In serious spy cases like the Aldrich Ames affair the investigation is normally conducted in private. The reasons for this are obvious. But this new investigation into AIPAC officials Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman and Defense Department analyst Lawrence Franklin has gone public before interviews have been fully conducted, let alone formal charges made. Franklin is evidently suspected of passing informaton on US deliberations about Iran to the Israelis. That's a bad thing, if true, although I would be surprised if the content of these pages differs radically from what you read on op-ed pages or Iran centered blogs. And making the case public before bringing the case to a conclusion seems almost to be an admission of failure on the part of the FBI. What appears to be going on is more of a political struggle than genuine information protection. We'll see.
Those who have been following this blog know that I am an unabashed Kobe fan and was rooting for his aquittal. Well, I got my wish. The case didn't even go to trial. My blogads better increase because Laker tickets just got harder and more expensive to get than they already were -- and that was bad enough!
Of course, the accuser did succeed in one thing. She probably cost the US the gold in basketball at the Olympics. Our best player wasn't there.
Michael Ledeen asked me on the phone if an hour ago if I was "feeling better." He was referring to my less than excited review of Arnold's speech yesterday. (Yes, it was probably better than I said it was... I didn't have any dinner.) And I told him I was feeling better... I did get some lunch... and a good night's sleep into the bargain... until I read the news from Russia. Suicide bombers in a school with four hundred kids?!... It's hard to wrap your mind around what kinds of psychopaths those people are. Let's hope one day this is over. Given the events of the last few days in Moscow, Israel, Iraq and now this, it's hard to be optimistic.
There's been a lot of France-bashing on this site and elsewhere in recent years, but the country that has been so often accused of quick surrenders appears to be holding firm against terror during the present kidnapping. According to Reuters:
A national wave of solidarity for journalists Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot has made it difficult for any French Muslim to voice approval for the hostage-takers' demand that Paris revoke the controversial [headscarf] law.
Even the staunchest critics of the law, which the National Assembly passed last March despite protests from across the Muslim world, say they hope for an uneventful start to term.
They keep this up and pretty soon we're going to have to start buying Bordeaux and Camembert again. [Did you ever quit Camembert?--ed. Shhh...]
UPDATE: Ali has insight into why French journalists... of all people... are being kidnapped.
MORE: Hold the Bordeaux. I may be wrong (again!). Check Gabriel Gonzalez' links below. He lives in Paris.
Yesterday this site had its first day with over 25,000 visitors. Daily average was over 12,500 for September, up fifty percent from the previous month and, of course, a record. To be frank, it's making me nervous. These are just my opinions on here, worth no more than yours. I am honored that you come here to discuss them... and even more honored by the quality of the comments. I learn from them every day.
If anybody told me that fifteen years after I met Ron Silver... just before he was about to start acting in a movie I had written -- Enemies, A Love Story... that he and I would be virtually the only "Hollywood liberals" publicly backing a "Bush" for the presidency, I would have told him or her they were drinking too much tequila (or imbibing controlled substances).
But with far more guts than I, Ron has come out pro-War on Terror and therefore pro-Bush. The New York Times this morning is asking him the inevitable question -- is this costing him work? Ron says no, but who can know without a clone? In any case, in these times when who deserves a "Silver Star" is much disputed, Ron Silver gets mine. [Big deal. That's worth about ten cents. It's not even pure silver.--ed. Well, he can throw it over the fence if he wants to.]
The Bush Twins say that they "are not very political." No kidding. The less said about them the better, except that I hope they did their own writing, because it's hard to believe anyone got paid for that adolescent patter that sounded like outtakes from a bad awards ceremony. Jokes are fine, indeed needed, but these are serious times and these are young college graduates, not teenyboppers. Next time a little more gravitas, please. Their mother was much better
But first a note of surrealism. I watched Arnold on a television set next to Pat Buchanan. This happened because I was getting agoraphobia/claustrophobia on the convention floor. A few of us bloggers had been escorted down into that terra interdita by the nice volunteer who is helping us. I visited with a friend in the California delegation. I had intended to watch the Governator from there, but I didn't have a seat and the crush was getting too much for me. I retreated to a media area when, earlier than I had expected, Arnold began speaking. I headed for the nearest TV to watch. Suddenly I realized someone was standing behind me. It was Pat. He had a scowl on his face. As we know, Schwarzenegger does not represent Buchanan's Republican Party. Nothing seems to make Pat happy these days. As Arnold began to lead the chant of "four more years," Buchanan spun on his heels as if repelled and stalked off, heading for the nearest microphone.
