Du bist Deutschland
It means "You are Germany," and it's a rather odd, pointless, 30 million Euro media campaign -- complete with its own cute little logo -- that's just kicked off in Germany.

The campaign's organizers -- a consortium of "over 20 German media enterprises... together with advertising and public relations agencies" -- explain:

The message: every individual needs confidence in his own strength and capabilities.

A positive self image is an important prerequisite for our economic and cultural development. The campaign invites you and everyone else in Germany to dare something new and to participate with fresh elan.

This ostensibly puts the media organizations in the vanguard of those "working for Standort Deutschland" -- Business Location: Germany. One ad series says "You are [famous German]", from Goethe to Helmut Newton to ... wait for it ... Albert Einstein -- who had to leave Germany for the U.S! So much for "Standort Deutschland."

I suppose this is all kind of harmless, but I would find it more than a little patronizing, too. Apparently, some German bloggers agree; Tobias Schwarz ("almost a diary," "Fistful of Euros") has even started another blog about it (this one in German), and Johnny of Spreeblick has developed a Photoshop countertemplate. One of his own sendups features former chancellor Helmut Kohl musing about his stubborn refusal to go with the crowd and obey election finance laws.

In "You are complaints: mixed echo", Schwarz googled around German blogs to try to gauge reaction. He found ample criticism, but also considerable support for the campaign: "enthusiastic ... it was high time," "touching," "really impressed."

Elsewhere, Anke Groener says that "a new name can give a bar new life," citing the Clinton 1992 campaign as an example of a successful campaign that was as much about intangible atmospherics as it was about policy. I think that campaign was a teensy bit more policy oriented than that -- but even if the atmospherics were important, at least it culminated in the tangible outcome of electing someone who then measurably did the job. This campaign, on the other hand, seems mainly designed to say "buck up, Deutschland! If things suck, maybe it's your fault."

It's a little disconcerting to see Germany heading down the PR/self help/motivational route that's always seemed one of the phoniest parts of American life to me. Not that PR and what not are all that foreign to Germany, but I can't recall a campaign quite like this one.

But relax, America! If Germans want to pull even with us when it comes to empty public relations schtick, they've got some catching up to do. Exhibit A: Karen Hughes on tour in the Middle East. They've got nothin'.

posted by Thomas Nephew at 9:00:00 PM -- |    

 
Louisiana sheriff wanted for questioning
That would be Orleans Parish Sheriff Marlin N. Gusman, by me, anyway, along with the warden of the Templeman III prison facility, among others. Somebody has a lot to answer for.

Human Rights Watch is reporting that hundreds of prisoners were abandoned to rising floodwaters in their cells, and that they can not account for 517 prisoners in all.

“They left us to die there,” Dan Bright, an Orleans Parish Prison inmate told Human Rights Watch at Rapides Parish Prison, where he was sent after the evacuation.

As the water began rising on the first floor, prisoners became anxious and then desperate. Some of the inmates were able to force open their cell doors, helped by inmates held in the common area. All of them, however, remained trapped in the locked facility.

“The water started rising, it was getting to here,” said Earrand Kelly, an inmate from Templeman III, as he pointed at his neck. “We was calling down to the guys in the cells under us, talking to them every couple of minutes. They were crying, they were scared. The one that I was cool with, he was saying ‘I'm scared. I feel like I'm about to drown.' He was crying.”

Some inmates from Templeman III have said they saw bodies floating in the floodwaters as they were evacuated from the prison. A number of inmates told Human Rights Watch that they were not able to get everyone out from their cells.

Hopefully, this will prove a false alarm:

Human Rights Watch compared an official list of all inmates held at Orleans Parish Prison immediately prior to the hurricane with the most recent list of the evacuated inmates compiled by the state Department of Corrections and Public Safety (which was entitled, “All Offenders Evacuated”). However, the list did not include 517 inmates from the jail, including 130 from Templeman III.

