Looking Backward, Looking Forward

Update below

Yes, it's New Year's Eve, and I'm online. We've turned our house over to a handful of teenagers this evening for their New Year's Eve Party, while we're quietly enjoying glasses of wine, online reading, and a little novel reading (such as, American Gods, by Neil Gaiman) in our study. So while taking a break from the novel reading and straightening up a bit after the teenagers, who have gone to a nearby park for some nighttime frisbee and football-throwing, I came across a very interesting note on TPM Muckraker.

When I began this blog, I had just moved four states east and had read already a couple of books on the war in Iraq. From my reading, I was dismayed to learn of the inept handling of the war in Iraq and especially of the reconstruction efforts afterward, and I posted on that subject: here, here, here, and here, among others. Many well-known and well-respected journalists and other writers have recorded how ideologues rather than Middle-Eastern experts were chosen to lead the reconstruction efforts in Iraq. Whether they could speak the language or knew anything about the culture counted for a lot less than whether or not they had voted for George Bush or were against abortion.

So it's worth reading Zachary Roth's post on TPM, "Top Pentagon Official: Obama Team Still the 'Opposition'", posted this evening. The top Pentagon official referred to in the post is Jim O'Beirne, the special assistant to the secretary of defense for White House liaisons. As Roth reminds us,

O'Beirne led the disastrous process in which key posts in the Coalition Provisional Authority were given to Heritage Foundation research assistants who knew nothing about Iraq but were loyal to the GOP.

Ideological to the very end, O'Beirne praises the ninety Bush-appointees in the DOD that Obama has dismissed to replace with the new administration's appointments, telling them that they can be proud that their ideological purity is what made them open to dismissal. (Hmmmm.....where would that put Defense Secretary Robert Gates?) That is faint praise, indeed, coming from a man who led that disastrous vetting and recruitment of hopeful applicants to the Coalition Provisional Authority.

So here at the end of the year, it is definitely instructive to hear this voice from the past still trumpeting a failed policy. (For a review of that policy, see this article that Roth links to at The Washington Post: "Ties to GOP Trumped Know-How Among Staff Sent to Rebuild Iraq: Early U.S. Missteps in the Green Zone," Rajiv Chandrasekaran, September 17, 2006.)

One of the very hopeful signs of the incoming administration is that Obama is choosing professionals for posts in government, people with areas of expertise assigned to appropriate posts, rather than making choices based on the purity of one's ideology. It remains to be seen how successful our new president will be, but here at the end of the old year, I feel a breath of fresh air, and I don't think it's just coming from the windows we opened to remove the smoke from a badly started fire in the fireplace.

Update: Other Comments on this topic

Steve Benen comments on Jim O'Beirne's letter to the dismissed Pentagon staff in this post dated January 2, 2009: "O'Beirne Still Causing Trouble at the Pentagon", Political Animal blog at The Washington Monthly

Monuments to Self

I haven't written anything about the Rod Blagojevich scandal in Illinois; Governor Blagojevich has been accused--and has been recorded on tape--of trying to sell Barack Obama's Senate seat. Well, I lived in Louisiana for four years, and Illinois has nothing on Louisiana when it comes to political corruption. However, watching Roland Burris grin like the Cheshire cat while the corrupt and nationally reviled Blagojevich appointed him to the vacate seat, I was a little disturbed. Why would Burris want to hitch his wagon to that falling star? Oh, yeah....ego and ambition. A former Attorney General of Illinois, Burris has run unsuccessfully in the past for mayor of Chicago, for Senator of the state of Illinois, and for governor of Illinois. This appointment helps him achieve one of those failed goals. And Burris has already prepared a crypt that will announce his achievements in the afterlife. Politico includes a picture of that crypt on its website under the title "Monument to Me."

Roland Burris's monument to self pales significantly, however, in contrast to monuments built by ancient rulers. Yesterday we got a glimpse of a truly monumental ego in an exhibit at Atlanta's High Musuem of Art: the First Emperor of China's terracotta army. The First Emperor of China, from the state of Qin (hence his name, Qin Shi Huang), united China and ushered in emperial China, which lasted until 1912. History records that he began the work on his mausoleum when he first ascended the throne at thirteen years of age: now, that's a mighty confident teenager. According to the museum's audio guide, the mausoleum covers 22 acres, and 700,000 convicted criminals worked to create this sanctuary for the emperor's afterlife. Not only did the tomb include a terracotta army of beautifully crafted soldiers and horses; the area was transformed into a paradise of mercury rivers, with lifelike wildlife (ducks and cranes were included in the exhibit).

The exhibit was very fascinating, and the detail of the art work on the terracotta soldiers included (six or seven) were exquisite, with faces reflecting the diversity of the Chinese. Qin Shi Huang, however, seemed not to have been a popular ruler: all that preparation for the afterlife took too much money in the form of taxes. And he was a book-burner, too. He had hundreds of followers of Confucius massacred. Nice guy. But he created a pretty tomb which was vandalized not long after he died--and then buried and forgotten for two thousand years.

