The Green[e]house Effect: a Weblog

Let Me Clear My Throat

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I still have good news, but this bad mood I’m in won’t blow over without me giving it a shove. So: mind if I vent for a second?

I hate being ununderemployed, with a passion.

My post from the other day notwithstanding — no, I do relish free time, when I spend it well — having so darned much of it all the time pales fast. I should hardly complain, at least in theory; I know the job I work switches from monsoon conditions to the dry season in a flash, and I saw that transition coming weeks ago. Still, a part of me — wrongly — takes downtime as a statement on my character.

Which it ain’t. People go through dry spells all the time, especially in this economy. It’s silly to take it personally. The trick is in the handling of it — and considering that I’m only idle for the moment because the legislature paid heed to its constitutionally imposed deadline and went home, I really don’t have much reason to get mad at myself.

Okay — enough of that. Now, where were we . . .

We Interrupt This Blog . . .

Okay — what genius decided that 5 a.m. was just the time to have an earthquake? I prefer my alarm clocks not to function on the Richter scale, thanks.

Running with — and From — the Dog

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Although I have good news tonight, something — call it empathy — compels me to note a profoundly disturbing post I just read at Stonefishspine.

He writes about depression. He seems to be having a tough time with it, which I’d never have guessed from what I’ve known of his writing before tonight. It just goes to underline his point that “you don’t know me” — but then, it’s hard enough to know someone through daily face-to-face contact, let alone through a weblog.

The funnier thing about the black dog, though, is how it can make you run scared from the thought of knowing yourself. I reminisced a bit about that point this morning after reading a post by Tim Jarrett:

Many depressives deny themselves rest or relaxation because they cannot afford to stop. If they are forced by circumstances to do so, the black cloud comes down upon them. … He invented various methods of coping with the depression which descended when he was no longer fully occupied by affairs of state, including painting, writing, and bricklaying, but none of these were wholly successful.…

That was the world I inhabited for most of my life, right up to a couple of years ago. Part of my young-man-in-a-hurry act — the endless extracurriculars, the academic overachievement, the accumulating credentials — owed to ambition, but looking back I can see that it also depended on fear. Idle time scared the hell out of me. Right up to when I graduated from law school — which forced me to slow down to get my bearings in a new profession and new city — I stayed in more or less perpetual motion.

I’ve learned a thing or two about how to handle spare time since then, I’d like to think. My secret? I spend it blogging. =,

Kidding, of course. But I’d like to think I’m getting better at cutting loose and enjoying myself. Now that I have a bit of free time on my hands (more on that in the next post) I might test those newfound skills. The words “golf lessons” come to mind — but mountain biking and fishing come in tied for second. Decisions, decisions . . .

Movable Type for the Masses

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I’m in.

May My Father Never Sit Me Down for This Conversation: 

From Sour Bob:

Stories I Will Have To Retire, Volume Two
or, Your Honeymoon May Have A Different Focus

The following is a transcription, as close as I can remember, of my father’s advice to me on planning the honeymoon for my ill-fated first marriage.

“You’re planning your honeymoon soon, I know, and there are a few things I want to make sure you keep in mind. Because you see on a honeymoon, you… (pause) …well, when two people go on their honeymoon, traditionally, they… (long pause) …Well, you see your mother and I… (even longer pause) …we had never… (momentary, but still unbearably awkward pause) …and so you see, we were really mostly interested in… (unbelievably long, awful, awkward pause) …and so, for us, going on our honeymoon was really about… (extraordinarily long, uncomfortable pause, during which I have time to drink approximately 2.5 beers) …yeah. . . .”

Believe it or not, it gets worse.

Legislative Notes: So, How Goes the Lobbying?

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My aching back and I are still recovering from putting in long hours at the Capitol last week — and the session’s still not over — but last Thursday, as Ice Cube might have put it, was a good day. Long story short:

• The Georgia Water Coalition legislative team, with which I have the unalloyed pleasure of working, gave proponents of water permit trading — see here, here and here for background, but suffice it to say that it’s bad news — a hard smacking, as senators decided to scuttle the idea on a 45-6 vote. (HB 237: link.) Georgia residents: follow this link to send an e-mail urging your representatives to accept the permit trading-free version of the bill.
• Meanwhile, the Georgia Alliance for Tobacco Prevention — which I’m also aligned with — finally got a win last week, persuading House Democrats to swallow their resentments and help the Republican administration of Gov. Sonny Perdue pass a tobacco user-fee increase by a razor-thin one vote majority. (HB 379: link.) It’s unclear whether the GOP-controlled Senate will go along with the proposal — but lawmakers will have a devilish time balancing the budget without it.

  My efforts on that one have been somewhat limited; one man can only do so much work. If eloquent press releases could pass legislation, we would have gotten the bill to the governor’s desk by now — but sadly, life doesn’t work that way. It was truly yeomanlike work by my colleagues from a constellation of groups — the American Heart Association, the American Lung Association, the Georgia PTA, the American Cancer Society — that made last week’s success happen. Give them a big round of applause.

• On the flip side: the MPAA-backed cable and broadband piracy bill that — how could people not notice this? — inadvertently outlaws personal firewalls and e-mail encryption — was introduced in Georgia last month, and gets an airing before a House subcommittee this week. (HB 867: link.) Problematic as this legislation is — and that’s being polite — it’s spreading like wildfire right now, thanks to MPAA shamelessness about taking advantage of the lack of tech savvy on the part of most lawmakers. [See these pages, along with these articles, for more information on the phenomenon.]

