"This is a limited program. This is not about monitoring phone calls designed to arrange Little League practice or what to bring to a potluck dinner. These are designed to monitor calls from very bad people to very bad people who have a history of blowing up commuter trains, weddings and churches."
-White House spokesman Trent Duffy on the White House's legally questionable spying domestic program.
Bad people like Quakers. Bad people like vegans and Catholic anti-poverty activists. And, shockingly enough, anti-war protesters.
So naturally, the Justice Department is most concerned not with the legality or not of the spying but with who spilled the beans about the dubious program to The New York Times.
Friday, December 30, 2005
Wednesday, December 28, 2005
Wanted: a good copy editor
Here's a great example why copy editors are important and why a single, imprecise word can change the whole meaning of a sentence.
Take this BBC News story;
The article began about how Chad's leader Idriss Déby called for next month's African Union summit to be moved from Sudan (against whom Chad recently declared war) to Nigeria. Déby accused Khartoum of backing a Chadian rebel group.
The BBC wrote, Sudan's foreign minister told the BBC that Sudan's army had fought with Chadian rebels when they refused to either disarm or leave Sudan.
Does the phrase "Sudan's army had fought with Chadian rebels" mean they fought alongside the rebels or against the rebels?
You can probably figure out from other parts of the article what was meant but it made me do a double take.
Take this BBC News story;
The article began about how Chad's leader Idriss Déby called for next month's African Union summit to be moved from Sudan (against whom Chad recently declared war) to Nigeria. Déby accused Khartoum of backing a Chadian rebel group.
The BBC wrote, Sudan's foreign minister told the BBC that Sudan's army had fought with Chadian rebels when they refused to either disarm or leave Sudan.
Does the phrase "Sudan's army had fought with Chadian rebels" mean they fought alongside the rebels or against the rebels?
You can probably figure out from other parts of the article what was meant but it made me do a double take.
Tuesday, December 27, 2005
Global warming in Europe
The United States has taken an avalanche of criticism for its refusal to join the Kyoto process on reducing the greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. Perhaps the US could've avoided a lot of the criticism by becoming part of the process and then simply not bothering to reach the Kyoto reduction targets, like almost all of Europe. Maybe all the hot air from self-righteous European politicians hurt the continent's efforts against global warming.
Sunday, December 25, 2005
The 'war on Christmas' in Muslim Senegal
This essay is part of a weekly feature on my blog that presents interesting stories from elsewhere in the world, particularly Africa, that are little reported in the American media. It's part of my campaign to get people to realize there is a lot going on in the world outside the US, Israel and Iraq.
You hear a lot about a mythical 'war on Christmas' that's allegedly plaguing America, even though I've never met anyone who's been offended by 'Merry Christmas,' nor have I met anyone who knew anyone who was offended by the phrase. So I was intrigued to read this piece in South Africa's Daily Mail and Guardian paper about how Christmas is celebrated in the Republic of Senegal, West Africa.
Senegal is approximately 95 percent Muslim, but it hasn't stopped the selling of inflatable Santa Clauses and Christmas trees.
"It's our tradition, this cohabitation. When we're born and baptised, our Muslim neighbours are there. They help us all the way, even into the grave," explains one worker in Senegal's capital Dakar. "We're all the same before God, who allows us to recognise him in all others."
A neighboring merchant adds that Muslim extremists elsewhere are sullying Islam's reputation with their false interpretation of the Muslim holy book, the Qur'an.
"The Qur'an says Muslims mustn't force their religion on others. Aggression has no place in Islam," he says.
He added, "Officially, we Muslims don't celebrate Christmas. But the Catholics are our neighbours. So, we all celebrate all the religious holidays."
As someone who's lived in Senegal, I find this piece pretty accurate. In Senegal and Guinea, where I also lived, religious tolerance was the norm. While both countries are overwhelmingly Muslim, they were very open to and engaging of non-Muslims. They seemed to have more trouble wrapping their mind around the concept of a non-believer than of accepting someone of a different faith. Senegal's also a very conservative, traditional country, which makes this article even more intriguing.
You hear a lot about a mythical 'war on Christmas' that's allegedly plaguing America, even though I've never met anyone who's been offended by 'Merry Christmas,' nor have I met anyone who knew anyone who was offended by the phrase. So I was intrigued to read this piece in South Africa's Daily Mail and Guardian paper about how Christmas is celebrated in the Republic of Senegal, West Africa.
Senegal is approximately 95 percent Muslim, but it hasn't stopped the selling of inflatable Santa Clauses and Christmas trees.
