March 2003 Archives

From an article in the New Yorker by Seymour Hersh. This is a follow up to an earlier post, about the badly forged documents that claimed that Iraq had tried to get uranium to build a nuclear bomb from Niger. These documents were used by George Tenet and Colin Powell to justify to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee why we had to go to war. More importantly, these documents were also referred to by President Bush in his State of the Union Address to justify to the nation why we had to go to war:

"The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa... Saddam Hussein has not credibly explained these activities. He clearly has much to hide."

Here are a few choice paragraphs from Hersh's article about how bad the evidence actually was. Keep in mind that our government has not denied that the documents were fakes, they simply claim that it was an innocent mistake.

The I.A.E.A. had first sought the documents last fall, shortly after the British government released its dossier. After months of pleading by the I.A.E.A., the United States turned them over to Jacques Baute, who is the director of the agency's Iraq Nuclear Verification Office.

It took Baute's team only a few hours to determine that the documents were fake. The agency had been given about a half-dozen letters and other communications between officials in Niger and Iraq, many of them written on letterheads of the Niger government. The problems were glaring. One letter, dated October 10, 2000, was signed with the name of Allele Habibou, a Niger Minister of Foreign Affairs and Coöperation, who had been out of office since 1989. Another letter, allegedly from Tandja Mamadou, the President of Niger, had a signature that had obviously been faked and a text with inaccuracies so egregious, the senior I.A.E.A. official said, that "they could be spotted by someone using Google on the Internet."

The large quantity of uranium involved should have been another warning sign. Niger's "yellow cake" comes from two uranium mines controlled by a French company, with its entire output presold to nuclear power companies in France, Japan, and Spain. "Five hundred tons can't be siphoned off without anyone noticing," another I.A.E.A. official told me.

I've deleted the comments I originally posted here so as not to generate too much antagonism in the sandbox. Read the article, and decide what you think.

Taking a break from war worries? No problem! Ish is here to dish out the memes. Learn why the foam on your pint of black Guinness stout is white! Read wacky internal company memos! Discover the evil secrets behind Disney! Find out how abstract art can be used to torture people! And who says the Internet isn't fun any more?

Sources: Ye Olde Phart, Pop Culture Junk Mail, and urldj.

Russell Hoban. I've been trying to remember the name of this animated movie I saw when I was 7; thanks to imdb I found it . The movie's out of print, so I read the source -- one of the strangest children's books I've read, sort of a Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH meets Velveteen Rabbit meets The Phantom Tollbooth.

Mamacita!

Chasm is a fun Flash game that reminds me of The Neverhood. Via Peerless @ URLDJ.

I'm posting most of this Variety story because you need a subscription to read it. Here's a link, if you're a subscriber.
I'm most intrigued that Mel Gibson's production company is backing this, given Mel's well-established rep as one of Hollywood's quiet but staunch conservatives. Then again, Gibson also loves a good Conspiracy Theory.

Buffy rules.

A damning summary of all the things Bush has said at photo ops, contrasted with the reality of his 2004 budget proposals. A sobering read. But at least he doesn't lie about getting blowjobs. Courtesy of the House Appropriations Committee. See Caught on Film.

Really, this is the headline of an actual editorial. Not just an article, but something put out as an editorial.

Ahem. That's tirade not tyrant . Saddam is a tyrant. Geez.
[Yes, I'm a pedant, but it's really embarassing. And no, I'm not trying to make any broader points about the war.]

Actually deserved the standing ovation. Antonio Banderas can sing! So can Chita Rivera!

BookFilter is like MetaFilter, but just for books. Found on Cowboy Sally.

I got an email asking why Ish wasn't covering the war. Well, it's mainly because there are so many other blogs doing it that I don't have much to add at this point. However I will point you to several blogs set up to provide coverage and analysis: Command Post, Warblogs: cc, and Warblogging all provide aggregated news. Back to Iraq is about to head to Kurdistan, and Dear Raed is the blog of an Iraqi. Unfortunately, CNN asked its reporter Kevin Sites to stop blogging and get back to his job. Speaking of which, I need to get back to mine.

Found on Dissociated Press was this story -- Some States May Skip Presidential Primaries. I'm not sure what makes me more angry about this story. Is it the fact that, at a time when state governments can't even afford to hold elections, we're still talking about cutting taxes? Or that so few people show up to vote in the primaries to begin with that elected officials assume that they're pointless? Or that the basic machinery of democracy can break down here, and no one is paying any attention?

Had lots of fun last night at our Oscar party -- Chris was kind enough to relocate his annual gig to our place so we could save on babysitting costs. The ususal suspects were there. Debbie and I missed the screening of this year's Oscar-nominated film, Y tu mamá también, but Chris lent us the DVD so we'll catch it later. In the Oscar Pool: Winner of this year's Blockbuster prize, a VHS copy of Minority Report, was Trevor with a stunning 15 out of 21 correct. Andrea and I tied for the Cinéaste Prize (most guessed, minus the top six awards), a copy of Sunshine State. And Matt F-B walked away with the Do You Go To The Movies Award, a copy of Battlefield Earth, for having the least number correct. I think it was six. (A trip to the used-and-for-sale section at Blockbuster's provided this year's prizes. Runners-up for the DYGTTMA included Wisegirls, another movie with Mariah Carey, Crossroads, with Britney Spears, and Holy Man, one of the many films Eddie Murphy would like to forget he's made.)

