Funmurphys: the Blog

Over There

Lot's of good news on the international front.

CAFTA -- the Central American Free Trade Agreement -- passed very narrowly. Free trade is good for everyone in the long run, not just Illinois farmers. Forbes thinks that the closeness of the vote makes other free trade agreements harder; this would have to come under the heading of effect and not cause in my book.

The IRA has announced that they will lay down their arms. This has been a long time coming, and I'm glad to see it. They should have done it in 1998, but better late than never, and maybe the Palestinians could learn something if they pay attention. Despite the name, I'm not an IRA sympathizer - quite the contrary in fact.

The State Department is saying a resolution to North Korea's nuclear program is close at hand. And while I firmly believe you shouldn't count your chickens before they're hatched, especially given the track record of North Korea, I am hopeful.

The 6 countries responsible for 40% of the carbon dioxide emissions announced a pact to reduce them. To me, this kind of initiative sounds much more promising than Kyoto which is a failure in conception and implementation.

Ugandans went to the polls and voted for multiparty democracy over "no-party" democracy in early, unofficial returns. Will they actually get it? That's the hard part, really.

And in news I won't qualify as "good", but it is part of the international front, the Russian government objected to an interview with terrorist mass murderer Shamil Basayev, the man behind the Beslan massacre. While I think running the interview is OK, ABC news had a duty to present the context - a remind viewers of the truly awful nature of what this guy has done, deliberately targeting children for death. I didn't see the interview, so they may well have done so.

My Plea

How about that Live 8!?!

Now that the hoopla is over, if you prefer a more bottoms up than top down approach, if you don't think that G8 leaders run the world, than please check out Compassion International. It doesn't focus exclusively on Africa, but world wide poverty. It is a very well run charitable organization, earning 4 out of 4 stars from Charity Navigator. It is all about one person (or group) helping another person. Yes, it is quite explicity Christian, which is important to me; if you would prefer to work through an organization that isn't explicitly Christian that is your choice and please do so.

To those who are thinking "hey, I thought you were against aid to deveoping countries" here's my position. Economic problems will be solved by political and economic development, but in the meantime there are people who are in desperate need. So while I think a lot of the big government programs hurt more than help, until countries do develop, the right kind of aid is needed. And feeding and educating children locally is (one form of) the right kind of aid. There is more to life than politics and economics, and Compassion helps there too by spreading the Gospel which should be preached to poor and rich alike.

Not Good

Is it just me, or has the national scout jamboree not been going well this year? Leaders electrocuted, scouts dropping like flies from the heat while waiting for President Bush. It's not like the problems are the fault of poor planning. Don't put up metal framed tents under power lines. And while I do feel sorry for all those scouts from cool climates who aren't used to the heat and humidity -- if you can't stand the heat, don't sit out in a shadeless field in the hottest part of the day for hours. Be prepared encompasses know your limitations.

He's Baaaaaaack

Sir Charles, that is. And in fine form, too. He puts his finger right on the problem of modern jurisprudence (OK, it's a problem that has been with as long as there have been judges) -- judges making up law or striking law down because they think that's what the the law ought to be. So we have a law against partial birth abortions ruled unconstitutional because it has no provision with respect to the health of the mother. Now even if you think that Constitution has a right to privacy somehow embedded, which is the theory on which laws against abortion were ruled unconstitutional, you will never persuade me that it contains a right to better health. But that's what we're stuck with because 5 appointees decided it ought to have one.

Scout Camp

We're having a heatwave here (we made the CBS evening news!). So naturally I spent 3 days without air conditioning in scout camp last week - Thursday through Saturday. I had a good time and I sleep better every camping trip I go on. Normally I try not to sleep on my back because I tend to snore in that position but given the Dad Symphony around me I rolled over onto my back at 2:30 AM Thursday and slept there the rest of the trip. Nobody complained in the morning, and I slept like a middle aged fat man -- I only woke up to go to the bathroom.

Summer camp at S-F is like stepping back in time, since the equipment is the original from the mid '60s and the tents have a feel of such antiquity you feel like you're at a civil war encampment. But on a hot summer night, a tent that becomes only a roof is pretty handy, although by the end all the boys were sleeping out under the stars:

I know a lot of people think Missouri is just another boring midwestern state without majestic scenery, but I find the scenery here to be wonderful in an elegant yet understated way. The centerpiece of the S-F ranch is Nims lake (at least for the campers) which not only is beautiful, but fun:

Each patrol has it's own area in the overall troop campsite, and the dining table with fly above is the nerve center of the operation. So here's a picture of the Eagle's nerve center, with the Old Goat's (the adult patrol) area in the background, marked by the presence of the troop trailer, source of many good things. My son was happy to see me when I got there, but I of course wanted to capture the moment on film. Or CCD, as the case may be.

