anyone mentions the killing of filmmaker Theo Van Gogh, an event which apparently is instigating an increased exodus by the Dutch from their own country. Will Van Gogh appear in the annual montage of those film figures who left us during the past year? Color me surprised, but impressed, if he does.

UPDATE: The real mystery, according to CNN, is whether anybody will watch. Will "awards fatigue" prevail? [Hey, I thought you weren't going to blog the Oscars.-ed. I'm not. I'm saving my story of how Joan Rivers fired me for my book.]

AND: Pieter Dorsman notes that he and others were ahead of the NYT (see above) on the fleeing Dutchmen. No doubt they were.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 3:12 PM
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From the Land of the Pharaohs...

I'm relieved Big Pharaoh - the blogosphere's man in Cairo - doesn't appear as worried as I thought he would be about the sudden announcement by Hosni Mubarak of democratic elections in Egypt. Recently the BP opined that he didn't think his country was ready for full bore democracy and preferred to wait for a civil society to develop. Well, history has a way of pulling us along with it. Now the Big Pharaoh writes he may even vote for Mubarak. I guess it's a case of "the devil you know." We're all familiar with that. But speaking of "devil" clichés, we all know it's supposed to be in the details.

UDPATE: Also from the Big Pharaoh, a group of Lebanese has pulled down the statue of the late Syrian dictator Hafez Assad in Lebanon. Maybe they'll put up one of Bashar, though I doubt it. Am I only one or has anyone else thought that the opthalmologist/wannabe dictator is a particularly spidery and repellent version of Michael Corleone, taking over the family business? Or better yet, maybe he's Fredo.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:21 AM
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February 26, 2005

Putin Doesn't Read Blogs

Well, that's a safe bet. But it's even safer after reading this report in Newsweek of Bush and the Russian president's meeting in Bratislava:

When Bush confronted his Russian counterpart about the freedom of the press in Russia, Putin shot back with an attack of his own: "We didn't criticize you when you fired those reporters at CBS."

It's not clear how well Putin understands the controversy that led to the dismissal of four CBS journalists over the discredited report on Bush's National Guard service. Yet it's all too clear how Putin sees the relationship between Bush and the American media-just like his own. Bush's aides have long feared that former KGB officers in Putin's inner circle are painting a twisted picture of U.S. policy. So Bush explained how he had no power to fire American journalists. It made little difference. When the two presidents emerged for their joint press conference, one Russian reporter repeated Putin's language about journalists getting fired. Bush (already hot after an earlier question about his spying on U.S. citizens) asked the reporter if he felt free. "They obviously planted the question," said one of Bush's senior aides.

No doubt they did. This squares with my experiences in Russia pre and post Soviet Union. Paranoia, alas, is buried deep in the Russian soul, probably from the time of the Tsars or even before. It destroys their society. At least there's a funny part in this case. We all know something those "crafty" KGB-types would never believe - that Charles Johnson had more to do with the "firing" of Dan Rather and company than George Bush.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 11:03 PM
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Advanced Political Science

Of course "political science" is nearly an oxymoron, but if I were to study the subject at a university, I'd want Michael Barone as my professor. No one is more illuminating on our polity and he has rarely been better than he is in his new essay "American Politics in The Networking Era" in the current National Journal. (via PoliPundit)

If I were a Democratic Party operative reading this article, I would be afraid, I would be very afraid. Barone makes an all-too- cogent argument for the emergence of a Republican majority in our new age of networking (you're part of one now, I guess, reading this). Michael shows how Karl Rove and Ken Mehlman exploited these emerging networks in a more far-reaching manner even than Howard Dean and his vaunted Deaniacs who initially supported the Dean campaign. (They way out did Dean in email addresses, among other things. And did you know people with "caller ID" tend to vote Republican?) The detailed specificity and planning by Rove and Mehlman is quite amazing and, yes, in a certain sense scary.

In the midst of reading this essay, I was suddenly reminded of the weirdly paranoid Congressman Hinchey of Ithaca NY and his bizarre and repeated assertions that Karl Rove was behind the forged National Guard documents promulgated by Dan Rather. Congressman Hinchey should read this article if he really wants to know what Rove was and is about. Karl, quite obviously, wouldn't waste his time on anything so pointless and risky as forged documents. He was too busy with the important business of actually winning an election (and future ones as well) while the Hinchey's of the world were busy looking for someone to blame as an excuse for their own failure. Unfortunately, I'm not sure the Congressman has the intellectual horsepower... or is it the emotional balance... to understand that.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 5:25 PM
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Another Break in the Ranks

Normblog has some interesting excerpts from a Bartle Bull subscription-only article in Prospect Magazine. Mr. Bull reported on Iraq for The New York Times. Highlight (note: no "money graph"):

The failure of "hotel journalism" might be forgivable if it were truly about prudence or even laziness. But there has been something wilful about the bad reporting of this story. It is weirdly personal: Iraq must fail. It is in fact the press that failed, on a scale for which I cannot think of a precedent. Will the big media outlets demand the same accountability of themselves that they demand of everyone else? They should, for the success of these elections was not so surprising to those who dug below the surface of Iraq.

UPDATE: Don't miss the superb post by Brown Line in the comments!

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 1:36 PM
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For the sake of your back - something to bookmark...

... I already did. Sheryl just pointed me to SeatGuru.com which is (their words) "the ultimate source for airplane seating and in-flight services information." Several airlines seem to be missing, but most of the biggies are there. The heck with Vivekananda, et al - this is really useful!

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 12:40 PM
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Who is to Blame...

... for the Tel Aviv nightclub terror attack? Well, everybody, if we are to believe this Haaretz report - and I have no reason to doubt it.

Defense sources had told Haaretz that the bomber, Abdullah Badran, a resident of the West Bank town of Deir al Ghusun, had connections to Fatah and Islamic Jihad agents in the Tul Karm region as well as with Hezbollah. Palestinian security officials issued a similar assessment.

Of course, the differences between Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad have always been difficult to discern. They are more about nomenclature given their mutual policy, which is simply psychotic religious murder almost certain to deny Palestinians a state forever. But the target this time, more than the Israelis themselves, seems to be the new Palestinian Authority, personified for the moment by Mahmoud Abbas. The ball is very much in his court and evidently our government is urging the Israelis to give him a chance. How long this will last is obviously unclear. Debka is reporting the stockpiling of heavy weapons by the PA, which violates existing accords and seems to me monumentally stupid from the PA's point of view, unless they intend to use them on their own extremists. If they start to turn them on the Israelis, I predict in short order most Palestinians will find themselves east of the Jordan River and likely to remain there.

UPDATE: Captain's Quarters takes a different view. Ed Morrissey seems to believe that Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad can actually be differentiated in an ultimate sense. I respectfully disagree. I believe they share personnel, goals, information, everything, and take credit in the most elusive way possible. What is Al Qaeda, after all, but the fungible name of the old Muslim Brotherhood? There are new ones every day. It goes on.

Of course the most important development may be this:

The bomber's family announced by loudspeaker that Mr. Badran had carried out a "martyrdom operation."

But the mood in his West Bank village was subdued and without celebration, as has often been the case with such attacks, Reuters reported.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 10:21 AM
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Et tu Hosni?

TigerHawk has an interesting post about the seeming capitulation of the Eygptian strongman/leader to the new democratic trend. One day afte he was snubbed by Condi Rice, Hosni Mubarak announces a "new package of democratic reforms."

Of course, we should be skeptical, but that's the obvious. Hosni and his buddies were probably panicked about their aid checks. But more astonishing is the whirlwind-like power of this movement toward democracy. Even though elections in Egypt (still a big if, of course) would likely produce some form of Islamic government, it would at least be an elected one. Different patterns might emerge. The status quo was wretched, for the Egyptians and for everybody else in the region. Change, as they say in the I-Ching, is good. Let's see if it is real.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:47 AM
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February 25, 2005

Uh-oh... Terrorism in Tel Aviv

A suicide bomber has struck on a Tel Aviv promenade. Toll so far... 24 wounded, some dead. This is the first test of the tentative ceasefire. It will be interesting to see what Abbas does. How does he react to the psychotic slaughterers who are behind this?

