Memorandum of Understanding

I will be writing a column on the debate tonight, probably focusing on the restrictive format of the debate itself.

You may have heard about the so called “memorandum of understanding,” a document signed by the representative of the Bush and Kerry campaigns that lays down strict guidelines for the candidates but also how the networks are supposed to cover it.

This document is so ridiculous it may be worth a closer look. Is this what democracy should be like?
memorandumofunderstanding.pdf

Bob Novak in the house

The features editor at the paper I work at was approached by a student last week who said she has a family member “in the service” and wanted to write a column about the experience. She only mentioned it was her cousin when she initially pitched the story idea to the editor.

The column ran Tuesday (we took it offline, don’t even bother trying to find it). Today the writer called quite upset and said she got an e-mail from from said cousin who was quite pissed at her for writing the column about him. Why? The cousin is in the CIA and she broke his cover with his photo, name and everything.

I’m just glad I had nothing to do with the whole thing.
(fixed the entry as I had misunderstood what had happened)

Campaign barrage brings students into political circle

I wrote this edit in regards to the many politicians or persons lobbying for politicians that are coming to the Tampa Bay area lately but it is also true for the rest of the country. Student’s simply cannot claim finding information about candidates is too hard for them. This may have been true at some point, but recently the candidates and their respective campaigns are so visible that it is virtually impossible to not be informed about them.
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Stem cell research deserves proper explanation

Michael J. Fox came to the USF campus Tuesday to lobby for stem cell research and indirectly John Kerry. He was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 1991 but chose not to make it public until ‘98. He later retired from acting due to his illness and is now a staunch support or stem cell research. Naturally that put him at odd with President Bush who effectively banned it from getting any federal funding. The problem though is that such actions either send such research overseas (outsorcing and brain drain all rolled into one) or into shady areas of the private sector. (And yes, thats a really crappy photo of Fox and the family that I took with my cell phone)

I wrote this edit about the event for today’s paper.
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Nader phone interview

I did a short phone interview with Ralph Nader earlier today. Sound recording can be found here: Nader interview (4.7 mb)

Nader will be in Tampa tomorrow. I will try to attend but it’s not quite certain if it will be able to.

USF needlessly complicates hurricane crisis

Hurricane Jeanne was not as devastating as Frances to our region but the University of South Florida still managed to botch a situation that had occurred 3 times before in the last few months.
From a university that has dealt with as many hurricanes as USF has, students and faculty should be able to expect better crisis management than what was exibited.
Editorial
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Iran and Syria

Just in order to get the word out: Newsweek has a shot piece on the Bush administration not only thinking about intervention in Iran, but also Syria.

Plans: Next, War on Syria?
Oct. 4 issue - Deep in the Pentagon, admirals and generals are updating plans for possible U.S. military action in Syria and Iran. The Defense Department unit responsible for military planning for the two troublesome countries is “busier than ever,” an administration official says. Some Bush advisers characterize the work as merely an effort to revise routine plans the Pentagon maintains for all contingencies in light of the Iraq war. More skittish bureaucrats say the updates are accompanied by a revived campaign by administration conservatives and neocons for more hard-line U.S. policies toward the countries. link

Not only does this administration not appear to learn from any mistakes they also keep starting new “projects” while the old ones are not finished. If anybody needs an “intervention” it’s the guys that draw up such plans and then turn to the American people to tell them it makes them safer.

Jeanne (part 4) - power back, no paper

Our electricity turned back on about 20 minutes ago. Funny enough I was on the phone with my brother saying “I just hope they turn the power back on soon…” as about every electronic device in our condo started beeping, humming and/or flashing.

In other news AP says 400,000 people in the Tampa Bay region are, or have been, without power. Ironically this also includes other regions that have been hit by Jeanne, such as Winterhaven where the printing facility for the paper I work at is. So we can’t have a paper tomorrow and I have the night off.