The campsites at Camp Sakima are arrayed in a horseshoe fashion around a cove of Nims lake; the two sides of the mouth of the cove are connected by a long pontoon bridge (very long under the hot Missouri sun). Campsite Dilling is located on a hill at the end of the bridge.

Thursday night was the tapped out ceremony for the Order of the Arrow, the real secret society that runs the world. Or at least the scouting world. We made our way to the parade grounds were the camp director gave a good talk about what the OA is all about -- cheerful service (It's just one of the reinforcements of good behavior the Scouts provides). And it was better for the fact that he wasn't chosen the first time he was eligible, so he talked about the importance of looking within at your motivations, and looking without at your actions. Then we were led by guides back along the shore or lake Nims where we lined up, shoulder to shoulder (a phrase often used to pack us in at camp) for the ceremony. It's a very cool ceremony, involving lots of fire, several Indians, and the choosing of members for the Order of the Arrow. I thought it poor form to take pictures of the ceremony itself as I was a participant, so sadly I have no really cool pictures. I do have a group shot though, just before the boys and parents separated and we made our separate ways to the start of the ceremony.

It really was a good time.

Branding Done Wrong

Eight months of searching for a product name for the latest incarnation of Windows, and Microsoft comes up with Vista. How I would love to be a consultant. How MS could take eight months and not come up with an improvement on Longhorn (who really wants their computer OS named after a large, stupid ruminant) is beyond me. Accurate maybe, but we're talking marketing here. Heck, I could have made random picks out of the dictionary until I got a better name much quicker and cheaper.

I guess MS is hoping that Windows Vista turns out better than AltaVista, which was once a cutting edge search engine, dethroned by Google (for those of you too young to remember.

I suppose that the boring, focus group driven name fits the boring, focus group driven product. And hopefully diverts attention for just how late the product is. I have to wonder what the effect of all the top management of a company being rich beyond the dreams of avarice have on a company; in the case of Microsoft, it would appear that the combination of money and a lack of competition have caused it to become downright lazy.

The Other Asian Giant

In the category of news that's really big but not much reported on because it doesn't involve a celebrity, a young white woman, injury, or jail time, the Prime Minister of India has wrapped up trip to the United States. The US agreed to help India out with nuclear power technology in return for India implementing anti-proliferation controls on all their nuclear technology. I think it very good news that the US and India are developing a better working relationship.

Fast Is Good

Apparently "Broadband" doesn't convey the speed of what a Finnish company will be able to bring to cable networks next year, so now we have "Super Fast Broadband". Will DSL come back with "Faster than Fast DSL" I wonder? As a cable internet subscriber, I'm happy at the announcement of 100 megabits a second for cable, although I'll still probably be just a bronze subscriber which puts me at about 25 megabits a second. And while the Finns are at it, can they bring down the price on the really big plasma and LCD screens ("Big Honking Screen TV"). Thanks.

Sudan Regime Displays True Colors

I read the headline with interest: Rice's Guards Manhandled by Sudanese Security. Yet when I read the article, it was everybody accompanying Secretary of State Rice who were "manhandled" (where are the gender police on that one?) by Sudanese guards while she was conferring with the President of Sudan. The main examples cited were of the US press traveling with her who were "manhandled". Good for her that she got pissed and got an apology. The most telling part of the incident is when the Sudanese aid told our press "there is no free press here."

He's Dead, Jim

Beloved actor James Doohan has died. Who couldn't love his Star Trek character Scotty? He is to be cremated and his ashes shot into space as there is no transporter beam to send them there.

The Supreme Choice

President Bush has nominated John Roberts for the Supreme Court. I haven't heard of him before, but I'm sure I'm going to know far more about him than I ever wanted to. No doubt I'll hear conflicting reports - some will extoll his greatness, and some will hammer his wrongness. Already people have been calling him brilliant, which frankly isn't what I'm looking for in a judge. But I have taken some comfort in his opinion in the french fry case: "The question before us," Roberts wrote, "is not whether these policies were a bad idea, but whether they violated the Fourth and Fifth Amendments to the Constitution." That isn't brilliance, that's common sense, and spot on. And it just seems to this non-student of the Supreme Court the longer a judge is on that bench, the more they rule based on the belief that bad ideas are unconstitutional.

