Light blogging right now – I ‘discovered’ the online game City of Heroes (no thanks to Scott) and have been playing it like crazy these past few days.
If you play and are on the Liberty server, look for either Shopaholic or DanielJackson & tell me “hi!”.
If none of the above makes any sense to you, I should be back to normal by the end of the weekend.
Digby has a nice long post today about what happens when innocent people, like the guy whose crossword puzzle scribblings got him onto the Homeland Security watch list, get swept into the DHS’s web.
His conclusion?
The stories begin to accumulate, each one a random intrusion by dumb, underqualified government authorities who seem to have watched too much television and have very little common sense.
Dumb? Not quite. What I think we’re seeing is a bunch of people who do not know how to handle the situation they have been thrust into. This is not to say they’re stupid. They’re scared, and scared people rarely make smart choices. Just look at today’s latest security alert:
Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge on Thursday warned Americans that al Qaeda may try to carry out “a large-scale attack” to disrupt upcoming elections, but offered no details and had no plans to raise the terror threat level.
Bottom line, this is about fear – or terror, if you will – and how humans respond to it. You’d think that by now we’d have learned that the predictable response is usually the wrong one, and that we need some new solutions.
How are people supposed to react when they hear ongoing unspecified warnings of terrorist threats? Absent any concrete information, those of a more fearful cast of mind are going to see a potential threat at every hand. A doodle on the edge of a crossword puzzle can be seen as a threat of lethal action. (There’s a Greek tragedy in there somewhere but I’m not smart enough to write it.)
Those of a more conspiracy theorist cast of mind will say that the government’s true intent is to keep American citizens cowed and fearful while they move forward to bring about their own nefarious goals. I believe that about as much as I believe the wingnuts who insist that anyone who seriously opposes the Clintons ends up dead – which is to say, not at all.
I have previously commented on the similarities of our current invasion of Iraq with Vietnam. But it also occurs to me that parallels to the “Red Scares” of the 20s and 50s are also apt for the times we live in today. Apparently we have to re-learn the lessons of history all over again.
It’s not quite Wag the Dog but it’s close…
A third source, an official who works under ISI’s director, Lieutenant General Ehsan ul-Haq, informed tnr that the Pakistanis “have been told at every level that apprehension or killing of HVTs before [the] election is [an] absolute must.” What’s more, this source claims that Bush administration officials have told their Pakistani counterparts they have a date in mind for announcing this achievement: “The last ten days of July deadline has been given repeatedly by visitors to Islamabad and during [ul-Haq’s] meetings in Washington.” Says McCormack: “I’m aware of no such comment.” But according to this ISI official, a White House aide told ul-Haq last spring that “it would be best if the arrest or killing of [any] HVT were announced on twenty-six, twenty-seven, or twenty-eight July”–the first three days of the Democratic National Convention in Boston.
Source: The New Republic. Thanks Josh Marshall for the pointer.
Overall, response to Kerry’s naming of Edwards is as expected. The Swing States Project gets the honors for best or at least most original line so far:
Previously, I’ve called New Jersey a Jack Daniel’s state. North Carolina is the exact opposite: A Dom Perignon state – if you see this state go blue on election night, break out the bubbly and start celebrating.
Naming Edwards to the ticket does, I think, increase that chance.
UPDATE: Digby also does an excellent job on Edwards, digging out a year-old analysis of the man that’s worth a read.
Yahoo News is reporting that the Archdiocese of Portland has filed for bankruptcy under the weight of payouts due to accusations of sexual abuse by priests. It’s the first US archdiocese to do so.
I wonder how they will structure the refinancing? The Boston archdiocese avoided bankruptcy by selling off a bunch of church-owned property, and I assume that Portland has similar assets, albeit probably not as many. At last resort the Vatican can bail them out if the local banks can’t or won’t.
So Josh Marshall was wrong and the popular choice got chosen. And a good thing too.
More later after the formal announcement.