Unfortunately, Schwarzenegger, the first Republican I ever voted for, was not as inspiring as I had hoped. Maybe my own expectation game was too high. He hit the notes but that was about it. And the girlie men joke, even delivered in self-mockery, is getting a little tiresome. Still, I think Arnold's doing a good job as governor -- and that's more important than how great a speech he delivers at a convention. And I'm sure others reacted differently. I'm still thinking about McCain and, even more, Giuliani. He gave the speech of the year so far.
Kaus is skeptical that Joe Lockhart can help the faltering Kerry Campaign. So am I. I'm skeptical anyone can help Kerry now (short of force majeure in the economy or Iraq). In fact, his campaign must be in deeper trouble than I thought because a shake-up at this time is a tremendous admission of weakness. The reason, no matter what anyone says, is the Swifties. Despite whatever cover the media is giving, they are winning because they have the (majority) of the facts on their side. And their attack has not really gone away. Other events may push them off the front page, but the damage is done. No one is looking at Kerry the same way anymore. And they shouldn't.
Part of the reason I am looking at Bush with more suspicion than some of the other bloggers here at that convention is that I am beginning to think he is a sure winner. I don't have buyer's remorse, but I'm nervous, especially on the social issues. Also, I am writing across the way from Sean Hannity, currently interviewing General Tommy Franks, author, according to Sean "of one of the greatest books I have ever read." [I guess he never read "Bonjour Tristesse.-ed.] We're in the land of hyperbole here.
But every time I get the slightest bit worried about Bush, I know as long as things like this are going on in the subway (Moscow again), I sure don't want Kerry in the White House. And they don't look as if they are about to stop.
Listening to Giuliani and McCain last night, I was starting to think, well, this Republican thing ain't so bad. Just like when I listen to Lieberman or Evan Bayh I think the same thing about Democrats - hey, these folks make sense. But then, in the middle of the night, or in the dim, subterranean light of the bowels of Madison Square Garden, I wonder if there will ever be a political party for me anymore. While the Democrats thrill to a "disingenuous filmmaker," the ideologues of the Republican world rock on with their special version of intolerance, making their own justifiably crazy:
Christopher Barron of the Log Cabin Republicans, a GOP gay-rights group, was livid after the panel endorsed the first-ever call for a constitutional gay-marriage ban in a GOP platform and went beyond that to oppose legal recognition of any same-sex unions.
``You can't craft a vicious, mean-spirited platform and then try to put lipstick on the pig by putting Rudy Giuliani and Arnold Schwarzenegger on in prime time,'' he said in an interview.
But you can, evidently. We live in a strange world where hypocrisy piles on hypocrisy. [You're sounding rather ornery this morning.-ed. Are you in a bad mood? Yup. Sleep deprivation. I guess I'm feeling a little like a flak for the Republican Party. I don't particularly enjoy that feeling. I don't like being a flak for anybody. Yes, we're in a war that's important.Terribly important. And, yes, I think John Kerry is a straw man who should not lead us in such a situation. But there's nothing that makes me more angry than masked or unmasked homophobia. It's deeply reactionary and immoral.]
UPDATE: I just had coffee with one of New York's finest(bloggers)Jeff Jarvis - a man with whom I have been exchanging email for about a year and a half and had not met face-to-face. It was a pleasure to meet him. Ditto Jay Rosen who stopped by earlier today. Jeff had an interesting proposal regarding political parties and conventions -- that party platforms be abandoned. There are obvious arguments against this, but it sounds like an idea whose time has come, expecially given our present parties whose tents are so big ideology becomes meaningless.
One of the sad things about being at a convention...