The Oscars were relatively short -- they actually did wrap up by midnight -- and relatively controversy-free, unless you count an award being given to a fugitive, or Eminem winning, or Michael Moore being booed off-stage. Please, Mr. Moore. "Fictition" is not a word. I'm sure that it was the writers in the audience who were giving you the business for this egregious mangling of the English language. Actually, Adrian Brody (providing one of the evening's few spontaneous moments as he smooched Halle Berry) hit the right tone, peace-message-wise. You'll get much further with the classy approach.

I was most happy, though, that Spirited Away took the prize for best Animated Feature. Not only was it the best movie I saw last year, it also shows that the category isn't solely kid stuff.

Oh, and over on the sidebar, there's a new feature -- Conspicuous Consumption, a roundup of the books I'm reading, the DVDs waiting to be watched, and very short reviews of what I've recently finished. Why? Hey, it's the bloggy thing to do. Although I'm thinking maybe I should go to a three-column layout, much as I've resisted it. So, whaddya think?

Neal Stephenson. Gibson meets Pynchon. Brilliant. I had to keep reminding myself that this was written in 1991.

Alan Moore & Eddie Campbell. Like Snow Crash, a great conspiracy tale is always a good read. Footnotes were as interesting as the comic. Alan Moore rules. Thanks for the loaner, Jay!

J. R. R. Tolkien. You think I'm going to wait until the next movie to find out what happens?

McSweeney's does mystery, sci-fi, horror, etc. Really enjoyable, with a few exceptions. Warning: don't read Rick Moody's '"The Albertine Notes" if you suffer from PTSD -- it's about a post-nuclear NYC. Brilliant, but made me unhinged for several days.

A fine romantic comedy. Jon Favreau is the new Albert Brooks.

A fine thriller from the late John Frankenheimer, who directed The Manchurian Candidate (one of the Best of All Time). De Niro actually underplays here, and Jean Reno is always a plus. Cool car chase too.

I really liked Richard Price's book, which is why Spike Lee's adaptation disappointed me so much. Price's book gets in deep with two characters -- the dealer and the cop -- but Lee just turns this into a Boyz in the Hood, message-about-violence-and-drugs movie. And why move it to Brooklyn?

Why did I even bother? Completely predictable. Grrrl flew over the cuckoo's nest.

This one goes to 11. Great extras including commentary from the band.

Phenomenally stupid. You'd think Cronenberg would do something interesting with virtual reality; instead we get something that's obvious and pointless. Go watch Naked Lunch instead.

Figured I'd rent to see what all the fuss was about. So mawkish I couldn't watch the whole thing. Not even the sight of Charlize Theron's ass could save this movie.

Who needs drugs when you've got Elftrance?. Flash on LSD. Via East West Magazine.

Why didn't we see Southern terrorist holds US capital hostage for two days ? Why am I calling him a terrorist ? Well, he claimed to have a bomb, a bomb of the same sort as McVeigh used. The targets he threatened to blow up were a highway, a museum, and a national monument. His grievances were political. Sounds like a terrorist to me. As a matter of fact, he should have been called a suicide bomber since he said he was willing to die for his cause.

You might argue that he was nuts rather than a terrorist, but the two aren't mutually exclusive. As long as his particular brand of craziness is political, he's a terrorist. Or you might claim that he wasn't a terrorist b/c he didn't actually kill anyone. But terrorists use threats all the time to achieve their objective. He made a credible threat to attack civilian targets, and did so to achieve political (and personal) gain.

Will he be detained without trial like Jose Padilla ? After all, he did more than Padilla did (Padilla just talked shit). Will we be investigating farmers and veterans groups for ties to this guy ? Will the farmers who expressed sympathy for what Watson did be brought in for extensive questioning ?

"People here respect what [Dwight Watson] has done," said Jim Bradley, owner of a farm supply store in Watson's Nash County hometown of Whitakers. "People here understand that the land is in your blood like the blood is in your veins." [The Sun News]

Will we ask why his church, family, and elected representatives didn't condemn him unequivocally, and keep doing so repeatedly until everyone had heard ? Will we ask whether the Sheriff who asked for farmers to be treated with more respect after this indicident is simply rewarding terrorism ?

No, we wont. You know why ? Because he was white, a farmer, and waving the American flag. Imagine if this guy had been named Omar, spoke with a different accent, was swarthy, and was pissed off about a different US government policy. Do you think they would have let him go 2 days ? I'll bet the snipers would have taken him out right away. And would this have been a minor story, or a major crisis ?

Via go fish.

Where is Raed ?

Thanks to Trip for the story.

Everyone says it's the preservation of freedom, but these articles are chilling. From Eschaton come many frightening articles about free speech, particularly the right to dissent. First, actual elected officials said this.

Last week, 12 Republican congressmen, including Duncan Hunter, the Californian who is chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, signed a letter to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, raising pointed questions about his policy of allowing journalists to travel with American troops.
The congressmen said journalists — specifically Peter Jennings, the ABC News anchor — were asking soldiers "inappropriate" questions, like what anxiety they had about fighting. The congressmen asked Mr. Rumsfeld to explain why he was not imposing "censorship."

Of course, this article by FAIR documents how network newscasts are "dominated by current and former U.S. officials" and "largely exclude Americans who are skeptical of or opposed to an invasion of Iraq." In the meantime, at home, according to the world's worst judge, the judiciary's not going to protect anything.

