The Plame Odds

Some of you might be interested in who I think the real leaker is behind the whole Plame Affair, which has sent one journalist to prison for contempt of court - Judith Miller, but yet no one has actually been tabbed as the leaker.

So, without further ado, the odds:

No leak - it was common knowledge spoken of in hushed tones. No odds.

Joe Wilson. even odds.. Husband to Valerie Plame - the guy is a blabbermouth and a media whore who has political reasons to reveal his wife's identity even though most of Washington knew she worked for the CIA. His stories about the trip to Niger have become lost in the mix - and his lies about his findings and who sent him are worthy of a novel (oh yes, there's a book by Wilson as well).

Valerie Plame. 4-1. She's the individual whose name causes this whole mess. She could have revealed herself to the media simply because she wanted to support her husband's anti-Bush positions. Works for the CIA. Last known to be stationed overseas in 1997.

Judith Miller. 10-1 - she's the one in jail for contempt of court for failing to cooperate with the special prosecutor investigating the situation. Her curious position, that a blanket waiver of confidentiality that was requested of individual that is not freely given is not a waiver is a curious one. There has been no one involved who has claimed that their waiver was somehow coerced. This is probably because she knows who really was behind the leak and wants to protect them. The NYT has invested a lot of time and effort into discrediting the Bush Administration over this issue and its their reporter in jail because of it. That can't go over well at HQ. And they have to know what Miller is protecting. It can't be good for the Times if they're protecting it by letting their reporter sit in jail.

Matt Cooper. 15-1. He's a Newsweek reporter who finally decided to cooperate with the prosecutors. It's his conversations with Karl Rove that suggest that Rove was being asked about the Wilson-Plame relationship from other reporters, not the other way around. Rove had basically said that he questioned Wilson's accounts and that there was some serious questions to be asked about Wilson's story, which was published as an op-ed in the New York Times.

Robert Novak. 15-1. He originally 'revealed' Plame's identity in a story back in 2003 but he had to learn of the identity from someone, so he's probably not the original 'leaker'

Karl Rove. 25-1. Darth Rove - confidant to President Bush, his Chief of Staff and focus of Democratic ire because he's bobby flayed the Democrats for years. All the evidence points to him being told of Plame's identify from the reporters calling him, not the other way around. Yet, he may have confirmed this to be true, which is a roundabout way of saying that he knew of her identity and position. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate. Hate leads to Democrats suffering from Bush Derangement Syndrome.

Now, there might be others out there who are involved, but these are the key figures.

Photo of the Day

A picture of one of the waterfalls at the FDR Memorial in Washington, D.C., taken March 2005.

Call The Bastards What They Are

It seems that the recent carnage where kids have been targeted by the terrorists has finally convinced one paper to stop labelling those who perpetrate the attacks that murder innocent men, women and children anything other than as a terrorist attack.

Wow. Took 'em how long?

Now, will they maintain that editorial policy when it comes to attacks against Israel?

UN: Keep Your Damn Dirty Paws Off My Internet

A U.N. panel created to recommend how the Internet should be run in the future has failed to reach consensus but did agree that no single country should dominate.

The United States stated two weeks ago that it intended to maintain control over the computers that serve as the Internet's principal traffic cops.

In a report released Thursday, the U.N. panel outlined four possible options for the future of Internet governance for world leaders to consider at a November "Information Society" summit.

One option would largely keep the current system intact, with a U.S.-based non-profit organization, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, continuing to handle basic policies over Internet addresses.

At the other end, ICANN would be revamped and new international agencies formed under the auspices of the United Nations.

"In the end it will be up to governments, if at all, to decide if there will be any change," said Markus Kummer, executive director of the U.N. Working Group on Internet Governance, which issued the report.

Seeing how well the system works currently, is there really any reason to change it? Putting the UN in charge would give nondemocratic totalitarian regimes like China, North Korea, and Iran too much say in how the Internet operates - opening the door for more regulations, restrictions on speech and business opportunities, and why should the US allow that to happen?

The Battle For Ground Zero, Part XV

Has the LMDC and IFC backed down over their plan to have the IFC built on the Ground Zero site?

According to the New York Post, that's exactly what is going on.