  From all appearances, the MPAA drafted the bill in an effort to legislate personal video recorders (PVR) — such as those licensed by TiVo and ReplayTV — out of existence. The MPAA can’t come out and say that, because using legislation to reverse the decisions of the marketplace goes against the American grain — so it instead drafted language so nebulous that it would, if interpreted literally, outlaw a common VCR.

  Members of the cult of TiVo, you’ve been warned: educate yourselves now, or risk having the future of television become part of the past.

  News of the legislation sparked an interesting collaboration here; I linked up with a fellow lobbyist to pool our efforts against it . . . after reading a post about it on his blog. Use of e-mail and blogging have enabled us to keep each other fully armed with the latest information — and I’ve also managed to link up, as I’ve worked, with people at the Electronic Frontier Foundation and elsewhere to get other interested parties in the legal and academic communities involved.

  I’ll post more comments after this Wednesday’s hearing.

And This Month’s Book Selection . . .

. . . is a curveball: The Human Stain, by Philip Roth. Here’s a New York Times review, written by Michiko Kakutani.

Thanls for all the suggestions about possible picks. You make me think we ought to get an online book club together once this is all done. Maybe a round robin book-of-the-month arrangement — with, say, Esta making the choice one month, Jessica or Tim the next, and so on.

What say ye?

This Is Not the Greatest Post in the World . . .

. . . this is just a tribute — a tribute to Nina Simone, the legendary and fiery-tempered jazz vocalist, who died today at her home in the south of France. She was 70.

Kieran Healy gets it just right:

Here’s a collection of hers that has some of her best recordings, including “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood”, “Mississippi Goddamn” and the astonishing “I Put a Spell on You”. The clip doesn’t do it justice: In particular, you don’t get to hear her sing And I don’t care if you don’t want me, I’m yours right now. Brrr.

I’m more partial to this collection from later in her career, myself — but you could start anywhere in her catalog and not go wrong.

I’m only glad I got to know her work. A roommate hipped me to her when I first moved to Chicago, and I’ve been listening to her ever since — especially after my father let me finger through his LP collection. What a find.

Legislative Notes: The Flag Gets Supersized

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[Reprinted from the Political State Report.]

Amidst the ongoing uproar about Georgia’s state flag, a key detail managed to escape the notice of the state’s lawyers: the banner that Governor Perdue wants the state to adopt is too big.

In a report published last Friday, political correspondent Jim Galloway of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution noted that the bill that would consign the Barnes-era flag to history (HB 380: link | House vote) establishes some unusual geometric parameters for its replacement:

§ 1(a). The flag of the State of Georgia shall . . . be three horizontal bands. The bottom horizontal band shall be red and shall occupy one-third of the entire flag. The center horizontal band shall be white and shall occupy two-thirds of the length of the flag and shall bear the words ‘IN GOD WE TRUST’ which words shall be the same blue color as the square field of blue. The top horizontal band shall be red and shall occupy two-thirds of the length of the flag. The remainder of the space shall be a square, one-third of the length of the flag, nearest to the flagstaff, consisting of a field of blue, centered upon which shall be placed a representation of the great seal containing the coat of arms of the state, and such seal shall be encircled by 13 white five-pointed stars.

The Perdue administration’s proposed flag

Because the legislation calls for a square that covers a third of the length of the new flag and two-thirds of its height, any banner produced under this proposal must — according to its definition — be twice as wide as it is tall. A three-foot tall flag — a height found in common use around the country — would have to be six feet wide.

Problem is, the accepted standard flag size is three feet by five feet. The Perdue administration’s flag proposal is a foot too long.

The discovery of the flawed dimensions in the bill further complicates the debate over the flag, which is now pressing against the limits of the calendar as the General Assembly enters the last two business days of this year’s session. Leaders in the Senate — under pressure to schedule the bill for a vote before adjournment — fear that allowing an amedment to correct the proposal would open the door to a flurry of proposed alterations, spawning a debate that would halt the progress of other measures awaiting approval. With the 2004 appropriations bill (HB 122: link | House vote | Senate vote) still mired in conference committee, a time-consuming debate could prevent a final vote on the budget and force the legislature to return to the Capitol for a special session.

A senior senator counsels his colleagues to look the other way:

Senate President Pro Tem Eric Johnson, a Republican, said he expected flag makers would overlook the bill’s flawed description.

Yet Secretary of State Cathy Cox, a Democrat, said her office could not overlook the specifications. If the bill were enacted as it is written, Cox said, she would order 25,000 of the new, elongated flags for distribution to cities and counties throughout the state.

“We have very little leeway in these matters,” Cox said.

One of the largest flag manufacturers in the state said Thursday that if such a flag were displayed inside on a standard pole, it would nearly touch the ground. If outside, the larger flag would contrast oddly with the U.S. flag, which usually is displayed beside it, said Bob Rosenthal, co-owner of Atlas Flags Inc. in Tucker.

“It would look ridiculous. It’s out of proportion,” Rosenthal said. “We’d end up being the laughingstock of the country.”

Plans tentatively call for the Senate to take up the flag bill before the end of the week.

The Clinton Excuse Rides Again

Earlier this morning, Mox — who I otherwise love, don’t get me wrong — wrote a post about former President Clinton’s latest critique of the Bush administration’s foreign policy. Her comments were, shall we say, a bit intemperate.

well look who’s anti-American now
Yep, our buddy Bill Clinton.

