Jousting a little with a much brighter light

G.D. Gearino, the late lamented columnist at the News & Observer, on his website Words Assembled Well, makes a couple of interesting points today about the Nifong spectacle and about journalists and political contributions. He is a heavyweight in the world of verbal sparring, but I don't mind a quick turn in the ring with him. Fortunately, I don't particularly disagree so it's not a real fight, more like trying to keep up the rhythm he started at the speed bag. (That was a long and interesting boxing metaphor, especially when you consider I detest boxing.)

Here's my reply to his post:

Thank you for making clear a mostly unmentioned meaning of the Nifong spectacle. I'm still too mad, and mulling over what how many others have to say about the lacrosse/Gell (as a glaring example, of course not the only instance) conundrum, to have written about it myself. Clearly, the impact of the prosecutorial misconduct is more severe in capital cases - but I believe that ardent supporters of the lacrosse players labor under the worldview wherein people of their class suffer equally, when they are inconvenienced or discomforted temporarily, as do lesser mortals when they are executed or incarcerated wrongfully for the bulk of their adulthood. There is a real belief that people of their station in life are of inherently higher value, and infinitely higher sensitivity. The same dichotomy is also visible to a more ridiculous extent in the discussions of the "persecution" of Paris Hilton.

I would quibble mildly with your assessment of the media political contributions. Don't most media employers prohibit any political activity, certainly including participating in a campaign in any way, on the part of the journalists (if not all employees) in their employ? I find it conceivable that people with strong political views hindered from expressing them in that most visceral of ways, by giving their own money to a candidate who they believe will pursue their views, may be more likely to sublimate those views in their work - not necessarily intentionally, but perhaps with the same result.

While most journalists adhere to the credo of objectivity, and many try hard to remain apolitical, things do change from the beginning of a career through the later years of it. Living and observing and caring all lead to the formation of beliefs more basic to one's being than mere opinion about current events - and while you have said you are a conservative and I definitely am not, I think we both, along with many others who use words to make a living, have no choice but to reflect our beliefs.

That said, I do tend to disagree that there is a liberal media bias - the values of the journalists being nicely balanced, and perhaps overbalanced, by the views of their corporate employers. And I don't think an analysis of media member's political contributions can prove it either way, because of the ban on contributions I mention above.

A Reprieve for the Paddlewheel in Wilmington

Star News Forums

RE: A reprieve for the paddlewheel - editorial

See my post on the related news article here.

I'm disappointed that this editorial merely adds to the hot air about this issue. The museum "may want to use the paddlewheel in a fundraising campaign" is the best you can come up with?

Why don't you suggest that Mr. Merritt pull out his checkbook and keep the promise he made to throw in a big chunk of money to keep the boat here? You seem to be congratulating him for pulling personal political strings in pursuit of something personally important to him - isn't that the same as earmarks and pork and all the other political sins so often decried in these pages? Now that he got his way, there is no suggestion that he indeed bears responsibility for the expense.

To suggest as you do that the museum rethink all of its financial priorities and base a facility expansion on this boat is a real slap in the face to the people who run it. Are you laboring under the assumption that they have no strategic plans, that they have never considered what among their missions is important, and how much they could afford to achieve which of them?

I have no affiliation with the museum, in fact have barely set foot in it, but I've never heard anything to indicate that they are either clueless or profligate - rather that they do the best they can with very limited funding.

Americans often misuse the word "romantic" when what is being discussed is actually maudlin sentimentality. You have done precisely that here - if the romance with this boat were genuine, you and Mr. Merritt would have more to offer in terms of actual, financial support instead of this phony gushy love, like a baby-daddy who thinks he's doing his job when he brings a rose on Mother's Day but never sent a single support check.

Historic boat's future uncertain

Star News Forums

This May 8 article said:

The decision comes just hours before officials were to begin dismantling the engine and just days after downtown developer Gene Merritt has said he'd be willing to move and store the steam-powered paddle wheel at his own expense to keep it from leaving the Port City.

But today Mr. Merritt says:

"It's not leaving town, and as far as I'm concerned my mission is accomplished on that level," he said.

Now that the museum has pointed out that it would take a huge fundraising effort to get the boat restored and on display, Mr. Merritt is finished. It seems to me that if he were truly sincere, he would put a dollar figure on the table that he's willing to pay - based on the earlier grandstanding - so the fundraising can get started in a big way, right away. Otherwise, it appears to me to be a lot of self-serving hot air.

This PR guy shares the blame

Public relations spokespeople who work for taxpayer-supported institutions have a sometimes difficult task - they obviously have individuals they are responsible to, but both their and their superiors' true responsibility is to the public who pays the bills for all of them. When the choice is between the truth and saving somebody's butt in the agency, the truth should win, no matter how temporarily - or even permanently, in the form of losing the job - painful it may be.

The Health Services department spokesman in this story from today's Los Angeles Times fails miserably in his duty to the public, and to the truth. He attempted to scapegoat a dead woman and her surviving boyfriend in order to save the skin of the people in the hospital who killed her. He should be fired along with the other heads that will roll in this horrifying story.

