The 9/11 Commission Report
Frustrated | and after a while you can work on points for style like the club tie and the firm handshake
An brief article in today's NY Times summarizes the 9/11 Commission's final report, focusing on the misconceptions surrounding the attacks...
WASHINGTON, July 24 — When the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States set to work early last year to prepare the definitive history of the events of Sept. 11, 2001, it seemed that much of its hard work was already done, because so much of the horrifying story seemed to be known.
At the time, it was understood that all of the hijackers had entered the country legally and done nothing to draw attention to themselves; Osama bin Laden had underwritten the plot with his personal fortune but had left the details to others; American intelligence agencies had no warning that Al Qaeda was considering suicide missions using planes; President Bush had received a special intelligence briefing weeks before Sept. 11 that focused on past, not current, terrorist threats from Al Qaeda...
Oops! Everything you know is wrong!
The commission's report found that the hijackers had repeatedly broken the law in entering the United States, that Mr. bin Laden may have micromanaged the attacks but did not pay for them, that intelligence agencies had considered the threat of suicide hijackings, and that Mr. Bush received an August 2001 briefing on evidence of continuing domestic terrorist threats from Al Qaeda.
The Times has an extensive section devoted to the 9/11 Commission, including links to the final report, the executive summary, excerpts of the report, graphics detailing the plot and missed opportunities and proposed government restructuring.
fdtate313 at 1:12:44 AM EDT
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Weekend Assignment: Superheroes
Chillin' | and sometimes I despair the world will never see another man like him
Well, it's the weekend...which means it's time for another episode of Scalzi's weekend assignments. This week...
Weekend Assignment #16: Create a brand-new Superhero secret identity for yourself, based on your personality and proclivities -- and make sure to list at least one "super power" that relates to a special talent you have.
I didn't do the assignment last week. Gross foods? Blech! Who wants to think about stuff like that. And I thought about not doing the assignment this week because Scalzi got my superhero. It seems that we (Scalzi and I) both have gray matter stuffed full of useless trivia. Useless unless we ever get that spot on Jeopardy.
Scalzi is Bar Bet Man. I could be his trusty sidekick Trivia Pursuit Man. We could travel the country, putting our useless knowledge to work against the forces of evil...
Name the four members of the Baseball Hall of Fame to start and end their careers in the same cities but for different teams. Not a problem for Trivia Pursuit Man! Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, Jimmy Foxx and Willie Mays. Which U.S. President served the shortest time in office? William Henry Harrison. What book was the inspiration for Stephen King's The Stand? The Lord of the Rings. What pro football teams have football helmets pictured on their football helmets? The Dolphins and the Raiders...and for extra credit...the Patriots did at one time.
Extra Credit: Oh, all right, fine: If you could have one genuine, honest-to-goodness super power, what one would you want and why? I would have to go with the X-ray vision thing. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.
fdtate313 at 4:46:30 PM EDT
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The Halfway Point
Chillin' | and girl it looks so pretty to me like it always did, like the Spanish city to me, when we were kids
Sam Smith, the editor of the Progressive Review, has written a new article discussing the election as it stands so far, "Halfway to Nowhere." It's an excellent piece for those of us who were expecting a little more out of the election of 2004. If you've read the Review you probably know that Sam Smith is not too enamored with John Kerry or George W. Bush. Here's how he sums up the election campaign thus far:
We are now well over halfway through this dismal presidential campaign during which more money has been spent to less purpose than in any election contest in our history. At least some of Bush's expenditures can be credited to effective damage control since the public remains remarkably sanguine despite the disasters he has caused. What Kerry is spending his money on is far less clear. Given the opportunity to dismantle a truly despicable and incompetent regime, he largely argues that he would do it much the same way but more effectively..
Unfortunately, what appears to be driving Kerry is a political cowardice dramatically at odds with the military heroism he chronically infers. If the latter is justified then the descent to the former is without parallel...
Such a campaign poses a dilemma to those who believe you should be able to vote for someone you actually like and admire. Supporters are enervated and voters who dislike both Kerry and Bush find themselves with little assistance in seeking temporary accommodation. Neither Kerry nor his aides have made the slightest effort to attract those in doubt, moral conflict or political disagreement. Instead, they are treated with contempt in words and with indifference in practice. Above all, their mere presence is considered an act of disloyalty to the divine principle that only registered Democrats get to define opposition to Republicanism.