The guy who sent a few cruise missiles into Iraq to “reprimand the dictator” for not complying with numerous UN resolutions. He refused to send armor to Somalia. This Clinton powered military bombed an asprin factory in the Sudan in response to the bombing of the USS Cole. And we also bombed the hell out of Bosnia but didn’t send ground troops until the peacekeeping phase.

My take on this? The Democrats are so out of favor they can’t even comprehend.

My take on Slick Willy? He wishes his balls were 1/10th the size of Dubya’s. That man knows how to take care of what Clinton and his own Father could not, with grace and dignity.

Clinton said,

“Our paradigm now seems to be: something terrible happened to us on September 11, and that gives us the right to interpret all future events in a way that everyone else in the world must agree with us.”

Yes Bill, anyone who targets civilians working in two towers, supports homicide bombers financially or ideologically is wrong.

Apparently, Clinton doesn’t feel that any government regime who kills and rapes their own citizens might be a threat to the rest of the free world. If you don’t see how the concept of “prevention” is important, than why support pregnancy prevention (Bill you DO use condoms, doncha?), or disease prevention?

I’ve written about the continuing fixation with Clinton before, but I still don’t get it. Why respond to straightforward criticism by calling an ex-president anti-American? Leaving the overreaction aside, doesn’t the charge — that a man who swore an oath to defend America, and who fought through two brutal elections and an impeachment battle for the privilege, hates America — seem incredible?

Nevertheless, I want to take on her points one by one:

1. Apparently, Clinton doesn’t feel that any government regime who kills and rapes their own citizens might be a threat to the rest of the free world.

   I think his intervention in Kosovo puts the lie to that.
2. Besides, he supported our intervention in Afghanistan — which, as one might recall, played a direct role in the whole World Trade Center business.
3. What’s more, he’s on the record as not opposing the idea of intervention in Iraq as much as the timing.
4. Query: Moxie, are you banking your argument on the notion that every nation that kills or rapes its own citizens is inherently a threat to the rest of the free world? We consider regard that kind of conduct noxious, vile, and beyond the norms of international behavior, no doubt — but I don’t even think this White House would go so far as to treat every single country guilty of such abuse as a mortal threat to the American way of life.
5. If you take that position, which of the following countries shall we send the troops to set straight next?
   1. Uzbekistan?
   2. Turkmenistan?
   3. China?
   4. Burma?
   5. Iran?
   6. Saudi Arabia?
   7. Egypt
   8. Syria?
   9. Turkey?
   10. Cuba?
   11. Venezuela?
   12. North Korea?
   13. Moldova?
   14. Belarus?
   15. Haiti?
   16. Zaï;re?
   17. Sudan?
   18. Liberia?
   19. Morocco?
   20. Algeria?
   21. Zimbabwe?
   Feel free to make this multiple choice.
6. I read the article about Clinton’s speech, and looked in vain for any talk of “prevention.” Can anyone point out where Clinton used the word?
7. Would there be intellectual justification today for:
   1. Chinese prevention of the secession of Taiwan?
   2. Indian prevention of a Pakistani nuclear attack?
   3. Turkish prevention of the creation of an independent Iraqi Kurdish state?
   4. North Korean prevention of an American invasion?
   If not, why not?
8. How does the quote that Time cites here:

   – “Fuck Saddam. We’re taking him out”

   square with any reasonable definition of the words grace or dignity?
9. One more question, because I’ve been stumped about this for a long time: why, if Bill Clinton doesn’t even have “balls . . . one-tenth the size of Dubya,” do some believe it so vital to deride every word the man says?

Can anyone answer these for me? Anyone?

It’s the One That We Say Hail To

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A radio station here in Atlanta just played “There There” — the first track from the upcoming Radiohead disc, Hail to the Thief. The atmospherics are Radiohead through and through, but the arrangement sounds reminiscent of vintage R.E.M. — until the last minute or so, when you can definitely notice hints of the studio trickery learned during the Kid A sessions.

Consider my appetite whetted. The album drops on June 10.

Loose Talk

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The Southeastern Legal Foundation is apparently hopping mad with Peter Arnett for giving an interview to Iraqi television — but they seem to think he should get the firing squad for it:

ATLANTA: The Southeastern Legal Foundation today called on the U.S. Justice Department to bring criminal treason charges against former MSNBC reporter Peter Arnett, who gave a lengthy interview with Iraqi TV last week in which he claimed that American military planning has failed in the war in Iraq.

“The U.S. Constitution makes plain that treason is a crime witnessed by at least two people, there’s legal intent, and it provides aid and comfort to the enemy - and Peter Arnett’s worldwide television tirade against U.S. military activity in Iraq certainly meets those criteria,” said Phil Kent, SLF president. “By making judgments about the failures of current military planning and execution, Arnett - as an American citizen - exposed our military to further dangers by encouraging the beleaguered Saddam Hussein regime and its soldiers to fight on.”

SLF attorneys identified three important treason cases arising from activity by U.S. citizens abroad during World War II. In these seminal cases, U.S. citizens who broadcast anti-American sentiment on behalf of Nazi Germany while in Germany during the war were extradited, tried and convicted of treason. Best v. U.S. (1st Cir., 1950); Chandler v. U.S. (1st Cir., 1948); and, Cramer v. U.S. (U.S. 1945). In the Best case, Robert Best argued before the court that he was merely a “mediator…a go-between to Hitler…someone who could interpret the German mind to Americans.” “This is the Arnett argument,” said Kent. “It didn’t fly then, and it won’t fly now.”

