Fact-esque

Bored with Baseball, David Brooks Picks a Rotisserie League War Council.

Today Brierney Two wrote another column which will live in infamy. It's all about his "War Council" and how they are the grown-ups when it comes to BushCo's War on Iraq. They're pessimistic about Iraq but not panicking. That implies, of course, that we who don't agree that the best way to get out of hole that's rapidly filling with water is to keep digging, are panicking. It's a classic Brierney column written not to reasonably argue a point but instead to appeal to the emotions of people whose hands are bloody from clapping louder over a quickly-fading Tinkerbell.

As a result we get unsubstantiated and inflammatory statements, "In Washington, some blog-pleasing politicians think we should quickly leave Iraq." And scolding dolchstoslegende like "There are no optimists among my gurus. But there is no hopelessness either," contrasted with "Their faith that success is still plausible is based on a few key realities. " We who oppose Dear Leader are, after all, faithless. As usual with the Brierney, there's too much for one panic-prone blogger to handle - we do have to eat and sleep. But I hope someone explains this part of the nonsense to me:

My War Council is divided on what America's role in these operations should be. Some argue that U.S. forces are an irritant and should be kept in the background so as not to alienate Iraqis. A growing number feel that Iraqis hate anarchy more than U.S. troops, and that American forces have to move out of their bases and onto the streets if security is going to be restored.

But all agree the insurgency can be suppressed if there are enough boots on the ground, or as Marine Lt. Col. Norman Cooling told Stars and Stripes: "The insurgent activity is directly proportional to the force density in the area. But that force density doesn't have to be American."

Forget for a minute that keeping some American forces in Iraq is a cornerstone of Murtha's plan and that internationalizing the military presence in Iraq is a big part of everyone else's. I'm stuck on the math Brierney is citing. Directly proportional? If the insurgent activity is directly proportional to force density isn't that an argument to get out as soon as possible? Or is this more of that famous flypaper strategizing? I guess the pessimists can figure that one out. I'm too busy panicking that these people are in charge.

This is Why I Give the NYT Forty-Something Bucks Every Month

They publish stories like the front page one about Trachoma, a horrible and preventable eye disease that is ravaging (mostly women) in Africa.  As with so many diseases, it results from and causes poverty - just one more twist of the spiral for the world's poor.  From the story:

Trachoma disappeared from the United States and Europe as living standards improved, but remains endemic in much of Africa and parts of Latin America and Asia, its last, stubborn redoubts. The World Health Organization estimates that 70 million people are infected with it. Five million suffer from its late stages. And two million are blind because of it.

A million people like Mrs. Alehegn need the eyelid surgery in Ethiopia alone. Yet last year only 60,000 got it, all paid for by nonprofit groups like the Carter Center, Orbis and Christian Blind Mission International.

As prevalent as trachoma remains, the W.H.O. has made the blinding late stage of the disease a target for eradication within a generation because, in theory at least, everything needed to vanquish it is available. Controlling trachoma depends on relatively simple advances in hygiene, antibiotics and the inexpensive operation that was performed on Mrs. Alehegn.

Good for the W.H.O.  I hope they're successful.   You can give to the Carter Center, Orbis and Christian Blind Mission International at the links.

Then, to reward your good behavior, you can read Manohla Dargis' NYT film review of Basic Instinct 2.  Here's the first paragraph, which is my favorite NYT paragraph of the week:

IT should come as no surprise that "Basic Instinct 2," the long-gestating follow-up to Paul Verhoeven's 1992 blip on the zeitgeist screen, is a disaster of the highest or perhaps lowest order. It is also no surprise that this joyless calculation, which was directed by Michael Caton-Jones and possesses neither the first film's sleek wit nor its madness, is such a prime object lesson in the degradation that can face Hollywood actresses, especially those over 40. Acting always involves a degree of self-abasement, but just watching trash like this is degrading.

Even watching it is degrading.  The rest of the review isn't particularly worth reading I guess, but, like the movie it  discusses, it does have a killer opening.

Those two stories made up for Brierney Two's discovery of the Smoking Gun story about the traveling demands of Biggus Dickus and his need to use his column today to remind everyone that John Kerry is a weirdo with his own set of demands.  I guess Brierney considered this turnabout fair play.  To that, I will refer him to his colleague, the poinsonous Jody Wilgoren, who revelled in this kind of reporting when she covered Kerry during the campaign.   From the Howler's look at a profile of Kerry's campaign aide Wilgoren filed in April in 2004:

And so you really have to laugh at Wilgoren’s profile this morning. In the headline, we see the first spin-point—Nicholson is described as Kerry’s “butler!”  And as we read the report, the image develops. In paragraph two, we learn that Nicholson is “the man literally behind the man, ready with an uncapped bottle of water whenever Mr. Kerry’s throat runs dry.”  In short order, we learn why Kerry has this “butler”—this “former caddy”—at his beck and call:

WILGOREN (pgh 6): Mr. Kerry is comfortable being catered to. He has his moods and his myriad personal needs.  A social loner, he is happy with an aide half his age.