Percy Bysshe Shelley, of course, said it best:

Ozymandias

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

The son who ascended to the throne after Qin Shi Huang died was soon overthrown, and the Han dynasty began.

Time to Go Shopping. . . at Thrift Stores

Over the past year, my family and I have enjoyed shopping at thrift stores. We bought lamps and kitchen supplies for our son's apartment in Austin, Texas, and our daughter likes to browse the rows of jeans and cargo pants. My husband looks for kitchen item replacements (an iron skillet, a spatula), and he recently found a very nice casual jacket from Orvis that only needed a tear repaired in the lining. Having grown up in a family in which hand-me-downs were the norm, I prefer brand-new clothes; I don't find much to interest me in adult women clothing at thrift stores (but recently, a yellow silk sari caught my eye--I resisted, though). However, looking through other people's junk can be entertaining, and I often find something useful or just weirdly interesting. A month ago, I replaced our well-used coasters with a nice set I found at Goodwill, and I purchased about nine wool sweaters that I will felt for crafts.

It pays to be thrifty in today's tough economic times, so check out the thrift stores as folks are cleaning out their closets to make room for those new Christmas items. Or clear out your own closets. Someone can use what you no longer want. Today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution has an article on year-end donations: "Year-End Charitable Giving Empties Closets, Fills Stores," Bo Emerson, AJC, December 30, 2008.

Science Be Damned.....Again

James E. McWilliams, professor of history at Texas State University, criticizes the U.S. Food and Drug Administration today in Slate on its poor performance in protecting our food supply. He focuses particularly on the melamine scare in baby formula. The scare began in China, where several babies died, and thousands were sickened, from having ingested the ingredient in their formula, but melamine has been discovered in baby formula in the U. S., as well. (See these stories for further information: "Calls for National Infant Formula Recall Spread," MSNBC, posted November 26, 2008; "Trace Levels of Melamine in Formula Called Safe," Annys Shin, The Washington Post, November 29, 2008.)

The most interesting detail in The Washington Post article is the FDA's sudden turnabout on what constitutes a "safe level" of melamine in food. First, the FDA stated that science has not indicated that any level of melamine is safe. Then, after trace amounts of melamine were discovered in U.S. supplies of baby formula, the FDA backtracked, stating that, well, small trace amounts pose no threat. Ummm..... upon what was this declaration based? Science? The outrage of companies selling infant formula? Caprice? One wonders.....

James McWilliams points out that the FDA warned the companies involved of the trace elements of melamine but didn't release that information to the public "until the Associated Press filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the test results and published the news in late November." He also points out that the milk powder in question is not limited to baby formula; it appears in many products the wider public ingests, such as "caramelized candies, whey protein supplements, power bars, powdered drinks, nondairy creamers, and baking mixes, among others." Suddenly, that hot cup of instant cocoa looks a lot less appetizing.

Anyway, McWilliams ends his article with suggestions for improving the FDA's performance, not the least of which is requiring the organization to base its policies on science. You can read the entire article here: "Tainted Government," Slate, December 29, 2008.

Conflicts of Interest: Medical Doctors and Pharmaceutical Companies

With a hat tip to Kevin Drum, I post this link to a book review by Marcia Angell, "Drug Companies and Doctors: A Survey of Corruption," in the January 15, 2009, edition of The New York Review of Books. In the article, Angell reviews and discusses the following books: Side Effects: A Prosecutor, a Whistleblower, and a Bestselling Antidepressant on Trial, by Alison Bass; Our Daily Meds: How the Pharmaceutical Companies Transformed Themselves into Slick Marketing Machines and Hooked the Nation on Prescription Drugs, by Melody Petersen; Shyness: How Normal Behavior Became a Sickness, by Christopher Lane.

On his blog, Kevin Drum posts his favorite quote from the review: "Quote of the Day--12.29.08". This is what jumped out at me:

A recent survey found that about two thirds of academic medical centers hold equity interest in companies that sponsor research within the same institution. A study of medical school department chairs found that two thirds received departmental income from drug companies and three fifths received personal income....

snip

In view of this control and the conflicts of interest that permeate the enterprise, it is not surprising that industry-sponsored trials published in medical journals consistently favor sponsors' drugs—largely because negative results are not published, positive results are repeatedly published in slightly different forms, and a positive spin is put on even negative results. A review of seventy-four clinical trials of antidepressants, for example, found that thirty-seven of thirty-eight positive studies were published. But of the thirty-six negative studies, thirty-three were either not published or published in a form that conveyed a positive outcome. It is not unusual for a published paper to shift the focus from the drug's intended effect to a secondary effect that seems more favorable.

snip

Many drugs that are assumed to be effective are probably little better than placebos, but there is no way to know because negative results are hidden.