Debka is reporting 3 dead with 30 injured, 15 seriously. This was indeed a bloody attack. They also a report a "string" of Palestinian suicide attacks aborted.

It will also be interesting to see how the Europeans deal with this -- they who condemn the Israelis for building a security fence but themselves built the camps.

UPDATE: Haaretz has raised the number of wounded to 38 with the death toll as yet unspecified. Islamic Jihad has claimed credit.

MORE: Interestingly, Al Bawaba gives a straight forward report without reference to the usual rehtoric defending the "Palestinian cause."

MEANWHILE: According to Haaretz, Al Aqsa is blaming Hezbollah. If that prove true, that means more trouble for the Syrians. The WaPo, of course, using reactionary rhetoric, still calls these groups "militants," not fascists or theocratic fascists, which they are. (Oops, that's Reuters report--no surprise at the language. My bad.)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 2:09 PM
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Dept. of Talk Is Cheap

Several days ago, when the market took its biggest bath in a couple of years, I turned to Sheryl and said, "This is a good time to buy stock." Did I? No. Should I have? Evidently.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 12:03 PM
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German Revisionism

Germany's leading news magazine Der Spiegel is back on Gerhard Schroeder's case while again (only two days later) giving high marks to George Bush for his European conduct (earlier pro-Bush Speigel piece here):

But in Bratislava, the similarities between Bush and Schroeder in their approach to Putin ended with the smiles and the backslapping. In fact, it was the subtext of the US-Russia meeting that was most interesting -- a subtext absent from Russia-Germany get-togethers. Bush, as it happened, had spent the weeks leading up to the Slovakian summit firing off frequent admonishments to Moscow. He is concerned about the course Putin is steering and let the world know about it.

Causes for concern are many and primarily focus on Putin's seemingly ambiguous commitment to democracy. Putin, in recent months, has presided over the somewhat questionable break-up of the oil giant Yukos, rescinded the rights of Russian citizens to elect their own regional governors and placed that power firmly in his own hands, and has silenced a number of media outlets critical of his leadership. In addition to democracy issues, however, Bush and Putin have also butted heads over a number of foreign policy differences, most recently highlighted by Putin's avowal that he believes Iran is not interested in building a nuclear weapon -- a position Bush categorically disagrees with.

Bashing Schroeder -- one of the duller politicians to trod the international stage in some time and that's saying something -- is easy. But it was interesting that Der Spiegel "got" what Bush was about with Putin more than many in our own press. Bush is one of the more successful poker players I have watched in some time. This guy wants to win; others want to "be right." Anyone who has been through more than ten cents' worth of psychotherapy (or has a tad of common sense) knows which is the more productive approach. My best guess is that Bush was about coopting Putin. "Hey, my man here says he loves democracy!" What could Vladimir do but gulp and nod? We'll see how this plays out down the line, but as strategies go, it's not bad.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 10:14 AM
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Jargon Clean-Up

Austin Bay has declared his blog another "GATE Free Zone". Next blog cliché for the jargon dumpster: "the money graph." (Hello, Andrew!) Undoubtedly there are others.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:24 AM
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February 24, 2005

Oscar Award Blahs... (but here's how I voted)

I'm certainly with those suffering from the "award fatique" described by Sharon Waxman in tomorrow's NYT. Enough already with these silly prizes while the world may or may not be going through a Berlin Wall moment.

Nevertheless, in keeping with the hemi-semi-demi-full disclosure of this blog, I am going to continue a hoary tradition of two years duration and reveal how this Academy member voted in the Academy Awards and how I think the Academy itself will vote. Caveat: I used to be pretty good at the latter (won a few pools), but lately have often been off base. If you feel like following along with your own personal form (although I don't see why you would) you can get your own printable Oscar ballot here from the Academy site. I will use their order. Some categories will be skipped because I didn't vote in them:

ACTOR -- LEADING
I voted for Don Cheadle's restrained performance in HOTEL RWANDA. The Academy will go for Jamie Foxx in RAY. I think he was good too, but I didn't much care for the movie and that prejudiced me against him.

ACTOR -- SUPPORTING
In this case I did vote for Jamie Foxx in the underrated COLLATERAL. I'm not sure on this one, but have a hunch that the Academy will go for Thomas Haden CHurch in SIDEWAYS.

ACTRESS -- LEADING
I voted for Hilary Swank in MILLION DOLLAR BABY, so will the Academy. This woman is the real thing.

ACTRESS -- SUPPORTING
I voted for Sophie Okonedo in HOTEL RWANDA (hey, I must've liked that movie). The Academy will give this one easily to Kate Blanchett for THE AVIATOR.

ANIMATED FEATURE
THE INCREDIBLES... probably really the Best Picture too, but not nominated. Anyway, a lock in this division.

ART DIRECTION
THE AVIATOR (me and them).

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Ditto.

COSTUME DESIGN
I voted for LEMONY SNICKET (loved the visuals in this movie, though I was slightly bored by the story). I think the Academy will go for THE AVIATOR again here.

DIRECTING
Another Oscar for Clint. I voted for him and so will the Academy. MILLION DOLLAR BABY, baby.

FILM EDITING
I voted for COLLATERAL, which was beautifully edited. I'm cynical and think the Academy will go for THE AVIATOR, which was twenty minutes too long.

MAKEUP
LEMONY SNICKET (me and them)

ORIGINAL SCORE
Again I voted for LEMONY SNICKET. Not sure but I think the Academy will vote for FINDING NEVERLAND to honor a movie they seem to like and won't win other categories.

ORIGINAL SONG
I didn't vote. Didn't like any of the songs, but I rarely do. The Academy will probably go for that nauseating tune from THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. Feh.

BEST PICTURE
MILLION DOLLAR BABY (me and them)

SOUND EDITING
THE INCREDIBLES (me and them)

SOUND MIXING
I voted for SPIDER-MAN 2 here (which had great tech credits). I have to admit I have no idea how the Acad will vote on this. THE AVIATOR? Okay, THE AVIATOR

VISUAL EFFECTS
SPIDER-MAN 2 (me and them)

SCREENPLAY -- ADAPTED
I voted for MILLION DOLLAR BABY. I think the Acad will go for Taylor and Payne's SIDEWAYS, which was a nice job too.

SCREENPLAY -- ORIGINAL
I voted for Charlie Kaufman's ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND. I think the Academy will too. At least I hope they will because I don't think there's any doubt that Kaufman is the most interesting (relatively) new talent in film.

That's All Folks!

Well, not quite all. I just wanted to point you to Baldilocks who has some intelligent things to say about host Chris Rock. I agree with Baldie... who cares about Rock's politics? I just care that he's funny! The Bush Dumb jokes are way too 2001. His stuff on abortion, however, when it's not taken out of context, makes me laugh. I mean how could I criticize someone for using the F-word? I wrote for Richard Pryor!

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 5:07 PM
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Yes, a Real Blogger

Jerry Brown, the former Governor Moonbeam to some (not to me), is showing himself to be a real blogger, not some pol pretender with a ghost writer. Moreover, he seems far more savvy about what's going on in the blogosphere than most of the MSM. The reason for that may be that he is less threatened by us than certain media types are. But it also may be that he has a genuinely inquiring mind. I don't think he's being pretentious when he quotes Schopenhauer. I think he's actually read him. And I also think he's genuinely anxious to get into a dialogue. He has open comments. It'll be an interesting test of some people's maturity to see if it stays that way. This blog has managed to sustain open comments since its inception. I hope his does too.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 3:06 PM
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Early Riser Alert - Book Dept.