Jeanne (part 3)

A quick update before my PowerBook’s battery dies on me: Power is out and has been since sometime after 10 this morning. Winds are still very strong, gusts keep howling around the buildings corners and the oaks outside are creaking audibly.

My Web connection is lousy right now so I cannot get to many sites, but the NY Times tells me all I need to know with this headline: “A Slowed Hurricane Jeanne Slams Into Florida, on Way to Tampa.” Seems like it took exactly the same path Frances did, even making landfall in precisely the same location.

My university of course still has not decided if they will be open tomorrow. Several buildings on campus have been turned into shelters and apparently they are serving campus food to the poor saps that had to come to the shelter.

I have no idea if this is actually correct, but the one radar image I could bring up with this shitty connection told me Jeanne is sitting right on top of us.

More later, PB and cell phone willing.

Klingons for Kerry

There is a certain Portland group backing Kerry which say Bush is without honor. And they know a thing or two about honor. Klingons for Kerry.

“A good war is based on honor, not deception,” says K’tok (Earth name: Clyde Lewis), a 40-year-old Klingon from Lair Hill. “The first warrior, President Bush, deceived us all with this war.” link

Maybe they can not only help Kerry win but could help recapture Fallujah? Just a thought. (side note: OS X’s spellchecker tells me “Klingons” is not a word and wants me to use “Clintons” instead. There. Bill’s honor restored. Who knew it would be that easy?)

Jeanne (part 2)

Sigh. This could be pretty bad.

Hurricane Jeanne is heading toward Tampa Bay after all. Projections on Sept. 15 already showed it heading straight for us (post) but it then took a detour circling in the Atlantic, building up strength and is now heading back at us.

The storm has already caused thousands of deaths in Haiti (AP is reporting 1,500, The Independent 2,300 (link), but numbers keep changing) due to flooding. It is now heading across the state of Florida in much the same fashion Frances did a couple of weeks ago. Projections show it could be at least as strong as Frances was when it hits us, but if Jeanne proved one thing its that it defies predictions. The good news is that while this one may be stronger than Frances, it is moving somewhat faster. Ivan was destruction in slow motion which made it almost unbearable to sit out.

We already got rain this afternoon and around dusk it looked really gloomy with fast moving clouds.

Going to a local supermarket to stock up on some essentials (read: things you can cook on a camping stove in case power goes out again) it was pretty much business as usual. That in itself is pretty weird. A massive storm is heading towards us and people just act out the same routine they have done three times in the last two months already.

I guess we’ll just have to wait out the storm. Again. I’ll keep you posted.

Coming attractions

Seems like next week is going to be one of those weeks. Thursday is the date of the first presidential debate and Friday President Bush will be in my neck of the woods.

St. Petersburg Times just posted this brief:

President to rally in St. Petersburg
President Bush will visit St. Petersburg on Friday for a campaign rally, the Bush-Cheney campaign has announced.

Bush will be in Coral Gables on Thursday for the first presidential debate. On Friday, he will speak at a rally in Fort Myers at 10 a.m., then he will come to St. Petersburg for the event at 2:15 p.m. The location was not announced. link

So keep checking back. I may even have some original things to say, you never know.

Bush not even listening to himself?

Columnist Bob Herbert in the New York Times:

As (President George W. Bush) explained in his autobiography, “A Charge to Keep: My Journey to the White House”:

“My inclination was to support the government and the war until proven wrong, and that only came later, as I realized we could not explain the mission, had no exit strategy, and did not seem to be fighting to win.” link

How is it different this time, Mr Bush? Aside from the fact that your ass is on the line this time, of course.

the message

Seems like John Kerry finally found The Message to base his campaign on. In Philadelphia, PA he defined his position on Iraq today.