“As a constitutional public interest law firm, SLF supports vigorous free speech, and as a former journalist, so do I,” said Kent. “But the First Amendment is not a license to say whatever we choose to say. We cannot yell “FIRE” in a crowded theater, and we cannot jeopardize the lives of our military personnel by encouraging our enemies on Iraqi TV to take heart from lies about our troops. Arnett’s shameful display, while protected as free speech if he had made his comments here in the United States, is not protected under the First Amendment when spoken on the enemy’s TV network.”

Okay — this is stunning. In an age of globalized communications — when a blogger can send dispatches from Baghdad to American audiences with a click, a reporter can transmit live video of a battle over a phone, and any Iraqi with a satellite dish can tune in the talking heads of CNN — what difference should it make what network someone chooses to reveal his views on? Given the sheer reach of most media these days, it seems a sensible proposition that any comment offered on television or the internet is immediately transmitted everywhere.

More to the point, Kent’s attempt to recruit Cramer to his argument is — at best — patently disingenuous. Justice Jackson, who wrote the opinion in the case, described the elements of treason as follows [emphasis added]:

Thus the crime of treason consists of two elements: adherence to the enemy; and rendering him aid and comfort. A citizen intellectually or emotionally may favor the enemy and harbor sympathies or convictions disloyal to this country’s policy or interest, but so long as he commits no act of aid and comfort to the enemy, there is no treason. On the other hand, a citizen may take actions, which do aid and comfort the enemy — making a speech critical of the government or opposing its measures, profiteering, striking in defense plants or essential work, and the hundred other things which impair our cohesion and diminish our strength — but if there is no adherence to the enemy in this, if there is no intent to betray, there is no treason.

325 U.S. 1, 29 (1945) (Jackson, J.). That undercuts Kent’s treason-by-remote-broadcast argument. As ill-advised as Arnett’s comments were, I don’t think anyone can seriously contend that he made them out of some misguided fealty to Saddam Hussein.

And really, what worthwhile aid could Arnett have provided? He possessed no operational details about U.S. military plans [unlike the Fox News Channel’s Geraldo Rivera]. He made no statements wishing defeat for American forces. He merely said — as countless others have — that Rumsfeld sent troops into Iraq under a dangerously optimistic war plan. If honest criticism of a military blunder is a “aid and comfort” to an enemy, what room does that leave for any questioning of executive branch decisions during wartime?

What Kent offers, put plainly, is a nakedly political argument. Perhaps someone should charge him with public indecency for it.

Green Eyeshade, Large Numbers and Small Print

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It’s tax day for procrastinators, and I’ve already spent part of the morning plowing through W-2s. [Thank goodness the legislature called a recess today. God really ismerciful.] I envy all with the discipline to get the pain overwith early — and I find myself thinking I wouldn’t mind marrying Doc Searls’ wife.

Best of luck to everyone in the same predicament. May your refunds be abundant.

Make No Small Plans

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Remember that big talk a few days back about heading up to Alexandria for a weekend to help with Rob’s campaign? Well, I’m glad I didn’t race right ahead and book a ticket; it looks as though the legislature wants me to stay put. An impasse over the 2004 budget [more on that in a bit] has forced lawmakers to stretch the length of the annual session yet again; now, instead of recessing this Friday, the assembly plans to break for the year next Thursday, on the 24th. Which would make this the longest session in a century.

Even worse: rumors are flying that the thought of coming to an agreement next week is no more than a pipe dream — which would mean we lobbyists would have to stay right here while lawmakers hash out their differences in a special session. Guess I was smart not to schedule that trip to Bora Bora for May . . .

We Hold These Truths to Be Self-Evident

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I have to take a moment to note that yesterday marked the date known as Founder’s Day among my circle of friends at the University of Virginia — which is to say, put in everyday terms, that it was the birthday of Thomas Jefferson. Tim Jarrett has picked out some quotes from the man that seem even more relevant this year than most.

• “I abhor war and view it as the greatest scourge of mankind.”
• “If there be one principle more deeply rooted than any other in the mind of every American, it is that we should have nothing to do with conquest.”
• “I have much confidence that we shall [Col 2] proceed successfully for ages to come, and that, contrary to the principle of Montesquieu it will be seen that the larger the extent of country, the more firm its republican structure, if founded, not on conquest, but in principles of compact and equality.”
• “The government of a nation may be usurped by the forcible intrusion of an individual into the throne. But to conquer its will, so as to rest the right on that, the only legitimate basis, requires long acquiescence and cessation of all opposition.”
• “Conquest is not in our principles. It is inconsistent with our government.”
• “The most successful war seldom pays for its losses.”
• “It should ever be held in mind that insult and war are the consequences of a want of respectability in the national character.”

George? Karl? Dick? Donald? Are you listening?

Catch Me If You Can

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From Idle Words:

This is pretty brazen — the ‘hot potato’ school of pre-emptive war. How come we can’t find chemical or biological weapons in Iraq? Because they were moved to Syria!

Washington intelligence sources claim that weapons of mass destruction that Saddam was alleged to have possessed were shipped to Syria after inspectors were sent by the United Nations to find them.

One of the chief ideologists behind the war, Richard Perle, yesterday warned that the US would be compelled to act against Syria if it emerged that weapons of mass destruction had been moved there by Saddam’s fallen Iraqi regime.

via the Observer.

Of course, I bet those sneaky Syrians manage to smuggle all evidence of their involvement over the border to Jordan, just before our troops take Damascus.

