Life During War

Fifth Anniversary

2008-03-19T22:11:00.006-05:00

For a couple of weeks now there has been a line of strikers across the street. yelling and banging on drums for hours at a time. I'd nearly gotten used to the din. This morning, no sooner had I arrived at the office when the disturbance from the street was louder than usual. I leaned over to peer out the window, saw a circle of nine people linked together in the middle of 17th and L Street, and went back outside.

Others milled about, including women on stilts dressed in all black. A lot of people were dressed in black. Crowds began to gather on the sidewalks, holding up cell phones.

Cars honked and tried to get around the protesters. It didn't take long for a cop to show up and divert traffic. And then more cops.

The police arrived in waves over a period of 10-15 minutes-- motorcycle cops, two groups on mountain bikes (DC police in blue, Park Service in white), and in due time the riot truck and the helicopter.

That's a Smith & Wesson law enforcement special, son.

Actually, I thought the cops were pretty reasonable, all things considered. Code Pink rolled a pink bed down the sidewalk and into the street. The cops told them to keep it on the sidewalk. Fair enough, if you have to push a pink bed around.

I went back to work and watched now and then from my window. Within an hour the group had been cut apart and hauled away, traffic returned to normal.

After noon I went for a walk by the White House and found another hooded protester protesting the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo.

There was a couple nearby taking pictures of each other, so I asked if they wanted a photo together. Rather than stand together with the White House as the backdrop, they stood to the right of this guy. "Do you mind?" the woman asked the protester. "Not at all," he said from beneath the hood, his hands remaining behind his back. "Be my guest."

It was surreal. I wish I had a copy of that image -- the tourists next to a protester in orange.

The orange jumpsuit is a fashion you see in DC more often than you might expect. I wonder if they're reenforced in the knees.

On the way back to the office I swung through MacPhearson Square, where festivities were scheduled for 2 in the afternoon. The area was already happening.

The Granny Brigade knitted furiously in dissent.

Along the way I picked up a couple of signs for souvenirs, a nice yellow "USA Out Of Iraq" placard and a smaller blue peace sign. I tucked them under my arm and noted the time. Almost 1 p.m. Time to head back.

By then the cops completely encircled MacPherson Square. They stood shoulder-to-shoulder on K Street, backed up by a row of motorcycles and lines of cars, lights flashing everywhere. An officer with a bullhorn announces that anybody who steps off the sidewalk into K Street will be arrested.

For the first time, I realize that by coincidence I'm wearing my black button-down dress shirt and the same black hooded sweatshirt that I wear every day -- dressed in black like everybody else -- and carrying anti-war signs. "Officer," I said, trying my friendliest face, "Can I just cross the street? I need to get back to my office."

He just started at me. Hard. I gestured to the mob of thousands behind me. "I'm not with them. I don't know these people."

"Where is your office?" he asked. I pointed across K. "I suggest you walk a couple of blocks down the street and then cross," he said.

And that's what I did -- just my personal policy to not argue with people with guns.

Street Theater

2008-03-13T18:59:00.005-05:00

When the weather is nice I like taking a walk during the lunch hour. I don't know what it is about this intersection, but it's great for spotting people -- Donald Rumsfeld a couple of times, Tom Ridge, Helen Thomas, Ted Koppel. Last week I watched Sam Donaldson lurch across the street to pick up his sandwich at Potbelly.

I'll often loop through Farragut Park to Lafayette Park to see what's going in in front of the White House, listening to my iPod. Usually there's a good mix of tourists, protesters, press and various law enforcement types. A lot of high school groups. When I see people taking pictures of each other, I often offer to take their picture together in front of the White House.

I pick up random snippets of history from guides conducting tours. (When a Marine guard is posted at the North door of the West Wing, that means the President is at the White House).

I don't know why, but I instinctively look both ways whenever I step onto Pennsylvania Avenue even though the street has been closed to traffic for years.

One day last week there were Park Service cops on horseback and bright yellow-clad Secret Service on mountain bikes forming a line half-way through Lafayette Park, keeping everybody a half-block further away from the White House than usual. Marine One was lifting off on the South lawn. The cops never say that the park is open again. They just turn away and saunter off.

Last Tuesday I stroll around, and the whole park is closed. People lined up on H Street to see what's going on. I had a cigarette while listening to a podcast. When the all-clear was given, the cops broke their ranks and walked or rode away. Tourists began to filter through the park to the White House. Concepción Picciotto, who has been living across the White House in protest for the last 27 years, struggled with her bicycle and rambunctious11-month-old American terrier. A Secret Service agent, himself on bike, started to roll Picciotto's bicycle back to her plastic and cardboard shelter. It was an awkward arrangement, so I took the bike for her. "And they say chivalry is dead," the agent he said to me from behind darkened lenses. "I don't know, it isn't doing so well," I replied.