I was disappointed that President Bush didn't nominate a woman, but not just any woman, a particular woman, namely Ann Coulter (who sounds kind of peeved she didn't get the nod but does have a point). Judge Roberts was selected in part because he would be approved by the Senate; a Coulter nomination on the other hand would not be approved but would provide glorious theater and encouragement for extremists of both stripes. I would hope for a total lack of decorum, lots of lunges for the jugular, and at the end of it all, catharsis.

Public Service Announcement

The Belleville East High School Class of 1980 has a website, and a 25th reunion coming up with activities starting August 5th and lasting until the 7th. So if that was your school and your class, hit the website to find out all the details and RSVP. Just thought you should know.

Doesn't Speak For Me

Since I get my marching orders from Hugh Hewitt, I have to say Congressman Tancredo's remark that we should retaliate by bombing Mecca if we're attacked by Nukes by Islamic terrorists is wrong and unhelpful, and well, shameful.

More of the Same

Somebody finally found a link that lays out the responsibility for people to protect classified information even after it has been disclosed:

Question 19: If information that a signer of the SF 312 knows to have been classified appears in a public source, for example, in a newspaper article, may the signer assume that the information has been declassified and disseminate it elsewhere?

Answer: No. Information remains classified until it has been officially declassified. Its disclosure in a public source does not declassify the information. Of course, merely quoting the public source in the abstract is not a second unauthorized disclosure. However, before disseminating the information elsewhere or confirming the accuracy of what appears in the public source, the signer of the SF 312 must confirm through an authorized official that the information has, in fact, been declassified. If it has not, further dissemination of the information or confirmation of its accuracy is also an unauthorized disclosure.

The bold portion doesn't say should have known was classified, or could have known if he'd checked into it, but it says knows.

As for Rove, the question(s) are was her employement at the CIA classified, and if so, did Rove know that. We're assuming her status was because of the referrel, but I don't know if we've actually seen the referrel. But let's answer yes (and this is a hypothetical since I don't actually know), in which case for Rove to have committed a crime, he had to know that her status was classified. If Rove knew, then it doesn't matter if a reporter mentioned it to him first. If he didn't know, it doesn't matter if Rove mentioned it to a reporter first. Now if Rove was accurate in saying her learned her status from a reporter, and had no official source, then he didn't do anything illegal, because he didn't know it was classified. You might think it sleazy, I might think that he should have asked the White House security people about it before commenting, but that doesn't mean it was illegal.

And that brings us to Joe Wilson. He knew of his wife's covert status, and that it was classified. He told reporter David Corn all about his wife covert, classified activities:

So he [Wilson] will neither confirm nor deny that his wife--who is the mother of three-year-old twins--works for the CIA. But let's assume she does. That would seem to mean that the Bush administration has screwed one of its own top-secret operatives in order to punish Wilson or to send a message to others who might challenge it.

The sources for Novak's assertion about Wilson's wife appear to be "two senior administration officials." If so, a pair of top Bush officials told a reporter the name of a CIA operative who apparently has worked under what's known as "nonofficial cover" and who has had the dicey and difficult mission of tracking parties trying to buy or sell weapons of mass destruction or WMD material. If Wilson's wife is such a person--and the CIA is unlikely to have many employees like her--her career has been destroyed by the Bush administration. (Assuming she did not tell friends and family about her real job, these Bush officials have also damaged her personal life.) Without acknowledging whether she is a deep-cover CIA employee, Wilson says, "Naming her this way would have compromised every operation, every relationship, every network with which she had been associated in her entire career. This is the stuff of Kim Philby and Aldrich Ames." If she is not a CIA employee and Novak is reporting accurately, then the White House has wrongly branded a woman known to friends as an energy analyst for a private firm as a CIA officer. That would not likely do her much good.

This is far more than Novaks "CIA operative", and make it crystal clear that she was covert. If you read the article, it's pretty clear that Mr. Wilson was the source, and so Cliff May decided to ask Corn that very question.

From an email Corn sent to Cliff May:

All I can say again is, nice try. When I spoke to Joe Wilson after the Novak leak, he would not tell me whether or not his wife worked at the CIA. He spoke only in hypotheticals. He said, imagine if she did, what would this leak mean, AND imagine if she did not, what would this leak mean. So I do deny that he told me because he did not. That's the truth, the absolute truth. No spin. No parsing. No stonewalling. If you find any wiggle room in this response, let me know and I will unwiggle it. And you can believe it or not.

