Actions, not words, are required to stop the IFC from going forward. Hoping that the IFC will do the right thing is insufficient. The IFC, and the revelation that another group, The Drawing Center, would set up shop within the confines of the WTC site, is unsatisfactory.
So is Governor Pataki's actions. He has the power to shut things down.
He needs to exercise that power. Now.
Saturday, June 25, 2005
The Black Hole of Africa
The scale of the task facing Tony Blair in his drive to help Africa was laid bare yesterday when it emerged that Nigeria's past rulers stole or misused £220 billion.In the next few weeks we'll be hearing a lot about Live 8, a music festival that hopes to increase pressure on the G8 Summit to extend more aid to Africa.
That is as much as all the western aid given to Africa in almost four decades. The looting of Africa's most populous country amounted to a sum equivalent to 300 years of British aid for the continent.
Live 8 is hopelessly wrong about what needs to be done. Even the G8 is wrong about what needs to be done.
Debt relief is the wrong answer.
Promoting democracy and fair election processes is the only way that Africa can turn its situation around.
Why do I make this statement? Simple. Because all you have to do is look at foreign aid and see it slip into any number of black holes in Africa. Every despot and warlord in Africa has their hand out for aid - and gets it because that is what we do - give out aid. There's no incentive to democratize. There's no incentive to provide for the welfare of the people. There's no incentive to stop genocides, wars, or the seizure of property wholesale.
Only spreading democratic ideas can provide those incentives because power will reside in the people, not in the few kleptocrats and dictators that rule.
No Explodation For You
Israel has released the video of the female suicide bomber who tried to sneak into an Israeli hospital with 25 pounds of explosives to kill as many medical workers as possible.
She failed.
And the video captures the moment when she realizes that she cannot blow herself up because the bomb trigger didn't work.
This is the face of the enemy.
They're the kind of enemy that has absolutely no problem walking into your hospital and blowing herself up.
She failed.
And the video captures the moment when she realizes that she cannot blow herself up because the bomb trigger didn't work.
This is the face of the enemy.
They're the kind of enemy that has absolutely no problem walking into your hospital and blowing herself up.
Friday, June 24, 2005
All Your Blogs Belong To Me
Under the aforementioned link, I hearby will take possession of your blog in the name of economic development. Your previous attempts at blogging have run into what policy planners call blight. We foresee better things from the use of public resources such as the Internet as your blog is replaced by an eBay store, a BestBuy, and a Target. Therefore your blog has been seized.
[slightly modified from my original at the link above] Under the power vested in me by the local municipality*, and in conjunction with the local politicians and real estate developers, I am hereby putting this petition on notice that it will be taken in eminent domain immediately.
This is your only notice. You shall have the following rights enumerated if you wish to challenge:
1)
That is all.
Have a nice day!
*Kelo v. New London
Instapundit Whoring For Hits
So, Glenn has finally succumbed to the Dark Side and gone gutter on us. He figures that by throwing in the terms Kinky and Michelle Malkin into a post, he'd get a bunch of hits.
Silly, that Glenn is.
Silly, that Glenn is.
On Burning Stuff
One of my colleagues asked me of my take on the flag burning amendment working its way through Congress. He needed to know whether I was supporting the amendment as a precondition to going to the lunchroom for a snack.
I gave a moment's reflection, and decided that it was time to tell him the awful truth.
I do not support the flag burning amendment. This is one of those issues that comes up every few years when members of Congress have to burnish their patriotic credentials.
When we're in a time of war and terrorists continue to gun for us, when we've got borders more porous than the collander I use to strain pasta for dinner, and when we've got serious fiscal issues to address (Social Security, national debt, etc.), Congress takes the time in its busy schedule to discuss a flag burning amendment?
Is this really the most crucial issue of our time? Do we need yet another limitation on speech? I would rather see people who burn our flag suffer the consequences of their actions without needing the FBI to step in. After all, they've got better things to do with their time (as if the FBI would bother enforcing the action at all).
I gave a moment's reflection, and decided that it was time to tell him the awful truth.
I do not support the flag burning amendment. This is one of those issues that comes up every few years when members of Congress have to burnish their patriotic credentials.
When we're in a time of war and terrorists continue to gun for us, when we've got borders more porous than the collander I use to strain pasta for dinner, and when we've got serious fiscal issues to address (Social Security, national debt, etc.), Congress takes the time in its busy schedule to discuss a flag burning amendment?
Is this really the most crucial issue of our time? Do we need yet another limitation on speech? I would rather see people who burn our flag suffer the consequences of their actions without needing the FBI to step in. After all, they've got better things to do with their time (as if the FBI would bother enforcing the action at all).
What Was I Saying About NYT And Conflicts of Interest?
Apparently the op-ed page at the Times came out and supported the Kelo decision. That's not surprising.
What is surprising is that the Times directly benefitted from the very kind of eminent domain proceeding that was argued in Kelo. The Times is building a new headquarters in Midtown, but that was only possible after an eminent domain proceeding was used to evict the prior owners.
That's right. Let me restate for the ease of my readers (all three of them):
The Times benefitted from the same procedures that were used in Kelo.
Now, I've stated before that the Times has real estate interests that trump honest reporting of real estate issues in the City. Usually, these focus on the WTC reconstruction.
This adds yet one more layer to the problems with journalistic integrity at the Times - their real estate holdings influence their editorial pages and the decision of what to cover in the 'news' section.
What is surprising is that the Times directly benefitted from the very kind of eminent domain proceeding that was argued in Kelo. The Times is building a new headquarters in Midtown, but that was only possible after an eminent domain proceeding was used to evict the prior owners.
That's right. Let me restate for the ease of my readers (all three of them):
The Times benefitted from the same procedures that were used in Kelo.
Now, I've stated before that the Times has real estate interests that trump honest reporting of real estate issues in the City. Usually, these focus on the WTC reconstruction.
This adds yet one more layer to the problems with journalistic integrity at the Times - their real estate holdings influence their editorial pages and the decision of what to cover in the 'news' section.
Will Rove Make Democrats' Heads Explode?
The short answer is... yes.
The long answer is... most definitely yes. [Editorial add update - Rove is a magnificient bastard. Every time someone tries to quote him, the GOP gets to replay as many Kerry, Soros, Moveon.org, Biden, Kennedy quotes as it can squeeze in. He's got the 2006 election figured, and the DNC still can't figure out how to play the game.]
Patrick Ruffini has more. What is it about the Democratic party leadership these days. They slam the President and practically every member of the Republican party with impunity and immunity from the media, mostly with baseless accusations, non sequitors, ad hominem attacks, and the liberal use of lies, conspiracy-mongering, and slander, yet the moment one Republican lets loose with a truthful statement about how liberals sought to accomodate and appease terrorists after 9/11, they're thrown into a frenzy and call for blood.
Need any reminders of the dichotomy between liberals and the rest of us?
Here's a a pu-pu platter sampler of some of the relevant comments (via Hugh Hewitt:
I'd say that Rove called it correctly. I just hope he brought a sponge to clean up the mess afterwards.
UPDATE:
Confederate Yankee has pictures. And they are worth at least a 1,000 words each.
UPDATE II:
Michael Totten seems to think Rove owes liberals an apology (and says that John Cole thinks an apology is owed as well). I would disagree after reading through the astounding multitude of quotes from leading Democrats that take the appeasement route. During the Democratic Party primaries, the candidates fell overthemselves to take the most pacifistic route possible. That was one of Kerry's flip flops after all. Kucinich, Dean, and others in the field were all opposed to the war in Iraq, and thought that law enforcement was the route to take, not war when dealing with terrorists.
The long answer is... most definitely yes. [Editorial add update - Rove is a magnificient bastard. Every time someone tries to quote him, the GOP gets to replay as many Kerry, Soros, Moveon.org, Biden, Kennedy quotes as it can squeeze in. He's got the 2006 election figured, and the DNC still can't figure out how to play the game.]
Patrick Ruffini has more. What is it about the Democratic party leadership these days. They slam the President and practically every member of the Republican party with impunity and immunity from the media, mostly with baseless accusations, non sequitors, ad hominem attacks, and the liberal use of lies, conspiracy-mongering, and slander, yet the moment one Republican lets loose with a truthful statement about how liberals sought to accomodate and appease terrorists after 9/11, they're thrown into a frenzy and call for blood.
Need any reminders of the dichotomy between liberals and the rest of us?
Here's a a pu-pu platter sampler of some of the relevant comments (via Hugh Hewitt:
Liberal Third Party Groups Urged Restraint, Blamed America:Rep. Kucinich, for those that remember, was a Democrat candidate for President. He wanted to create a Department of Peace, and thinks that going to war to defend this nation is wrong. But I digress. Hewitt's list continues:
Immediately After 9/11, MoveOn.Org Petition Urged “Moderation And Restraint” And Use Of “International Judicial Institutions.”
• “We, The Undersigned, Citizens And Residents Of The United States Of America … Appeal To The President Of The United States, George W. Bush … And To All Leaders Internationally To Use Moderation And Restraint In Responding To The Recent Terrorist Attacks Against The United States.” (MoveOn.Org Website, “MoveOn Peace,” link, Posted 9/13/01, Accessed 6/23/05)
• “We Implore The Powers That Be To Use, Wherever Possible, International Judicial Institutions And International Human Rights Law To Bring To Justice Those Responsible For The Attacks, Rather Than The Instruments Of War, Violence Or Destruction.” (MoveOn.Org Website, “MoveOn Peace,” link, Posted 9/13/01, Accessed 6/23/05)
• “[W]e Demand That There Be No Recourse To Nuclear, Chemical Or Biological Weapons, Or Any Weapons Of Indiscriminate Destruction, And Feel That It Is Our Inalienable Human Right To Live In A World Free Of Such Arms.” (MoveOn.Org Website, “MoveOn Peace,” link, Posted 9/13/01, Accessed 6/23/05)
Just After 9/11, Liberal Filmmaker Michael Moore Derided “Terror And Bloodshed” Committed By Americans. (David Brooks, Op-Ed, “All Hail Moore,” The New York Times, 6/26/04)
• Just After 9/11, Moore Blamed America’s “Taxpayer-Funded Terrorism” And Bush Administration For Terrorist Attacks. “We abhor terrorism – unless we’re the ones doing the terrorizing. We paid and trained and armed a group of terrorists in Nicaragua in the 1980s who killed over 30,000 civilians. That was OUR work. You and me.…Let’s mourn, let’s grieve, and when it’s appropriate let’s examine our contribution to the unsafe world we live in.” (Michael Moore Website Archive, “Death, Downtown,” Posted 9/12/01, www.michaelmoore.com, Accessed 7/27/04)
• Michael Moore Said U.S. Should Not Have Removed Taliban After 9/11. Moore: “Likewise, to bomb Afghanistan – I mean, I’ve never understood this, Tim.” (CNBC’s “Tim Russert,” 10/19/02)
Liberal Donor George Soros Claimed America Should Have Treated 9/11 Attacks As Crime, Responded With Police Work. “War is a false and misleading metaphor in the context of combating terrorism. Treating the attacks of September 11 as crimes against humanity would have been more appropriate. Crimes require police work, not military action. To protect against terrorism, you need precautionary measures, awareness, and intelligence gathering – all of which ultimately depend on the support of the populations among which terrorists operate. Imagine for a moment that September 11 had been treated as a crime. We would have pursued Bin Laden in Afghanistan, but we would not have invaded Iraq. Nor would we have our military struggling to perform police work in full combat gear and getting killed in the process.” (George Soros, The Bubble Of American Supremacy, 2004, p. 18)
• Soros Said The Execution Of 9/11 Attacks “Could Not Have Been More Spectacular.” “Admittedly, the terrorist attack was a historic event in its own right. Hijacking fully loaded airplanes and using them as suicide bombs was an audacious idea, and the execution could not have been more spectacular.” (George Soros, The Bubble Of American Supremacy, 2004, p. 2)
• Soros Said War On Terror Had Claimed More Innocent Victims Than 9/11 Attack Itself. “This is a very tough thing to say, but the fact is, that the war on terror as conducted by this administration, has claimed more innocent victims that the original attack itself.” (George Soros, Remarks At Take Back America Conference, Washington, DC, 6/3/04)
Liberal Democrats Urged Restraint, Blamed America:
Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH): “‘The Time For Peace Is Now,’ [Kucinich] Declared Optimistically July 11, Two Months To The Day Before Terrorists Hit The Pentagon And The World Trade Center. … Sitting In His Capitol Hill Office Last Week, Near A Window Where He Could See The Smoke Rising From The Pentagon On Sept. 11, Kucinich Insisted He Is More Optimistic Than Ever That People Worldwide Are Ready To Embrace The Cause Of Nonviolence.” (Elizabeth Auster, “Offer The Hand Of Peace,” [Cleveland, OH] Plain Dealer, 9/30/01)
• Kucinich: “Afghanistan May Be An Incubator Of Terrorism But It Doesn’t Follow That We Bomb Afghanistan …” (Elizabeth Auster, “Offer The Hand Of Peace,” [Cleveland, OH] Plain Dealer, 9/30/01)
• Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-HI): “Only Now Are We Trying To Figure Out What Is Islam. Maybe If There Was A Department Of Peace, They Would Be Able To Say, ‘Uh-Oh, We’ve Got Some Problems With These People,’ … I Truly Believe That If We Had A Department Of Peace, We Would Have Seen [9/11] Coming.” (Ethan Wallison, “War A Challenge For Peace Caucus,” Roll Call, 10/1/01)So, we have a former Presidential candidate who lost the election in 2004 to President Bush (Sen. Kerry), a Senator who is considering a run for President in 2008 (Sen. Biden), a demogogue (Sharpton), and of course, the gift that keeps on giving, Howard Dean, who was not only a failed Presidential candidate in 2004, but is the current head of the DNC who thinks that Republicans have never done a day's work.
• Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA): “I Am Convinced That Military Action Will Not Prevent Further Acts Of International Terrorism Against The United States.” (Eddy Ramirez, “Calif. Congresswoman Alone In Vote Against War Powers Resolution,” [University Of California-Berkeley] Daily Californian, 9/17/01)
• Al Sharpton (D-NY) Said That The Attacks On The World Trade Center Are Evidence That “America Is Beginning To Reap What It Has Sown.” (Adam Nagourney, “Say It Loud,” The New York Times, 12/1/02)
• Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) Claimed Osama Bin Laden Could Be Compared To “Revolutionaries That Helped To Cast Off The British Crown.” “‘One could say that Osama bin Laden and these non-nation-state fighters with religious purpose are very similar to those kind of atypical revolutionaries that helped to cast off the British crown,’ Kaptur told an Ohio newspaper, The (Toledo) Blade.” (Malie Rulon, “Lawmaker Compares Osama, U.S. Patriots,” The Associated Press, 3/6/03)
• Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) Said The United States Would “Pay Every Single Hour, Ever Single Day” That Bombs Were Dropped In Afghanistan. “‘How much longer does the bombing campaign continue?’ Biden asked during an Oct. 22 speech at the Council on Foreign Relations. ‘We’re going to pay every single hour, every single day it continues.’” (Miles A. Pomper, "Building Anti-Terrorism Coalition Vaults Ahead Of Other Priorities," Congressional Quarterly Weekly, 10/26/01)
• “The Bombing Campaign, [Biden] Said, Reinforced Existing Stereotypes Of The United States As A ‘High-Tech Bully …’” (Miles A. Pomper, "Building Anti-Terrorism Coalition Vaults Ahead Of Other Priorities," Congressional Quarterly Weekly, 10/26/01)
• Gov. Howard Dean (D-VT) Said Osama Bin Laden Not Guilty. Dean: “I Still Have This Old-Fashioned Notion That Even With People Like Osama, Who Is Very Likely To Be Found Guilty, We Should Do Our Best Not To, In Positions Of Executive Power, Not To Prejudge Jury Trials.” (“Dean Not Ready To Pronounce Osama Bin Laden Guilty,” The Associated Press, 12/26/03)
• Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) To High School Students: “How Would [Muslims] Look At Us Today If We Had Been There Helping Them With Some Of That Rather Than Just Being The People Who Are Going To Bomb In Iraq And Go To Afghanistan? … War Is Expensive Too … Your Generation Ought To Be Thinking About Whether We Should Be Better Neighbors Out In Other Countries So That They Have A Different Vision Of Us.” (Gregg Herrington, “Senator Asks Students To Ponder,” The [Vancouver, WA] Columbian, 12/19/02)
• Sen. John Kerry (D-MA): “[W]ar On Terror Is Far Less Of A Military Operation And Far More Of An Intelligence-Gathering, Law-Enforcement Operation.” (The Iowa Brown & Black Coalition Presidential Forum, Des Moines, IA, 1/11/04)
• Kerry: “[W]hat We’ve Learned Is That The War On Terror Is Much More Of An Intelligence Operation And A Law Enforcement Operation.” (NPR’s “All Things Considered,” 3/19/03)
I'd say that Rove called it correctly. I just hope he brought a sponge to clean up the mess afterwards.
UPDATE:
Confederate Yankee has pictures. And they are worth at least a 1,000 words each.
UPDATE II:
Michael Totten seems to think Rove owes liberals an apology (and says that John Cole thinks an apology is owed as well). I would disagree after reading through the astounding multitude of quotes from leading Democrats that take the appeasement route. During the Democratic Party primaries, the candidates fell overthemselves to take the most pacifistic route possible. That was one of Kerry's flip flops after all. Kucinich, Dean, and others in the field were all opposed to the war in Iraq, and thought that law enforcement was the route to take, not war when dealing with terrorists.
Photo of the Day
This is your brain. This is your brain as seen from a jeweler's perspective in San Francisco. Any questions?
Take 9/2002 in San Francisco's Haight Ashbury district.
Someone with Photoshop could have a field day with this one.
Show Me The Outrage
More than two weeks after the Wall Street Journal ran an op-ed by Debra Burlingame about the IFC and their left-wing agenda (published June 7, 2005), the NY Daily News finally wades into the fray. They have a problem with one of the other cultural groups that will be occupying the cultural spaces at the World Trade Center.
The group that draws the Daily News' ire? The Drawing Center.
Welcome aboard. Nice to see you.
Where were you more than two weeks ago when this mess first hit the press through an op-ed. This wasn't some investigative journalistic piece that took weeks to assemble. It was a story blown open because someone involved in the process took the time to look and see what was happening and realized that the cultural component of the project would dishonor all those killed.
But, while we're at it, where is the outrage of the Daily News, or any of the other local papers (NYT, NYP, Newsday) about the lack of progress on building anything of permanence at the WTC? Four years later and we still have empty promises, temporary structures planned or recommended, and nothing to replace the hole in the ground (or sky for that matter).
It is that story that should outrage everyone alike.
Technorati: World Trade Center, WTC, Pataki
The group that draws the Daily News' ire? The Drawing Center.
There's a place in the world for informed political dissent. For that matter, there's a place for uninformed dissent. There's even a place for deep thinkers who can say things like "a death of otherness" with straight faces. But Ground Zero isn't that place. And The Drawing Center doesn't belong there.
The group is one of four cultural organizations that were designated for places on the 16-acre site in the thinking that they would bring life to the area. The plans put The Drawing Center at the heart of the site, in a building that would also be occupied by the International Freedom Center, a museum designed to commemorate man's march toward liberty.
Some 9/11 families are urging Pataki to remove the Freedom Center from Ground Zero, arguing that it's destined to become a venue for contentious political debate. We have pressed the Freedom Center's organizers to quickly clarify how they intend to fulfill the mission of creating inspirational, appropriate exhibitions. Pending further information, and hopeful that they succeed, we've withheld judgment on whether that museum belongs in the memorial.
We need no further information to reach a conclusion regarding The Drawing Center. The works it displays are already a matter of record. You've made a mistake, Governor. Fix it, please. Show these people the door.
Welcome aboard. Nice to see you.
Where were you more than two weeks ago when this mess first hit the press through an op-ed. This wasn't some investigative journalistic piece that took weeks to assemble. It was a story blown open because someone involved in the process took the time to look and see what was happening and realized that the cultural component of the project would dishonor all those killed.
But, while we're at it, where is the outrage of the Daily News, or any of the other local papers (NYT, NYP, Newsday) about the lack of progress on building anything of permanence at the WTC? Four years later and we still have empty promises, temporary structures planned or recommended, and nothing to replace the hole in the ground (or sky for that matter).
It is that story that should outrage everyone alike.
Technorati: World Trade Center, WTC, Pataki
Thursday, June 23, 2005
Photo of the Day
Kolb Studios at dusk. The sky was getting pretty interesting and I decided to take a shot at capturing the light filtering through the flag flying above Kolb Studios at the Grand Canyon's South Rim. It wasn't a perfect shot, but I liked the effect of the rays of light streaming from behind the clouds in the distance. If I had flash fill (and an external flash), I might have gotten more detail of the building, but I've always had problems getting the right settings for dusk shots - I'll show a couple of my mistakes in the future.
Taken 9/2003 with a Canon Rebel 2000, Tokina 28-300 lens, sky filter and Kodak 400 film.
Imminent Domain
The US Supreme Court handed down a decision today that has ramifications extending well beyond anything else in the area of eminent domain law. The Kelo v. New London case sets new precedent on what is considered a just taking of property.
I'll let the following links be your guide. Let's just say it's not pretty if you own a house and a developer has an idea that will make the municipality a lot of money in property taxes if it decides to rezone or readapt the property for new use.
~Scotusblog, which along with the Kelo case, produces quick summaries of all cases handed down by the high court;
~The Volokh Conspiracy has some thoughts; and
~The text of the decision.
UPDATE:
This decision is going to have tremendous consequences for years to come. But don't just take my word for it. Listen to the Professor. He knows from whence he speaks.
UPDATE II:
Captain Ed weighs in, and includes a timely and perceptive quote from Mark Twain, who lost a copyright case even though the law was on his side. Copyright, by the way, is just another form of property - intangible personal property that still has a value and can be bought and sold.
UPDATE III (6/24/2005 10:10AM EDT):
Instapundit has more (like he needs the links?).
Technorati: Supreme Court, eminent domain, Kelo, urban policy.
I'll let the following links be your guide. Let's just say it's not pretty if you own a house and a developer has an idea that will make the municipality a lot of money in property taxes if it decides to rezone or readapt the property for new use.
~Scotusblog, which along with the Kelo case, produces quick summaries of all cases handed down by the high court;
~The Volokh Conspiracy has some thoughts; and
~The text of the decision.
UPDATE:
This decision is going to have tremendous consequences for years to come. But don't just take my word for it. Listen to the Professor. He knows from whence he speaks.
UPDATE II:
Captain Ed weighs in, and includes a timely and perceptive quote from Mark Twain, who lost a copyright case even though the law was on his side. Copyright, by the way, is just another form of property - intangible personal property that still has a value and can be bought and sold.
UPDATE III (6/24/2005 10:10AM EDT):
Instapundit has more (like he needs the links?).
Technorati: Supreme Court, eminent domain, Kelo, urban policy.
Separate and Unequal
Why is it that people, and the media in particular, are not calling for Sen. Durbin to resign in light of his stonewalling and half-assed apology (which he claimed he would never do in the first place)?
Is there something that permits a Democrat to say things with impunity that a Republican would never be allowed to get away with?
