STRATEGYPAGE looks at Al Qaeda’s media strategy in Pakistan.
Archive for 2005
December 3, 2005
December 2, 2005
GOOD NEWS FOR FREE EXPRESSION:
A federal judge ruled Friday that Illinois’ restrictions on the sale of violent and sexually explicit video games to minors are unconstitutional and barred the state from enforcing the law.
State officials “have come nowhere near” demonstrating that the law passes constitutional muster, said U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Kennelly.
Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich and other supporters of the measure argued that children were being harmed by exposure to games in which characters go on killing sprees or sexual escapades.
Opponents declared the law a restriction on free speech and pointed out that similar laws had been struck down in other states.
Don’t miss this article by John Luik on the bogus nature of most anti-videogame claims. On the other hand, this complaint seems valid to me.
PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: Reader Douglas Bass emails:
I ran into Heidi Frederickson, Congressman Mark Kennedy’s staffer, in Keegan’s Irish Pub, during the weekly caucus of the Minnesota Organization of Blogs. I mentioned that I had gotten her mentioned on Instapundit, and she told me that she had shown Rep. Kennedy all the Porkbusters web pages. Is it a coincidence that Mark Kennedy cast the deciding vote to cut $50,000,000,000 in spending? I think not!
Heh. Indeed.
MYSTERY POLLSTER offers a lengthy look at Iraq polling.
MICHAEL KINSLEY ON CORRUPTION IN WASHINGTON:
The brazenness of the DeLay-Abramoff circle has caused prosecutors to look past traditional distinctions, such as that between campaign contributions and cash or other favors to a politician personally. Or the distinction between doing what a lobbyist wants after he has taken you to Scotland to play golf and promising to do what he wants before he takes you to Scotland to play golf.
These distinctions don’t really touch on what’s corrupt here, which is simply the ability of money to give some people more influence than others over the course of a democracy where, civically if not economically, we are all supposed to be equal. So where do you draw the line between harmless favors and corrupt bribery?
It’s not an easy question if you’re talking about sending people to prison. But it’s a very easy question if you’re just talking: The answer is that it’s all corrupt bribery. People and companies hire lobbyists because it works. Lobbyists get the big bucks because their efforts earn or save clients even bigger bucks in their dealings with the government. Members of Congress are among the world’s greatest bargains: What is a couple of commodes compared with $163 million worth of Pentagon contracts?
Perhaps conceding more than he intended, former Democratic senator John Breaux, now on K Street, told the New York Times that a member of Congress will be swayed more by 2,000 letters from constituents on some issue than by anything a lobbyist can offer. I guess if it’s a lobbyist vs. 1,900 constituents, it’s too bad for the constituents.
Read the whole thing.
UPDATE: A modest proposal for reducing government corruption.
“The ‘evidence’ of weapons of mass destruction and links to Al Qaeda turned out to be false,” Clinton wrote.
But just months after the bombs started falling, Clinton (D-N.Y.) called a Daily News reporter to insist she had no second thoughts about her vote for war.
The war was worth it just to remove Saddam Hussein from power, she said.
Clinton emphatically told The News in her 2003 call, “I felt that it was appropriate under the circumstances, which really went back to 1998 under the Clinton administration’s conclusion that the regime had to change, that the President [Bush] had authority to pursue that goal.”
“Why was the intelligence consistent from the Clinton administration to the Bush administration?” Clinton added. “The intelligence was consistent for over a decade.”
On the eve of war, even the senator’s aides echoed Team Bush’s confidence in a swift victory, including one who boasted, “It’s going to be a cakewalk.”
(Via The Raw Story).
SKIPPY ASKS: Is Maureen Dowd really necessary?
PEJMAN YOUSEFZADEH has thoughts on the economy, and criticizes both the Bush Administration and the media.
UPDATE: Related posts from Ed Driscoll and BizzyBlog.
A SHOCKING SIGN OF INTELLIGENCE in the Homeland Security area:
Airline passengers soon will be able to take small scissors and screwdrivers aboard planes again, Transportation Security Administration chief Kip Hawley announced Friday.
Hawley said the change will take effect Dec. 22 and is part of a broader effort aimed at having screeners spend more of their time searching for explosives rather than small, sharp objects that don’t pose as great a risk. The small implements were banned after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Does this mean we can have real metal forks in airport restaurants now?
HOW ARE THINGS GOING IN IRAQ? The Opinionated Bastard, who you may recall had the troop-rotation schedule nailed before it was a big media issue, has looked at the latest numbers from Brookings and has an analysis. And here’s another one from Security Watchtower. Both contain more analysis — and actual data — than you’re likely to see in most press reports.
