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Saturday, October 18, 2003

Just because

Less than two months to go!!! I'm so excited!

posted by Jenny at 2:35 PM |

Friday, October 17, 2003

From the people who brought us the "log the forest to save the trees" legislation: save endangered animals by killing them!

Besides protecting native plants and animals, the Endangered Species Act extends its coverage to wildlife in other countries. At present, 561 foreign species, nearly half of which are mammals, are listed as endangered or threatened under the act. Included among them are the snow leopard, the gorilla, and the South African mountain zebra.

...

In the past, officials of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have interpreted the law to bar the commercial importation of endangered plants and animals to the United States. The clear reasoning behind this refusal was that U.S. demand would further deplete these species' already limited numbers.

The current administration, however, argues that the burgeoning U.S. market for sporting trophies, hides, pelts and other animal parts, as well as the demand for exotic pets and circus animals, could create positive conservation incentives. Section 10(1)(A) of the Endangered Species Act allows the Fish and Wildlife Service to grant exemptions to the law's ban on endangered species imports in order to "enhance the propagation or survival of the affected species." Invoking this section, the administration proposes to permit the importation of wildlife from countries with effective conservation programs.

Imports would be allowed, specifically, in cases where the country has a conservation plan by which the number of wildlife that are killed or captured is offset by increases in the target population. The overall net impact of such a plan should, theoretically, be positive.

The administration's draft policy is crowded with the language of incentive and sustainable use. Its promised benefits are speculative and long-term, however, while its risks are direct and immediate.

By opening up the American market to endangered species from abroad, the proposal creates direct incentives for the depletion of existing wildlife stocks. In contrast, the promised overall growth in endangered species populations will result only in those countries where the conservation plan is well thought out, where the authorities are genuinely interested in implementing it, and where the circumstances are such that implementation is actually possible. Given the corruption, disorganization, and competing priorities in many countries, it is doubtful that the proposed influx of American cash will have the desired effect.

In the end, what the change does is allow Fish and Wildlife Service officials to gamble with the future of foreign wildlife stocks. It substitutes a speculative weighing of incentives for a bright line rule.

posted by Jenny at 9:34 AM |

Jim at the Rittenhouse Review makes an excellent point in this recent post:

I wonder what would happen if I were to write and have published an essay that began like this:

It’s the most wonderful week of the year. If you’re Jewish. And annoying.

It’s “Be Jewish Week” at universities all across the matzoed plains. Throughout the country, students are sharing their Hebraic proclivities. Colleges sponsor Jewish rallies. They put out “pro-tolerance” fliers. They hang gigantic banners on telephone poles and wires surrounding major cities in honor of those who are brave enough to tell us the difference between fleishig and milchig.

Here’s a piece of news for proponents of Be Jewish Week: None of the rest of us care. We don’t care which day you consider the sabbath and how much you paid for your synagogue seats. You can parade around in your yarmulkes as much as you please. You can hold as many mikvahs as you want. You can wear shirts reading “Jesus is a Phoney.” You can wear a star of David on your backpack. Just don’t expect us to care.

I’m not sure what would happen, but I bet I wouldn’t be a columnist for any reputable organization by the end of the day. But then again, the above is an almost word-for-word parody, if you will, of tripe published today at Townhall.com, so, in the end, what does it matter?

(See also: TBogg and World O’ Crap.)

It's a parody, but if you follow the links, you'll find it mimicks just about word-for-word a derogatory article about Coming Out week. Jim is right--it's pretty amazing what conservatives can get away with rhetorically these days, particularly since a common belief among them is that they are under persecution from us "libruls"...

posted by Jenny at 5:25 AM |

Thursday, October 16, 2003

Hesiod has been following the GI astroturf phenomenon from the beginning (the latest on that can be found here at USA Today)...now he's posted a poll of the morale of troops stationed in Iraq to see how the chips really stack up. Check it out!

posted by Jenny at 1:58 PM |

Tuesday, October 14, 2003

Yet another reason why Tom Tomorrow rocks...

posted by Jenny at 12:21 PM |

Monday, October 13, 2003

Despicable

It's been awhile since I've posted some GI news to curdle your blood. How's this for starters?

US soldiers driving bulldozers, with jazz blaring from loudspeakers, have uprooted ancient groves of date palms as well as orange and lemon trees in central Iraq as part of a new policy of collective punishment of farmers who do not give information about guerrillas attacking US troops.

...

"They made a sort of joke against us by playing jazz music while they were cutting down the trees," said one man. Ambushes of US troops have taken place around Dhuluaya. But Sheikh Hussein Ali Saleh al-Jabouri, a member of a delegation that went to the nearby US base to ask for compensation for the loss of the fruit trees, said American officers described what had happened as "a punishment of local people because 'you know who is in the resistance and do not tell us'." What the Israelis had done by way of collective punishment of Palestinians was now happening in Iraq, Sheikh Hussein added.

...

