perfidy

For the week ending 4Oct04

Spotlight UAE: The Al Jazeera program "Counter Direction" devoted an episode to discussing the pros and cons of beheading prisoners. The pro position won the day, if one can judge victory by the racous support the man had from the studio audience. Think gory Jerry Springer, but substitute "beheading American mercenary dogs" for "Out-of-control teens".

Spotlight Saudi Arabia: In other despicable television news... A Saudi program did man-in-the-street interviews asking, "'Would You, as a Human Being, be Willing to Shake Hands with a Jew?" and similar questions. Read the transcripts. Non-hilarity will ensue.

Spotlight England: As of a week ago, police had not identified a woman found laying unconscious in the middle of a London road, bleeding from a head wound. Police have asked for the public's help in establishing her identity, and would especially like to hear from the drivers who swerved to avoid her body. You might have expected the cops to start with interviewing the people who had rendered aid. Except that there were no such people. Couldn't even be bothered to poke her with a stick.

Spotlight America: A former nurse's aide, convicted and currently imprisoned for raping a comatose patient, actually claimed to a parole board that he did it to help the victim. Presumably with a straight face, he tried to convince the board that, according to his reasearch, pregnancy may have brought the victim from her decade-long coma. Parole was denied, also presumably with a straight face. Maybe the next time he's raped in prison by skinheads, they'll tell him they're just trying to help. Definitely with a straight face.

And hey, speaking of skinheads, say what you will about their politics but they are starting to get a grip on their marketing and branding. Some sort of Nazi record label has packaged 100,000 compilations to release to young people around the country. Creepily dubbed "Operation Schoolyard", the record apparently has several hate-filled broadsides masquerading as rock music.

Quick note to Nazis-first, if you're trying to reach the MTV and younger group, rock music ain't gonna cut it. Unless you've got some good beats and skilled rappers, or at least someone half as fly as Usher, save your $$ for new flags and tanktops. Second, the old-school Nazis spent a fair amount of time and energy trying to exterminate what they considered "primitive music", like jazz, without which rock and roll would not exist. Your movement's intellectual forebears tried to exterminate the very music you now use to recruit young people into your movement.

Grab your Langenscheidt and look up ironisch.

Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne is wafting gently back to Earth after successfully making the second trip into space in less than a week. In the process, they have won the Ansari X-Prize and ten million dollars, and beat the X-15's forty year old altitude record. A second pilot has won astronaut wings. This is the beginning of a revolution in space travel.

Loyal Reader #0017, EDog, submits for our approval this (possibly satirical) map which overlays the county-by-county electoral results from the 2000 election in Florida with the paths of the various hurricanes to hit the state this season. I think you will agree the results are... intriguing.

(I hate to pick on Florida, but they (the proverbial they) make it so easy!)

Below the fold (click image for a zoomable full-size version).

I've been on a deep and serious Neil Young kick recently. My wife and I are Modified Neil Completists, which implies that we seek out everything we can by him that is not Silver and Gold or Are You Passionate?, two titles that, hard as we try, we cannot accept as Neillerific. Even the oft-maligned Trans, which featured Young using programmed drums, vocoders, and synthesizers (in 1982!!!) has been rehabilitated by the news that he made the album at the same time he was learning to use computers to communicate with his severely handicapped sons. Besides, now that Beck's been around for ten years or so, crossing country with robotics no longer seems weird and wrong.

I mean, we are completists. Aside from all the studio stuff, we have more than a dozen bootlegs of live and unreleased material including a four-disc live set spanning Young's entire career from Buffalo Springfield to 1994. So it came as a bit of a shock to my wife to find that I'd never listened to Decade, Young's three-disc summation of his first ten years in the spotlight. That deficiency remedied, I am now stuck on listening to Young's great lost classic "Winterlong" on auto-repeat. It may be the greatest rock song ever written.

But forget all that. I'm just rambling like a phanatique. What I really want to point out is that Neil Young is a goddamned prophet. Have you listened to "Rockin' in the Free World" (off 1989's Freedom recently? You really should. The lyrics, especially the first stanza, mean a hell of a lot more now than they did in 1989. I mean.... damn.