Repeat until re-elected.

Nah. Couldn’t possibly happen. Oh, wait . . .

It Was Ten Years Ago Today . . .

. . . that Marc Andreessen taught the band to play.

Roddenberry, Call Your Office

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I learned this morning over at the Expat Egghead that the Pentagon is developing something brutally nifty: a self-healing minefield.

The Self-Healing Minefield system is designed to achieve an increased resistance to dismounted and mounted breaching by adding a novel dimension to the minefield. Instead of a static complex obstacle, the Self-Healing Minefield is an intelligent, dynamic obstacle that responds to an enemy breaching attempt by physically reorganizing. The Self-Healing Minefield consists of surface scattered antitank mines that can detect an enemy attack of the minefield and respond autonomously, by having a fraction of the mines move to heal the breach. Since the minefield is no longer a static obstacle, an open breach cannot be maintained. The Self-Healing Minefield forces the enemy to attack the minefield and deplete the antitank mines surrounding the breaching lane by either repeated assaults or a wide area breach/clearance. In either case the enemy has increased their exposure to covering fires when compared to the current mixed system minefield. An ongoing modeling effort indicates that a self-healing minefield will provide greatly increased military effectiveness of the obstacle.

I reveal my geekiness when I say this — may my future children forgive me — but that sounds uncannily reminiscent of the self-replicating mines deployed during a war on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Life imitating art, I suppose. Then again, the idea of engineers at DARPA knowing their Star Trek is about as newsworthy, when you think about it, as the sun setting in the west.

The More, the Merrier

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I would welcome these two to the liberal precincts of the blogosphere, but Digby and Billmon are already well-known to anyone who frequents the comment boards. They’ve set up blogs of their own now — and judging by two valuable posts available this morning, not a moment too soon:

• Billmon details how American troops in Baghdad had to spend a day as armed-and-ready art critics; and
• Dibgy unearths evidence from the International Herald-Tribune that Pentagon advisor Richard Perle has just begun to fight.

  “So the message to Syria, to Iran, to North Korea, to Libya should be clear. if we have no alternative, we are prepared to do what is necessary to defend Americans and others. But that doesn’t mean that we are readying the troops for a next military engagement. We are not.”

  The former official in Republican administrations said the United States also has “a serious problem” with Saudi Arabia, where he said both private individuals and the government had poured money into extremist organizations.

  “This poses such an obvious threat to the United States that it is intolerable that they continue to do this,” he warned.

  Oy vey.

. . . and the Home of the Lame

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Forget about Universal Records — for the sake of all that’s good and holy, we need to convince Apple to buy the Atlanta Braves instead. [Before AOL Time F$#*£-up finishes off what’s left of them, that is.]

In Case You Missed It . . . 

New at the Political State Report: Atlanta Mayor Leads Hypothetical Senate Race. Bon apetit!

Lavatory Literature

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I don’t usually study bathroom walls for worthwhile reading — and I can’t say I’m about to pick up the habit — but while I was out earlier tonight with the usual environmental suspects, I spotted a limerick during a side trip to the facilities, and it turned out to be one I actually have to credit as kind of clever. [Well, bawdy, of course — look where I found it, for crying out loud — but still clever.]

For the sake of the squeamish [and those who have a pristine impression of me], I won’t post it on the main page. But if, perchance, you’re up for a little ribaldry, open the comments.

Much Music

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Listening to an *.mp3 playlist right now that I’ve been cobbling together for a week or so — it’s composed mostly of war songs, mixed in with a few tracks that feel more introspective. Events have superseded it to some extent, but it still sounds good:

1. “To Washington,” John Mellencamp
2. “Spit on a Stranger,” Nickel Creek
3. “You Never Know,” Dave Matthews Band
4. “Look Inside America,” Blur
5. “Seconds,” U2
6. “Sound of Sounds,” Gomez
7. “You and Whose Army?” Radiohead
8. “Here Comes President Kill Again,” XTC
9. “Army,” Ben Folds Five
10. “Ignoreland,” R.E.M.
11. “Life Is Bad,” Shelby Lynne
12. “Add It Up,” Violent Femmes
13. “War on War,” Wilco

And that’s where it peters out. Any suggestions on where to take it from here?

The Business of Government

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I forgot to mention the other day what was undoubtedly the most important vote that lawmakers cast on crossover day. It was on hamburgers. No, really.

At about a quarter past six, the legislators — realizing they were about to pull an all-nighter — tapped the speaker to schedule a vote on what to order from the Varsity for takeout. [For those not from here, the Varsity is the world’s largest drive-in, and undoubtedly the greasiest.] The sight of the electronic tally board lit up with green ‘Y’s and red ‘N’s by the representatives’ names, all for a vote bannered simply as “Hamburgers” — priceless, I tell you.

Hamburgers beat hot dogs, by the way, about 95 to 72. I’m guessing that vegetarians had to abstain.

More on War

 
It’s nose to the grindstone time here at the Green[e]house, as the legislature heads into its final stretch. Still, I wanted to share some commentary from elsewhere on the web about the most recent events in the war:

• Jeff Cooper:
  And, like most of those who opposed the start of the war, I’m thankful that it’s gone as well as it has. Does that mean that I should now confess error and admit that this was a just war, properly initiated?

  I don’t think so.

• Tim Jarrett:
  Statues are falling, the Minister of Information and Saddam himself are nowhere to be found, the public is rioting happily in the streets.

  Great. Now what?

