July 31, 2007
August EP Podcast Schedule
Here's the August lineup. Not all these conversations have been recorded so the schedule is provisional, but I'm fairly sure this is what it will look like. This Friday, August 3d, I talk with David Strahan, an award-winning former BBC journalist and author of The Last Oil Shock. Friday August 10th my guest will be Elisa Massimino, Director of the Washington office of Human Rights First. Friday August 17th I'll talk with my friend Dave Marash, formerly of ABC's Nightline and now a Washington presenter for Al Jazeera. On Friday August 24th my guest will be Roger Morris, a New York Times best-selling author
July 30, 2007
Ingmar Bergman, RIP
You must've already seen this item, if you watch/listen to any news at all. Ingmar Bergman has passed away, age 89. He led a much fuller life than most and he will be missed. It's impossible to make sense of Bergman's films in a couple sentences — so I won't try. Suffice to say they engaged the mind irresistibly. And one of the first DVDs I ever got was his The Seventh Seal
July 28, 2007
The Dawning of the Age
When I explained to Werther what little I knew about Second Life, he told me that what he likes about me is that I broaden his horizons. I said, "it's not deliberate..." Well, anyhow, what does a fifty year old guy know about tech society these days? I thought I'd look into Second Life — not because there isn't enough in 'First Life', not by a long shot — but because some interesting things seem to be happening there. For one, the Yearly Kos convention in Chicago next week is having a simulcast in Second Life, which I will attend. For another, quite a number of educational institutions are establishing significant presences in SL, as are several foreign governments in setting up Embassies, and even the UN has an office. And there are real/virtual libraries.
What got me thinking was something Sam Smith said a while back, to the effect that when old-fashioned political organizers used to organize they'd do two things: they'd make political plans and figure out how to undertake them, and they'd have fun. It's the latter that, in terms of community, seems to be lacking somewhat on the everyday internet.
July 27, 2007
Yowza!
To my total amazement I learned last night that the judges of the annual Podcast Awards competition named EP one of ten finalists in the "Political" category. Considering that over 335,000 people submitted over 6,000,000 nominations for twenty categories plus two super categories, that ain't half bad. Put differently, 4,097 shows were nominated, meaning finalists are roughly the top 5%. And we're in with such company as Democracy Now and Slate. In the final stage, which opens July 28th, the public votes for their favorites. I suppose that big sites have a built-in advantage of tens or hundreds of thousands of listeners, but the little guy still has a chance. I wouldn't have believed it earlier, but a glimmer of hope is now stirring in my heart — please do vote for EP in the finals (in this round there's one vote per person per category per 24 hours, so you can vote liberally for the next two weeks) and, perhaps, take this opportunity to introduce a friend or two to the world of podcasting. Thanks!!
July 20, 2007
Torture By the Book
A small squib from today that might easily go unnoticed: the Tyrant has given his go-ahead for the CIA to resume torture. This should be a stark reminder that calls for impeachment of Cheney-Bush simply don't go far enough. Both belong in prison.
How to Read an NIE
By Werther*
Much notice has attended the release of the unclassified version of the latest National Intelligence Estimate [NIE] titled "The Terrorist Threat to the US Homeland." It contains the rectified juices of all sixteen of our intelligence agencies. Federal statute prohibits disclosing the numbers of employees or the budgets of these agencies, but in aggregate there are well over 100,000 placemen, and unofficial estimates of the combined budgets come to over $40 billion annually. Given the avalanche of "temporary" spending on Iraq and Afghanistan in supplemental appropriations, we would estimate that a figure of $60-$70 billion is closer to the mark. That is a lot of Bentley Arnages for people like Marc Rich, Victor Bout, and our other dubious intelligence contacts.
July 18, 2007
Mobutu's Fortune
This is just a detail, a footnote, but I think an interesting and important one. Regular listeners to the EP podcast may recall that when I talked with Larry Devlin, former CIA Chief of Station in the Congo, we had an exchange to do with Mobutu's "fortune." We agreed that, at a popularly estimated $500 million (or more) it had been vastly exaggerated, that it was probably in the lower tens of millions, and that much/most of that was in European real estate.
Iapetus
The object in the background is Saturn's moon, Iapetus. As reported yesterday in the New Scientist, a team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena has come up with a convoluted (my word) warming and freezing scheme to account for Iapetus' odd "walnut" shape. The object in the foreground is... a sandstone spherule from Texas, about 10 millimeters across. Hmmmm... Would warming and freezing have created the spherule's "walnut" shape? Unlikely. Yet they look so similar. One argument — which I find quite persuasive — is that electrical plasma discharge, operating in identical ways across vastly different scales, accounts for both moon and spherule. The fun part is that a non-scientist like myself can look and see, whereas highly trained scientists might not be able to. What a world!