As a patient who has been prescribed drugs "off-label," I found this article very interesting. Not too long ago, I was prescribed some drugs by a doctor at a well-known medical teaching institution. After my appointment, I went online to look up the purposes of those drugs, and I discovered that one of the drugs had been prescribed "off-label." Taking that drug with the others prescribed made me extremely drowsy, unable to function well had I taken them on a workday. Thus, I decided to discontinue the use of the "off-label" drug, and told my doctor I was doing so. The decision did not effect the efficacy of my treatment, which made me wonder whether the "off-label" prescription was necessary in the first place.

Now, I'm not accusing my doctor of malpractice at all. The conversation we had about the drug after I did my research satisfied me that my doctor had the best intentions. However, the experience did remind me of the necessity of one's being pro-active in determining the best treatment choices. I would love to trust my doctors fully, but articles such as this (and others) suggest that I should always do my research before relying on any doctor's medical decision.

Other Voices: "Playing the Doctor Card," Rahul K. Parikh, M.D., in Salon, Sept. 26, 2008.

A Year of Urban Gardening

In 2007, we moved to the Atlanta-metro area, within the Perimeter (I-285), and we bought a small home built in 1940. With the home came a small sunny front yard and a small shady backyard. We're lifetime gardeners; in our 30 years of marriage, we've lived on as much as 24 acres of land, with plenty of room to grow gardens and trees, and in as little space as a tiny married-student apartment at Texas A&M University, with gardening space on vacant TAMU land. Now we're challenged to grow a garden in this 1940-suburban space. Last summer we began by Tom's chopping out boxwood bushes in the front of the house; we replaced those with a wooden trellis, a bench swing, herbs, tomatoes, peppers, flowers, and, on the side of the house, blueberry bushes. Now we're planning to expand the garden into the yard proper, with a bed along one side of the yard where we will plant flowers and vegetables. This will be an experiment in suburban gardening. Most suburban gardens, if they exist at all, are hidden in back yards. Our backyard is too shady for vegetables (except for one bed for winter produce such as shallots); there we're putting in native perennials that like shade, such as ferns, woodland flowers, trillium, oakleaf hydrangea.

Over this next year, I'll try to remember to post pictures of our experiment. This week we hope to begin preparing a front flower/vegetable bed. But here's some online reading in the meantime:

• Constance Casey, "Pimp My Yard: A garden coach can transform your lawn into a farmers market in a day's time," Slate, December 26, 2008.
• Renee's Garden, online source for herb, flower, and vegetable seeds.
• Mel Bartholomew, Square Foot Gardening
• Reimer Seeds online catalogue
• The Cook's Garden online catalogue
• Georgia Perimeter College Botanical Garden website
• National Gardening Association website
• Sustainable Urban Gardens website
• Organic Gardening website
• Georgia Center for Urban Agriculture: Vegetable Gardening
• Oh, Wow! Chickens in the backyard, at BackYardChickens.com and at UrbanChickens.org and TheCityChicken.com
• "Urban Chic," at BackYardGardener.com

Science Fiction: An Escape and a Reminder

I'll admit it: we're a family of science fiction geeks. While I was in college, I read lots of science fiction novels, most enjoying the writings of Isaac Asimov and Larry Niven. But over the years my reading has tended to go in cycles: in the 1980s, I read a lot of history, biography, and philosophy (the writings of Barbara Tuchman and William McNeill; the memoirs of George Kennan, the one-year diary of Czeslaw Milosz; the non-fiction writings of Walker Percy); in the 1990s, I was into environmental/science writing (example, Barry Lopez) and, as I prepared to teach literature classes, shorter writings from world literature (my favorite: the writings of Basho); in the 2000s, my reading became increasingly political (Seymour Hersh, George Packer, Thomas Ricks, Ron Suskind, A.J. Rossmiller; online bloggers Steve Benen, James Fallows, Kevin Drum, Josh Marshall, Matthew Yglesias, Scott Horton). Of course, I read other kinds of writings during those years--novels by Anita Brookner, Barbara Pym, Penelope Lively, Joanna Trollope and her great-great uncle Anthony Trollope; poetry of Margaret Gibson, Octavio Paz, Czeslaw Milosz, Mary Oliver, Billy Collins, Seamus Heaney, David Bottoms, Stephen Dunn, etc.--but my larger focus seemed to be as I have described above.

However, I never lost my love for science fiction, which, in its projection of the human story into space and time, carries with it a certain optimism (in other words, humans haven't totally obliterated themselves) coupled with analysis and criticism of human behavior (in other words, humans keep making the same mistakes over and over while trying to find creative ways to amend those mistakes). When Benton was four years old (my husband and I had finally purchased a television after living ten years without one), he and I would watch Deep Space Nine together. As Benton grew older, his Christmas and birthday presents would inevitably include a science fiction novel or two (among his favorite writers now: Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Gregory Benford, Ben Bova, Robert Heinlein). Our daughter tends to like novels on the fantasy end of the science-fiction/fantasy spectrum (Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman, Tamara Pierce, Madeleine L'Engle, Douglas Adams, Eva Ibbotson--and, of course, Isaac Asimov). I once read Tolkien's Lord of the Rings to the kids as an evening bedtime story. We are all fans of Tolkien.