Temple Grandin, the brilliant and fascinating autistic woman who is Catherine Johnson's collaborator on Animals in Translation, will be on the Today Show tomorrow morning (Friday). She will also be on Prime Time next Thursday.

Apropos, betwen surgery, blogging, writing my book, writing a screenplay, working on various other projects, taking my daughter to school and her skating lessons and trying to get my shoes tied when I have a moment, I have managed to read most of Animals in T. It is a terrific book, which I have already recommended to a number of people. Through the secret life of animals we understand ourselves.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 2:53 PM
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Iran Update

There's no question that this is "nervous time" for the Mullahs with their fascist Syrian pals under siege by the Lebanese populace. Gary Metz reports of some inside worries by the Iranian National Guard. "Society is in an unstable state."

Meanwhile Debka tell us: A high-placed Iranian mole has been caught in Iranian president Mohammed Khatami's office in Tehran. Hossein Marashai, head of Iran's cultural heritage council, was caught using a sophisticated US-manufactured listening-long-distance-transmitting device at top-level Iranian leadership meetings. DEBKAfile's sources calls this the deepest foreign intelligence penetration in all 26 years of Iran's Islamic regime.

Believe it or not, but we do know this story was true.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 12:07 PM
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More Good News from the ME

After some wrangling, the new Palestinian Authority cabinet has been filled with fresh faces instead of the old Arafat kleptocrat clique. A new golden age? Of course not, but Mahmoud Abbas seems to be serious in using his power against Ahmed Qurie, the aging Arafat hack.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 11:34 AM
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Twenty-Six Years in a Vietnamese Jail

While an Iranian blogger (or bloggers) heads for incarceration, VietPundit reports on a Vietnamese Buddhist monk who has just gotten out of a Vietnamese jail after twenty-six years.

Dept. of Oops: Didn't mean to state that Thich Thien Minh was actually a blogger... though maybe he should be. [Mistakes like this occur when you post while running out the door to your car dealership.-ed. Especially when you go for what you think is an oil change and end up with a thousand dollar's worth of repairs.]

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:35 AM
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For Once Sex Has Nothing To Do With It

Frank Rich is certainly correct in pointing out the drastic decline in viewers for this year's Golden Globes and Grammys and, most probably, the forthcoming Oscars, but I question his explanation. Rich thinks people are being turned off by the growing blue-nosed censorship of the current administration. Well, I'm no defender of censorship, but I don't think that has much to do with why they're not watching. The problem is a lot greater and possibly more enduring than that. (Blue laws have been cyclical since the days of our Puritan ancestors.)

The real reason the public isn't watching those award shows is that they are turned off by the work itself. The product of the music business has been mediocre and plastic for the better part of two decades. Ray Charles was a great musical genius, but the sad part of the Grammys is that he deserved to win and he's dead! No wonder people, particularly the younger generation, aren't interested.

The situation for the Golden Globes/Oscars is similar, because the position of movies in our culture has been on a continual decline (with minor bumps) since the 1970s. I hate to say it as someone who works in the Industry but glamour in the movie business disappeared with Robert Evans' last cigar. (Okay, he's still puffing but you know what I mean). Nobody cares. The most popular movies are now animations and deserve to be. Maybe if Sponge Bob was the host of the Oscars instead of Chris Rock people would tune in.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 1:14 AM
Comments (63)

February 23, 2005

A timely blog from Lebanon...

... called Across the Bay... recommended to me by several readers and definitely worth a look. Let's hope it proves as timely as all those blogs from the Ukraine.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 11:05 PM
Comments (4)

Bad News Times Fourteen!

According to the BBC:

An Iranian weblogger has been jailed for 14 years on charges of spying and aiding foreign counter-revolutionaries.

His sentence, criticised by human rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders, comes a day after an online 'day of action' to secure his release.

Yikes! Fourteen years in an Iranian jail for blogging. I could make a joke, but it's far from funny. Meanwhile...

A second Iranian blogger, Motjaba Saminejad, who also used his website to report on bloggers' arrests, is still being held.

I hope the Eurocrats doing the negotiating with Iran over nuclear weapons are paying attention. This the BBC, practically their house organ. The Iranian Mullahs are serious fascists. Is Europe going to roll over for that another time? God help us.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 2:06 PM
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Calling Rewrite!

Okay, there's no such thing as "rewrite," but it sure looks like it's going to be a loooong Oscar Night if the best Chris Rock can come up with is yet another (yawn) "Bush is Dumb" joke like the following he's supposedly going to crack us up with:

"Bush is not stupid. All you people who say that are wrong. You can't be an idiot and get to be president. You gotta give the guy a little credit. Anyone that's smart enough to get that far has got to be just acting dumb."

I know Chris may not have been following the news (inconvenient for the reified) but the New York Times reported long ago that experts think Bush has a higher IQ than Kerry. Who cares? Well, I guess Chris Rock. [Get that man for our Texas Hold 'Em game.--ed. You betcha!]

Note to Rock: Hire Tim Blair.

UPDATE: Some people have written me as an Acad member who I think is the best Oscar host. In recent years, Billy Crystal by a mile. Overall: Bob Hope. And I don't even like Hope that much (except for his very funny early work like The Cat and the Canary). But for Oscar night I favor the cornball and the traditional.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 1:08 PM
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Darfur - "Never Again" All Over Again

Few people want to be reminded of the ongoing genocide in Darfur, just as they didn't want to hear about Rwanda. It's too frightening and depressing. So Nicholas Kristof deserves support for his strong oped in the NYT this morning - The Secret Genocide Archive. The photographs alone are stomach-turning.

So why has the world largely ingored this? Kristof offers this solution:

What will really stop this genocide is indignation. Senator Paul Simon, who died in 2003, said after the Rwandan genocide, "If every member of the House and Senate had received 100 letters from people back home saying we have to do something about Rwanda, when the crisis was first developing, then I think the response would have been different."

Yes, of course. We should all do what we can. But this shouldn't be an exclusively American problem. It is a world problem. The United Nations, which was formed in the wake of genocide and was supposed to make the repetition of such horrors its number one priority, has not nearly done its job here, just as it did not in Rwanda. Why? Maybe there just isn't any money it.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 11:17 AM
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Free Lebanon!

The Council of Lebanese American Organizations is sponsoring a demonstration in front of the Federal Building in Westwood this Saturday between 3 and 6! Let's support them in their desire to drive out the Syrian Baathists. They deserve it after years of living under those fascist thugs. And, hey, it's not raining in Los Angeles anymore. Time to soak up some rays!

Meanwhile, the frequently interesting Lebanon Daily Star has a report on anti-Syria protests from the Lebanese diaspora.

UPDATE: BoiFromTroy has the demonstrations already in progress outside his office.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 10:20 AM
Comments (9)

Another Dark View of the Euro-American Dialogue...

... by Janet Daley is closer to Steyn than Bay (see below) and contains the following:

But whatever it is, it no longer has a belief in real democracy of the kind that Americans recognise - government of the people, by the people and for the people - at its heart.

American talk about spreading freedom is not just gauche; it is a reproach.

Is this only about the Frano-German axis? I'm afraid not. You would certainly have to Spain into the bargain... and then much of Scandinavia... and so it goes.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 10:11 AM
Comments (36)

Give Me Your Tired Your Poor - Not So Fast!

As if we hadn't heard enough repellent reports about the UN these days, Claudia Rosett has news today about their wretched treatment of refugees from that giant insane asylum known as North Korea.