The children of one woman who owned some fruit trees lay down in front of a bulldozer but were dragged away, according to eyewitnesses who did not want to give their names. They said that one American soldier broke down and cried during the operation. When a reporter from the newspaper Iraq Today attempted to take a photograph of the bulldozers at work a soldier grabbed his camera and tried to smash it. The same paper quotes Lt Col Springman, a US commander in the region, as saying: "We asked the farmers several times to stop the attacks, or to tell us who was responsible, but the farmers didn't tell us."

...

Asked how much his lost orchard was worth, Nusayef Jassim said in a distraught voice: "It is as if someone cut off my hands and you asked me how much my hands were worth."

Via American Samizdat.

posted by Jenny at 2:05 PM |

WTF?!

posted by Jenny at 2:01 PM |

The Day of the Locust

This fascinating article at MotherJones yields insight into what was likely a huge factor in Ah-nold's reelection: white fear.

In my microcosm, San Diego, part of the answer could be found at the lower end of the AM dial. At KOGO 600, "San Diego's Radio Mayor," Roger Hedgecock, presides over what, even before the official campaign began), was boastfully labeling itself "Recall Radio." A defrocked former mayor accused of conspiracy and perjury in the 1970s, Hedgecock, who occasionally fills in for Rush Limbaugh on national hate radio, takes credit for the "heavy lifting" that put Arnold Schwarzenegger in the governor's mansion in Sacramento. Republicans acknowledge that he has been the recall's most influential voice in Southern California.

From 3 to 6 PM, "Roger," as he is universally called by his more than 300,000 regular listeners, rules over afternoon freeway gridlock in a vast radio market that extends as far north as Santa Barbara. Southern California, of course, has the worst traffic congestion in the country and the ever lengthening commutes are a continuous, grinding source of free-floating anger. Hedgecock deftly plays off this afternoon, stuck-in-traffic frustration. He is the angry tribune of white guys in their 4X4 Dodge pickups and Ford Expeditions.

For almost two decades, his major rage has been the Brown Peril, the supposed "Mexican invasion" of California. He was a key instigator of anti-immigrant Proposition 187 in 1994 as well as local semi-vigilante protests against border-crossers. On the eve of the recall, he continually warned his listeners that the Mexican threat was now of apocalyptic proportions, given Gray Davis's signing of a bill to allow undocumented immigrants to obtain drivers' licenses.

"This is the end of American democracy, the end of fair elections," he fulminated. "Vast numbers of operatives," he warned, were enlisting newly-ID'd immigrants to cast hundreds of thousands of illegal ballots to keep Davis in power. San Diego, moreover, was facing an "invasion" of trade-unionists from alien Los Angeles who would "tear down pro-recall signs" and generally terrorize neighborhoods. Roger urged locals to defend their homes and resist the hoards of illegals and LA unionists "in the spirit of 1776."

In several weeks of listening to Roger's screeds, punctuated by hallelujahs and amen's from the choir on their cellular phones, the only issue that came remotely close to the same decibel level as illegal immigrants (and "the so-called Chicano community") was a hike in the registration tax on cars. Hedgecock ignored the fact that the automatic escalation of the car tax (2% of its value) had originated in Wilson-era legislation. Instead, he directly connected it to illegal immigrants "whose cost to the state of California is almost exactly the budget deficit." "That's how bad things are, ladies and gentlemen," he intoned constantly. Car taxes and wetbacks were his incessant themes.

The mainstream media has done a poor job of documenting the organization of the recall at the grassroots level where AM voices like Roger's, or his counterpart Eric Hogue's in Sacramento, rouse thousands of mini-Terminators. As a result, there has been an overly respectful legitimation of economic populism in the recall dynamic and only a faint registration of the central role of traditional racist demagoguery and the revival of the Brown Peril rhetoric that made Pete Wilson the most hated figure in the state's Latino neighborhoods. To adapt a rap phrase, "It's all about fear of a brown planet."

Yet, I don't want to suggest that this is a simple repeat of anti-immigrant Proposition 187 in the context of a recession and a nationwide crisis of state financing. Arnold Schwarzenegger does add something genuinely novel to the mix. He is not just another actor in politics but an extraordinary lightning rod, both in his movie persona and in real life, for dark, sexualized fantasies about omnipotence.

Pleasure in the humiliation of others -- Schwarzenegger's lifelong compulsion -- is the textbook definition of sadism. It is also the daily ration of right-wing hate radio. As governor he becomes the summation of all smaller sadisms, like those of Roger Hedgecock that in turn manipulate the "reptile within" of millions of outwardly affluent but inwardly tormented commuter-consumers. In their majesty, the predominantly white voters of California's inland empires and gated suburbs have anointed a clinically Hitlerite personality as their personal savior.

A read well worth your time.

posted by Jenny at 1:45 PM |

The spear in the other's heart is the spear in your own. You are he. --Teachings of Surak, Star Trek

I have done my share of quiet scoffing about Rush Limbaugh's exposure as a drug abuser...however, I think all of us who gloat about the suffering of others, regardless of how hypocritical they are exposed to be, regardless of what horrifying things that have come out of their mouths, could stand to reflect on the implications of our words. Aren't we doing the exact same thing we condemned Rush for doing? And doesn't this feed the fire of those who would lump us all together as hypocritical "liberals"?