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said Tuesday night that government has room to scale back individual rights during wartime without violating the Constitution.
"The Constitution just sets minimums," Scalia said at John Carroll University. "Most of the rights that you enjoy go way beyond what the Constitution requires."
Scalia was responding to a question about the Justice Department's pursuit of terrorism suspects and whether their rights are being violated.
The conservative justice did not discuss what rights he believed are constitutionally protected.

And remember, this is the guy Bush said was a model for his appointments to the Supreme Court. One night later, Scalia banned the media from an event where he was being given the Cleveland City Club's Citadel of Free Speech Award!

Top it all off with the report that the French and German EU Offices were Bugged (yes, I'm making a connection to this), and you see why Robert Byrd said Today I Weep for My Country

M_____ writes:

At least two ways to view France's war opposition: Get piqued and rename menu items, or check out the chess match. France played out a high wire gambit with the aim to thwart U.S. global influence and the potential regional influence of former Soviet satellites seeking E.U. membership. There are, of course, specific economic motives underlying France's gambit, but ultimately the French sought to protect and expand their future global influence.

A perfectly rational example of national best-interests pursuit, and it's loaded with risks. If France could stop the U.S. from going to war, France gains influence. If the U.S. goes to war and gets bogged down, France gains influence. If Saddam unleashes outlawed weapons, France loses influence. If the war goes "well", France stands to lose so much clout it may never recover.

Many already question its seat on the Security Council as representing an antiquated "snapshot of 1945."

Wednesday, with the U.S., two allies and 27 supporting nations on the cusp of war, Foreign Minister de Villepin, in a chapter from the notoriously capricious annals of French diplomacy, said France stood ready to assist U.S.-led forces should Iraq use outlawed weapons.

Facing possible check mate, are the French signaling an imminent endorsement of George W. Bush? Do they merely seek a face-saving middle ground, if such a middle ground exists? Are they positioning themselves for a financial stake in postwar Iraq? Can the French ever again have a day in the sun like the one they've just enjoyed? Will they ever lose those yellow headlights?

No hard feelings in board games. Pass me a croissant and the room temp camembert.

Apparently this is a t-shirt, but I can't find it on the web. Gasp ! a grassroots phenomenon that hasn't gone virtual ?

US Department of Laughs. Gallows humor, to be sure, but, like Get Your War On, a source of much needed laughter.

More levity for all you Ish'ers. This is a collection of Idiot Letters for the internet, in which Brad Christensen writes back to internet email scammers and wastes their time, providing hilarity for all. Via my hometown paper.

Via Capn Design: Just Shut Up, by Neal Pollock: "Nobody gives a shit what anti-war or pro-war writers think. Really. So shut up. That goes double for poets. Shut the hell up, poets. Everybody just shut up."

Who would make a better president: Bush or a box of Tic-Tacs?

A point-by-point dissection of Bush's speech over at WastedIrony.com

I got 166. How bout you? Via Dynagirl

Back to Iraq 2.0

Anger on Iraq Seen as New Qaeda Recruiting Tool. See?

David Block writes:

The IDF calls it an "accident." The way southern lynchings were "suicide."

Thanks to the folks at nycwireless I'm currently blogging via their free connection at Tompkins Square Park. I was on the Lower East Side for a meeting, and I figured I'd take advantage of the nice day to sit outside for a while. A bunch of guys behind me are singing "Dirty Old Town." Hey, Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Some recent random things to blog about:

* I just saw a beaten-up car with about 15 American flags attached to it. Written on it in white block stick-on letters were: GOD BLESS AMERICA, PRAY FOR PRESIDENT BUSH, and, OUR ENEMY IS THE DIRTY PORNOGRAPHIC SEX MOVIES NOT THE TERRORISTS.

* Debbie and I were walking up Flatbush the other night when I was stopped by a guy, West African by the look of him and his accent. He asks me if I'm Muslim, because of my round Turkish/Uzbek hat, which is frequently taken as a sign that I'm either Muslim or Jewish. "No, it's just a hat," I say. "Oh. I'm Muslim," he says, grins, and then strangely adds, "I thought you might be Taliban."

* As we were coming home last night we drove past the candlelight vigil being held across from Chuck Schumer's house. Later in the evening they marched down 7th Avenue, shouting a highly detailed 15-point plan for dealing with Iraq. (No, actually they were shouting "What do we want?" "Peace!" "When do we want it?" "Now!") I showed Ben his first protest march. His response was to try to blow out the candles. We then sat down with the guitar and I sang "The Draft Dodger Rag" and "Ain't Gonna Study War No More" out of the fakebook. I think he preferred "This Old Man," but it was a moment for peace. Not that it makes any difference any way.

Ish still reports on memes, every once in a while (we can't be all war, all the time) and Liz IM'd me about this one: a series of fake Puma ads "in which an anonymous girl kneels in a rather suspicious position facing an equally anonymous guy (in her Puma sneakers) and, upon closer inspection, it looks like there's something sticky on her thigh.". Not surprisingly, Puma's lawyers are sending out cease-and-desist letters. One Puma rep told Felix Salmon, who posted the images at MemeFirst, that "blogs are 'not a media outlet' and that they are therefore not protected on First Amendment grounds." You can see a full-scale version here -- hurry before Puma's lawyers get to it.

Fish speaks in Hebrew, warns that the end is nigh.

Great, just what we need -- another sign of Armageddon. What's next, pigeons speaking in tongues? Found via Gothamist.