I hope they are all found. But I sure wish I didn't know what I do about some of the body disposal services the good folks of FEMA and the state of Louisiana have lined up. Lindsay Beyerstein comments:

The criminality of the evacuees was immediately exaggerated, but the crimes of the authorities are only gradually coming to light.

posted by Thomas Nephew at 6:05:00 PM -- |    

 
Now tell me the truth, Tom
...is this kind of fun? posted by Thomas Nephew at 1:10:00 PM -- |    

 
Abu Ghraib in Virginia
That's the title of an article in the Winter 2005 issue of "Southern Exposure" -- the magazine by the people who produce the blog "Facing South." Author Laura LaFay begins:

When Albuquerque, N.M., lawyer Paul Livingston first saw the now-infamous photos of the naked Iraqi prisoner being menaced by American soldiers with dogs in Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib Prison, he immediately thought of Virginia.

Livingston represents 66 of 108 New Mexico inmates shipped to Virginia’s Wallens Ridge prison in 1999. The cases, he says, involve inmates who were non-violent offenders and have since been released. Nevertheless, Virginia prison guards beat them, shot them with stun guns and rubber bullets, slammed them against floors and walls, chained them to their beds for days at a time, subjected them to racist verbal abuse, and threatened them with sodomy and vicious dogs. This was done as a matter of policy, Livingston says, “just to show them who was boss and how terrified they should be.”

She mentions a book by Alan Elsner, "Gates of Injustice: The Crisis in America’s Prisons":

According to testimony cited by Elsner’s book, Virginia correctional officers at these prisons routinely punished inmates for minor infractions with “the Ultron II, a handheld device that delivers 50,000 volts of electricity; the Taser, which fires electric darts connected to wires; and the ICE shield that is activated to deliver a powerful electric shock whenever a prisoner touches it.” Black and Hispanic prisoners were threatened and made to crawl on the floor.

Link, image added -- wouldn't you know the place would have a tasteful, modern web site to go with their prisoner warehousing and abuse "industry." Complete with virtual 360 degree tours of single-person and double-person cells -- Make a DOC Virtual Tour Selection!

Do read the article. And remember the name Ronald Angelone. If all goes well for the GOP next year in the governor's election, he may once again head Virginia's Department of Corrections.

Larry Frazier, a Connecticut prisoner, was killed by guards who mistook his diabetic convulsions for combative behavior. When a prison contract doctor pointed this out, Angelone had him fired and barred from the prison. When Human Rights Watch issued a report documenting and condemning his policies and practices in the supermaxes, Angelone ignored it. Complaints by out-of-state prisoners, he told members of the Virginia Crime Commission in 2000, were “lies by convicted felons who don’t like being in a tough prison.”

Ignore complaints, punish whistleblowers, tolerate prisoner abuse, minimize it when it's discovered. Angelone could go far. posted by Thomas Nephew at 1:30:00 AM -- |    

 
But wait, there's more
Once upon a time there was a wealthy heart doctor who loaned his Senate campaign $6.6 million, but still hadn't gotten it all back six years later. So after gambling with his next campaign's money in the stock market didn't work out, the doctor just did a money transfusion from the future. And in Beyond Delay, the Citizens for Responsibity and Ethics in Washington (CREW) tell us everything turned out all right:

Sen. Frist solved this problem by having the 1994 and the 2000 campaign committees jointly take out a $1.44 million bank loan at a cost of $10,000 a month in interest. While loan documents demonstrate that the two campaign committees jointly borrowed the money, it was Sen. Frist who personally signed the promissory note in two places: as President of Bill Frist for Senate, Inc. and as President of Frist 2000, Inc. On November 28, 2000, Sen. Frist used that money to pay himself back with a check for $1.25 million.

