Afghans Brave Violence to Elect New Leaders

Trooping into schools, mosques and tents, millions of Afghans defied a Taliban boycott call and militant attacks to vote for a new parliament Sunday, taking the last formal step in starting a democracy aimed at ending decades of rule by the gun.
Officials hailed the polls as a major success, although initial estimates suggested voter turnout was lower than hoped for because of security fears and frustrations over the inclusion of several warlords on the ballot. Results were not expected for more than a week.

Some Quick Responses to Karl Rove

Rove On Katrina: The only mistake we made with Katrina was not overriding the local government...
Me: That wasn't the only mistake. FEMA actively blocked outside support for New Orleans. That seems like a bigger mistake.

Rove On Bush's Low Poll Numbers: We have not been good at explaining the success in Iraq. Polls go up and down and don't mean anything...
Me: As far as "success" in Iraq, you have a LOT of explaining to do. (Keep reading those polls, I know you do.)

Rove On Judy Miller And Plamegate: Judy Miller is in jail for reasons I don't really understand...
Me: I know fraud, conspiracy, lying, and contempt for the judiciary are all fashionable today, but you might want to Google them... just in case.

Rove On Joe Wilson: Joe Wilson and I attend the same church but Joe goes to the wacky mass...
Me: Is "wacky" the best you can do?

Rove On The Anti-War Movement: Cindy Sheehan is a clown. There is no real anti-war movement. No serious politician, with anything to do with anything, would show his face at an anti-war rally...
Me: Cindy Sheehan is a clown?
Okay, well, you're a pig.
And a douche bag.
And an evil bastard, turd blossom, malformed toady, closeted, Gannon-humping, rudderless drone for your own perverse sense of status.
But I wouldn't say any of those things to you because those are irrelevant personal attacks unbefitting civil discourse.

Kurdish MP assassinated, 20 bodies in Tigris

Insurgents assassinated a Kurdish member of parliament and police found 24 bodies shot to death and dumped in the Tigris River 50 miles north of the capital, where there was no major violence Sunday for the first time in five days.
Faris Nasir Hussein, a member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party, was killed along with his brother, and their driver in an ambush 80 kilometers north of Baghdad. A second Kurdish lawmaker, Haidar Shanoun, was wounded in the attack near the town of Dujail.

Cellphone count passes two billion

The number of mobile phone subscribers in the world has surpassed the two billion milestone Wireless Intelligence, an information service set up by industry body GSM Association and consulting firm Ovum says.
"The bulk of the new growth now is coming from large, less well-developed markets such as China, India, Eastern Europe, Latin America and Africa," Wireless Intelligence said in a statement.

Another $1 Billion Missing in Iraq

One billion dollars has been plundered from Iraq's defence ministry in one of the largest thefts in history, The Independent can reveal, leaving the country's army to fight a savage insurgency with museum-piece weapons.
The money, intended to train and equip an Iraqi army capable of bringing security to a country shattered by the US-led invasion and prolonged rebellion, was instead siphoned abroad in cash and has disappeared.

"Lolita" 50th Anniversary links

Excerpt from the first chapter
NPR: 50 Years Later, 'Lolita' Still Seduces Readers
On the Media: My Sin, My Soul... Whose Lolita?

From the Atlantic Monthly:
What is one to make of Lolita? In a prickly postscript to the novel, Mr. Nabokov dismisses this question as a problem dreamed up by "Teachers of Literature": he rejects the satiric interpretations which critics have put upon Lolita and asserts, in effect, that it is simply a story he had to get off his chest. That all of this is too ingenuous by half is evident from the parodic style in which Lolita is written: a combination of pastiches of well-known styles, spoofing pedantry, analysis of passion à la français, Joycean word games, puns, and all kinds of verbal play. Wild, fantastic, wonderfully imaginative, it is a style which parodies everything it touches. It surely justifies, at least in part, those critics who have seen in Lolita a satire of the romantic novel, of "Old Europe" in contact with "Young America," or of "chronic American adolescence and shabby materialism." But above all Lolita seems to me an assertion of the power of the comic spirit to wrest delight and truth from the most outlandish materials. It is one of the funniest serious novels I have ever read; and the vision of its abominable hero, who never deludes or excuses himself, brings into grotesque relief the cant, the vulgarity, and the hypocritical conventions that pervade the human comedy.

My take on "Lolita":
It is a great work of art. ("Pale Fire" is his best, by my measure, but that's for another day.)
The narrator Humbert is a monster. But the lyricism and precision of his "confession" is so humorous and crystalline and musical in it's vibrant wordplay, the reader is compelled to keep turning the pages. The emotional relationship of the reader with the characters is toyed with by narrator Humbert. His misplaced sympathies and hostilities lure and repel the reader with a perverse charm.
Humbert is a bully, emotionally blind to the people around him. Obsessed with his own gratification, he is casually cruel but completely oblivious to the pain and death he engenders. The comedy of the story is partly in his flippant attitude toward others' pain.
We cannot empathize with Humbert, despite his wit. But ultimately see him as a very pitiable creature.
An old girlfriend and I read the book aloud one winter. She explained some of the literary references in the story. There are numerous Edgar Allan Poe refernces which illuminate the story: Annabel Lee, is a poem by Poe (explicitly referenced in "Lolita") which enchants the reader through it's music and leaves them only later to realize the song is about death. "Lolita" is the same kind of musical tragedy. Part of it's genious lies in the comedic veneer which masks a terribly sad story.
Nabokov saw art as "beauty plus pity." "Lolita" is a wonderful example of that equation.
The film adaptations of "Lolita" are both disappointments.
The 1962 version was directed by Kubrick, written by Nabokov and was perfectly cast -- James Mason as Humbert, Shelley Winters as Charlotte and Peter Sellers as Quilty. But Nabokov dropped the ball on the script. I think his low estimation of American audiences led to poor choices -- relying on laborious physical comedy sequences and blunt, artless melodrama.
The 1997 version with Jeremy Irons is more in keeping with the prose. But it is delivered with such melancholy that the exuberance of the words is lost under the funereal weight.
Maybe "Lolita" is unadaptable for film, for it relies so heavily on words. "Lolita" is a masterful performance of the English language.
More than that, it was written for the printed word. In that medium, the reader infuses their own tone. Films tells us how to feel and, by that nature, undermines the key to "Lolita."
With Humbert as the unreliable narrator, the reader is left to decide how the music sounds.
The fact that the book was (is) so controversial only enhances this aspect. It is a dangerous book that receives little criticism from people who actually read it. But those who do each will have something different to say about it. -- McLir