Later I learned that another small plane had entered restricted airspace and the Capitol had been evacuated. So that's what it was about.

Today the block of K Street between 14th and 15th was blocked off, cop cars and vans all up and down the block and around the corners. The windows in front of the ATM vestibule at the Wachovia Bank are blown out, glass all over the sidewalk. Some poor schmuck left his briefcase at the money machine, and the bomb squad blew it up.

How was your lunch?

Soundtrack of the War

2008-03-02T18:01:00.004-05:00

New uncensored images from Abu Ghraib were recently released, documenting the depraved and savage conditions that our government has wrought.

Over at imeem.com, somebody put together a songlist of music used during "enhanced interrogation," often at loud volume for hours or days at a time. The songs were identified through various accounts from the press and the military.

Just as Hendrix's cover of All Along the Watchtower is used in films to set the mood of Vietnam, this music will be the soundtrack for movies about Bush's war.

Snow Job

2008-02-02T15:53:00.002-05:00

On the Real Time with Bill Maher broadcast January 11, 2008, former White House spokesperson Tony Snow had this to say:

When it comes to the war, everybody….It’s great to be a back seat General. Everybody gets it wrong at the beginning of a war…

[Bush] ended up trusting the people in charge. If they made wrong decisions, that’s something you learn from. Yes, I know people died. On the other hand, you can sit around and be snarky. You can sit around and second-guess. If you’ve got the way to win on the ground right now, please dispatch it. Love to hear it.

This recurring challenge ran like a leitmotif through the 2004 and 2006 elections – Well, what’s your plan? Do you have a strategy for success?

I’ll take that. Let me explain what happened, as I see it:

American was walking down the street one day when some evil people smacked us in the head with an ice ball. A nasty one, packed tight with a rock in the middle. It hurt a lot and drew blood. America was angry.

George Bush went tearing off down the sidewalk, huffing and puffing that he’d get the person responsible for this, dead or alive. On the sidewalk was a pile of dog shit. George ran directly towards it. Some of us said, “George, that looks like a pile of shit. Stepping in that isn’t a good idea.”

But no, he ignored everybody who voiced contrary advice, called them traitors and haters, and did it anyway. He didn’t just step in shit, he stomped on it with both feet. Wiggled it between his toes. Smeared it all over.

He made a big mess. In other words, he’s a big mess-maker.

And then George stands there, splattered with shit from head to toe, and has the unmitigated gall to say, “Well, how would you clean up this mess?”

Facepalm. Those who opposed this war are accused of second-guessing by people who never did any first-guessing from the outset. There never was a Plan B for Iraq because they didn't even have a Plan A.

Here’s what you do, Tony. You start by taking command away from the idiots responsible for the worst military and foreign relations blunder in American history. You stop following people who led the country into shit. You stop listening to people who lied, people who were horribly wrong time after time. And you hold them accountable for their lies and crimes.

That’s how it starts. It will take a long, long time to clean up this shit. The stains will never come out. But it starts by recognizing and admitting that the present course is wrong.

Pants on Fire

2007-12-19T21:46:00.000-05:00

Stepped out of the Metro and saw a fog machine at the curb, spewing out puffs of vapor. Another bioterrorism test? No, they’re filming a Coca Cola commercial at the corner of Connecticut and 17^th Street.

Democratic strategist James Carville encounters former GOP senator Bill Frist at a hot dog stand, no doubt teaching the world to sing in perfect harmony. Extras walk back and forth on the sidewalk.

Not long after arriving at the office, there are sirens in the street. Peering out the window, I see two fire trucks southbound on 17^th, escorted by two black SUVs – Secret Service vehicles. There’s a two-alarm fire at the Old Executive Office building, smoke pouring out of third-floor windows.

The guy doing front desk security says that we have the smell of smoke in the upper floors of the building. I tell him that the destruction of evidence probably got out of hand.

Around lunch time, I strolled over to the massive granite building just to check out the scene.

At 12:30, White House spokesperson Dana Perino held a press briefing during which she took issue with a New York Times article about the destruction of video tapes documenting the CIA’s “enhanced interrogation” of suspected terrorists.

Perino – who recently admitted to achieving her post unaware of the Cuban missile crisis -- objected to a subhead that said “White House Role Was Wider Than It Said,” specifically the use of the word “it.”

“Well, the subhead of the newspaper indicated that the White House -- well, it says the White House role was wider than it said, implying that I had either changed my story, or I or somebody else at the White House had misled the public,” she said.

In a statement, Perino said the inference of an effort to mislead the public is “pernicious and troubling.”

