Gone to the North Carolina coast for a week!


I don't think I'll be blogging much. posted by Thomas Nephew at 1:00:00 AM -- |    

 
Check it out

the Contrary Goddess: Life on the Farm --- August 30, 2004: Last night I went to milk as usual. The cow, who is always standing there waiting on me (or on her grain) wasn’t there. There had been a late afternoon storm; perhaps that threw her off I thought. I “sook-cow”ed her and her bell started ringing in the back bottom and she quickly made her way through the archery gap up to our milking place (which is just in the field, usually out in the open but there is a tarped shelter we can get in if it is raining). -- Via the Rocky Top Brigade association of Tennessee bloggers. Gardening tips, recipes, and worthwhile ruminations; pretty interesting to browse.

Just because I think it's kind of connected: The Whole Earth Catalog, which I used to love to browse, and which was one of the very cool things in the underrated 70s. The Last Whole Earth Catalog (and its successors and predecessors in the series) was an American publishing triumph, part Sears-Roebuck catalog, part Ripley's Believe It Or Not, part Tom Paine, knit together with good writing, wild ideas, great graphics, and sometimes a meandering story in the margins. And really neither granola-cute nor crystal-spacey. I've found screen shots of the several pages from different editions, but I'd love to find the real thing again, and may just hunt for one in a library soon. From the statement of purpose:

We are as gods and might as well get good at it. So far, remotely done power and glory - as via government, big business, formal education, church - has succeeded to the point where gross defects obscure actual gains. In response to this dilemma and to these gains a realm of intimate, personal power is developing — power of the individual to conduct his own education, find his own inspiration, shape his own environment, and share his adventure with whoever is interested. Tools that aid this process are sought and promoted by the WHOLE EARTH CATALOG.

Winslow Homer exhibition at the National Gallery, July 3, 2005-February 20, 2006: I've come to really admire Winslow Homer as the equal of the better known French Impressionists of his day. In a recent New Yorker review of the exhibition ("Telling Stories"), Peter Schjeldahl unlocks Homer's work as that of a journalist and narrator -- Homer's career began as an illustrator for newsweeklies in the Civil War. Many of Homer's paintings are a kind of painter-journalism, telling a short story instead of settling for "snapshots" that are absorbed with light and color per se. Breezing Up (A Fair Wind), Hound and Hunter, and Right And Left are some of my favorites from the Gallery's collection as well (Schjeldahl discusses all three), and Homer's watercolors are amazing.

But my favorite overall -- even if it may not be as renowned as his subsequent work, although it seems quite accomplished to me -- is probably The Veteran in a New Field at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. It never fails to bring tears to my eyes to see it. Winslow Homer was not just a good American painter; he is one of the best painters anywhere, ever.

Shark vs. octopus, for your inner Bart Simpson, via Mrs. Coulter at Republic of Heaven. Mrs. Coulter's co-blogger is husband Lee Scoresby; altogether, this is one of my favorite sets of pseudonyms and especially blog names out there (use Google). The blog divides time between politics and baby Lyra reports, and is always good to read. So long to our fair metropolitan area, you three!

Paper's Natural 'Fingerprint' Could Be Built-In Passport Protection: "The scanning of two pieces of paper from the same pack yielded two different identifiers, whereas the fingerprint for one sheet stayed the same even after three days of regular use. Furthermore, when the team put the paper through its paces--screwing it into a tight ball, submerging it in cold water, baking it at 180 degrees Celsius, among other abuses--its fingerprint remained easily recognizable." Via Schneier on Security.

Late, and last, but not least: R.I.P. James "Scotty" Doohan. Follow the link to see why I'm an even bigger fan now than I was before. Did you know that? I didn't. Stryker at "digitalwarfighter" did.

posted by Thomas Nephew at 11:30:00 PM -- |    

 
The Washington Post March
Rejoice, Comrades! The September 11 State Sponsored March To Support Our Troops As They Struggle For Freedom and Permanent Military Bases in Oil Rich Territories has the Support Of Our Glorious State's Free Press, A Vanguard Sandwich Maker, and the Selflessly Patriotic Military Equipment Industry:

We are proud to have the following supporters for the inaugural America Supports You Freedom Walk:

Stars and Stripes
Pentagon Federal Credit Union
Lockheed Martin
Subway
ABC WJLA-TV Channel 7 and News Channel 8
WTOP News Radio Network
Washington Post
Washington Convention & Tourism Corporation

Comrades! Together, We Can Join With Our Nation's Military in the Inaugural Appropriation of the Anniversary of Our Nation's Great Tragedy for the Political Purposes of Our Leader and His Trusted Advisors! They Have Made Our Grief Their Own by Eminent Domain!