In response to M_____' recent challenge to the "War Opponents" to come up with better arguments than those expressed at protests, I started re-reading my thoughts on Iraq I wrote back in September. And, I realized that nothing in the events of the last six months has really changed my opinion. Which you can read as either a failure on Team Bush's part to make the case for war, or just my own stubborn refusal to change my mind. Anyhow, since the questions of the proper methods of crowd estimations, and the larger meaning of poll numbers have been adequately addressed in the comments to his post, I thought I would get to the meat of the matter: why shouldn't we invade Iraq? So, here's the cut-and-paste (although not cut-and-dried) post on Iraq:

Via the Economist (print edition, so no link), here's Bush and Blair covering Endless Love

Via VirtMem.

Check out Crispin Glover's cover of the Michael Jackson song "Ben", as part of the rat-movie remake WILLARD. I haven't seen something corporate be this bizarre since Mon Chi Chi.

Simon Schama's history of anti-Americanism amongst the Europeans, published in the New Yorker. Click here.

Did any other New Yorker readers look at the "special supplement" this week, "The New Yorker at the Movies"? The non-advertising content is mostly a David Denby piece on various New Yorker stories that have been adapted for film. Here's how it starts:

How much of the spritual and creative rumpus in "Adaptation" is pure fiction? The way the movie tells it, Charlie Kaufman . . . was stuck with a difficult task -- adapting an example of "great, sprawling New Yorker stuff" into a two-hour movie. . . . I can't help wondering whether Kaufman's trials were not made up. Isn't it possible that he always wanted to write a movie about himself and exaggerated his troubles as a way of making a meta-movie, a self-referential comedy? . . . I'm convinced that adapting "The Orchard Thief" was no more difficult than adapting many other pieces of magazine writing. Over the years, a wealth of New Yorker material has found its way into the movies, so Kaufman is hardly the first person to face such a tough job; he's just the first to whip himself into a public frenzy over it.

The rest of the supplement is taken up with a largely pointless rundown of all the movies that have been adapted from the New Yorker. Which might be great fodder for movie trivia night (name eight movies adapted from New Yorker stories!) but who else cares? So here's the scene that I imagine:

Seen in this month’s Wired magazine: a semi-interactive walking tour of part of downtown Lost Angeles. 34 North 118 West equips visitors with a GPS receiver, headphones, and a tablet PC “which [sic] displays your movement on a digital version of a century-old map.” Certain points engage an audio story of the area, and the order (here’s the semi-interactive part) you walk the map determines the order you hear the stories. Of course, nobody walks in L.A., so they have room for tablet PCs; here we have to use PDA-scale narrators.

Lest we be accused of hypocrisy over L'Affaire Lott, let me just take this moment to point out: Rep. James Moran (D-VA) is an idiot. In case you missed it, Moran was talking at an antiwar forum on March 3, and had this to say:

"If it were not for the strong support of the Jewish community for this war with Iraq we would not be doing this. The leaders of the Jewish community are influential enough that they could change the direction of where this is going, and I think they should."

Need I point out the obvious -- there is no Jewish conspiracy, deviously pulling the strings of the Bush Cabinet and sending us into war with Iraq. I know this because I'm Jewish, and if there were such a conspiracy, I would have gotten the memo. Now, to be fair, Moran's comments are taken out of context, which he's said in apology after apology. (Hey, Lott's comments were taken out of context too -- it was a roast, remember? Hey guys, I was just making a little funny speech, I didn't really mean we should bring back Jim Crow... Guys, come on, I'll be good... Lemme have the gavel...) Here's what one person who was actually at the forum had to say:

I attended the antiwar forum in Reston on March 3 during which Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.) addressed a range of threats confronting Americans, from the deteriorating economy to the Bush administration's refusal to talk straight about its plans for Iraq. His comments regarding Jewish political influence were only a small part of the evening. A woman who identified herself as Jewish and antiwar wondered why more Jews weren't attending the event, and Rep. Moran answered her. His thoughts are widely supported by Jewish commentators in and out of Israel.

While I don't believe that last sentence for a minute, her spin is basically the same as Moran's:

"I should not have singled out the Jewish community and regret giving any impression that its members are somehow responsible for the course of action being pursued by the administration or are somehow behind an impending war," he said. "What I was trying to say is that if more organizations in this country, including religious groups, were more outspoken against a war, then I do not think we would be pursuing war as an option," he said.

The problem, of course, is that what he now says he wanted to avoid saying is, in fact, exactly what he said: the Jews are behind the War. If he wanted to say, "Look, you're Jewish, you've got to get more Jewish groups to work against the war, everyone's got to apply whatever influence they have," why didn't he say that? It doesn't matter if Moran is himself an anti-Semite (some of my best friends... my son-in-law in fact...), any more than it really mattered if Lott himself was a racist. What matters is the same issue: here you have a politician saying things that have an ugly history and appeal to the ugly thoughts of an ugly section of the population. (Well, maybe the anti-Semites are good-looking, but you know what I mean). Professional politicans should know better before opening their mouths.

Oh, and here's a few articles I pulled from Google News on Moran:

Six Democrats Say Moran Should Not Run Again
Hidden Agenda?
Powell rejects notion that U.S. policy driven by Jewish interests

Patrick writes:

It seems that the chickens are not going into battle after all. For two reasons: 1) It was a stupid idea (chickens don't react to chemicals the same way humans do) and 2) they all died! And these are the people who are going to be re-building Iraq?