Officials are searching for new locations — some away from Ground Zero — to house a pair of controversial cultural centers slated for construction next to the 9/11 memorial, it was revealed yesterday.
"We're making one last look around the site to see where it is feasible," said John Whitehead, chairman of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., referring to the hunt for homes for the International Freedom Center and the Drawing Center.

The officials are looking "within the 16 acres" of the World Trade Center "and beyond," he said at an LMDC board meeting.

The World Trade Center Memorial Foundation has asked him to look for a different space for the two centers, Whitehead said.

Interestingly, there is one site where the IFC and Drawing Center could be placed nearby that will soon be under LMDC control - the Deutsche Bank building. That building was heavily damaged by falling debris from the collapsing towers, and has been vacant ever since. It is supposed to be demolished to make way for a security portal for the rest of the WTC site. It is possible that a structure could be built in that area to house the Drawing Center and IFC, though I would argue that neither group is worthy of inclusion anywhere in the LMDC plans.

Meanwhile, the war of words continues to heat up between those who don't want the IFC or Drawing Center involved and John Whitehead, who is the head of the LMDC:

Whitehead, meanwhile, took aim yesterday at three directors on the foundation's board who have publicly criticized the proposed cultural projects.

"The misrepresentations they have offered have done serious damage," he said without naming names. "The public is confused about the elements of the site."

Monika Iken, Debra Burlingame and Lee Ielpi — each of whom lost a family member on 9/11 — have opposed the cultural centers.

The public has "been told that the campaign is to 'take back the memorial' — as if it ever went away," Whitehead said in an apparent reference to the critics' Take Back the Memorial campaign.

Last night, Burlingame accused Whitehead of having violated the memorial board's code of conduct, unanimously adopted this week.

"It is regrettable that the ink is barely dry on the code . . . [yet] the chairman would slander three of the board members while at the same trying to muzzle us," she said.

The Post's Editorial Page slams Whitehead and Pataki for allowing this farce to continue. Their position is echoed by a letter penned by Republican Representatives Vito Fossella, Peter King and John Sweeney.

COUNT us among the large number of observers outraged at the thought that a museum at Ground Zero would tell a story unrelated to the events of that tragic day. And the statements to date from the International Freedom Center have not put that outrage to rest.
The most prominent critics have been some 9/11 family members — which is entirely appropriate. Though the center is supposed to represent the ideals of freedom and liberty, it's to be established in the hallowed location of Ground Zero. Those who lost loved ones must have an integral voice in this process.

But all New Yorkers were touched in one way or another by what happened on 9/11, and as federal representatives, we have a duty to ensure that the tax dollars being used to support such a project reflect the true spirit of our nation's ideals.

Tunnel Security Not Good Enough

As I've been reporting since 7/7/2005, conditions in numerous underwater tunnels is woefully inadequate and security continues to be lacking despite the realization of these conditions for years.

Now comes word from a former MTA official that the subway system's security is, in a word, awful.

A former deputy director of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said yesterday that the agency has put riders at risk by not moving fast enough to secure underwater tunnels and other critical infrastructure.

Before taking his concerns public, the former MTA official, Nicholas Casale, wrote a letter to Mayor Bloomberg and the secretary of the federal Department of Transportation, Norman Mineta, in February, after the Chambers Street subway fire, warning them that the subway system was rife with "security breaches, mismanagement, corruption scandals, and missing money."

We know that the subway is impossible to perfectly secure, but improving the security and safety systems can be done to reduce the loss of life should an event occur. Those steps are not being taken fast enough.

The Battle For Ground Zero, Part XIV

The Port Authority needs sensitivity training, because it failed to invite families of those killed on Flight 587 to an unveiling of a small memorial in a small park on Cabrini Boulevard near the George Washington Bridge. This is a microcosm of the problems the PANY/NJ has with Ground Zero - multiply the issues by several magnitudes and you'll see how and why people don't exactly trust the PA to do the right thing by the 9/11 families.

Adam Brodsky has an interesting take on the politicization of the WTC site. He makes the argument that the site became politicized the moment the planes struck, but the critics of the IFC and Drawing Center don't go far enough. The memorial and rebuilding should highlight and emphasize all that is good about the US of A.

Pataki was right to call for cultural attractions there to serve as a "lasting tribute to freedom." But he didn't go far enough.

