May 9, 2008 3:36

Paging Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

I know everyone is being nice and patient with the Clintons, and that's as it should be. Hillary has run a fine campaign, with certain, uh, exceptions. Her policy proposals were excellent. She is, without question, one of the smartest people adorning our public life. But perhaps it wouldn't be a bad investment for the Democratic Party to hire a good grief counselor right now, especially since "anger" is the stage that comes right after "denial" in Kubler-Ross's famous grief cycle...Indeed, it would be a really good idea if someone could find a way to navigate Bill and Hillary past anger to the very next stage, which is something they can do very well: bargaining.

May 9, 2008 12:47

U.S. Sniper Program in Crosshairs

If there is only one story you can make time for today, this one gets my vote. It is by Mark Benjamin, a former colleague of mine and crackerjack investigative reporter at Salon, and Christopher Weaver. Called "Killing by the Numbers," it tells the tale of a group of snipers who killed an unarmed Iraqi vegetable farmer named Genei Nesir Khudair al-Janabi last year.

Three snipers with exemplary military records from the 1st Battalion of the 25th Infantry Division's 501st Regiment were charged in Khudair's killing. They were tried by the military judicial system in Iraq beginning in 2007. But the most important question raised by his death remains unanswered. Why would these elite American soldiers kill an unarmed prisoner in cold blood? The answer: pressure from their commanding officers to pump up a statistic straight out of America's last long war against an intractable insurgency.

A review of thousands of pages of documents from the legal proceedings obtained by Salon shows that in the months prior to Khudair's death, the young snipers, already frustrated by guerrilla tactics, were pressed to their physical limits and pushed by officers to stretch the bounds of the laws of war in order to increase the enemy body count. When the United States wallowed in Vietnam's counterinsurgency quagmire decades ago, the same pressure placed on soldiers resulted in some of the worst atrocities of that war. A paratrooper who remembered the insidious influence of body counts in Vietnam warned Salon in 2005 that the practice could also ensnare good soldiers in Iraq. "The problem is that in Iraq, we are in a guerrilla war," said Dennis Stout. "How do you keep score? How do you prove you are winning?"

May 9, 2008 9:50

DNC Plays Spending Chicken With McCain (UPDATED w/ RNC Obama hits)

On the occasion of John McCain's tour of Gotham, the Democratic National Committee has a fun to read map up of all the Big Apple federal funding that McCain has opposed for being political pork. Some examples.

2006 $250,000 In The FY2006 Transportation Appropriations Bill: Williamsburg Bridge Plaza improvement, Brooklyn

2008 $282,000 In The FY2008 Commerce/State/Justice Appropriations Bill: Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy at-risk youth programs

2002 $600,000 In The FY2002 Interior Appropriations Bill: Statue of Liberty [Ellis Island seawall repair planning]

This is not the first time that the DNC has come after McCain on his opposition to federal spending. The interesting thing is that the McCain camp seems to welcome this sort of attack. McCain's advisers have bet that the anti-pork, anti-federal spending message will trump the provincial concerns of people who like their local pork. "They are neither under our skin nor winning that argument," said Charlie Black, a senior McCain adviser, about the DNC attacks at a recent lunch with reporters. "I haven't seen public data on this, so let me not elaborate for the moment, but a huge majority of people, [about] 75 percent think the federal government spends too much and wastes a lot of money. Ask them about pork barrel projects that's the biggest number of all."

May 9, 2008 8:11

How Obama Learned to Win

In the new dead-tree TIME, our colleague Michael Weisskopf explores Barack Obama's political roots in Chicago, which is where the likely Democratic nominee learned what it felt like to lose and what it takes to win. Michael brings a special understanding to rough-and-tumble Chicago politics and its crosscurrents of ethnic identity. A lifelong White Sox fan who grew up on the South Side, Weisskopf says he learned he was Jewish as a kindergartener--under a pile of Catholic kids.

His cover story is worth a read.

May 9, 2008 7:45

The Word from Beirut

I received a vivid email this morning from someone I know who finds himself in Beirut amid the escalating clashes between pro-Hezbollah and pro-government forces. Paul du Quenoy is a professor, most recently at the American University in Cairo, who is moving to teach at the American University in Beirut in the fall, conditions permitting. Here's what he wrote:

Friends,

I don't know what you are getting on the news, but things got a lot worse here yesterday after the general strike and Hezbollah riot, events which shut down the airport and most city services. I felt lucky to have arrived a day before, the last day the airport received flights. It was nice earlier on - more people were out than were the previous day. Cell phone stores reopened, but nothing else apart from cafes, restaurants, and food shops. I stopped into a couple. The salesmen were really nervous. One kept all his store's phones in a knapsack in case he had to leave in a hurry. The other one had Nasrallah on TV and expressed his complete disgust with the man. Then I stopped at the Gefinor hotel. I met the British general manager there who invited me for a cocktail in their bar. Then I joined their rooftop gym/spa/pool and went for a swim. On my way up I met a Cyprus Airlines pilot who is stranded here. He was talking about going to Damascus, but the Damascus road is blocked. Nasrallah's speech ended at about the time I hit the water. He was as you might expect defiant. He called the government attempt to seize the Hezbollah phone network (they used land lines in the '06 conflict with Israel) a declaration of war and called for armed resistance. Within about 10 minutes, I started hearing machine gun fire and explosions from what I was told were RPGs. I said "Da harb" ("It's war") to one of the pool guys and he laughed and said "Mafii harb - fii hafla!" ("That's not the war, that's a party!") There is a lot of fighting out by the airport and there were some clashes on the corniche. Army helicopters overflew the hotel a few times and I thought it best to get home before dark. The streets were deserted on the way back except for me and small groups of masked militia men with AK-47s hanging out on street corners. I couldn't tell who they were, but they ignored me most of the time. One group about three blocks from my apartment building waved me through and said it would be ok. The soldiers posted at the roadblocks around the neighborhood were crouching in doorways. I had the distinct feeling that I had passed through a front line. Everything in my neighborhood was closed and shuttered except for one produce joint and they looked scared and were about to go home. I stocked up in case Beirut is closed for a few days. The word on the street was that the usual mechanisms for keeping the violence under control aren't working now. I stayed home with the drapes drawn and heard the crackle of automatic weapons fire and the occasional explosion. Casualties are said to be light, but several civilians have been killed in the fighting. At about 2am a massive and totally unpredicted thunderstorm -- unlike any I have ever seen -- broke out and poured rain down on the whole situation. The fighting seems to have died down this morning. Hezbollah appears to have routed the Sunni militias and occupied most of the Muslim part of Beirut. The Sunni party's TV station is off the air and its newspaper's offices are in flames. The parliament building is now under siege. The army is staying neutral but has a heavy and reassuring presence in my neighborhood near the university. I haven't felt afraid. It's more surreal than anything else. And very exciting, but very sad. As far as I know there are no evacuation plans for foreign nationals. The US embassy isn't answering its phone, so I have no contact or information from it. My planned continuing travel to Thailand is of couse out of the question now. There's really no way to leave, but I've decided to stay in Beirut and see it through. Much cheer, PdQ

May 8, 2008 5:29

Generals for Sale, Slightly Used

The Pentagon has released all of the documents that it turned over to the NYT for their story on the retired military officers that play both sides of the analyst/contractor fence. TPM has some excerpts, including audio of, well, a pep rally:

It was an emergency meeting called because earlier in the month, several retired generals had hit the airwaves demanding that Rumsfeld resign. 17 analysts attended the briefing, which featured Rumsfeld and then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Peter Pace. It was a remarkable display of servility, with one analyst at one point proclaiming that Rumsfeld need to get out there on the "offense," because "we'd love to be following our leader, as indeed you are. You are the leader. You are our guy." ...

Another analyst chimed in to the effect that, though PsyOps or "brainwashing" are dirty words, it was necessary to get out there on offense. "You know what they call PsyOps today, they call those public relations firms," another said approvingly. Finally, Rumsfeld had to throw up his hands: "You people should be taking notes. I'm taking all the notes!" It sure was an eager group.

The whole stash is here. Just flipping through the PDFs of (the Pentagon's) talking points is a sobering journey back in time -- to see the same exact arguments that are being made today.

Uh-huh.

May 8, 2008 5:04

Re: Is Jon Stewart a Journalist?

Is Saturday Night Live a news show?

SNL Politics launched this week, an archive of all of your favorite broad topical sketch comedy scenes! It's still a little underdeveloped (the actual "archives" don't seem to work), but as the only network show that tried to correct for overly fond coverage of Obama, their sweet-tart take will be a welcome addition to what's around the dial. And the web.

If you're really jonesing for some Pohler/Fey, however, head over to Hulu.com, where you can watch shows from NBC (SNL, The Office, 30 Rock), Sci-Fi (Battlestar Galactica and Classic BSG!), and Fox (Simpsons, Bones) for free. I mean, I'm sure there's a "soul" provision in the DRM, but I sold that long ago...

And speaking of classic:

May 8, 2008 4:04

Is Jon Stewart a Journalist?

No, you say? Then why, in a survey last year, was he ranked one of the most admired journalists in America? (I know, I know -- many of you think "admired journalist" is a contradiction in terms). A lot of Americans get their news, or a portion of it, from Stewart and Colbert (and Leno, Letterman and O'Brien). But how does The Daily Show rate as a news program? The excellent folks at the Project for Excellence in Journalism examined just that question in a study released today. Check it out.

May 8, 2008 11:47

Hillary Clinton's Five Big Mistakes

are the subject of my story in the new issue of dead-tree TIME. For a campaign that seemed to have everything going for it, some very basic tactical misjudgments proved to be devastating.

May 8, 2008 11:19

Bomb Iran?

David Ignatius has an interesting column today, raising the possibility of war with Iran. In the past, Ignatius has shared my skepticism about the possibility that the Administration would jump this shark--the military is very much opposed to it--but what happens if Bush launches a targeted air and special ops strike on the Qods Force/Hezballah training camps in Iran? What if this happens during the fall campaign? I've been busy with the presidential race and haven't kept up with my military, intelligence and regional sources these past few months. But it's time to revisit this issue now. Stay tuned.