He breaks the anti-Bush spectrum down into its varied and often contradictory components. If you're an anti-Bushite, see if Smith describes you in any of the following:
THE SEASON TICKET HOLDERS
These range from liberal to conservative, from the lobbyist wondering how much he can get to the directmail target wondering how much she should give. The unity of this group is not based on programs but antipathies...I had been raised by liberals and thought they were meant to be for things more than against them.
But that actually hadn't been true for some years, in fact since about the time when Democratic majorities in legislatures began to dwindle. Today, one is hard pressed to find even a liberal Democrat who is actively pushing any positive idea at all, unless, like Kerry, it is one temporarily fabricated for the few months before an election.
It is one of the things that differentiates Democrats and Republicans. The latter, sadly, know what they want and they work for it - and not just during election campaigns.
The level of dilettantism among Democrats has become increasingly depressing. During the Clinton years, for example, there was hardly a murmur as the dismantling of 60 years of Democratic social policies began, the prison population doubled, the war on drugs - the prototype for Bush proto-fascism - expanded, and as corruption became rampant. In the bizarre political values of the time, Clinton became a hero to the season ticket holders for winning one election with 43% of the vote and another with 49.2%.
No one recalled that the last time a Democratic president actually won a sizable percentage of the vote he did so with some of the most progressive programs in the country's history - including civil rights, education, and the war on poverty. Now, as the conservatives played the game with vicious realism, the Democrats became content to sit back and deceive themselves as their leaders moved ever further to the right.
Among their fantasies was that it is enough to become aroused during a presidential campaign even though elections are, in many ways, only the scorecard of the previous four years. After an election the Democratic fundamentalists, like their religious counterparts, were content to rely on faith rather than works.
One of the problems with such a paradigm is that only the converted are courted. The agnostic, the apostate on this issue or that, the voter who needs help thinking about the right things, are dismissed as unworthy and, in the end,the church gets smaller and smaller.
THE ALIENATED AND APATHETIC
This is the largest untapped political constituency in the country. About 113 million people of voting age. No group could make more of a difference yet no group is so ignored by political campaigns and by the media. Only rarely, as in the Jesse Ventura race, does anyone make a conscious effort to find and energize the alienated and the apathetic.
If, for example, the turnout of the voting age population in the upcoming election was proportional to that of 1964, there would be 27 million more voters, an increase of more than a quarter. Even more dramatic, if registered voters were to vote in the same percentage as in 1964, there would be 92 million more voters at the polls.
Nonetheless, to even talk about such discrepancies is to admit how badly the American political system has disintegrated. Far easier to blame it all on Nader's paltry three million votes...
THE BARF BAG BRIGADE
There is a sizable part of the electorate, many registered as independents, who strongly disapprove of what is going on in American politics yet, either out of tradition, sense of duty or reflection, go to the polls anyway. This constituency has never been properly studied but as our candidates and choices become worse, it would be worth spending some time on them.
Some work on the principle laid out by James Farley's father. "Just remember," he told his son, "that behind every Democrat, no matter how bad, are other Democrats and behind every Republican, no matter how good, are other Republicans."
Some are a kind of political bulimic. They cast their vote and then want to throw up. The Democrats could provide airline barf bags labeled "Vote Kerry Anyway" to help voters of this ilk. I proposed something similar when it looked like Dean might win: a "Dean for a Day" campaign based on the argument that voting need be no more than the political equivalent of a one night stand. And the creation of a November 3 Movement - a coalition of those who do what they must to get rid of Bush and then become Kerry's main opposition - would be one of the best possible outcomes of the election.
THE REALLY PISSED OFF
This is the heart of the Nader vote and while the reasons for dissatisfaction are varied, it is easy for persons of diverse opinions to settle on someone like Nader as their temporary leader.
The air is filled with misinterpretations of the Nader phenomenon. It is, however, absolutely predictable that there would be at least a minority of voters who are angry enough over the absurdities of our condition that they wish to say so and loudly. There is nothing wrong or stupid about this; it is a normal part of human nature and for it to be berated and ridiculed merely adds sustenance to the protestors' belief, proving not how foolish Nader is but how corrupt or cynical his opponents are...
If I had had a leisurely opportunity to discuss the matter with Ralph I might have tried to undermine his moral certainty with a little Quaker pragmatism...I might have suggested he try a bit of proportionalism, the notion that even a wrong act can be acceptable if done in the context of a greater good, the classic theological case being that of the fetus being killed to save the life of the mother. It is interesting that many on the left - who never darken a church or synagogue - tend to be far more rigid on this score than some theologies. For example, the Church of England has declared, "We believe that abortion is an evil, but we also believe that to withhold compassion is evil. Christians need to face frankly that in an imperfect world the 'right' choice is sometimes the acceptance of the lesser of two evils."