Comrades! Join With Me! Send Patriotic Messages to All September 11 March Supporters, but Especially to Our Glorious Free Press, Sharing Your Appreciation for its Support for This March and for its Patriotic Role in The War Struggle War That Has Made This March So Necessary To the Continued Good Fortunes of Our Leader!

Comrades! Join With Me! Register for the Inaugural State Sponsored September 11 March To Support Our Troops As They Struggle For Freedom and Permanent Military Bases in Oil Rich Territories!

And remember to dress appropriately! America Supports You Freedom Walk!




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UPDATE, 8/13: The Editor & Publisher's Joe Strupp reports: "The Washington Post has no plans to withdraw its co-sponsorship of a controversial Sept. 11 memorial walk being organized by the Department of Defense, according to Publisher Bo Jones. But, he said the paper would pull out if the event turns out to be some kind of pro-war or political march." (Via The Left Coaster) The walk concludes with a concert by Clint Black; Strupp concludes his article with the lyrics of Black's country hit, "Iraq and I roll." The Washington Post: stupid? Servile? Both? Our lines are open -- you make the call!
UPDATE, 8/17: Post Drops Plan to Promote Pentagon Event
UPDATE, 8/22: Sunday New York Times lead editorial: "The event is an ill-considered attempt to link the Iraq war to the terrorist attacks of 2001, and misguided in almost every conceivable way." posted by Thomas Nephew at 9:30:00 AM -- |    

 
Back-to-school Wal-Mart boycott goes coast to coast
Boston, MA -- Labor advocacy groups blast Wal-Mart:

During yesterday's press conference, two union members held up a giant report card that gave the company F's for breaking child labor laws, paying low wages, and discriminating against women.

Albany, NY -- Unions stage protest against Wal-Mart:

Wal-Mart’s own internal audit, which they tried to disavow, which they tried to shove under the carpet, found over 1,300 child labor law violations nationally,” New York State Public Employees Federation President Roger Benson said.

Cleveland, OH -- Back-to-school boycott urged for Wal-Mart:

Wal-Mart's health-care plans cost employees between $600 and $1,000 a month, too steep for those earning little more than minimum wage, Nebel said. The national average cost to employers for health care per employee is $5,600, she said, while Wal-Mart pays $3,500 per worker.

Taxpayers pay an estimated $2.5 billion a year to fund Wal-Mart employees who have to turn to the public health system, according to a recent U.S. House of Representatives report.

Oakland, CA -- Parents urged to avoid Wal-Mart:

About a dozen union leaders and organizers gathered at a new Oakland Wal-Mart store Wednesday to urge shoppers to avoid the store when buying back-to-school supplies.

(links added) The national boycott is a project of "Wake Up Wal-Mart," the folks who brought you the Wal-Mart Mother's Day boycott. Click the link let them know you support the boycott, and to learn how to help out. There's also information about Wal-Mart's business tactics against its workers and American taxpayers.

Meanwhile, Wal-MartWatch has developed a very good resource page on Wal-Mart's health care strategy -- which is to fob it off on state taxpayers around the country. Via that link, here's how a Miami Herald editorial describes it:

So here's how it works: Wal-Mart offers insurance, but aggressively shifts the cost onto its employees. The low-wage workers then pass up the unaffordable coverage and turn to the states. If this isn't exactly company policy, it is at least company philosophy. CEO Lee Scott, at the company's recent ''summit'' for the media, even described it. He said some state health programs are 'so lucrative that, in fact, it's hard to be competitive with them and certainly extraordinarily expensive to be competitive with them.'

Wal-Mart, the country's largest employer and renowned ferocious competitor, can't keep up with Alabama Medicaid benefits? Give me a break. This company doesn't pay health care benefits for 53% of its employees -- they figure suckers like you and me will take care of that for them. It's time for Wal-Mart's freeloading to end. posted by Thomas Nephew at 10:45:00 PM -- |    

 
Liz Bumiller, Ace Reporter
Elisabeth Bumiller has apparently been cloned, since there's a fawning profile of Elisabeth Bumiller ("On the Bush Beat") in Northwestern University Magazine that has to be read to be believed. The writer, Rebecca Zeifman, reaches one pinnacle (among several) of unintended humor here:

Nicolle Devenish ...assistant to the president for communications, says that despite their occasional differences, she respects Bumiller. 'Elisabeth was a tireless hunter of color and detail that we were often reluctant to share,' Devenish says. 'But in the end I think we learned to understand each other, and more often than not we were able to come to a middle ground on most stories.'