We're also fans of Firefly, a great series that Fox canceled after one season, and Space: Above and Beyond, another cancelled series on Fox. Firefly, a creation of Joss Whedon, had such a following as to support a movie to tie up the loose ends of that series (Serenity), while Space: Above and Beyond remains in science fiction purgatory, the characters caught in a war in which it's not certain humankind will survive although there is a glimmer of hope that the alien enemy is made of the same star stuff as humans.

What's so fascinating about science fiction is its creation of alien worlds so unlike our own physically that nonetheless retain characteristics that are like our world (and so, science fiction presciently describes ideas that are sometimes actualized in our world) . The stories provide escape from the ordinary while also examining what is all too human: emotions and motives. In the late 1990s, I would occasionally watch late at night a segment of the final seasons of Babylon 5. I never saw the entire series, but a couple of years ago I purchased the first season for Benton and have finally purchased the entire series for him. Benton has watched most of season 3, while this holiday break, we have all been catching up with season 2. (The series improves quite a bit from season 1 to season 2, so it's worth staying with the series through that first season.) As we've been watching episodes this week, I am reminded of events in our own world.

In the world of Babylon 5--a space station meant as a gathering place for aliens and humans to promote intergalactic peace--the Narns and the Centauri have long been enemies. The Centauri captured the Narn homeworld and enslaved the Narn; the Narn eventually freed themselves through violent, terroristic conflict. The Centauri continue to respond to their imperialistic impulses; the Narn continue to distrust the Centauri. In the episodes we have just watched, the Narn and the Centauri have taken up their ancient grievances and have begun fighting again. Londo Mollari (played by Peter Jurasik), a Centauri ambassador on Babylon-5, has made a pact (unknowingly) with an ancient, evil race in order to realize those imperialistic desires. A Narn outpost is obliterated; the Narn respond in angry and horrified violence. Another Narn outpost is obliterated; the Narn try to get the humans and aliens to unite against the Centauri.

It's the all too familiar story of human conflict. One tribe seizes the lands of another, enslaves another, and the enslaved vow vengeance. Today, Hamas launches missiles into Israel from poverty-stricken Gaza. Israel retaliates. Violence leads to violence. It is a never-ending cycle. Babylon 5 shows us characters caught up in a similar cycle; these are characters to whom we are sympathetic even as as we decry their individual choices. We are horrified when Londo Mollari makes that first commitment to a mysterious ally to have a Narn outpost destroyed; we watch in sadness as Mollari transforms from a comic to a tragic figure who realizes, regrets, yet remains committed to his bloody, genocidal choices. We sympathize with G'Kar (played by actor Andreas Katsulas) as he wrestles with his desires for revenge and his hopes for an alliance with the humans. We know that the escalating war is a cycle of attrition, revenge, and retaliation which can only be escaped by inhumanly distancing oneself from one's situation, by seeing one's enemy as one's self.

And so science fiction reflects reality in that it has yet to provide for us any other way out of the cycle of destruction and despair, of revenge and retaliation: we must see the Other as ourselves.

Today's reading:

• Greg Mitchell, "Attack on Gaza: As Usual U.S. Media (And Most Liberals) Silent--as Israeli Newspaper Raises Doubts," posted on Huffington Post, December 28, 2008.
• Daniel Levy, "What's Next on Gaza/Israel and Why Americans Should Care," Huffington Post, posted December 28, 2008.
• Matthew Yglesias, "Getting Tough," posted December 28, 2008.
• "Saudi Cleric Issues Fatwa Urging Muslims to Avenge Gaza Raids, Haaretz.com, posted December 28, 2008.
• Hilzoy, "An Eye for an Eye Makes the Whole World Blind," on Political Animal, posted December 28, 2008.

Other Consequences of Lack of Regulation

The Bush administration leaves office in January with a shameful record of governance. We've already seen the consequences of lack of regulation of the market and of financial institutions; now we're seeing the consequences of lack of environmental regulation. I've been following the story of the collapse of the lagoon holding coal sludge in Tennessee since the event occurred. The story finally received more national attention in an article in The New York Times, as authorities realized the spill was "three times as large as originally estimated." That "actual amount

was 5.4 million cubic yards, or enough to flood more than 3,000 acres one foot deep.

The amount now said to have been spilled is larger than the amount the authority initially said was in the pond, 2.6 million cubic yards. [Shaila Dewan, "Tennessee Ash Flood Larger than Initial Estimate," The New York Times, posted December 26, 2008.]

As Sue Sturgis reports in Facing South (h/t truthout), Earthjustice attorney Lisa Evans warned the government earlier this year in testimony before the House Subcommittee on Energy and Natural Resources that "the federal government's broken pledge to regulate disposal of the potentially dangerous material threatened the health and safety of communities across the country." She further emphasized that

the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said in its Regulatory Determination on Wastes from the Combustion of Fossil Fuels published in 2000 that federal standards for disposal of coal combustion waste were needed to protect public health and the environment.

