Search and Rescue Teams compares notes after a day of searching for 13-year-old girl Bianca Noel Piper.
(Laurie Skrivan/P-D)
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“To them, I said, the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images.” — Socrates, Plato’s Republic
31 March 2005
quote of the day - March 31, 2005
ABC News: U.S. Court Again Rejects Schiavo Appeal:
[the White House and lawmakers] 'have acted in a manner demonstrably at odds with our Founding Fathers' blueprint for the governance of a free people our Constitution.'" - 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
30 March 2005
yeah.....
tell me about it
Marylanders’ commutes among longest in nation
"Washington's specialized jobs in government and at research institutions lure many Baltimore residents, who are willing to ensure the long commutes because of the huge difference in housing prices."
Letter to Poynter.org on Gannon/Guckert
From WELDON BERGER:
Subject -- Kristinn Taylor [letter below].
Neither Jeff Gannon nor James Guckert have a First Amendment right to appear at the National Press Club. He does have a First Amendment right to refer to himself as a blogger and journalist, but the press club's Jonathon Salant said in an e-mail to me this morning that the press club does not consider him to be either, and that his participation in the panel arises from his having been cleared into the briefings almost daily over a period of two years despite White House guidelines mandating a hard pass, with the attendant FBI background check, for anyone who plans to attend regularly (something that was made quite clear to me with respect to Eric Brewer, the contributor to my blog who has been cleared to attend the briefings on an occasional basis).
In addition to any other questions regarding Gannon/Guckert's role as a journalist, blogger Ron Brynaert has unearthed a few examples of Gannon/Guckert having apparently plagiarized from at least one AP story. So long as he's on the panel, someone probably ought to pursue that issue as well.
Why the press club expects to learn anything Gannon/Guckert hasn't already said is something of a mystery. He says he doesn't know why he was accorded special treatment, and he says he is a journalist; there's no reason to think he'll elaborate on either issue or that he'll come up with anything that will clarify the 'who is a journalist' question.
"
when will the war on terror finally include the janjaweed?
MPs rap UN over Darfur death toll
The death toll from Sudan's Darfur crisis has been grossly underestimated, British MPs have said. A House of Commons committee said the number of dead could reach 300,000 - more than four times the World Health Organization's figure of 70,000. The International Development Committee also said the world's response had been "scandalously ineffective". Sudan's government and Arab militias are accused of war crimes against the region's black African population. The US says the crisis which erupted in 2003 amounts to genocide. More than two million people are estimated to have fled their homes during the crisis.
who do i believe?
BBCNews: Annan cleared over oil-for-food
TheGuardian: Annan cleared in oil-for-food inquiry
The Washington Post: Kofi Annan Cleared In Corruption Probe
Reuters: Questions Linger After Annan Cleared in Iraq Probe
FOX News: Will Annan Resign? 'Hell No'
Newsmax: Annan Won't Quit U.N. Over Report
Moonie Times: Probe faults Annan
29 March 2005
what is the National Press Club thinking?
The National Press Club Welcomes ... Jeff Gannon?
Blogger? Journalist?
Now that anyone with a computer and an Internet connection can set up shop on the Web, the days when you could tell who was a reporter by looking for a press card stuck in a fedora are long gone. Both journalists and bloggers will debate whether there's a difference between them, on Fri., Apr. 8, at 9:30 a.m. The panel includes Jeff Gannon, whose question at a presidential press conference focused attention on the issue; Ana Marie Cox, editor of Wonkette.com, and Congress Daily's John Stanton. Reserve at 662-7501.
pentagon won't let families photograph caskets
from Behind the Homefront
While the Pentagon usually cites respect for survivors' privacy as the reason it won't let the press photograph the caskets of slain U.S. soldiers returning from overseas, Cox News Service reports that the military refuses to allow the families of dead soldiers take pictures as well. The Department of Defense instituted the policy under then-secretary Dick Cheney in 1991. "It's dishonorable and disrespectful to the families," said Karen Meredith, who was denied permission to photograph the coffin carrying her son, 1st Lt. Kenneth Michael Ballard, at Dover Air Force Base last fall. "They say it's for privacy, but it's really because they don't want the country to see how many people are coming back in caskets."