... is that you can't keep up with the booze... I mean news. There I was knocking down gin & tonics at the National Review Party... a mob scene of mob scenes... [Why is it that political magaziness have no-host bars but Hollywood studios comp magnums of Dom Perignon?--ed. Do I have to answer that question?]... that the interesting political news of the day went right by me until I was live on Hugh Hewitt's show from MSG fifteen minutes ago and Hugh asked... "Whaddya think of Edwards?" Actually Hugh said "What did you think of Edwards?" (he has excellent enunciation, unlike your genial host).
Apparently Mr. Edwards, the man I voted for in the California Democratic Primary, is telling us, according to Reuters that
If elected U.S. president, Sen. John Kerry would offer Iran a deal allowing it to keep its nuclear power plants if it gave up the right to retain bomb-making nuclear fuel, said Kerry's vice presidential running mate in an interview published on Monday.
Well, for all you 911 Democrats sitting on the fence, that's about as good a reason as I could think of not to vote for Kerry and Edwards. In fact, I'll go further. The idea that Iranian mullahs would tell the truth to the US government or anybody else in the West is an absurd joke. Edwards, I would imagine, is an historical illiterate when it comes to Iran. Somebody in the press should ask him a few questions. [Not that most of them know.-ed. No they don't.] It's an absolute affront to the Iranian students who dearly seek freedom that they would propose such a thing. Shame, shame on Kerry and Edwards. This is a country where there are public hangings of sixteen-year old girls yet they act as if their leaders can be trusted. Huh?
As far as I am concerned the jury is still out. From what I can see, thus far, this is more of a Convention (capital C) in the conventional Vegazoid sense than I expected. Also, as at most conventions, people spend most of their time trying to figure out what's going on, getting lost on elevators and chasing skirts or pants, depending on preference. Also, there's a lot of consumption of unhealthy food and celebrity gawking. It has already been reported in many quarters that the Repub celebrity quotient is decidedly lower than the Democrat. What passes for a celeb around here is Sean Hannity who would have trouble getting a table a restaurant back in LA. [That's a compliment, isn't it?--ed. More or less.] As I type this, he's directly across from me, blabbing away. [Is he ever off the air?--ed. I think he broadcasts in his sleep.]
Anyway, I'm off to the National Review party where Milton Friedman would probably be the equivalent of Jack Nicholson. Maybe that's an improvement, depending on your point of view. Mine own self, I'm hoping for an open bar. Politics? What's that and who cares?
As I type this, the 80-year old former NY Mayor Koch, who just addressed the convention, is sitting three feet away from me, talking to a group of bloggers. Koch is my man. He is pro War on Terror and pro same sex marriage. He is a moral man of guts who, as a lifetime Democrat, was willing to speak in favor of Bush. His great enemy as he says is "hypocrisy." When asked why more New Yorkers didn't agree with him, he said, well, this is an ultra-liberal town... "but I love it!"
When I asked him if he would favor a new centrist party, he said he was born a Democrat and would die a Democrat. Then when I asked whether he thought people were becoming amnesiac about 9/11, he dismissed it. I'm not sure he's right.
Conventional wisdom is now that the Swift Boat Veterans ads and book (I think the book is particularly important here) have gained more traction than anticipated and have seriously wounded Kerry. The ever-popular political pros are complaining.
Among Democrats, high and low, there is considerable grumbling about how and why all this was, in the words of one Kerry consultant, “allowed to get this far”.
Maybe the answer is simpler and more devastating than questions of alacrity. The accusations couldn't be stopped because they are... for the most part... true. Or at least they have not been contradicted, except by casting personal aspersions on the Swifties. That doesn't work. And Kerry's Cambodia lie was so blatant, it made everything else look bad -- just as similar prevarications do in court. And this was followed up by the Winter Soldier ad -- Kerry speaking in his own words. Hard to contradict or spin that. No, Kerry's in trouble. Maybe he can dig himself out of it... the press will want to... if only to make this a horse race... but it may be a race with a lame horse.
Don't tell my cardiologist, but I just returned from two consecutive meat dinners filled with bloggers (around the table, not on it) -- the second of which was a Brazilian churrascaria. I hoofed it back to my hotel to do what little I could to walk it off.