Yes. The media. They have a clear case of amnesia. When it comes to gaffes and outright lies, exaggerations, and statements that can have an open and obvious effect on the war effort, they wink and nod and accept a lame apology, but if you make a crack about a segregationist celebrating his 100th birthday and wish he had become president, you not only get castigated for weeks on end, but are forced to step down after members of your own political party make the demand.
In other words, separate and unequal treatment of politicians of different political parties. Is this what it comes to in the US of A? Should we stand for this?
Where are the Jewish members of Congress calling for his resignation? Where are the Democrats within Congress calling for the resignation? Where are the intellectually honest Democrats calling for Durbin's resignation? Have the Democrats put politics above nation? I'd surely say so given the deafening silence.
Durbin has no right to continue as the #2 Democrat in the Senate. He must step down.
UPDATE:
Captain Ed weighs in and suggests that the Democrats cannot handle the heat. The Democrats have called on Rove to resign even though his statements aren't only accurate, but a truthful statement of the opinions of many in the leadership and major liberal organizations that support the Democratic Party. He's got the quotes to prove it.
Is there something that permits a Democrat to say things with impunity that a Republican would never be allowed to get away with?
Yes. The media. They have a clear case of amnesia. When it comes to gaffes and outright lies, exaggerations, and statements that can have an open and obvious effect on the war effort, they wink and nod and accept a lame apology, but if you make a crack about a segregationist celebrating his 100th birthday and wish he had become president, you not only get castigated for weeks on end, but are forced to step down after members of your own political party make the demand.
In other words, separate and unequal treatment of politicians of different political parties. Is this what it comes to in the US of A? Should we stand for this?
Where are the Jewish members of Congress calling for his resignation? Where are the Democrats within Congress calling for the resignation? Where are the intellectually honest Democrats calling for Durbin's resignation? Have the Democrats put politics above nation? I'd surely say so given the deafening silence.
Durbin has no right to continue as the #2 Democrat in the Senate. He must step down.
UPDATE:
Captain Ed weighs in and suggests that the Democrats cannot handle the heat. The Democrats have called on Rove to resign even though his statements aren't only accurate, but a truthful statement of the opinions of many in the leadership and major liberal organizations that support the Democratic Party. He's got the quotes to prove it.
The Battle For Ground Zero: Tofel's, And Pataki's, IFC Blundering
Tuesday, he [Tofel] also denied there would "be any debate on this site about the causes of 9/11." Yet, in his Journal piece, Tofel wrote: "The International Freedom Center will host debates and note points of view with which you, and I, will disagree."The morass that is known as the IFC is not going to end nicely for anyone, least of all Gov. Pataki. He's the guy on the hook for the lack of progress at the WTC.
So which is it? Will the IFC host "debates" — or not? Will it highlight the "root causes" of 9/11 — or not?
Tofel may feel a need to fudge (OK, lie) because of attacks from folks like Debra Burlingame, sister of a pilot of one of the hijacked 9/11 planes. Burlingame charges that "Ground Zero has been stolen right from under our noses." And she's kept the heat on, even appearing on the show Tuesday with Tofel.
Indeed, if Tofel's ruffled feathers weren't obvious enough during the broadcast, they certainly were afterward — when he tapped Burlingame on the shoulder and crowed, "Nice try."
Burlingame says Tofel's tone was snide and condescending. And another of the show's hosts, Brian Kilmeade, thought it so inappropriate, he felt it necessary to tell Tofel so bluntly — prompting onlookers to intervene to head off blows.
But Tofel is just the tip of the iceberg.
The IFC's roster of donors, board members and top staffers — and its muddled mission — invite the worst speculation.
Someone needs to make clear — with deeds, not words — where this monster is headed. And if that can't be done, Gov. Pataki needs to kill it before it's too late.
But here's the thing. Gov. Pataki is probably welcoming the dispute over the IFC since it gets the sadly obvious fact that the WTC has not been rebuilt - and is nowhere near being rebuilt for the foreseeable future - off the front page where this travesty belongs.
No permanent memorial is built. No permanent structures have been built. Yes, transportation links have been resurrected, but that is the absolute minimum that had to be accomplished in a short time to ensure that Downtown would not wither on the vine.
So, Governor Pataki informs that we'll be having temporary memorials built until the permanent structure is built.
Does this seem satisfactory to you?
Technorati: World Trade Center, WTC, Pataki.
UPDATE:
NIST has released its 10,000 page report on the WTC collapse and how to improve skyscraper safety. Needless to say, many of the recommendations are common sense - increased and improved fire insulation, wider stairwells, more stairwells, better inter- and intra-building communications, etc.
One thing that some families will latch on to is that the NIST report does not recommend that its improvements be implemented across the board - that is to say that there are no loopholes or exemptions for any buildings built in the US after the recommendations are implemented. Even if the NIST recommendations are adopted by New York City and New York State, the WTC site would be exempt. Some families still hold the Port Authority responsible for the collapse because they believe that the Port Authority cut corners on safety when building the towers, but there is nothing in the reports I've seen that would indicate that the outcomes would have changed.
No one contemplated or understood what would happen if a fully loaded modern aircraft slammed into the towers. The designers didn't have the computers to simulate such an event, and could only say that the building would stand if hit by a smaller jet but no fire/fuel calculations were done.
That wasn't an oversight - it was a limitation of the engineering of the day.
It is my recommendation that the WTC be built to the highest and best standards in the nation, regardless of what the building code requires. The Port Authority should go beyond the call of duty to make this building complex the safest it possibly can.
UPDATE II (6/24/2005 10:24AM EDT):
The Times has a story about how the NIST report suggests that the Towers should have had a 4th staircase in order to meet building codes. I'm not sure which position was correct - the PANY or NIST. One would have to look at existing building codes at the time the towers were approved for construction, not codes that came into effect after that date. It may sound like a bit of semantics, but every building is built to the code in effect when built, unless changes are retroactively applied (such as requiring sprinklers, smoke detectors, fire alarms, etc.) However, even NIST concedes that there is no way to know whether a 4th stairwell in each tower would have made even the slightest difference since it could have been destroyed like five of six in the two towers. The sixth was damaged, but passable.
NIST can only make recommendations. It cannot implement changes. Also, NIST findings cannot be used in a court of law as proof of fault. The NIST report is a purely scientific endeavor to advance the engineering and architectural sciences.
Photo of the Day
Monument to Alexander Hamilton. Washington, D.C. Taken March 2005.
Why isn't this man considered one of the greatest Americans in US history by the Discovery Channel? Who set up that asinine list? The same people who did the AFI list? This isn't a popularity contest after all. Does Lance Armstrong really belong on a list when he's done absolutely nothing to establish or promote democracy when democracy was not even a tried and true form of governance?
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
The Face of the Enemy
This is a story that isn't getting enough attention outside the blogosphere. A Palestinian woman, who was horribly injured, went to an Israeli hospital to obtain care for her injuries. That sounds normal enough. This happens all the time.
What follows is anything but ordinary.
The woman was found carrying a bomb into the hospital where she was seeking care. She was a suicide bomber, but was thwarted when Israeli security became suspicious.
The bomb weighed 25 pounds, which is more than enough to ruin the day of a whole lot of people.
And where would those people have gone? She was targeting the very place those people would have been transported to for care.
Now, why isn't this story a higher profile in US media?
This is the face of the threat facing us today. This is the existential threat facing Israel every single day. It is the possible threat the US faces down the line, and some of us know it. Law enforcement knows it; they've had reports of individuals casing hospitals in New Jersey within the last year.
Terrorists are sneaky bastards and al Qaeda specializes in spectacular attacks. What could be more spectacular than an attack that levels a Level 1 trauma center in New York (Cornell, Columbia, Belleview) or LA (Cedars Sinai), etc. It's a scary thought.
Yet only one major network ran a story on it; Fox. The others have been stone cold silent. Why?
People need to know this is the enemy we face. This is the tactics they use. This is the kind of people that we detain at GitMo. They seek to murder as many people as possible in an act that kills themselve in the belief that they go to heaven for their actions.
Don't you think that might change a few minds on how we deal with terrorists? Don't you think it might change just a few minds on how the US deals with the Palestinians? How we fight the war on terror?
I do.
Here's more on how the terrorist was apprehended:
What follows is anything but ordinary.
The woman was found carrying a bomb into the hospital where she was seeking care. She was a suicide bomber, but was thwarted when Israeli security became suspicious.
The bomb weighed 25 pounds, which is more than enough to ruin the day of a whole lot of people.
And where would those people have gone? She was targeting the very place those people would have been transported to for care.
Now, why isn't this story a higher profile in US media?
This is the face of the threat facing us today. This is the existential threat facing Israel every single day. It is the possible threat the US faces down the line, and some of us know it. Law enforcement knows it; they've had reports of individuals casing hospitals in New Jersey within the last year.
Terrorists are sneaky bastards and al Qaeda specializes in spectacular attacks. What could be more spectacular than an attack that levels a Level 1 trauma center in New York (Cornell, Columbia, Belleview) or LA (Cedars Sinai), etc. It's a scary thought.
Yet only one major network ran a story on it; Fox. The others have been stone cold silent. Why?
People need to know this is the enemy we face. This is the tactics they use. This is the kind of people that we detain at GitMo. They seek to murder as many people as possible in an act that kills themselve in the belief that they go to heaven for their actions.
Don't you think that might change a few minds on how we deal with terrorists? Don't you think it might change just a few minds on how the US deals with the Palestinians? How we fight the war on terror?
I do.
Here's more on how the terrorist was apprehended:
A 21-year old Arab woman from Gaza, who had been treated in an Israeli hospital for massive burns she received as a result of a gas tank explosion, was apprehended yesterday at the Erez Crossing wearing "explosive pants." She said she had been directed to carry out her suicide attack inside the crowded Israeli hospital.Israel National News
The woman, Wafaa Samir Ibrahim Bass, had been given permission to cross the Gaza lines yesterday for admission to Soroka Medical Center in Be'er Sheva for continued medical treatment for her facial scars. "The terrorist infrastructure took advantage of her medical condition," read an IDF statement, "in order to carry out a major suicide bombing attack inside Israel."
The resident of Jabaliya aroused the suspicion of the IDF soldiers at the crossing, who placed her in a side room for further checking via camera. During her security check, when she realized that the soldiers had discovered the explosive belt on her body, she attempted unsuccessfully to detonate it.
Didn't See This One Coming
Oh wait. A lot of us have (search for up-armor in Google among the mil-bloggers for more).
Terrorists have figured out how to blow up armored vehicles with increasing regularity. A while back some members of Congress were busy complaining that Humvees were being deployed with insufficient armor, which was a joke considering that they were never designed to be armored in the first place. That we're armoring them (and Congress had authorized their up-armor well before the kerfuffle broke) never crossed their minds.
Neither did the fact that up-armoring would lead to other consequences - namely that the terrorists would simply change tactics and build bigger and more efficient bombs. Offense always beats defense in these matters. If a bomber wants to blow something up, all he needs is sufficient explosives. It doesn't matter if you're in a tank or a Humvee.
Terrorists have figured out how to blow up armored vehicles with increasing regularity. A while back some members of Congress were busy complaining that Humvees were being deployed with insufficient armor, which was a joke considering that they were never designed to be armored in the first place. That we're armoring them (and Congress had authorized their up-armor well before the kerfuffle broke) never crossed their minds.
Neither did the fact that up-armoring would lead to other consequences - namely that the terrorists would simply change tactics and build bigger and more efficient bombs. Offense always beats defense in these matters. If a bomber wants to blow something up, all he needs is sufficient explosives. It doesn't matter if you're in a tank or a Humvee.
Waterfalls Roundup
I've been getting a lot of people visiting my blog to check out photos of waterfalls that I've taken over the years. Here's a links cheat sheet to the ones I've uploaded so far:
Waterfall near Alfred, New York - just outside Sun Valley Campsites
Waterfall near Alfred, New York - just outside Sun Valley Campsites
Waterfall in Golan Heights, Israel (from Summer 1993)
Waterfall in La Brea Tar Pits Park, Los Angeles, CA - which happens to be the most requested image from my blog (how that happened, I have no idea).