If you watch Jeopardy, you know the answers are phrased in the form of a question. Joe Wilson wasn't asking questions, because he knew the answer. He was providing the answer in the form of a question. If I were on a jury that heard this case, I'd convict. (oops, there goes my chances).

This is what really gaps my ax, is that Joe Wilson has been leaking leaking, no make that spewing classified info - about his trip, about his wife, about WMD intellegence, maybe even about the sweet tea -- he's lied more times than I can count, and yet where are the calls for him to be frog marched out of his home, let alone indicted? No where. Instead, attention is focused on maybe Karl Rove leaked a subset of that information.

It's a crazy, mixed up world which we live in.

Yes, I do Have A Life.

I had a busy weekend. Saturday morning the Fruit of the Murphy Loin's swim team won their conference meet which makes them undefeated on the all too short season -- they were 5-0 in dual meets. Mid day Sunday I took my son Boy Scout camp where he'll be for the next week. We watched movies - Napolean Dynamite (which isn't), Hotel Rawanda (which is), and Cold Mountain (which my wife thought far more of than I did). And somehow I did manage to read Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. This time, no waiting around for midnight for us, we sailed in after the swim meet and sailed out immediately afterwards.

For those of you who think I kept my kids from reading it, my son thought it best he didn't take the book to camp where it could be damaged and my daughter wanted to finish her current book before starting a new one.

Yes, I like it, a lot, and I think part of it is how well Rowling writes Dumbledore, and he is in the book early and often. Gone is the teenage angst from the last book, and good riddance to bad rubbish. Rowling does some things very, very well -- her wonderful imagination and warm sense of humor combine to form an amazing yet fun world of wizards and magic that is full of detail and fairly coherent. It's so good though, that paradoxically I feel let down at those times when you reach it's limits of making sense or being internally consistant. And with six books, of increasing complexity and scope, you start to bump into them a bit more. And just I so I can speak freely, that's all I'm going to say unless you care to read the extended entry.

Where There Be Spoilers!

The books started out light and breezy, but they have gotten darker and darker, and yes, this book puts the lights out with the death of Dumbledore. But that's one of the things I like best about Rowling - she isn't afraid to kill off interesting characters who she clearly loves. I suppose a ton of money in the bank helps, but more likely is a trueness to her story, and an understanding that sacrifice is important.

The book also indicates that the seventh year won't be spent at Hogwarts, thus breaking the mold. In fact, it promises to be a much different book than the rest.

This book was also different in that Harry was pretty much a failure this time around. He never figured out what Malfoy was doing, he didn't have a hand in winning the Quidditch cup, he relied on Snape's notes in his old textbook in potions, he didn't figure out who the Half Blood Prince was (neither did I), and he was unable to help Dumbledore in the end. His only success, really, was the result of the luck potion he took. It made me realize the Harry is pretty much a mediocre wizard, and his success hasn't been built on his wizarding skills but his pluck, courage, and friendships, which is I suppose part of what Rowling is trying to say, especially in light of the discussion of the importance of love as a source of power. In a sense, the books aren't about what you can do, but what you do.

A Link Here And A Link There

It's that time again for Friday links.

Ed Driscoll has a great post that looks at suicide bombers.

Chris Johnson looks at the conservative response to the liberal destruction of orthodox Anglicism and says the time for words has passed.

Freesoiler John Hilton uses Gov. Matt Blunt's war chest as proxy for popularity. While I don't think the Governor inherited a state government "in total disarray", he did get handed a budget deficit due to a referendum that Archpundit, no friend of Blunt's, said would make the governorship "a booby prize". So we've been treated to a succession of stories about how Blunt is cutting services with attendent outrage by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch without the reminder that these cuts are not because the Gov likes to cut, but because the people of the Missouri voted by an overwhelming margin to have all gasoline tax money be spent on roads instead of a portion going to services as they had in the past. I don't think the stories are finding much resonance beyond the usual suspects, though, with the exception of the cuts to medicaid.

Shelly Powers delivers another great photo essay. Beauty is a joy forever.

The Listless Lawyer provides his own "Best Of". Maybe I'll do that when I actually have an entry I'd be willing to include.

Cam Edwards writes about a column by Mark Yost and the response to it. It seems Mr. Yost doesn't like the media's reporting, and they don't like Mr. Yost. Via Bill In DC.