She didn’t say that the substance of the subhead is untrue, or that the article is factually incorrect. Just that the White House hasn’t said anything publicly about the matter at all, so “it” said nothing. Sure enough, the Times obliged by changing the subhead.

Of all the lies, falsehoods, duplicity, manipulations and deceptions perpetrated by this administration – the Iraq war, the war on terrorism, the outing of Valerie Plame, the existence of clandestine prisons violating international and US law, even blatant out-in-the-open lies like Bush’s firing of Rumsfeld – this is the line Perino draws in the sand.

Pernicious and troubling are a good way to start describing it.

To Oh-Oh-Seven

2007-11-02T19:01:00.000-05:00

The leg’s in the smoker and the Juice is on ice
Gore rests on laurels at Vick’s dog fights
Goodbye Fredo, fade-out Sopranos
Pootie YouTube nappy-headed hos
Bubble bursts, bridge falls down
Six entombed underground
Surges, purges, foot-tapping urges
Castro’s not dead, but Ladybird is
Helmsley’s pooch, Gere’s smooch
Lindsay’s hooch, Britney’s cooch
Blackwater wildfire Dick’s cousin Obama
They don’t have maps! Hey, remember Osama?
Hillary, Rudy, Mitt, and Fred
Tainted toothpaste, toys with lead
Pet food cavemen quagmire in Iraq
Shit meet fan: Turks attack
Phony soldiers man-sized safes
Leave her alone! Scooter’s walk chafes
Monks riot, lawyers in tear gas mist
General Betray Us, Bonds’ asterisk
Bernanke iPhone Iran bombing any day
Don’t tase me bro! I’ve never been gay.
None too soon this year will be through
We’re kicking ass whoop-dee-damn-doo.

Citizen X, 2007

Is Dick Cheney Demented?

2007-08-21T10:53:00.001-05:00

The question is not posed maliciously, but out of genuine concern for the health of the vice president and the country.

My 85-year-old father has vascular dementia, what used to be called senility. Over the years, he had numerous small strokes and transient ischemic attacks (TIAs).

Dementia is a slow and insidious process. My father never fell ill, never took time off work, never had any obvious signs of stroke such as sudden paralysis. Nobody knew how bad things were until a magnetic resonance image showed his brain pockmarked with dead areas.

Small arteries in the brain gradually lose their flexibility and become narrowed by atherosclerotic plaque. Blood clots can form on inflamed arterial lining, or travel from elsewhere within the circulatory system, and block a vessel. When it happens in the coronary arteries, it’s a heart attack. In the brain, a stroke.

Deprived of oxygenated blood, the function of the brain nourished by that artery is instantly lost – motor control, sensation, memory, cognition.

I’m hardly the first person to suggest that something is seriously wrong with Cheney’s mind. Several people who have known the vice president for a long time have observed marked changes in his personality and character.

In an October, 2005, article in New Yorker, former national security advisor and close Bush family insider remarked on the anomalous character Cheney has become. “I consider Cheney a good friend – I’ve known him for 30 years,” Scowcroft said. “But Dick Cheney I don’t know anymore.”

“Is the vice president losing his influence, or perhaps his mind?” posed Jim Hoaglund in the March 8 Washington Post, quoting a European statesman who has known the vice president for many years: “What has happened to Dick Cheney?”

Michelle Cottle probed Cheney’s medical history in the New Republic last March. She quotes DC insiders who openly ask, “What is wrong with Dick Cheney?”

Dick Cheney has a complex medical history that includes four heart attacks, his first when he was only 37 years old. In 1988, after his third heart attack at age 47, Cheney had quadruple bypass surgery. He had a stent placed in a coronary artery in the fall of 2000, a repeated angioplasty procedure the following spring, and had a cardioverter/defribrillator implanted in June of 2001.

Mental impairment is common after bypass surgery and cardiac interventions such a angioplasty. A Duke study published in the February 8, 2001, New England Journal of Medicine found that 42% of people who have undergone coronary artery bypass surgery have measurable cognitive decline within 5 years

There is evidence that Cheney has heart failure and peripheral artery disease, both of which have a risk of throwing clots and other cardiovascular complications. In March of 2007, it was reported that Cheney has deep vein thrombosis.

In the June 2004 issue of The Atlantic, Howard Markel described the assessment of seven cardiologists given Cheney’s anonymized medical history. “It’s a testament to medical science that he’s alive,” said one.

I’m aware that right-wing pundit Charles Krauthammer, who was a practicing psychiatrist, has already given Cheney a clean bill of health. I consider this about as reliable as former GOP senator Bill Frist’s assessment of Terri Shiavo.

To somebody who has seen dementia up close, the signs and symptoms are unambiguous.

