BakerMuckraker
Blogs in the Month of
September - 2006
- September 25,
Cuba Having Problems(!)
- September 10,
Timely Disclosure
CUBA HAVING PROBLEMS (!)
This just in! Cuba is falling apart. Read all about it in the LA Times
>HAVANA — At the intersection of Marina and
Jovellar streets, more than 50 people wait along a potholed sidewalk and
broken curb for a bus that wheezes up to the stop already full.
Somehow, a dozen or so manage to squeeze into the windowless contraption
that dates to the days when Moscow provided much of the means to keep
the Cuban economy moving. Today, the buses barely keep Cubans moving.
Many people spend as much as two hours each night getting home from
their jobs in the center of Havana…….<
TWO HOURS GETTING HOME? Sounds like L.A.!
---
DETAINEE DEMENTIA
Now that we hear increasingly from sober and knowledgeable figures that many – probably the vast majority – of those incarcerated by the US abroad on suspicion of terrorist connections actually don’t have any involvement with terror, here’s something terrifying to ponder: the actual number of unfortunates being held.
How many detainees would you guess there are? 1,200? 2,900? 5,199?
Actually, there are 14,000, according to the Associated Press (via Truthout)
>In the few short years since the first shackled Afghan shuffled off to Guantanamo, the U.S. military has created a global network of overseas prisons, its islands of high security keeping 14,000 detainees beyond the reach of established law…..
….Captured on battlefields, pulled from beds at midnight, grabbed off streets as suspected insurgents, tens of thousands now have passed through U.S. detention, the vast majority in Iraq.
Many say they were caught up in U.S.
military sweeps, often interrogated around the clock, then released
months or years later without apology, compensation or any word on why
they were taken. Seventy to 90 percent of the Iraq detentions in 2003
were "mistakes," U.S. officers once told the international Red Cross….<
FALL IS A GOOD TIME TO SPRING A LEAK!
Everyone loves a good news leak when it tells us what we want or need to know. And we certainly need to know what’s impending concerning Iran, and whether another avoidable war is looming.
Over at TomPaine.com, British leaker Katherine Gun argues for more leaks, not fewer. The aptly-named Gun was working for the British government in 2003 when she leaked a U.S. intelligence memo revealing that the U.S. had mounted a spying "surge" against delegations on the U.N. Security Council in an effort to win approval for an invasion of Iraq.
>Truth telling and whistle blowing are crucial after a war as ill advised as Iraq—at least it allows us to piece together the facts—but it’s too late to save lives. Where are the memos and emails about Iran now?
I urge those in a position to do so to disclose information which relates to this planned aggression; legal advice, meetings between the White House and other intelligence agencies, assessments of Iran’s threat level (or better yet, evidence that assessments have been altered), troop deployments and army notifications. Don’t let "the intelligence and the facts be fixed around the policy " this time.<
Daniel Ellsberg, for one, agrees. In a new Harper’s piece, he expresses regret over not having leaked documents about the situation in Vietnam years before he did in what became known as the Pentagon Papers. He feels that had he done so in 1964, the Vietnam War debacle could have been averted. And he feels that ex-Bush Administration figures like Richard Clarke could have prevented the current disaster in Iraq had they been willing to leak what they knew about the administration’s duplicity in creating a false case for war. Though, notes Ellsberg, one has to be willing to risk a lot – under an initial indictment, he faced a possible 115-year sentence. Imagine: spending a couple of lifetimes in jail for saving hundreds of thousands of other lives.
NOVEL IDEA #746: LET’S PRIVATIZE EVERYTHING
Since so many services formerly provided by government are now outsourced so that rich people can get richer, why not go the whole way: outsource the very running of government. According to USA Today, that’s exactly what is happening now. New cities are increasingly hiring private companies to run their local government itself. (And would you like fries with that birth certificate?)