Ground Zero should make a political statement — not that America is flawed, but rather that it's a rare force for good. Think of it as sort of thumb in the eye to the terrorists.

Remember how, in the wake of the attack, the nation resolved to show its enemies its resilience (before killing them, that is)?

Stock exchanges raced to re-open, as much out of pride as financial concern. Some called for the towers to be rebuilt exactly as they were, or maybe a floor taller.

Later, the 1,776-foot, single-column Freedom Tower (note its politicized name and height) was seen a symbolic "middle finger" to our enemies.

Yet the debate over the IFC so far has pitted only those who think Ground Zero should allow "free debate" (to bash America) and those who don't. (Plus some 9/11 families who want nothing at Ground Zero but a memorial.)

The "middle-finger" crowd hasn't said boo.

This is pathetic.

If America is proud — as it has every right to be — then why shouldn't it show it?

And where better than at Ground Zero, where our enemies tried to dent our way of life — and our confidence?

It can't be said enough: America did nothing to deserve those attacks. In fact, it was our very record of successful international altruism — our military, economic, political and cultural accomplishments — that fed the terrorists' wrath.

UPDATE:
The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (responsible for rebuilding at Ground Zero as well as choosing the IFC for the site) is having a board meeting today. This presents an excellent opportunity to make your voice heard!

If you are able, please take a moment to make a phone call and let the LMDC know that you believe cutural institutions such as the IFC and The Drawing Center have no place at Ground Zero and the memorial quadrant should be devoted to February 26, 1993 (first WTC bombing) and September 11, 2001 alone.

Lower Manhattan Development Corporation
Phone: (212) 962-2300
TTY Phone: (212) 962-0045
Fax: (212) 962-2431/33 - via Take Back The Memorial

Metro Matters

The MTA is finally getting a much needed capital plan approved, though nearly $1.5 billion is contingent upon the passage of a $2.9 billion bond act in November. the capital plan would provide for the expansion of the 7 line to the Javits Center, $2.5 billion set aside for East Side Access, which would bring Long Island Rail Road trains into Grand Central Terminal, and create a rail link between Kennedy Airport and lower Manhattan.

Nearly $500 million will be spent on security enhancements throughout the system. This doesn't appear to include the Hudson and East River tunnels. Needless to say, this is a good start on improving security and safety for millions who use the system on a daily basis.

The Port Authority needs sensitivity training, because it failed to invite families of those killed on Flight 587 to an unveiling of a small memorial in a small park on Cabrini Boulevard near the George Washington Bridge. This is a microcosm of the problems the PANY/NJ has with Ground Zero - multiply the issues by several magnitudes and you'll see how and why people don't exactly trust the PA to do the right thing by the 9/11 families.

Photo of the Day

The Museum of Glass is Tacoma, Washington is a real treat. Excellent outdoor exhibits, striking architecture, and the indoor exhibits aren't bad either. Of particular note is the Jane's Hot Shop, where you can see artists working on their latest creations. It's a great place to spend a couple of hours just relaxing. In the background you'll see the Tacomadome and a cable stayed bridge. Taken June 2005.

Photo of the Day

The grapes of mmmmmm...

Class Dismissed

Enough already from the clueless at the Times spewing forth nonsense about how the terrorists are fighting because of class struggles. If one were to actually interview the terrorists detained by the US, you'd note that they are overwhelmingly middle to upper class and college educated.

Andrew Apostolou emails an article published last year by the BBC. Dr Andrew Silke interviewed 180 Al Qaeda detainees and learned, among other things, that every single one of them came from upper or middle-class backgrounds. Two thirds were college educated. One in ten held a post-graduate degree. Islamists terrorists are far wealthier and better educated than Westerners on average. We're not under assault by the have-nots, we're under assault by the haves.

In other words, class has nothing to do with it.

Religious ideology on the other hand, has a definite role. All the detainees are Islamic fundamentalists who seek to conquer the West through jihad. They are untroubled by killing civilians, because their ideology doesn't even recognize the term civilian. You are either one with the jihadis or you are an infidel.

The Battle For Ground Zero, Part XIII

The federal government has awarded $899 million to help pay for transit projects in and around the World Trade Center site. More than half of that amount would go to a security screening center at the WTC site, $221 million would go to building a new PATH terminal, and $200 million would go to rebuild West Street.