Cerebrovascular disease can cause varying degrees of hemiplegia – weakness or paralysis on one side of the body. Neurological deficit can be subtle. Mild muscular weakness may be noted by asymmetry of the mouth when a person speaks or grimaces:

Paranoia and suspicion are common features of dementia. According to a recent Washington Post profile, Cheney invented his own secrecy classification and has a man-sized safe in his office.

The demented person may become disoriented and confused. For example, he may be uncertain whether he works in the executive or legislative branch of government. One approach is to affix labels to objects around the home and workplace. A sign on his desk that says, “You work here” may be helpful.

The demented person may be forgetful, and may embark on ill-conceived action that is inconsistent with previous, less impaired behavior:

Poor impulse control is another common feature of dementia. The demented person may act in a manner that is shocking or inappropriate for the social context, such as blurting out, “Go fuck yourself.” However tempting, responding in kind is unproductive.

It is important to remember that these behaviors are the product of a diseased mind. As NY democratic Rep. Charles Rangel said about Cheney in 2005, “"I would like to believe he's sick rather just mean and evil.”

War Dance

2007-04-28T16:13:00.000-05:00

George Bush, April 25, 2007

"...believe me, no one suffers more than their president and... and, uh, I do."

Laura Bush, April 25, 2007

Pedestrian encounter

2007-04-24T23:30:00.000-05:00

Went out for coffee this afternoon and lingered around 17th & L smoking a cigarette. Strolling down the sidewalk is Donald Rumsfeld, talking to a man in a brown suit carrying a briefcase, followed by two steps by a much taller, bulkier guy who is obviously security. Probably leaving the Mayflower, adjacent to my office.

Rumsfeld looks shorter than I expect, squinting the way he does and gesticulating as he talked to his companion. I search my mind for something to say. I was tempted to say, "Donald Rumsfeld!" but he probably knows who he is. I couldn't say nice to meet you, because that isn't true.

It isn't every day that you get to see a war criminal walking down the street. As he crossed 17th I thought of Marathon Man, when Christian Szell is recognized in New York's diamond district. "Szell...Szell...," says an old woman on 47th Street. "Murderer! Murderer!"

It's sort of like a golf clap. It only works if others join in.

STFU

2007-03-22T23:42:00.000-05:00

The trial of Scooter Libby is long over, and right-wingers just can't let it go.

The reptilian Robert Novak still wonders aloud whether Valerie Plame was really covert. Fox News' Brit Hume accused Plame of lying under oath in her testimony before Congress. Although lacking first-hand knowledge of the facts of the case, dour lawyer Victoria Toenging can't bring herself to call Plame covert and insists that she didn't meet the narrow definition of covert agent in the Intelligence Identities Protection Act (IIPA).

Freepers won't budge from their talking points: There was no underlying crime; Plame was not covert; she was a low-level paper-pusher yet finagled a junket to Niger for her husband; everybody in Washington knew she was a spy; she blew her cover when she walked into work.

Enough already.

Recently I listened to the podcast of PBS's terrific series News War. Lowell Bergman interviewed David Szady, the FBI's assistant director for counterintelligence from 2002 to 2006 -- during the Plame investigation.

Whenever there is a leak of classified information, the aggrieved agency must answer 11 questions posed by the Department of Justice before an investigation is launched. You can read the list of questions here.

The questions are aimed at determining whether the information was properly protected, whether its release affected national security, whether it was declassified before release, and so on. One of the questions is whether the information is true:

LOWELL BERGMAN: The information has to be accurate?

DAVID SZADY: Yes.

LOWELL BERGMAN: So when the government announces a leak investigation and it comes to your office, it's confirming that the...that the report in the newspaper, for example, or on television, was true?

DAVID SZADY: Yes. Indirectly, yes.

LOWELL BERGMAN: That's one way to fact check.

Obviously, DOJ isn't going to waste FBI resources tracking down sources of information that is false or insignificant. So at least four well-informed sources believed that a crime occurred by the release of Plame's identity: CIA, DOJ, FBI, and Fitzgerald.

Was her identity classified? Yes. Was she covert? Yes. Had her name been declassified before being released? No. Was national security harmed by the disclosure? Yes.

Regardless of whether it met the narrow definition of the IIPA, it was not a good thing. The White House blew the cover of a CIA operative working on WMD, during wartime.

The Libby trial showed in no uncertain terms that Joseph Wilson was targeted for daring to call attention to the Bush administration's lies. Either Plame's cover was blown deliberately, or Bush & crew are criminally incompetent and cannot be trusted to properly handle classified information. The only question is why Rove, Libby, Armitage and the rest of them still have their security clearances.

"Hey rule of law!"

2007-03-20T18:22:00.000-05:00

Friday follies

2007-01-05T17:50:00.000-05:00

What better way to spend a lunch hour watching a protest in front of the American Enterprise Institute, around the corner from the office at M and 17th Street. At a confererence inside, hawks chicken and otherwise issued a report calling for the deployment of a "large and sustained surge" of U.S. troops to Iraq. Senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman were among the headliners appearing in support of the report.