The situation, by U.N. lights, is of course complex. For more than a decade, North Koreans have been fleeing their country by the only avenue even partly open to them--past the northern border patrols, into China. An estimated 300,000 North Koreans are in hiding in China today. They have a well-founded fear of persecution, should they be sent back. Testimony has stacked up high and wide--much of it over the past four years, on Mr. Lubbers's watch-- that if returned these refugees would likely end up starved or worked to death in the labor camps of Kim Jong Il. Some are murdered outright. One recent dispatch from a South Korean private aid group, the Headquarters for the Protection of North Korean Defectors, reports that according to sources inside North Korea the regime there just last month executed some 60 North Korean would-be defectors sent back by China, killing at least eight in public, in the northern city of Chongjin--to deter others from making a run for it.

The UNHCR keeps an office in Beijing, with a budget this year totaling $4.4 million, to which asylum seekers have no access. Four years ago, a family of North Korean refugees actually stormed the premises and gained asylum after threatening to eat rat poison from their pockets if forced back out onto the street. Since then, the UNHCR has allowed China's security agents to better defend the compound against further visits by the people the UNHCR is supposedly in China to protect.

The horrifying thing about all this is that it is not even faintly surprising at this point.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:05 AM
Comments (15)

February 22, 2005

Mark Steyn's Darkest Column...

.. with his bleakest last sentence, at least as far as I can remember. (No, I won't quote it and spoil the context.) Is he right? Yeah, I guess so. Pass the sushi. (via Glenn)

UPDATE: Austin Bay takes a more optimistic view than Mark. I hope he's right. My view, if it matters, is somewhere in between. Maybe it's because I live in California, but I have thought the future is to the East for some time. The US-Japan relationship seems to be quietly growing, after the Japanese manner.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:45 PM
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Taranto Absolved

James Taranto (who has been making strange--for him--oddly unsubsantiated anti-blog mutterings of late) has a particularly good post today about Hillary Clinton. James sees Hillary as the overall frontrunner for '08 at this early point, pointing to both her grown-up foreign policy views and the irrational Republican hatred of her as assets. I agree with Taranto. In the foreign policy area at least, Hillary (like her husband) seems oddly closer to Bush than she does to the mindless Dean-Kerry-Kennedy crowd. More to come, obviously.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 2:23 PM
Comments (68)

Two Religious Psychopaths

Sometimes I wish I didn't get emails from MEMRI (Middle East Research Institute). They are not good for the blood pressure. But in the tradition of "blood pressure misery" loves company, here is Hezbollah's Hassan Nasrallah (text) and Al Qaeda's ever-popular Dr. Zawahiri (video). Nasrallah must be having blood pressure problems of his own these days.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 2:01 PM
Comments (8)

Disturbing News

According to this report, at least, the new Iraqi Prime Minister has deeply reactionary views on the rights of women.

In the early days of the now-defunct Iraqi Governing Council, Jafari was part of a group that moved for Sharia to govern family status, including marriage, divorce and inheritance.

"Islam makes a woman the responsibility of her father until she marries," he said, "and then she is the responsibility of her husband."

Let's hope this misogyny is resisted.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 11:07 AM
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Sick Priorities

Sad news again from Iran.

A powerful earthquake struck southeast Iran Tuesday, killing 400 people, injuring hundreds and turning remote mountain villages into rubble, officials said.

Distraught and weeping villagers carried dead bodies wrapped in bloodied blankets and bed sheets, and dug with their bare hands through ruins in search of friends and relatives.

Sad news indeed. But to be frank, I think it verges on the mentally ill that a culture so primitive that year after year it leaves its citizens unprotected from the same natural disasters, its countryside scattered with untold numbers of medieval villages without even a semblance of earthquake proofing, would have an atomic bomb. That's like giving a loaded gun to a two-year old. I hope those European negotiators start to grow up a bit themselves and realize this isn't about American hegemony. This is about human survival.

More here. Not surprisngly, the situation is getting worse.

UPDATE: My thanks to Kyda Sylvester in the comments for reminding us that today is the day of protest against the incarceration of the Iranian bloggers Mojtaba and Arash.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:59 AM
Comments (24)

February 21, 2005

SoCal Monsoon Update

According to the AP, a total of 31.40 inches of rain has fallen since the rainy season began on July 1, making it the fifth wettest season on record, according to the National Weather Service. The record, 38.18 inches, was set in 1883-1884.

Will we break the record? Stay tuned.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 11:59 PM
Comments (15)

Apologia Pro Vita Kofi

Kofi Annan has an op-ed of his own in the Wall Street Journal Tuesday, the newspaper that has printed so many eviscerations of him and his organization, by Claudia Rosett and others, in the last couple of years. His defense of the UN (and tactily of himself) is puerile and boring, not even really worth reading. He puffs up their contribution to tsunami relief like a second-rate PR man, ignores the horrendous and metastasizing sexual scandals and sees the Volcker Report on Oil-for-Food as some kind of vindication before it has even appeared in its entirety. (Does he know something we don't know?)

The United Nations deserves better than Kofi at its head, obviously, but Annan himself is only a symptom of a far greater problem. The United Nations itself will never function as it was intended without total economic transparency in all its activities. Oil-for-Food is undoubtedly only the tip of a corrupt gravy train that has been running for decades. Volcker must demand that it be stopped through complete transparency. It is the only way. Otherwise his committee is nothing but a whitewash, no matter what it says or how it phrases its conclusions. Without economic transparency, those of us who grew up imbuing the UN with our most idealistic hopes will never recapture them. Future generations will never believe in the possibility of any kind of world government. And yet we all must have a way of communictating with each other. The UN is a great and necessary idea. Kofi Annan and the kleptocrats he has enabled have betrayed humanity at the most base level.

This also means that those who defend the UN in its present form in kneejerk fashion for their own political purposes must honestly face what they have been doing. Martin Peretz says it clearly at the conclusion of his essay in the current New Republic (link by sub. only), relating the problem of the UN to the greatest issues of our times:

Peter Beinart has argued, also in these pages ("A Fighting Faith," December 13, 2004), the case for a vast national and international mobilization against Islamic fanaticism and Arab terrorism. It is typologically the same people who wanted the United States to let communism triumph--in postwar Italy and Greece, in mid-cold war France and late-cold war Portugal--who object to U.S. efforts right now in the Middle East. You hear the schadenfreude in their voices--you read it in their words--at our troubles in Iraq. For months, liberals have been peddling one disaster scenario after another, one contradictory fact somehow reinforcing another, hoping now against hope that their gloomy visions will come true.

I happen to believe that they won't. This will not curb the liberal complaint. That complaint is not a matter of circumstance. It is a permanent affliction of the liberal mind. It is not a symptom; it is a condition. And it is a condition related to the desperate hopes liberals have vested in the United Nations. That is their lodestone. But the lodestone does not perform. It is not a magnet for the good. It performs the magic of the wicked. It is corrupt, it is pompous, it is shackled to tyrants and cynics. It does not recognize a genocide when the genocide is seen and understood by all. Liberalism now needs to be liberated from many of its own illusions and delusions. Let's hope we still have the strength.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:17 PM
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Some dry humor...

... from Charles about the literacy of our friends at the Daily Kos. Perhaps Mr. Zuniga is a secret admirer of the great Dr. Johnson, as recorded by Boswell:

Mr. Elphinston talked of a new book that was much admired, and asked Dr. Johnson if he had read it. Johnson said, "I have looked into it."
"What?" said Elphinston, "Have you not read it through?"
Johnson, offended at being thus pressed, and so obliged to own his cursory mode of reading, answered tartly, "No, Sir, do you read books through?"

But somehow I think it's more serious than that.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 3:47 PM
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Litterbugs of Amazon

Several people have called to my attention that some "progressive thinkers" have been going to the Amazon URLs where my books are sold and giving those books one-star (out of five) reviews and leaving derisory comments. These people (or person, who knows?) were undoubtedly motivated by their dislike of the content on this blog. In several cases, they admit they didn't even read the books.

