March 24, 2004
Flame on!
The letters in response to Salon's lament by a mid-list author are in and my oh my are they pointed.
Clarke Attacks!
Salon has a great interview (oh, just watch the damn ad) with Richard Clarke, the second major ex-Bush administration official (after Paul O'Neil) to charge the administration with being Iraq obsessed at the cost of dealing with Al-Qaeda.
Among the best dish - Clarke says the Bush Administration views anyone who works with them as "part of a personal loyalty network, rather than part of government".
Sounds consistent with everything else we've heard.
March 23, 2004
Write Stuff
OK, it's a hack headline. So sue me.
Much has been made of the article in Salon yesterday by "Jane Austen Doe" a self proclaimed midlist author who has published six books and who is threatened with the horror of having to get a day job.
Bookslut mocks the author's nom de plume and offers her own suggestions on how to help midlist authors.
John Scalzi goes further and tells Ms. Doe, "Aw shut up." Scalzi's got some great advice for aspiring writers, and he's been pretty successful in a midlist kind of way.
I think Scalzi's got it right. Work work work. Work some more. Start off making no money, make a reputation as someone who delivers and who isnt' a pain in the ass and if you can write decently, you'll probably do all right in the end. Remember, Shakespeare made most of his money from the theater, not from selling folios.
March 22, 2004
Condy, Condy, Condy
The Bush administration is just SO BAD at not looking guilty.
Condoleeza Rice has no time for the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks on the United States, but has time to talk to Rupert Murdoch's convention?
Good lord.
Al-Qaeda Follies
Lots of Al-Qaeda (Al-Qaida, whatever) news this weekend -
The Pakistani forces surrounding a high-level target may have let the high-level target flee through a tunnel system.
I tend to believe (or at least I wouldn't disbelieve) that elements of the Pakistani forces may have let al-Zawahari escape or at least not tried very hard to stop him. Though Musharraf would like Al-Qaeda punished for the assassination attempts on his life, Musharraf faces a secret service and intelligence community in the body of the ISI in Pakistan that is very friendly to anti-Western interests.
The same high-level taret may have been Ayman al-Zawahari who claimed that Al-Qaeda has a "briefcase nuke".
I am skeptical of this claim for one reason - The only reasons to announce you have a nuke are to A.) deter a massive attack, or B.) blackmail. Al-Qaeda doesn't have territory in the traditional sense, so there is no reason to deter attack, and the only thing they want from the U.S. is complete annihiliation. This sounds to me like bragging to elevate themselves in the eyes of the anti-Western mobs.
That's not to say briefcase bombs might not be out there. In 1997, the former Russian science advisor to Boris Yeltsin, Dr. Alexie Yablokov testified that briefcase nukes from Russia may be missing. It may not be a worry, however because the nukes decay rapidly and are probably useless.
The best proof that Al-Qaeda probably doesn't have one is that we haven't see a U.S. city blow up yet. I hope I'm right on this.
Meanwhile Richard Clarke claims in his new book that the Bush administration and Paul Wolfowitz in particular were so focused on Iraqi-supported terrorism that they ignored the threat of Al-Qaeda. The administration was quick to respond sending Condy Rice into the fray.
It's worth pointing out that Clarke served under junior, but also under his father, Clinton, and Reagan. The man has credibility and non-partisan credentials. This one may bite Bush hard.
March 19, 2004
Rally
There is a peace rally on Saturday the 20th (tomorrow) at 10:30am at Chicago Methodist Temple, 77 W. Washington (where I recently watched a friend and co-worker get hitched). I'm of two minds about going.
The lies used to get the Congress and the people to support the war were unconscionable. I believe in coalitions and consensus before the use of force. If the mighty rule, what happens to us if and when China becomes the mightier power later this century? If we haven't been a nation of international law and justice, but rather a global bully in the name of a good cause, what is our future when the bigger bully comes along?
William Roper in Robert Bolt's A Man for All Seasons, said, "I'd cut down every law in England to get at the devil." Sir Thomas More responds: "And when the last law is cut down and the devil turns round on you -- where will you hide, Roper, all the laws being flat?" This is the danger.
However, what always annoys me at these rallies are the extremists who bring signs unrelated and try to claim crowd suppot for their little cause. Property is not always theft and thanks, but I don't want to be a vegan.
Add to that the fear of attack on the anniversary of the war and the actions of the Chicago Police last time, cornering a large number of peaceful protestors and holding them against their will on Michigan Avenue. The papers (except for the Reader, which doesn't put its features on-line) underreported the story last year. I wasn't there, but I had cell phone updates from a friend trapped in the square. Hundreds of arrests were made (usually when a protestor said they wanted to go home), but I don't think there were any convictions.
So what's a guy to do? Protest for a cause he believes in, but be alongside many who try to take over the symbols of the rally, and risk arrest for the lawful exercise of First Amendment rights, or stay home and be comfortable, safe, and perhaps cowardly?
UPDATE: I didn't go. Out of cowardice? No, I just forgot. I was still logey from the run last night (slept liek the dead) and by the time I remembered, it was over. Ah well.