Soon to be uploaded - waterfalls from Olympic NP, Mt. Rainier, Snoqualmie Falls, and Mt. St. Helens.
UPDATE:
I forgot to include Great Falls, Paterson, NJ.
Technorati: waterfalls
Preparing For The Worst
It's good to know that the NYPD, FDNY, and other emergency services departments are preparing for possible terrorist attacks in tunnels and subways. And, they're training together without interservice rivalries typically noted at disaster scenes in NYC by the media. As a regular rider of PATH, that's especially comforting.
The PATH tubes are 100 years old; the Lincoln and Holland Tunnel are more than 70 years old; and the Amtrak tubes under the Hudson River are woefully inadequate and would need hundreds of millions of dollars to improve safety and security. That's just several tunnels in the NYC metro area.
The situation isn't much better in other parts of the country.
That's why this training facility in West Virginia is necessary. We need to be able to train to deal with these kinds of emergencies.
The PATH tubes are 100 years old; the Lincoln and Holland Tunnel are more than 70 years old; and the Amtrak tubes under the Hudson River are woefully inadequate and would need hundreds of millions of dollars to improve safety and security. That's just several tunnels in the NYC metro area.
The situation isn't much better in other parts of the country.
That's why this training facility in West Virginia is necessary. We need to be able to train to deal with these kinds of emergencies.
Movie Quotes, The AFI List, and What Were They Thinking?
This is the kind of stuff I love. Movie quotes. I quote movies all the time so watching the AFI List of 100 greatest movie quotes was a fun ride, but I couldn't help but notice that there were more than a few great quotes left off and some questionable quotes included for no apparent reason. Michele of ASV has her own list in mind, and it's not nearly as sanitized as the AFI list (whose site is unavailable because everyone is trying to figure out what the heck they did. In fact, Michele's list is funnier, wittier, and more rounded than anything AFI could put together - and she's only got about 20 quotes so far.
Filmsite offers some of the quotes left off the list and puts some of the issues into context.
I watched the entire program and unless I missed it, how could the AFI put together the list without including a single quote from a Quentin Tarantino movie? Nothing from Pulp Fiction. Nothing from Reservoir Dogs? Kill Bill? Nothing? What are they thinking?
Say what again. Say what again! I dare you. I double dare you. Say what one more goddamned time.
Then, there's the movies whose cheesiness factor shouldn't diminish great lines:
~This is my boomstick! (Evil Dead)
~You want to live forever? (Starship Troopers)
This is the list of 400 quotes from which the top 100 quotes were chosen. They simply didn't consider those movies, which is a shame because sometimes great lines come from bad movies, or good bad movies.
UPDATE:
Here's the Top 100 and I suspected, no Tarantino. Good to see Terminator on the list (Hasta La Vista Baby and I'll Be Back), but no Tarantino is a travesty. He's one of the best writers of dialogue in the game today. Was AFI watching the same movies I was.
"That woman, she deserves her revenge... and we deserve to die" Bud in Kill Bill Vol 2.
By the way, did the AFI folks watch any movies other than Casablanca?
"Toga Toga" Great line, but not as good as others from Animal House that were disregarded. "Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son" is one. Or, how about the Blutarsky speech when the house gets kicked out and he rallies everyone into doing something monumentally stupid?
And to include "la-di-da, la-di-da" from Annie Hall? Whaaaaa? They couldn't find another great line from a Woody Allen movie? The guy knows how to write, right? Sheesh!
Filmsite offers some of the quotes left off the list and puts some of the issues into context.
I watched the entire program and unless I missed it, how could the AFI put together the list without including a single quote from a Quentin Tarantino movie? Nothing from Pulp Fiction. Nothing from Reservoir Dogs? Kill Bill? Nothing? What are they thinking?
Say what again. Say what again! I dare you. I double dare you. Say what one more goddamned time.
Then, there's the movies whose cheesiness factor shouldn't diminish great lines:
~This is my boomstick! (Evil Dead)
~You want to live forever? (Starship Troopers)
This is the list of 400 quotes from which the top 100 quotes were chosen. They simply didn't consider those movies, which is a shame because sometimes great lines come from bad movies, or good bad movies.
UPDATE:
Here's the Top 100 and I suspected, no Tarantino. Good to see Terminator on the list (Hasta La Vista Baby and I'll Be Back), but no Tarantino is a travesty. He's one of the best writers of dialogue in the game today. Was AFI watching the same movies I was.
"That woman, she deserves her revenge... and we deserve to die" Bud in Kill Bill Vol 2.
By the way, did the AFI folks watch any movies other than Casablanca?
"Toga Toga" Great line, but not as good as others from Animal House that were disregarded. "Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son" is one. Or, how about the Blutarsky speech when the house gets kicked out and he rallies everyone into doing something monumentally stupid?
D-Day: War's over, man. Wormer dropped the big one.
Bluto: Over? Did you say "over"? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!
Otter: Germans?
Boon: Forget it, he's rolling.
Bluto: And it ain't over now. 'Cause when the goin' gets tough...
[thinks hard]
Bluto: the tough get goin'! Who's with me? Let's go!
[runs out, alone; then returns]
And to include "la-di-da, la-di-da" from Annie Hall? Whaaaaa? They couldn't find another great line from a Woody Allen movie? The guy knows how to write, right? Sheesh!
The Battle For Ground Zero, Part I
Is the IFC misrepresenting its case to the public, through its website? I'd have to say that it is highly probable. Confederate Yankee, through links from the Take Back The Memorial website, questions the IFC website, which states that the 9/11 families want the center. I'll let Confederate Yankee make the case:
I had previously questioned the IFC's assertion about space allotments (just keep scrolling into the updates), and continue to question how they arrive at their figures based on publically available materials.
Now, I had earlier reported that Governor Pataki had said that a temporary memorial would be built. I'd like to expand on those comments some more. What took the Governor so long to consider temporary facilities until a permanent facility was built at Ground Zero. After all, the need for a memorial site at Ground Zero was apparent within weeks of the destruction of the Towers. Thousands of people would never be recovered and positively identified. Thousands of families have no where to go to grieve. Grave markers in cemeteries for those who were killed are empty. There is no trace of the loved ones killed. The only place that holds any kind of solace for these families is Ground Zero, and the Governor now arrives at a decision to build a temporary facility?
That sounds to me like the Master Plan and design and construction at Ground Zero is going far worse than everyone is letting on. If things were going smoothly, there would be no need - construction at Ground Zero would let people know that a permanent memorial is not long in coming. Instead, this announcement is a tacit admission of failure to build anything on the site of permanence.
And that is an intolerable situation and people need to let their politicans know this is the case. Write Governor Pataki, Mayor Bloomberg, their representatives - and the newspapers to express their anger over the inability to build anything at Ground Zero.
This is no way to honor those killed.
They deserve better.
UPDATE:
The NIST study on skyscraper will be released tomorrow, and it will contain recommendations for future skyscraper construction. Those recommendations are based on findings from a 3-year study on how and why the Twin Towers collapsed, how people evacuated from the site, and what can be done to improve survivability in stricken buildings. Improved access/egress is going to be one of the issues stressed - stronger curtain walls to increase survivability of exit stairwells, elevator access and survivability for firefighters to combat fires on high floors. Better fire control methods and insulation materials/application.
It is unfortunately a common thread that engineering advances have come only after great loss of life or destruction of property. Bridge disasters (collapses like the Tacoma Narrows in 1940) led to new knowledge about wind vorticies causing harmonics and vibrations leading to failure. Major fires have led to new rules about egress and fire supression. Now, the WTC collapse will lead to future improvements.
The main concern I have with the NIST report is that municipalities and states will find the will to implement the changes retroactively to structures already built. Many are deficient in one or more areas and could stand to be improved. The main stumbling block will be cost (as usual).
Elsewhere, giving lie to the fact that this is a right-wing agenda to stop the IFC, NYC Councilman Alan J. Gerson has come out in support of the families (led by Debra Bulingame who exposed the IFC) who want to see the IFC halted. Gerson is a Democrat who represents the area that includes Ground Zero. Seems to me that this is a bi-partisan complaint against the IFC's politicization of the cultural center at Ground Zero, though the media (NYT anyone?) would like to cast this as a right wing agenda to shutter dissent and speech.
Technorati: World Trade Center, WTC, Governor Pataki, Port Authority.
From the IFC:
Myth:
The IFC is inconsistent with what 9/11 families want to see at the World Trade Center Memorial.
Fact:
The Mission Statement for the Memorial, which was crafted in 2003 and was the product of very substantial input from many family members, calls on us, through the Memorial, to “strengthen our resolve to preserve freedom, and inspire an end to hatred, ignorance, and intolerance.” That is what the IFC is about. A clear majority of family members on the WTC Memorial Foundation Board support the IFC and this Mission Statement.
The TBTM Fisking:
Truth:
The WTC Memorial mission statement appears in full on the TakeBacktheMemorial home page. IFC cherry-picked from this quote, “May the lives remembered, the deeds recognized, and the spirit reawakened be eternal beacons, which reaffirm respect for life, strengthen our resolve to preserve freedom, and inspire an end to hatred, ignorance and intolerance.” See anything in there about “Freedom’s Failures?”.
I had previously questioned the IFC's assertion about space allotments (just keep scrolling into the updates), and continue to question how they arrive at their figures based on publically available materials.
Now, I had earlier reported that Governor Pataki had said that a temporary memorial would be built. I'd like to expand on those comments some more. What took the Governor so long to consider temporary facilities until a permanent facility was built at Ground Zero. After all, the need for a memorial site at Ground Zero was apparent within weeks of the destruction of the Towers. Thousands of people would never be recovered and positively identified. Thousands of families have no where to go to grieve. Grave markers in cemeteries for those who were killed are empty. There is no trace of the loved ones killed. The only place that holds any kind of solace for these families is Ground Zero, and the Governor now arrives at a decision to build a temporary facility?
That sounds to me like the Master Plan and design and construction at Ground Zero is going far worse than everyone is letting on. If things were going smoothly, there would be no need - construction at Ground Zero would let people know that a permanent memorial is not long in coming. Instead, this announcement is a tacit admission of failure to build anything on the site of permanence.
And that is an intolerable situation and people need to let their politicans know this is the case. Write Governor Pataki, Mayor Bloomberg, their representatives - and the newspapers to express their anger over the inability to build anything at Ground Zero.
This is no way to honor those killed.
They deserve better.
UPDATE:
The NIST study on skyscraper will be released tomorrow, and it will contain recommendations for future skyscraper construction. Those recommendations are based on findings from a 3-year study on how and why the Twin Towers collapsed, how people evacuated from the site, and what can be done to improve survivability in stricken buildings. Improved access/egress is going to be one of the issues stressed - stronger curtain walls to increase survivability of exit stairwells, elevator access and survivability for firefighters to combat fires on high floors. Better fire control methods and insulation materials/application.
It is unfortunately a common thread that engineering advances have come only after great loss of life or destruction of property. Bridge disasters (collapses like the Tacoma Narrows in 1940) led to new knowledge about wind vorticies causing harmonics and vibrations leading to failure. Major fires have led to new rules about egress and fire supression. Now, the WTC collapse will lead to future improvements.
The main concern I have with the NIST report is that municipalities and states will find the will to implement the changes retroactively to structures already built. Many are deficient in one or more areas and could stand to be improved. The main stumbling block will be cost (as usual).