"It's our tradition, this cohabitation. When we're born and baptised, our Muslim neighbours are there. They help us all the way, even into the grave," explains one worker in Senegal's capital Dakar. "We're all the same before God, who allows us to recognise him in all others."
A neighboring merchant adds that Muslim extremists elsewhere are sullying Islam's reputation with their false interpretation of the Muslim holy book, the Qur'an.
"The Qur'an says Muslims mustn't force their religion on others. Aggression has no place in Islam," he says.
He added, "Officially, we Muslims don't celebrate Christmas. But the Catholics are our neighbours. So, we all celebrate all the religious holidays."
As someone who's lived in Senegal, I find this piece pretty accurate. In Senegal and Guinea, where I also lived, religious tolerance was the norm. While both countries are overwhelmingly Muslim, they were very open to and engaging of non-Muslims. They seemed to have more trouble wrapping their mind around the concept of a non-believer than of accepting someone of a different faith. Senegal's also a very conservative, traditional country, which makes this article even more intriguing.
Saturday, December 24, 2005
Protecting America from Quakers and other violent Evil-doers
"We're trying to protect America," say the president and his defenders. "Anyone who believes that we'd spy on ordinary Americans are just a bunch of paranoid, Bush-hating leftie whackos. We only spy on people who are Evil-doers, not on law-abiding Americans. Just trust us."
Yes, trust them.
The only people spied upon are Evil-doers, like those notoriously violent Quakers. There's no way they'd spy on completely harmless people like vegans and Catholics
I guess the spied upon should feel honored: Nobel Peace Prize winner Martin Luther King Jr, a civil rights and anti-war activist, was long spied upon as well.
So why exactly should we trust the people running this country? After they've given us so many reasons to do the opposite.
If the administration is doing nothing wrong, then they can stand up, defend their policies and expose them to the light of day. It seems to me that if the domestic spying were so important, wouldn't the administration want to shout about it from the rooftops? Wouldn't this be an effective means of deterrence, of scaring the terrorists, of telling them, 'Don't plan anything here because we'll catch you.' If they were convinced of the program's legality, wouldn't they do this?
Instead, the administration demanded that The New York Times not run a story on this arguably illegal domestic spying. Sadly, The Times aquiesed to the bullying for over a year.
Some apologists will say that Bush can do whatever he thinks necessary to protect us. Law and the Constitution don't matter in times of (undeclared) war. And it's up to the president alone to decide when the law and Constitution can be suspended and when they can be re-instated. It's up to the president alone to decide when the (undeclared) war begins and ends.
Apologists argue that only whiny partisan Democrats complain about it. Whiny Democrats like Rep. Roscoe Bartlett and Sen. Arlen Specter. Oh wait, they're Republicans. The apologists add that secretly briefing a couple of Congressmen and claiming unlimited executive authority is sufficient to void a legally adopted statute and that if the briefed Democrats had a problem with it, why didn't they object before? Oh wait, they did.
It's not just Democrats, progressives, spy court judges, civil libertarians and independent-minded Republicans who have concerns about the domestic spying and the way it's being carried out.
Some NSA [National Security Agency] officials were so concerned about the legality of the program that they refused to participate, the Times said. Questions about the legality of the program led the administration to temporarily suspend it last year and impose new restrictions, notes the AP.
As one commentator notes, the possibly illegal domestic spying is bad enough but there's something more dangerous.
[T]he administration relies on its own notions of its legal authority (courtesy of the White House counsel and the attorney general) and invokes its responsibility for protecting American lives. The administration line is this: The legal points are arguable, the Congress has been told, and the court of public opinion will vindicate the president.
This is what becomes genuinely disturbing: This blanket assertion of authority has no discernible limits. Accepting it confers on this president -- or any president -- the powers of autocracy.
The most disturbing is the administration's belief that it alone decides what powers it has. But after claiming to have the right to torture, this belief isn't new. Yet it's still extremely dangerous. The only reason for hope is public opinion. While Americans were eager to give the president a blank check for most of the last four years, Americans are generally starting angry about the inevitable excesses and abuses.
It's about time!
Update: Speaking of lawlessness and its consequences, an Italian court has issued a European Union wide arrest warrant for 22 CIA agents accused of kidnapping a Muslim cleric in Milan and sending him to Egypt where he was allegedly tortured. The CIA has refused to comment on the case. International arrest warrants were instituted following the 9/11 attacks as a tool to fight terrorism.
Second update: And just to prove the administration's claim that the war on terrorism truly isn't a war on Islam, federal law enforcement officials have been engaging in warrantless spying in mosques. I'm sure that will encourage law-abiding Muslims to want to go out of their way to volunteer information to the authorities. Or Else!
Yes, trust them.
