Thursday, July 28, 2005
 

Mailbag

Got an e-mail today, with the subject header "Fake":

you are a bad writer

That was the entire thing, so no clues about which of my pieces of deathless prose aroused such a concise fit of phlegmatic ire.

Ed Fitzgerald | 7/28/2005 10:10:00 PM | | | del.icio.us | GO: TOP OF HOME PAGE


Monday, July 25, 2005
 

A Rational Weblog

The weblog formerly called Non Sequitur has gone through a name change. It's now A Rational Being: A Free thinker's commentary on the irrational. I wish the blogger success with the new format, but I'll also be so bold to suggest that there's a delicate balance to be maintained between proselytizing for a particular philosophical outlook (which I generally abhor, wherever it originates from, and not withstanding that it's my own philosophy in question) and rational and skeptical examination of the irrationality of our prevailing beliefs, which is necessary and well worthwhile.

I'll be interested to see how A Rational Being fares in the coming months.

Ed Fitzgerald | 7/25/2005 02:57:00 AM | | | del.icio.us | GO: TOP OF HOME PAGE

 

Countering terror in New York

We only have to be lucky once; you will have to be lucky always.
Comment by the I.R.A. after a botched
attempt to assassinate Margaret Thatcher

This threat is not going to go away. So we can't relax. If we do, that will produce the seam they'll go through. ... The N.Y.P.D. is on a hair trigger. The gap between information and action is the shortest I've ever experienced.
David Cohen
New York City Deputy Commissioner for Intelligence,
(ex-CIA)

Your greatest fear is that they're out there below the horizon. ... You've got to find a level of intensity you can sustain. If we let ourselves get all spun up by every bullshit threat we get from Washington -- and not sleep for three nights, then sleep for two days -- something real will happen during those two days.
Michael Sheehan
Deputy Commissioner for Counter Terrorism,
(ex-Special Forces and Ambassador-at-Large for
Counter Terrorism in the Clinton Administration)


Although it unfortunately appeared only in the print version of the magazine, William Finnegan's article in the July 25th The New Yorker on the NYPD's counter-terrorism program, "The Terrorism Beat", was quite good -- at once reassuring and disturbing. (Finnegan discusses the article here.)

Under Ray Kelly's command, the New York City Police Department has been profoundly reorganized since the terror attacks of 2001. Before the attacks, there were fewer than two dozen officers working the terrorism beat full time. Today, there are about a thousand. In some key areas, such as languages that are critical to counterterror work, the N.Y.P.D., drawing on a city of immigrants, has deeper resources than the federal agencies traditionally responsible for fighting international terrorism. Beyond the officers (and civilian analysts) working on terrorism exclusively, the department, which employs nearly fifty thousand people, has been comprehensively persuaded -- through intensive new training, new equipment, new protocols -- to think of counterterrorism as a fundamental part of what cops still call the Job.

The rationale for the N.Y.P.D.'s transformation after September 11th had two distinct facets. On the one hand, expanding its mission to include terrorism prevention made obvious sense. On the other, there was a strong feeling that federal agencies had let down New York City, and that the city should no longer count on the Feds for its protection. Some of Kelly's initiatives were incursions into territory normally occupied by the F.B.I. and the C.I.A. And yet few objections were raised. It was as if the Feds, reeling from September 11th, silently acknowledged New York's right to take extraordinary defensive measures. (Or, as one senior police officer said to me, "Do you think anybody in Washington has the balls to tell Ray Kelly he can't do something he decides to do?")

Within the counterterrorism world, the department's transformation is highly regarded. "The N.Y.P.D. is really cutting edge," Brian Michael Jenkins, a senior advisor at the RAND corporation and a respected authority on terrorism, told me. "They're developing best practices here that should be emulated across the country. The Feds could learn from them." The federal government must, of course, play the leading role in stopping international terrorism at the borders. But, Jenkins said, "As this thing metastasizes, cops are it. We're going to win this at the local level."