Even if this kind of whitewash and demonization of the victim succeeds - which it often does in the short term - in the long term, it comes back to haunt. Either the true horror is exposed, and those responsible, including the PR guy, pay a harsher penalty than if it had been handled right at first, or the anxiety of wondering if and when it will be found out takes its own toll. I'd way rather lose my job now for refusing to help with a coverup than be part of this kind of stink.

Tale of last 90 minutes of woman's life

Hours after her death, county Department of Health Services spokesman Michael Wilson sent a note informing county supervisors' offices about the incident but saying that that police had been called because Rodriguez's boyfriend became disruptive.

Health services Director Dr. Bruce Chernof said Friday that subsequent information showed Prado was not, in fact, disruptive. Chernof otherwise refused to comment, citing the open investigation, patient privacy and "other issues."

Who Sets the Gas Prices?

News & Observer's Editors Blog
Sue's story was good, as her reporting usually is. So how does the N&O follow up the education it provided in that story? By printing spam in the newspaper today.

All week I have been yelling at people for passing along yet another stupid spam campaign about sticking it to the oil companies. Now the N&O in a total lapse of good judgment has decided to validate it by printing it, as below, in a "Love it/Hate it" feature. I am just flabbergasted.

Before passing along this kind of nonsense, whether from your own email to annoy your own friends or in the News & Observer's pages, I suggest you check out the validity at a site like Snopes. Here's their response to the SEVEN-YEAR-OLD bright new idea you have just shared.

Hate it
We are going to hit close to $4 a gallon by summer, and it might go higher! ... With the price of gasoline going up more each day, we consumers need to take action. The only way we are going to see the price of gas come down is if we hit someone in the pocketbook by not purchasing their gas! ... For the rest of this year, don't purchase any gasoline from Exxon and Mobil. If they are not selling any gas, they will be inclined to reduce their prices.

-- ARTHUR SHUMATE (PASSING ALONG IDEA FROM FRIEND), CARY

Wolfowitz's Story Disputed By Ex-Official

Washington Post
I've been waiting for someone to point out that neither Wolfowitz's job nor Riza's is or was an immutable right.

How many thousands of couples have had to face that dilemma: a ban on fraternization or nepotism within the workplace where they met, much less one as in this case, where one works there and the other gets an offer? What is so special about these two that makes it their prerogative to both work there?

In my life, everyone I know who faced that situation actually made a choice that was within their own power. Either one of them quit or, if career was their main priority, they ended the relationship. Since when did the level of public-sector service either of these two have performed deserve a publicly funded guaranteed job, or a golden parachute?

As a non-Beltway type, I also find it absolutely astounding that someone on the World Bank payroll would be working inside the US State Department for an indefinite period, and now running a supposed non-governmental organization. Last I heard, these three institutions were in entirely different silos, so to speak. How can someone work at all three without actually changing jobs?

These are questions I would like to see answered in addition to seeing Mr. Wolfowitz and Ms. Riza both removed from what they appear to consider their high entitlements.

Mother Of All Blunders

Washington Post
Ms. Parker forgets that the military here, as well as in the United Kingdom, consists of volunteers.

I was one of them, and I politely request that Ms. Parker put her nose back where it belongs. While I don't want to be raped or tortured, I also don't want anyone else to be raped or tortured - and the things that were done to people I know in Vietnamese POW camps are no more acceptable because they were done to men.

Everyone who joins the military knows of the tiny risk of that happening to them, and they volunteer anyway. I can't imagine what she is talking about in differentiating the rape of women by men and men by whomever, other men I assume. I would like to challenge her spurious logic with another bit of it: since the rape of men by women most resembles sexual relations as God created it, and the rape of men by men is abnormal and an abomination (I am using the perspective of Ms. Parker and her ilk here, by the way, not my own) then the latter is worse, so perhaps we should send all men home to protect their nether areas.

And the bit about training men to ignore women being assaulted is crazy too. Since when does any military member ignore one of his or her buddies being assaulted for any reason? And since when do men in pain not scream? This kind of right-wing propaganda is just laughable.

On Apex animal control and the house full of sheep

Independent Weekly
I completely share the "zero" assessment of Apex and Wake County zoning and law enforcement officials and animal control officers, who felt there was nothing they could do even as this situation spiraled out of control over months and years.

But I add to that assessment a new and future zero for the Apex council, for their knee-jerk reaction in banning all livestock in Apex. You're right - some people kill other people driving tractors down country roads. Let's ban all tractors!!!

Apex is not Cary, at least not yet, and I think it's really too bad that they would now prohibit someone with a big, fairly natural lot from having a couple of goats to tend it, or prohibit a backyard duck or two.

The problem wasn't with the livestock or even the lack of a livestock-regulating ordinance, it was a complete lack of common sense and/or observation skills on the part of those enforcers. The stench described has probably been a public nuisance, regardless of source, for years, and the description of the animals' condition leads me to believe the situation evolved into animal cruelty at least several months ago. If they didn't see or address these obvious violations, why pass more ordinances they can fail to enforce?

On Floyd McKissick vying for Jeanne Lucas's Senate seat

Independent Weekly
Mr. McKissick does indeed have significant experience and other qualifications for the job.