The strange suggestion in that last sentence is explored throughout Wilgoren’s piece. Kerry’s butler “orders, delivers and usually lays out Mr. Kerry’s meals,” she writes.  And that isn’t all; he “keeps little black books filled with the names and numbers of people Mr. Kerry meets.” (He also “dials many of [Kerry’s] telephone calls,” and “helps select his neckties.”) Homoerotic imagery abounds. At night, Nicholson—Kerry’s “glorified valet”—“often stays by his side until he is ready to go to sleep.” Indeed, “[w]hen Mr. Kerry stays overnight at supporters’ homes, it is Mr. Nicholson who accompanies him; in Iowa once, they shared a bathroom.” (Yes, she actually wrote that.) Indeed, “When Mr. Kerry’s wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, joins him on the road, Mr. Nicholson’s routine hardly changes.”  But then, “it is the 6-foot-8 Mr. Nicholson who anticipates Mr. Kerry’s needs as they make eye contact across the crowds. It is Mr. Nicholson ready with a fresh shirt after a rally in 100 degrees.”  Somehow, Wilgoren forgot to ask how often this “butler” does Botox.

And that's only one example of Wilgoren's nonsense.  But kudos to the Brierney for defending the vice president.  Heaven knows he needs the loyal support these days.

 

Brierney Doesn't Even Pretend to Care About the Truth Anymore

From Brierney Two (and if you don't know which one that is, that's okay):

In short, Iraq, in this sphere as in so many, is not Vietnam. The Vietnam War caused America to swing from extroversion to introversion. The Iraq war has a different dynamic.

That's because in the late 1960's, the Vietnamese were not going around the world carrying out suicide attacks. Vietnamese were not rioting over cartoons. The Vietnamese did not fly planes into skyscrapers.

Small point here, but neither did the Iraqis, you raving loon.

Remember That NYT Article on Chile's Privatized Pension System? No, Not That One. Or That One. I Know it Was in the Times ...

I'm parking the link to this article about the myriad problems with Chile's pension system - the same system that was supposed to be the model for us to follow when we destroyed the most successful social program our country has ever known.  Remember, no less an intellectual giant than our own Brierney One  wrote about the wonders of the Chilean system.  And he's going to be writing about it again when the drive to destroy it starts up, like clockwork, in the next presidential election.  I want to be able to find it when that happens. 

The Chilean system of personalized accounts managed by private funds has inspired a score of other countries since the pioneer effort to create it here 25 years ago. It is endorsed by President Bush, who has called it "a great example" from which the United States can "take some lessons." Here at home, though, dissatisfaction with the system has emerged as one of the hot-button issues in the election, a runoff that will take place on Sunday.

"Most people perceive the costs of pensions and the pensions themselves as unfair," said Patricio Navia, a political science professor at New York University and at Diego Portales University here. "Many of those who started work when the system was first adopted are realizing that they have not been able to contribute enough to get a significant pension," Mr. Navia said, adding that they resent "overhead costs that are so high" and that have led to record profits for the pension funds that manage contributions automatically deducted from workers' paychecks.

And this is my favorite part because it's so flippin' obvious but never got much attention during what passed for a debate on the issue over here: (emph mine)

But skeptics point to another developing problem: many young people, who should be enrolling in the system early to accrue maximum benefit, are staying out or paying in very little. Some cannot afford to contribute beyond the obligatory minimum payment, which is 10 percent of wages, while others are either self-employed or have been hired by companies as low-paid independent contract workers and therefore do not have to contribute at all.

"The bottom line is that this system does not work with this labor market," said Andras Uthoff, an economist who is director of the social development division of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America here. If trends continue, he added, "only a small percentage of people are going to be able to finance meaningful pensions. What happens then to the rest?"

I'd like to get an answer to that from the next right wing kook who starts beating the privatization drum while pocketing donations from the people who thrive on the always low wages in our service economy.