Outside, several hundred people at the protest organized by MoveOn. Must have been a few hundred people walking in a light drizzle. They chanted:

John McCain, John McCain
Escalation is insane

and

John and Joe, John and Joe
Escalation's not the way to go

As people mill about, they were joined by a chorus of LaRouche supporters. Wait, what?

That's the National Geographic building across the street. And who should I run into but my friend, The Architect?

Guerrilla warfare

2006-11-17T22:10:00.000-05:00

Former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld embodied this administration's haughty detachment from reality. When the occupation of Iraq soured, Rumsfeld refused to acknowledge the evolving situation. Peter J. Boyer's excellent profile in the November 20 issue of New Yorker, Rumsfeld quibbled over the nature of the conflict facing American troops:

In a remarkable exchange with reporters at a Pentagon briefing in late June [2003], a reporter read Rumsfeld a dictionary definition of “guerrilla war” and asked why he was so reluctant to name it as such. “Can you remind us again why this isn’t a quagmire?” the reporter asked. Rumsfeld replied, in his best vice-principal tone, as if patronizing a particularly dull student, “I guess the reason I don’t use the phrase ‘guerrilla war’ is because there isn’t one, and it would be a misunderstanding and a miscommunication to you and to the people of the country and the world.”

He explained that the disturbances in Iraq were being caused by looters, criminals, remnants of the regime, foreign terrorists, and Iranian agents. “Doesn’t make it anything like a guerrilla war or an organized resistance. It makes it like five different things going on that are functioning much more like terrorists. . . . Now, that is not—it doesn’t fit that word. So, I think, that if one analyzes what is going on in that country, they would find a different way to characterize it. I know it’s nice to be—have a bumper sticker, but it’s the wrong bumper sticker.”

At this, the reporter pulled out the official Defense Department definition of “guerrilla war” (“I knew I should have looked it up!” Rumsfeld said. “I could die that I didn’t look it up!”): “ ‘Military and paramilitary operations conducted in enemy-held or hostile territory by irregular, predominantly indigenous forces.’ This seems to fit a lot of what’s going on in Iraq.”

To which Rumsfeld replied, “It really doesn’t.”

The Sword of Damocles

2006-10-26T20:12:00.000-05:00

What is the most visited site in Washington, DC? The Smithsonian’s Air & Space Museum? The Museum of American History? The Capitol?

None of the above. Union Station is by far the busiest place in DC, with more than 29 million people walking through the marble Beaux-Arts landmark annually.

I go through Union Station twice a day, from train to subway, marveling every time at the beautiful barrel-vaulted gold-leafed spaces. Mr. Smith arrived in Washington here. Train 173 crashed into the station here. Hannibal Lecter met Agent Starling here.

People comforted that the U.S. hasn't seen a domestic attack since 9/11 are deluded by a false sense of security. When terrorists failed to bring down the World Trade Center in 1993, they waited eight years to finish the job. They are determined, calculating, and patient.

Meanwhile there was Aum Shinrikyo's sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway in 1995, attacks on the Moscow metro in February and Madrid communter trains in March of 2004, the coordinated attack on London's transit system in July of 2005, and the series of bombings on trains in Mumbai on July 11, 2006.

It's the sort of thing one can't help but think about, and I'm not the only one. A colleague at work confessed that she panics when the Metro stops dead beneath the Potomac coming in from Virginia, which the subway does often, wondering if it's another attack. I carry a flashlight, hankerchief, and bottle of water in my backpack at all times.

I think about this daily, because Union Station is a prime location for a terrorist incident. My intent here isn't to give anybody ideas. It's obvious to any casual observer. I hope that by discussing these things, steps could be taken to prevent a catastrophe.

An incident at Union Station would cripple not only the District of Columbia, but affect the entire East Coast.

Union Station serves the north-south Amtrak line, and is the terminus for commuter trains into Virginia and Maryland. About 30,000 people, myself included, ride Maryland's MARC lines, which are mainly used to commute to and from Washington. About 15,000 commuters take Virginia Rail Express each weekday.

Union Station is also on the Red Line, Metro's most heavily traveled route. The DC Metro system boasts the longest escalator in the western hemisphere, and stations so deep that one is accessible only by elevator.

The system serves two airports -- BWI and National -- and thousands of people carry backpacks, carry-on bags, and often large suitcases. Every day, Union Station and it's rail and subway tributaries are teeming with tens of thousands of people carrying luggage.

What could be inside those bags?