[...]

[Commissioner Ray] Kelly has been sharply critical of the Bush Administration's failure since September 11th to help New York protect itself. When I saw him at his office, where he sits at the desk that Theodore Roosevelt used when he was Commissioner, I asked him if the Administration had begun to do more. "We've seen some improvement," he said, "But it's not nearly what it should be, in my judgment. We're still defending the city pretty much on our own dime." He glanced out the window at downtown Manhattan. "We're defending the nation here," he said. "These are national assets."

[...]

Since the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, in 2002, there has been one large, inert, misshapen bureaucracy that, for New York, at least, symbolizes the extent of the Bush Administration's neglect. When Kelly says that New York is having to defend itself "pretty much on our own dime," he is referring, primarily, to the budgeting formula under which homeland-security funds are disbursed. In fiscal year 2004, Wyoming received $37.74 per capita, and North Dakota $30.82, while New York got $5.41. Among the fifty states, New York's per-capita allotment was forty-eighth. This bizarre formula is, from New York's standpoint, only slowly improving.

The bill for New York City's antiterror budget, which is roughly two hundred million dollars a year, is footed, for the most part, by the city itself. [Mayor Michael] Bloomberg's view has been, from the beginning, that Kelly should do whatever he considers necessary, and that a way to pay for it would be found later.

[...]

Hardening the target: that the term of art for the overarching goal of local counterterror work. It can help to know what's happening thousands of miles away [via NYPD officers assigned to overseas posts], but a densely layered system of municipal defense is a terrorism deterrent of a special type. It say, basically, Try another town.

There are obvious limits to what local cops can prevent. ... The attack plans for September 11th did not originate or mature locally, and nothing about them would necessarily have appeared on the radar of even today's extended, hyper-sensitive, metropolitan terror-detection system. The attacks came, literally, out of the air. Other law-enforcement or national-security agencies might have caught and stopped them, but that was the point -- that is exactly why New York has stepped up its defenses.

No counterterrorism program, no amount of homeland-security spending, can eliminate the threat. For politicians there is a temptation to hype it, to practice the politics of fear. Some, like Bloomberg, have resisted the temptation; the Bush Administration has not. But spreading alarm is one of the aims of terrorism and fearmongering subverts the counterterrorism effort, which essentially seeks to manage the threat. [Deputy Commissioner for Intelligence David] Cohen, talking to [a symposium of terrorism experts last year] brought the N.Y.P.D.'s position into sharp focus when he said, "New York City sees more than a thousand arrests a day, and we have to watch them all -- watch for the one that means something to us." That is a description of serious counterterrorism work. It is done quietly, incessantly, with no gratuitous public alarms.

Endless vigilance, no victory; success means nothing happens. Such anti-drama is the essence of prevention.
[Emphasis added - Ed]

The full piece is defintely worth a read if you can grab a copy of the magazine.

Ed Fitzgerald | 7/25/2005 01:41:00 AM | | | del.icio.us | GO: TOP OF HOME PAGE

 

Tinker tailor

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Peter Guillam: So Karla's fireproof. He can't be bought, and he can't be beaten.

George Smiley: Not fireproof! Because's a fanatic! I may have acted like a soft dough, the very archetype of a flabby Western liberal but I'd rather be my kind of fool than his. One day that lack of moderation will be Karla's downfall.
[Emphasis added -- Ed]
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (tv miniseries, 1979)
based on the novel by John LeCarre
adapted by Arthur Hopcraft
directed by Frances Alcock and John Irvin
spoken by Michael Jayston (Guillam)
and Alec Guiness (Smiley)

Since the miniseries originally aired over 35 years ago, some people may not be familiar with it, but it really is wonderful. I don't know if it's worth the $40 - $50 it costs to buy it on DVD (I have a VHS copy recorded off the air from my local PBS station in the mid 80's), but I can guarantee that anyone who appreciates the quality of the various Prime Suspects will certainly enjoy Tinker Tailor. Helen Mirren, in fact, looks as if she studied closely the choices made by Alec Guiness as George Smiley when she created the character of Jane Tennison.