The next day Bumiller's article appears on the front page next to a picture of Rice, smiling at the podium. The article is a close examination of the thought processes and daily life of the new secretary of state.

Bumiller writes: 'Ms. Rice still packs her lunch many days as a way of avoiding the expense and calories of the White House mess. She rises at 5 a.m. to run on the treadmill that she keeps in her sparse Watergate apartment, is in the office before 7 a.m. and is in bed by 10 p.m.'

Whoa! Imagine the White House-Bumiller standoff over that one! Via eRobin ("fact-esque") -- whose post educates and amuses, where this one just goes for the laugh. eRobin uses the final paragraph as her headline:

The key is perseverance and a refusal to give in. "At every press conference I stand up every time and ask a question," Bumiller says. "No matter what."

That's got to be hard. My suggestion: "What am I doing here?" posted by Thomas Nephew at 12:38:00 AM -- |    

 
Getting to "yes" -- with Joe Al Qaeda
It's sometimes tacitly assumed that detained members of terror networks will not cooperate with their jailers under any circumstances. That can lead to the conclusion that torture or abuse will be the only ways to gain useful information from such detainees. I've run across a couple of stories that suggest this isn't true.

What would Allah do?
After the attack on the U.S.S. Cole and then 9/11, the leaders of the Republic of Yemen were looking for ways to navigate between the rock of deep Yemeni-Al Qaeda connections and the hard place of looming U.S. military action.

Dire necessity was the mother to a novel approach by Yemen's president, Ali Abdullah Saleh. In "What Would Allah Do?" Legal Affairs senior editor Nadya Labi describes it, following the example of one Nasser Ahmed Nasser Al-Qadhi.* The hardened "Afghani Arab" (i.e., graduate of the Al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan) was a familiar of the Cole conspirators, and had spent two years in jail after his arrest in 2000. Then one day in August, 2002 he was brought before Yemeni authorities:

But instead of being attached to electrodes or shipped to Guantanamo Bay, where his brother-in-law Salim Hamdan had been jailed, al-Qadhi was brought before a handful of Muslim clerics who sat at a long table. They invited him to have a debate. They wanted to talk about the Koran, and to prove to him that the holy text did not condone violence against non-Muslims. Then they proffered a remarkable deal.

If you convince us that we're wrong, they said, we'll join you. But if we convince you that you're wrong, and if you repent, you'll go free.

The dialogue proved interesting. After rebutting the prisoners' assertions that Yemen was not a Muslim state, the presiding judge, Hamoud al-Hitar, got down to brass tacks, asking whether it was "halal (allowed) or haram (forbidden) to kill non-Muslims?" Citing 124 verses of Koran against the Islamist's single justifying passage, al-Hitar concluded that any visitor to Yemen was protected:

"Even if he comes from Tel Aviv," al-Hitar reminded them, "nobody is allowed to attack him."

While Koranic disputes were the heart of the dialogue, the simple fact that there was a dialogue may have "defused" the Islamist:

Al-Hitar's words were having an effect, but something else was also at work. Al-Qadhi had gone to jihad on behalf of clerics who had preached that, "Anyone who is not with me is my enemy." Yet here was his enemy, allowing him to read the Koran. Torture he thought he could handle, if it came to that, but kindness was disarming. His thinking began to shift, he said, as he contemplated a future with more possibilities than "you kill me or I kill you."

Within four months, Al-Qadhi had renounced terrorism and was released into a kind of permanent probation/surveillance with mandatory return visits to the chief judge.

Not all Yemeni prisoners get this chance -- those with "blood on their hands" don't get the benefit of this Islamic quasi-parole board. Also, critics dispute the successes al-Hitar claims -- cells exposed, lack of recidivism -- and decry the secrecy and possible favoritism of the program. For that matter, al-Qadhi's own history and views wouldn't pass muster with most Americans today. He maintains that "America is coming closer to its end," has confessed to knowing both U.S.S. Cole and 9/11 terrorists, and still respects Osama Bin Laden as a "good person." But good person or not, al-Qadhi apparently hasn't re-joined Bin Laden's fight, either.

The FBI agent from Mars
You don't have to have an judge versed in Islamic theology to make headway with Islamist terrorists, though. The American Prospect's Jason Vest interviewed an FBI agent, Jack Cloonan, who had similar success getting a terrorist to not just lay down his weapons, but also assist the prosecution of the Nairobi U.S. embassy bombers. From "Pray and Tell":

Contrary to views in some circles that every al-Qaeda member or radical Islamist is so beset by zealotry as to be beyond appeals to reason or humanity, Cloonan, in the course of his investigation, concluded that Kherchtou -- whose Kenyan apartment was used to develop the film the Nairobi cell shot in preparation for the embassy bombing there -- cared at least as much about his family as he did the cause of Wahabbist jihad.