July 14, 2007
The Running of the Hamsters
Most public discussion of Iraq frames things with an implicit assumption that the administration's objective has been to "improve" the situation, or bring "stability," or "win." Thus, careful exegesis of administration pronouncements leads to rational arguments for withdrawal. That's all well and good — important for creating a national consensus against the war — but overlooks the possibility, indeed probability, that the administration has achieved pretty much what it wanted. Should we take administration pronouncements on Iraq objectives at face value when in virtually every other policy area the administration spews nothing but lies? When a gang of kleptocrats demonstrates repeatedly their power to mutilate the Constitution should they be given the benefit of the doubt on anything? Is the Iraq fiasco merely a "mistake" or something else?
July 12, 2007
2007 Podcast Awards Nomination
This is a bit late notice, as nominations close on July 15 — but I would very much appreciate it if listeners to the EP podcast would nominate Electric Politics in the 2007 Podcast Awards competition. This is a fairly prestigious event which gets a good deal of attention in the podcasting community. It's quite an honor just to go from getting nominations to becoming a finalist that the public votes on, let alone then being selected as a top podcast in one of the voting categories. Please glance over the rules and note that one person gets just one set of nominations, and that you can nominate a particular podcast in just one category, plus either "Peoples Choice" or "Best Produced." EP, it seems to me, is most suited to the "Political" category, though conceivably it could fit in others. Thanks very much for your support!
July 11, 2007
The Cathedral of Man
Coming on the heels of reintroducing the Latin Mass, now Pope Benedict's gone and done it, deciding (or restating) that only Catholics are proper Christians while the rest of Christ's self-professed followers are merely "ecclesial communities." This withdrawal of the Catholic Church from common life can only accelerate the preponderant trend among Catholic priests to be either homosexual, alcoholic, or both. The world's most exclusive gay club. And all-too-frequently insensitive to its parishioners' real world needs: What a pity for lay Catholics who must despair over prospects for reform. I suppose their silver lining is that while it's easier for a Pope than a President to turn back the clock it may be more difficult for an individual to completely wreck an institution like the Catholic Church than a country like the U.S.
July 8, 2007
Catch-22
Sometimes things get so out of whack that there's no way to paper over profound, glaring contradictions. In the legal world, call them meta-contradictions. One such popped up last week: The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that plaintiffs had no standing to challenge the government's warrantless wiretap program because they couldn't prove they were the subjects (victims) of it. Case dismissed. But when, in an unrelated affair, the government accidentally released documents demonstrating such surveillance against particular individuals, the government — once it realized what it had done — declared possession of such evidence illegal. Kafka wrinkles! You can't bring a case because you can't prove you were victimized, but if you can it's illegal for you to possess the proof. As things stand these days the establishment probably will strenuously avoid resolving this either way, but if left unresolved it becomes a shining testament to the collapse of our political system.
All Aboard the Anti-War Bandwagon
The New York Times, always an excellent indicator of establishment thinking, finally admits that the Iraq war cannot be won and that U.S. troops should be brought home as soon as possible. "Insist" being the operative word in grey editorialese. The Times' authority now allows squads of previously silent, minor congressional cowards to start nipping at the Tyrant's ankles. Evidently the Times considers this a necessary prelude to real action — either cutting off funding or impeachment — on the assumption that the administration can still be reasoned with. Well, it can't be, but by signaling a new phase in the anti-war struggle the Times implicitly puts limits on how long that phase may last. By late fall (perhaps earlier) it would not surprise me if, given no movement towards withdrawal and no progress on the ground, the Times ratchets up its complaints to a call for real political coercion. Hopefully, those in positions to make things happen in Congress will be prepared for the next phase of public outrage.
Vive le Roi!
Sarkozy: "L'Etat c'est moi, moi, moi..."
By Diana Johnstone
PARIS — After defeating Royal, King Sarko the First is off to a royal start. Turncoats from the defeated parties rush to catch the crumbs from his table. By a nice coincidence, the famous hall of mirrors in the Chateau de Versailles has been fully restored just in time for the new monarch to look at his glittering reflection and exclaim, "L'Etat c'est moi, moi, moi..."