The invasion of Iraq was a profound diversion from the battle against our greatest enemy ? Al Qaeda — which killed more than three thousand people on 9/11 and which still plots our destruction today. And there?s just no question about it: the President?s misjudgment, miscalculation and mismanagement of the war in Iraq all make the war on terror harder to win. Iraq is now what it was not before the war ? a haven for terrorists. George Bush made Saddam Hussein the priority. I would have made Osama bin Laden the priority. As president, I will finish the job in Iraq and refocus our energies on the real war on terror. link

How do I know even the Bush campaign agrees with this statement? The only way they fire back is with statements like these quoted by the New York Times:

Vice President Dick Cheney said Mr. Kerry would be a weak opponent to terrorists, saying the senator “has given every indication of a lack of resolve and conviction to prevail” in Iraq, The Associated Press reported from Lafayette, La., where Mr. Cheney was campaigning. link

They know what he says is correct, so they respond with the proven method of not attacking his weaknesses but his strength. In this case his strength is that he has been a wartime commander in precisely the kind of war that needs to be fought (albeit, back then we lost it).

Kerry also had some statements in his 3,985 word speech that I could not agree more with:

We will win when ordinary people from Nigeria to Egypt to Pakistan to Indonesia know they have more to live for than to die for. We will win when they once again see America as the champion, not the enemy, of their legitimate yearning to live in just and peaceful societies. We will win when we stop isolating ourselves and start isolating our enemies. The world knows the difference between empty promises and genuine commitment.

He understands that the war on terror cannot be won with military might alone (again: Vietnam has taught us that the hard way) because by killing terrorists you also play into their propaganda that the U.S. is out to bring the muslin world under U.S. control. Military actions are necessary but have to be supplemented what Joseph Nye called “soft power” in order to not create more terrorists than are take out through an attack that was designed to decimate their numbers. Staying strong on the military side while also being supportive on the “soft” side in order to win over what Thomas Friedman kept calling “the muslim street” is of a complexity that Bush could never pull off.

The hard thing to do now is to take this 3,985 word speech (Bush’s speech to the U.N this week was only 3,000) and distill it down in order to get the message out there. But the basis is there now.

not perfect

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld yesterday, commenting on the Iraqi election:

“U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld suggested that Iraq might be able to hold only limited elections, excluding places where violence meant people could not go to polls.

“If there were to be an area where the extremists focused during the election period, and an election was not possible in that area at that time, so be it. You have the rest of the election and you go on. Life’s not perfect,” Rumsfeld told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday.

He said an election could perhaps be held in “three-quarters or four-fifths of the country. But in some places you couldn’t because the violence was too great.”

“Well, so be it. Nothing’s perfect in life, so you have an election that’s not quite perfect. Is it better than not having an election? You bet,” Rumsfeld said.” link

I don’t think I have to comment on that.

Portrayal of situation in Iraq has no basis in reality

In an attempt to portray the developments in Iraq as positive, the Bush administration is ignoring real-life developments.
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Iraq election

Prime Minister Alawi addressing the U.S. Senate this morning:

“As we move forward, the next major milestone will be holding of the free and fair national and local elections in January next. I know that some have speculated, even doubted, whether this date can be met. So let me be absolutely clear: Elections will occur in Iraq on time in January because Iraqis want elections on time. For the skeptics who do not understand the Iraqi people, they do not realize how decades of torture and repression feed our desire for freedom. At every step of the political process to date the courage and resilience of the Iraqi people has proved the doubters wrong. They said we would miss January deadline to pass the interim constitution.” link

I have no doubt that the Iraqi people do not want to go back to a totalitarian regime like Saddam’s. But, and this is a huge but, how can there be elections if major areas of the country are under control of factions? The U.N. has repeatedly stated it would need at least 6-8 months in order to ensure fair elections. Even if tomorrow morning all Iraqis decided on a whim “you know, let’s just be friends and stop killing each other and have an election,” there is simply not enough time until January. This is a fact. Naturally the Bush adminstration, in their state of denial choose not to see it that way.