All right for the doctor, of course, not for anyone else:

Although bank records show Frist 2000 Inc. as the borrower, Frist 2000 did not report this debt on its Federal Election Commission ("FEC") disclosure forms. Instead, Sen. Frist’s 1994 campaign committee, Bill Frist for Senate, Inc., which was then dormant, was the only committee to declare the loan, making it difficult for the Senator’s donors and political opponents to understand how financially insecure his campaign really was.

The Federal Election Campaign Act requires each treasurer of a political committee to file reports of receipts and disbursements signed by the treasurer. Any loans made or received by the political action committee must be included in those reports. The fact that the $1.44 million loan was disclosed only by one authorized committee, Bill Frist for Senate, Inc., and not also by Frist 200, Inc., even though the two committees jointly took out the loan, suggests that Frist 2000, Inc. committed a knowing and willful violation of the reporting requirements of 2 U.S.C. §434(b). Moreover, Sen. Frist’s financial activities are of concern not only because they indicate illegality, but also because they suggest that the Senator went to great lengths to protect his own fortune, while squandering that of his contributors.

...earning the doctor a place on CREW's bipartisan "13 most corrupt members of Congress" list. Meanwhile, somebody get on the phone to the Rosalind Kurita for Senate campaign -- in light of this report, Frist's 2006 finances and 'obligations' will bear a second look by her staff and campaign fund sources.* Via Alt Hippo.

Meanwhile, the Republican Senate majority leader's "blind" trust HCA, Inc. (Hospital Corporation of America, founded by his father) stock dump looks even fishier on word that other HCA insiders were busy dumping their shares as well. Moreover, Frist's "blind" trust has told him about other trades involving HCA in the past: "In documents filed with the Senate, trustee M. Kirk Scobey Jr. told Frist in 2002 that HCA stock had been transferred to his trust."As "gttim" put it in a comment at "Facing South":

Frist thought Schiavo could see and his trust was blind. Guess he had that backwards.

=====
* Len Cleavelin gently set me straight that Frist - ahem - isn't running for Senator in 2006.
posted by Thomas Nephew at 6:15:00 PM -- |    

 
No way to DeLay that trouble comin' every day
Yeeeeee-haw! DeLay Indicted in Campaign Finance Probe, Larry Margasak, The Associated Press:

Wednesday, September 28, 2005; 1:11 PM

WASHINGTON -- A Texas grand jury on Wednesday charged Rep. Tom DeLay and two political associates with conspiracy in a campaign finance scheme, forcing the House majority leader to temporarily relinquish his post.

DeLay attorney Steve Brittain said DeLay was accused of a criminal conspiracy along with two associates, John Colyandro, former executive director of a Texas political action committee formed by DeLay, and Jim Ellis, who heads DeLay's national political committee.

It's been a while, but it's been worth it. A while back, Earle said the investigation was slow because it was like "watching clowns climb out of a Volkswagen. There are a lot more in there than I imagined." Looks like the last clown has finally climbed out. posted by Thomas Nephew at 1:20:00 PM -- |    

 
Letter from MY congressman

Dear Thomas,

Thank you for contacting me to express your opposition to President Bush's order to suspend the Davis-Bacon law in the counties affected by Hurricane Katrina.

I strongly agree with you. As you know, under the Davis-Bacon law, a federal contractor must pay its worker the prevailing wage for that location. By suspending this law, federal contractors can cut Gulf Coast workers' wages, charge the federal government no less for the work done, and pocket the difference--the President's proclamation does not require contractors to cut their charges to the taxpayer. It is entirely unacceptable that President Bush would condemn these workers--many of whom are victims of Hurricane Katrina--to subpar wages as they begin to rebuild their homes and lives.

To this end, I am pleased to report that I am an original co-sponsor of the Fair Wages for Hurricane Victims Act (H.R. 3763), which seeks to reverse this unconscionable action by the Bush Administration and reinstate the Davis-Bacon law for the counties affected by Hurricane Katrina. I have also written President Bush requesting that he rescind his order to suspend the Davis-Bacon law. Again, thank you for sharing your thoughts on this matter, and please do not hesitate to contact me whenever I may be of service.