Environmental activists have been trying to warn the public and our leaders of this danger for some time: See "Activists Say EPA Ignoring Threat from Coal Ash," by Don Hopey, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, March 9, 2007.

Of course, the regulation-allergic Bush administration did little for the environment in its eight years of governing (See here and here) and it is gutting what it can of environmental regulations as it begins to vacate its offices. (See here, here, here, here, and here.) Oh, and my favorite? A change to the Endangered Species Act that "reduces the number of scientific reviews of projects performed by the US Fish & Wildlife Service." The Bush administration has squashed scientific inquiry and conclusions many times during the past eight years. (See "The Ungreening of America: Dirty Secrets" in Mother Jones.)

Of course, this isn't the first coal slurry spill on Bush's watch, and the results of that spill illustrate the administration's antipathy toward environmental regulations and sympathy for businesses violating those regulations. A spill in 2000, in Inez, Kentucky, was being investigated and charges of criminal negligence being brought against the company at fault when the Bush administration moved into its offices and dramatically narrowed the focus of the investigation. (See Salon, "Dirty Business," by Philip Babich, November 13, 2003.) The experienced mining engineer, Jack Spadaro, was originally in charge of the investigation, but the Bush administration replaced him, and an investigation was implemented to get Spadaro dismissed:

The apparent vendetta against [Spadaro], and a mass of other evidence including damning off-the-record comments by officials involved in the investigation and a heavily-redacted report, raise serious questions as to whether Bush administration officials, ranging from mining safety officials all the way to Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, orchestrated a coverup to whitewash Martin County Coal of any serious responsibility for the coal slurry disaster.(Babich)

Bush had also stacked the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration with former mining executives:

Lauriski, MSHA's chief, was an executive with Energy West Mining. Deputy assistant secretary John Caylor worked for Cyprus Minerals, Amax Mining and Magma Copper. MSHA's other deputy assistant secretary, John Correll, worked for Amax Mining and Peabody Coal.(Babich)

And that has been the Bush administration's modus operandi for most of its oversight appointments. Finally, however, our new president is turning once again to scientists and experienced environmental regulators for his environmental appointments. Maybe something will really be done about potential catastrophes such as the coal sludge spill in Tennessee.

A Happy Holiday

I would wish everyone a "Merry Christmas," but merry doesn't quite seem in keeping with the holiday spirit, which is a little squashed by the bad economy. "Merry" suggests something medieval and jolly--lots of homebrew, a roaring fire, conical hats with fabric streamers, mistletoe, kisses under, and the merry sound of dulcimer, sacbut, and lute. But happy is good enough today. We have foregone the holiday travel this year. Except for one year in the last 30 years of marriage, my husband and I have traveled to visit extended family at Christmas; this year, we're staying put, with the two kids here to celebrate: no 12-hour drive to my parents' house in East Texas, no stopover in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for my best friend and her husband have, since last Christmas, moved to northern California. When we lived in northern Minnesota, that trip to Texas was almost a 24-hour drive, broken up by an overnight stay at a hotel with our then-small children. One was usually sick and puking in the back seat of the car. Last Christmas, I was the one who was sick, shivering with chills and fever, and it took me over a week to recuperate.

Hey, we do have a fire crackling in the fireplace although the high today is in the upper 50s (while elsewhere around the country, people are dealing with severe winter weather). For the past two evenings we've been playing board games in the evening, with winners receiving a wrapped prize. Tom has baked bread and given small loaves to our closest neighbors. I've done less baking than I usually do, but I have baked our family favorite: teacakes. The cats are dozing in front of the fire; the kids are enjoying each other's company after months of being separated.

Yes, it's almost a Norman Rockwell Christmas around here. However, fortunately for us--and I mean this--we have neighbors with a sense of humor to take the saccharine out of Christmas. They've decorated in their front yard a large, inflatable gorilla with lights and a Santa hat. The sight of it makes me want to break out the dulcimer, put on a hat with streamers, and dance wildly in our front yard.

Merry Christmas, y'all!

Conspiracy? Could Be. . .

Updates below

When I first heard of the fatal plane crash of Mike Connell, I briefly thought, "Well, that's suspiciously convenient for Karl Rove and the Bush administration," but I shook off the thought. I'm not a conspiracy theorist, and I'm leery of those who are. Yet as I read more and more about the story, I began to get suspicious again. If Dick Cheney can take to the airwaves and openly and confidently announce to the world that he helped instigate torture and that he thinks waterboarding is efficacious and necessary in warfare (when our own government has prosecuted people in the past who waterboarded prisoners), then who knows what these people are capable of doing.