Update: Josh Marshall asks this valid question on Talkingpointsmemo.com:
“Is Prime Minister Allawi actually part of the Bush campaign? Or is he registered as a 527?”

miss it if you blink

From an MSNBC e-mail newsletter:

“As MSNBC’s Tom Llamas points out, Kerry-Edwards reacted so fast to the Bush campaign’s “Windsurfing” ad yesterday that Edwards’s statement didn’t make sense to his traveling press corps because word of the ad hadn’t reached them and aides didn’t tell the reporters what Edwards was reacting to.

Then Kerry-Edwards fired back with their toughest TV ad to date, charging Bush-Cheney with making jokes while Americans are being killed in combat and beheaded in Iraq.

Kerry yesterday also raised the prospect of a mandatory draft in a second Bush term. NBC’s Kelly O’Donnell says Kerry aides advise to ‘expect more of that.’”

This may very well be the fastest campaign in history.

Voting bans, other hurdles tarnish U.S. democracy

Lists that block eligible voters from casting ballots in the presidential election, as well as hurdles for U.S. citizens abroad, undermine the democratic idea this nation was founded on.
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intelligence

Apparently George W. Bush gave a press conference after the U.N. speech yesterday and made this comment about the gloomy (to say the least) intelligence report the CIA handed him:

“The CIA laid out several scenarios. It said that life could be lousy, life could be OK, life could be better. And they were just guessing as to what the conditions might be like,” he said. “The Iraq citizens are defying the pessimistic predictions.” link (to all accounts I have read the report actually was more suggesting outcomes could be bad, worse or all out civil war)

I have a question: If you don’t trust the CIA to get it right, whom do you trust? And why bother having the CIA work up such a report when you go with gut feeling anyway?

This would be a lot funnier if it was less scary. The President of the United States of America throws out a CIA report because he does not agree with it but invaded Iraq based on information given to him by the likes of Ahmed Chalabi (link).

the next big thing: Regime change in Iran?

Reuters is reporting the U.S. is selling bunker busters to Israel:

“(Reuters) - The United States plans to sell Israel $319 million (178 million pounds) worth of air-launched bombs, including 500 “bunker busters” able to penetrate Iran’s underground nuclear facilities, Israeli security sources say.” link

Here’s the important bit though:

“But a senior Israeli security source who confirmed the Haaretz story told Reuters: ‘This is not the sort of ordnance needed for the Palestinian front. Bunker busters could serve Israel against Iran, or possibly Syria.’”

Ad that to the chatter we are hearing about the White House contemplating intervention in Iran, namely this bit in yesterday’s New York Times:

“The Bush administration has yet to forge a clear strategy on how to deal with Iran, partly because of a lack of attractive options and partly because there is a debate under way between hard-liners and advocates of diplomatic engagement.” (…) “With Iran policy in a state of flux, there is a drive among conservatives to reach out to Iranian dissidents and exiles seeking to overthrow the government, much as efforts were made with Iraqis in the 1990’s.” While Bush has previously stated he is not for a regime change, “the cause of regime change in Iran is expected to be revived if President Bush is re-elected, administration officials say.” link

Truly worrying. Normally I’d say I hope we learned from past mistakes. But this is the Bush administration we are talking about.

irony of epic proportions

Dan Froomkin writes in today’s Washington Post:

“‘We know that dictators are quick to choose aggression, while free nations strive to resolve differences in peace,’ Bush said (in his speech to the United Nations, Tuesday).

Some people see irony there. Others don’t.” link

To me the whole speech had something of a used car dealer trying to sell a car to an unwilling buyer while the dealership is standing in billowing flames behind him.

Price of Sept. 11 memorial not justifiable for USF

Considering the estimated price of up to $65,000 for the Sept. 11 memorial proposed by SG, it is questionable why the University of South Florida would need such a memorial in the first place.
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Issues remain pertinent to students even after 30 years

Even though many things have changed since the ?60s and ?70s, the political landscape and issues concerning USF students have remained surprisingly similar.
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