M_____ writes:

As part of a global protest against war in Iraq on 2/16, a massive crowd of 200,000 gathered in San Francisco, according to organizers. But on 2/21 the S.F. Chronicle published a state-of-the-art aerial crowd count. They tallied a mere 65,000. Protesters protested the count. An organizer said, "Come on, that's ridiculous!"

This week's New York Times/CBS News poll shows how ridiculous it's not. "Growing Number in U.S. Back War, Survey Finds" makes it clear that no matter what we hear at dinner parties in New York or L.A., a full 66% of Americans favor war, including 51% of Democrats. Moreover, 55% of Americans support war against Iraq "even if it was in defiance of a vote of the Security Council." That's a big "whoa," historically speaking.

And this after Martin Sheen and so many (over-counted?) protests. Clearly it's not working to keep saying "Bush hasn't made his case", "he wants to bomb children", "he wasn't elected", or perpetuate simplistic "no blood for oil" sloganeering. Fact is, the more protesters protest, the more they are getting smoked in the war for public opinion. The only issue is, why?

Per Wednesday's NYT op piece by John McCain and a must-read 2/22 Bill Keller column (archive$), I think war opponents' are losing because they have locked themselves into an apples-oranges debate with the Administration. Stuck hard to principled -- if selective -- moral opposition to war and a disdain for Bush, opponents have had little to say when confronted with what's driving the Administration: A long-wave strategic vision for a re-balanced Middle East. The strategy is risky and the vision awesomely bold or foolhardy, but the Administration's arguments are far more sophisticated - and pertinent - than protesters'. It doesn't matter if you disagree with that statement - 66% and growing disagree with you.

If that's going to change, war opponents need to rise to the level of debate: How they would end stateless terrorism? Foster progressive political-economies in the Middle East? Protect the U.S. from anther 9/11 without further abridging civil liberties? Keep the U.N. from becoming toothless in the face of sustained rogue state defiance? Why is the status quo preferable to Bush's vision? Why were protesters so wrong about Afghanistan and the Gulf War, what they have learned and why is Iraq different?

Right here on the Ish, it would be helpful to shed cliches and deal in the complex facts of terrorism, imminent war, and a possibly redrawn world order. Or, continuing down the present primrose path, protesters may be left as they were after the liberation of Kuwait - caked in history's dust.

From the Irish National Public Service Broadcasting Organisation via metafilter comes this story about how the Pentagon threatens to target journalists in Iraq.. Listen to the Broadcast here, about 49 minutes into it. Kate Adie, a senior correspondent from the BBC, has this to say via a transcript here:

Kate Adie: I was told by a senior officer in the Pentagon, that if uplinks --that is the television signals out of... Bhagdad, for example-- were detected by any planes ...electronic media... mediums, of the military above Bhagdad... they'd be fired down on. Even if they were journalists ..' Who cares! ' said.. [inaudible] .."
Tom McGurk: "...Kate ...sorry Kate ..just to underline that. Sorry to interrupt you. Just to explain for our listeners. Uplinks is where you have your own satellite telephone method of distributing information."
Kate Adie: " The telephones and the television signals."
Tom McGurk: " And they would be fired on? "
Kate Adie: " Yes. They would be 'targeted down,'
said the officer."

Should I be glad that the Bush administration is so shameless, or sad that they feel so emboldened? Let's see how long it takes the Gray Lady to report this one...

LONDON (Reuters) - Picking the next worldwide hit song could soon be as easy as running a software program. Hit Song Science (HSS), software developed by Barcelona-based company Polyphonic HMI, is designed to spot the hits before they are released.

The company says it picked out Norah Jones for stardom months before her debut album garnered eight Grammy awards.

"The HSS software looks for songs that match the musical traits of known hits," according to New Scientist magazine.

It identifies characteristics such as melody, harmony, beat variation, tempo, rhythm and pitch that send songs to the top of the charts.

Although there are millions of songs on the market, the biggest sellers are found in clusters with similar characteristics.

But those special traits are not always obvious. Irish rock group U2 and Beethoven had similar values according to the software. The Beatles and Elvis also matched up with their distinctive traits.

"There are a limited number of mathematical formulas for hit songs," said Polyphonic HMI's chief executive Mike McCready.

"We don't know why," he added.

Several major record companies are trying out the software to increase their chances of putting their money on a winner.

Whoops ! Whaddya mean the letters claiming that Iraq was trying to get nuclear material were forgeries !

Blood for oil? You bet!
While the rest of the country eagerly anticipates war with Iraq, one lucky soul will reap the benefits right away. That's right, we're giving
away free gasoline to the winner of our Baghdad Bonanza Betting pool. So fire up the S.U.V. - it won't be long now!

Here's how it works:

Players guess when the war will finally begin.
Each guess requires a $5 donation.
The player with the winning guess (closest to actual start of hostilities) will receive prepaid gas cards valued at 20% of the total
pool. The remainder will be donated to humanitarian organizations helping Iraqi civilian casualties.

Following the time-honored tradition of kicking off World Wars with an assassination in or around Serbia,
the Serbian Prime Minister has been assassinated. I know, I know, the Serbians were the assassins in the case of Archduke Ferdinand, so its a little backwards. Then again, we were the good guys in World War I, so maybe the symmetry makes sense.

The latest addition to our military menagerie to be deployed to the gulf are sea lions. Yup -- war fighting, it's not just for chickens any more.

Man vs. Blimp.

Freedom Fries, and Freedom Toast. I'd write more, but my wife and I have some Freedom kissing to do.