Happiest faces on the streets of New York tonight -- the police. One word explanation for this -- overtime. Last ones to leave the demonstration -- the Falun Gong again. Go figure. The bad news -- I'm told Internet at the convention are dodgy. Please be patient. Hasta pronto!
I almost found myself engaging in that familiar cry myself today (oh, how many times I had!) until I shook my head and realized this wasn't 1968, it was 2004... not that the hordes streaming around me down Fifth Avenue this afternoon seemed to know or care. The conflation of Iraq and Vietnam was in high gear, the "masses" urging a regime change (in Washington) that would bring our boys home and stop this immoral attempt to bring democracy to the Middle East. Never mind that Kerry has never made remotely clear what he intends to do or that there is an actual fledgling democratic government in place in Iraq, as there never was in Vietnam. I mean what do we know about democracy -- we're the barbarian Americans? Vietnam bad, Iraq bad. C'est simple, n'est-ce pas?
The Korean proprietor of the sandwich shop on Thirty-fifth and Fifth where I stopped in for an egg salad (still the best sandwiches anywhere are in NY) would seem to have agreed, at least on the surface. "Bush dumb," he grinned, echoing Howell Raines as he banged on the cash register with one hand, while making a thumb's up with the other. Elsewhere, just as at sixties demonstrations, fringe groups were cashing in on the action. The Chinese Falun Gong, of all things, was the most in evidence, passing out literature the way the Hare Krishnas used to (I didn't see any of them... kinda miss 'em.) I wonder what the Falun Gongsters really made of the demonstrators. If I see another, I'm going to ask her (most were female). Back where they come from, demonstrators are frequently shot. (Oh, yeah, I forgot. Kent State. We're bad too. We're worse. We're terrible. America bad. Al Qaeda good. Is that okay?)
Here are a few more rough and ready pix. Note the intrusion of the low carb diet craze into the demonstration. Maybe it's 2004 after all.
Cops were everywhere. It was fun talking to them. One of them said to me, "It's like fuggin' 9/11 never happened." His buddies seemed to agree.
UPDATE: Twilight in the Big City. I've just come back from The New Yorker Hotel where I went for my credentials. To get there, I had to go through a subway tunnel because the demonstration, which has become thicker and thicker, blocked 7th Avenue. They were becoming more raucuous too, chanting "The Whole World Is Watching," the way we did in the old days. The crazy groups were coming out with placards reading "Bush Knew - 911truth.org" and another called "rwor.com"... or something like that... with a huge banner telling us to "Think Revolution!" (in 2004? It is so,if you think so).To say it weirded me out would be an understatement. I was considering designing a new T-shirt to wear: "Don't Shoot Me! I'm a Boomer!"
Fortunately, I ran into my friend Michael Barone, one of America's best and sanest journalists, on the street. He was like a port in the storm. Michael and I swapped stories of our old protest days (Michael was against the Vietnam War, but wasn't a heavey protester), then scratched our heads about the present avatar. Michael, also a boomer, was wryly hoping for the demise of our generation. Then he went on his way for his credentials. I forgot to tell him that I had just read his new book Hard America, Soft America. For those of you who haven't, it's excellent, quite apropos of the current situation.
According to Haaretz the supposed Israeli spy in the Pentagon may not be exactly James Bond or even Sean Connery:
Two of those officials raised the possibility the government might not bring espionage charges, but rather lesser ones that could include the mishandling of sensitive government material.
Meanwhile, the Israeli government denies all:
"We deny carrying out any intelligence activity. It is a strange story," said a government official, who declined to be identified. "Israel, for many years, has not carried out intelligence activity in the United States," he said on Saturday.
One wonders why this brouhaha suddenly haha-ed at this precise moment. Anything to do with the same reason your humble scribe is in New York? Nah.
And now off to breakfast so I can be ready for the protests.
Most of my life I rarely talked to Republicans -- not seriously anyway. If I did it was without the full knowledge that they were Republicans. I didn't think they would have much to say that would interest me, that they were intellectually bankrupt and probably greedy, possibly even racists. I was that prejudiced. Of course, secretly I read Milton Friedman, realizing that the educated man should be aware of his economic theories. I did admire William F. Buckley's prose. And P. J. O'Rourke did make me laugh - although I didn't want to admit it. But these were the exceptions.