Mike Connell was "a Republican media consultant who was instrumental in the presidential and gubernatorial campaigns of three members of the Bush Family" (CBS News, "Republican IT Guru Dies in Plane Crash," Dec. 23, 2008). He was also the chief IT consultant for Karl Rove. He had a

central role in building the IT infrastructure of the White House and his association with Karl Rove has brought him into the controversy surrounding missing White House e-mails relating to the firing of U.S. Attorneys and other topics, and the fate of e-mail communications sent by Rove and other administration staffers which were sent via a Republican Party Web site, gwb43.com, rather than through a whitehouse.gov address.

Connell had recently been "subpoenaed earlier this year to testify in an Ohio federal court regarding alleged voter fraud in the 2004 election. Despite exit polls showing a lead by Democratic nominee John Kerry of more than 4 percent, Mr. Bush won the state's vote by 2.5 percent, along with its crucial electoral votes" ("Republican IT Guru Dies in Plane Crash").

Evidently, Connell was worried about his safety. One news source reports that

Connell had recently said he was afraid George Bush and Dick Cheney would "throw [him] under the bus." Cliff Arnebeck had also previously alerted Attorney General Michael Mukasey to alleged threats from Karl Rove to Connell if he refused to "take the fall." (Amy Goodman, "Rove's IT Guru Warned of Sabotage before Fatal Plane Crash; Was Set to Testify," posted December 22, 2008).

CBS News reports that "twice in the past two months Connell, who was an experienced pilot, canceled flights because of suspicious problems with his plane" and that Connell "was warned at least twice about flying his plane because his plane might be sabotaged."

While investigators are looking into the causes of the crash, I suspect this story will soon be on the back-burner for lack of media interest. But how convenient for Karl Rove and the Bush administration. The one man who could have spilled all the secrets of those missing e-mails and the internet strategies for the 2000 and 2004 Bush-Cheney campaigns has died in a fire-bomb plane crash, leaving behind a widow and four children.

But some are asking, "Where's the body?"

Updates: Steve Benen weighs in on this subject with some cautionary notes (cautionary about labeling this event as a conspiracy) and more information. He also provides a link to further discussion: "Michael Connell's Death Draws Scrutiny," posted December 26, 2008, on his Political Animal blog at Washington Monthly.

Great Places to Retire

Both my husband and I have now passed the big 5-0 birthday (ummm.... I'm now a year past 50), and while we're not ready to retire, we certainly talk from time to time about where we might want to be after the kids are out of school (one is a junior in high school; the other is in his junior year in college). U.S. News has compiled lists of places for those retirees, including places that will be easier on the budget. Here's the list of low-tax places to retire:

• Billings, Montana
• Cheyenne, Wyoming
• Doral, Florida
• Henderson, Nevada
• Juneau, Alaska
• Manchester, New Hampshire
• Nashville, Tennessee
• Sioux Falls, South Dakota
• Spokane, Washington
• Stafford, Texas.

For a discussion of how those places were chosen, go to Emily Brandon's article, "10 Great Low-Tax Places to Retire."

When we have discussed places to retire, my husband and I certainly have never mentioned any of these cities. Perhaps they merit a look.

For further discussion of other retirement destinations, go to the more in-depth report at U.S. News & World Report: "Best Retirement Bargains."

Bankruptcy? Jesus to the Rescue

You knew this was going to happen: Bush and Paulson pushed through Congress that bailout to the banks, with little or no strings attached--and now the banks won't tell us how they're spending the money--OUR money. Matt Apuzo of AP News [source: Josh Marshal's TPM] records the following:

But after receiving billions in aid from U.S. taxpayers, the nation's largest banks say they can't track exactly how they're spending the money or they simply refuse to discuss it.

"We've lent some of it. We've not lent some of it. We've not given any accounting of, 'Here's how we're doing it,'" said Thomas Kelly, a spokesman for JPMorgan Chase, which received $25 billion in emergency bailout money. "We have not disclosed that to the public. We're declining to."

The Associated Press contacted 21 banks that received at least $1 billion in government money and asked four questions: How much has been spent? What was it spent on? How much is being held in savings, and what's the plan for the rest?

None of the banks provided specific answers.

Hilzoy, at Washington Monthly's Political Animal, posts on how those troubled banks that received our money in this bailout also were ones that highly compensated their executives even as the banks were struggling. And she has these comments about the super-rich:

The super-rich seem to me, during the past few decades, to have wafted off into their own alternate universe, in which of course they are entitled to have their employers pay them not just large salaries, not just multi-million dollar bonuses every year, but the bills for everything that ordinary people pay for; in which flying on public airlines seems to them the way taking the public buses seems to much of the middle class; in which any possible contact with what the rest of us take to be reality has been airbrushed away by vast quantities of money.

Under normal circumstances, I'd think: nice work if you can get it, and worry about the effects of massive inequality on public life. But these are not normal times. The very people who are getting these bonuses and chauffeurs and private jets and financial planners have just sent the entire global economy into a nosedive. They have caused massive amounts of money to disappear. They are getting bailed out for their mistakes by the rest of us -- the people who, if we're lucky, get to fly coach, and if we're not, drive across the country or take a bus.