Janjaweed driving white rhinos to extinction
"I do not believe that any rhinos will survive the year," predicted Thomas J. Foose, program director at the International Rhino Foundation, which is based in the United States and has been working for years in Garamba, the last refuge for the northern white rhino.
The immediate culprits, according to conservation groups, are poachers from an offshoot of the janjaweed, the Arab militia groups that have been pillaging villages in the Darfur region of Sudan.
Rather than attacking people, these militias are on a mission to make money. They steal over the border to kill elephants and rhinos, leaving the carcasses and taking the valuable tusks and horns.
But the greatest threat to the rhinos is political, specifically a growing Congolese nationalism that has undercut protection efforts, including a last-ditch program to move five of the remaining animals to safety in Kenya.
blogging politicians
More politicians write blogs to bypass mainstream media
Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown is one of the latest to stay in touch with constituents by airing his unedited views online.
party animals
GOP Block Party
Loop Traffic Alert! Best to avoid the 100 block of D Street SE on April 5. Four members of Congress who own townhouses on that block are having fundraisers that day, according to PoliticalMoneyLine. The bashes include "Margarita Tasting" with Rep. Chris Chocola (R-Ind.), "Bourbon Tasting" with Rep. E. Clay Shaw Jr. (R-Fla.), "Martini Tasting" with Rep. Nancy L. Johnson (R-Conn.) and "Wine Tasting" with Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.).
Wild Claims
Now my opponent is throwing out the wild claim that he knows where bin Laden was in the fall of 2001 -- and that our military had a chance to get him in Tora Bora. This is an unjustified and harsh criticism of our military commanders in the field. This is the worst kind of Monday-morning quarterbacking. And it is what we've come to expect from Senator Kerry. - George W. Bush
26 March 2005
Washington Monument to reopen
(finally)
The Washington Monument in Washington, D.C., closed since Sept. 7, will reopen Friday after installation of a barrier system, costing nearly $15 million, designed to discourage car-bomb attacks, the National Park Service said.
Bill Line, spokesman for the parks' National Capital Region, described the 30-inch-high barriers as "decoratively, tastefully done," with brick facades on walls reinforced with concrete.
Most of the 55-acre grounds surrounding the monument will be closed until the end of June, he added. A walkway will be kept open to provide access, and there will be a temporary ticket kiosk on the 15th Street side.
The kiosk will distribute free timed, same-day tickets. You can also reserve advance tickets, which are free but carry fees of $1.50 per ticket plus 50 cents per order, by calling (800) 967-2283 or visiting reservations.nps.gov
talking terrorism at the office water cooler
The most notable side-effect of September 11th was that it brought discussions about terrorism, and the government's role in preventing it, straight to the office water cooler. John and Jane Q. Public now participate in terrorism talk (for good or for bad). Unfortunately this leads to misconceptions about terrorism... and wildly inaccurate assumptions about 'what is a terrorist', 'why do they hate us', and 'what is the most effective way of dealing with it'? All of these are important questions, though the answers aren't as easy as John and Jane might think, primarily because these water cooler discussions are founded on false assumtions. Understanding Terror Networks should be required reading for those who think they have all the answers. Written by former foreign service officer Marc Sageman (9/11 Commission testimony), this book seeks to dispell much of the rhetoric about Al Qaeda and sticks to the facts.
The most disturbing byproduct of everyman's inclusion in terrorism discussions is that it often leads to heightened fears... to the extent that they too think they might become victims of the next attack. And overt racism against Muslims in general is no laughing matter either. These irrational notions guide our discussions and motivate our actions. They lead average Americans to expect unreasonable measures from their government. They also rationalize and lead to acceptance of a government that is not-so-slowly but surely becoming more secretive, more intrusive, and less an instrument of the will of the people.
If for no other reason than to re-frame the debate about Al Qaeda and terrorism in general, I hope that everyone reads this book. Despite what John and Jane might think, we don't need to kill tens of thousands of Iraqis to bring down Al Qaeda, as that has quite the opposite effect on the safety of American citizens.