Kudos to Brierney One for Giving Up All Semblance of Reason in Pursuit of Notoriety

I must write a letter to Brierney One  telling him that the phrase "financial abortion" is not at all inflammatory or insensitive.   I'm afraid he's going to get some mail.  Lucky for him, I'm of the opinion that we don't use the term "abortion" enough in our everyday language.  From now on I will seek to use it at every oppportunity.  For instance, my plans to give the kids ravioli tonight didn't change, they were aborted.  It was a nutritional abortion.  Or, I came upon a detour and underwent a traffic abortion.  My husband recently lost his job: career abortion!  Your favorite tv show was cancelled?   I'm sorry to inform you, you've had an entertainment abortion.   

As for the rest of the column, I won't bother with the point of it because he barely does before contradicting himself, but I will take the time to state the obvious, which is all we need to say on this topic: Tricking or forcing anyone into a pregnancy is wrong.  And if you're having sex, you're in danger of getting pregnant or getting someone else pregnant.  Choose wisely.   But you don't get 750 shocking words and another possible guest shot on the horrible Tucker Carlson's show out of that.

Incoming!

Shorter Brierney: Vouchers are the only conceivable way to improve public schools and only black people suffer from failing public schools. Therefore, any opposition to vouchers is racist.

Corollary: Democrats, the teachers unions and the NAACP are hate black people.

Don't Trust Instigators!

This image from March of the Penguins is all I could think of while I was packed into the gym to watch my kid sing in the annual Holiday Sing.  The school doesn't want parents to show up but some of us always do.  Anyway, blogging must be brief because going to the assembly was only one of a bout two dozen things I have to get done today.

These are the stories I wish I had more time to research and write about:

1. The Brierney, who isn't read by much of anyone anymore (thank you NYT pay wall)  today defends  BushCo's NSA domestic spying program by explaining that Dear Leader has lost his mind.

Let's play "You're the President." Let's put you in the Oval Office and see what kind of decisions you make in real-world circumstances.

Because you are president, you are briefed each day on terrorist threats to this country. These briefings are as psychologically intense as an episode of "24," with descriptions of specific bad guys and their activities.

This has had a cumulative effect on your psychology. While many of your fellow citizens have relaxed as 9/11 has faded into history, you don't have that luxury. Your briefings, and some terrifying false alarms that haven't been made public, keep you in a perpetual state of high alert.

It's the insanity defense with a twist.  BushCo's unhinged state of perpetual alarm makes him a better leader.  He's now almost cat-like, ready to spring at anything that moves.  It's all the biggest load of bullshit I think Brierney has ever written but there we are.  Fear is good. 

I really hope Doghouse gets on this because it's the kind of hanging curve he always smacks out of the park, giving me a reason to live.  Let me just point out that it looks like the RNC is tired of waiting for us to internalize 24-World thinking and is now instructing their drones to put it out there with a ham fist.   

2. Don't stockpile Tamiflu.  I'm the last person you should take that kind of advice from but this story made me feel like I made the right decision not to invest in the stuff:

Two Vietnamese patients have died after developing strains of bird flu that were resistant to Tamiflu, the antiviral drug that nations around the world are stockpiling in the hope of saving lives if a global pandemic occurs.

Their deaths, which took place in January, were reported Thursday in The New England Journal of Medicine. A third patient, a 14-year-old Vietnamese girl whose case was reported in Nature in October, also developed resistance but survived.

Health officials had predicted that the bird flu virus, H5N1, would evolve into resistant forms, which happens often with virus-fighting medications. But experts also say the deaths are a warning that countries are not yet prepared to deal with a pandemic.

I'm waiting to see if my favorite flu-blog, Effect Measure, picks up on the story.  Their advice I would trust.  But I'm still not sinking a few hundred bucks into a drug that isn't recommended for kids, needs a doctor to figure out how to administer most effectively and may not work anyway. 

3. Speaking of Effect Measure, they have a great story up right now about China finally cooperating with the WHO:

The praise comes in the context of a new agreement whereby China will share virus samples from H5N1 cases, something they had not done previously. A draft agreement between WHO and the Chinese Ministry of Health fulfilled a pledge made two months ago at a bird flu summit in Ottawa. Now comes word the first samples from recent human cases have been handed over to WHO by China's CDC.  This is good news. Let's hope the cooperative attitude continues.

See that?  Good news linked to both China AND bird flu.  It truly is a season of miracles.

4. Speaking of China, do you remember when stories like this didn't remind you of the good ol' USA?

Ten days ago, the sleepy fishing village of Dongzhou was the scene of a deadly face-off, with protesters hurling homemade bombs and the police gunning them down in the streets.

