Swami Uptown Archive: September 2004

Thought for Today
September 30, 2004 | 5:00 p.m.

We fed the heart on fantasy, the heart grew brutal on the fare.
--- William Butler Yeats

Swami's Blood Pressure: 120/80, and Holding
September 30, 2004 | 5:00 p.m.

The oddest thing has happened. Last Friday, Swami consulted with a woman who, for shorthand purposes, we'll call a "psychic," and, ever since, he's been in an odd state of calm. Not uninterested or uncaring --- Swami still devours more news and analysis than is probably good for him, or anyone. More like....calm. Like: Something big is working itself out, and it's better just to watch it than to get all riled and nutty. Do something? Of course. But not in some flailing, agitated, sure-to-be-useless way.

One reason for Swami's it's-all-okay-at-30,000-feet mood may well be that, out in the Real World, things have turn a big turn for the worse --- indeed, Reality is getting so ugly it's hard to know what one person can do about it. In Swami's city, about 16,000 kids sleep in shelters every night, but that's not even a conversational topic in the salons and restaurants Swami passes through. In politics, Republican officials in some states seem to be sending the message that cheating is the only way they know how to win. (Jon Stewart suggested a new slogan for the Republicans: "If we're evil, it's news to us.") And in Iraq... but let's polish off America first.

What If They Knew What Bush Actually Believed?
September 30, 2004 | 5:00 p.m.

Longtime readers may recall that Swami has divided Americans into four categories.

There are the Smarties (people of whatever persuasion who Pay Attention and have a handle on The Facts).

There are the Stupids (people dumb enough to believe what their government tells them, no matter what their government tells them)

There are the True Believers, who can muster facts and statistics galore to support the view that their president, who has mastered none of these facts and statistics, is a Leader for the Ages.

And there are the Denyers (people who know better but cast their lot with the Stupids because the Smarties make them feel guilty about their I've-got-mine-so-who-cares attitude and, anyway, the Smarties are Volvo-driving, latte-drinking blah blah blahs).

The Smarties? God bless you, whatever your views; we, at least, can talk. Stupids? No need to figure out how to talk to them --- they're watching reality TV and, for brain food, Fox. But maybe the Denyers, who still read (and who, most definitely, like to think of themselves as Model Citizens) might be interested in this dispatch from Program on International Policy Attitudes:

A new PIPA-Knowledge Networks poll finds that Americans who plan to vote for President Bush have many incorrect assumptions about his foreign policy positions...

Majorities of Bush supporters incorrectly assumed that Bush favors including labor and environmental standards in trade agreements (84%), and the U.S. being part of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (69%), the International Criminal Court (66%), the treaty banning land mines (72%), and the Kyoto Treaty on global warming (51%). They were divided between those who knew that Bush favors building a new missile defense system now (44%) and those who incorrectly believe he wishes to do more research until its capabilities are proven (41%). However, majorities were correct that Bush favors increased defense spending (57%) and wants the US, not the UN, to take the stronger role in developing Iraq's new government (70%).

Tower to Denyers: You knew better, didn't you? So why do you vote with the Stupids? Swami can't figure it out.

Maybe This Will Help the Denyers: Iraq Today
September 30, 2004 | 5:00 p.m.

A highly respected Wall Street Journal reporter sent an email from Baghdad. Not the same story Bush tells. Farnaz Fassihi writes:

Iraqis like to call this mess "the situation." When asked "how are things?" they reply: "the situation is very bad."

What they mean by "situation" is this: the Iraqi government doesn't control most Iraqi cities, there are several car bombs going off each day around the country killing and injuring scores of innocent people, the country's roads are becoming impassable and littered by hundreds of landmines and explosive devices aimed to kill American soldiers, there are assassinations, kidnappings and beheadings. The situation, basically, means a raging barbaric guerilla war. In four days, 110 people died and over 300 got injured in Baghdad alone. The numbers are so shocking that the ministry of health -- which was attempting an exercise of public transparency by releasing the numbers -- has now stopped disclosing them.

Insurgents now attack Americans 87 times a day.