As for this particular quote, I thought it was appropriate for this moment in time.

Ed Fitzgerald | 7/25/2005 12:29:00 AM | | | del.icio.us | GO: TOP OF HOME PAGE







by

Ed Fitzgerald

Clowns to the left of me,
Jokers to the right,
Here I am...
site feed
2008 rules of thumb
Progressive populism!
Economic insecurity is key
Restore the balance
Cast the candidate
Persona is important
Calm,calming,assured,reassuring
Iraq, not "national security"
Prefer governors over senators
recent posts
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oblique strategies
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some links
baseball
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(click for larger image,
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topics
a progressive slogan
Fairness, progress and prosperity, because we're all in this together.

"I had my own blog for a while, but I decided to go back to just pointless, incessant barking."
(Alex Gregory - The New Yorker)
new york city
another progressive slogan
The greatest good for the greatest number, with dignity for all.
reference & fact check
iraq
write me
reciprocity
evolution v. creationism
humanism, skepticism
& progressive religiosity
more links
election prediction
HOUSE
Democrats 230 (+27) - Republicans 205

Actual:
Democrats 233 (+30) - Republicans 201 - TBD 1 [FL-13]

SENATE
Democrats 50 (+5) - Republicans 50

Actual:
Democrats 51 (+6) - Republicans 49

ELECTION PROJECTIONS SURVEY
netroots candidates
unfutz
awards and nominations
Never a bridesmaid...

...and never a bride, either!!

what I've been reading
Martin van Creveld - The Transformation of War

Jay Feldman - When the Mississippi Ran Backwards

Martin van Creveld - The Rise and Decline of the State

Alfred W. Crosby - America's Forgotten Pandemic (1989)
bush & company are...
absolutist
aggresive
anti-Constitutional
anti-intellectual
arrogant
authoritarian
blame-placers
blameworthy
blinkered
buckpassers
calculating
class warriors
clueless
compassionless
con artists
conniving
conscienceless
conspiratorial
corrupt
craven
criminal
crooked
culpable
damaging
dangerous
deadly
debased
deceitful
delusional
despotic
destructive
devious
disconnected
dishonorable
dishonest
disingenuous
disrespectful
dogmatic
doomed
fanatical
fantasists
felonious
hateful
heinous
hostile to science
hypocritical
ideologues
ignorant
immoral
incompetent
indifferent
inflexible
insensitive
insincere
irrational
isolated
kleptocratic
lacking in empathy
lacking in public spirit
liars
mendacious
misleading
mistrustful
non-rational
not candid
not "reality-based"
not trustworthy
oblivious
oligarchic
opportunistic
out of control
pernicious
perverse
philistine
plutocratic
prevaricating
propagandists
rapacious
relentless
reprehensible
rigid
scandalous
schemers
selfish
secretive
shameless
sleazy
tricky
unAmerican
uncaring
uncivil
uncompromising
unconstitutional
undemocratic
unethical
unpopular
unprincipled
unrealistic
unreliable
unrepresentative
unscientific
unscrupulous
unsympathetic
venal
vile
virtueless
warmongers
wicked
without integrity
wrong-headed

Thanks to: Breeze, Chuck, Ivan Raikov, Kaiju, Kathy, Roger, Shirley, S.M. Dixon
recently seen
Island in the Sky (1952)