Now, a stilted calm prevails, a cover-up so carefully planned that the small town looks like a relic from the Cultural Revolution, as if the government had decided to re-educate the entire population. Banners hang everywhere, with slogans in big red characters proclaiming things like, "Stability is paramount" and "Don't trust instigators."

And with that we are back to the Brierney.  We live in interesting times.

 

It's Time for the Spotlight Dance

Where we feature a particularly perceptive NYT letter to the editor.  This one is from Samuel R. Gross of Ann Arbor, Michigan, who corrects a misquote made by our favorite Brierney Borg:

Lying in Court

To the Editor:

In his Nov. 1 column, "Let's Have a Big Hand for...," John Tierney discussed the perjury indictment of I. Lewis Libby Jr. While "perjury is extremely common," Mr. Tierney quotes me as saying, "perjury prosecutions are incredibly uncommon."

I did say that. But I added an important qualification: The most common perjury cases that are prosecuted, at least in federal courts, are for perjury before an investigative grand jury - the type of perjury with which Mr. Libby is charged.

I am troubled by the fact that we do little to enforce the laws against perjury in depositions, in civil trials and even in criminal trials. Federal grand jury hearings, however, seem to be an exception to this pattern of neglect. If you lie in court as a witness in a murder trial, you'll probably never have to answer for it. If you lie to a grand jury in an important federal investigation, you're taking a big risk.

Samuel R. Gross
Ann Arbor, Mich., Nov. 1, 2005
The writer is a professor of law at the University of Michigan.

Be careful, people, if you get interviewed by a Brierney.  Save your notes.  You never know what's going to show up in print.

 

It's Not a Fair Fight, but Sometimes a Pummeling is Just Fun to Watch

Do yourself a favor and read Riley's take down of Brierney Two.  DO NOT waste time reading Brierney.  Same shit, new day as they saying goes.  Poor Brierney  doesn't know what happened to the glorious GOP revolution and oh, by the way DeLay = Dean.  Seriously.   Anyway, here's some of how a real writer sounds:

To pretend, at this late date, that Tom DeLay or George W. Bush represent an aberration in the Republican party and not a culmination of its thirty-year war on everything that wasn't White, Christian, and pro-big business in this country is to continue shoveling manure while you're up to your nose in it.  There's no pretending that your good intentions PR counts for anything anymore.  Beyond the fact that the Times keeps paying you for it, I mean.

The sorry results of that thirty-year war are not the result of minor miscalculation or unforeseen circumstances. They are not even, in that favorite phrase of so-called conservatism gone by, the result of the "law of unintended consequences". This is your Republican paradise, Mr. Brooks.  Here's your National Greatness.  When you're covered in shit it's time to stop pretending the smell is coming from somewhere else.

Someone buy that man a drink.

From Behind the Pay Wall, Brierney Squawks in Support of the Enemy of the People

It looks like Brierney One is angling for some of that super secret WalMart PR scratch.  Today he is discrediting the federal government, in his typically ham-handed way,  by repeating the "talk" that in the wake of Katrina, WalMart should take over FEMA:

"This was the only place we could find water those first days," said Rashan Smith, who was shopping with her three children at Wal-Mart on Saturday. "I still haven't managed to get through to FEMA. It's hard to say, but you get more justice at Wal-Mart."

That's the same assessment you hear from public officials in Louisiana, and there's even been talk of letting Wal-Mart take over FEMA's job. The company already has its own emergency operations center, where dozens of people began preparing for the hurricane the week before it hit by moving supplies and trucks into position.

Of course, we've all heard that truck story by now so it's up to Brierney to pull out some new stops.  And kudos for him to try one that even the wingnuts can't get behind in any serious numbers: It's Clinton's fault! 

I realize that Scott would not be a popular choice with Democrats. They concede that Wal-Mart and other private companies were far better prepared for Katrina than FEMA was, but they say FEMA would work fine if it were under the control of a virtuous, compassionate public servant - someone, as Bill Clinton suggested, like himself.

Clinton looks back on the 1990's as FEMA's Age of Pericles. "I think we did a good job of disaster management," he said on ABC's "This Week." While criticizing the Bush administration for leaving poor people stranded in New Orleans, he said that he and his FEMA director, James Lee Witt, had been especially sensitive to the needs of poor people because of their own backgrounds.

But if they cared so much, why didn't New Orleans ever work out a feasible way to evacuate poor people? FEMA had a golden opportunity to plan it during the 1990's. The threat of nuclear war had receded and terrorism wasn't yet a priority, so the agency's biggest concerns should have been an earthquake in California and a flood in New Orleans.