Moroccan intelligence service had detained Kherchtou for deportation to the U.S.; Cloonan met with Kherchtou (who he called "Joe") in a "safe house" in Rabat:

“The setting was beautiful,” Cloonan recalled. “It was this grand house with stables out back, gazelles bouncing in the background, palm trees, three-course meals -- I was probably more in danger of getting gout from all the rich food than anything else while I was there.

“We advised [Kherchtou] of his rights. We told him he could have a lawyer anytime, and that he could pray at any time he wanted. We were letting the Moroccans sit in on this, and they were dumbfounded.” [...]

“We spent a lot of time talking about his family, and how disillusioned he was based on the brothers’ treatment of them, and from there he really began to open up,” Cloonan recalled. “The critical moment was when Pat Fitzgerald told Joe, ‘Here’s the deal: You will come to the U.S. voluntarily; you will plead guilty to conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals abroad; your exposure is anywhere from zero to life, no promises.’ I instinctively reached for my briefcase, figuring it was over, but then I added something. I looked at him and I said, ‘Before you answer, I think you should go pray. After 10 days with us, I think you have a sense of who we are and what we’re about -- you know you would not be treated this way by other folks. You may go to prison, but you have the chance to start your life over again, to get rid of this anxiety, to stop running. And I think you should do this for your wife and children.’

“So he went off to pray. Meanwhile, the colonel from the Moroccan internal service just looked at us like we were from Mars. But Joe came back and said, ‘OK.’”

(By the way: yes, that Patrick Fitzgerald. The guy is everywhere.) Kherchtou was to yield valuable information and sworn testimony about how Al Qaeda operates -- "including the group’s interest in using suicide-piloted planes as bombers." Fairly successful information gathering, no? In the right hands, data like that could obviously save thousands of lives.

I'm certainly not advocating we find more beautiful villas in Morocco to pamper former terrorists with. Nor do I imagine that every member of a hard-core terror cell will ultimately listen to reason or counterarguments.

But neither al-Qadhi or Kherchtou were innocents pulled off the street, or low-level supporters who just put up someone for the night. They were the real deal -- and they still wound up cooperating. Both in Yemen and in Morocco, it seems like just talking to these men and figuring them out was much, much, much more productive than the notorious alternatives reported from Bagram, Guantanamo, and elsewhere.


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* I've mentioned this Yemeni "Islamic rehab" (to coin a phrase) approach before myself, having come across a December 2003 BBC report about it (they gave the judge's name as Humoud Hattar). I was more "glass half-empty" about it then, although Yemeni officials apparently agree about keeping an eye on parolees. posted by Thomas Nephew at 6:30:00 PM -- |    

 
The answer is twisting in the wind
...and she may be fine with that. "Heroic journalist holds out for principle" will sell more books than "Reporter convicted."*

Digby ("Libby on the Label," 8/6/05) dictates the next White House press corpse question to Scott McClellan -- because who knows what they'd ask instead if left to their own devices:

Scott, Judy Miller is languishing in a DC jail because the vice president's chief of staff refuses to grant her a specific waiver. The prosecutor has told federal judges that he needs to talk to her. Is this what the president calls cooperating with the investigation?

Of course, Miller may decide such a waiver from Libby wasn't "freely offered." But under the circumstances, this will look more self-serving and co-conspiratorial than idealistic -- and appearances don't always deceive. Digby concludes,

And if Judy gets a specific waiver she has no more excuse to play Jeanne d'Arc. If she still won't squawk, the NY Times will have to finally admit that they have employed a neocon operative as a reporter.

On the other hand, why couldn't Fitzgerald ask Miller what she said to Rove, Libby, Novak, or other persons of interest? That's not confidential, I would think. She could take the 5th -- not great for her image, but just fine for her freedom. Maybe this has already happened, and Fitzgerald still wants her to say what Rove, Libby, Novak, and/or other people's responses were to whatever it was she told them.

Meanwhile, Mark Kleimann explains how Valerie Plame could be an NOC (non-official cover) CIA agent "despite" being mentioned in Joseph Wilson's "Who's Who" entry -- by way of rebutting Glenn Reynolds, who claims that's "not consistent with the idea of Valerie Plame being deep cover." Summing up: Wilson's "Who's Who" entry doesn't say "Valerie Elise Plame, CIA agent." ("Who's Who" page image via Talking Points Memo).