• Michael Kinsley:
  The psychological challenge of opposing a war like this after it has started isn’t supporting the American troops, but hoping to be proven wrong. That, though, is the burden of pessimism on all subjects. As a skeptic, at the least, about Gulf War II, I do hope to be proven wrong. But it hasn’t happened yet.

• Josh Marshall:
  The challenges in the way of our success are vast, challenges that could quickly snuff out all of this, challenges that I don’t believe many who are guiding this effort truly understand. But today was a good day.

• Jeffrey Sachs:
  President George W. Bush is presiding over the ruin of US foreign policy. A world united against the war in Iraq is only the start, since US diplomatic failure and neglect extend to virtually every area of foreign policy.

  Another stunning example lies in the Andes, where the US administration has proved to be incapable of even the simplest responses to a profound crisis engulfing the region.

Not With a Bang . . . 

Not to call the outcome with undue haste — bombs are still falling, men still dying, and children coming to grips with a life totally unlike the one they had known just days before. But with the scene in Baghdad, I think we can all but put a fork in this one — Saddam is done. Thank God the war was so mercifully short, considering what might have been.

I won’t begrudge people who supported the war a chance to savor the moment — hell, watching those pictures makes me feel giddy, and I opposed the war. But pictures aren’t everything. More to the point, it was never the first three weeks, or three months, that worried me. It was the first three years of discovering festering, unintended consequences of conquest — or, God help us, the first three decades.

To borrow from Churchill, as I often do: “[n]ow this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” We should wish ourselves godspeed on the rest of the voyage — for, as Tom Friedman said so rightly, and forebodingly, on Wednesday morning:

America broke Iraq; now America owns Iraq, and it owns the primary responsibility for normalizing it. If the water doesn’t flow, if the food doesn’t arrive, if the rains don’t come and if the sun doesn’t shine, it’s now America’s fault. We’d better get used to it, we’d better make things right, we’d better do it soon, and we’d better get all the help we can get.

Separated at Birth?

 
Lawmakers forced me to flee from the Capitol tonight — debate was just running too long for any reasonable person to tolerate. Here’s the story: South Georgia Democrats and state Republicans decided over the weekend to force a referendum on reviving the Confederate-knockoff state flag through the House. That prompted the Legislative Black Caucus to deliver payback . . . by having each of its 31 members go to the well to use their allotted 10 minutes of floor time. In full. Which should add up to . . . oh, about five hours of speeches.

They sprang the trap on ‘crossover day,’ no less. For the uninitiated, that’s the date when legislation that has yet to pass at least one house no longer has any chance of reaching the governor’s desk this year. Suffice it to say that business gets pretty frantic around that time; it’s hardly the moment when legislators with a favorite project in the balance — and that’s pretty much all of them — want folks to start throwing spanners into the works.

Payback’s a mother, ain’t it?

It’s a quarter past 10 p.m. The thirty-first speaker should be wrapping up about right now. There’s still the matter of all the other legislators who might want to get a few words in — not to mention the dozen or so other bills on the calendar. I sure hope they packed their pillows with them this morning.

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But I digress. What prompted me to write this post was a thought that hit me this afternoon, while I sat up in the House gallery looking down at the flag mockup that the pages had left on the desks.

As part of the referendum bill, the governor’s office and some lawmakers worked up an interim flag — yet another new design to throw into the mix, just to get rid of the work of that rascal scalawag, Roy Barnes. This flag — call it the new new flag — would supplant a banner the legislature adopted in 2001.

[That’s right: 2001. People keep cars longer than that, right?]

Anyhow, here’s this year’s model:

Okay — now take a look at another flag, and tell me you don’t see a resemblance:

Congratulations, Georgia lawmakers. You’ve just reinvented the flag of Taiwan.

Strutting on a Grave

: 
The gracious words of Sen. Norm Coleman, Republican of Minnesota:

To be very blunt and God watch over Paul’s soul, I am a 99 percent improvement over Paul Wellstone,” Coleman, R-Minn., said in a front-page story published in Roll Call. “Just about on every issue.”

. . . In the story, Coleman reflected on his election to the Senate and said “there is a lot of anger” still coming from Wellstone forces.

“They lost their champion and they thought something was taken away,” he told the newspaper. “All you can do is say, ‘Hey, I mourn the loss, but I am here and I am going to do what I think is the right thing to do, and thank God I have a chance to be here.’”

Somebody remind the gentleman from Minnesota — and I use that term advisedly — that it’s bad form to crow in public.

Let Us Pray

: 
Now here’s one faith-based movement I can get behind.

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Not Cool—

Note to bloggers everywhere: either attribute to your sources or do your own work.

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Wired News // Daniel Forbes :: “Noted Warblogger Cops to Copying”:

Like any number of webloggers trying to make their mark with commentary on the war in Iraq, Sean-Paul Kelley knew geography and career experience didn’t favor him.

Kelley — the man behind the wildly popular site The Agonist — lives in Texas, worlds away from the war’s front lines. And his reporting résumé added up to a mere three weeks at a local paper. Still, for the last few weeks, he had managed to post several dozen war-related news items a day on his site.

Some of the information was attributed to news outlets and other sources, but much of it was unsourced, particularly the almost real-time combat information presumably gleaned from a string of high-level sources worldwide.

Kelley’s insightful window on the details of the war brought him increasing readership (118,000 page views on a recent day) and acclaim, including interviews in the The New York Times and on NBC’s Nightly News, Newsweek Online and National Public Radio.