There's colors on the street
Red, white and blue
People shufflin' their feet
People sleepin' in their shoes
But there's a warnin' sign
on the road ahead
There's a lot of people sayin'
we'd be better off dead
Don't feel like Satan,
but I am to them
So I try to forget it,
any way I can.

Keep on rockin' in the free world,
Keep on rockin' in the free world
Keep on rockin' in the free world,
Keep on rockin' in the free world.

I see a woman in the night
With a baby in her hand
Under an old street light
Near a garbage can
Now she puts the kid away,
and she's gone to get a hit
She hates her life,
and what she's done to it
There's one more kid
that will never go to school
Never get to fall in love,
never get to be cool.

Keep on rockin' in the free world,
Keep on rockin' in the free world
Keep on rockin' in the free world,
Keep on rockin' in the free world.

We got a thousand points of light
For the homeless man
We got a kinder, gentler,
Machine gun hand
We got department stores
and toilet paper
Got styrofoam boxes
for the ozone layer
Got a man of the people,
says keep hope alive
Got fuel to burn,
got roads to drive.

Keep on rockin' in the free world,
Keep on rockin' in the free world
Keep on rockin' in the free world,
Keep on rockin' in the free world.

Loyal Reader Mapgirl picks apart the debaters on parliamentary grounds. Oooh no, I think it's a beating!

What the hell was a Soviet space shuttle prototype doing in Bahrain?

And why have the Germans found it and taken it to Dussledorf?!?

Verrrrry suspicious. The Hun and the northern barbarians, in cahoots again!

[wik] Viele dank am NDR am Rhine River weblog.

Due to a medical emergency in the Buckethead clan, Buckethead, Mrs. Buckethead and Sir John-the-actually-quite-well-behaved-in-the-car-considering-he's-been-in-a-car-seat-for-fifteen-hours lit out for the wilds of Massachusetts. As it turns out, all is well and Buckethead's beloved mother was sightseeing again two days after a heart attack thanks to the wonders of modern technology and the puissance of the Cape Cod Medical Center's staff.

So, unlike most of the politically addicted citizens of this great nation, we listened to the great debate on AM radio. No cable news, no cspan, nor even streaming interweb video. It was a challenge to create an accurate mental image of the debate. Where do I insert my mental jpeg of Kerry sticking his tongue out for maximum verisimilitude? Was Bush clenching his forehead or smirking as he made that comment? As of this moment, I have not seen any replays of the debate on TV, so my impressions are purely based on what I heard driving through the smelliest bits of Eastern PA in the rain.

I think that the debate was a draw - Kerry had more debating style fu, and scored a few hits. Bush was his typical aphasic self at times, but pulled out the heavy artillery on the flip-flopping. Here are some of thte things I was thinking during the debate:

• Kerry repeatedly said he'd do better, but failed to actually say how he'd do better. The very few times he actually offered specifics, it was something that the administration is already planning or doing. His theme for the debate seemed to be, "Anything you can do, I can do better." Armchair quarterbacking is a hell of a lot easier than actually throwing a pass in the big game. Something bloggers should be well aware of, btw.
• Is it just me, or was Kerry being hypocritical for bitching that we were insufficiently multilateral in Iraq, but then saying we should ditch the laboriously arranged six party talks in North Korea to go it alone?
• Mrs. Buckethead made the insightful comment as the debate was winding down that all of John Kerry's suggestions for defense policy revolve around the good wishes of others. Getting the French and the Germans to participate. UN approval. ICC. Summits. "Global Tests" for American use of military force. Those good wishes are far from guaranteed, especially in the case of the the axis of weasels and the UN. I really, really, really have a hard time believing that France would be willing, next January, to reverse their policy and send troops to Iraq, or share the costs of reconstruction just because John Kerry's phiz is staring back across the negotiating table. Which leaves us in the same situation, with the added bonus that an incoming president Kerry would have little goodwill from the allies we do have given what he has said of them so far.
• Kerry used a lot of his time attacking Bush. Bush used a lot of his time quoting Kerry to Kerry. I think Bush was more effective with his tactic.