Arthur Chrenkoff has a post entitled "Charles the Hammer Made Them Do It<"/a>. With a name like that, how can you resist?

OK, I couldn't resist ScrappleFace's take on L'affaire Plame.

Somehow the guys at In The Agora exhaustively examine France without once mentioning the words "leather bustier". (I admit it, I mentioned them just for the hits).

Bill Roggio at Winds of Change examines the support for Al Qaida and finds it slipping through their Governor Tarquinesq fingers.

Powerline does some of their best work by bringing us beach volley ball pictures.

Finally, a post at Pandagon I can agree with. (Except for that part about watching dating shows and having a boyfriend.)

Of all the stuff on QandO, I chose to link to this? Well, he is the most dangerous pundit on the face of the planet afterall.

Michael Totten wonders about our memory. Apparently there's a hole in it that swallows things like prior reporting on links between, oh, ah, I forget, so go read the darn thing yourself.

Plame Miller Novak Rove Wilson Corn

Yesterday I speculated (and it is just that, speculation) that Valerie Plame Wilson was a source for Judith Miller on WMD. Lot's of people have speculated that Judith Miller was the source and the possible start of "everybody knew" Valerie Plame Wilson worked for the CIA. Today Cliff May speculates that Joe Wilson was the source for Valerie Plame Wilson being covert agent for the CIA in an article for David Corn - which amazingly enough Corn confirms. If you think the Wilson's hypotheticals weren't a confirmation, remember that Joe Wilson wasn't speculating, he knew. Simply working for the CIA isn't classified information. Being a covert agent is. (That's the covert part.)

So now we know who actually outed Valerie Plame Wilson as a covert CIA operative - her husband, Joe Wilson. Not Bob Novak, not Karl Rove, but Joe Wilson. Novak didn't have access to her status as a covert agent, nor did he identify her as such. Karl Rove didn't have access to her status as a covert agent, let alone her name until a reporter told him, nor did he identify her as such. Joe Wilson knew her status as a (prior) covert agent, and he did identify her as such.

Plame Wilson Novak Rove

I'm finding the entire Plame Wilson Novak Rove mess to be pretty much awful from start to finish. Nobody looks good in this, and I mean nobody as a person or institution -- except Tom Maguire, who's been all over this story since day one and is the only person, Ambassador Wilson included, who can keep track of all the different stories Joe Wilson has told and who he told them to. But back to the story,as I wrote back when this first broke:

Joe Wilson served our country ably and courageously during the Gulf War as acting ambassador to Iraq for which he got zero public notice; Valerie Plame served our country ably and courageously for years for which she got (understandably) zero public notice. What they are recognized for now has been on his part a willingness to criticize President Bush beyond any factual basis (the more strident the criticism, the greater the recognition); and on her part simple victimization. This is crazy. Talk about your perverse incentives.

The CIA looks bad for several reasons. First, they send somebody out on a super secret mission who's investigative technique is to talk to old friends, and since he apparently has done this sort of thing for them in the past and he is currently married to the person who recommended him they pretty much know this is what he will do. Now it isn't a bad technique in itself, but when he does report his findings, they are deemed inconclusive in part because: "We also had to consider that the former Nigerien officials knew that what they were saying would reach the U.S. government and that this might have influenced what they said." So what was the point of sending somebody to talk to former Nigerien officials if we weren't going to believe what they told to our investigator because they knew he was on a super secret mission from the US government?

Second, they seem to have real troubles with opsec. In addition to having had a string of former bosses caught with classified material in their possession when it shouldn't have been, you have somebody go on this mission and then blab all about it when he gets back. Ambassador Wilson filed a classified report, and then turn around and leaked it and eventually wrote not just an oped on the subject, but a book. No attempt was made to stop him (and please don't cite the first amendment - if he has a security clearance, he signed an agreement not to disclose classified info). Yeah, I know his defense would be that nothing he said afterward had any resemblence to what was in his report (or the truth) as he lied about everything, who sent him, why he was sent, what he reported, and who saw his report.

Third, they seem to be a little cavalier with the identities of their covert operatives. How the heck did Karl Rove find out about Valerie Plame?

There are two possibilities - one is that the CIA told the White House. I imagine when Joe Wilson's op ed hit the fan, the White House asked the CIA who the heck is this guy and what's he doing going on CIA missions. And they (meaning Tenet or whoever answers the phone when the White House calls) could have told them that he was married to a CIA analyst who got him the job - no name mentioned - which squares with Rove told Cooper. Of course, in the words of Joe Biden, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out who Joe Wilson's wife is, especially since Ambassador Wilson included it in his web bio.