Patrick writes:

According to Bob Dole, we are not going to war over oil, it's to protect our IRAs, 401(K)s and 529 Plans:

"This is a different kind of war. This is global -- a war to protect American lives and preserve the American way of life. Which means, among other things the freedom to save or invest our own money instead of Washington taking it from us," Dole argued on Sunday's "60 Minutes".

I understand Saddam is also against school vouchers!

Patrick also wanted me to inform you that he's been busy exercising his freedom to make on-line investments:

I'm sorry. I didn't watch the Presidential press conference because I was busy speculating on E-bay for a giant Chee-to. It's "beyond dangerously cheesy", according to an industry expert.

Can't decide if this is genius or lunacy:

An Appeal from Dr. Helen Caldicott To The Pope

Dear Friends

I write this appeal for your help as a pediatrician, a mother, and a grandmother -- and I am writing about the lives of tens of thousands of children.

Although the current administration has demonstrated it has no reservations about slaughtering up to 500,000 innocents in Iraq, there is one person whose life they absolutely will not risk. That person is Pope John Paul II. While the Pope has already formally denounced the proposed war, calling it a defeat for humanity, as well as sent his top spokesperson to meet with Saddam Hussein, he now must take a historically unprecedented action of his own and travel to Baghdad. The Pope's physical presence in Iraq will act as the ultimate human shield, during which time leaders of the word nation can commit themselves to identifying and implementing a peaceful solution to this war that the world's majority clearly does not support.

To persuade the Holy Father to take this unusual but potent action, he must hear from you and millions of others around the world who have already been inspired to stand up and speak out for peace. A mountain of surfacemail, email, faxes, and phone calls are our devices to inspire him.

Please understand that your taking just a few minutes right now to communicate with him may ultimately spare the lives of thousands of innocent people who at this moment live in complete terror from the threat of an imminent U.S.-led military strike on their homeland.

The email I received goes on to provide the text of a letter, and requests that people send it directly to His Holiness, as a personal communication.

Maybe they're right. We wouldn't bomb the Pope... but what an arrogant request.

Firm linked to Cheney wins Iraqi oil-field contract. Sighhh.

Another great moment for crime and punishment. People like to assume that criminals are ashamed of their actions (because, the reasoning goes, law-abiding citizens would be ashamed, and deep down, we're all the same, right?) The problem with this theory is there is very little evidence that supports it, and quite a bit of evidence that refutes it. Turns out most people aren't ashamed of their actions at all - they only imagine they would be ashamed if they did something they aren't otherwise inclined to do. If you are inclined to do it, you just do it, and justify it to yourself as reasonable. So using "shame" to deter undesirable behavior generally just doesn't work.

The latest excellent example of this comes to us from Oklahoma City, where law enforcement thought a great way to cut down on prostitution would be to televise pictures of prostitutes and their johns on a public service station titled "John TV." The problem? Excellent ratings. Police started noticing the same people were being featured on John TV over and over again. Basically, it was acting as an advertising service for local hookers. Police pulled the plug when they realized "it was almost a promotional thing for them. It wasn't a deterrent at all."

The National Security Archive at George Washington University has compiled a collection of declassified U.S. documents covering relations with Iraq during the 1980s. In the words of the site

The documents show that during this period of renewed U.S. support for Saddam, he had invaded his neighbor (Iran), had long-range nuclear aspirations that would "probably" include "an eventual nuclear weapon capability," harbored known terrorists in Baghdad, abused the human rights of his citizens, and possessed and used chemical weapons on Iranians and his own people. The U.S. response was to renew ties, to provide intelligence and aid to ensure Iraq would not be defeated by Iran, and to send a high-level presidential envoy named Donald Rumsfeld to shake hands with Saddam (20 December 1983).

You can find all of this, including a video of the famous (or not so famous) handshake here: Shaking Hands with Saddam Hussein

John Walker Lindh Attacked in Jail

And somehow he only got a bruise on his forehead? What, is he in the Michael Milken wing of the big house?

The Onion | Bush Offers Taxpayers Another $300 If We Go To War I agree. Those new iPods sure do look cool...

As we did last year, Debbie and I put together our roundup of the Best and Worst Movies We Watched During 2002. Of course since most of our movie intake these days is via Netflix, (do you know how much babysitting costs?) most of these weren't actually released during 2002, so our list looks different from everyone else's. But hey, we're eclectic that way.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is conducting an online poll about war in Iraq. Who knows whether or not he'll listen to the poll, but it would be interesting if the majority of people said one thing and he went ahead and did another. Anyway, I thought you'd like the opportunity one way or another. Vote here.

This site lets you look up old EXchanges (like PEnnsylvania-6500). Thanks to Emily for the link.

Patrick writes:

ALBANY MAN ARRESTED FOR TRESPASSING
EVERY NEWS WEB SITE HAS MISLEADING HEADLINE

If you are reading this now you have probably already seen the headline somewhere "Man arrested for wearing Peace T-Shirt". If you read the stories you will find he was not. He was arrested after being asked by security guards at a mall to either leave or take off his Peace t-shirt. When he refused to do either, the security guards called the cops and the perp (a lawyer who works for the state, BTW) said "go ahead and arrest me." So they did -- after about an hour. I am not saying this isn't a significant story. It is. But to say or imply he was arrested for expressing himself alone is wrong. As the law stands now, the mall is private property. I don't think anyone could say that person could not throw someone out of their apartment for disagreeing with their t-shirt. Nor could you ague that said person couldn't throw said someone out of their bar/restaurant/bookstore/or beauty parlor. I believe you could make a strong argument that the area between individual shops at a mall is a public space (most malls require significant government infrastructure support paid for with tax dollars) even though it is privately owned and operated. I am sure this point will be made as the case winds through the courts. And that is the interesting this about this case: defining private vs. public property. It is not about freedom of speech. News organizations should know the difference.