Here are some of Sageman's most notable conclusions:
* Since we can dispose of the usual "root cause" explanations for why people become terrorists (poverty, lack of education, etc.), we don't have to depend on large societal transformations to turn the spigot of Al Qaeda recruits down or off. In other words, we don't have to remake the Middle East to defeat Al Qaeda. * The "quiet period" between 9/11 and today, absent further direct attacks against US targets, is no surprise. Al Qaeda is clever and resourceful, but it is also small and, in some key ways, vulnerable. For example, Al Qaeda leaders did not anticipate the speed and ferocity with which the USA invaded Afghanistan with its NATO allies only a few weeks later. Forcing Al Qaeda to lose its Afghan base of operations did hurt, but it did not prevent the organization from mobilizing its resources for attacks. Those assets were merely directed at different targets, such as the "3/11" attack in Spain. * The different parts of the network operate with a great deal of independence and initiative, so the Afghan invasion would not have stopped the 3/11 attack in Spain from happening. * Al Qaeda is not a big organization, and it requires months or years to plan and execute attacks. There are not hordes of terrorists slipping over our borders, but we would be foolish to ignore the ones who genuinely may be out there. * We have to be careful about how our own missteps can help Al Qaeda. From a pure counterterrorism standpoint, the Iraq invasion is a complete disaster. The Al Qaeda network is now bigger, with new "clusters" such as the al-Zarqawi group, Al Qaeda of Iraq. It also has a new stage on which to play out, for a global audience, the mythology and demonology of their brand of Salafist resistance. * Assuming the Al Qaeda organization doesn't continue to grow at this pace, the overall size of Al Qaeda is still relatively smaller than most people realize. Once the United States leaves Iraq, most of the violent energies once directed against us will stay in Iraq. * A conventional military approach to counterterrorism, focusing on the geographic locations of terrorist camps or the regimes of supposed terrorist patrons, will not destroy Al Qaeda. Unraveling the network of associations, tracking down individual terrorists, and eliminating them as threats is the only way to defeat Al Qaeda. * There is practically no likelihood, therefore, that the large numbers of people we have detained post-9/11 from Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere have any information that will help unravel Al Qaeda. Once again, Al Qaeda is a very small terrorist network, not a Maoist-style guerrilla organization. We are fighting a counterinsurgency war in Iraq, but you have to unravel that conflict from Al Qaeda's global operations. Al Qaeda may be using the Iraq insurgency for its own purposes, and some members of the Al Qaeda network are responsible for attacks on US, Coalition, and Iraqi targets. However, these are the exception that defines the rule. The vast majority of the people shooting at Americans in Iraq are not members of Al Qaeda, nor do they share its ideology and objectives. * In the political sphere, where we are trying to steer people away from supporting or joining Al Qaeda, half measures are worse than doing nothing at all. Al Qaeda's chief message is, "Those who claim to speak for God, or who say that there is a separate sphere of sovereignty away from the commandments of the Koran and the Hadith Reports, are either corrupt or stupid. Judge for yourself by their actions and their results." If we set up our allies or ourselves for failure, such as we have done with our inattention to "finishing the job" in Afghanistan, we should not be shocked if Al Qaeda benefits from the ensuing disappointment and outrage.read more here.
lazy with blogging
A few have emailed and asked what I've been up to lately, and why I've cut back on the blogging. There really isn't a specific reason, other than things have been pretty hectic lately. We are in the middle of moving into a new house (which in itself is incredibly time consuming) and the housing market in Maryland is so competitive right now that I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy. We've also done lots of traveling... and then there's the various little things that zap away the time that I otherwise would use to read and blog. Since blogging involves so much reading (lots of it), I just haven't had the time to devote to it. Another reason is that I just haven't been in the mood. But, it's good to know that there are folks out there who check in occasionally for an update.
Below I posted an article about the search for a young girl named Bianca Noel Piper. She is the granddaughter of a very close family friend who went missing from her home in Missouri 2 weeks and 2 days ago. All search and rescue efforts have since been halted, and investigators have now determined that foul play likely contributed to her disappearance. This has emotionally drained us all as we pray for her safe return.
I do expect to be blogging again soon. Just taking a much needed break for a while. Thanks to those who cared to ask. Later.
intelligent reform
in Britain
"BRITAIN should never again go to war solely on the reports of the secret services, the government admitted yesterday in a comprehensive intelligence shake-up."
How long will it take our country to admit it's own mistakes?