When there is a bomb scare, which happens now and then, the commuter trains are swept and hundreds of people are herded onto the platform. During the evening rush hour, this is a huge crush of people. We're sitting ducks for deadly intentions.

Aside from paralyzing the DC and regional transit systems, if the breeze is right a biological or chemical or dirty device could direct a toxic cloud over some of the most important real estate in town.

CLICK FOR FULL SIZEGiven its vulnerability to Washington and the people who work there, how is the security at Union Station? Not good enough, and certainly not as visible or rigorous as what I've seen in New York, Boston, Los Angeles, or in Europe.

Sure, there are video cameras all over, which aren't much of a deterrent and only tell you what happened after the fact. They didn't stop a deranged guy with a gun from running through four floors of the Capitol until he was cornered and tackled by staffers in the flag office, although the Capitol Police assured the press that they watched the whole thing on video.

Law enforcement officers often walk through Union Station with dogs, more for show than detection.

A considerate terrorist would put a device in the new blast-resistant trash receptacles (left) that have recently been installed all over the place. These containers are designed to deflect a blast upward (right). Some security experts suggest that if explosive were actually detonated the receptical would act like a mortar, propelling the heavy lid up to the concrete ceiling, which can and has collapsed in the past.

The peculiar device to the right is a sniffer machine, more accurately a chemical/biological detector. Back during the first Gulf War, the military equipped vehicles with cones to filter air as they travelled through Kuwait and Iraq. Paper filters were removed from the samplers and taken to a laboratory for mass spec/gas chromatography, which would reveal whether troops were exposed to a chemical or biological agent. This same technology was deplayed for the 2000 Winter Games in Salt Lake City.

The obvious problem with this approach is that you don't get a warning in realtime, but only learn what happened in the past. The easiest way of thwarting the sniffer is simply to pull the electrical plug.

Realtime chem/bio detectors exist, and have been installed in Senate and House office buildings. If they are deployed in Union Station as well, why waste resources sending a guy to collect paper filters from this thing? It's difficult to have a lot of confidence in Incompetence, Inc.

I don't know all the answers. I'm not a security expert. But I do know that we deserve better than half-assed 15-year-old technology.

Lex Luthor's Mail

2006-09-22T17:45:00.000-05:00

What would people think of super-villain and global menace Lex Luthor shopping at their nice suburban supermarket? Even nefarious criminals need to buy toilet paper and laundry detergent.

That could be him pushing the cart with the sticky wheel, clipping coupons, squeezing the bread to make sure it's fresh, squinting to read expiration dates. He doesn't look so evil in person.

Talking Points

2006-09-13T07:45:00.000-05:00

My eye was drawn to a letter to the editor in yesterday’s Baltimore Sun (third one down):

President strives to protect us all

The U.S. government has no more urgent and basic obligation than to protect the American people in time of war.

In his Sept. 6 speech, President Bush outlined the steps the United States is taking to detain and question the world's most violent terrorists and also announced needed legislation to bring these terrorists before military tribunals ("Bush says CIA has prisons overseas," Sept. 7).

The secret CIA prisons whose existence the president acknowledged are a necessary tool to keep us safe from these dangerous terrorists.

Yet time and time again, some Democrats in Washington have continued to question why our government needs tools such as these tribunals to prevent attacks on American soil.

They have questioned the terrorist surveillance program by the National Security Agency and tried to kill the much-needed Patriot Act.

The terrorists in U.S. custody are dangerous murderers who would kill again and again if set free.

It is vital to fully support our intelligence agencies and military and see that they have every necessary means to combat this threat.

Al Eisner
Wheaton

The language of the letter was curious. It was very slick rhetoric. Almost too neat. I ran key phrases through Google and quickly found a September 6 posting on Talking Points Memo that excerpted an email from Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman:

It's very simple. Our government has no more basic obligation than to protect the American people in a time of war. Today, President Bush outlined the steps America is taking to question and detain the world's most violent terrorists, and announced legislation to try these terrorists before military commissions.
Read the President's speech and watch the video.
Because of interrogation programs by the CIA, our nation has gained invaluable intelligence that has saved American lives. Interrogations of terrorists including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks, have led to the arrests of al Qaeda operatives planning to carry out attacks inside the United States and revealed the terror network's plan to obtain biological weapons. In one chilling interrogation, Mohammed described instructing his operatives to set off explosions in buildings at points high enough to prevent those trapped from escaping out of the windows.
These new revelations are a clear reminder that the threat is real, and that we must pursue victory in this war with all our might. Because a Supreme Court ruling earlier this year put the CIA's interrogation program at risk, the President is sending legislation to Congress to specifically authorize the creation of military commissions to try these suspected terrorists for war crimes. When this legislation is passed, the people our intelligence agencies believe orchestrated 9/11 can face justice.
Watch key excerpts of the President's address and write a letter to the editor on these important efforts to keep Americans safe.
Time and time again, some Democrats in Washington have questioned why our government needs tools like these to prevent attacks on American soil. They have questioned the terrorist surveillance program, and bragged about "killing" the Patriot Act. The #2 Democrat in the Senate even likened America's interrogation practices to those in Nazi or Soviet concentration camps.
Americans now have the facts about these vital efforts to prevent future attacks. The terrorists in American custody are not just innocent bystanders. They are dangerous murderers who would kill again if set free. Take a stand and ensure our military and intelligence agencies continue to have every tool they need to fight this threat.