Lately, however, I have been talking to a lot of them and (shock of shocks) many of them are pretty bright, even funny. Also, I have discovered the Weekly Standard, the National Review and Commentary are at least as interesting to read as The Nation and Mother Jones and frequently (in fact I'd say close to invariably) more surprising in their viewpoints. So when I ran my eyes over (quickly, I can promise you) Howell Raines' much talked about column of the other day in which the former Times editor derided the intellectual capacity of George W. Bush, I could only roll those same eyes. Let me put it to you directly, Howell. I got a 780 on the verbal GSATs (not bad, huh? okay, the math wasn't so hot - I'm a writer), but I don't think for a split second that I'm the intellectual superior of Bush 43. Those kind of thoughts are, well, intellectually inferior and [Here you go again.-ed.] reactionary.
Anyway, enough bile. At the convention, I am going to be confronted with something far more significant, my deepest fear about Republicans - that they are really and truly square. As a card-carrying member of the Generation of 68, I have an allergy to square that makes me break out in hives and lose my lunch in dark alleyways. I'm cool. Don't ever forget it. And that lineup of entertainment these Red Staters are advertising, I wouldn't wish it on a … [You like country music.-ed. Shhh… don't tell anyone.]
MEANWHILE... I am now in NY, obviously (no demonstrators so far, but plenty of Republicans)... only to discover that those Kings of Cool ('babacool' in their parlance) the French are in trouble in Iraq. And they were in the ones opposing sending troops. If they don't learn something from this, they will never learn anything.
... a sometime visitor to this blog... tells the story of his political migration from the Zabar's left in New York Magazine. Although Adam is the son of we-all-know-who, his tale is not all that exceptional, which is why it is interesting and pertinent.
For a mix of business and personal reasons, I will be making my third LA-New York flight of the summer tomorrow, this time to blog at the convention. I'm not prone to it, but for the second time in my life I am experiencing "fear of flying." (The first was on a two a. m. Sudan Air flight from London to Cairo in the midst of a 1979 Israeli invasion of Lebanon.) The latest reports out of Russia are giving me pause. According to the New Scientist, the exact explosive used in at least one of yesterday's crashes has been isolated:
Hexogen, also known as RDX or cyclonite, is a ring-shaped, stable chemical that only becomes explosive with the assistance of a detonator. It was widely used during World War II, where it was mixed with TNT, and is now a common constituent of plastic explosives such as Semtex. It was used in the four Moscow apartment bombings that killed more than 200 people in 1999.
Chechens, of course. But as has been reported, Al Qaeda has been in league with and training Chechen fighters for some time, so it's hard to distinguish between one and the other. (I am having less and less patience for supposed experts and government people who erect firewalls between such groups. I wonder what the motives of these experts are.)
Meanwhile, I am getting to be an old hand at the security lines at LAX. I sure know how to whip that laptop out for inspection. Still, flying close to the convention is not pleasant to contemplate. But fortunately for me, because I procrastinated with my reservations, I am not flying into NYC on a direct flight, but breaking it up in another city. Somehow I feel it's safer that way.
UPDATE: For those (like me) attempting to play dodge 'em cars on the way from the airport to our hotels, and the to the Garden, Kesher Talk has all the latest on the Bakuninite hangouts.
Bringing It On.... and on.. and on... and on...and... (UPDATED)
I didn't think there could be more of this stuff, but there is:
Reporting by the Washington Post's Michael Dobbs points out that although the Kerry campaign insists that it has released Kerry's full military records, the Post was only able to get six pages of records under its Freedom of Information Act request out of the "at least a hundred pages" a Naval Personnel Office spokesman called the "full file."
What could that more than 100 pages contain? Questions have been raised about President Bush's drill attendance in the reserves, but Bush received his honorable discharge on schedule. Kerry, who should have been discharged from the Navy about the same time -- July 1, 1972 -- wasn't given the discharge he has on his campaign Web site until July 13, 1978. What delayed the discharge for six years? This raises serious questions about Kerry's performance while in the reserves that are far more potentially damaging than those raised against Bush.