Kerry needed to do something spectacular, or at least have Bush commit political seppuku, to have an effect on the larger campaign. Neither happened. Which leaves Kerry where he was, five to ten points behind in the polls. Four years ago, Al Gore deeply unimpressed the electorate with his debate performance, and it had an effect on the election. Here, a tie does nothing to gain Kerry back the ground he's lost since August. There is a chance that he may achieve something in the next two debates, but given that the Kerry campaign had settled on Iraq as "the" issue, this was their shot to change the dynamics of the race. The economy is steadily if slowly improving - and certainly not in the middle of a meltdown. Domestic policy is taking a back seat to the war on terror because of both reality and the decisions of campaign managers on both sides. I don't think Kerry supporters will have much to do but pray for Bush to screw up in some truly miraculous way, and evil genius Karl Rove will likely manage to prevent that.

As a side note, I have to say that the post debate conversation on AM radio was entirely pathetic. It left me with a craving for the blogosphere I stronger than I have ever felt. Compared to the jackassery running rampant over the AM dial, I would even have been happy watching Chris Matthews on Hardball. Callers to talk shows are almost universally ideologically driven incarnate talking points. Not one in ten actually said anything about the debate per se, instead merely repeating DNC and RNC party lines. Dreadful.

Yeah, I watched the whole thing. No, I wasn't impressed.

Neither candidate had a defining moment, neither had a campaign-winning turn of phrase, neither made a real effort to crush the other. Last night was a meeting engagement between two belligerents, and not a decisive battle. Matter of fact, it was almost boring- it even took the edge off the episode of G-String Divas that aired on HBO afterward.

But it could have been something much more.

From where I was sitting (horizontal, couch-bound, serving as heated mattress for Miss Fuzzle Kitty), it seemed Kerry really could have crushed Dubya on Iraq but held back. But his rhetoric was clearly having the desired effect on the president, who was oftentimes visibly irritated by it. Furthermore, his irritation came through in his voice, which actually sounded whiny at times. Similarly, when Bush went off-script he would either freeze completely or fumblingly toss off a statement he'd already said and was only slightly relevant at that point. Overall, Kerry came across as more knowledgeable and with that, more capable. If I knew nothing about either of the men, I'd go Kerry.

The president could have, and should have, made alot more out of Kerry's internationalism. Wariness of foreign influence is a theme that resonates strongly with the right, and Bush missed several chances to capitalize on that. Kerry derided the contribution of allied forces in Iraq, but said he wants more allies. He said there has to be a "global test" of American involvement in foreign conflict, but that will never seek permission to defend America. He said that he would kill terrorists wherever they are, but wrote a book, which he clumsily plugged, about the need for an international organization to fight crime. Bush really could have pressed him on this stuff, and called him on whether Kerry is the world's president or America's, something like that.

So, missed opportunities all 'round. Seemingly the best thing to come from this event was that no one especially embarassed himself, and that's a shame. It could have been alot more.

Oh, and for those of us wondering which accent Kerry was going to use for the debate: he eschewed his Brahmin, Thurston Howell sound for a more standard drone. I think he went with accent 2b, "officious everyman", but I may be off.

Know what would be funny? If, in the whole debate over whether Indian programmers are as good as American programmers, and whether Chinese steelworkers are stealing good American jobs, we ended up outsourcing our torturers!

Long-departed and much-missed Obsidian Wings coblogger Elizabeth checks back in with a notice that this may be about to happen. In the bill generated by the 9/11 Commission Report, and sponsored by Dennis Hastert is a provision that would legalize "extraordinary rendition." This is a process by which terror suspects-- suspects, not convicts (not that such would be better)-- would be eligible for extradition to nations where the laws and mores against torture are, shall we say, decidedly more sanguine.

The Republican leadership of Congress is attempting to legalize extraordinary rendition. "Extraordinary rendition" is the euphemism we use for sending terrorism suspects to countries that practice torture for interrogation. As one intelligence official described it in the Washington Post, "We don't kick the sh*t out of them. We send them to other countries so they can kick the sh*t out of them.”