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* On second thought, who knows, maybe not... now there's an angle for Fitzgerald to try. posted by Thomas Nephew at 1:00:00 AM -- |    

 
NLRB: No Logic Recognizable Board
American Rights at Work (ARAW) reports on the latest bit of NLRB (National Labor Relations Board) pettifoggery:

Security firm Guardsmark instituted a rule directing employees not to 'fraternize on duty or off duty, date, or become overly friendly with the client's employees or with co-employees.' In September 2003, the Service Employees International Union filed unfair labor practice charges with the NLRB against Guardsmark, claiming that the company's work rules inhibited its employees' Section 7 rights.

Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act [(NLRA)] grants workers the right to 'self-organization, to form, join, or assist labor organizations…and to engage in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection...' While the law allows employers to ban association among co-workers during work hours, Guardsmark's rule was broader in that it applied to the off-duty association of co-workers.

On June 7, 2005, the Board ruled 2 to 1 that Guardsmark's fraternization rule was lawful. The Board majority argued that workers would likely interpret the fraternization rule as merely a ban on dating, and not a prohibition of the association among co-workers protected by Section 7. But the dissenting member of the Board pointed out that since the rule already mentions dating, workers would understand fraternization to mean something else. She noted, 'the primary meaning of the term 'fraternize…[is] to associate in a brotherly manner'…and that kind of association is the essence of workplace solidarity.'

The ARAW report actually concedes more than I would in granting that employer bans on co-worker dating legitimately prevent sexual harassment (I might concede the point for dates between supervisors and supervisees). But as the dissent points out, the NLRB reasoning is dishonest in the extreme. Employees are not to fraternize off duty? They are not to "become overly friendly with co-employees"? This twists the NLRA completely out of recognition. I'd suggest it's even unconstitutional -- the first amendment guarantees a right to peaceable assembly. I hope the SEIU and other unions continue to fight such edicts by an NLRB that is not merely worthless to unions, but apparently actively hostile to them.

(Via moquol, where the author extrapolates a near-future bit of science (non)fiction from the story.)


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UPDATE, 8/8: Nathan Newman was there first: Meet a work buddy, get fired (TPM Cafe "House of Labor")
UPDATE, 8/10: Harold Meyerson op-ed in the Washington Post today, Big Brother On and Off the Job. Meyerson points out that it's the NLRB precedent that matters, not the particulars of the case (Guardsmark has in fact been unionized.) He concludes: "So as we fight to bring liberal democracy to quasi-feudal backwaters in distant lands, we might remember that the fight for individual rights in the American workplace -- and now, beyond it -- is itself a long way from a victorious conclusion. And thanks to the NLRB, it just got longer." posted by Thomas Nephew at 12:28:00 AM -- |    

 
Good for a grin
It had to be Yoo -- Billmon ("Whiskey Bar") has a little fun with the revelation that John Roberts did some pro bono work for a gay rights lawsuit -- and appears not to have been willing to admit it to the Senate:

You read a little William O. Douglas, knock back a few 9th Circuit opinions, and the next thing you know, you're going at it pro bono with some hot young hunk from the ACLU. And suddenly you realize what you've been missing all your life.

The usual rabble, m'lord -- Ezra Klein retells the Fall of Novak:

Novak woke up one morning, stretched, guzzled the blood of some innocents, scratched, got a cackling call from fellow-Sith Lord Karl Rove, transcribed the story, ignored CIA warnings to do no such thing, ate a sensible dinner, put on his jammies, and went to bed. All in a day's work. Then, a few weeks later, there's a heavy knock on the castle door, and Igor limps in talking about some prosecutor and subpoena papers.

Is that what she has? -- Jesus' General sticks up for Katherine Harris:

I just assumed that your electric blue eyelids, crimson cheeks, and blood red lips were somehow related to all that magical Kabbalah water you convinced the State of Florida to buy to combat citrus canker.

Sounds like fun -- The Editors keep their eye on the ball:

Regardless of your particular ideology, you can perform your civic duty of annoying the crap out of Bill O’Reilly. Become a card-carrying member of the ACLU.

Not all that intelligent -- Bob Somerby critiques the emperor penguin lifestyle:

We believe we have a quick solution to the debate about Intelligent Design. Anyone inclined to believe in ID should be taken to see The March of the Penguins. After all, what “intelligent” designer could have devised the Rube Goldberg-style reproductive system of the hapless emperor penguin? For us, the sheer absurdity of penguin reproduction overpowers the film’s supposed merits. That and the hopeless, anthropomorphic narration written by the film’s French producers —a narration so silly it will make you rethink your decade-long defense of the French.

If any group ever needed a Moses to lead them from the wilderness of their hard wiring, it would have to be the emperor penguin.

posted by Thomas Nephew at 2:40:00 PM -- |