Now perhaps her identity as a covert operator was so well guarded that the person passing along this info from the CIA didn't know that under that mild mannered analyst cover was a covert operative. Which then raises the question, is it really a good idea to have covert operatives go to work as regular CIA employees? And there's another question - did the CIA impress upon the White House the need for secrecy in regards to Ms. Plame's identity?

I'll get to the other possibility in a moment because there are two loose ends. One is Novak himself. We know Rove was Cooper's source, but who was Novak's? I don't think it was Rove for several reasons - one is that Novak said the person wasn't a political operator, which Rove is; Novak seems to have already given up his source before Cooper was forced to, and if it were Rove, Cooper wouldn't have held out let alone have pressure applied; and Rove told Cooper she was an analyst, but Novak said operative - two very different things; and I think Rove denied being a source of the leak because he wasn't Novak's source and didn't think any one else (i.e. Cooper) would ever be forced to.

Now we come to the question, raised by Bryan Preston at Junkyard Blog, of why Judith Miller is still in jail. If Rove were her source, she could get out of jail. So I doubt he is. And if not Rove, than who? Well, Ms. Miller wrote a lot of articles about WMD before the war in Iraq. Where'd she get her info? Could some have come from CIA sources? Perhaps from a WMD analyst? Perhaps from a co-worker who outed Ms. Plame? Perhaps from Valerie Plame herself? I don't know, but it's interesting that Ms. Miller is going to the mat on protecting her source when apparently all others have been given up.

She has the key to unravel the whole mystery, and yet she chooses silence. I'm supposed to be happy that a journalist is refusing to tell what she knows? I'm supposed to be informed by her silence? That's the craziest part of this whole sordid mess.

Natural Hazards

Saturday morning I did a little yard work - mowed the lawn, pulled my weight in Ivy, filled a trash can with sticks and limbs, and puttered about in general. Afterwards I noticed an itchy patch on my ankle I assumed was a spider bite so I alternated spraying it with hydrocortisone and applying Calahist. Monday morning the area developed a blister that kept growing until Tuesday morning it was the size of a grape when the doctor cut it off. Yep, she took a pair of scissors and cut the darn thing right off. Then she gave me a prescription for an anti-histimine for the itch which has made me drowsy, and mostly itch free, ever since.

Monday what was Hurricane Dennis came to St. Louis and provided a steady rain which we badly needed. I sat out in it for three and half hours that night watching my kids swim team go undefeated for the season. The important thing was never to get up from my chair so it would stay dry. Towards the end I was actually glad when the swimmers would splash me since that water was warm.

I'm looking forward to the rest of the week since I figure it can only get better.

Eye Opener

Imagine my surprise to open my paper this morning and read this article about a leaked secret memo detailing plans to reduce troop levels in Iraq. Here we are fighting a war, American soldiers are dying, civilians are at risk, and newspapers are splashing war plans across their front pages. Tell me again how the press should have an absolute right to protect sources. Tell me again that the press is always looking out for my best interests.

That Will Help The Image

Just wait until Gary Trudeau reads this article: Suspected Kidnapper in Idaho Kept Blog. No mention of cat food, though.

An Oldie But A Goodie

As a follow-up to my previous post about Africa, I saw Instapundit's post on Max Boot's column about sub-standard government being the major problem in Africa which reminded me of my earlier post on the same subject:

What are rogue nations but those with particularly wretched governments - or government of the tyrant, by the tyrant, and for the tyrant. The countries that are the worst to live in are those with the worst governments. Poor countries are poor because their governments keep them poor through (at best) mismanagement and (at worst) deliberate rule for the ruler's sake. Frankly, no government should be considered legitimate that doesn't have the consent of it's people in free and fair elections. The best way to decrease poverty, to reduce war, to reduce human suffering would be to improve government globally.

Excellence, Not Privilege

What, exactly, is freedom of the press? Is it the freedom not to testify to grand juries? I sure don't think so. I think freedom of the press is the freedom to investigate and publish without prior government restraint; the freedom of the press isn't a trump card over any and all consequences. And last time I looked in the constitution, it said nothing about "the public's right to know." To know what exactly? Apparently not the identity of sources.