He also has the significant disqualification of having entered the process under an ethical cloud, which is not a good thing ever, and especially these days. The last politician I remember pulling this trick is Dick Cheney - and he's certainly not the role model for ethical leadership I would want if I lived in the district still.

He should eliminate himself as abruptly as he inserted himself into the race.

A Push to Create a Fresh Class of Public Servants

Washington Post
I was thinking this sounded like a great idea until I got to the part about it being run by the Department of Homeland Security. That's the stupidest thing I've heard since Brownie's attaboy. And I'm not convinced Washington is the place for it - as one who escaped its confines for the hinterlands, I do not think concentrating our best minds in one place to become inbred is a good idea at all. But I look forward to hearing more about this plan nonetheless.

Donations Pooled Online Are Getting Candidates' Attention

Washington Post
ActBlue is still immature technology - or it was a few months ago when I used it. I am not interested in being a bundler - just in having a convenient page to donate to candidates who appeal to me whether they are in my neighborhood or not.

The main appeal for me would be having my credit card number saved, just as it is at the dozens of online merchants where I shop regularly. Not only was I unable to do that, except perhaps to create a recurring donation to one recipient, which I did NOT wish to do, when I wrote to them to point out that this was a serious flaw, they were defensive. I don't have the response handy, but my recollection is that they seemed to think that was a really advanced idea, when I have had that info on file at some ecommerce sites for nearly ten years now. It's a great idea, but they may want to get some grownups on staff.

Heck of a Job, FEMA

Washington Post

I'm generally a fan of the Post, and agree completely with the premise of this editorial. That said, it exacerbates my annoyance with the Post's worldview, as well as with the people profiled in an article last week about Prince William County residents upset that their neighborhood was going upscale too slowly.

The unsatisfactory progress was evidenced by shopping that offers only outlets at Potomac Mills, whose shopping offerings make it the single largest tourist attraction in the state of Virginia and the fact that a promised Jaguar dealership ended up not opening. I include that story here because that worldview carries over to this editorial, unfortunately.

Travel trailers, to the vast majority of normal Americans, need not be set off in quotation marks nor explained as though they were some exotic concept. Travel trailers ARE the campers pulled behind private vehicles, though rarely cars as most are far too big and heavy, and require a pickup truck or SUV as a tow vehicle. Americans bought $11.4 billion worth of recreational vehicles, including travel trailers, in 2004, I just learned from a Google search - this is not a sliver of the population but a big chunk.

And the other trailers mentioned in this editorial are not trailers at all, but mobile homes. They have been too large to be "trailered" for about 35 years now, long enough for astute journalists to absorb the new terminology, I would think. The tone of this sentence reveals that its writer and the editorial board that condoned the writing are far too privileged and removed from the experience of average Americans to know what its like out here in the world - basically, it epitomizes the inside-the-Beltway worldview and attitudes that are a big problem for how our country is managed. I really wish you could do better!!!

Two Generals Provide A Contrast in Accountability

Washington Post
Any admiration I had for Secretary Gates evaporated when Gen. Kiley remained in uniform past lunchtime Monday. He should be court-martialed for absolute dereliction of duty and held out as an example to the promotion-hungry politic-ers for promotion at every level in every branch of the service.

And this unbelievable story-management continuing right under the committee's noses, with the patient turned away from empty seats in the hearing room .... the profession of military public affairs has been replaced by the company line. You work for the taxpayers first, the general second, in that profession - and the old axiom, 'Maximum information, minimum delay,' is the most important thing to know about what to tell the media and the public.

While the Nation Mourned, Their Trip Continued

Washington Post
While the subject of this story is reasonably relevant, the tone of it is unnecessarily snarky.

The fixation we have on mandatory mourning in this country is exceptionally stupid, and the idea that anyone other than a family member or other close associate needs to cancel a trip involving this amount of planning and coordination by government employees, and also involving this amount of interaction with foreign governments, is ludicrous. If a sitting President dies, that's one thing. The man was 93 years old, for goodness sakes.

I have great respect for President Ford and also mourn his passing, but only in the passive sense.
There is nothing in the world to be gained by me or anyone else changing even a whit of daily routine in observance of it - and the fact that it was turned into a federal holiday is equally ludicrous. If you have a problem with junkets in general, then write about every one that happens and make sure to include the costs as well. But to imply that this one is worse because they didn't instead take a funeral junket is hypocritical and annoying.

Illegal Drug Use Among Teenagers Continues to Fall

Washington Post
I don't understand why there is any difference between abuse of illegal drugs like cocaine and heroin and prescription drugs like OxyContin and Vicodin.

If the Office of National Drug Control Policy truly believes the usual source of those drugs is a parent's medicine cabinet, then we may as well have no such office. Most of those drugs get into users' hands by way of robberies, burglaries, and organized forgery -- all of which are just as serious crimes as any of the smuggling and so forth that brings illegal drugs across our borders from overseas.

Perhaps the fact that the prescription drugs aren't produced by subsistence farmers in faraway countries, and have their own rather well-funded lobby in Washington, has something to do with it?