A friend drove thru the Shiite slum of Sadr City yesterday. He said young men were openly placing improvised explosive devices into the ground. They melt a shallow hole into the asphalt, dig the explosive, cover it with dirt and put an old tire or plastic can over it to signal to the locals this is booby-trapped. He said on the main roads of Sadr City, there were a dozen landmines per every ten yards. His car snaked and swirled to avoid driving over them. Behind the walls sits an angry Iraqi ready to detonate them as soon as an American convoy gets near. This is in Shiite land, the population that was supposed to love America for liberating Iraq...

I went to an emergency meeting for foreign correspondents with the military and embassy to discuss the kidnappings. We were somberly told our fate would largely depend on where we were in the kidnapping chain once it was determined we were missing. Here is how it goes: criminal gangs grab you and sell you up to Baathists in Fallujah, who will in turn sell you to Al Qaeda. In turn, cash and weapons flow the other way from Al Qaeda to the Baathists to the criminals....

What comes next? Here's Christopher Dickey, the Newsweek bureau chief in Paris and a far-too-frequent visitor to Baghdad:

The most likely course of events in the years to come will be a rapid disintegration of Iraq, with the Kurdish north ever more independent, the center of the country -- including much of Baghdad -- a virtual no-go zone and the mullahs in the south, by design or default, positioning it as a new Shiite Islamic Republic. All those trends are well advanced already, and partial elections in the north and the south will probably hasten the outcome. But many more Americans will die before the administration declares "parts of former Iraq are winning freedom."

Change in American policy? No matter who the next President is, Swami fears a new direction won't come until Reservists refuse to report for duty, soldiers in Iraq refuse direct orders and --- shades of Vietnam --- gung-ho American officers suddenly start dying from bullets in the back. Yes, it looks as if our soldiers just might have to find a way to end this crazy war all by themselves --- by refusing to fight it.

Keeping the Stupids in the Dark
September 30, 2004 | 5:00 p.m.

There's authorized media. And then there is Michael Moore. And if Big Media has its way, the twain shall never meet.

Case in point: TV ads for the DVD of Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11." You won't see them on any network TV news show. As Nikki Finke reports:

...the three networks said explicitly they were reluctant because of the closeness of the release to the election... At least Viacom's Sumner Redstone this weekend had the balls to say what other moguls aren't: "I do believe that a Republican administration is better for media companies than a Democratic one."

Yet Another Victory for the Internet
September 30, 2004 | 5:00 p.m.

So MSNBC was going to use Frank Luntz, Republican pollster and White House insider, to conduct nationally televised focus groups. Bloggers pounced, especially David Brock's Media Matters. An e-mail campaign ensued. And, suddenly, the MSNBC story changed. From Eschaton:

Looks like the letter had an impact. Although MSNBC did not respond to Brock, a spokeswoman for the network told HOH late Wednesday that the network has decided "not to go with Frank for the debate." In fact, MSNBC won't conduct polling at all now, she said.

Brock was delighted to hear the news. "It is encouraging that MSNBC responded to criticism in a constructive way. Clearly they realized that employing a partisan pollster does not reflect well on them as a responsible media outlet."

As Swami has said before: It's going to be hard to crush dissent so long as the Web is free.

The Beauty Part
September 30, 2004 | 5:00 p.m.

Not beautiful today. Unless you're among those who find something moving about a mother's love for her child. A dead child. A son, killed in Iraq. And now, instead of accepting a folded flag, she decides to speak out. To make a commercial. Pleading for change. In tears.

If you have tears left to shed, you'll watch Cindy Sheehan's powerful commercial.

And, perhaps, you'll make a donation to get this commercial on their air in swing states.

Thought for Today
September 29, 2004 | 4:00 p.m.

it's these sandpaper eyes
it's the way they rub the luster from what is seen
it's the way we tell ourselves that all these things are normal
till we can't remember what we mean
it's the flicker of our flames
it's the friction born of living
it's the way we beat a hot retreat
and heave our smoking guns into the river
--Buddy Miller, "Worry Too Much," from Universal United House of Prayer

Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom
September 29, 2004 | 4:00 p.m.

Two new websites inspire hope:

Church Folks for a Better America

Whosoever Magazine, for religious gays

(Yes. Amazing: religious sites Swami actually likes.)