This juvenile behavior is, of course, a problem with the Amazon system. I am not sure if it is actually costing me money (turning people off buying the books), but I can promise you it doesn't make me feel good. It's sort of like waking up in the morning and finding graffiti all over the front wall of your house - and not very artistic graffiti at that - more like idiotic scrawls.

Amazon, as far as I can tell, does not allow for the correction of this kind of thing. And even so, trying to talk to a human being at the online behemoth, unless you're Jeff Bezos' mother, seems nigh on impossible. If anyone reading this knows how I can contact Amazon about this directly, I would be appreciative. I am sure there are other authors who have been similarly slimed.

UPDATE: Thanks to Allah(pundit), I just dialed the 800 number for AMazon (800-201-7575) and spoke to an actual person who was very cordial and helpful. They are looking into the matter and will be back to me within three business day. I will keep you posted on this admittedly minor adventure.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 3:04 PM
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"God gave Noah the rainbow sign...

... no more water but the fire next time." Is Someone trying to tell us Southern California livers of the good life something? Don't know, but there's been a "Whole lotta rainin' goin' on," Jerry Lee. When will it stop? I've never seen the likes of it and I've been here since 1968.

For those of you kind enough to inquire, my house, parts of which were built in 1929 (the early Paleolithic Age for Los Angeles), has not been washed down the hill.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 11:58 AM
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In the words of ML, "Faster, please"

"Lebanese Shout 'Syria Out' After Hariri's Killing"

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 10:41 AM
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Hunter Does a Hemingway

Still convalescing from my gall bladder surgery, I woke up very late for me today (9AM) to the sad news that Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, the founder of gonzo journalism (wow what a blogger he would have been!), died by his own hand in his Aspen-area home yesterday.

It's been a while, but I knew Hunter back in the days when we were both among the first authors being published by Rolling Stones' Straight Arrow Press (early seventies) -- his Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and my The Big Fix. Those books got that then new indy press off to a good start (his far more than mine). When I was I late on the deadline for my second mystery (again nowhere near as late Hunter of course) I was installed by our mutual editor/publisher Alan Rinzler in a San Francisco motel room (the oh-so-hip Seal Rock Inn) previously occupied by Hunter to finish my book. The friendly housekeeper, a heavyset black woman, watched me bring my stuff in. I could see her in the mirror as I unloaded my toilet kit (aspirin, etc.) into the medicine cabinet. "You don't got nearly as much in there as Mr. Thompson," she observed. No, I didn't.

Rest in peace, Hunter. I'm going to see if I can dig out my old copy of Fear and Loathing.

UPDATE: Yes, in answer to several questions, Dr. Gunther Thomas in my novel Wild Turkey, the same one I wrote a great deal of then in the Seal Rock Inn, is a very thinly disguised Hunter Thompson. The most he ever said to me about the characterization was one word "nasty." I thought it was affectionate.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:24 AM
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February 20, 2005

How the Great Historians Write

I found this essay by historian Paul Johnson a masterpiece of concision and one of the most remarkable contemporary analyses I have yet seen. Thanks again to Catherine for the link. It made me check out Mr. Johnson's books once again.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:54 PM
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New Hope for Dan Rather/ Bad News for Negroponte

Dan Rather, who has been made a laughingstock of serious journalism, now has a chance for a comeback (at least monetarily) through a character defamation lawsuit because of remarks made by Cong. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY). Yes, I know such suits are difficult, except in England, but bear with me. Cong. Hinchey said the following at a community forum in Ithaca, New York re: Rather's promulgating the forged Bush NG documents:

Probably the most flagrant example of that is the way they set up Dan Rather. Now, I mean, I have my own beliefs about how that happened: it originated with Karl Rove, in my belief, in the White House. They set that up with those false papers.

Hmm... So what you're saying Cong. Hinchey is that Karl Rove assumed Dan Rather was such a blithering idiot he would be gulled by a forgery so inept it took these gentlemen about five minutes each (probably less) to uncover it.

[Well he was.--ed. Hey, you've got a point there. Scratch the previous post. Hinchley is some kind of covert action genius to have figured this out. Congress, hold the phone on the Negroponte nomination. We have a New Intelligence Czar -- Maurice Hinchey of Ithaca, New York!... Either that or we have one of the bigger dunces ever to walk around live on Capitol Hill. I'm afraid it's the latter.-ed. Spoil sport.]

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 6:43 PM
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The News of the Week in Review

For Iran.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 2:18 PM
Comments (2)

Endgame in Iraq?

I think that's more than a little optimistic, but two articles (less than three hours old) linked one Power Line today make on wonder if the Baathist holdouts, at least, are reading the handwriting on the proverbial graffiti-filled wall.The first of these speaks of secret (read: back channel) negotiations with the Baathists. Of course the "devil" is, as always, in the details... and you'll never guess who one of the devils is this time:

Controversial Iraqi politician Ahmad Chalabi said on Sunday the outcome of any negotiations between insurgents and the U.S. military would not be binding for a new Iraqi government.

"I know nothing about such negotiations. Those negotiations will in no way bind the elected government of Iraq," he said in an interview with ABC's "This Week." "The issue here is not negotiating with the killers who are killing the Iraqi people."

Interesting. I don't know what to make of this, except that Baathists aren't the only killers out there, not by a long shot. Meanwhile the second recent report has Sunni Tribal leaders having second thoughts about joining the government:

Gathering in a central Baghdad hotel, about 70 tribal leaders from the provinces of Baghdad, Kirkuk, Salaheddin, Diyala, Anbar and Nineveh, tried to devise a strategy for participation in a future government. There was an air of desperation in some quarters of the smoke-filled conference room.

"When we said that we are not going to take part, that didn't mean that we are not going to take part in the political process. We have to take part in the political process and draft the new constitution," said Adnan al-Duleimi, the head of Sunni Endowments in Baghdad.

I think this is more clearly good news. But the playing field remains as treacherous as can be. Still, you have to do something. Who was it who said you don't make peace with your friends? Some deceased Israeli, as I recall.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 1:23 PM
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Regarding the Email Dialogue between Jeff Jarvis and Bill Keller

... which has Keller's response to Jarvis' request for a summit of some sort between the New York Times and bloggers, I must say I agree with Bill (disclosure: I am friends with both men). Why the NYT and why some sub-set of bloggers? We are all part of some vast and rapidly changing dynamic with (and here I agree with Keller again) no easily foreseen conclusion. Putting together some specific group of supposed adversaries in a conference room off Times Square (or anywhere) to resolve this for millions doesn't seem particularly democratic to me.

Further, while the New York Times is obviously a great newspaper, arguably the greatest, I think it is demeaning for bloggers to curry their favor... or anyone else's for that matter. [Hey, schmuck, they review your books!-ed. Easy, easy.] Yes, I find the coverage of blogs in the Times often tendentious, as it is elsewhere. But I regard that as part of the ongoing Class Struggle, which I quoted so frequently during my marxist days. I would love to share bagels with Bill or Jeff on any occasion, but as for a formal confrontation between bloggers and "elite media," the only bagel I'm interested in is Hegel (as in dialectic).

UPDATE: Austin Bay puts it in a larger context.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:33 AM
Comments (20)

La Vie En Invers

Reader John Winkler has sent a link to a rather disheartening report from the Gallup organization. According to a poll they took Feb 7-10:

Thirty-one percent of Americans believe building democracy in other countries should be a very important foreign policy goal. Conservatives (45%) are much more likely to believe this than moderates (25%) or liberals (19%).

Of course, as with all polls, the question-framing is open to, um, question but...wow! Back when I defined myself as a liberal or a lefty one of our policy keystones was the overthrow of dictators like Pinochet. The Fall of the Berlin Wall was a milestone and a cause for rejoicing. Apparently, things have changed radically. Also, "liberals" who once seemed to have a determinedly international outlook, now seem, in many cases, almost born-again Babbits. This is evidence that people's politics, like beauty, is only skin deep (a scary thought, actually). Many people have no real politics at all other than social "self-description." They hypnotize themselves into sets of beliefs they feel are in keeping with club or team membership. Then the franchise moves to another city and they switch beliefs to keep their rooting status.

