Jul
24
Don’t Know Much about History
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by Michael Winship
News of President Bush’s weekend colonoscopy and the successful removal of five benign, non-cancerous polyps put me in mind of Evelyn Waugh’s comment after the disagreeable Randolph Churchill, son of Winston, underwent a somewhat similar procedure.
Leave it to medical science, the novelist said, to remove the only part of Randolph that wasn’t malignant.
A bit harsh, perhaps, and a gibe that these days might be more truly aimed at our Vice President, Lord Voldemort, than the current chief executive. Nevertheless, with his approval rating as low as 26 percent and whatever meager prospects left quickly fading to black, it’s easier, more popular — and safer — to crack wise about the president than ever.
Contrast such insult humor with the sentiments expressed in the December 3, 2001, issue of Newsweek, not quite three months after 9/11, and you’ll see just how deeply disenchanted we’ve become.
President Bush, the magazine’s Howard Fineman and Martha Brant wrote, “has been a model of unblinking, eyes-on-the-prize decisiveness. His basic military strategy… has proved astute. He has been eloquent in public, commanding in private. He had survived the first blows, made the right calls and exceeded expectations — again.”
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Jul
23
Marked Down as Dead
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If looks could kill
There’s a man who’s marked down as dead.
I couldn’t help but think of those words from “Is She Really Going Out With Him” when Barak Obama dissed the Clinton’s attempt at health care reform in the 90s. He wasn’t really that harsh–he just said “we’ve had plans before under a Democratic president…and we couldn’t get it done.”
Video below:
Jul
23
Saying It Like You Mean It
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There is one candidate who consistently seems to me to really mean what he says. Which is not to say that the other people running for president are never sincere (well, maybe Mitt Romeny) but John Edwards is always sincere. And he happens to be the only one who seems to really, genuinely care about the less powerful members of our society.
Tonight on the YouTube/CNN debate he gave the best, most impassioned answer on health care. He talked about a trip he had recently taken to the Appalachian Mountains in Virginia.
Video below:
Jul
21
Cheney Stands Down
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After reading the WaPo five-part series about the ruthless power grab that Dick Cheney (or as we call him around the house, Vice President Voldermort) has pulled off in the White House, I had to wonder what may have happened during the two hours and five minutes this morning when he acutally, legally had presidential power.
In the leadoff paragraphs of the Post series, we got a glimpse of how He Who Must Not Be Named operates. He sits the President down, waves his hand and the President suddenly agrees to snatch the right of habeus corpus from…well, from anyone he wants.
By avoiding entanglement with staff, legal opinions and the Constitution, Cheney has been able to consolidate power from behind the scenes. So this morning, while President Bush was getting his colonscopy, what did the acting Commander in Chief pull off? Did he declare Harry Reid an Enemy Combatant? Has he ordered a covert invasion of Canada after learning that they have massed millions of their citizens within 100 miles of OUR border? Has he turned over the EPA to Halliburton?
The real headline from this story is that doctors found and removed five polyps from the President during this exam. None of them, the White House says, are “worrisome.” Never wishing anything as scary as colon cancer on anyone, I hope that turns out to be true. But I can’t help being sceptical. I mean, how many times have we heard that we’ve “turned the corner” in Iraq? Maybe this White House’s idea of “everything is fine here” is a bit unique.
Jul
19
by Michael Winship
Day One
“La Toya Jackson.”
The famous name drew laughter as it was read from the roll at the main New York County courthouse, 100 Centre Street. Hers was just one of a few hundred names read on a Monday morning four weeks ago, folks who had been called to serve on a state grand jury in Manhattan.
Like La Toya, half or more weren’t there as they called the roll, but I was. Having been previously excused several times, it was time for me to do my civic duty, one of the few beyond voting and paying taxes we’re ever called on to perform.
“No,” I heard a bailiff tell an especially desperate-looking, grad student type. “You cannot be excused for your entire life!” More laughter from the crowd.
Day Two
Duly sworn in, 23 of us — the mandated number of grand jurors goes back to the Sanhedrin, the municipal courts of ancient Israel — gather in the spare, fluorescent-lit room that’s our own grand jury “chamber.” There are eight rows of chairs for us and two tables with chairs for the jury warden, who will be in charge of keeping an eye on us, and an array of assistant district attorneys, witnesses — civilian and police — court stenographers and interpreters. Every weekday morning for the next month, from 10-1, this will be home.
We won’t be declaring anyone innocent or guilty. We indict. As our official handbook states, “The grand jury decides whether or not a person should be formally charged with a crime or other offense. The grand jury makes that decision based on evidence presented to it by the prosecutor, who also instructs the grand jury on the law.” There has to be a quorum of at least 16 jurors in the room, of whom twelve must vote to indict. Then the case goes to trial.
Our deliberations were confidential, so I can’t tell you who we indicted for what or why. What I can share is a sidelong glance at one aspect of our justice system.