And the Hits Just Keep on Coming!
September 29, 2004 | 4:00 p.m.

Another victory for citizen outrage! Another notch on the belt for bloggers! From the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch:

Under fire from voting-rights advocates, Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell retreated yesterday from a directive that critics said would slow voter-registration efforts and even block some people from casting a ballot Nov. 2.

At issue is a reminder Blackwell issued this month to county boards of election that voter-registration forms must be printed on "white, uncoated paper of not less than 80-pound text weight," a heavy, cardlike stock."

Last night, a spokesman for Blackwell denied that the GOP officeholder was trying to prevent people from voting and said county boards should accept voter registration forms on paper of any weight as long as they are otherwise valid.

"We're not the paper police. We're not going to go to county election boards and review voter registration forms," said Blackwell spokesman Carlo LoParo. "We want them to process the forms."

Swami's Crystal Ball
September 29, 2004 | 4:00 p.m.

If the New York Police had done their job correctly, you wouldn't be seeing these Photos and Videos From Inside New York's Pier 57 Detention Center. But a digital camera is so small. And in a crowd, a memory chip can be so easily passed to a prisoner who's already been searched.

The point? This election won't be a re-enactment of Florida 2000, when many voters with the wrong color skin were denied the right to vote. This time around, election monitors (and citizens with attitude) who have camera-equipped cell phones can take pictures of wrongdoing and, seconds later, shoot them off to TV networks and bloggers.

Yeah, Jeb's milita and Karl Rove's rangers can pull some stunts--but they're going to have a much harder time getting away with it. (Random query: Why do we never hear about Democratic dirty tricks?)

Swami's prediction: we'll see more "home-made" media on Election Day than you'd have dreamed possible. If not on the networks, at least on blogs. Which become more and more important every day the Mainstream Media somehow fails to tell us what we want to know (though it's doing a great job of telling Some People what they want to hear).

The First Debate: Questions from the Pros
September 29, 2004 | 4:00 p.m.

Editor and Publisher polled veteran journalists: What would you ask?

Swami's favorites?

For Bush: "You and/or members of your administration now concede there was a problem of reliable intelligence analysis on weapons of mass destruction and postwar issues. How can you trust what your analysts are telling you now about the war in Iraq?"

For Kerry: "Why don't you stop talking like a U.S. senator and tell me what you are going to do about the war?"

John Ashcroft? Oh, John Ashcroft? Hey, John, Where Are You?
September 29, 2004 | 4:00 p.m.

Our Attorney General has been uncommonly quiet of late. Have you seen him? Swami hasn't either. Maybe it's because his personal war on terror has turned out to be a dud.

The Nation reports:

...the Detroit case had marked the only terrorist conviction obtained from the Justice Department's detention of more than 5,000 foreign nationals in anti-terrorism sweeps since 9/11. So Ashcroft's record is 0 for 5,000. When the attorney general was locking these men up in the immediate wake of the attacks, he held almost daily press conferences to announce how many "suspected terrorists" had been detained. No press conference has been forthcoming to announce that exactly none of them have turned out to be actual terrorists.

Oh, wait. Cat Stevens. 0 for 5,001.

Thought for Today
September 28, 2004 | 5:30 p.m.

it's the quick-step march of history
the vanity of nations
it's the way there'll be no muffled drums
to mark the passage of my generation
it's the children of my children
it's the lambs born in innocence
it's wondering if the good i know
will last to be seen by the eyes of the little ones
--Buddy Miller, "Worry Too Much," from Universal United House of Prayer

Today's Fun: "The Billionaires Are in the House!"
September 28, 2004 | 5:30 p.m.

A rap video: "Billionaires for Bush," made by a group that outdoes 50 Cent by a lot--it's called Fifty Billion.

"Funny" (Bush is "G Dog") doesn't begin to describe this sucker. Sample rap: "Bush is our President/You know we're not kidding/He's takin' our money/He's doin' our bidding."

Crank those speakers up! Forward this sucker on!

More Fun: The Florida Ballot
September 28, 2004 | 5:30 p.m.

Just try to cast a vote for Kerry. Just try.

Iraqi Math, Part II
September 28, 2004 | 5:30 p.m.