And I don't think self-described conservatives have anything to be smug about in all this. All sides are ever open to this kind of emotionally stunted behavior. My suspicion of labels of all sorts is not abating. I'm still with Chairman Deng Tsaio Peng (here it comes again): "I don't care if a cat is black or white as long as it catches mice!"

UPDATE: For the heart-warming story of a man building democracy go here. (ht: Catherine)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:01 AM
Comments (27)

February 19, 2005

Europe Loses Its Smugness

At least according to this National Journal article (ht: Catherine Johnson):

Another main reason for the altered mood [in Eupope] is the Iraqi election, which prompted a bigger shift than might have been guessed. Restoring relations with Europe was not much in the Bush administration's mind when it planned Iraq's electoral timetable. Building an autonomous nation, undermining the insurgents, and advancing the U.S. military exit were doubtless the immediate goals. But it is not just the insurgents whose position has been undermined by the emergence of a new democratic order in Iraq. The election's remarkable success -- demonstrating the Iraqis' passionate desire for democracy, an opportunity that only the overthrow of Saddam Hussein could have given them -- makes it far more difficult for Europe's war opponents to maintain their accustomed stance of moral superiority.

The election does not repair the broken justification for the war [sic]; it does not redeem the errors of postwar planning and execution; and, at least for now, it will do nothing to lighten America's military and fiscal burdens in Iraq. What it does do is make a certain kind of European smugness untenable.

Well, I guess that's going to help tourism, if nothing else. In the end, however, I think what Europe thinks of us is far less important than Asia -- China and India particularly. They're the future and, hey, the food's not bad there either.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:14 PM
Comments (26)

February 18, 2005

What's a Journalist - A Personal Tale

I admit I haven't been following the Gannon/Guckert Affair as closely as I should and if the Bush Administration had some sort of mini-plant in the White House Press Room, I certainly don't approve. But I have a confession to make. I was one too. Well, sort of.

The year was 1987 -- the time of the Reagan/Gorbachev Summit in Washington -- and I had a pretty good gig with Universal Studios. I was hired to write a movie for Whoopi Goldberg in which she was to play a member of the White House press corps (don't ask - it was never made anyway!). So I went off to DC on an expense account right in the middle of the summit. A friend at CNN called Marlin Fitzwater (Reagan's press secretary) and asked him if I could hang out at the WH Press Room for atmosphere. He said sure, c'mon over, without seemingly giving it a second thought.

Now keep in mind my politics in those days were somewhere to the left of Michael Moore's, except I was somewhat more knowledgeable and honest (I hope). But this didn't bother Marlin. He was a good, old boy who liked his bourbon and branch (I shared some with him). I hung out in the Press Room for the better part of a week, watching the usual suspects (Helen Thomas, etc.) pepper him with questions. Could I (like this Gannon character) have asked a few myself? Who knows, but I wouldn't doubt it. The whole thing in those days was pretty laissez-faire. They even took me along with them on the press plane (known as the "zoo plane") when the entire crew followed Ronald R. down to Florida where he delivered a speech in some high school (I think it was Talahassee) and then came back a few hours later. Most of the real jockeying seemed to be about who had the best seats in the press room and, more importantly, on the plane. You won't be surprised to hear that the network correspondents were up front.

Now I'll repeat, I don't approve Gannon whoever-he-is pulling off some shell game about "who's a journalist" with or without White House cooperation. But when I read Mr. Sid's heavy-breathing about this matter, you'll have to excuse me for laughing.

UPDATE: I'm out of the satire game (for the moment), but I have a suggestion for two blogosphere greats in this regard. How about Gannon/Guckert goes on Larry King to discuss "the art of the softball"? Speaking of which, has anyone looked into Larry's background? He's been throwing softballs for at least four (or is it seven?) administrations. Who's been paying him? I know - CNN. But there could be more...

MORE: Hindrocket has the serious side of this story, such as it is.

YET: Rick Ballard has helped jog my faulty memory (well, it's been 17 plus years). The city where I traveled on the zoo plane was Jacksonville, not Talahassee (see list of Reagan's speeches here). The summit began on Dec. 8. During the intervening week, I remember it snowed heavily in Washington. I met several journalists then to interview them for background. Only one did I have an unpleasant time with (and he with me, i would imagine) -- ironically the TV journalist I now most admire... Brit Hume.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:24 PM
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Political Explosion in Lebanon...

... in the wake of the mega-assassination of Hariri. The Daily Star is calling it an "intifada of independence." Will it last? How far will it go? I don't know, but this kind of explosion in the Arab Middle East was inevitable. You can only stay so far behind the rest of the world for so long. Meanwhile, Debka fingers Syrian Military Intelligence as being behind the Hariri terror attack.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 6:46 PM
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Putin Gazing

Secular Blasphemy has an interesting post on the new (or not so new) alliance between Syria, Iran and Russia. He sees Russia (Putin) looking beyond the War on Terror to the continuing game of global power struggle, in which Russia would naturally make Iran its ally against a US which is currently picking up the other Middle Eastern marbles, such as they are. I think SB has a point, but it makes me wonder how smart Putin actually is. (I know he's tough.) I think he may be mired in a paranoid Byzantine mindset that sees the world as continuous East-West struggle. He cannot envision other. Of course, there is a strong argument to be made that this is a disastrous approach for his people. Unfortunately, they are used to it.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 5:28 PM
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I will be on Larry Kudlow's CNBC show this evening...

... with other bloggers Jeff Jarvis and Matt Yglesias. Topic A - Oil-for-Food [Again?-ed.].

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 1:36 PM
Comments (10)

Calling a Criminal a Criminal

I imagine those "impartial" professionals in our media wouldn't call a group trying to blow up St. Patrick's Cathedral "insurgents," but they still use that supposedly unbiased moniker to describe the terrorists trying to do the same to Shiite mosqes in Iraq, even though the Iraqis have now held a democratic election. I won't make accusations of racism or elitism here, though I could, but I would say this is insulting to decent Iraqis trying to build their society. Actually, it makes me sad, because I thought places like CNN would begin to see the ramifications of their own tired rhetoric.

Speaking of which, I saw a bit of the debate between Howard Dean and Richard Perle. I must say that I find Howard entertaining, but he is a dreadful politician in one sense -- the ability to win over those on the other side (I don't think Perle is particularly distinguished at this either, but he's not running for any office that I know of or acting as a party official). Dean is the opposite of Clinton in that regard or even of Bush, who up close seems to be better than his reputation at coopting his opposition. I'd like a guy Dean for a drinking partner, but not on my side if I were trying to get something done.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 12:45 PM
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The Patriot Act Revisited

The Patriot Act is coming up for renewal this year. I have often heard people at cocktail parties and elsewhere criticize it as if it were the work of Torquemada's lost brother, but when I cautiously asked them if they had read it, not once did they say that they had, although it has been readily available on line for some time. Of course, it's a serious matter, the balancing of civil liberties vs. defense against terror deserves our close attention. Fausta of the Bad Hair Blog has been giving it such, attending a lecture by one of the act's authors Prof. Viet Dinh. Her report is here.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:24 AM
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From the Files of Comrade Dzerzhinsky

At Cheka headquarters, comes this dispatch:

President Vladimir Putin said on Friday he was convinced Iran was not trying to build a nuclear weapon and that Russia would press ahead with nuclear cooperation with the Islamic Republic.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 6:33 AM
Comments (8)

First Academy Award Prediction

Would it be otherwise, but the terrorist assassination of fellow filmmaker Theo Van Gogh will not be mentioned at this year's Academy Awards. Has host Chris Rock even heard of him? I wonder.

