A Running Diary of Thought

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Lefty: Lefty Mag Ain't Lefty Enough

The Nation prints a boring article about The New Yorker's war coverage. Blah, blah, blah. Lazare's real beef with the mag is that it doesn't square with his view of the war:

Just as the magazine helped middle-class opinion to coalesce against US intervention in Vietnam, it might well have served a similar function today by clarifying what is at stake in the Middle East. ... Instead of encouraging opposition, it helped defuse it. From shocking the bourgeoisie, it has moved on to placating it at a time when it has rarely been more dangerous and bellicose. (emphasis added)

posted at 6:07 PM |

 

The Planned Lynch Pinch Cinch?

The Beeb says the Dog Was Wagged. Prescient headline?

the skeptic also drew attention to a Post story that deflated the Lynch hoopla. (Too bad it was like fighting a forest fire with a bucket of water.)

P.S. This quote seems pretty ridiculous, doesn't it?

"This story is Mission: Impossible, but it's real," an [NBC] official told [Variety]. "It's uplifting, heroic, compelling and dramatic.

"You see this sort of thing in spy movies and wonder if it's really true. Now we know it is true."

posted at 3:46 PM |

 
An author of the new Iraqi constitution suggests that democracy in the Middle East will help quash violent anti-Israeli and anti-American sentiment. Let's hope he's right...

posted at 10:25 PM |

 

Oh, Le Monde!

From the FT:

The Hidden Face accuses Le Monde of everything from trafficking influence, running secret campaigns for favoured politicians and harassing businessmen for commercial gain to publishing anti-French propaganda, stifling internal debate and misrepresenting the group's sales figures and financial results.

posted at 10:22 PM |

 

An Africa Round-Up

Hold on to your seats, it's a quick tour...

1) Good news for the AIDS bill. It looks like the Senate's going to pass this pretty quick. But the Global Fund will only play a marginal role. That's bad, because the problem with most aid programs is that they're uncoordinated, which leads to an inefficient distribution of resources (nod to Lancaster). Though, word is that the Global Fund is a mess in and of itself. Who knows?

2) Where are the protesters? This is the important question that the Village Voice's Hentoff poses to the American left.

Hentoff notes apoplectically, "If you were to imagine the convening of a Human Rights Commission in Hades, it would consist of Cuba, Syria, Sudan, China, and Saudi Arabia. Libya would be the chair. But I have actually named the real-life members of that United Nations body—the hope of the tortured of the world. Even Mugabe's Zimbabwe sits there!"

Major props to Hentoff for continuously hounding Mugabe (here, here, and here).

Also, Cathy Buckle seethes in her May 10th letter: "It was with deep shock and disgust that Zimbabwe learned this week that our police commissioner Augustine Chihuri has been appointed the Honorary Vice President of Interpol. The double standards shown by European countries to the horrific state of our daily lives in Zimbabwe leaves me just spitting with rage."

And she predicts, post-Mbeki, et al. meeting, Things Will Fall Apart: "Things are getting quieter and tenser by the day and as I sat researching facts for this letter yesterday an air force helicopter circled our little town three times. The end is near."

Finally, rah-rah story of the day: South Africa and Britain pledged to cooperate on bringing "independence, freedom, peace, democracy and prosperity for the people of Zimbabwe." (Contain your laughter-disbelief-skepticism)

3) Fighting rages on in the Congo. "The withdrawal of foreign African troops from the province nine days ago opened the way for a bloody power struggle between the rival Lendu and Hema peoples. More than 100 have been confirmed dead, including scores killed at a parish church where they had sought refuge." Duh-lesson of the year: Power vacuums are dangerous & deadly.

The above article notes the UN has already raised fears of genocide. The Voice of America adds this somber news:

However, the United States says it has no plans to get involved in DRC. A Pentagon spokesman said Thursday U.S. defense officials have not been asked by the Bush administration to determine whether any American military resources could be made available.

If the U.S. were serious about stopping genocide, it would at least be looking into the matter....

Besides, is this really something we want to let the French (who have already "offered to contribute soldiers") handle?

Also, the VOA adds, "A U.N. monitoring force of more than 600 soldiers is already in place in the region. But it does not have the mandate or equipment to stop the fighting."

The insanity of it all!!!

4) After reports that a terrorist attack in Kenya was imminent, British plane flights were cancelled. The apparent presence of an Al Qaeda suspect sent off warning signals. Would that the Saudis were as considerate.... Update: AfP has more...

5) The Swazis bid for democracy continues to stall. A constitutional draft was expected to be completed a couple of years ago, but has slowed to snail's pace as the ruling monarchy seems to be trying to hold on. The EU gave up on funding the costly venture in 1999, but the US & UK continue to nurse along the process in hopes of some change.

Well, at least the women can stay topless...

6) Gays continue to be scapegoated in Southern Africa. HRW charges that African leaders are complicit in the violence directed toward gays.

posted at 9:16 PM |

 
If only we were as good at finding NBC weapons as we are $$$....

posted at 7:59 PM |

 

A confidential e-mail!

the skeptic knows he shouldn't say anything, but he's recently entered into an ever-so lucrative deal with Elmann Mustapha, a personal aide to the Iraqi Minister of Education. Though this technically violates the agreement, the skeptic wants his readers to know that he's working on a serious fund-raising project of the utmost importance.