A thoughtful reader shows Swami another way to look at 39 combat-related deaths in Iraq (in January) and 35 murders in Detroit:

You need a little ammo to deal with the math-challenged equation comparing 39 combat deaths to 35 murders in Detroit. In order for it to be an accurate comparison, you have to have the same population number in the denominator. We have roughly 135,000 troops in Iraq. Detroit has roughly 950,000 people, and the region is about 4.7 million. Depending on whether those murders occurred only in Detroit or in the whole region, the same rate of soldiers dying in Iraq would give you 274 in the city and 1,357 in the whole region.

Either way, a lot of dying in Iraq, doncha think? And that's excluding the civilian deaths, which, as we know, matter only to the Iraqis.

Five People You Won't Meet in Heaven (They're Not Going)
September 28, 2004 | 5:30 p.m.

Paul Crouch. His wife Jan. Their sons, Paul Jr. and Matthew. Paul's sister Ruth Brown. You know this quintet, perhaps, as the heads of Trinity Broadcasting, creator of "Praise the Lord," a show with as many prime-time viewers as Chris Matthews' "Hardball."

The Los Angeles Times tells a different story--an old-fashioned tale of hustlers who use religion to extort money from those least able to give it. And, of course, there's some sex involved: Crouch reportedly "paid a former employee $425,000 to keep silent about an alleged homosexual tryst."

But let's not get caught up in a little sexual hypocrisy when there's so much money to track:

Though it carries no advertising, the network generates more than $170 million a year in revenue, tax filings show. Viewer contributions account for two-thirds of that money.

Lower-income, rural Americans in the South are among TBN's most faithful donors. The network says that 70% of its contributions are in amounts less than $50.

Those small gifts underwrite a lifestyle that most of the ministry's supporters can only dream about.

Paul, 70, collects a $403,700 salary as TBN's chairman and president. Jan, 67, is paid $361,000 as vice president and director of programming. Those are the highest salaries paid by any of the 12 major religious nonprofits whose finances are tracked by the Chronicle of Philanthropy...

The Crouches travel the world in a $7.2-million, 19-seat Canadair Turbojet owned by TBN.....Thirty ministry-owned homes are at their disposal - including a pair of Newport Beach mansions, a mountain retreat near Lake Arrowhead and a ranch in Texas.

The Crouches' family members share in the benefits. Their oldest son, Paul Jr., earns $90,800 a year as TBN's vice president for administration. Another son, Matthew, has received $32 million from the network since 1999 to produce Christian-themed movies such as "The Omega Code."

Overseeing these expenditures is a board of directors that consists of Paul Crouch, Jan Crouch and Paul's 74-year-old sister, Ruth Brown. Control resides primarily with Paul. In a 2001 legal deposition, Jan said she did not know she was a corporate officer and could not recall the last board meeting she attended.

Swami knows what you're thinking: Oh, to have a non-profit.

World Hunger: When We Can Make Money Off It, Maybe the United States Will Care About It
September 28, 2004 | 5:30 p.m.

A hundred countries want to raise $50 billion to combat global hunger. The United States isn't one of them. Why not?

According to a report in The Scotsman, the money is to be raised in a number of creative ways, including....

...a global tax on financial transactions, a tax on the sale of heavy arms, an international borrowing facility and a scheme for marketing credit cards whose users would donate a small percentage of their charges to the cause.

But the US poured cold water on the project, with the leader of the American delegation, agriculture secretary Ann Veneman, dismissing it.

"Economic growth is the long-term solution to hunger and poverty," she told the meeting. "Global taxes are inherently undemocratic. Implementation is impossible."

Ms. Veneman misspoke. We have no objection to taxes so long as the rich don't pay them.

The Beauty Part
September 28, 2004 | 5:30 p.m.

The Eye of Hurricane Ivan, as seen from the International Space Station.

Thought for Today
September 27, 2004 | 5:15 p.m.

A year from now, I'd be surprised if there's not some grand square in Baghdad that is named after President Bush.
--Richard Perle, member of the Defense Policy Board (a collection of experts and former government officials who have access to classified information and are unpaid advisers to the Secretary of Defense on military issues), September 22, 2003

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