Elsewhere, giving lie to the fact that this is a right-wing agenda to stop the IFC, NYC Councilman Alan J. Gerson has come out in support of the families (led by Debra Bulingame who exposed the IFC) who want to see the IFC halted. Gerson is a Democrat who represents the area that includes Ground Zero. Seems to me that this is a bi-partisan complaint against the IFC's politicization of the cultural center at Ground Zero, though the media (NYT anyone?) would like to cast this as a right wing agenda to shutter dissent and speech.
More than 5,000 outraged citizens across the country have signed on online petition supporting the 9/11 family coalition at takebackthememorial.org.That's a small number that will only increase as people become aware of the issue.
Technorati: World Trade Center, WTC, Governor Pataki, Port Authority.
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
Schumer Joins The Fray
Finally some leadership from a politician. Sen. Schumer has called for the swift resolution to building the expanded convention center and expanded 7 line to service the Javits Center plus whatever is eventually built at the West Side (Hudson) Yards. Mayor Bloomberg, who has been championing the Hudson Yards stadium project, has not nearly been as forceful in highlighting this portion of the project as he needs to be. The City desperately needs the expanded center to compete with other cities, and will be a catalyst for additional hotel space, jobs, and economic development.
Actually the need for an expanded Javits Center was apparent not long after the Center was opened. While it provided crucial convention space, it was too small by nearly half to handle the convention needs for the City.
Technorati: Hudson Yards, stadium, 7 line, urban policy.
With the collapse of the stadium project in Manhattan, United States Senator Charles Schumer called yesterday for New York City to move ahead swiftly on two other major development projects for the West Side: the extension of the No. 7 subway line and an expansion of the Javits Convention Center.
Mr. Schumer said that the $2 billion subway extension from Times Square to the convention center, at 11th Avenue and 34th Street, would spur the development of large hotels nearby and, eventually, office towers. With the stadium "off the table," Mr. Schumer said , it is time to consider expanding Javits beyond the original plans to 3 million square feet, making it the largest convention center in the country. and allowing the city to compete for large trade shows that now go to Las Vegas, Chicago and Orlando.
Actually the need for an expanded Javits Center was apparent not long after the Center was opened. While it provided crucial convention space, it was too small by nearly half to handle the convention needs for the City.
Technorati: Hudson Yards, stadium, 7 line, urban policy.
We Don't Need No Stinking Elections
Well, the Iranian government doesn't necessarily think that, but they do think that they have to invent high voting turnout to legitimize their continued corrupt rule.
That's right.
The mullahs had to invent high polling data to support their assertion that they have the support of a nation that has no other choice but to accept their candidates, accept the predetermined outcome, and continued policies of economic destruction and a collision course with the US over its nuclear weapons program even as the country stuggles to figure out how to employ a nation of 20-somethings.
Publius writes:
UPDATE - technorati stuff
Technorati: Iran, election.
That's right.
The mullahs had to invent high polling data to support their assertion that they have the support of a nation that has no other choice but to accept their candidates, accept the predetermined outcome, and continued policies of economic destruction and a collision course with the US over its nuclear weapons program even as the country stuggles to figure out how to employ a nation of 20-somethings.
Publius writes:
Sometimes I hate being right. As for the regime, they were dead wrong. Even Moin did not bring out the crowds that they needed for legitimacy. That’s when the regime mobilized.I have to quibble with that last part - the regime has had zero legitimacy for more than a decade (and that's being charitable). The mullahs have continued to operate as though they have the continued support from the people even as the people show their utter disdain by not showing up to vote. Sadly, the 'vote' this week means that the people of Iran will continue to lose because the mullahs will pull the strings to continue their rule.
Fearing a complete shut out, they extended the voting time by four hours, saying that the lines were so long that it was necessary. Meanwhile, they broadcasted images and video from previous elections. They made several polling places too small so that lines were forced to develop outside. The journalists, who had to be accompanied by a regime agent and could only go where permitted, only saw these stations.
Yet, they continue to report as if they know with authority what the hell is going on. The regime is playing the media like a greased harmonica. All that they can really report is “The Interior Ministry says turnout is this high,” or “The Guardian Council says it’s higher,” without ever being able to investigate outside of their hotel rooms if that is true or not.
It’s because of this that the real story isn’t getting out of Iran: Almost nobody voted. It was a total rejection of the Islamic government. The regime has zero legitimacy.
UPDATE - technorati stuff
Technorati: Iran, election.
The Cedar Revolution Fight Continues
Just when you thought that the protest babes were sufficient to change things in Lebanon, terrorists assassinated yet another prominent anti-Syrian politician.
Now, they are rallying cries for even larger support in Lebanon. Syria's leadership ought to be seriously worried about that. They've got Arab democratic regimes budding on two of its borders - (Lebanon and Iraq), and their own power is limited to affect the outcome other than continued use of terrorism. It's all that they know.
As usual, Publius has more on the Lebanese situation, although not quite up to date with the assassination information.
Technorati: Lebanon, Cedar Revolution, protest babe.
A small, precisely placed explosive was put underneath the car's passenger seat, killing George Hawi, a former leader of the Lebanese Communist Party. It appeared almost identical to the killing last month of an anti-Syrian journalist, Samir Kassir.The terrorists - many of whom are likely Syrian operatives or those aligned with Syria - are not playing by the same rules as the Lebanese who are sick and tired of these kinds of tactics. Years ago, pro-Democratic groups would have been cowed by such tactics.
Mr. Hawi's driver escaped serious injury in the blast, in the Wata Musaitibi neighborhood of Beirut, illustrating the methodical nature of the assassination.
Lebanon's anti-Syrian movement swept the voting on Sunday in the country's far north, the official results showed, giving it a firm parliamentary majority.
Now, they are rallying cries for even larger support in Lebanon. Syria's leadership ought to be seriously worried about that. They've got Arab democratic regimes budding on two of its borders - (Lebanon and Iraq), and their own power is limited to affect the outcome other than continued use of terrorism. It's all that they know.
As usual, Publius has more on the Lebanese situation, although not quite up to date with the assassination information.
Technorati: Lebanon, Cedar Revolution, protest babe.
Rally Update
The following sites have extended coverage of the rally against the IFC that was held yesterday afternoon.
Andrea Peyser of the NY Post covers the story and writes:
Take Back The Memorial has excerpts from the speakers. The site also has a myths and lies section on how the IFC is distorting the issues - including how much space is devoted to the memorial compared to the IFC.
Jeff Jarvis has more, including photos from the rally.
UPDATE:
How come Oklahoma City could get it right asks members of the rally interviewed by the NY Post. Good question. And, it's a question that could have been avoided if the LMDC thought seriously about what the Master Plan was supposed to do. It was supposed to address the needs of the city, state, and country in grasping the totality of the destruction of the WTC, the murder of nearly 3,000 people who were simply at work, or heading to work like any other day, how to memorialize the event, and rebuild much of the infrastructure and office space. Cultural and social spaces were included, but how those spaces would be filled was left open - and filled by the LMDC with the IFC. It is increasingly clear that the IFC is ill-suited for the cultural spaces, and the plans should be revised accordingly.
The following should be placed at the WTC complex - in order of public acceptance:
~ the memorial - which will include the footprints. Everyone recognizes the need to preserve space for a memorial and to show what happened on 9/11. Nearly 3,000 people were murdered that day and more than 1/3 of the victims were never recovered. More than a thousand people were buried without even a single piece of DNA identified. Not a fingernail. Not a piece of hair. Nothing. These people have no where else to go - and Fresh Kills - where the wreckage and debris from the towers were transported so that the site could be prepared for rebuilding is insufficient. The footprints will be largely preserved, except for a portion through which PATH will continue to operate. The space allotted to the memorial and footprints will be less than 300,000 sq. ft., considering that the memorial is slated to be 50,000 sq. ft., and each footprint is just over 40,000 sq. ft. Even considering adjacent and open space not directly related to the memorial, space allotted for cultural activites gets more space than the memorial.
~ memorial to the heroes of the day. This means recognizing the heroism of those who ran into a building uncertain of whether they'd ever come out. Firemen. Police. PA Police. And those common workers whose uncommon valor helped those injured out of the buildings before they were destroyed or comforted those who were unable to get out.
~ transportation hub - including PATH, subway systems, and expanded access to ferries, and cross links. This is the least controversial portion of the rebuiling since everyone recognizes the need to rebuild the transportation system even better than it existed previously. Even then, there's issue with how the PATH line runs across the former footprint of one of the towers, but this was unavoidable and most of the families recognize this.
~ office space - most people realize that building some or most of the office space is necessary to heal downtown's financial district. More than 10 million sqaure feet of office space was destroyed. More than all that exists in a city like Cincinatti. The current plan calls for a Freedom Tower and at least five other buildings, but I think the plan is severely flawed. Instead of opening up space for memorials or other space, the five buildings crowd the space because none is tall enough to replace the space lost. The Freedom Tower will not have 5 million sq. ft. of office space. It can't - simply because usable office space will only account for about half of the total height. Even then, the remaining buildings would take a decade to build, turning the entire site into a construction zone for the foreseeable future.
What the WTC doesn't need:
~ politics intruding into the memorialization of those killed, or those who now live with the memories of that day. Terrorists murdered more than 3,000 people because of their insane hatred of this nation. What it stands for. What we believe in. Freedom. The terrorists couldn't care if we did backflips to accomodate them because they'd find some other reason to hate us and kill us.
~ political correctness. See above. The memorial needs to cut through to the unvarnished truth. Terrorists destroyed two NYC landmarks and with it - nearly 3,000 people. Mass murder with the intent to kill thousands more.
~ a restored street grid. We have heard that security issues forced a redesign of the Freedom Tower was too close to West Street. Well, the Master Plan recreates a street grid through the site. What purpose does that serve? Will those streets ever be open to general use? Not likely. It would pose too many security concerns, or at least it should if we take the Freedom Tower street siting concern at face value. A street grid serves no purpose other than to deprive space that could go towards proper siting of the towers, memorial space, and transportation hub. In other words, it is a waste of perfectly good space in a site that is short on space despite the 16 acres available for memorials and development.
UPDATE 2:
The Post writes that the continuing pit at Ground Zero lies at the feet of Gov. Pataki. Where have we heard that before. Oh wait. I keep saying that repeatedly here on the blog and on other blogs who are commenting on WTC rebuilding.
Letters to the editor complain about the lack of memorialization, a lack of focus, and a lack of progress in rebuilding. One has to wonder just how much people really know about the situation at the WTC when most of the NY papers overlook the issue, which should be the most significant development issue in the City in decades. No wonder blogs are filling the gap. We're the ones who are bringing attention to the issues, providing analysis, and highlighting stories that may not get the coverage they deserve.
Technorati: World Trade Center, WTC
Andrea Peyser of the NY Post covers the story and writes:
It seems the advisory committee for the Freedom Center is peppered with folks who brandish leftist political agendas. These include a Columbia professor who said, three weeks after 9/11, that he didn't know what was scarier — the terror attacks or the White House's response to them. Also, types who condemn America for supposedly cracking down on civil liberties after 9/11.
The Freedom Center would feature a forum for "debate" — center president Richard Tofel's word — about such issues.
Rose Canavan, 64, of Long Island, who lost her son, Sean, doesn't want to hear of it. With none of his remains recovered at the Trade Center, she just wants a peaceful place to visit him. Nothing more.
"They were all there just to go to work," said Rose, "not to mess around.
"It shouldn't be too much to ask."
Take Back The Memorial has excerpts from the speakers. The site also has a myths and lies section on how the IFC is distorting the issues - including how much space is devoted to the memorial compared to the IFC.
Jeff Jarvis has more, including photos from the rally.