From : "EL .Mustapha"
Reply-To : el_mustapha@starmail.com
Subject : re: dilemma / assistance
Date : Wed, 14 May 2003 06:33:35 -0700

Dear Sir,

I have made this contact to you with the hope that you can help me out in this my dilemma / problem. I was the personal aide to the Iraqi minister of education and research. Dr Abd Al-khaliq Gafar. That died in the war. Before the war, we had traveled to France to negotiate a contract payment deal on behalf of the Iraqi government on procurement and payment of educational materials and components for the ministry, which entailed him to pay off our customers by cash for onward delivery of the goods via Turkey. Because of international / UN monetary restrictions /sanction on Iraqi. Since our entire operating bank accounts had been frozen.

In gust of this he had cleverly diverted this sum ($28.5m) for himself and secured it properly with a security vault in Spain for safekeeping. As he had kept these documents in hidden and secret with my knowledge. Now that he is Dead and I was able to escape to Egypt for safety on political asylum with this document with me now. Hence I am left with these problems of how to recover and collect this fund for re-invest in a viable venture in your country with your assistance and cooperation. Because of oblivious traveling restricts and sanctions as an Iraqi.

I would really want us to do this deal together if only you can be trusted with this information and project. For more details do reach me via my direct email : mustapha_el@mail2guard.com for further instructions and details. I most remind you that my entire life depends on this fund so please do not relay this top secret to a third party if you are not interested.

I await you immediate response.

Remain Blessed.

Regards
El - Mustapha

Maybe if you send Mustapha an e-mail, you too can get in on the deal of a lifetime.

posted at 7:55 PM |

 

More Blair

This Blair scandal really is something. The kid plagarized or fabricated parts of 36 stories. Was able to do it because he maintained a good rapport with top editors, despite warnings from one editor that "We have to stop Jayson from writing for the Times. Right now." The NYT wrote a lengthy apology.

The best, and least noted part about the NYT's sprawling coverage:

Mr. Blair said he had lost a cousin in the terrorist attack on the Pentagon, and provided the name of his dead relative to a high-ranking editor at The Times. He cited his loss as a reason to be excused from writing the 'Portraits of Grief' vignettes of the victims.

Reached by telephone last week, the father of his supposed cousin said Mr. Blair was not related to the family.

Why has no one talked about this? Is it a cheap shot? Or were such deceptions commonplace in the aftermath of 9/11?

At any rate, some in-house damage control was in order. The NYT held a "town-hall-style meeting" for its staff to gripe about Blair & Raines. The Post has the best quotes:

Sulzberger, the company's CEO, made no attempt to minimize the damage, saying: "If we had done this right, we wouldn't be here today. We didn't do this right. We regret that deeply. We feel it deeply. It sucks."
...
The most difficult exchanges came when the metro desk's Sexton asked why no action was taken after the strong challenges to Blair's reporting in the sniper case -- including from the paper's own Washington bureau. The U.S. attorney in Maryland disputed a Blair article that said suspect John Muhammad's interrogation was cut short just as he was about to confess, and a Fairfax County prosecutor called a news conference to denounce a second piece as "dead wrong."

Raines and his team "did nothing" to verify "the authenticity or quality of his reporting," Sexton said. Why, he asked, did no senior editor demand to know the identities of Blair's unnamed sources?

Raines said it was his failure not to ask about the sources. He said he had "a political reporter's DNA," not "a police reporter's DNA." But he also said that after examining Blair's story and a Washington Post account, he believed the story about the truncated interrogation was at least partially true.

Boyd said the Fairfax prosecutor, Robert Horan, had told the Times that he didn't have a problem with Blair or the newspaper but with whatever sources were providing inaccurate information.
...
One staffer asked yesterday about the departure of Sack and other seasoned reporters, who are widely seen as having been driven out by Raines. The executive editor said he had to do a better job of retaining talent.

Raines was also asked whether other Times reporters were getting a pass for sloppy or inaccurate reporting. He said it "would be wrong to start cannibalizing those achievers on our staff."
...
Separately, a Times spokeswoman confirmed earlier this week that Blair has a relationship with a clerk at the paper who is a friend of Raines's wife. The New York Daily News reported that the woman, Zuza Glowacka, has worked in the Times photo department -- an important fact because the Times says Blair faked some details in his stories by gaining access to the paper's computerized photo archives.

What a firestorm...

P.S. This could be a major story waiting to break... (If the Times probes deeper into its own staff, will other papers feel compelled to probe theirs?)

P.P.S. Or, as reader JR notes in an e-mail, write your own!

posted at 5:50 PM |

 
"Boredom in baseball is like Israel's nuclear bomb: everyone knows it exists, and everyone agrees to pretend it doesn't."

Okay, it's not a summary of the article, but damn if it ain't a good quote....

posted at 10:48 PM |

 
A glance at the WP:

Lots of bad news from the Iraq front, as the security situation is still unbelievably fragile, NBC weapons have yet to be found, etc. Same with the Saudi Arabia and Al Qaeda front.

So, any good news? Syria.

1. school students no longer have to wear military uniforms. Now it's vests and blouses.

2. the border with Iraq is sealed; some Iraqi regime officials have been handed over to the U.S.

3. toned down anti-American rhetoric; promised not to "meddle in Iraq's internal affairs" or undermine Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts.

4. licensed three private banks

5. approved "two new private universities and four private radio stations"

6. considering an end to compulsory military training, and forced political affiliations

7. possibly allowing an opposition party to hold a spot as prime minister

Why? "'When your neighbor shaves, you start to wet your cheeks,' said Nabil Jabi, a political strategist in Damascus, citing an Arabic proverb."

Will it last? Who knows? But it's a good start.

posted at 8:59 PM |