Story Corps is a success as families stop by to offer testimonials and recollections from 9/11 that will be incorporated into the memorial's archives.

No money raised for the memorial will go towards the IFC or The Drawing Center.

The Memorial Foundation's decision means that it will first raise the $500 million for the actual memorial to those lost in the terror attack, leaving the hot-button issue of the International Freedom Center and The Drawing Center on the back burner until Gov. Pataki and the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. decide their fate.

"The first dollars contributed by the foundation will be to the memorial and the memorial museum," said LMDC chairman John Whitehead.

The International Freedom Center and the Drawing Center were picked to share a 250,000-square-foot building adjacent to the six-acre memorial.

They have been blasted by critics who say they will be filled with inappropriate — and anti-American — displays that will imply the United States is to blame for 9/11 and talk about the Iraq war.

Whitehead said the board — which includes members such as David Rockefeller, Robert De Niro, Barbara Walters, Disney CEO Michael Eisner and Jets owner Robert Wood Johnson — hopes yesterday's funding move will put the focus back on the subject of building a tribute the Sept. 11 dead.

Seems as though the LMDC has been paying attention to the shift in public opinion - and are continuing to be worried that the IFC and Drawing Center controversy will undermine their fundraising efforts.

Good.

Also, there appears to be some dissent on the board about where the cultural facilities should be in relation to the memorial. The story is woefully inadequate in conveying the facts, so as more info becomes available, I'll pass it along.

UPDATE:
Sarah D. points to a NY Daily News article that shows that fundraising for the memorial isn't going as well as hoped. Gee, can't imagine why people would be hesitant to give knowing that the money might end up at the IFC or Drawing Center.

Technorati: World Trade Center, WTC, Pataki, LMDC, urban policy.

This Isn't The Village You're Looking For

Tom Friedman yesterday suggested that the Palestinians were ready for peace with Israel. He actually thought that the Palestinian village was ready for peace. Hamas begs to differ. They've got a long term plan for Israel that doesn't actually include Israel:

"It can be a temporary solution, for a maximum of 5 to 10 years. But in the end Palestine must return to become Muslim, and in the long term Israel will disappear from the face of the earth."

That sounds suspiciously like genocide - the mass execution and slaughter of civilians because we know that Israel isn't going to go quietly into the night. They don't want accomodation, but an ever increasing slice of Israel to go to them.

Of course, don't expect the UN to raise a stink about this, since all they're good for is strongly worded condemnations and weak resolutions that have absolutely power behind them to stop carnage anywhere.

Suicide Bomber Kills Three In Israel

But Tom Friedman said that the Palestinians really want peace this time! That first link is from a comment made earlier today. I couldn't believe what I was hearing, knowing that Palestinian terrorist groups had not stopped their assault on Israelis. They may have stopped the suicide bombings for a while, but not for lack of trying. What planet was Friedman covering these days? Had he not been checking the Israeli news reports that repeatedly indicate that Israeli forces intercepted terrorists trying to blow themselves up? Trying to smuggle weapons and and other terrorists into Israel or the territories? Or that Hamas and Hizbullah had never assented to any kind of deal with Israel and repeatedly state that they will never accept a state of Israel in their midst.

Well, they tried today - and succeeded in killing three Israelis in a shopping mall in the resort town of Netanya.

Interestingly, the transcript from this morning doesn't include Friedman's comments about the Palestinian change of heart about terrorism. There are quotes about terrorism in general and Iraq, but not about the Arab-Israeli situation.

UPDATE:
These are the guys behind the terrorist attacks. Don't ever lose sight of that fact.

Technorati: terrorism, terrorist

The Battle For Ground Zero, Part XII

The war of words wears on, as the NY Times argues on its op-ed page castigates the families that do not want the IFC or Drawing Center involved with Ground Zero rebuilding efforts.

For nearly four years now, the 9/11 families - those who lost immediate family members in that tragedy - have provided an inestimable service to this nation. They helped drive forward the inquiries of the Sept. 11 commission. They helped formulate any number of the projects being developed at ground zero. They have reminded us conscientiously of what was lost on that day.