UPDATE:
How come Oklahoma City could get it right asks members of the rally interviewed by the NY Post. Good question. And, it's a question that could have been avoided if the LMDC thought seriously about what the Master Plan was supposed to do. It was supposed to address the needs of the city, state, and country in grasping the totality of the destruction of the WTC, the murder of nearly 3,000 people who were simply at work, or heading to work like any other day, how to memorialize the event, and rebuild much of the infrastructure and office space. Cultural and social spaces were included, but how those spaces would be filled was left open - and filled by the LMDC with the IFC. It is increasingly clear that the IFC is ill-suited for the cultural spaces, and the plans should be revised accordingly.
The following should be placed at the WTC complex - in order of public acceptance:
~ the memorial - which will include the footprints. Everyone recognizes the need to preserve space for a memorial and to show what happened on 9/11. Nearly 3,000 people were murdered that day and more than 1/3 of the victims were never recovered. More than a thousand people were buried without even a single piece of DNA identified. Not a fingernail. Not a piece of hair. Nothing. These people have no where else to go - and Fresh Kills - where the wreckage and debris from the towers were transported so that the site could be prepared for rebuilding is insufficient. The footprints will be largely preserved, except for a portion through which PATH will continue to operate. The space allotted to the memorial and footprints will be less than 300,000 sq. ft., considering that the memorial is slated to be 50,000 sq. ft., and each footprint is just over 40,000 sq. ft. Even considering adjacent and open space not directly related to the memorial, space allotted for cultural activites gets more space than the memorial.
~ memorial to the heroes of the day. This means recognizing the heroism of those who ran into a building uncertain of whether they'd ever come out. Firemen. Police. PA Police. And those common workers whose uncommon valor helped those injured out of the buildings before they were destroyed or comforted those who were unable to get out.
~ transportation hub - including PATH, subway systems, and expanded access to ferries, and cross links. This is the least controversial portion of the rebuiling since everyone recognizes the need to rebuild the transportation system even better than it existed previously. Even then, there's issue with how the PATH line runs across the former footprint of one of the towers, but this was unavoidable and most of the families recognize this.
~ office space - most people realize that building some or most of the office space is necessary to heal downtown's financial district. More than 10 million sqaure feet of office space was destroyed. More than all that exists in a city like Cincinatti. The current plan calls for a Freedom Tower and at least five other buildings, but I think the plan is severely flawed. Instead of opening up space for memorials or other space, the five buildings crowd the space because none is tall enough to replace the space lost. The Freedom Tower will not have 5 million sq. ft. of office space. It can't - simply because usable office space will only account for about half of the total height. Even then, the remaining buildings would take a decade to build, turning the entire site into a construction zone for the foreseeable future.
What the WTC doesn't need:
~ politics intruding into the memorialization of those killed, or those who now live with the memories of that day. Terrorists murdered more than 3,000 people because of their insane hatred of this nation. What it stands for. What we believe in. Freedom. The terrorists couldn't care if we did backflips to accomodate them because they'd find some other reason to hate us and kill us.
~ political correctness. See above. The memorial needs to cut through to the unvarnished truth. Terrorists destroyed two NYC landmarks and with it - nearly 3,000 people. Mass murder with the intent to kill thousands more.
~ a restored street grid. We have heard that security issues forced a redesign of the Freedom Tower was too close to West Street. Well, the Master Plan recreates a street grid through the site. What purpose does that serve? Will those streets ever be open to general use? Not likely. It would pose too many security concerns, or at least it should if we take the Freedom Tower street siting concern at face value. A street grid serves no purpose other than to deprive space that could go towards proper siting of the towers, memorial space, and transportation hub. In other words, it is a waste of perfectly good space in a site that is short on space despite the 16 acres available for memorials and development.
UPDATE 2:
The Post writes that the continuing pit at Ground Zero lies at the feet of Gov. Pataki. Where have we heard that before. Oh wait. I keep saying that repeatedly here on the blog and on other blogs who are commenting on WTC rebuilding.
Letters to the editor complain about the lack of memorialization, a lack of focus, and a lack of progress in rebuilding. One has to wonder just how much people really know about the situation at the WTC when most of the NY papers overlook the issue, which should be the most significant development issue in the City in decades. No wonder blogs are filling the gap. We're the ones who are bringing attention to the issues, providing analysis, and highlighting stories that may not get the coverage they deserve.
Technorati: World Trade Center, WTC
Monday, June 20, 2005
The Real Thing
Here's what a real torture center looks like. And it isn't GitMo. It's a terrorist safe house uncovered by US forces in Iraq.
And the terrorists killed people daily through heinous acts of torture.
Notice to Amnesty International. This is what the face of torture looks like. Real people die by real torture. Not mildly inconvenienced or sleep deprived for a couple of hours a night.
Someone better fix the AI moral compass. It's still spinning without a clue. And the clueless, like Sen. Durbin are following suit, attracted to the idiocy.
Technorati: torture, Amnesty International, and GitMo
And the terrorists killed people daily through heinous acts of torture.
Notice to Amnesty International. This is what the face of torture looks like. Real people die by real torture. Not mildly inconvenienced or sleep deprived for a couple of hours a night.
Someone better fix the AI moral compass. It's still spinning without a clue. And the clueless, like Sen. Durbin are following suit, attracted to the idiocy.
Technorati: torture, Amnesty International, and GitMo
The Deutsche Bank Demolition, WTC Rally, and More
It's now after 2PM and the local radio station websites are silent about the progress of the protests. If someone has pictures or video of the protests, plug your links here. You'll probably beat the mainstream news by hours. Where are the quotes to go with stories for the evening news? Surely someone said something important about the proposed IFC. Surely some reporter could report on the crowd size - to say either it was large (and support the idea that the IFC is in trouble because of large opposition) or that it was sparsely attended (to support the idea that it was a fringe group attacking the IFC plans). Alas, there is no report whatsoever.
Oh, and get this - CBS seems to think that it's only one person who thinks that the IFC will have a political slant. The headline reads: One Woman Says Freedom Museum Will Have A Political Slant - as provided in a related link to a story on the rally against the IFC. Sorry, but that doesn't wash. The IFC will have a political slant. No matter which side of this debate that you find yourself on, it will have a slant. Pro-US, Anti-US, whatever. The CBS story makes it seem like Debra Burlingame is the one with the agenda, when it is the IFC's makeup and agenda that has serious issues.
While protestors rally against the IFC at Ground Zero, the slow pace of reconstruction is evident with the lack of progress at either the Fiterman Hall or Deutsche Bank buildings, both of which need to be demolished due to extensive damage and contamination. The Times focuses on the difficulties of the Deutsche Bank demolition due to the contamination, but aren't pushing for the demolition to be sped up.
Related links:
Kate Fratti seems to think that the IFC is a good idea to be included at the WTC complex, arguing that there is sufficient space for a memorial, footprints, and the IFC. I'd challenge that assessment based on the amount of space actually used for the memorial and footprints versus the amount of space set aside for the IFC. If, based on publicly available materials from the LMDC and news reports are correct, the memorial would be 40,000 sq feet, and each footprint is an acre each (43,560 sq. feet). That puts the total space for the memorial and footprints at 127,120 sq. ft. That's little over 1/3 the space allotted for the IFC.
Does the LMDC really think that the IFC deserves more space than the memorial and footprints? Is that the kind of prioritization the site needs? Is that fair to the families?
Why aren't these questions being asked by the media?
Also, a Google search of IFC and protest turned up no news stories that are more recent than 2 hours ago about the protest.
Technorati: World Trade Center, WTC
Oh, and get this - CBS seems to think that it's only one person who thinks that the IFC will have a political slant. The headline reads: One Woman Says Freedom Museum Will Have A Political Slant - as provided in a related link to a story on the rally against the IFC. Sorry, but that doesn't wash. The IFC will have a political slant. No matter which side of this debate that you find yourself on, it will have a slant. Pro-US, Anti-US, whatever. The CBS story makes it seem like Debra Burlingame is the one with the agenda, when it is the IFC's makeup and agenda that has serious issues.
While protestors rally against the IFC at Ground Zero, the slow pace of reconstruction is evident with the lack of progress at either the Fiterman Hall or Deutsche Bank buildings, both of which need to be demolished due to extensive damage and contamination. The Times focuses on the difficulties of the Deutsche Bank demolition due to the contamination, but aren't pushing for the demolition to be sped up.
Deutsche Bank declared the structure a total loss. Two of its insurers, the Allianz Global Risks U.S. Insurance Company and the AXA Corporate Solutions Insurance Company, maintained that it could be cleaned and salvaged. They battled in court.It will remain a memory unless and until the State - by which I mean Governor Pataki pushes the LMDC and Port Authority to kick things into high gear. These sites need to be cleared so that new buildings can go up. Fiterman Hall is part of CUNY, and that college needs the space desperately. Yet that building is virtually ignored for nearly four years. The Deutsche Bank looms over the morass that is the Ground Zero pit like the monolith from 2001.
Under a 2004 settlement, the development corporation acquired the property. Demolition has since been delayed as the scope of needed environmental safeguards and contaminant cleanup has grown. Consultants to the corporation have confirmed that the tower has excessive levels of asbestos, dioxin, lead, silica, quartz, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, chromium and manganese.
The corporation is now seeking bids for exterior scaffolding, cleanup and demolition. It expects work to begin this summer. But along with what officials regard as a blight on the Lower Manhattan skyline, the view that Dr. van Inwegen enjoyed from his 35th-floor cubicle - sailboats and liners, tugs and ferries - will also disappear.
"It was great working by the water and thinking of the history of Manhattan: trade, commerce, shipping," he said. "You still got that feel looking out the windows at New York Harbor. That's all gone. A memory."
Related links:
Kate Fratti seems to think that the IFC is a good idea to be included at the WTC complex, arguing that there is sufficient space for a memorial, footprints, and the IFC. I'd challenge that assessment based on the amount of space actually used for the memorial and footprints versus the amount of space set aside for the IFC. If, based on publicly available materials from the LMDC and news reports are correct, the memorial would be 40,000 sq feet, and each footprint is an acre each (43,560 sq. feet). That puts the total space for the memorial and footprints at 127,120 sq. ft. That's little over 1/3 the space allotted for the IFC.
Does the LMDC really think that the IFC deserves more space than the memorial and footprints? Is that the kind of prioritization the site needs? Is that fair to the families?
Why aren't these questions being asked by the media?
Also, a Google search of IFC and protest turned up no news stories that are more recent than 2 hours ago about the protest.
Technorati: World Trade Center, WTC
Liquid Musings
In between driving nearly 1,500 miles and seeing the sights and listening to the sounds of nature throughout Washington State, I was able to partake in some fine liquid sustenance (brewpub and winery reviews to follow).
Hale's Ale Brewing Company makes some fine beers (had a sampler) and their food was pretty good too.
Also visited Silver City Brewing Company outside Bremerton. I think I read somewhere that one of the owners or someone related to Silver City is a regular blogger, but can't recall where or when I read that (DL or LGF?). So, if you're that person, please know that I found your food and beer was excellent. Also, the homemade ginger ale was top notch. Definitely worth the trip.
Mrs. Lawhawk and I visited some interesting wineries in Yakima Valley. They ranged from small wineries to major establishments. Hogue Cellars was the largest of the wineries we visited and sampled a bunch of estate and reserve wines (the stuff they don't sell outside the winery). Their tasting room was nicely appointed, but was located in what amounted to a warehouse facility - definitely downscale from most Napa wineries and many Sonoma wineries.
At the other end of the spectrum was Windy Point winery. Good wines, small production, but their tasting room was magnificent. The manager at Claar Cellars said that Windy Point is the beginning of the Sonomaization of Yakima Valley. That could be a good thing - finding the wineries wasn't nearly as easy as in Sonoma Valley. Better signage and advertising throughout the valley would make the experience even easier than it was.
Claar Cellars provided some good tastings, and we bought two bottles, one of which was the Corneauxcopia, which was a blend of several varieties. It was our most expensive wine purchase on this trip, and we'll be saving it for a special occasion.