Muckraker predicts the next step will be for private citizens to outsource things they don’t want to do – taking out the garbage, attending children’s school plays, satisfying the spouse when the inevitable headache comes on. After all, private enterprise is far better qualified to handle such things – they’ve got the experience, and the incentive.
CHOOSE YOUR GOD
According to USA Today, a new survey of religion in the USA finds Americans divided over who God is, and how she, he or it operates: from a wrathful deity thundering at sinful humanity to a distant power uninvolved in mankind's affairs.
Among the findings:
>•The paranormal — beliefs outside conventional organized religion — is immensely popular. Most people said they believe in prophetic dreams; four in 10 say there were once “ancient advanced civilizations” such as Atlantis.
(You know your current civilization ain’t doing so well when you need to claim ties to something from a zillion years ago….or from never)
•“Evangelical” may be losing favor as a way Americans describe themselves. About one in three Americans say they belong to denominations that theologians consider evangelical, but only 14% of all respondents in the survey say this is one way they would describe themselves. Only 2.2% called it the single best term. Top choices overall: “Bible-believing” (20.5%) or “born-again” (18.6%).<
In a further development, Muckraker News Surveys finds that many of the most devout say they would readily abandon their most cherished beliefs if they conflicted with Monday Night Football.
So, let’s get caught up.
TIMELY DISCLOSURE
A report comparing and contrasting the Bush Administration’s public statements about the threat posed by Saddam Hussein with the intelligence the administration actually possessed prior to the invasion…. will not be available to the public in its entirety until after control of Congress is settled in November. Who decides? Why, the very Republican majority that is threatened with losing control of the Senate. The Republican majority that couldn't wait to get down with Saddam.
As as public service, however, the Senate committee is rushing to release portions that are not especially interesting.
WIN-LOSS RECORD
Wouldn’t it be nice to see a list of all the aggressive stances from which every sitting president backed away? Clinton had a few doozies, like universal health insurance. With the current boss, the list is long indeed, with only the most recent example being Bush's confession that secret CIA prisons exist abroad – something the administration had long denied.
On a related front, the Los Angeles Times reported the other day that a new Army field manual now mandates (gasp!) Geneva Convention protections for all prisoners, and eliminates some of the most controversial interrogation tactics, including use of military dogs and simulated drowning. This, of course, after the administration fought like mad to continue those very practices.
The papers are also full of government agencies finally doing their jobs – environmental units actually policing the environment, investigative agencies clamping down on troubling corporate practices, and so on. Now, that’s not to cast the Bush White House as reformist. But Team Bush is finding that the original plan – to turn every agency over to those previously monitored by the agency, and to gut the heart of those operations – was not tenable and held no popular support.
The good thing about keeping track of all these reversals is it allows us to ask this: How frequently does the president end up being forced to take the positions espoused by those he beat in 2000 and 2004? Of course, politics is all about compromise, but the more a president abandons those things that he holds most dear, the more logical it is to ask why he should have been elected in the first place. Not that we'd ask something like that.
SLOW BOAT VETERANS
Speaking of abandonment, Boltin’ Joe Lieberman’s campaign to stay in the Senate at any cost, after the Democrats tossed him in the primary, is getting some help from former Dan Quayle aide-turned-Right-Wing-magazine-editor Bill Kristol and Republican strategist Dan Senor. According to the Times, they are advising a group of veterans launching a series of ads next week thanking Lieberman for his support of the Iraq war.
It’s not clear yet whether any of those appearing in the ads will be missing a limb or two.
TAKING TURKISH TEMPERATURES
For another perspective on what the invasion of Iraq accomplished, we turn to the longtime US ally, Turkey, which as a moderate Muslim country has been a crucial bulwark in US strategy, is very impressed with….Iran. According to the International Herald Tribune,
>Turkey has increasingly warmed toward Iran while cooling toward its NATO allies and the goal of European Union membership, according to a survey of international attitudes published Wednesday. ….