Hell yes, I'm glad he's been exposed for what he is. But if we get past the immediate feelings of victory, we can look at the social and emotional underpinnings of Rush Limbaugh--after all, everyone has a reason for behaving like an ass...and as this article reveals, particularly in Rush's situation, those who act like the biggest jerks are often coming from a place of insecurity, alienation, and desperately-needed escapism.

Not to say that Rush deserves to get off the hook for this one. No way. But maybe we shouldn't laugh so loud, because regardless of his views, he's in his own personal hell--and we should acknowledge his pain and our common humanity while we point out his hypocrisy.

posted by Jenny at 1:21 PM |

Leno Revealed

I know, I know--there are more important things going on in the world. But please indulge: I am really enjoying this small avalanche of commentary on Jay Leno, who, as I explain below, has always irked me a bit. The Cursor links to an LA Weekly article that illuminates motives behind Leno's most recent shtick:

There he was, front and center, to introduce Schwarzenegger Tuesday evening. "Tonight is a testament of just how important one appearance on The Tonight Show can be, ladies and gentlemen," Leno self-congratulated.

CNN called it "Leno’s big political moment." Now, he’s a big political target.

The reason is that these days America expects its late-night comedians to be evenhanded when it comes to political humor. These hosts don’t invade bedrooms around the country; they’re invited. And if even the faintest whiff of unfairness taints their jokes, it’s time for viewers to reach for the remote and change the channel.

Which is why Leno’s oh-so-obvious partisanship is so perplexing. Even a dope knows the country is more divided politically now than it’s been in recent decades. So why in the world is Leno suddenly taking sides? Undoubtedly, Leno will brush aside the criticism with a lame explanation that he was there purely out of friendship with Arnold. And that’s true to an extent, since Schwarzenegger has been a frequent and favorite Tonight Show guest dating back to the days when Leno was trailing Letterman badly in the ratings as the two comedians finally went head to head in the late night. And it was because of that buddy-buddy relationship that Leno could squeeze in the occasional joke about those sexual-harassment allegations against Schwarzenegger: "Today, Arnold revealed his health-care plan. Every woman gets a free breast exam." Sadly, the implication by Leno, and echoed by Republican mouthpieces, was that all those women were supposedly lucky to be groped by the star.

But the real truth is that, for some time now, Leno has been leaning right and going soft on President Bush, judging by jokes on The Tonight Show.

Case in point: President Clinton hasn’t been in office for nearly three years now. Yet there’s Leno night after night still giggling about Bill and Monica. He even recently managed to combine his partisanship for Schwarzenegger with his criticism of Clinton in this guffaw: "On talk radio, they’ve been comparing Clinton and Schwarzenegger — you know, this whole thing, like, ‘Oh, what’s the difference between the Clinton women and the Schwarzenegger women?’ I’ll tell you the difference — about 200 pounds." The implication, of course, is that Arnold’s non-consensual sex is somehow more palatable than Clinton’s consensual sex because the actor had better taste in women.

It wasn’t always so. Before 9/11, Leno and his writers were deriding Bush almost nightly, blaming him for what was clearly even back then a worsening economy. There was even a tasteless Cheney heart joke thrown in every now and again for good measure. Also, Leno wouldn’t stop hyping the Supreme Court–decided 2000 presidential election. Leno’s nonstop jokes were barbs undercutting the legitimacy of the Bush White House.

But regular watchers of The Tonight Show could clearly discern that the content and tone of Leno’s monologue changed dramatically after 9/11. It was to be expected: His jokes became not just more patriotic but even jingoistic. That "raghead" stereotype of all Muslims became grist for his humor. But Leno was still finding his footing after playing No. 2 in kudos to Letterman, who had given television what was praised as one of its most important entertainment hours of the entire season on 9/17.

In contrast, Leno’s speechifying looked artificial and awkward. He needed a new shtick.

Leno found one: siding with the Bush administration no matter what the circumstances. Leno’s White House promotion was still riding high even when the nation’s terrorist trembling had nearly subsided. After Bush went after France, so did Leno. When Bush went after Iraq, so did Leno. Last month, he even found a way to combine both issues in a single joke: "Well, there are now reports that France may agree to train Iraqi soldiers. Why? I thought Iraqis already knew how to surrender."

Meanwhile, "NBC supports the politically partisan Leno"...hardly a surprise given the rising culture of politically partisan infotainment spreading across the USA.

posted by Jenny at 12:52 PM |

GI Astroturf

Well, the latest astroturf campaign floating around the media is particularly insidious because it's sticking words in the mouths of US soldiers in Iraq. Hesiod has the lowdown--check and see if it's appeared in a newspaper near you.

posted by Jenny at 4:50 AM |

Kudos (I think) to George Monbiot, Salma Yaqoob and their compatriots for forming a coalition to stand up to Tony Blair and the Labour party in upcoming elections...being woefully uninformed in British politics, I can't speculate as to whether they actually have a chance--but my optimistic side wants to believe that the Brits are so pissed at their current government that they'll vote them out of Parliament. Britain's Greens are a bit harder to convince on this...but I'd like to keep my fingers crossed.

posted by Jenny at 4:45 AM |