But it was too busy dealing with the record number of other "disasters" that Clinton declared - an average of one a week, which meant FEMA was mailing out checks for every flash flood within range of a major media market. Upstate New Yorkers suddenly became incapable of coping with the cost of snow removal.

I don't have time to research the claims Brierney is tossing out here.  I spent a half an hour or so on Google and haven't been able to find any information that suggests that under Witt FEMA handed out frivolous payments for made-up disasters.  But I'm not getting fed information straight from the Hive.  I did find a lot of information about "Project Impact," which emphasized pre-disaster planning.  Google that to see for yourself exactly how useless FEMA was in the 90's, when it was run by grown-ups.   But I wouldn't recommend wasting the half an hour I did taking  Brierney's bait.

Snidely, he goes on to complain about the waste in big gumint:

How often do you suppose someone at Wal-Mart headquarters dispenses $500,000 and doesn't bother keeping track of it?  The company can tell you the precise location of every thumbtack in its inventory. It's legendary for tracking every transaction and pinching every penny.

I swear, it's impossible to write about Brierney without using the phrase "you horrible, dishonest man" at least once.  Apparently he's forgotten about Tom Coughlin.  From Mick, here's a long excerpt to jog your memory and provide the proper context for Mr. Coughlin's transgressions:

Nor could it have helped that one of its executives helped himself to fistfuls of money by pretending he was using it to fight unions.

A federal grand jury in Arkansas is still investigating whether Thomas Coughlin, Wal-Mart’s former vice-chairman, has been orchestrating a covert, illegal campaign against union organisers within Wal-Mart’s 1.7 million workforce. Mr Coughlin, who was sacked in March, explained fake invoices put through company accounts as a “union project” fund. The “project” allegedly included paying employees to identify who the pro-union people were.

Wal-Mart says it is co-operating fully with the investigation and insists it has found no evidence of anti-union skulduggery among its senior employees. There is no evidence to suggest that anti-union tactics have been employed.

That last graf needs a little explanation.

a) Wal-Mart is ‘co-operating’ not because it cares if its managers engage in illegal activities to stop unions (it in fact encourages such behaviour in its Manager’s Handbook) but because they think he didn’t. They think he embezzled the money and used it to buy a big new house, among other things. Had he used the money for an illegal anti-union campaign, they would have patted him on the back and given him a raise and probably a promotion for showing ‘initiative’. But instead they turned him in to authorities because

b) they couldn’t find any evidence that Coughlin’s anti-union campaign ever existed. (That’s what the last sentence means. It emphatically does NOT mean that there’s ‘no evidence to suggest that anti-union tactics have been employed’ by Wal-Mart as a whole. There’s a ton of such evidence. That sentence only refers to this particular instance, specifically Coughlin’s supposed activities.) They concluded that he had dared to steal from them. This is not to be tolerated, of course. Stealing—from employees, customers, investors, and government at all levels—is Wal-Mart’s sole privilege, so you might say they caught Coughlin poaching on their territory. They’re simply treating him as they would treat any competition: they’re crushing him.

 

But hey, maybe Brierney's onto something.  With WalMart's rampant corruption, union bashing, poverty wages, rotten healthcare plans and racist and sexist hiring policies, the Enemy of the People would make a seemless transition to impersonating BushCo's idea of what a federal government agency should be.

Related:   Add the suspension of  affirmative action to the list of neocon objectives in the brave new world of Gulf Coast reconstruction:

The Labor Department has temporarily suspended government requirements that its contractors have an affirmative action plan addressing the employment of women, members of minorities, Vietnam veterans and the disabled if the companies are first-time government contractors working on reconstruction in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

While employment lawyers said it was not clear how strong an impact the exemption would have, the move comes as President Bush has tried to address the perception of unfairness in the government's response to the hurricane.

Under the rules that normally apply to companies hired by the government, businesses with more than 50 employees working on contracts for more than $50,000 must develop an affirmative action plan. But according to a memorandum on the Labor Department's Web site, dated Sept. 9, the goal of the exemption in the case of recovery work associated with Hurricane Katrina is to reduce the burden of paperwork on government contractors and so encourage more companies to jump into assisting with rebuilding from the storm damage.

...

"It is not simply a paperwork exercise," said Shirley J. Wilcher, deputy assistant secretary for federal contract compliance in the Clinton administration who is now the interim executive director of the American Association for Affirmative Action. "It is the basis for companies to be mindful of their obligation not to discriminate."