Sincerely,

Chris Van Hollen
Member of Congress

(Links added) Chris Van Hollen was the 4th cosponsor of the bill -- only George Miller, Nancy Pelosi, and Major Owens were ahead of him. He's my Congressman, and unless you live in Maryland's 8th Congressional District, no, you can't have him too. posted by Thomas Nephew at 12:05:00 AM -- |    

 
New Orleans horror stories: everything you know is probably wrong
New Orleans Times-Picayune reporters Brian Thevenot and Gordon Russell report ("Rumors of deaths greatly exaggerated"):

After five days managing near-riots, medical horrors and unspeakable living conditions inside the Superdome, Louisiana National Guard Col. Thomas Beron prepared to hand over the dead to representatives of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Following days of internationally reported killings, rapes and gang violence inside the Dome, the doctor from FEMA - Beron doesn't remember his name - came prepared for a grisly scene: He brought a refrigerated 18-wheeler and three doctors to process bodies.

"I've got a report of 200 bodies in the Dome," Beron recalls the doctor saying.

The real total was six, Beron said. [...]

As the fog of warlike conditions in Hurricane Katrina's aftermath has cleared, the vast majority of reported atrocities committed by evacuees have turned out to be false, or at least unsupported by any evidence, according to key military, law enforcement, medical and civilian officials in positions to know.

Via Michael O'Hare, who comments "If you believed the Grand Guignol news for even a minute, as I did, you owe it to your conscience to take a complete reality soak here; read it!"

No freezers full of bodies. No police officer shot by a brazen thug at the Convention Center -- his gun went off and hit him in the leg during a scuffle; the man he was hit by was arrested. One 'muzzle flash' leading to an arrest at the Convention Center -- not thirty.

The Times-Picayune reporters could also find no supporting evidence for a particularly gruesome story that made the rounds, about a little girl whose throat was cut after being raped. There appears to have been one case of a child molester being beaten up by others at the Convention Center, an incident Thevenot and Russell suspect was magnified to the bloodier rumor.

For what it's worth, I've found a couple of alleged eyewitness accounts of child rape and other horrific behavior at "Alive in Truth," a New Orleans/Katrina oral history site. "Wayne G." recalls:

Raping little—gangs raping little females, cuttin their throat. This is at -- this is -- I seen it all. Little babies dying. (Crying.) They were stompin little babies. (Crying.) They started killin’ little children for nothing. They had nobody to protect us, at all.

See also "Antoinette 7", who claims,

I saw a girl raped and her throat cut. The mens found the man that did that and cut his throat. He had come over from the Superdome where he was raping babies and started doing it there, so the mens hunted him down and they slit his throat.

Other interviewees at the site merely talk about the rapes and killings as fact, without claiming they saw them.

On the face of it, an eyewitness account deserves to be taken seriously -- and the Times-Picayune report doesn't claim to have disproven the child rape story, only that it could not find evidence to support it. But on the whole, while I hesitate to call out people who've been through so much, I wonder if they were saying what they thought interviewers wanted to hear. A constant throughout the "Alive in Truth" oral histories was a justifiable sense of bitterness by survivors of the Convention Center and Superdome at the abandonment, filth, and chaos of those places -- which may have implanted some 'memories' spun from rumors mixed with stress.

Regardless of the truth of that story, the overall impression -- widespread savagery and predation of survivors against each other -- was clearly incorrect. Both the Times-Picayune story and many stories you'll find at "Recording Katrina" document the opposite: survivors taking care of eachother. Much of the supposed "looting" by "thugs" was actually young men going out and getting food, water, and diapers for the thousands of people the authorities had all but abandoned.