But in the past few weeks, we've watched a handful of vocal family members, who may not represent a majority of 9/11 families, change the dynamic at the World Trade Center site for the worse. They have begun a movement to "take back the memorial," which means, in essence, eventually purging ground zero of its cultural partners, including the International Freedom Center.

No, it means no politicization of the site and using 'culture' as a codeword for moral equivalence. Islamic terrorists launched an unprovoked and heinous terrorist attack on this nation, murdering more than 3,000 people for simply doing ordinary tasks like working or travelling. The IFC and Drawing Center have no intention of honoring the memories of those who lost their lives that day. Their representatives may speak in platitudes, but their actions speak louder.

Meanwhile, some 9/11 families point to a London 9/11 memorial as the model to follow in NY.

We can learn a lot from the mother country," said Charles Wolf, whose wife, Katherine, a British citizen, was killed while working on the 97th floor of the north tower.

"You won't see the British build a museum next to their memorial park," he said.

"Ideologies change over time," he said. "Memorials are meant to be perpetual and eternal."

Also, the LMDC is opening a story telling booth at the WTC PATH station:

Inside the World Trade Center PATH train station, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation has commissioned a project to tell the story again, an exercise in populism that takes an approach opposite to that of the photo booklets. The project, a storytelling booth set to open today, depends on words with no pictures, rambling impressions instead of searing images, the cadence of voices in place of printed text.

In part, it is a stopgap for Reflecting Absence, a six-acre memorial scheduled to open in 2009 at the site of the terror attack of 2001.

Technorati: World Trade Center, WTC, Pataki, LMDC, urban policy.

Muslim Terrorist Admits Murdering Theo Van Gogh

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - A Dutch-Moroccan man confessed in court on Tuesday to murdering a filmmaker critical of Islam last year, breaking his silence over a killing that fanned religious and racial tension in the Netherlands.

Mohammed Bouyeri was accused of killing Theo van Gogh as he cycled to work in Amsterdam on Nov. 2, 2004. He was charged with shooting and stabbing Van Gogh before slashing his throat and pinning a note to his body with a knife in broad daylight.

Van Gogh, a descendent of the brother of the 19th century Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh, was known for his outspoken criticism of Islam and angered many Muslims by making a film which accused Islam of condoning violence against women.

Sanitized for Whose Protection?

Ace was right to ruminate that the BBC would change its use of terrorist to describe the actions by those responsible for the 7/7 London attacks into something else. It has been a deliberate sanitizing of the BBC News feeds to eliminate the term terrorist from the stories published. There are even screen captures of the same story, with the word terrorist removed from the headline and elsewhere in the story while every other detail remains untouched.

It's sad. The media refuses to call things as they are.

Photo of the Day

There was just a slight breeze blowing across Reflection Lakes at Mt. Rainier, but it was enough to disturb the otherwise calm waters. A good shot that would have been even better had nature cooperated. Instead, I have the memory of knowing that I was able to stand in the shadow of a slumbering giant. Taken June 2005.

Kelo Revisited

It's interesting to see how a Supreme Court decision could allign totally disparate political groups behind a concept. It shows not only that traditional labels aren't always applicable in politics, but that some issues transcend politics altogether.

Kelo is just that issue. Now, while many folks don't quite get the issues involved, they do understand at some level that if you own real estate, you could find your real estate coveted by someone with deeper pockets than yourself and who has an economic development plan that would generate more tax revenue than if things remain as they currently exist. So, the local municipality would begin eminent domain proceedings in order to execute an A to B transfer that would not truly be a just taking for the public good because it would simply be shifting property from one private owner to another, though under the guise of economic development.

Now, this isn't to say that municipalities haven't been doing this kind of thing for a long time.

They have. In fact, NYC has been doing this for years - though they have not relied on the economic argument nearly as much as the 'blight' argument. The economic development argument was a throw-in on justifying the need to seize property. Kelo gives municipalities an additional tool in order to seize property.

In her outraged dissent, Justice O'Connor failed to note that the Supreme Court's erosion of property rights began a long time ago. Before the 1954 Berman decision, with some exceptions, private property could be taken through eminent domain only for public uses. In Berman, however, the court declared the words "public use" to mean "public purpose," as defined by local officials. Soon the definition of "blight" became highly elastic, as governments began condemning working- and middle-class neighborhoods simply because they were desired by private interests. As Justice Clarence Thomas noted in his dissent in Kelo: "Of all the families displaced by urban renewal from 1949 through 1963, 63 percent of those whose race was known were nonwhite, and of these families, 56 percent of nonwhites and 38 percent of whites had incomes low enough to qualify for public housing, which, however, was seldom available to them."