[NB: links were added by me, not Patrick.]

New York Songlines is another attempt to map stories onto the city streets (like Mr. Beller's Neighborhood and of course our own NYC Bloggers). I like what they've written as their prolegomenon:

The Aboriginal Australians were able to navigate across their harsh and unforgiving land by memorizing and following the Songlines--an intricate series of song cycles that identified the landmarks that one needed to pass to get where one needed to go. These songs described how the features of the land were created and named during the Dreamtime, the timeless era when the giants, heroes and monsters that serve as totems for the Aboriginal tribes walked the earth. By singing the songs in the proper order, the Aborigines could walk across their nation's vast deserts and always know where they were.

Far from aboriginal, most New Yorkers weren't even born here, and this overpopulated isle may seem like the opposite of Australia's trackless deserts. After a slight period of disorientation, we generally find our way around all right, whether we rely on street signs, subway maps or the taxi driver's orienteering skills. North of 14th Street and west of 6th Avenue, at least, the streets mainly run in straight lines and meet at right angles, and you can usually get where you're going just by following your feet.

But by relying on maps, signs and Manhattan's perpendicular geography, New Yorkers have given up something important: a sense of place. If you can get from your starting place to your destination without knowing anything about the points in between, chances are you won't pay much attention to them. And we do hurry about town without looking up, many of us, walking by the same buildings hundreds of times without noticing what they are or even what they look like.

Which is a shame, because New York has its own giants, heroes and monsters who left their marks and their names on the land around us. If we learn their stories which are written on our streets and avenues, we'll have a much better chance of knowing where we've been, and where we're going.

To this end I offer these as the New York Songlines. An oral cultures uses songs as the most efficient way to remember and transmit large amounts of information; the Web is our technological society's closest equivalent. Each Songline will follow a single pathway, whether it goes by one name or several; the streets I plan to follow from river to river, while the avenues will at least at first be read only in part, focusing on the upper Downtown/lower Midtown part of the island I know best.

Check it out. This might go places. I mean, it goes places, of course, but... well, you know.

Mike Shurkin, our Resident France Expert, has written a critique of the current wave of frog-bashing. It's not that the French are right -- it's that we're wrong about why they're wrong:

I have to confess that I find some of the current wave of anti-French rhetoric amusing. I giggle every time I contemplate cheese-eating surrender monkeys. I even agree with some of what is being said about the French in the pages of so many newspapers and journals these past few weeks. Indeed, after all the years that I have spent studying France and studying in France, I have compiled a litany of crimes, treacheries, and general absurdities perpetuated by the French that is longer than some library catalogues. It's just like getting to know a close friend or lover: anyone who spends as much time getting to know another culture, nation, or place as I have France cannot help but become intimately familiar with the bad as well as the good. It's normal.

What I can no longer tolerate, however, is the level to which the discourse in the United States has fallen. I have seen little evidence that any of the people publishing on France these days can transcend the usual clichés or resist the temptation of jingoism. This is a pity, for two primary reasons. First, the anti-French frenzy has enabled those who pass as public intellectuals in our country, the men and women who write for The New York Times, the Washington Post, etc., to avoid thinking and writing about the many substantive issues that are tangled up in France's opposition to the United States' campaign to make war on Iraq. This unsophisticated, superficial bullying is exactly what Europeans have in mind when they critique the ugly American. Second, we are so busy with our clichés about the French that we miss the deeper, complicated, and intensely troubling reality of French anti-Americanism. In other words, not only do we fail to recognize what may be valid about their criticism of us, but we fail to recognize where they are truly and deeply wrong.

Thanks, Nancy!

This week's New Yorker features a great overview of the strange career of Reuben Sturman, a man with a better claim to being the Father of Pornography than the usual suspects. My favorite part? An excerpt from his 1978 obscenity trial over the movie "Cake Orgy." The prosecutor warned the jury that "Cake Orgy" was "one of the most disgusting, nauseating films you'll ever see. You'll never eat a marshmallow pie again as long as you live." Perhaps it should have been titled "Pie Orgy?" Or am I not using my imagination enough?

I wonder how it would stack up against American Pie? This one time, in band camp . . . .

I found this story of bullying quite disturbing for obvious personal reasons. It also troubles me that while the child was charged with a felony, and will have to live with that for the rest of his life, just for slapping the student who was harassing him. Meanwhile, even though the victim of bullying had to move schools 7 times to escape bullying, no charges were ever filed against the students tormenting him. This is the problem with zero tolerance for violence policies. Unless they are combined with zero tolerance against bullying, and enforcement of the anti-bullying rules, anti-violence policies end up favoring the tormentors since their actions are less overt. Personally, I'd rather see schoolyard fights than this sort of travesty.

[On a lighter note, a friend of mine who endured much worse in the heartland was able to come out of it remarkably unscathed, even though he was not a big guy. His main complaint was that he got tired of beating up all the kids who picked fights with him. But that was in an era when you could stand up and defend yourself]

Just click here ...