I'm getting so bored with John Kerry's conflicting military record... or lack thereof... that I'm thinking of proposing my own Constitutional Amendment banning all politicians who begin a speech with a military salute from seeking higher office. The way things are going, it might just pass. One thing we do know - Michael Dukakis is no longer the most inept Democratic Party candidate to run for president in our lifetimes.
UPDATE: At the risk of beating the proverbially dead horse, here's why I think Kerry is getting so little support outside the mainstream media (often motivated by self-preservation). Back in Vietnam days, most of us on the then-Left realized the war was being fought by a largely working-class army with a great percentage of people of color. Few of us wanted to attack them because we were running around fancy universities protesting while the less economically fortunate were getting blown up.
When John Kerry came back from that war, having gone over for whatever reasons, he personally accused, with little or no evidence, those same working-class soldiers of excessive numbers of atrocities. What kind of a Lefty does that? What kind of a man does that? There were dozens of other ways to oppose the Vietnam War, many of them far more substantive. But he chose the low road. Well, the Law of Karma was the operative law in those days and it has come back to haunt him.
SECOND UPDATE: I have been corrected by several commenters here on my assumptions about race and class in Vietnam. It seems I was completely wrong about race and not as right as I thought I was about class. Thanks for the update and the facts. That's at least one mistake I won't make again and I apologize for the inaccuracy. Still, as far as Kerry is concerned, the Law of Karma applies.
While the New Reactionaries continue to ignore or deny that we are at war, Debkafile's original assertion that the Russian plane crashes were the work of Al Qaeda or related groups appears increasingly likely... although the FSB is not quite admitting it yet. [They're not in the "admitting" business.-ed. Neither were their predecessors at Drezhinsky Square.] Nevertheless, according to CNN:
Based on the findings, the FSB says it believes terrorism is to blame for the crash of the Siberian Airlines Tupolev 154, bound for the Black Sea resort of Sochi, killing all 46 on board.
Siberia Airlines said on its Web site that its air traffic control center notified it that the Tu-154 had activated a hijack alert.
Meanwhile, a newspaper in Moscow is headlining that "Russia now has a Sept. 11." More ominously, the Debka report says the Al Qaeda website claiming responsibility is promising more of the same soon, this is the first salvo in their new round of attacks, the Fall Season, as it were. [Are you starting to believe Debka?-ed. As much as The New York Times.]
It's hard not to relate this to the American election. While the media, eager to put to rest the subject that has made them look so hopelessly biased, quickly buys into a game of "John [McCain]Knows Best," the people themselves seem more concerned. This hardly seems the time to hand over the government to the putative hero of a war we lost, especially since the present one is even more dangerous and historically important.
UPDATE: Of course, the game of "John Knows Best" may have its Johns mixed up. In the words of the Second John:
Mr. Kerry, we ask you not to repeat the same mistake you made when you returned from war: Please stop maligning your fellow veterans. Dealing with us should be easy. Just answer our charges. Produce your Vietnam journal and notes, and execute Standard Form 180 so the American people can see your complete military record--not just the few forms you put on your website or show to campaign biographers.
...when he testified in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1971, although I certainly didn't say so at the time, not to anybody, not even to friends and family. I didn't want to do anything to undermine the antiwar causa, even though I sensed the Winter Soldiers were exaggerating their claims of atrocities more than a little bit. You just didn't want to criticize. It was not done in what I considered to be polite society. So in order not to have a guilty conscience or to have my mindset disrupted, I didn't listen to what Kerry said very closely, lumping it together with general (and positive) antiwar propaganda and filtering out the allegations of ears being cut off and the like. I heard them, but I didn't hear them, if you know what I mean.
Tonight I and I suspect many others will get a second chance to review that testimony on CSPAN. I am not looking forward to it and regard the experience as an obligation. And, yes, I've already read it. I have the sensation that Kerry is imploding, at least for now, and I get no pleasure from it. I can't understand why the Democratic Party didn't see this coming. Their "paid political consultants" (talk about strange occupations) should all resign and do something useful for humanity, like taking care of cancer patients.