And now Kevin Drum posts that developers are also looking for a handout. Of course, the problem is that credit is tough to get from lending institutions. Large developmental properties will be up for re-financing and won't be able to get the money needed (from those banks that were bailed out just for this purpose). As The Wall Street Journal reports:

according to research firm Foresight Analytics LCC, $530 billion of commercial mortgages will be coming due for refinancing in the next three years -- with about $160 billion maturing in the next year. Credit, meanwhile, is practically nonexistent and cash flows from commercial property are siphoning off.

Unlike home loans, which borrowers repay after a set period of time, commercial mortgages usually are underwritten for five, seven or 10 years with big payments due at the end. At that point, they typically need to be refinanced. A borrower's inability to refinance could force it to give up the property to the lender.. . .[snip]

To head off some of the impending pain, the industry is asking to be included in a new $200 billion loan program initially created by the government to salvage the market for car loans, student loans and credit-card debt. This money is intended to go directly to help investors finance purchases of securities backed by these assets. If commercial real estate is included, banks might have an incentive to make more loans to developers since they'd be able to repackage and sell them more easily to investors with the assurance of government backing.

So. . . the banks get a bailout to loosen up credit, but the banks won't tell us how they're spending the bailout money. Meanwhile, institutions, businesses, developers, home owners--a long list of borrowers--can't get the credit they need to keep their properties. What a mess.

Maybe developers should just ask Jesus to rescue them, as one developer in Atlanta hopes. Fred Milani, a builder of luxury homes, is selling his own home, a scaled-down version of the White House, because he faces foreclosure on ten houses he has built in the area: "'I believe in Jesus. He’s always blessed me, and at the last minute he’ll come rescue me,' Milani said Thursday."[Kevin Duffy, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 18 December 2008]

At 16,900 square feet, the scaled-down White House is on the market for $9.88 million (Dekalb County values it at $2.8 million). Three parties have looked at the house, the third party being from Dubai. Milani says that:

the next White House owner will be someone relatively unaffected by the country’s economic turmoil.

“Whoever buys it,” Milani said, “is going to be blessed.”

In other words, someone who does not need Jesus, in the guise of the American taxpayer, to bail him out of bankruptcy.

Torture is the Tool of the Enemy

World War II poster

from www.billbradbury.com

More Reading:

David Rose, "Tortured Reasoning," web exclusive, Vanity Fair, posted December 16, 2008.

Scott Horton, "What Motivates the Torture Enablers?," blog at Harper's Magazine, posted December 20, 2008.

And Dick Cheney on torture: excerpt from interview with ABC's Jonathan Karl

Update: And see also Dahlia Lithwick's "Open and Shut Case" on Slate, posted December 22, 2008.

The Horror of Katrina Lives On

As President Bush and other members of his administration flood the airwaves with interviews meant to rehabilitate and polish the "legacy" of the Bush administration, I fear too many people may forget the truly incompetent and irresponsible actions of our leaders over the last eight years. I remember watching those miserable scenes at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. How could the greatest nation on earth abandon its citizens for four days in that nightmare? A. C. Thompson, of The Nation reminds us of some of that horror and of the long after-effects in this video: "Katrina's Hidden Race War." Hat tip to Satyam Khanna at Think Progress.

Interview with Interrogator

Of all the mistakes, missteps, and outright wrong decisions the Bush administration has made, the one thing that has made me angriest--and most worried for our nation--is the decision to torture enemies (well, in addition to suspending individual rights of privacy and of habeas corpus). That decision not only goes against the Geneva Conventions; it also goes against everything I was taught as a young Christian growing up in the Southern Baptist church, against the advice of military leaders who worry what might happen to our soldiers when captured, and against the advice of many experienced interrogators. I've posted on this topic a number of times because I think it's very important. (Hearing friends, family, and right-wing pundits who are fundamentalist Christians justify torture has just about turned me agnostic.)

On his blog, Scott Horton has an interview with one of those experienced interrogators, Matthew Alexander, about whom I've posted before. Check out the interview:“The American Public has a Right to Know That They Do Not Have to Choose Between Torture and Terror”: Six questions for Matthew Alexander, author of How to Break a Terrorist," posted December 18, 2008.

Other voices:
William Pfaff, "Torture Opponents Have No Serious Argument,"posted at Truthdig, December 18, 2008.

Oy to the World

This week I've been decorating our house for the holidays, an activity that I've always enjoyed because, well, I just like colored lights, anyway. In fact, I leave two strings of blue lights up in the sunroom all year round. Hand-crocheted snowflakes float around door frames; origami cranes, deer, and other shapes frame an entrance-way door; Christmas gnomes of my own design smile or glower (depending on how the yarn mouths are shaped) on the fireplace mantle--enough gnomes to be just this side of slightly scary.