I contacted Franz Schneiderman, the Sun’s letters editor, to bring this to his attention. He asked me to send him the link to Talking Points Memo, which I did. Later in the afternoon, he wrote back:

Yes, I see. The letter must have been derived from that memo indeed. We do watch out for the mass-mailed ones from poltical organization but this one didn't have the obvious earmarks and the formatting those usually come with... Thanks for letting me know, though of course it's not like we can un-publish the letter now.

We are living in a state of war, with a dishonest and manipulative government, a piggish do-nothing Congress, and media that are asleep at the switch. No wonder citizens are disgusted and fed up.

On primary day, Baltimore’s only daily paper runs unattributed verbatim GOP talking points from the RNC chairman, and it merits a shrug.

Half-baked patriotism

2006-09-03T21:33:00.000-05:00

There it was at the supermarket, a display of holiday baked goods. I whipped out the phone camera and framed a vision of frosting in red, white and blue.

The store manager was at my side. "Can I help you?"

"Just taking a picture," I said, snapping one shot and angling my phone for another.

"Any particular reason why?" he asked.

"I like the cake," I said, snapping another image, then raising the camera to get a wider shot.

"This is private property," he said. "We don't allow taking pictures."

"Those cakes have American flags on them," I wanted to say. "People will cut into the flag, eat the flag, and then shit out the flag of the United States of America. Isn't that a desecration? "

"Really? I never heard of such a thing," I said. I flipped the phone closed, slipped it into my pocket and walked away.

Flights of fancy

2006-08-15T12:52:00.000-05:00

Flying cross-country out of LA on the day liquids are banned from aircraft. Discarded sodas and water bottles fill bins next to the curbside check-in and throughout the airport.

At security: shoes off, laptop out of backpack. Into a clear plastic bag go cell phone, keys, watch, belt, sunglasses, gum with foil packaging, memory stick. Place all items flat on the conveyor belt.

Millionaire men with aides to carry their bags, who have reserved spaces at National airport, traveling on government planes or private aircraft and able to bypass security altogether, decide how the rest of the country travels.

No water or drinks, no shampoo or hair gel, toothpaste, perfume, hand lotion, lipstick, sunscreen, nasal spray -- no liquids or gels of any kind.

Chertoff says that the American people are very understanding and willing to tolerate a little inconvenience for their security.

Shuffling barefoot, clutching our drooping pants and what remains of our dignity, we meekly agree.

Ahead of me a man has a stick of deodorant seized from his carry-on bag. The TSA officer wags it in his face disapprovingly, as though something shameful.

Confused grannies in wheelchairs being frisked. In the glass box a toddler no more than 3 years old standing perfectly still, arms outstretched, solemnly looking up at the uniformed officer waving an un-magical wand over her body.

Is our children learning?

Yes, our children is learning to assume the position.

After my arrival at my destination, I stood in the damp night air outside the terminal. Flipping the backpack off my shoulder, I fished through the contents – stapler, eye drops and various crap – and found my cigarette lighter. Inhaling the smoke deeply, I pondered the meaning of it all.

Insurgency / insurgent

2006-07-04T09:23:00.000-05:00

The people the US is fighting against in Iraq and Afghanistan are called many things, most often insurgents or terrorists. Rebel is also apt, but nobody uses it.

In a speech on the Iraq war at the U.S. Naval Academy on November 30, 2005, Bush unveiled rejectionists and saddamists. The only earlier uses of saddamists I could find referred to members of the deposed Iraqi regime, i.e. those pictured on the notorious playing cards, and not to loyalists or sympathizers. Saddamists no doubt resonates with Bush's political base because it sounds like sodomists.

An insurgency is an armed rebellion against an established, recognized government. As an occupying force that illegally invaded a sovereign nation, the U.S. can hardly be regarded as the legitimate government.

In another time on these shores, people took up arms against the established, recognized government, We call them patriots.

During the 1980s, the U.S. supported and armed rebels fighting the Sandinista Nicaraguan government, many of whom were CIA-trained death squad members engaged in sabotage, assassination, bombings, and other acts considered terrorism. But we called them contras.

It all depends on what side you're on.