Of course, finding the wineries was part of the charm of the place. You get to drive throughout the valley and the first thing you notice is that vineyards aren't the dominant crop. In fact, there is no readily apparent dominant crop. Vineyards mix with grazing lands for sheep, cattle, and horses. Farms with other crops, from hops to apples mix in.
*more to come*
Hale's Ale Brewing Company makes some fine beers (had a sampler) and their food was pretty good too.
Also visited Silver City Brewing Company outside Bremerton. I think I read somewhere that one of the owners or someone related to Silver City is a regular blogger, but can't recall where or when I read that (DL or LGF?). So, if you're that person, please know that I found your food and beer was excellent. Also, the homemade ginger ale was top notch. Definitely worth the trip.
Mrs. Lawhawk and I visited some interesting wineries in Yakima Valley. They ranged from small wineries to major establishments. Hogue Cellars was the largest of the wineries we visited and sampled a bunch of estate and reserve wines (the stuff they don't sell outside the winery). Their tasting room was nicely appointed, but was located in what amounted to a warehouse facility - definitely downscale from most Napa wineries and many Sonoma wineries.
At the other end of the spectrum was Windy Point winery. Good wines, small production, but their tasting room was magnificent. The manager at Claar Cellars said that Windy Point is the beginning of the Sonomaization of Yakima Valley. That could be a good thing - finding the wineries wasn't nearly as easy as in Sonoma Valley. Better signage and advertising throughout the valley would make the experience even easier than it was.
Claar Cellars provided some good tastings, and we bought two bottles, one of which was the Corneauxcopia, which was a blend of several varieties. It was our most expensive wine purchase on this trip, and we'll be saving it for a special occasion.
Of course, finding the wineries was part of the charm of the place. You get to drive throughout the valley and the first thing you notice is that vineyards aren't the dominant crop. In fact, there is no readily apparent dominant crop. Vineyards mix with grazing lands for sheep, cattle, and horses. Farms with other crops, from hops to apples mix in.
*more to come*
Take Back The Memorial
Confederate Yankee had a posting about today's rally at Ground Zero, which is a protest against the IFC and the multi-culti politically correct pyschobabble that they want to foist on the site.
I said it last nite and it bears repeating. This is the wrong museum at the wrong place and at the wrong time.
Besides, if they want to call themselves the International Freedom Center, they ought to devote the entire museum to the freedom from Islamic terrorism.
After all, Islamic terror and violence is responsible for 9/11, the Dafur genocide, the Sudan slave trade, and ongoing instability in the Middle East and South Asia. Yet, somehow I think that this particular freedom would be left out of the IFC.
UPDATE:
9/11 Families For A Strong And Safe America which is holding the rally has more information. If you're in the NYC area, here are the details:
Also, Cox and Forkum have nailed IFC just right. They are nothing but carnival barkers vying for attention when none is deserved.
UPDATE 2:
The New York Post slams Richard Tofel and the IFC. Specifically, the editorial page - and it is indeed the entire page in the print edition - slams Tofel for refusing to answer direct and pointed questions about what the IFC will display from Neil Cavuto on Fox News. Specifically, Tofel refused to answer whether the museum would feature atrocities that Americans have committed, including against American Indians. Tofel replied that "atrocities is such a loaded word," which seems to be a poor choice of language. Instead of stating that this will not be the case, he used language that would enable the IFC to display those very kinds of exhibits at Ground Zero that have absolutely nothing to do with 9/11.
UPDATE 3:
Arminius at LGF reports on what he heard and saw at the rally.
Still no word on who was at the rally based on mainstream news reports. NY1 has a report, and includes comments from Jack Kelly and Mayor Bloomberg. Nothing about who else attended, the size of the crowd, or the like.
Also, Gov. Pataki announced last week that two interim memorials would be built near Ground Zero. There will be a visitor's tribute center and an audio story booth built. Amazing - nearly four years later and he thought about a temporary museum. Sounds to me like it's going to be the permanent museum if they can't get things sorted out with the Freedom Tower. Speaking of which, Gov. Pataki had given the LMDC until the end of the month to release revised plans for the Freedom Tower. Time is ticking away Governor.
Technorati: World Trade Center, WTC
I said it last nite and it bears repeating. This is the wrong museum at the wrong place and at the wrong time.
Besides, if they want to call themselves the International Freedom Center, they ought to devote the entire museum to the freedom from Islamic terrorism.
After all, Islamic terror and violence is responsible for 9/11, the Dafur genocide, the Sudan slave trade, and ongoing instability in the Middle East and South Asia. Yet, somehow I think that this particular freedom would be left out of the IFC.
UPDATE:
9/11 Families For A Strong And Safe America which is holding the rally has more information. If you're in the NYC area, here are the details:
WHAT: Press Conference & RallyNote that these are a rather diverse group of organizations that are calling for the IFC to be removed from the plans. We're talking about major corporate groups, major support groups, and people who just want to see the right thing done on behalf of the nearly 3,000 people who were killed by Islamic terrorists on 9/11/2001.
WHERE: Ground Zero at the Corner of Church & Liberty (rain or shine)
WHEN: Today, Monday, June 20th, 2005, 12:00 Noon (Please arrive at 11:45 am)
Please wear black or yellow to symbolize unity, or wear clothing that symbolizes your loved one’s affiliation and bring a picture of your lost loved one to hold over your heart.
ORGANIZERS:
Advocates for 9/11 Fallen Heroes, www.911fallenheroes.org
Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund, www.cantorrelief.org
Coalition of 9/11 Families, www.coalitionof911families.org
Fix the Fund, www.fixthefund.org
Give Your Voice www.giveyourvoice.com
September 11th Families Association, http://www.911wvfa.org
September’s Mission, www.septembersmission.org
Skyscraper Safety Campaign, www.skyscrapersafety.org
Take Back the Memorial, www.takebackthememorial.org
Voices of September 11th, www.voicesofsept11.org
W. Doyle Support Group, WDoyle5615@aol.com
WTC Families for Proper Burial, www.wtcfamiliesforproperburial.com
WTC Family Center, www.wtcfamilycenter.org
World Trade Center United Family Group, www.wtcufg.org
Also, Cox and Forkum have nailed IFC just right. They are nothing but carnival barkers vying for attention when none is deserved.
UPDATE 2:
The New York Post slams Richard Tofel and the IFC. Specifically, the editorial page - and it is indeed the entire page in the print edition - slams Tofel for refusing to answer direct and pointed questions about what the IFC will display from Neil Cavuto on Fox News. Specifically, Tofel refused to answer whether the museum would feature atrocities that Americans have committed, including against American Indians. Tofel replied that "atrocities is such a loaded word," which seems to be a poor choice of language. Instead of stating that this will not be the case, he used language that would enable the IFC to display those very kinds of exhibits at Ground Zero that have absolutely nothing to do with 9/11.
UPDATE 3:
Arminius at LGF reports on what he heard and saw at the rally.
Still no word on who was at the rally based on mainstream news reports. NY1 has a report, and includes comments from Jack Kelly and Mayor Bloomberg. Nothing about who else attended, the size of the crowd, or the like.
Also, Gov. Pataki announced last week that two interim memorials would be built near Ground Zero. There will be a visitor's tribute center and an audio story booth built. Amazing - nearly four years later and he thought about a temporary museum. Sounds to me like it's going to be the permanent museum if they can't get things sorted out with the Freedom Tower. Speaking of which, Gov. Pataki had given the LMDC until the end of the month to release revised plans for the Freedom Tower. Time is ticking away Governor.
Technorati: World Trade Center, WTC
Durbin's Debacle
Michelle Malkin reminds Durbin to check out what's going on at Cook County Jail, where charges against prison guards are real - and real violations under state and federal law to boot. In fact, if the GitMo prisoners were transferred to Cook County Jail, the prisoners would indeed have their Geneva Convention rights violated.
Elsewhere, Will Collier of Vodkapundit isn't getting worked up over Durbin's comments, but does include the comments of Mike Rentner, who reminds Will and other readers that his comments have a far greater effect than just domestically:
The problem is that there are a lot of stupid statements being made by high level Democrats these days. That's their right and choice - but it is a stupid and dangerous one. They're playing politics while our enemies are playing for keeps and our soldiers are in the middle of this mess.
What a way to support our troops. I can't wait to see what happens when the Democrats go from supporting our troops to actively being against them.
UPDATE:
Fixed spelling of Durbin in title and now provide more evidence that Durbin is in for a long re-election campaign. The blogswarm is happening and Durbin doesn't realize that his statements have repercussions - up to and including possibly losing his seat over them
Technorati: Durbin
Elsewhere, Will Collier of Vodkapundit isn't getting worked up over Durbin's comments, but does include the comments of Mike Rentner, who reminds Will and other readers that his comments have a far greater effect than just domestically:
You may think it's all just political posturing, but I'm over here in Al Anbar Province, Iraq and every stupid statement like this from such a high level of our government is a direct threat to my life. Statements like this are used to recruit people to kill me. I take it very personally.
The problem is that there are a lot of stupid statements being made by high level Democrats these days. That's their right and choice - but it is a stupid and dangerous one. They're playing politics while our enemies are playing for keeps and our soldiers are in the middle of this mess.
What a way to support our troops. I can't wait to see what happens when the Democrats go from supporting our troops to actively being against them.
UPDATE:
Fixed spelling of Durbin in title and now provide more evidence that Durbin is in for a long re-election campaign. The blogswarm is happening and Durbin doesn't realize that his statements have repercussions - up to and including possibly losing his seat over them
Technorati: Durbin
Bogus Stories, Redux?
Story 1
Mark Steyn demolishes any remaining arguments that certain members of the Democratic Party (Sen. Dick Durbin, D-irrelevant) who continue to claim that GitMo is akin to the death camps, concentration camps, the gulag archipelago, and the killing fields, has an agenda that isn't anything but anti-Americanism at its core.
No wonder the Democrat Party cannot win a national election. Most Americans do not buy their argument. Well that would be most Americans who do not live in what amounts tothreetwo coastal enclaves - the LA to SF corridor, Seattle, Washington DC to NYC and Boston.
In Steyn's own words:
Story 2: The Downing Street Memos?
Are they bogus and does it even matter? Are they frauds replicated by someone who was associated with Mary Mapes, formerly of CBS's Rathergate?
My take, after being away from the blogosphere for a week is that it does matter. The chain of custody seems to be shaky. Why would someone have to destroy the original documents? To what end does destroying the originals and claiming to copying them on a typewriter have? It does not seem logical for someone to take the effort to replicate them on a typewriter because of the need to preserve someone's identity. Why did the publisher of the original story not include that bit of information when running the original story?
The whole situation seemed fishy from the start, and now smells like a rotten fish.
Mark Steyn demolishes any remaining arguments that certain members of the Democratic Party (Sen. Dick Durbin, D-irrelevant) who continue to claim that GitMo is akin to the death camps, concentration camps, the gulag archipelago, and the killing fields, has an agenda that isn't anything but anti-Americanism at its core.
No wonder the Democrat Party cannot win a national election. Most Americans do not buy their argument. Well that would be most Americans who do not live in what amounts to
In Steyn's own words:
By now, one or two readers may be frothing indignantly, “That’s not funny! Bush’s torture camp at Guantanamo is the gulag of our time, if not of all time.” But that’s the point. The world divides into those who feel the atrocities at Gitmo “must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime — Pol Pot or others” (in the widely quoted words of Senator Dick Durbin), and the rest of us, for whom the more we hear the specifics of the “atrocities” the funnier they are. They bear the same relation to the gulags (15-30 million dead), the Nazi camps (nine million dead) and the killing fields of Cambodia (two million dead) as Mel Brooks‚ “Springtime For Hitler” does to the original. Nobody complained at Auschwitz that the guards were playing the 78s of The Merry Widow (the Fuhrer’s favorite operetta) with the volume knob too high. When that old KGB hand Yuri Andropov succeeded Brezhnev as the big guy in the Kremlin, he was reported in the western press to be a big Glenn Miller fan. But to the best of my knowledge no-one suggested he was in the basement of the Lubyanka torturing the inmates with “I Got A Gal In Kalamazoo”.