The old me also would have branded people like John O'Neill a reactionary. (I didn't use the word "pig." Even then it made my stomach crawl.) But evidently O'Neill aquits himself pretty well in the Washington Post. Kerry, on the other hand, is not answering many questions. What could he really say?
At the risk of repeating myself, I'd like to emphasize that I'm not really angry at John Kerry. He was a child of his times, like we all are. He just never grew out of it. I'm angry at the Democratic Party for running him for President. (And for those who are still asking that banal question -- will I support him if he's elected? Of course, I will. And I'll hope like Hell I was wrong in everything I said. We're at a point in history where none of us could do otherwise.)
Fifty of the country's leading anarchists are expected to be in the city for the Republican National Convention, and a handful of them are hard-core extremists with histories of violent and disruptive tactics, according to police intelligence sources.
Police said each of the 50 have up to 50 followers who are willing to be arrested during disturbances at the convention. This group, police say, is expected to engage for the most part in civil disobedience, including sit-ins in front of delegates' buses. They also may stage more direct-action tactics, such as vandalizing McDonald's and Starbucks.
Now if I were an anarchist and looking to disrupt the Republican Convention, I'd be hanging out at Le Cirque, not McDonald's or Starbucks. [They'd probably find the Kerrys there too! -ed. No doubt. But, hey, these are anarchists. They don't have any use for Republicans or Democrats. I'm doing them a favor. Right.] But apropos of black flags and revolution, I have been asked if I attended the Chicago Convention. Short answer: no. But I did come to know some of the better known participants, like Abbie Hoffman. He even came to visit me while "underground" on the Universal lot back in 1979 because he was pissed I'd parodied him in the film version of The Big Fix. Actually he had another, probably more important, clandestine mission on the lot that day -- flogging screen rights to his Steal This Book. Hey, this is America. Everything's for sale. One of the anarchists in New York next week will probably be making a book deal. [You'll be carrying your D70. Maybe you can do the cover snap.-ed. Maybe.]
I have been wondering what the Hell I will be doing at the Republican Convention. [Besides going to parties? -ed. Right, besides that.] Though I've been known to wear a fedora, I don't particularly have an affinity for people running around in funny hats. And I'm not a Republican... or a Democrat, these days, for that matter. But that may be the point - and my assignment. I am going to investigate whether the two-party system actually works anymore.
Yes, I know that's biting off more than I can chew. [I advise you to stick to the parties. -ed. We know you love martinis.] And, yes, this is only one convention with a predetermined conclusion. But it gives me something to think about. The conventional wisdom is that the two big tents find a way to keep America going forward in a healthy manner that parliamentary systems don't. Yet somehow I and I think a number of others who post here are feeling disenfranchised by both parties, aliens in both. And, ironically, those people are of the political center. The middle has been pushed to the fringe by our system. Perhaps that is why I am looking forward to Schwarzenegger's speech more than any other event at the convention. [Didn't you used to think he was a dumb actor? -ed. Actually not, I thought he was a shrewd real estate investor. He bought up half of Main Street in Santa Monica years ago. I wish I'd bought a measly storefront.] More to come, obviously. Don't expect it to be consistent.
"Roger L. Simon is a
gifted writer. I think the most brilliant new writer of private
detective fiction who has emerged in some years. His vision of
Los Angeles--fresh, new, kaleidoscopic--gives up perhaps the best
recent portrait we have had of the great multi-cultured city where
the future is continually being born--halfway between a love-lyric
and an earthquake. The Big Fix, like The Big Sleep, should become
something of a landmark in its field." --Ross Macdonald
"Moses Wine is back with all his wit and
wisdom exposing crime and
the movie industry to the respect it deserves and proving that Roger
Simon is better than ever.”
-- Tony Hillerman
"A terrific read! What a pleasure
to have Moses Wine walking
down these
mean streets again."
-- Sue Grafton, author of Q is for Quarry
"As irresistible as movie popcorn. Moses Wine is the slyest, most entertaining
gumshoe anywhere."