The best known example of this is the case of Maher Arar. Arar, a Canadian citizen, was deported to Syria from JFK airport. In Syria he was beaten with electrical cables for two weeks, and then imprisoned in an underground cell for the better part of a year. Arar is probably innocent of any connection to terrorism.

As it stands now, "extraordinary rendition" is a clear violation of international law--specifically, the U.N. Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Degrading and Inhuman Treatment. U.S. law is less clear. We signed and ratified the Convention Against Torture, but we ratified it with some reservations. They might create a loophole that allows us to send a prisoner to Egypt or Syria or Jordan if we get "assurances" that they will not torture a prisoner--even if these assurances are false and we know they are false.

Here's a bit of a press release from Cong. Ed Markey's (D-MA) office, who is sponsoring a counter-bill (H.R. 1674): :

The provision Rep. Markey referred to is contained in Section 3032 and 3033 of H.R. 10, the "9/11 Recommendations Implementation Act of 2004," introduced by House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL). The provision would require the Secretary of Homeland Security to issue new regulations to exclude from the protection of the U.N. Convention Against Torture and Other Forms of Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, any suspected terrorist - thereby allowing them to be deported or transferred to a country that may engage in torture. The provision would put the burden of proof on the person being deported or rendered to establish "by clear and convincing evidence that he or she would be tortured," would bar the courts from having jurisdiction to review the Secretary's regulations, and would free the Secretary to deport or remove terrorist suspects to any country in the world at will - even countries other than the person's home country or the country in which they were born. The provision would also apply retroactively.

Says Elizabeth, and rightly:

There is no possible way for a suspect being detained in secret to prove by "clear and convincing evidence" that he will be tortured if he is deported--especially when he may be deported to a country where has never been, and when the officials who want to deport him serve as judge, jury and executioner, and when there is never any judicial review. This bill will make what happened to Maher Arar perfectly legal, and guarantee that it will happen again.

I don't like to post "Go Read!" items, but this is one of those. Go read, then write your Congressman.

Alternatively, make a game of trying to convince me that this whole thing is a good idea. It won't work, but if it makes you feel good, what the heck.

Andrew Sullivan (who else?) notes that when Massachusetts Speaker of the House Tom Finneran leaves office this week, resistance to gay marriage in the state legislature goes with him. The new Speaker, Salvatore DiMasi, is far more socially liberal and his ascendency is expected to defuse what little resistance remains. Even the resistance thinks so.

A key legislative backer of the proposed amendment to ban same-sex marriage and establish civil unions yesterday all but declared defeat, saying that Finneran's exit from Beacon Hill was the final straw in an effort that already was in trouble because the state has legalized same-sex marriage with little of the uproar predicted by opponents.

"It is pretty much over," said Senate minority leader Brian P. Lees, a Springfield Republican who cosponsored the amendment with Finneran and Senate President Robert E. Travaglini. The House and Senate, sitting in a constitutional convention, must vote a second time in the next session before it could go to the voters on the 2006 ballot.

"In fact, there will be a question as to whether the issue will come up at all," Lees said. He said the issue has faded to the "back burners of Massachusetts politics," because few problems have surfaced with the implementation of the Supreme Judicial Court's decision to legalize gay marriage.

Observes Sullivan,

The real reason is that the change has become a non-event. The relatively small number of marriages for same-sex couples has barely made a dent in the social fabric and the upheaval of a constitutional amendment seems to many too big a deal for such a minor social change.

This is dead on. Outside the media-visible enclaves of downtown Boston, Cambridge, and Amherst/Northampton, Massachusetts is a part-Catholic part-postPuritan blue-collar state with a large population of recent Latino immigrants and a traditionalist streak a mile wide. In short, most of the state falls into the general category of "people who might really hate this gay marriage thing." And yet, it's here, they're queer, and from what I can see everyone is, in fact, used to it. Outside your fire 'n' brimstone pulpit parties where I'm sure the issue still surfaces any time a preacher needs some shorthand for "worldly depravity," nobody freaking cares. Non-issue. Whoopeedeedoo.

In short, my question to the dozens of states who have either passed or are trying to pass anti-gay[marriage] legislation is: Where's the fire, Mary?