Judith Miller is in jail for refusing to name a source to a grand jury conducting a criminal investigation. I don't see how freedom of the press provides any coverage here, especially since there's every possibility that the source committed a crime, and the crime itself was a source disclosing confidential information. To my mind, Ms. Miller is clearly breaking the law by impeding a criminal investigation and has no basis for the claim that she has a legal right to confidentiality. The promise of confidentiality at this point is an illegal contract, and can't (nor should it) be enforced.

But the press tells me there's a bigger issue here - the ability to protect confidential sources. They tell me this is very important for America, and often mention Watergate. Well. President Nixon's underlings were investigated, indicted, and convicted by the judicial system, and President Nixon resigned rather than be impeached and convicted by Congress. From my vantage point, the triumph of Watergate is that the separation of powers worked, not that the fourth estate was needed. It wasn't. It didn't do a darn thing but report what real branches of government (and in the case of Woodward and Bernstein, the executive branch) were doing. Confidential sources contributed nothing to the outcome, even if they contributed to the Washington Post's bottom line.

But what about the case of a whistleblower who bravely steps forward to alert the public to danger? By and large, these are not criminal offenses and the confidentiality protects the whistleblower from reprisal, not criminal investigation. And where a crime is committed, or may have been committed, the proper resolution is that it be adjudicated by a court, not stonewalled by a reporter. That is, the source should have their day in court so that their deed can be judged, not hidden because of a reporter's promise.

Ultimately what the press is asking for is the easy road, not the best road. They truly do want to be above the law, which is wrong. Ms. Woolner skirts the issue:

Still, reporters, like prosecutors, can't always choose their sources. We find ourselves getting information from people with their own agendas, some of them lacking a certain degree of character. The trick is to independently assess the information, taking into account the weaknesses and motivation of the source. It is a task that can rarely be completed in that first discussion with the source, the one where the terms of the conversation and the degree of confidentiality are negotiated.

OK, how about just throwing in a clause that the confidentiality agreement is null and void if a crime is involved? How hard is that? Realistically, the journalist is in a weak position relative to the source, and journalists, especially big name journalists, rely on sources. So they have the Faustian bargain that is only alluded to -- they advance the interests of the source, typically make the interest of the source their own, without fully knowing and understanding the interests of the source. And the interests of the source may have nothing to do with the public interest - in fact it might be quite the opposite. And given the rush to publish, it's doubtful that the reporter ever has a full understanding of what the source is about, or is truly interested. But because on rare instances a source's interests do coincide with the public good, we should treat all sources as advancing the public good? I don't think so.

I have no illusions that because of this blog I'm a "journalist", although technically I am. I don't think I should get any special privileges or treatment because I post stuff to the internet where it can be read by others. Nor should be people get special privileges or treatment because they write stuff that is published and read by others. That's just crazy talk.

Sourcing isn't the only area the journalists and journalism want special privileges - they want special treatment for product liability. Thus they successfully argued for the malice standard for slander/libel. Thus they want measely correction columns to satisfy the informationally injured - both the party that was directly wronged and the consumers of the false information. Journalism is gung ho about everybody else being held to high standards and facing lawsuits, but about themselves, well, it would have a chilling effect. They don't accept that argument from any other party, why should I accept it from them?

What would journalism look like if people could sue not based on maliciousness, but simple truth and accuracy? What if their consumers could sue and collect damages if they could show that their product wasn't true and accurate as claimed? Ignorance, laziness, and disregard for others would quickly be banished as money talked, bulls**t walked. Yes, it would have chilling effect on the lousy side of journalism, but I'm not convinced that it wouldn't lead to accurate stories based on fact, not opinion and restore the trust in journalism that is rapidly eroding -- both of which can't but help boost the bottom line. But that's the hard way to excellence, and it's much easier to move the goal posts.

One final note: I realize that contrary to Ms. Woolner's published opinion which I linked to, Joseph Wilson did not discredit the Bush administration's claim that Iraq tried to purchase Uranium in Africa - in fact he confirmed it, but then lied to Nick Kristoff about it as an anonymous source and then lied about it repeatedly as himself before ultimately admitting the truth that indeed Iraq's then foreign minister, known as Baghdad Bob, made overtures to Nigerian officials that they interpreted as trying to buy uranium. I guess her column goes to the point I'm trying to make in more than one way.