But this report from the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment FF has the most complete information so far on the Al Qaeda-like cell that plotted this murderous blow against free speech in Amsterdam.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 5:52 AM
Comments (6)

February 17, 2005

Into the Heart of Darkness

Great as Claudia Rosett has been, the only one who could really write the story of Oil-for-Food is Joseph Conrad because this tale of corruption is as rich and complex as Nostromo or Under Western Eyes. For the last few days, lead investigators for Paul Volcker's Independent Inquiry Committee into the United Nations Oil-for-Food Progamme have been in London, Geneva, Paris and perhaps elsewhere, interviewing parties of interest who may have known about connections between Kojo Annan, Cotecna, and Nigerian and Iraqi government officials. A final report is promised by the end of the month but I am somewhat skeptical that this particular group can complete their task effectively. They are reportedly American attorneys. Do they have the linguistic capabilities (fluent Arabic and French at the minimum), not to mention experience in the ways of the developing world, to investigate murky transactions that took place in Africa in 1998-1999?

1998 is the operative year when then 23-year old Kojo came to join Cotecna, a company then under sanction in Nigeria for arms sales. December 31 of that year is when that same company sealed the deal with the United Nations, replacing the venerable Lloyd's as the UN's oil agent of choice. No one has explained to me why Lloyd's had to be replaced. Perhaps that is significant, perhaps not. (Apparently only a handful of companies could do such work.) And what, if anything, was young Kojo doing in the Fall of '98 that gave his company this windfall? At the very least, one would have to go to Lagos, where Kojo was based with Cotecna, and perhaps to South Africa, where other meetings were held, to find out. And maybe you would have to go with George Smiley, rather than the Volcker crew.

What seems to be missing from the investigation so far is the Iraqi side. Yes, there was corruption in the United Nations-there had been for years, apparently-but how did the Iraqis seize upon it? It would seem to me (admittedly from afar) that the approval of Cotecna would have been a no-brainer for the Iraqis. Ah, young Annan's company, yes, yes. No one would ever have had to say anything. Not Kojo, certainly not his Dad. "Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer," as that other Don (Corleone) would tell us.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:33 PM
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What Matters in the End

Austin Bay, who was actually part of our armed forces in Iraq, refocuses here on what's really important about the Eason Jordan Affair (I'm endeavoring to make this a "gate" free zone). A reminder to the MSM who seem to keep score on such matters: Besides being a blogger Bay is also a professional novelist and opinion writer.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 1:39 PM
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Okay, the Bay of Pigs Invasion didn't work...

... but now Castro has a serious adversary.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 12:24 PM
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He's Bad and He's Back - Again!

Ahmed Chalabi, that is. Well, he's supposed to be bad and he's obviously back. According to David Frum (and others), Chalabi is one of the two frontrunners for Iraqi PM and by far the most secular and sympathetic to the US. This is all despite the countless attacks on Chalabi by the CIA and others, none of which have seemed to be able to stick. Why? Frum has the "Machiavellian Man on the Iraqi Street" explanation:

There's a theory in Iraq - it sometimes get picked up on English-language Internet sites as well - that the whole CIA-Chalabi quarrel is a clever American ploy to make the US guy look like an Iraqi nationalist. If only the US government were that cunning and that capable!

Well, maybe the Mossad. But I would agree with Frum that the CIA as we know it has never shown this kind of subtlety. Of course, that's only "as we know it"," so they may on occasion have risen to the occasion, but good ol' Occam's Razor seems to be at play here. The CIA despised Chalabi because the Pentagon liked him (or some of the Pentagon anyway). It's our own blood sport at play here, mixed in the real blood of others.

I don't know what to make of all this. Chalabi's certainly a smart man, not just because of his mathematics PhD from the Univ. of Chicago (something I can't imagine even one percent of our politicians being able to hack). But the stench of corruption is always around him. Of course, the stench of corruption is around virtually every politician in the Arab Middle East. And I don't think when the dust settles, if it ever does, he will be seen as anywhere near as corrupt as major players in the UN and their Oil-for-Food enablers. Of course, OFF is a big part of the equation here. There's a lot buried under those berms.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:55 AM
Comments (20)

February 16, 2005

I told you it was a sad day when Allahpundit retired...

... but maybe LaShawn can replace him. [But can she Photoshop?-ed. Teach her.]

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:15 PM
Comments (1)

Blogging Jerry

I agree with Glenn: Jerry Brown has great potential as a blogger. And I'm not one who normally advocates politicians having their own blogs. Frankly, the vast majority are boring in print and presumeably would be just as dull digitally. Even Clinton, who certainly had the gift of policy gab, produced a book that no known person has read through. (Maybe his editor.) There's a reason these people hire speech writers. Or as John Fogerty put it more succinctly: "Zaentz Can't Dance."

Another politician I would like to see blog: Bob Dole. Feel free to add your own potential blogging pols

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:49 PM
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The Guru Speaks

Sometimes I think the Democrats are walking into walls. (Hey, and I'm still a Democrat. Too lazy to go and register as an Independent or unconsciously reluctant? You decide.) Their latest silliness was visible all over the networks last night where one after the other were opining that Alan Greenspan would put the kibosh on private Social Security accounts during his Congressional testimony today. Prominent among them was Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid who was then shown advocating those same private accounts only a few short years ago. Was Reid having a senior moment or just being a partisan hack? I hope it's the former because the latter is almost ludicrously self-destructive in this instance. Clinton, as is well known, advocated the same thing during his administration. What's with these Democrats? They're starting to make Tom Delay look good. [Not.-ed. Okay, not.]

Of course, the world now knows what Greenspan hath decreed. Is he right? Beats me. But I'd trust him over Harry Reid in a New York minute. And so would anybody else with an ounce of sense.

I think this whole story has an interesting reflection in the War in Iraq. Those same Democrats who only favored private Social Security accounts when they were in power are the same people who backed Clinton completely during the unseating of Milosevic, but are opponents of the more geo-strategically important unseating of Saddam. Would they have been for the same War in Iraq under the same conditions with the same results had Clinton been in power? I'd bet my house on it. And the same goes for most of the war's media opponents. This is power/party politics with the thinnest veneer of logical rationalization.

UPDATE: Josh Marshall... as well as commenter Steve J below... have corrected an inaccuracy on my part. Clinton (and there fore Reid) was not advocating privatizing a portion of Social Security, but was for putting some of the fund itself into the stock market. There is a distinction here clearly, but not one to get all fevered about. (Marshall doesn't.) I find this whole debate an example of what is wrong in our politics. Cool heads should be able to examine the numbers here, see what is most probably right and make the appropriate adjustments without having to resort to open warefare. Obviously that's difficult for many.

As for the gnomic Mr. Greenspan's testimony. It pretty much made sense to me, but my pension fund's been doing well lately.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 1:14 PM
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Kojo's Mojo

Apparently Kojo Annan's company Cotecna was in the crossfires again yesterday of the Senate investigation into Oil-for-Food, according to this Torygraph report:

UN inspectors in Iraq spent their working hours drinking vodka while ignoring a shadowy nocturnal fleet believed to be smuggling goods for Saddam Hussein, a former senior inspector told the US Senate yesterday.

In a move that provoked fury from officials of the Swiss firm Cotecna, an Australian former inspector detailed a picture of incompetence, indifference and drunkeness among the men acting as the frontline for UN sanctions.

This is obviously the tip of one of the larger icebergs extant whose ramifications have yet to be seen. Kojo Annan's earlier denials of knowledge and responsibility for Cotecna/Iraq ties are apparently under question. From its own discrete sources this blog may be reporting soon with original material. Of course I will try to vet this material closely before posting. Stay tuned.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 12:01 PM
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I'm sure all the readers here will join me in...