In addition to doubtless contributing to the documented contempt that many law enforcement and military personnel showed towards survivors, the "Grand Guignol" rumors delayed relief and law enforcement, while thousands of American citizens suffered, and too many died:

Authorities provided no food, water or medical care until troops secured the building the Friday after the storm. [...]

Rumors of rampant violence at the Convention Center prompted Louisiana National Guard Lt. Col. Jacques Thibodeaux put together a 1,000-man force of soldiers and police in full battle gear to secure the center Sept. 2 at about noon. [...]

{Chief Eddie] Compass said rumors had often crippled authorities' response to reported lawlessness, sending badly needed resources to respond to situations that turned out not to exist. He offered his own intensely personal example: The day after the storm, he heard "some civilians" talking about how a band of armed thugs had invaded the Ritz-Carlton hotel and started raping women - including his 24-year-old daughter, who stayed there through the storm. He rushed to the scene only to find that although a group of men had tried to enter the hotel, they weren't armed and were easily turned back by police.

The reporters point out that rumor-mongering wasn't confined to Superdome and Convention Center survivors -- law enforcement officials did it, too:

Compass, however, promulgated some of the unfounded rumors himself, in interviews in which he characterized himself and his officers as outgunned warriors taking out armed bands of thugs at every turn.

"People would be shooting at us, and we couldn't shoot back because of the families," Compass told a reporter from the (Bridgeport) Connecticut Post who interviewed him at the Saints' Monday Night Football game in New York, where he was the guest of NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue. "All we could do is rush toward the flash."

Compass added that he and his officers succeeded in wrestling 30 weapons from criminals using the follow-the-muzzle-flash technique, the story said.

"We got 30 that way," Compass was quoted as saying. [...]

But Winn, when asked about alleged shootouts in a separate interview, said his unit saw muzzle flashes and heard gunshots only one time. Despite aggressively frisking a number of suspects, the team recovered no weapons. His unit never found anyone who had been shot.

The unremarkable conclusion that I take out of this for both the press and officials on the scene: in conditions of panic and distress like those in New Orleans after the levees broke, if you haven't seen it with your own eyes, you just don't know it's true. And if you don't know it's true, you should be careful of broadcasting the rumor.

And if you have reason to think horror stories are rumors, you should be willing to discount them rather than take them at face value -- especially if you're charged with bringing relief and restoring order to a desperate, endangered population. posted by Thomas Nephew at 6:30:00 PM -- |    

 
Saved from risk of hearing Fisk
The New Mexican reports that a famous British journalist, Robert Fisk, has been prevented from entering the United States to speak to a New Mexico audience:

U.S. immigration officials refused Tuesday to allow Robert Fisk, longtime Middle East correspondent for the London newspaper, The Independent, to board a plane from Toronto to Denver. Fisk was on his way to Santa Fe for a sold-out appearance in the Lannan Foundation’s readings-and-conversations series Wednesday night.

According to Christie Mazuera Davis, a Lannan program officer, Fisk was told that his papers were not in order.

Fisk has been a bete noire for right wing bloggers since early after 9/11; taking issue with his articles became so popular that the word "fisking" was coined to mean detailed, line item rebuttals of unwelcome or disbelieved reporting and analysis. Given the shenanigans other foreign writers (Tariq Ramadan, for example) have also been subjected to, to the applause of people like Daniel Pipes, it's hard to avoid suspecting that Mr. Fisk got on a special "hassle list" of his own.

Let's hope not. From what little I've read, I thought Fisk was at most guilty of sometimes writing overwrought articles with too much of his own opinion and not enough substance. Of course, (a) that's hardly anything for bloggers -- including myself -- to hold against him, and (b) if those were the criteria for keeping British journalists out of the U.S., Christopher Hitchens might have some trouble getting back into the country, too.

At any rate, this incident will prompt me to give Mr. Fisk's journalism a second look -- I'm now guessing that's one more thing I let myself get talked out of too easily by the jingosphere. posted by Thomas Nephew at 12:15:00 PM -- |