The first time the full-blast junk-pop treatment caught the eye of the media was a decade and a half back, when US troops bombarded the Panamanian strongman General Noriega with the Bobby Fuller Four’s “I Fought The Law (And The Law Won)”. In those days, nobody reckoned it was torture. But these days torture seems to be in the ear of the behearer. Because the jihadi find western culture depraved — and I’m not necessarily in disagreement on that, at least where Christina Aguilera’s concerned — we’re obliged to be extra-super-duper-sensitive with them.
Says who? Again, the more one hears the specifics of the “insensitivity” of the American regime at Guantanamo, the more many of us reckon we’re being way too sensitive. For example, camp guards are under instructions to handle copies of the Koran only when wearing gloves. The reason for this is that the detainees regard infidels as “unclean”. Fair enough, each to his own. But it’s one thing for the Islamists to think infidels are unclean, quite another for the infidels to agree with them. Far from being tortured, the prisoners are being handled literally with kid gloves (or simulated kid-effect gloves). The US military hand each jihadi his complimentary copy of the Koran as delicately as white-gloved butlers bringing His Lordship The Times of London. When I bought a Koran to bone up on Islam a couple of days after 9/11, I didn’t wear gloves to the bookstore. If that’s “disrespectful” to Muslims, tough. You should have thought about that before you allowed your holy book to become the central motivation for global jihad.
I’m not arguing the merits here so much as the politics. There’s certainly a discussion to be had about how to categorize these people. As things stand, they’re not covered by the Geneva Conventions — they’re unlawful combatants, captured fighting in civilian clothes rather than uniform, and, when it comes to name, rank and serial number, they lack at least two thereof, and even the first is often highly variable. As a point of “international law”, their fate is a matter entirely between Washington and the state of which they’re citizens (Saudi Arabia, mostly). I don’t think it’s a good idea to upgrade terrorists into lawful combatants. But if, like my namesake the British jurist Lord Steyn, you feel differently, fine, go ahead and make your case.
Where the anti-Gitmo crowd went wrong was in expanding its objections from the legal status of the prisoners to the treatment they‚re receiving. By any comparison — ie, not just with Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot — they’re getting better than they deserve. It’s the first gulag in history where the torture victims put on weight. Each prisoner released from Guantanamo receives a new copy of the Koran plus a free pair of blue jeans in his new size: the average detainee puts on 13 pounds during his stay, thanks to the “mustard-baked dill fish”, “baked Tandoori chicken breast” and other delicacies. These and other recipes from the gulag’s kitchen have now been collected by some Internet wags and published as The Gitmo Cookbook.
Story 2: The Downing Street Memos?
Are they bogus and does it even matter? Are they frauds replicated by someone who was associated with Mary Mapes, formerly of CBS's Rathergate?
My take, after being away from the blogosphere for a week is that it does matter. The chain of custody seems to be shaky. Why would someone have to destroy the original documents? To what end does destroying the originals and claiming to copying them on a typewriter have? It does not seem logical for someone to take the effort to replicate them on a typewriter because of the need to preserve someone's identity. Why did the publisher of the original story not include that bit of information when running the original story?
The whole situation seemed fishy from the start, and now smells like a rotten fish.
Sunday, June 19, 2005
Back to Business
Oh, and in the more things change but stay the same - I'm listening to FoxNews and they're continuing to hammer the LMDC and Memorial plan on the IFC to include issues other than directly related to 9/11. Focus strictly on 9/11 and nothing else.
Good. The message is getting out. 13 organizations are planning a rally tomorrow near Ground Zero. The more people learn about the plans for the IFC, the more people will realize that it is the wrong museum at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Hope that some bloggers are able to get out there and take the real pulse of the people.
Elsewhere, Sen. Durbin continues to apprentice at the Howard Dean FootinMouth College of Inanity. He's been busy trying to compare the US to Stalin's gulags. Yes, that's right - detainees at GitMo who were busy trying to kill US soliders on a battlefield in Afghanistan or Iraq are really like the political prisoners who Stalin imprisoned and killed by the tens of millions.
Ace has more.
Then, there's the continuing UNSCAM mess and there's apparently new evidence that Kofi knew about the Cotecna deals. What a surprise.
What's not surprising is that the coverage was lacking in the usual suspects (NYT, WaPo - the MSM). More coverage at Roger L. Simon.
Technorati: World Trade Center, WTC, UNSCAM, Oil for Food, and Kofi Annan
Good. The message is getting out. 13 organizations are planning a rally tomorrow near Ground Zero. The more people learn about the plans for the IFC, the more people will realize that it is the wrong museum at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Hope that some bloggers are able to get out there and take the real pulse of the people.
Elsewhere, Sen. Durbin continues to apprentice at the Howard Dean FootinMouth College of Inanity. He's been busy trying to compare the US to Stalin's gulags. Yes, that's right - detainees at GitMo who were busy trying to kill US soliders on a battlefield in Afghanistan or Iraq are really like the political prisoners who Stalin imprisoned and killed by the tens of millions.
Ace has more.
Then, there's the continuing UNSCAM mess and there's apparently new evidence that Kofi knew about the Cotecna deals. What a surprise.
What's not surprising is that the coverage was lacking in the usual suspects (NYT, WaPo - the MSM). More coverage at Roger L. Simon.
Technorati: World Trade Center, WTC, UNSCAM, Oil for Food, and Kofi Annan
A Numbers Game
What do these numbers have in common?
17, 2, 8, 15, and 1481? No, it's not the winning lottery numbers and the winnings.
That's the long and short statistics of my trip to Washington State. Seventeen rolls of film (and yes, I still shoot on film - waiting to get the money together to buy the Canon Digital Rebel so I can use all the lenses I had previously purchased for my existing Rebel).
The number two? That's Mrs. Lawhawk and myself on the trip.
8? That's the number of full days spent travelling throughout Washington. We hit all the major spots on the Western half of the state. From Seattle and Olympia to Yakima and Tacoma. Olympic National Park to Mt. Ranier. And Mt. St. Helens (still smoking). We saw more waterfalls than you can imagine - and yes, dear readers, I know that some of you actually like those waterfall pictures I've posted in the past, so look for more in coming weeks.
15? That's the number of bottles of wine that we purchased. Washington's Yakima Valley sure has some nice wines. We picked up some offbeat wines - semillion, vioginer, rieslings, and even some of that wine formerly known as merlot (still merlot, just not as expensive).
Oh, and that last number; 1481? That's the total miles that we drove. Figuring that we did Seattle to Yakima to Mt. Ranier via Chinook Pass to Paradise to Olympia to Mt. St. Helens to Olympia to a loop around Olympic Nat'l Park to Tacoma back to SeaTac for our flight back, that is actually a pretty reasonable figure. 400 of those miles were done in the loop around Olympic Nat'l Park in a single day. Probably not the best idea, but it was truly worth it.
And how did we love our trip? It was amazing.
Did it rain? Sure, but not nearly enough to soak our picture taking - it was even sunny in the Hoh Rain Forest.
It was awesome seeing Mt. Ranier up close - and the wildlife even closer. Mt. St. Helens blew Mt. Ranier away though. Seeing the absolute power of nature on display puts things in perspective. Knowing that this particular volcano destroyed 230 square miles within 5 minutes is humbling. The effects are still being felt more than 25 years later. Entire forests were blown away. Rivers dammed and channels forever altered. The landscape sandblasted and pulverized.
And it can happen again. No one quite knows when, but it will happen again. I'm happy that I got to view this amazing slice of nature. Seattle was an interesting city, and the scenery was quite enjoyable.
Don't know about the coffee though. I don't get it. There are more coffee houses than there are people or so it seems. What's up with that? Does everyone in Washington need to be hopped up on caffiene every single day?
I will say this though - they do make better coffee there than back in New York - and that includes Starbucks. Maybe it is the water, or maybe they're so accustomed to drinking 500 cups of coffee a day that they need to have coffee that makes an impression. Whatever the reason is, keep it up.
But whoever came up with the study finding that Washington State drivers are better than drivers back in New Jersey or New York simply doesn't have a clue. Every morning I'd watch the news and hear about cars that went off the road, flipped over, or got into fender benders causing multimile delays because of weather conditions.
Excuse me if I'm wrong, but if it's raining, shouldn't you slow down? That doesn't seem to be the way things work in Seattle though. They speed up. Or cut you off.
But they're curteous about it. They'll signal their intention to cut you off, so that must be the reason they're better than New Jersey drivers.
17, 2, 8, 15, and 1481? No, it's not the winning lottery numbers and the winnings.
That's the long and short statistics of my trip to Washington State. Seventeen rolls of film (and yes, I still shoot on film - waiting to get the money together to buy the Canon Digital Rebel so I can use all the lenses I had previously purchased for my existing Rebel).
The number two? That's Mrs. Lawhawk and myself on the trip.
8? That's the number of full days spent travelling throughout Washington. We hit all the major spots on the Western half of the state. From Seattle and Olympia to Yakima and Tacoma. Olympic National Park to Mt. Ranier. And Mt. St. Helens (still smoking). We saw more waterfalls than you can imagine - and yes, dear readers, I know that some of you actually like those waterfall pictures I've posted in the past, so look for more in coming weeks.
15? That's the number of bottles of wine that we purchased. Washington's Yakima Valley sure has some nice wines. We picked up some offbeat wines - semillion, vioginer, rieslings, and even some of that wine formerly known as merlot (still merlot, just not as expensive).
Oh, and that last number; 1481? That's the total miles that we drove. Figuring that we did Seattle to Yakima to Mt. Ranier via Chinook Pass to Paradise to Olympia to Mt. St. Helens to Olympia to a loop around Olympic Nat'l Park to Tacoma back to SeaTac for our flight back, that is actually a pretty reasonable figure. 400 of those miles were done in the loop around Olympic Nat'l Park in a single day. Probably not the best idea, but it was truly worth it.
And how did we love our trip? It was amazing.
Did it rain? Sure, but not nearly enough to soak our picture taking - it was even sunny in the Hoh Rain Forest.
It was awesome seeing Mt. Ranier up close - and the wildlife even closer. Mt. St. Helens blew Mt. Ranier away though. Seeing the absolute power of nature on display puts things in perspective. Knowing that this particular volcano destroyed 230 square miles within 5 minutes is humbling. The effects are still being felt more than 25 years later. Entire forests were blown away. Rivers dammed and channels forever altered. The landscape sandblasted and pulverized.
And it can happen again. No one quite knows when, but it will happen again. I'm happy that I got to view this amazing slice of nature. Seattle was an interesting city, and the scenery was quite enjoyable.
Don't know about the coffee though. I don't get it. There are more coffee houses than there are people or so it seems. What's up with that? Does everyone in Washington need to be hopped up on caffiene every single day?
I will say this though - they do make better coffee there than back in New York - and that includes Starbucks. Maybe it is the water, or maybe they're so accustomed to drinking 500 cups of coffee a day that they need to have coffee that makes an impression. Whatever the reason is, keep it up.
But whoever came up with the study finding that Washington State drivers are better than drivers back in New Jersey or New York simply doesn't have a clue. Every morning I'd watch the news and hear about cars that went off the road, flipped over, or got into fender benders causing multimile delays because of weather conditions.
Excuse me if I'm wrong, but if it's raining, shouldn't you slow down? That doesn't seem to be the way things work in Seattle though. They speed up. Or cut you off.
But they're curteous about it. They'll signal their intention to cut you off, so that must be the reason they're better than New Jersey drivers.
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