UPDATE: Hmm. Reportedly, Americans are now more confident in how things are going than they’ve been all year. Guess the whole “pushback” business has done some good, though the numbers aren’t so great that the Bush Administration should let up.
THE CARNIVAL OF COMEDY is up.
TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING? Er, yes. But it’s already sold out, anyway, which suggests that not everyone agrees.
(Via who else? I’m embarrassed to say I thought he was making it up until I checked myself.)
UPDATE: Holy crap — reader Matthias Shapiro emails:
File this under “Reading Instapundit for Fun and Profit”
Thanks for your post on the Star Treck Ultimate Collection. Thanks to you, I was able to snap up one of the last two copies I could find on ebay for what I’m sure will end up being a relative bargain at $2499.99. Now the only choice is to cough up $3908.98 for the one and only remaining set. And only a crazy person would do something like that.
Apparently there are more of those out there than I imagined. And as one of the reviewers says: “[Y]ou should know that the average Star Trek fan is more affluent than any other fan base. AND you can bet your favorite tricorder that Paramount knows that too.” I guess so.
ELECTIONS IN THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: Women will vote.
MORE CARNIVALS: The Carnival of Recipes is up! So is the Carnival of Satire. And the Poetry Carnival.
Most people seemed to agree that the About.com Carnival of the Digital Cameras wasn’t worth linking to. Should I host my own?
HEH: “Barbara Walters’ 3.5 most fascinating Negroes of 2005.”
UPDATE: Link was bad before. Sorry — fixed now.
DOCUMENTARY-O-RAMA: I have a weakness for documentary filmmakers, for obvious reasons, and I’ve gotten a bunch of documentaries in the mail. I sat down last night and watched the Galloway Brothers’ documentary Why Wal*Mart Works: And Why That Drives Some People C-R-A-Z-Y! and thought it was pretty good. (My wife would say it has too many talking heads, and she’d be right, but I don’t mind talking heads that much, and one of them was me.) My favorite bit was when he interviewed a bunch of anti-Walmart types in the boutique district of Boone, N.C., then it became clear that the boutique district did well because (1) Wal-Mart attracted shoppers to the area, and (2) People could afford to shop in the boutique places because they were getting the necessities of life cheap at Wal-Mart. That’s the sort of Big-Small synergy that I talk about in my book.
I haven’t had a chance to watch them, but I’ve also gotten Steven Greenstreet’s This Divided State,
Meanwhile, I eagerly await the documentary on Samuel’s: An American Phenomenon! Narrated by James Lileks, of course.
UPDATE: A more valid criticism of Wal-Mart: “The problems I have with Wal-Mart have nothing to do with wages, health benefits, non-union workers, et al. If they end up losing me as a customer it’ll be due to the fact that a majority of their stores are unkempt and disorganized. Their aesthetic is severly lacking, and in my opinion, that is eventually going to deal a severe blow to their business.”
Yes. If they were minions of Satan, wouldn’t they be more, um, seductive?
MORE: Unlike me, Michael Demmons has seen Flemming’s film, and posts a review.
STILL MORE: Another Flemming review here.
ANOTHER GEEK GIFT GUIDE, this one from Make magazine, and featuring items considerably cheaper than those in the Wired item I linked earlier. Plus, Megan McArdle has a list of recommendations, and you can find more here.
THIS WEEK’S History Carnival is up!
THE “COSTLIEST ENGINEERING MISTAKE IN AMERICAN HISTORY:”
The floodwall on the 17th Street Canal levee was destined to fail long before it reached its maximum design load of 14 feet of water because the Army Corps of Engineers underestimated the weak soil layers 10 to 25 feet below the levee, the state’s forensic levee investigation team concluded in a report to be released this week.
That miscalculation was so obvious and fundamental, investigators said, they “could not fathom” how the design team of engineers from the corps, local firm Eustis Engineering and the national firm Modjeski and Masters could have missed what is being termed the costliest engineering mistake in American history. . . .
“It’s simply beyond me,” said Billy Prochaska, a consulting engineer in the forensic group known as Team Louisiana. “This wasn’t a complicated problem. This is something the corps, Eustis, and Modjeski and Masters do all the time. Yet everyone missed it — everyone from the local offices all the way up to Washington.”
This will cause a lot of conspiracy theories to unravel.