Robot Chicken

The Family Guy

House M.D. (2004-7)
i've got a little list...
Elliott Abrams
Steven Abrams (Kansas BofE)
David Addington
Howard Fieldstead Ahmanson
Roger Ailes (FNC)
John Ashcroft
Bob Bennett
William Bennett
Joe Biden
John Bolton
Alan Bonsell (Dover BofE)
Pat Buchanan
Bill Buckingham (Dover BofE)
George W. Bush
Saxby Chambliss
Bruce Chapman (DI)
Dick Cheney
Lynne Cheney
Richard Cohen
The Coors Family
Ann Coulter
Michael Crichton
Lanny Davis
Tom DeLay
William A. Dembski
James Dobson
Leonard Downie (WaPo)
Dinesh D’Souza
Gregg Easterbrook
Jerry Falwell
Douglas Feith
Arthur Finkelstein
Bill Frist
George Gilder
Newt Gingrich
John Gibson (FNC)
Alberto Gonzalez
Rudolph Giuliani
Sean Hannity
Katherine Harris
Fred Hiatt (WaPo)
Christopher Hitchens
David Horowitz
Don Imus
James F. Inhofe
Jesse Jackson
Philip E. Johnson
Daryn Kagan
Joe Klein
Phil Kline
Ron Klink
William Kristol
Ken Lay
Joe Lieberman
Rush Limbaugh
Trent Lott
Frank Luntz


"American Fundamentalists"
by Joel Pelletier
(click on image for more info)


Chris Matthews
Mitch McConnell
Stephen C. Meyer (DI)
Judith Miller (ex-NYT)
Zell Miller
Tom Monaghan
Sun Myung Moon
Roy Moore
Dick Morris
Rupert Murdoch
Ralph Nader
John Negroponte
Grover Norquist
Robert Novak
Ted Olson
Elspeth Reeve (TNR)
Bill O'Reilly
Martin Peretz (TNR)
Richard Perle
Ramesh Ponnuru
Ralph Reed
Pat Robertson
Karl Rove
Tim Russert
Rick Santorum
Richard Mellon Scaife
Antonin Scalia
Joe Scarborough
Susan Schmidt (WaPo)
Bill Schneider
Al Sharpton
Ron Silver
John Solomon (WaPo)
Margaret Spellings
Kenneth Starr
Randall Terry
Clarence Thomas
Richard Thompson (TMLC)
Donald Trump
Richard Viguere
Donald Wildmon
Paul Wolfowitz
Bob Woodward (WaPo)
John Yoo
guest-blogging
All the fine sites I've
guest-blogged for:




Be sure to visit them all!!
recent listening
Smash Mouth - Summer Girl

Poulenc - Piano Music

Pop Ambient 2007
influences
John Adams
Laurie Anderson
Aphex Twin
Isaac Asimov
Fred Astaire
J.G. Ballard
The Beatles
Busby Berkeley
John Cage
"Catch-22"
Raymond Chandler
Arthur C. Clarke
Elvis Costello
Richard Dawkins
Daniel C. Dennett
Philip K. Dick
Kevin Drum
Brian Eno
Fela
Firesign Theatre
Eliot Gelwan
William Gibson
Philip Glass
David Gordon
Stephen Jay Gould
Dashiell Hammett
"The Harder They Come"
Robert Heinlein
Joseph Heller
Frank Herbert
Douglas Hofstadter
Bill James
Gene Kelly
Stanley Kubrick
Jefferson Airplane
Ursula K. LeGuin
The Marx Brothers
John McPhee
Harry Partch
Michael C. Penta
Monty Python
Orbital
Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger
"The Prisoner"
"The Red Shoes"
Steve Reich
Terry Riley
Oliver Sacks
Erik Satie
"Singin' in the Rain"
Stephen Sondheim
The Specials
Morton Subotnick
Talking Heads/David Byrne
Tangerine Dream
Hunter S. Thompson
J.R.R. Tolkien
"2001: A Space Odyssey"
Kurt Vonnegut
Yes
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Finally, on a more mundane level, since I don't believe that anyone actually reads this stuff, I make this offer: I'll give five bucks to the first person who contacts me and asks for it -- and, believe me, right now five bucks might as well be five hundred, so this is no trivial offer.

original content
© 2003-2008
Ed Fitzgerald

=o=

take all you want
but credit all you take.



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