The survey found that on a 100-point “thermometer” scale, with 100 being the friendliest feeling, Turkish attitudes toward the United States fell to 20 degrees, from 28 degrees, in the past two years.
Over the same period, feelings toward Iran increased to 43 degrees, from 34 degrees.<
According to Muckraker News Service, Mrs. Lieberman is looking for an alternative to the family vacation on the Turkish coast.
EQUAL RIGHTS IN IRAQ
Equal rights are apparently growing in Iraq…evidenced by the recent death of Pfc. Hannah L. Gunterman, a 20-year-old from Redlands, California -- just the latest American woman to die there. Her death was attributed to a “non-combat-related cause.” No details have thus far been provided.
ASTIR OVER ASTORS
The New York Times continues its tradition of throwing significant resources into the most urgent investigations. Having thoroughly investigated the Duke Lacrosse rape case, and having concluded that nothing significant was amiss in the official investigation, the paper is now relentlessly covering the case of the apparently incapacitated104-year-old socialite and philanthropist Brooke Astor, and the alleged machinations of her purportedly conniving son.
Apart from the fact that an 82-year-old is accused of behaving badly toward his mother (a piece that more rightly belongs in the science section than on the front page), this hardly seems like something that needs to be in the paper on virtually a daily basis. If we wanted gossip (and we do) we would read the New York Post, or Us Magazine.
THE REAL 9/11 CONSPIRACY?
When Muckraker was near Ground Zero on Sept 11, 2001, ineffectively covering his nose and mouth with handkerchief or leaky paper mask, he wondered what exactly he was breathing. At the time and for many months thereafter, the authorities insisted that the toxic brew from the tragedy was little different from that inhaled at, say, a bus stop on a quotidian day. No one at the scene believed that, and now, a plethora of studies show that, indeed, the air was highly dangerous. They also suggest that government, on several levels, covered up what it knew. Muckraker himself feels good enough nowadays, and a lingering cough from that period is long gone. But others, particularly the responders who spent weeks and months at the scene, have been afflicted by devastating respiratory maladies.
Will anyone outside New York care about this? Will our finest news organizations devote a few resources from the Astor beat to figuring out who knew what, and when? Find the memos, folks.
HOW WAS YOUR DAY AT THE OFFICE, MRS. DELAY?
Did the wife of former House Majority Tom DeLay actually do any work in return for her $3,200 monthly salary from a lobbying firm run by cronies of DeExterminator? According to the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) FBI agents would like to know, and are interviewing former and current employees at the firm to find out if Christine DeLay even showed up – and what crucial skills she brought to her ‘position.’
Muckraker has been wondering about this for the longest time. And wondering why no news organization could have sorted this out. Now, admittedly, Mrs. DeLay probably lacks Mrs. Astor's allure...
SUGGESTED DISTRACTION: CROSS-DRESSING BELTWAY FISH
Those who prefer we not pay attention to things like corruption surrounding the House leadership might be glad for this news of interest to those more focused on "lifestyle” than policy issues: growing numbers of male fish are acquiring female characteristics.
Surprisingly, this is not happening in Greenwich Village, but in the Potomac River. And the likely cause is not cultural permissiveness, but pollution, according to the Associated Press.
>The so-called "intersex fish," which produce immature eggs in their testes, were discovered in the Potomac rivershed in 2003 and have also been found in other parts of the country.
But the frequency that the U.S. Geological Surveys found last year is much higher than what has been found elsewhere, said fish pathologist Vicki Blazer.
In some Potomac tributaries, nearly all of the male smallmouth bass caught in last year's survey were the abnormal fish. In the Potomac itself, seven of 13 largemouth bass exhibited female characteristics, including three that were producing eggs…..<
Sen. Lieberman, erstwhile Democrat, fresh from a new round of endorsements from Republicans, told Muckraker News Service that male fish exhibiting female characteristics warranted public tolerance. "Try to understand why these fish might be doing this," he implored.