On the other hand, while I disagree with Nader on this campaign, I do not believe the world would be a better place if he were silenced and his airtime given, say, to Terry McAuliffe. And I have been disgusted with the way he has been treated, my fear of which being one of the reasons I initially thought his campaign not a good idea. Ironically, in the end, an elite that so holds in contempt someone who honestly seeks to do the right thing in such a rampantly immoral time merely adds force to the heretic's argument.
THE CARPENTERS
Finally, there are those who are attempting to build something to replace fetid, corrupt, cruel and increasingly fascist system in which we find ourselves. While Nader sees himself as part of this effort, his organizing is too centered on himself and insufficiently on creating the communities, organizations, and culture to make it happen.
The carpenters of a new America remain the Greens, weak and troubled as they are. Their own struggle with whether to stay with Nader or try something new has put a great strain on the party. The strategy of concentrating on non-battleground states inevitably has hurt their chances, some of the Naderites have been remarkably nasty, and the fundamental decency of the Green approach has not been reciprocated in any fashion by the Kerry campaign or given respect by the media.
The Greens, at the very least, deserve a vote or two at the state and local level from every Democrat who ever said a mean word about Ralph Nader's run in 2000. They deserve the admiration of everyone who believes we need not only to hate George Bush but to create something we can love. Green presidential candidate David Cobb deserves respect and praise for having weaved a humane path between moral absolutism and immoral acquiescence. And in states where either Bush or Kerry are preordained he also deserves a vote...even with all their idiosyncrasies and shortcomings you're not going to get any closer to the color of hope than Green...
Successfully confronting the Bush disaster will require far more than attempting to serially blockade its serial evils, necessary as this is. There must also be a guerilla democracy that defends, fosters, and celebrates our better selves - not only to provide an alternative but to create physical space for decent Americans to enjoy their lives while waiting for things to get better. It may, after all, take the rest of their lifetimes. We must not only condemn the worst, but offer witness for the better. And create places to live it. This, at their best, is what the Greens are about...
Oh no, more poll numbers! The latest CNN/USAToday/Gallup poll has the presidential race a dead heat. Kerry has a slight 49-47% lead over Bush, within the polls 3-point margin of error. In a three-way race that includes Nader, the race is even closer: Kerry 47%, Bush 46%, Nader 4%. Bush's approval rating is still below the 50% mark -- now at 49%. And only 48% of likely voters believe that Bush deserves to be reelected -- this number goes down further when registered voters and national adults are polled. 83% of likely voters have already made up their minds about the election. The 17% of swing voters left is about half what it was at this time in the 2000 election.
Next week's Democratic Convention and the upcoming debates are critical for Kerry to promote a positive vision for America to win over as much of the 17% and the disaffected as he can.
fdtate313 at 3:47:24 PM EDT
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Liberal Links
Chillin' | step out the front door like a ghost into a fog where no one notices the contrast of white on white
Here's a few interesting sites I've run across lately...
The Center for American Progress has just launched a new site: the American Progress Action Fund. This partner site has a lot of the same look and feel of the old CAP site, including the Daily Progress Report, but is geared more towards taking action on issues, writing your elected representatives, protesting, registering to vote, linking to the campaigns at other websites.
The crisis in Sudan is at the top of the agenda now. They are linking to a protest scheduled later today in Washington D.C. to call attention to the genocide. It's a "Die-In" -- 1000 people will lie down in front of the White House to represent the 1000 who die each day in Darfur. They also have one of those handy fill-in-the-blank forms for contacting your congressperson and senators.
Two blogs explore the world of cable news. CableNewser explores Faux, CNN and MSNBC and why they matter from all aspects. News Hounds takes Faux to task for their right-wing propaganda. I love their motto: "We watch Fox so you don't have to."
ProgressivePunch is "a searchable database of Congressional voting records from a Progressive perspective." Find out how your reps and others are voting on progressive issues. Search by name or issue (or subissues.)
I guess you've all seen one or more of those annoying Hot Or Not-type sites. This one is a little more intriguing: Am I Annoying? One celebrity after another (some with barely 15 minutes of fame under their belts) and you get to decide if they're annoying or not. Begin the voting with President Bush or Senator Kerry.
fdtate313 at 4:32:05 AM EDT
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