The only people spied upon are Evil-doers, like those notoriously violent Quakers. There's no way they'd spy on completely harmless people like vegans and Catholics
I guess the spied upon should feel honored: Nobel Peace Prize winner Martin Luther King Jr, a civil rights and anti-war activist, was long spied upon as well.
So why exactly should we trust the people running this country? After they've given us so many reasons to do the opposite.
If the administration is doing nothing wrong, then they can stand up, defend their policies and expose them to the light of day. It seems to me that if the domestic spying were so important, wouldn't the administration want to shout about it from the rooftops? Wouldn't this be an effective means of deterrence, of scaring the terrorists, of telling them, 'Don't plan anything here because we'll catch you.' If they were convinced of the program's legality, wouldn't they do this?
Instead, the administration demanded that The New York Times not run a story on this arguably illegal domestic spying. Sadly, The Times aquiesed to the bullying for over a year.
Some apologists will say that Bush can do whatever he thinks necessary to protect us. Law and the Constitution don't matter in times of (undeclared) war. And it's up to the president alone to decide when the law and Constitution can be suspended and when they can be re-instated. It's up to the president alone to decide when the (undeclared) war begins and ends.
Apologists argue that only whiny partisan Democrats complain about it. Whiny Democrats like Rep. Roscoe Bartlett and Sen. Arlen Specter. Oh wait, they're Republicans. The apologists add that secretly briefing a couple of Congressmen and claiming unlimited executive authority is sufficient to void a legally adopted statute and that if the briefed Democrats had a problem with it, why didn't they object before? Oh wait, they did.
It's not just Democrats, progressives, spy court judges, civil libertarians and independent-minded Republicans who have concerns about the domestic spying and the way it's being carried out.
Some NSA [National Security Agency] officials were so concerned about the legality of the program that they refused to participate, the Times said. Questions about the legality of the program led the administration to temporarily suspend it last year and impose new restrictions, notes the AP.
As one commentator notes, the possibly illegal domestic spying is bad enough but there's something more dangerous.
[T]he administration relies on its own notions of its legal authority (courtesy of the White House counsel and the attorney general) and invokes its responsibility for protecting American lives. The administration line is this: The legal points are arguable, the Congress has been told, and the court of public opinion will vindicate the president.
This is what becomes genuinely disturbing: This blanket assertion of authority has no discernible limits. Accepting it confers on this president -- or any president -- the powers of autocracy.
The most disturbing is the administration's belief that it alone decides what powers it has. But after claiming to have the right to torture, this belief isn't new. Yet it's still extremely dangerous. The only reason for hope is public opinion. While Americans were eager to give the president a blank check for most of the last four years, Americans are generally starting angry about the inevitable excesses and abuses.
It's about time!
Update: Speaking of lawlessness and its consequences, an Italian court has issued a European Union wide arrest warrant for 22 CIA agents accused of kidnapping a Muslim cleric in Milan and sending him to Egypt where he was allegedly tortured. The CIA has refused to comment on the case. International arrest warrants were instituted following the 9/11 attacks as a tool to fight terrorism.
Second update: And just to prove the administration's claim that the war on terrorism truly isn't a war on Islam, federal law enforcement officials have been engaging in warrantless spying in mosques. I'm sure that will encourage law-abiding Muslims to want to go out of their way to volunteer information to the authorities. Or Else!
Friday, December 23, 2005
Driving to oblivion?
As I've mentioned before, I choose not to drive. I also choose to live in a small city where it's feasible not to drive. It's true that my town is certainly not paradise for pedestrians, especially in winter. And while walking or bicycling does have its disadvantages, is not, for me, the cross to bear that most imagine.
As a result, issues of municipal planning interest me, since pedestrians are rarely taken into account. I was intrigued to read this article in The New York Times about the exurbs. Exurbs are basically the suburbs of suburbs.
The article profiles Frisco, Texas (also the new home of Major League Soccer's FC Dallas). One resident said that the school system now has more employees than the entire town had residents only a few decades ago.
"Used to be, a drive into Dallas was a 30- to 40-minute event, something you could do on a whim," said one resident. "But now, it takes 20 minutes just to get out of town."
Spending an hour or more in a car (one-way) to go to work is something inconceivable to me. It takes me less than 15 minutes to bike to work. Even in the worst case scenario, on foot on unshoveled sidewalks, it usually takes no more than 45 minutes. And at least I'm getting some fresh air and a little exercise.
There may be economic benefits to living in the suburbs/exurbs, though even those are surely diminishing with the high (for us) cost of gas and exploding cost of living. But what are the costs?