.... sending our special best wishes to Tony Snow and his family for a speedy recovery from his colon cancer. Snow has shown the same kind of courage he is known for as a journalist in confronting his illness in a public way.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 10:45 AM
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Yes, but you don't get all those "great" alumni magazines...

The Anchoress has an interesting post on why "Not everyone needs to go to college, Ma'am."

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:24 AM
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Not So Romantic Anymore

I've been lucky enough to have traveled a lot in my life, but one place I have never been, though I have always wanted to, is Istanbul. I've never seen St. Sofia or the Blue Mosque, never bargained for rugs in the bazaar -- a weakness for a thriller writer, I admit. But these days it seems I am unlikely to fill this gap in my personal knowledge. According to Robert Pollock's "The Sick Man of Europe--Again" in today's WSJ, things are very bleak indeed in Turkey, which has become rife with anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism.

Perhaps the most bizarre anti-American story au courant in the Turkish capital is the "eighth planet" theory, which holds not only that the U.S. knows of an impending asteroid strike, but that we know it's going to hit North America. Hence our desire to colonize the Middle East.

It all sounds loony, I know. But such stories are told in all seriousness at the most powerful dinner tables in Ankara. The common thread is that almost everything the U.S. is doing in the world--even tsunami relief--has malevolent motivations, usually with the implication that we're acting as muscle for the Jews.

On the other hand, Cliff emails the following:

The Turks are like the French in Normandy - tremendously fond of
Americans, open-hearted, generous, and helpful. And their English is
usually much better.

If you ever really want to go to Istanbul I could give you the names of several people who would be glad to spend days touring you around.

I lived in Turkey one summer in the 80's, have visited again, and
frequently have Turks visiting my home.

He also blames the Istanbul tabloid press, which he likens to the British, for some of this.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:57 AM
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It's the Lawyers, Stupid

When I read Joe Hagan's piece in today's New York Observer on the continued CBS Rathergate Follies, which details some of the legal jockeying surrounding the cover-up and subsequent firings, I was immediately struck with a low-rent
"Aha!" concering that other "gate" named Eason. No wonder Jordan was defenestrated so quickly by CNN. Loose lips of that nature are legally perilous for any corporation. I know nothing of Swiss law, obviously, but suppose someone connected with US military decided to launch a defamation suit against Jordan? And he said similar nonsense in Portugal.

The idea that he is victim of "blogger lynching" is simply nonsense. The internal firing squad is far more lethal.

UPDATE: More on what Jordan hath wrought. (ht: Buzz Machine)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:36 AM
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Power Line's Deacon Read My Mind...

... when he commented this morning on Thomas Jocelyn's article on Michael Scheuer. (Your remember Scheuer, the former "Anonymous," author of Imperial Hubris). Here's the Deacon:

When Scheuer left the CIA and began appearing on television, I was astonished at how goofy he seemed to be. However, I didn't realize he was this goofy, and such a simple-minded hater of Israel (which he calls a theocracy) to boot. You can get more nuanced analysis from a drunk at your neighborhood bar. How could a guy like this have held a responsible position at the CIA? And how many like him are still there?

Oh, well, let's give Scheuer his due. It depends on what your definition of a theocracy is, after all, and maybe he didn't make it over to Israel in time for the Gay Pride festival... or get a chance to go to the beach in Tel Aviv. It would all be laughable except... we paid this man's salary! (warning: last link "not safe for work")

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:52 AM
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Dept. of Who Knows?

An explosion near the Iranian nuclear plant in Bushehr? Missile from a drone? Errant fuel tank from an Iranian plane? Something's up. Debka says Iranian TV temporarily went off the air.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:38 AM
Comments (9)

February 15, 2005

The Thornburghs

Incredibly, the coverup at CBS continues. Have these people no shame?

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:15 PM
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Referendum in Iran - A Proposal for Bloggers

My friend Michael is telling us that the Battle of Fallujah was more important than we have been led to believe by the media.

Our victory in Fallujah has had enormous consequences, first of all because the information we gathered there has made it possible to capture or kill considerable numbers of terrorists and their leaders. It also sent a chill through the spinal column of the terror network, because it exposed the lie at the heart of their global recruitment campaign. As captured terrorists have told the region on Iraqi television and radio, they signed up for jihad because they had been told that the anti-American crusade in Iraq was a great success, and they wanted to participate in the slaughter of the Jews, crusaders, and infidels. But when they got to Iraq - and discovered that the terrorist leaders immediately confiscated their travel documents so that they could not escape their terrible destiny - they saw that the opposite was true. The slaughter - of which Fallujah was the inescapable proof - was that of the jihadists at the hands of the joint coalition and Iraqi forces.

Thus, the great force of the democratic revolution is now in collision with the firmly rooted tyrannical objects in Tehran, Damascus, and Riyadh. In one of history's fine little ironies, the "Arab street," long considered our mortal enemy, now threatens Muslim tyrants, and yearns for support from us. That is our immediate task.

What Brother Ledeen calls for in this article is a national referendum in Iran that asks a simple question: "Do you want an Islamic republic?" Fair enough. But how can such a thing be accomplished? Michael makes the following suggestions:

Send Lech Walesa and Vaclav Havel to supervise the vote. Let the contending parties compete openly and freely, let newspapers publish, let radios and televisions broadcast, fully supported by the free nations. If the mullahs accept this gauntlet, I have every confidence that Iran will be on the path to freedom within months. If, fearing a massive rejection from their own people, the tyrants of Tehran reject a free referendum and reassert their repression, then the free nations will know it is time to deploy the full panoply of pressure to enable the Iranians to gain their freedom.

I will add one of my own. I think the blogosphere should devote itself to this, make the call for a democratic referendum in Iran one of our top priorities. We have been accused of late (falsely, I believe) of being a destructive force, of tearing things down like a mob. Surely, the call for a referendum in Iran is not that. It is the promotion of democracy at its purest. Bloggers on all sides of our political spectrum should be able to get behind that. I'm in.

UPDATE: I just appeared on Hugh's Show regarding the Iran Referendum question. (Yes, Dr. Firoozmand, I am going to get some rest.) Let's hope other bloggers will heed this call. Of course, it's delusional to think the blogosphere by itself has the power to overthrow the mullahs, but spreading the word for a democratic referendum in Iran across the Internet could be tremendously powerful at this point in time.

MORE: Gary Metz logs in on the referendum and other issues concerng Iran.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 2:59 PM
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Those Aging Movie Stars...

They're always looking for a younger man. [Thank God, Marianne's out of it.-ed. My thoughts exactly.]

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 2:00 PM
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Brooks is at His Best Today...

... which is very good indeed.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 10:48 AM
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Anonymous Grub Street

I think there is an unwritten story in the present blog/MSM controversy regarding Eason Jordan. Journalists are jealous of bloggers. Some of them very jealous. And I am not saying this just because if you type "Jeff Jarvis" into Google you get 397,000 links and if you type "Steve Lovelady" (the Dorothy Parker wannabe who recently called us "salivating morons") you get 804. Many of the more prominent bloggers are people who could have been journalists but chose not to, going into professions that took more professional training and/or were more remunerative. Now they can afford to blog at their leisure and, not surprisingly, they're pretty good writers and journalists. And, also not surprisingly, many journalists are pissed off.

I have my own story in this regard. I thought about being a journalist, even about attending Columbia "J" School, but decided to pursue playwriting, although I knew it was far more difficult (hey, get serious!). After I graduated from Yale Drama without really learning how to write plays (truly difficult indeed - and can't really be taught anyway), I wound up writing novels and screenplays for a living (both difficult enough). When I was still starting out, I wrote a couple of journalistic pieces for West Magazine, a defunct organ of the LAT. Wow, this is easy, I thought (compared to what I was trying to do), but then I sa