Fourth of July

2006-07-04T09:20:00.000-05:00

Big bother

2006-07-02T13:14:00.000-05:00

Security measures of the DC Metro apparently include keeping passengers annoyed and in motion.

Thought I was going to get arrested at the Union Station subway station the other morning. With $1.15 remaining on my fare card, decided to add $20 so there wouldn't be any problems on the way home. Swipe my card at the add fare machine, take the receipt, and on my way.

Waved the fare card over the reader, and in that moment the gate slid open I glanced down at the display, which said $ 1.15. But there was a space between the dollar sign and the 1.

I paused to think. Was the display broken and missing a digit, or was my card short $20? No way am I going through again just to check the balance.

"The track is that way," said a cop in camo, gesturing toward the escalators. My hat probably threw him off. "That way," he repeated, not at all helpfully.

I walked to the nation manager's glass-walled booth, where a tall man stood wearing a high-visibility vest, holding out my fare card.

"Excuse me….

"Did you go through the gate?" he barked at me. "You have to go through the gate."

"I was just…"

"You have to go through the gate," he insisted. "Did you go through the gate?"

I stared at him. Hard. I tried to muster an expression that said, "Did you just fart?"

"A-yes," I said slowly and deliberately, adopting an accent like Borat's cousin from Kazakhstan. "I did went in gate. Kind please check card balance?"

He took my card, eyeing me suspiciously. I stared back blankly. He swiped the card over the reader. "Twenty dollars, fifteen cents," he grouched.

Almost made me mad enough to taunt him with my bagel.

Falling down

2006-06-14T18:46:00.000-05:00

As I left the Metro station the other day, an older woman behind me tried to negotiate between two traffic cones covering ill-fitting grates on the sidewalk, caught her foot on a crack, and did a face plant onto the concrete. Her nose bloodied, I gave her a napkin packed with my breakfast.

The next morning, outside the Metro station, there was another cone covering the edge that tripped the woman up, creating a barrier stretching half across the sidewalk.

With enough cones, we could make this city safe.

Dear Tourists

2006-06-08T18:35:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the District of Columbia – the nation’s capital, the city of monuments, the people’s city.

Don’t miss the waterslide down from the top of the Washington Monument. Well worth the extra $3.50.
After visiting the Treasury building, they give out samples just like the Hershey’s tour. Let the kids keep the $1s and $5s; go for the big bills.
Few people know that George Bush plays checkers against all comers in Lafayette Park during lunch on Fridays. Wagering is not allowed.
If you whisper a secret into Abe’s ear at the Lincoln Memorial, it will come true.

But seriously

2006-06-08T18:33:00.000-05:00

Stand on the right, walk on the left. Ferchristsake.

Authorized use of military force

2006-05-19T23:45:00.000-05:00

For the last five years, the U.S. has been engaged in a global war against terror (GWAR). Technically, it isn't a war. It's an authorized use of military force.

The U.S. Constitution designates Congress to "provide for the common defense" of the nation. Article I, Section 8 gives the legislature the following powers:

To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water;
To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years;
To provide and maintain a navy;
To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces;
To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions;
To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the states respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress.

The President's role in war-making is defined by the first 34 words of Section 2 of Article II: "The President shall be commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states, when called into the actual service of the United States."

The United States hasn't declared war in 65 years. FDR signed a declaration of war after the attack of Pearl Harbor in December, 1941. Additional declarations of war were against European nations were promulgated over the next seven months as the U.S. was drawn further into World War II.

America has been involved in several undeclared wars since then. In 1950, President Truman described the U.S. military presence in Korea as a "police action." The Vietnam conflict was never a declared war, and neither were excursions into Lebanon (1982-83), Grenada (1983), Panama (1989), or Somalia (1993).

After the prolonged engagement in Vietnam, Congress passed the War Powers Resolution of 1973 to counter the lack of legislative authority over the military. Under terms of the resolution, the President can introduce the military into hostile situations for up to 60 days unless there is a declaration of war, an attack on the U.S., or a specific authorization of force.

On September 18, 2001, President Bush signed into law the joint Authorization for the Use of Military Force resolution that directed him to "use all appropriate and necessary force" against those responsible for the terrorist acts of 9/11 "in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States."

In October of 2002 Congress passed the Authorization of Use of Military Force Against Iraq, citing a laundry list of trumped-up reasons that have been thoroughly discredited.

The authorization of military force launched the invasion of Afghanistan, the overthrow of the Taliban and persecution of Al Qaida, and the invasion and occupation of Iraq. And are the pretenses for indefinite detainment, circumvention of U.S. law and the Geneva Conventions, kidnapping, torture, domestic spying, and countless transgressions perpetrated in our names.

Life During Authorized Use of Military Force just doesn't have the same zing.