TWO-FRONT WAR….FOR ISRAEL
Long before Iraq and Afghanistan became long-running horror flicks, Pentagon planning was predicated on the assumption that the United States needed to be able to prosecute wars on two fronts. But Israel? A fascinating piece in the Times of London says that it is preparing for the necessity of being at war with both Iran and Syria.
>THREATENED by a potentially nuclear-armed Tehran, Israel is preparing for a possible war with both Iran and Syria, according to Israeli political and military sources.
The conflict with Hezbollah has led to a strategic rethink in Israel. A key conclusion is that too much attention has been paid to Palestinian militants in Gaza and the West Bank instead of the two biggest state sponsors of terrorism in the region, who pose a far greater danger to Israel’s existence, defence insiders say.
“The challenge from Iran and Syria is now top of the Israeli defence agenda, higher than the Palestinian one,” said an Israeli defence source. Shortly before the war in Lebanon Major-General Eliezer Shkedi, the commander of the air force, was placed in charge of the “Iranian front”, a new position in the Israeli Defence Forces. His job will be to command any future strikes on Iran and Syria.
The Israeli defence establishment believes that Iran’s pursuit of a nuclear programme means war is likely to become unavoidable.
“In the past we prepared for a possible military strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities,” said one insider, “but Iran’s growing confidence after the war in Lebanon means we have to prepare for a full-scale war, in which Syria will be an important player.”
A new infantry brigade has been formed named Kfir (lion cub), which will be the largest in the Israeli army. “It is a partial solution for the challenge of the Syrian commando brigades, which are considered better than Hezbollah’s,” a military source said.
There has been grave concern in Israel over a military pact signed in Tehran on June 15 between Iran and Syria, which the Iranian defence minister described as a “mutual front against Israeli threats”. Israel has not had to fight against more than one army since 1973…<
THE ORIGINS OF BRUNCH AS WE KNOW IT
Slate has a must-read exploration of…the origins of brunch. Nothing gets New Yorkers worked up like a disagreement on some negligible culinary topic – pretty soon, whole sides of sable are flying through the air.
>"It started right here. This is the beginning of the brunch." This is Gary Greengrass, the owner of the Upper West Side delicatessen Barney Greengrass, known as "The Sturgeon King." A large, bald man who has run his grandfather's deli since 1983, Greengrass is sitting at a Formica table, his eyes trained on the customers coming through the door. At my behest, he is speculating that New York brunch as we know it began here on Amsterdam Avenue at 86th Street, amid pickled herring, whitefish salad, and salmon with eggs and onions. "It sort of evolutionized from here," he says.
Six blocks south, at Sarabeth's at 80th Street, another New York restaurateur was laying down her claim. "I was the original brunch girl," says Sarabeth Levine. "I reactivated the eating of breakfast." Whereas Greengrass specializes in Jewish delicacies, Levine, who opened the first of her five New York locations in 1981, has a menu that tends toward porridges, vegetable and Gruyère frittatas, and pumpkin waffles with sour cream, raisins, pumpkin seeds, and honey. "Before me, you had the local Greek diner or the corner bodega thing," Levine says. "But you didn't have a place to sit down and get hot cereal unless you went to the country."<
In the end though, it's about paying the rent.
>[Restaurateur and brunch pioneer] Sarabeth Levine says, "Do I want people in here for two hours? I don't think so! Breakfast isn't this big expensive thing. It's not like going out for dinner, where you sit for two hours, order wine, and run up a $250 bill. We don't want people nursing a muffin for two hours."<
Muckraker, reading Slate as he nursed a muffin, was surprised to learn that the esteemed institution of brunch in New York is of comparatively recent vintage. From his distant youth in California, he recalls how the Golden State long ago introduced an institution dedicated to doing nothing, very pleasantly, for hours on end. "California, you say? Interesting!"