Indianapolis

We spent the Fourth of July weekend in Indianapolis. We haven't had the time to take a vacation this summer between summer school, baseball, swimming, mission trip to Mexico, Boy Scout camp, and getting ready for High School and Middle School. So we decided to take a long weekend, and made the reservation at the Residence Inn in downtown Indianapolis Wednesday for an arrival on Friday. While that kind of short notice is normal in my business trips, it isn't for vacations. But we had a good time.

I was (pleasantly) surprised at the lack of traffic on a Friday evening rush hour in Indianapolis. The entire trip had an uncrowded feeling. I was also pleasantly surprised by the hotel, as it was located on the White River Canal which meant we could walk out of the hotel and enjoy a beautiful stroll along the canal while actually on our way to a lot of attractions.
View Of the White River Canal:

We went to the zoo on Saturday. We're spoiled in St. Louis with a great zoo that is also free. The Indianapolis zoo cost real money to get into and was OK.

We had fun, but I doubt we'll be going back for a vacation anytime soon - like maybe when pigs fly:

Yes, there is more if you can stand it!

Like any self respecting city (besides San Francisco) there is a river that runs through Indianapolis - the White River:

And they also have a public garden, though only 3 acres. For me this was the best part of the trip, although I am alone in that assessment.

To get to the Garden you had to go through a Butterfly house, something didn't exist when I was a kid but now seems to be everywhere.

They had lilypads, so I had to get a picture. You'd be amazed how many hits I get of my lilypad picture in Denver.

We also walked around downtown - we saw War of the Worlds at the downtown mall. In the center of the city is a memorial to Civil War and Spanish-American War veterans with a small museum underneath.

I didn't photograph the memorials to the USS Indianapolis or the Medal of Honor recipients along the canal. I was moved by the memorials and we spent some time with our children experiencing them and discussing them.

We did have some time for fun and games as we rented a four place bike (Lance Armstrong, eat your heart out!) and pedaled around White River State Park.

After the bike ride, it was back to the canal for a paddle boat ride. We wanted to go in the evening, but after a poor experience at Bucca de Beppo we got there too late and the waiting list was too long. So we enjoyed a midday ride, after which it was time to enjoy the Monkathon on USA.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures, and don't forget a new season of Monk starts tomorrow (7/8).

Sink Or Swim

I happened to catch some of the coverage of Live8 on CNN over the weekend and I never thought I'd see newscasters having orgasms live on TV, but I saw multiple ones. I don't get it. But then, I read stuff like this instead. No, it doesn't provide any satisfaction for me, only sadness. The problems in Africa have very little to do with money - that's a symptom, not a cause. But send money has become such a reflexive response it can be hard to overcome.

Terrorists Attack London

Terrorists attacked London this morning, with four bombs going off in the transportation network, killing at least 33 people, and injuring up to a thousand. As always with breaking news like this, there are a lot of speculation and error being passed off as news. My deepest sympathy to all those affected.

The Mirror has reactions from many world leaders, but I'm going with the mayor of London, Red Ken Livingston:

"I want to say one thing: This was not a terrorist attack against the mighty or the powerful, it is not aimed at presidents or prime ministers, it was aimed at ordinary working-class Londoners, that isn't an ideology, it isn't even a perverted faith, it's mass murder. We know what the objective is. They seek to divide London. Black and white, Muslim and Christian, Hindus and Jews, young and old. It was an indiscriminate attempt to slaughter, irrespective of any considerations for age, class, religion whatever.”

Be It Ever So Humble

I just got back from a long weekend in Indianapolis. The Fruit of the Murphy Loins are so busy this summer we couldn't find a week to get away, so we had to go for the long weekend. It's always fun to get away and nice to come home. The only down side was after not having comment spam for months, I came back to some pill pushing jerks leaving 34 comments.

On the way home I noticed a sign for the exit "Little Point". There are a lot of exits that should be so labeled, but I guess Indiana has the gumption to actually do it. Not quite as good as the last exit before going west over the old Dumbarton Bridge whose sign said: "A Street Downtown". Does it really matter? If you want to go downtown, go here. OK, it was A as in the letter, but as you drove by it wasn't the easiest thing to figure out. Or my favorite, the Exit Without A Name in Colorado (I was ready for it the second time we passed it):

I'm willing to bet the Governor was called in to decide whether it should say "No Name" or just be left blank.

One last non-trip tidbit: The neighbors who watched our dog thought the way he goes up and down stairs was so funny, they invited another neighbor over to watch. Trooper must have been showing off, because the other neighbor promptly fell down the steps just watching him. Thankfully, she wasn't hurt.