Wouldn't it be interesting to see how many Liberals and Democrats (not mutually exclusive btw), would actually take the O'Connor or Thomas position here despite the fact that Thomas gave the most persuasive argument against Kelo.

The definition of a "blighted" area eventually became so expansive that it 1981 the Michigan Supreme Court allowed the city of Detroit to raze a stable neighborhood called Poletown to make way for a General Motors plant. The Michigan Supreme Court finally repudiated that decision last year, in a ruling that noted that property rights would no longer exist in America if cities could simply take property when they found a use that yielded higher taxes or other benefits.

By contrast, the U.S. Supreme Court has now decided not to overturn its Berman precedent and indeed has expanded the deference it gives to local governments to determine what "public use" means. But states and localities are free to take their own steps to preserve private property rights. Nine states--Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, Montana, South Carolina and Washington--already forbid the use of eminent domain for economic development except in narrow circumstances. The Institute for Justice has launched a $3 million "Hands Off My Home" campaign to convince other states to join them. In Georgia, Gov. Sonny Perdue is demanding a full review of eminent domain. The Texas Legislature has already debated a constitutional amendment that would ban the use of eminent domain solely for economic purposes.

No one argues that struggling cities or states don't have a right to improve themselves through redevelopment. But the new civil-rights coalition forming in reaction to the Kelo decision says that need can't justify land seizures from which politically connected players stand to gain at the expense of individual civil rights. If the half-century since Brown v. Board of Education has taught us anything, it is that some rights are and must remain nonnegotiable.

It is good to see states pursuing this issue, but not all states have these protections, and the level of protection to real estate owners will continue to vary from state to state.

Playing With Google Earth

Google Earth is quite an amazing tool. You can zoom in on any spot on the planet and view it from any angle imaginable. This is an image of Mt. Rainier NP.

Amazing what you can do with this - and it should be noted that it could be used for good or evil (as with any tool).

Is a Perp-Walk Not Far Behind?

Roger L. Simon, who is on top of the UNSCAM issue, has the latest info via the NY Sun - that NY District Attorney Robert Morgenthau is opening an investigation in to the UNSCAM dealings.

Oh goodie. Just when Kofi thought that his troubles were limited to being harassed by Congress, he's got a DA on his case (and that of Benon Sevan, his son Kojo, his underlings, and a whole boatload of cronies who were in on the UNSCAM mess).

The Manhattan District Attorney's office has opened a criminal investigation into the former head of the U.N. oil-for-food program, Benon Sevan, the DA's office has just confirmed for the first time to The New York Sun.

The probe, apparently well advanced, involves allegations of commercial bribery related to Mr. Sevan's role as executive director from 1997-2003 of the oil-for-food relief program for Iraq, then under U.N. sanctions against the former regime of Saddam Hussein. Mr. Sevan was picked for the job by Secretary-General Annan.

News of the criminal probe raises prospects that at least one U.N. official may yet face criminal prosecution over activities related to the more than $110 billion worth of Saddam's oil sales and relief purchases that the United Nations oversaw in Iraq from 1996-2003. The probe into Mr. Sevan comes on top of oil-for-food-related indictments of a number of private businessmen issued April 14 by federal prosecutors for the Southern District of New York, along with a federal complaint alleging bribery involving unnamed "high-ranking United Nations officials" - described in circumstances that suggest these are individuals other than Mr. Sevan.

Technorati: UNSCAM, Oil for Food, and Kofi Annan

Earth to Moore: These Are Minutemen?!

Michael Moore once commented that the terrorists in Iraq that are busy blowing stuff up really aren't any different than the Minutemen who went on to found the good old United States of America. Heck, Brian Williams of NBC News commented that the terrorists aren't any different than our founding fathers.

So, tell me then whether our Founding Fathers sought to blow up hospitals?

That's right. The terrorists tried to blow up an Iraqi hospital. Not once, but several times in quick succession. And one of these car bombs was quite insidious. Multiple artillery shells in the back, which would have caused some serious problems [ed: understatement of the week].