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Jul
11
Faith Based Medicine
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Richard Caromona knows the Bush Adminsitration pretty well. For four years he served as Surgeon General, and during that time he was prevented from speaking about critical issues that faced the American public. He testified before Congress yesterday. This from the NYT:
The administration, Dr. Carmona said, would not allow him to speak or issue reports about stem cells, emergency contraception, sex education, or prison, mental and global health issues. Top officials delayed for years and tried to “water down” a landmark report on secondhand smoke, he said. …
Dr. Carmona said he was ordered to mention President Bush three times on every page of his speeches. …
And administration officials even discouraged him from attending the Special Olympics because, he said, of that charitable organization’s longtime ties to a “prominent family” that he refused to name.
(That would be the Kennedy’s, by the way.)
This obsession with putting partisan political purposes above the interests of the American public can be seen time and time again—when they tried to muzzle NASA’s top scientist when he talked about climate change or when they fired US Attornies who were not “loyal Bushies.”
I know quite a bit about how the White House works, having watched every episode of West Wing and owning an entire season on DVD. This president–and probably any president for that matter–is surrounded by political operatives and strategists who worry about playing to the base and not alienating this group or that. You can’t blame them for wanting to massage the data and manage the news. That’s just who they are. But if you are a strong president and can see that you’re ultimately loyalty is to the American people and not to your pollster, you set those political considerations aside in favor of concepts like the common good. And the truth.
Here’s a cut from Carmona on CNN last night. See if you can suss out what he’s saying. Shouldn’t be too hard:
Jul
11
Here’s one of the eighteen “benchmarks” that are supposed to be met in Iraq, according to President Bush.
Reducing the level of sectarian violence in Iraq and eliminating militia control of local security.
That’s number 13 and even if you’ve been spending nearly every moment of your spare time on perezhilton.com, you still probably can guess that one hasn’t been met. In fact, seventeen of the eighteen benchmarks have yet to be achieved. But President Bush says “we’re just getting started.” (Seriously, he said that yesterday. See the clip below.)
What about the 3600 American soldiers who have been killed so far. What about the 100,000 Iraqis who have died or the million or two that have been displaced and are living as refugees? What about the $750 billion that has gone up in flames (or into Halliburton’s bank account) since this fiasco began? Was that just pregame? Just a warm up.
I heard another reporter say that the Democrats haven’t offered viable alternative to the President’s “I’m not dead yet” policy in Iraq. A viable alternative. That makes it sound complicated. How about this for a new way forward in Iraq: Leave. As Chris Dodd says, preferably starting tonight.
The “just started” clip is below:
Jul
10
Skating, Living, Dying on Thin Ice
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by Michael Winship
One of the curiosities of life in the freelance scrivener’s trade is that you find yourself in the oddest places, writing about the oddest things. Over some twenty-five years or so, I’ve taken assignments writing television shows about everything from grizzly bears to defense policy, from Native American history to the bossa nova music of Brazil.
I’ve scripted remarks for a president of the United States. On the other hand, I’m the guy who wrote a video called “Haircuts at Home.” Along the way, I also, accidentally, became a de facto, semi-expert on Olympic figure skating, despite ankles with the tensile strength of overcooked macaroni and a tendency toward the sniffles.
That’s because a decade ago, out of the blue, I was hired to write a TV movie for CBS, based on a bestseller called “My Sergei,” a memoir by the skater Ekaterina Gordeeva about her life and career with her skating partner and husband Sergei Grinkov. They won two Olympic gold medals. Sergei died at 28, collapsing on the ice at Lake Placid, felled by an undetected heart defect.
Subsequently, I co-produced a two-hour special on the American women skaters who have won Olympic gold medals and now I’m working on a treatment for a film about the horrendous 1961 Brussels jetliner crash that wiped out the American figure skating team as it headed for that year’s world championships.
Eighteen young, champion skaters were killed, along with sixteen skating officials, coaches and family members, 27 other passengers and eleven crew.
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Jul
8
Telling It to the Man
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She only looked a little crazed when she first walked up to the mic, but by the time Melissa Etheridge got cranked up she had me believing. Yesterday at Live Earth she opened with two new songs: “Imagine That” and “What Happens Tomorrow.” She talked about being a kid when we had a president who was a criminal and an unjust war was being waged. Deja Vu all over again.
Her entire set was one long medly—about half an hour of one song flowing into another, getting more and more worked up as she went. Below you’ll find the Willy Ritch Condensed Version.
Jul
3
The press showing a little spine
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The best question in Tony Snow’s press event this morning came from a reporter who asked what if President Bush was giving Scooter Libby his get out of jail card because he was a friend (a contetion that Snow tried to make several times,) then what was it about this particular case that made jail time seem “excessive?” When Snow responded with what was essentially a “none of your business,” the natives became restless.
Video below.
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