Earlier this week, while browsing in a rather traditional and boring gift shop, I saw a metal wreath with the word "Joy" suspended in the middle, spelled out in three small wooden plaques. Feeling a little guilty because I hadn't participated in the neighborhood's annual luminaria lighting, I thought I needed some holiday greeting for our doorway, a nod to the neighbors that the owner of the strange art car parked in the driveway wishes them well for the holiday. (Every year, the neighborhood association sells white bags with sand and candles to raise money; we're asked to line our streets with these bags and to light the candles on a designated day at a designated time. I was taking Tom to the airport that Sunday afternoon and didn't stop to buy the luminaria. Someone stuck two bags in front of our dark strip of street, trying to compensate for my lack of interest, I guess.)

However, by the time I got home with my metal wreath, I was feeling less happy with my purchase. Joy? I wondered. People are losing their jobs by the thousands; other businesses are cutting back on expenses, and employees still with jobs are hoping that they'll get just a cut in pay instead of the boot. The world is in a financial mess that's likely to get even worse. Our personal IRA's have lost up to 50% their value. Our home--well, who knows what the value of our home is now, certainly not that for which we mortgaged it.

Joy? Wall Street money manager Bernard L. Madoff stole billions of dollars from investors (note that surname!) and is accused of "running one of the largest Ponzi schemes ever." Among those investors were charitable foundations and banks and businesses around the world.

Joy? The vice-president of our country openly admitted "that he was directly involved in approving severe interrogation methods [um...that's torture, in politico-speak, in case you've been asleep at the wheel for the past eight years] used by the CIA, and that the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, should remain open indefinitely." Oh, and he BELIEVES in waterboarding. (Maybe that "I Believe" license plate has a darker meaning than the ACLU imagines.) Peace on Earth and Goodwill to Men, Y'all.

Joy? Two official documents remind us of the lies and deceptions of the Iraq war: the bipartisan report on the treatment of detainees in American custody and a report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction [h/t to George Packer for the links].

Joy? "So What?" is George Bush's response to the fact that al-Qaeda was not in Iraq until after the U.S. invasion. Oy!

Joy? Darfur.....Nigeria.....Congo....Somalia...the terrorist attacks in Mumbai (Bombay), India....Global Warming/Climate Change (worse than expected).....

"We ought to remove the J from Joy and leave Oy instead," I told my daughter, showing her the metal wreath. When she asked what 'oy' meant, I told her that it is a Yiddish exclamation that, roughly translated, means "what a mess," or something like that. [For a better explanation than mine to Mary-Margaret, go here.]

Mary-Margaret was so taken with the idea that she removed the letter "J" herself. I hung the "J" inside the doorway with the origami decorations.

So, neighbors, the wreath is not a mistake. It's a message for the season. Happy Holiday!

On Holiday Cards and Letter Writing

This time of year, from Thanksgiving to Christmas, is always a busy time of the year for me. For twenty-five years (with breaks for child-bearing and moving from one state to another), I taught at various colleges and universities. These weeks were always busy with grading final essays and business-writing projects, averaging those final grades for reporting, and allaying (or multiplying) students' anxiety. Now I tutor part-time, but I've discovered that just as there is a tendency to fill with material objects the space in which one lives, no matter how large, there is likewise a tendency to fill time with projects and activities. And so these past few weeks I have filled my time with work (28 hours a week) and with various projects.

Although I despise the excesses of the season, I am no holiday Scrooge. I love sending Christmas cards; often these are cards of my own making, sometimes with a bit of poetry included. If the year had been filled with particularly interesting (or sad and tragic) events, the cards would be more elaborate. I like manipulatives, so some of my cards included pop-up collages. A couple of years I designed origami holiday greetings with photo collages and fragments of poetry folded as fortune tellers, or cootie catchers, as they are also known by many generations of school kids.

Years ago I was a prolific letter-writer, but the joy in that activity diminished over time as so few friends kept up the correspondence. And so it is with holiday cards. At one time I received many holiday cards or letters reassuring me that family members and scattered friends were still living and sentient. But as the cards failed to arrive year after year and enough people complained that they had no time to send cards or to write letters, I thought it must be time to end this tradition as well. Why continue to do something that just makes other people feel guilty for not reciprocating?

And so last year, I purchased on sale some pretty, hand-craft styled Christmas cards, thinking that these would be the last cards I would send. Rather than making my own cards, I would crochet some small holiday object: a star or a snowflake for a tree or window, or small old-fashioned doilies in holiday colors to serve as coasters for those wine glasses toasting the season or for the glass of milk or cup of coffee of my alcohol-abstinent friends. These I would include in each card, a parting gift to friends and family. And thus would end my holiday card giving.

"This is the last year I'm sending Christmas cards," I told my daughter, as I filled the cards with hand-crocheted items and addressed the envelopes.

"You said that last year," my daughter replied, unimpressed.

"Did I? I don't remember that."

And so the tradition is likely to continue just because I can't remember from year to year that I've resolved to cease sending holiday cards. So it must be for many traditions: they continue limping along past all real meaning and relevancy because people just can't let go.