When will the Left wake up to the real nature of these terrorists? There is no warm and fuzzy place to find accomodation with these sorts of people. They want you dead. They want your family dead. And, they're willing to die for their cause. A perverse sort of rationality governs their actions - they see themselves doing Allah's work, and that they are out to reclaim the glory of an Islamic Age that never actually existed.

Technorati: Michael Moore, dumbass, terrorism, terrorist

Photo of the Day

A deer alongside the road leading to Hurricane Ridge within Olympic National Park. Taken June 2005.

The Battle For Ground Zero, Part XI

The redesign of the Freedom Tower shows the difficulties of trying to place the tower on the site while realizing that salvaging any remnants of the torqued tower design. The article claims that the torqued tower was close to becoming a reality with steel orders ready to be delivered, but there is nothing in the record to indicate that this is the case - no news reports from the NYT, NYP, or any other local media outlet suggest that the torqued tower was ready to be built before the NYPD stepped out and said that they had serious questions about the security of the tower's placement on the site.

To Mr. Gottesdiener, the challenge was "to build a great urban building that did not look like a concrete bunker," he said. The design's evolution was annoyingly slow. "There was never a eureka moment, just a series of confidence builders - ideas we knew would work."

Reconfiguring the building "was a three-dimensional problem," Mr. Gottesdiener said, "like an architectural Rubik's Cube." But the team realized that many of the north and south columns of the original tower, already laboriously configured to thread through the PATH tracks that ran underneath, could be retained.

And when the large parallelogram base was pared to a smaller square, the tower's distance from West Street could increase from 25 feet to anywhere from 65 to 125 feet.

The design may be acceptable to most folks, but here's the continuing problem. The Freedom Tower is only one of a series of skyscrapers that will be built on the site. Since each of those towers is a potential target, will they not be required receive the same kind of armored base that the Freedom Tower will receive? Thus, each of these towers will be placed on armored pedestals.

Also, critics contend that the armored pedestals are going perpetuate the bunker mentality or are aesthetically unpleasing.

UPDATE:
911 families are still complaining about the scaled down museum, saying that "anything other than a monument to the dead would be sacrilege." There are many different 9/11 families groups - some want the entire 16 acres preserved as a graveyard/memorial to their loved ones. Others are more pragmatic about the need to rebuild some office space as long as a memorial and monument to the fallen is prominently featured. I happen to allign myself with the latter group. However, on the issue of the appropriateness of the Drawing Center and IFC at the WTC, it would appear that the 9/11 families groups are speaking with one voice - to not have them involved at all at the WTC. It would be interesting to see whether the media could find a family that actually supported the IFC/Drawing Center at the WTC complex - if only to see what they had to say.

Technorati: World Trade Center, WTC, Pataki, LMDC, urban policy.

Photo of the Day

A flower budding in New York City. Taken May 2005.

AP Needs To Be Held Accountable

Charles Johnson of LGF brings up this troubling news. AP, The Associated Press, had to give a retraction on a story that it ran about Tony Blair, the Prime Minister of the UK. Seems that he didn't say what the AP claimed he said.

The AP made up the story and comments out of whole cloth (must have been flea infested). It was a bald-faced lie.

LONDON - In a July 9 story about Prime Minister Tony Blair’s comments on overcoming global terrorism, The Associated Press erroneously reported that he spoke of easing the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. Blair did not specifically mention the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in his interview with the British Broadcasting Corp.

So, if Blair never mentioned it, why was it inserted into AP stories (that were carried worldwide nearly instantaneously without the knowledge that the statements were never made)? What purpose is served by spreading these lies?

Does a blogger have to sit in on every single interview to make sure that the story is properly transmitted? [ed: not possible or feasible, but it would be fun!] This is the second example of bogus quotes and stories attributed to a major news source in the last week alone! (Instapundit relays info of corrected Op-eds - in which quotes were added, and then removed by editors, Ace has the story on juicing up stories with assisted quotes particularly in anti-Bush pieces that include quotes by soldiers.)

Is it way time to start revoking media credentials from these guys? How can anyone demand accountability from these media outlets, let alone actually get credible changes as a result from our demands.