24 March 2005
14 March 2005
America's derelict Congress: part XIV
Via Spencer Ackerman we see Congress failing, yet again, to even be a weak check against hideously destructive excesses committed by the other branches of the government. In this case Congress is choosing not to carry out one of its core responsibilities, oversight of the executive branch, on issues tied to one of the biggest blunders made by any administration in decades. It appears that Congress will leave the investigation of executive branch shenanigans that led to the cooking of intelligence - and hence to our invasion of Iraq - to a commission appointed by the president. And as if that wasn't a pathetic enough turn, surprise, surprise, it appears that the commission will have relatively little to say on the matter at all. [source: Bloodless Coup]
12 March 2005
Bianca Noel Piper
Search is to resume Saturday for missing girl
BY TIM BRYAN AND SUSAN WEICH
Post-Dispatch
03/11/2005
11 March 2005
shooting of Italian journalist linked to Negroponte's visit
from Behind the Homefront
A U.S. Embassy spokesman in Baghdad told reporters that U.S. troops who fired on a car carrying an Italian journalist a week ago were part of a beefed-up security team for U.S. Ambassador John D. Negroponte, The Washington Post reported. Reuters reported that the ambassador, who usually travels by helicopter, was in a motorcade on his way to dinner with a general and expected to pass through the area where gunfire injured freed Italian hostage and journalist Giuliana Sgrena.
09 March 2005
ouch
former Canadian foreign minister Lloyd Axworthy rips into Condoleeza Rice in this letter from The Winnipeg Free Press. If you're a Republican, read it with caution.
are you a blogger?
if so... you should read this piece from the the NY Times:
At a Suit's Core: Are Bloggers Reporters, Too? "'As the mainstream media has become more and more corporate and more and more like the governmental and corporate bodies that mainstream journalists used to report on,' he said, 'a lot of this stuff has fallen now to the bloggers - to do what mainstream folks used to do. It's still serving the exact same purpose: keeping the bad guys honest.'"
If not... you should read this: Who Is a Journalist? - Anybody who wants to be.
07 March 2005
06 March 2005
04 March 2005
anti-terror laws vs due process
The 'Philadelphia Inquirer' has this editorial today on the Jose Padilla ruling
Upholding American principles Every American should welcome a federal judge's sure-footed ruling in South Carolina this week that the Bush administration cannot jail a U.S. citizen indefinitely without criminal charges. It is yet another rebuke of the Bush team's draconian overreaching with its anti-terror measures. For citizens, it's a victory on behalf of key constitutional protections that safeguard their fundamental freedoms. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court established the important principle that the courts must provide oversight of the government's war-on-terror tactics. Most critically, the courts need to review President Bush's designation of suspects as enemy combatants with few traditional legal rights. Now, U.S. District Court Judge Henry F. Floyd puts that concept to the test, with his decision Monday that suspected al-Qaeda foot soldier Jose Padilla has to be charged, or freed within 45 days. From the start of Padilla's nearly three-year incarceration in a military brig in Charleston, S.C., it has never been clear why authorities didn't charge him. They contend Padilla scouted sites for a radioactive 'dirty bomb' attack. If there's evidence, Padilla should be charged in federal court at once. If he turns out to be guilty, lock him up and throw away the key. As it is, he remains incarcerated as the government appeals Floyd's decision. This ruling isn't about sympathy for a possible terrorist. It's about the core American principle that government power must be subject to the rule of law; not even a president should be able to deprive an American citizen of his freedom unilaterally, indefinitely and without showing cause. As Floyd wrote: 'If such a position were ever adopted by the courts, it would totally eviscerate the limits placed on Presidential authority to protect the citizenry's individual liberties.' Floyd, by the way, was a 2003 Bush appointee to the bench. His ruling is about American principles, not partisan politics.
03 March 2005
investigating the legal basis for torture
from Behind the Homefront:
"Jane Harman, D-Calif., and Sen. John D. Rockefeller, D-W.Va, have asked the chairmen of their respective intelligence committees to investigate the legal authorities used by the CIA to carry out interrogations and secret renditions, The Washington Post reported Tuesday. A congressional aide has said that Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Pat Roberts, R-Kan., does not believe that any such investigation is warranted. The CIA inspector general's office is currently conducting its own investigation into the same issue. "
today's daily outrage
posting stories about the Bush family's corrupt nature could be a full time job.
Neil Bush & Crest - Another Profiteering Scheme