New Jersey prosecutors say they handled 62 "international terrorism" indictments last year - but of those, all but two involved Middle Eastern students accused of paying impostors to take English tests for them, according to a newspaper analysis.

For the whole article, click here

Article from Ha'aretz, in Israel ... When the Israelis think that the US has gone too far for security, maybe we should listen. I could understand if this was about stopping fraud, but it really doesn't seem to be.

Selected excerpts follow [these are non-contiguous quotes]:

"I don't know another Web site that has a privacy policy as flexible as eBay's," says Joseph Sullivan. A little bit later, Sullivan explains what he means by the term "flexible." Sullivan is director of the "law enforcement and compliance" department at eBay.com, the largest retailer in the world.

"We don't make you show a subpoena, except in exceptional cases," Sullivan told his listeners. "When someone uses our site and clicks on the `I Agree' button, it is as if he agrees to let us submit all of his data to the legal authorities. Which means that if you are a law-enforcement officer, all you have to do is send us a fax with a request for information, and ask about the person behind the seller's identity number, and we will provide you with his name, address, sales history and other details - all without having to produce a court order.

A brief visit to the company's Web site reveals that the "user contract" that visitors are supposed to read before agreeing to the conditions is 4,023 words long. One paragraph makes reference to the site's "privacy policy." The user has to click on a link and is diverted to another document that is some 3,750 words long. It then takes another 2,390 words to reach the section about which Sullivan told the legal authorities: The user's privacy is solely up to eBay

Sullivan is even more forthcoming. Aware of how hard the police work, he decided to help as much as possible. "Tell us what you want to ask the bad guys. We'll send them a form, signed by us, and ask them your questions. We will send their answers directly to your e-mail." Essentially, by engaging in what seems like impersonation, eBay is exploiting its relationship with customers to pass on information to law enforcement authorities. Why? "We take various steps in order to fight fraud and provide a safe buying environment for our numerous users," says Pursglove.

"In order to prevent misuse of authority, the law ensures that authorized impersonation will only be used with persons suspected of carrying out illegal activity," says Pursglove. But eBay's practice is to impersonate people on a regular basis, for law-enforcement objectives. However, "there need not be a proven connection or well-founded suspicion of a crime having been performed," claims Kozlovski.

Really fascinating interview with Noah Glass about audioblogger, which I'm posting in hopes that our esteemed jefe will implement it. The cool thing is that this interview is done using the audioblogger tool. Read/listen all about it here.

DialABC

He has an important point about the recently arrested terrorists with the important documents. There was also a recent plot to blow up a US military base ... but that got barely any press since it involved US soldiers and white folks. However, had it involved anyone of arab extraction, even if their family had been here for 100 years, I'd bet my next week's salary that it would have been on the front page of all the papers.

From the Observer

[a few excerpts follow]

Secret document details American plan to bug phones and emails of key Security Council members

The disclosures were made in a memorandum written by a top official at the National Security Agency - the US body which intercepts communications around the world - and circulated to both senior agents in his organisation and to a friendly foreign intelligence agency asking for its input.

The memo describes orders to staff at the agency, whose work is clouded in secrecy, to step up its surveillance operations 'particularly directed at... UN Security Council Members (minus US and GBR, of course)' to provide up-to-the-minute intelligence for Bush officials on the voting intentions of UN members regarding the issue of Iraq.

The leaked memorandum makes clear that the target of the heightened surveillance efforts are the delegations from Angola, Cameroon, Chile, Mexico, Guinea and Pakistan at the UN headquarters in New York - the so-called 'Middle Six' delegations whose votes are being fought over by the pro-war party, led by the US and Britain, and the party arguing for more time for UN inspections, led by France, China and Russia.

The memo is directed at senior NSA officials and advises them that the agency is 'mounting a surge' aimed at gleaning information not only on how delegations on the Security Council will vote on any second resolution on Iraq, but also 'policies', 'negotiating positions', 'alliances' and 'dependencies' - the 'whole gamut of information that could give US policymakers an edge in obtaining results favourable to US goals or to head off surprises'.

We did.

Iraq's Weapons Declaration underscores a tragic irony: The United States, the world's leading arms supplier, is taking the world to war to stop arms proliferation in the very country to which it shipped chemicals, biological seed stock and weapons for more than 10 years.

According to the December declaration, treated with much derision from the Bush administration, U.S. and Western companies played a key role in building Hussein's war machine. The 1,200-page document contains a list of Western corporations and countries -- as well as individuals -- that exported chemical and biological materials to Iraq in the past two decades.

Embarrassed, no doubt, by revelations of their own complicity in Mideast arms proliferation, the U.S.-led Security Council censored the entire dossier, deleting more than 100 names of companies and groups that profited from Iraq's crimes and aggression. The censorship came too late, however. The long list -- including names of large U.S. corporations -- Dupont, Hewlett-Packard, and Honeywell -- was leaked to a German daily, Die Tageszeitung. Despite the Security Council coverup, the truth came out.

USA, New York -- Sacked for refusing direct orders to remove his turban and trim his beard, former New York Police Department officer, Amric Singh, is to file a lawsuit on Tuesday morning, March 04, 2003.

The federal civil rights lawsuit against Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly and the New York City Police Department in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York will charge that the NYPD's turban prohibition constitutes unlawful employment discrimination.

Subsequently, a press briefing is to be held at the Interfaith Center of New York, located at 40 East 30th Street (near Park Avenue). Sikh police officers from London and Toronto, as well as members of various inter-faith religious communities are to be present at the briefing.