The only problem: Much of his material was plagiarized — lifted word-for-word from a paid news service put out by Austin, Texas, commercial intelligence company Stratfor.

“You got me, I admit it…. I made a mistake,” Kelley said. “It was stupid.”

In a series of interviews with Wired News, Kelley changed his story several times. At first, he said he used just four or five Stratfor items a day without crediting the company. Later, he owned up to “six or seven days when half was from Stratfor.”

Aside from a few scattered attributions, Kelley presented Stratfor’s intelligence as information he had uncovered himself, typically paragraph-long reports detailing combat operations in Iraq. He took these wholesale from a Stratfor proprietary newsletter, US-Iraqwar.com, which Kelley admits he subscribes to.

“Many postings on the (Agonist) pages I looked at are word-for-word verbatim,” said Stratfor chief analyst Matthew Baker.

Plagiarism is theft. Period. As a Virginia graduate, I feel adamant about that, and have no wish to associate myself with anyone who engages in it. Consider him gone from the blogroll.

Unholy Water

: 
Please tell me that this is Janet Cooke redux, not a true story:

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Miami Herald // Meg Laughlin :: “Army Chaplain Offers Baptisms, Baths”:

CAMP BUSHMASTER, Iraq - In this dry desert world near Najaf, where the Army V Corps combat support system sprawls across miles of scabrous dust, there’s an oasis of sorts: a 500-gallon pool of pristine, cool water.

It belongs to Army chaplain Josh Llano of Houston, who sees the water shortage, which has kept thousands of filthy soldiers from bathing for weeks, as an opportunity.

”It’s simple. They want water. I have it, as long as they agree to get baptized,” he said.

And agree they do. Every day, soldiers take the plunge for the Lord and come up clean for the first time in weeks.

”They do appear physically and spiritually cleansed,” Llano said.

First, though, the soldiers have to go to one of Llano’s hour-and-a-half sermons in his dirt-floor tent. Then the baptism takes an hour of quoting from the Bible.

”Regardless of their motives,” Llano said, “I get the chance to take them closer to the Lord.”

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I respect your intentions, Rev. Llano, but screw that. The Jewish, Hindu and Muslim soldiers risking their lives in Iraq deserve the Army’s water as much as any Baptist. Period.

Now, if the good chaplain doesn’t take offense, I’m off to get myself a nice, juicy bagel. With cold water. And I won’t even have to convert for the privilege.

Quicksand

: 
Ready to get on to the next round of World War IV? It looks as though a few more of our fellow Americans have signed up.

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Los Angeles Times // Ronald Brownstein :: “Support of U.S. Military Role in Mideast Grows”:

WASHINGTON — Buoyed by success on the battlefield, most Americans now express support for an expansive U.S. role in the Middle East, with a clear majority backing the war in Iraq and half endorsing military action against Iran if it continues to develop nuclear weapons, according to a new Los Angeles Times poll.

. . . And substantial portions of the public are willing to consider military action against other potential threats in the area. “I just think that the Middle East itself will never fall into a peaceful solution unless some of the people who are supporting terror are finally rooted out,” said Don Seward, who runs a small real estate business in Western Springs, Ill.

Americans are divided almost in half when asked whether the United States should take military action against Syria, which Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has accused of providing Iraq with military supplies. Syria has denied the accusation. But 42% said the United States should take action if Syria, in fact, provides aid to Iraq, while 46% said no.

More Americans take a hard line on Iran, which recently disclosed an advanced program to develop the enriched uranium that could be used in nuclear weapons.

Exactly half said the United States should take military action against Iran if it continues to move toward nuclear-weapon development; 36% disagreed. Perhaps surprisingly, women are slightly more supportive of such action than men.

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The Project for the New American Century boys — if this Josh Marshall article is any guide — must be licking their chops.

I’ve had a number of long-form posts in mind that address themselves less to the day-to-day trends in the war than to the larger picture of just how the Bush administration has brought us here. What with the speed. Expect to get a first glimpse at them sometime soon.

Sauce for the Gander

:
Up in the land of 10,000 lakes, Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) has hit on a novel cost-saving measure for state law enforcement; he wants to force demonstrators who get arrested to cut the state a check “for the time it takes police to place them in custody.” That the proposal comes on the heels of the arrest of 90 antiwar demonstrators in the Twin Cities last weekend, of course, is purely coincidence.

But I have a question. I wonder what these people would think about the governor’s idea? How about these? What about the fellas this guy writes about?

I know of at least one group that would give the proposal its unstinting approval [emphasis added]:

The sign outside reads: Beijing Supreme People’s Court Project 86. But the innocuous name masks its real purpose. Behind the brick-and-barbed-wire walls lies the execution ground for those condemned to die in Beijing.

The prisoners are driven up the sandy path to this isolated compound on a thorn-covered hill overlooking the capital. Under the open sky, the prisoners, arms tied behind their backs, their legs in shackles, kneel on the black earth. At the signal, a paramilitary soldier fires a single rifle shot. It is usually to the back of the head. The prisoner topples into the dirt. Death is almost always immediate. . . .

In some cases, the prisoner’s family is even billed for the bullet — the equivalent of about 6 cents. “If you don’t pay, they won’t give you the ashes,” explained one former detainee.

American Republicans, stealing innovations from Chinese Communists. I dare you to parody that.