AVIAN FLU UPDATE:
Most U.S. companies haven’t planned for how to stay in business during a flu pandemic, or even if they’ll follow federal advice that potentially contagious employees should stay home, a survey suggests.
Public health specialists and the government are pressuring businesses to prepare for a worldwide outbreak of the bird flu or some other super-strain of influenza, a crisis that could bankrupt many companies if their workers are too sick or scared to show up and their supply chains disappear.
The concern isn’t just because of economics, but because many companies provide products and services that people literally can’t live without, explained Michael Osterholm of the University of Minnesota, who advises the government.
Avian flu may come to nothing, of course. But people should be thinking of this, because the likelihood that some sort of epidemic will strike is too hight to ignore.
UPDATE: Reader Jason Davis emails:
I work for a U.S. consulting firm and I am currently working in Asia. We are assuming that at any point within the next year many borders could be shut down during brief periods. We are particularly planning for a closed border between Hong-Kong and mainland China and are positioning our people appropriately in case of a border crossing freeze. We have estimated the costs and delays to our projects, and it isn’t pretty. I am confident we are not the only organization taking concrete steps, and I imagine the trend will grow and stay with us for a long time to come.
-J
P.S. – I personally am currently sitting in a suburb just outside Jakarta, Indonesia called Tangerang where several of the bird flu cases have been diagnosed. I’m not panicking just yet ;-)
Good. But I’m glad to hear that people are planning for this. Sooner or later, regardless of what happens with avian flu, we’ll need to be prepared.
MICKEY KAUS on economic reporting at the New York Times: “It’s indeed deeply disturbing to learn that higher gas prices have held down demand, causing those prices to fall back to a level at which demand begins to rise again! It’s almost as if some insidious law was at work–as prices rise, demand declines! As supply increases, prices fall! You can’t win!”
Others were similarly amused: “How can anyone read that and not laugh?” Apparently, by being an editor at the NYT!
UPDATE: More here:
During a quarter century of analyzing and forecasting the economy, I have never seen anything like this. No matter what happens, no matter what data are released, no matter which way markets move, a pall of pessimism hangs over the economy.
It is amazing. Everything is negative. When bond yields rise, it is considered bad for the housing market and the consumer. But if bond yields fall and the yield curve narrows toward inversion, that is bad too, because an inverted yield curve could signal a recession.
If housing data weaken, as they did on Monday when existing home sales fell, well that is a sign of a bursting housing bubble. If housing data strengthen, as they did on Tuesday when new home sales rose, that is negative because the Fed may raise rates further. If foreigners buy our bonds, we are not saving for ourselves. If foreigners do not buy our bonds, interest rates could rise. If wages go up, inflation is coming. If wages go down, the economy is in trouble.
I suspect this reflects the bad economic conditions at newspapers, rather than in the nation as a whole. Workers at GM, Ford, and other uncompetitive companies probably have an unrealistically negative view of the economy, too.
December 1, 2005
DISCO BEAVER from outer space.
JEEZ, IT’S LIKE THEY’RE ALL CROOKS or something:
The top Senate Democrat investigating Jack Abramoff’s Indian lobbying met several times with the lobbyist’s team and clients, held a fundraiser in Abramoff’s arena skybox and arranged congressional help for one of the tribes, records show.
Sen. Byron Dorgan (news, bio, voting record), D-N.D., acknowledges he got Congress in fall 2003 to press government regulators to decide, after decades of delay, whether the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe of Massachusetts deserved federal recognition.
Dorgan met with the tribe’s representatives and collected at least $11,500 in political donations from Abramoff partner Michael D. Smith, who was representing the Mashpee, around the time he helped craft the legislation, according to interviews and documents obtained by The Associated Press.
Amusing diagram here. The problem is that corruption is bipartisan. The Republicans seem worse now, but that’s because they’re in power, and power provides more opportunities.
Of course, if the government had less power, there would be less corruption. Or at least, the corruption in question would matter less.
IF YOU LIE TO GET A STORY, is it wrong? Or is it just good reporting?
JEFF JARVIS IS GLOATING OVER LOW GAS PRICES: He bought the non-hybrid Highlander.
Hey, I’m glad that gas prices aren’t such that my hybrid is a great deal. But my reason for buying it was more aesthetic than economic. I wanted something big, didn’t want a minivan, and didn’t want to get 14 mpg.
One upside — the hybrid Highlander is really very quick, moreso than the gas model if you goose it. I don’t do that much, since jackrabbiting in a truck is kind of silly, but when I’ve needed to merge and floored it I’ve been impressed with the power.