Suburbs and exburbs are, for the most part, places without centers, without focal points. And most are without souls. And it's not just because of cookie cutter strip malls and homogenized housing developments. As a result of all the time spent commuting, people no longer have time for volunteerism or other civic activities.
"We have now a generation of people who would rather say, I'll give you some money instead of volunteering," says an insurance salesman from Frisco. "It's harder to get the year-round commitment, the joining and the being part of something. People are too jealous of their time, because they have to be."
Because this is the life they've chosen.
Kids in such places are almost completely dependent on their parents to get anywhere. So they stay home and play video games or the computer instead of going outside and exercising. Spontaneous baseball or soccer games? Unheard of. Biking around? Too dangerous to go very far. Wait until an organized playdate with friends can be arranged by parents/chauffeurs.
For its faults, when you drive through the center of my city, you know exactly what municipality you're in. Kids can walk or bike to school, to the parks and playgrounds, to the woods. Probably 95% of city residents live within a mile and a half (30 minutes of foot, if you walk slowly) from the public library. It's important that kids have a degree of independence, a little freedom to explore.
A friend of mine from a neighboring town lives virtually around the block from his school. But school policy requires that he take the bus, rather than walk the quarter mile or so. Fresh air and a little exercise? Pft!
This is the irony of the suburb/exurb. People move there thinking it will enhance their quality of life, only to find they have less time and are more disconnected from their community.
As a result, issues of municipal planning interest me, since pedestrians are rarely taken into account. I was intrigued to read this article in The New York Times about the exurbs. Exurbs are basically the suburbs of suburbs.
The article profiles Frisco, Texas (also the new home of Major League Soccer's FC Dallas). One resident said that the school system now has more employees than the entire town had residents only a few decades ago.
"Used to be, a drive into Dallas was a 30- to 40-minute event, something you could do on a whim," said one resident. "But now, it takes 20 minutes just to get out of town."
Spending an hour or more in a car (one-way) to go to work is something inconceivable to me. It takes me less than 15 minutes to bike to work. Even in the worst case scenario, on foot on unshoveled sidewalks, it usually takes no more than 45 minutes. And at least I'm getting some fresh air and a little exercise.
There may be economic benefits to living in the suburbs/exurbs, though even those are surely diminishing with the high (for us) cost of gas and exploding cost of living. But what are the costs?
Suburbs and exburbs are, for the most part, places without centers, without focal points. And most are without souls. And it's not just because of cookie cutter strip malls and homogenized housing developments. As a result of all the time spent commuting, people no longer have time for volunteerism or other civic activities.
"We have now a generation of people who would rather say, I'll give you some money instead of volunteering," says an insurance salesman from Frisco. "It's harder to get the year-round commitment, the joining and the being part of something. People are too jealous of their time, because they have to be."
Because this is the life they've chosen.
Kids in such places are almost completely dependent on their parents to get anywhere. So they stay home and play video games or the computer instead of going outside and exercising. Spontaneous baseball or soccer games? Unheard of. Biking around? Too dangerous to go very far. Wait until an organized playdate with friends can be arranged by parents/chauffeurs.
For its faults, when you drive through the center of my city, you know exactly what municipality you're in. Kids can walk or bike to school, to the parks and playgrounds, to the woods. Probably 95% of city residents live within a mile and a half (30 minutes of foot, if you walk slowly) from the public library. It's important that kids have a degree of independence, a little freedom to explore.
A friend of mine from a neighboring town lives virtually around the block from his school. But school policy requires that he take the bus, rather than walk the quarter mile or so. Fresh air and a little exercise? Pft!
This is the irony of the suburb/exurb. People move there thinking it will enhance their quality of life, only to find they have less time and are more disconnected from their community.
Thursday, December 22, 2005
Conservative judge says 'intelligent design' is not science
Last year, a school board in Dover, Pennsylvania approved the inclusion of intelligent design to be mention in their science classes. Intelligent design is a version of creationism that claims that human beings are so complex that they couldn't possibly be the result of completely natural evolution and that it must've resulted from the intervention of a higher power.
People certainly have the right to believe in intelligent design just as they have the right to believe in creationism or astrology or voodoo. But it's not science. Intelligent design could easily be debated in a philosophy class or a current events class, but not science classes. Science deals with natural explanations that can be demonstrated or proven. Belief in the actions of a higher power is something entirely different from science, by definition. Well, by most people's definition.
A federal judge, a Republican and George W. Bush appointee nonetheless, ruled that the school board's action unconstitutional in a scathing decision.