When Peace Is Strength

: 
Someone has managed to combine the story of Michael Kelly’s death with Tim’s observation about yesterday’s significance in history to make a point that’s truly profound:

[Kelly] had become notorious because of two vicious columns he wrote in the Post after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S. These both fiercely condemned all pacifists as evil, liars, frauds, hypocrites, unserious people, “objectively pro-terrorist”, and above all, evil, because they didn’t want to make war and kill. Among other loaded questions he asked was “Do the pacifists wish to live in a United States that has been defeated by Osama bin Laden or Saddam Hussein?” [Note that his column was already mentioning Saddam on October 3, 2001, long before Bush invaded Iraq despite complete failure to find any links between those two villains.]

. . . . The most famous opponent of killing and war in American history, left unmentioned by Michael Kelly, was the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. He was assassinated on this day, April 4, in 1968. For the anniversary of his death to be linked with Kelly is the height of irony.

Dr. King had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. The presentation included these words: “But it was not because he led a racial minority in their struggle for equality that Martin Luther King achieved fame. Many others have done the same, and their names have been forgotten. Luther King’s name will endure for the way in which he has waged his struggle, personifying in his conduct the words that were spoken to mankind: Whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also!” (Matthew 5:39)

No one dared to claim that King’s refusal to kill made him “objectively pro-segregation”. To oppose evil he endured abuse, threats, beatings, jail, and finally death. He was often afraid, but never a coward.

I wish I’d thought of that.

Rock!

Enjoyed the best 38 minutes or so of my life — well, perhaps I exaggerate — at Criminal Records last night, where I caught a reading by none other than Neal Pollack, world’s greatest writer. ‘Twas an experience to savor forever. I don’t think I’ll ever hear the likes of his clown-band backed rendition of “We Are the World” again.

Pollack pulled into town yesterday with a star-studded entourage that included Ben Brown of the So New Media and Über keiretsu. I have to say that he’s way less scary looking in person than on his website. [But then, aren’t we all?]

If you missed it, I pity you. You can get a flavor for the event from this preview in this week’s Creative Loafing. Read it and glower at me with envy . . . or with rheumy, tear-filled eyes. Whatever floats your boat.

Merde.

Michael Kelly’s columns in the Post reliably raise my blood pressure about 30 percent, but I never, ever wanted to read this. May God watch over his family and bless his soul.

Air Aaron

: 
The Stonefish has been dropping some serious acid, but I like the result: he wants to pay homage to one of the more notorious protests-cum-publicity-stunts of the Vietnam era by bringing the antiwar masses down to Atlanta to levitate — that’s right, levitate — CNN Center.

Now that’s one protest I can get with. Especially if it gets the AOL Time Warner ninnies who’ve ruined the Braves out of town.

I wrote the Stonefish back to leaven the idea with one of my own [not hallucinogen induced, thanks]: timing the gathering to coincide with Music Midtown, a festival that draws about 300,000 young and sweaty music fans — can you say “target audience,” boys and girls? — in its own right. As I told him, “I can hear the pitch now: ‘come for the levitation, stay for the show.’”

Really, it’s a perfect combination. Dylan’s on the bill. So are Joe Cocker, CSN, and the B-52s. [Not to mention some of personal favorites: Gomez, Cracker, the Mavericks, Medeski Martin & Wood and . . . ummm, Tony Bennett.] Go to the festival and get your subterranean homesick blues on, then bring David Lowery downtown to tell the CNN Center to get off this.

I can’t wait to see the look on Aaron Brown’s face.

One Last Bit o’ Chocolate

: 
Sorry, but I couldn’t resist these:

• And the Grammy for country/western song of the year goes to . . . “Supersize My Freedom Fries.”
• Television’s IQ just went up: Keith Olbermann, at long last, is back in the house at MSNBC.

Whitman’s Sampler

:
It’s a little bit of this, and a little bit of that:

• Oh, do I wish I had seen this;
• A letter to the Ethicalist: “I have launched an attack against an evil regime in the Middle East . . . “
• At Ftrain: “[E]ven though I hate our so-called president with a passion I usually reserve for conceptual artists working in vaseline, LED lights, and dead frogs — if Putin invaded, I would line up for my gun and helmet and head down to Washington on the Fung Wah bus to protect mother America.”
• Scott David Herman of erasing.org has been keeping busy at the word factory;
• Hugo Young: “America’s understanding of the world has become so self-centred, and its reputation so corrupted, that its ability to export liberal democracy either by example or by force now looks to be non-existent.”
• Courtesy of The Poor Man: Worst. Mixed. Tape. Ever.
• Me, named Bush? Mais non!
• The Brushstroke.tv peace poster contest is still going strong;
• It sounds as though the Dixie Chicks’ lead singer is ready to make amends — sort of;
• Margaret Atwood writes to America: “I thought I knew you.” And . . .
• At long last: Wheaton College students get permission to play that funky music. Expect Los Del Rio sales in the vicinity to go up by 200 percent.

The April Book Smackdown: Let’s Get It On!

I get to pick the reading selection for my book club this month, and I thought I might take advantage of the weblog by roping you into helping me make a choice. I go into this with a few groundrules:

1. No politics;
2. no politics — really; and
3. nothing by Jonathan Franzen, who was a real prick to Oprah about that whole book club thing.

Aside from that, anything goes. Make your recommendations in the comments. There are no guarantees that I’ll pick one of your suggestions — I have a healthy list of my own I’m mulling over. But surprise me — you never know, I just may go for one from the peanut gallery, if you make it sound interesting enough.

What are you waiting for? Take your best shot.

An Aside . . . 

Okay, I have to ask: was PhotoDude the only one to notice Donald Rumsfeld’s fondness for Chaka Khan?