-- Martin Cruz Smith
"Where was Moses when the lights went
out? Up to his schnoz in an anthrax bath--but as might be expected from
Roger Simon, the tawdry Tinseltown toxins
pour like
vintage Wine."
-- Tom Robbins
"Mordantly funny... Simon's satiric humor thrives on absurdity; and once Moses is
in the director's chair, trying to salvage a project that will eventually (by hook and by crook) make it to Sundance,
this sendup of Hollywood greed and bad taste wins the jury prize."
-- Marilyn Stasio, NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
"…realistic and amusing. I read the whole thing in two sittings and enjoyed it very much. He
offers insight into the world of filmmaking that readers will find hilarious."
-- Glenn Reynolds, MSNBC.com
"The initial boos from the left—for whom Wine has been a hero since his first appearance
as the one radical detective in the 1973 The Big Fix—and tentative cheers from the right will have faded by the end of the
book, when both are laughing too hard to care. Moses hasn't changed his political stripes all that much, and the main target
of his creator's satire is one everybody enjoys ridiculing: the motion picture industry."
-- Jon L. Breen, THE WEEKLY STANDARD
"On his first day as head of security for a movie being shot in Prague, Moses
Wine (making believe he's a Variety reporter for reasons too complicated to summarize here) meets the city's Grand Rabbi, who
asks him, 'Perhaps you would like an exclusive interview with the only screenwriter in Eastern Europe who gives kabala
classes to foreigners on a riverboat cruise ship with catered kosher dinners in the style of the Vilna ghetto?' That lovely
snatch of tossed cultural salad sums up the wacky pleasures of Roger L. Simon's eighth book about Wine -- the Berkeley
radical who literally changed the face of mystery fiction in 1978's 'The Big Fix.'"
--Dick Adler, CHICAGO TRIBUNE
"'Director's Cut,' with its footloose plot and its wisecracking lead, is about
as serious as a Marx Brothers movie--which means that Moses Wine gets to do his patriotic bit after all. In the darkest
days, they also serve who make us laugh."
-- Tom Nolan, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
"A particularly relevant plot, then, filled with action and suspense and
set against arresting Czech backgrounds. Recommended."
-- Library Journal
"Simon's savvy Hollywood satire raises troubling questions about our B-grade
domestic preparedness efforts."
-- Booklist
"Director's Cut is a timely thriller, loaded with absorbing insider snippets about
the film industry, humorous jabs at governmental bureaucracy and a general disregard for icons of any sort."
-- Bruce Tierney, BookPage
"Roger L. Simon is a talented writer who can always be counted on to deliver
a chilling thriller."
-- Harriet Klausner, Allreaders.com
"Like a fine wine, Moses just keeps getting better and better. It's one heck of a surreal roller coaster
ride full of the sophisticated satire and wry wit Roger L. Simon is famous for."
-- Anne Barringer, Old Book Barn Gazette
"A quarter of a century after he first appeared in the
now-classic The Big Fix, Moses Wine remains a private investigator par excellence."
-- In Other Words, Mystery
September 01, 2004
As I type this, the 80-year old former NY Mayor Koch, who just addressed the convention, is sitting three feet away from me, talking to a group of bloggers. Koch is my man. He is pro War on Terror and pro same sex marriage. He is a moral man of guts who, as a lifetime Democrat, was willing to speak in favor of Bush. His great enemy as he says is "hypocrisy." When asked why more New Yorkers didn't agree with him, he said, well, this is an ultra-liberal town... "but I love it!"
I almost found myself engaging in that familiar cry myself today (oh, how many times I had!) until I shook my head and realized this wasn't 1968, it was 2004... not that the hordes streaming around me down Fifth Avenue this afternoon seemed to know or care. The conflation of Iraq and Vietnam was in high gear, the "masses" urging a regime change (in Washington) that would bring our boys home and stop this immoral attempt to bring democracy to the Middle East. Never mind that Kerry has never made remotely clear what he intends to do or that there is an actual fledgling democratic government in place in Iraq, as there never was in Vietnam. I mean what do we know about democracy -- we're the barbarian Americans? Vietnam bad, Iraq bad. C'est simple, n'est-ce pas?