Perhaps what made this case an even more straightforward violation of the separation of church and state is that the school board voted to include a brief statement as part of the ninth-grade biology curriculum that questioned the Darwinian theory of evolution, and referred students instead to a Christian textbook titled "Of Pandas and People.". [emphasis mine]
I think the Dover school board made it more complicated than it needed to be. Instead of approving something that clearly did not fit the definition of science in Pennsylvania, they could've lobbied the state to simply change the definition of science. After all, Kansas did exactly that.
Meanwhile, some activists are lobbying for schools to teach 2+2=5 as an alternative theory of mathematics. Others want Holocaust denialism and the writings of the Ayatollah Khomeni to be taught in history classes as well. "We just want it part of the discussion," they insist. "What is the politically correct, liberal elite afraid of?"
People certainly have the right to believe in intelligent design just as they have the right to believe in creationism or astrology or voodoo. But it's not science. Intelligent design could easily be debated in a philosophy class or a current events class, but not science classes. Science deals with natural explanations that can be demonstrated or proven. Belief in the actions of a higher power is something entirely different from science, by definition. Well, by most people's definition.
A federal judge, a Republican and George W. Bush appointee nonetheless, ruled that the school board's action unconstitutional in a scathing decision.
Perhaps what made this case an even more straightforward violation of the separation of church and state is that the school board voted to include a brief statement as part of the ninth-grade biology curriculum that questioned the Darwinian theory of evolution, and referred students instead to a Christian textbook titled "Of Pandas and People.". [emphasis mine]
I think the Dover school board made it more complicated than it needed to be. Instead of approving something that clearly did not fit the definition of science in Pennsylvania, they could've lobbied the state to simply change the definition of science. After all, Kansas did exactly that.
Meanwhile, some activists are lobbying for schools to teach 2+2=5 as an alternative theory of mathematics. Others want Holocaust denialism and the writings of the Ayatollah Khomeni to be taught in history classes as well. "We just want it part of the discussion," they insist. "What is the politically correct, liberal elite afraid of?"
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
UN peacekeepers to leave Sierra Leone
This essay is part of a weekly feature on my blog that presents interesting stories from elsewhere in the world, particularly Africa, that are little reported in the American media. It's part of my campaign to get people to realize there is a lot going on in the world outside the US, Israel and Iraq.
The IRIN news service reports that the UN peacekeeping mission in Sierra Leone is winding down.. Once the largest peacekeeping mission in the world, UNAMSIL has disarmed and demobilised over 72,000 combatants and collected and destroyed over 30,000 arms, explained head of mission, [Daudi Ngelautwa] Mwakawago.
During the 1990s, Sierra Leone was destroyed by arguably the most savage civil war in modern times.
Mwakawago warns that the peacekeepers' departure is just the first step in a long road to recovery. “If you imagine that UNAMSIL was spread over the country like a beautiful carpet, well now the time has come to roll that carpet back, and what you might find underneath may not be very good,” he explains.
The UN mission has trained over 9000 new national police officers and helped the central government reestablish authority throughout the country. These will be critical in helping the country return a stability necessary for the ruined economy and obscene rate of unemployment to improve.
However, there is certainly precedent for hope. In the early 90s, Mozambique had just seen the definitive end of a long civil war that left the country in ruins. But thanks to a lot of help from the UN and international non-governmental organizations as well as the willingness of the former warring factions to buy into the basic tenets of electoral politics, Mozambique is now a stable, if imperfect, democracy experiencing excellent economic growth. Sierra Leone has the same potential if its political class is willing to accept the same norms and to fight corruption.
The IRIN news service reports that the UN peacekeeping mission in Sierra Leone is winding down.. Once the largest peacekeeping mission in the world, UNAMSIL has disarmed and demobilised over 72,000 combatants and collected and destroyed over 30,000 arms, explained head of mission, [Daudi Ngelautwa] Mwakawago.
During the 1990s, Sierra Leone was destroyed by arguably the most savage civil war in modern times.
Mwakawago warns that the peacekeepers' departure is just the first step in a long road to recovery. “If you imagine that UNAMSIL was spread over the country like a beautiful carpet, well now the time has come to roll that carpet back, and what you might find underneath may not be very good,” he explains.
The UN mission has trained over 9000 new national police officers and helped the central government reestablish authority throughout the country. These will be critical in helping the country return a stability necessary for the ruined economy and obscene rate of unemployment to improve.
However, there is certainly precedent for hope. In the early 90s, Mozambique had just seen the definitive end of a long civil war that left the country in ruins. But thanks to a lot of help from the UN and international non-governmental organizations as well as the willingness of the former warring factions to buy into the basic tenets of electoral politics, Mozambique is now a stable, if imperfect, democracy experiencing excellent economic growth. Sierra Leone has the same potential if its political class is willing to accept the same norms and to fight corruption.
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