Left Behind: Bush's Holy War on Nature

Chip Ward enumerates the bizarro-world logic and Orwellian language of current American environmental policy. Even as Katrina's aftermath is focusing attention on links between global warming and more severe hurricanes, and studies of arctic sea-ice suggest that we may be 'past the point of no return' of climate change, the Department of "Justice" seems intent on blaming the flood of New Orleans on environmental groups. This War on Terra may not end in our lifetimes (despite the number of lives it will end...) [fromMetaFilter.com]

The Wisdom of Crowds

New Yorker columnist James Surowiecki's book The Wisdom of Crowds "explores a deceptively simple idea that has profound implications: large groups of people are smarter than an elite few, no matter how brilliant—better at solving problems, fostering innovation, coming to wise decisions, even predicting the future." Now this idea has been put into practice with Consensus View, a site where you can enter your predictions on stocks, commodities, and currencies, and view the group consensus. (from wsj.com) [from MetaFilter.com]

Gov. Bush & his mystical buddy "Warrior Chang"

Here are Bush's words, spoken before hundreds of lawmakers and politicians:
''Chang is a mystical warrior. Chang is somebody who believes in conservative principles, believes in entrepreneurial capitalism, believes in moral values that underpin a free society.
''I rely on Chang with great regularity in my public life. He has been by my side and sometimes I let him down. But Chang, this mystical warrior, has never let me down.''
Bush then unsheathed a golden sword and gave it to Rubio as a gift.
''I'm going to bestow to you the sword of a great conservative warrior,'' he said, as the crowd roared.
The crowd, however, could be excused for not understanding Bush's enigmatic foray into the realm of Eastern mysticism.
We're here to help.
In a 1989 Washington Post article on the politics of tennis, former President George Bush was quoted as threatening to ''unleash Chang'' as a means of intimidating other players.
The saying was apparently quite popular with Gov. Bush's father, and referred to a legendary warrior named Chang who was called upon to settle political disputes in Chinese dynasties of yore.
The phrase has evolved, under Gov. Jeb Bush's use, to mean the need to fix conflicts or disagreements over an issue. Faced with a stalemate, the governor apparently "unleashes Chang" as a rhetorical device, signaling it's time to stop arguing and start agreeing.
[Thanks, Kathy]

BTW, a quick Googling finds no refernce to a warrior Chang legend, much less one who hews so closely to neoconservative ideology. It should be noted, though, that "chang" is a Chinese word for "chaos" -- a concept the neocons have exploited to great profit. Alas, this Chang character seems to be a recent political invention -- another fiction of convenience for the powerful even if it makes them sound absolutely bonkers. -- McLir

Other possible origins of "Chang" as Jeb Bush's imaginary friend:
- 1927 film "Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness" IMDB Plot summary: "Elephants disrupt the lives of a family deep in the jungles of Northern Siam, and an entire village."
- A street name for cocaine
- There was a General Chang Tso-Lin who was in control of Manchruia 9early 20th Century, not dynastic). Maybe that is to whom Candidate Jeb is referring.

Contractors and prospectors are flooding the Gulf Coast to grab their piece of the biggest reconstruction ever

After the deluge, the Gulf Coast is being overwhelmed again. But this time it's with waves of contractors, prospectors and speculators looking to cash in on what President Bush calls "one of the largest reconstruction efforts the world has ever seen." The tsunami of spending, already budgeted at $62 billion, could top $200 billion—what the U.S. has spent in Iraq and Afghanistan. And then as now, those mopping up first are the politically well connected: Fluor, Bechtel and the Shaw Group, which each scored $100 million no-bid contracts before the flood waters began to recede. (Halliburton is benefiting from an existing $500 million contract to repair naval bases.) That has Democrats and Republicans howling over potential abuse. Even the president acknowledged the possibility of financial evil-doing when he dispatched inspectors to the Gulf Coast to monitor the money. That gesture, however, hasn't prevented accusations of cronyism, especially given that the president's former campaign manager Joe Allbaugh is a paid consultant to Shaw and Halliburton. Allbaugh and the companies deny he had anything to do with their contracts. "Anyone who says otherwise is making it up," Allbaugh told NEWSWEEK. (Allbaugh does, though, admit to contacting White House chief of staff Andrew Card to offer Katrina aid and to advising Shaw on how to set up its hurricane response team.)

NASA to Propose $100B Moon Shot

Even before the official announcement, there is criticism from Capitol Hill over the reported $100 billion cost of the lunar program, given U.S. government commitments to the Iraq war and recovery from Hurricane Katrina.
"This plan is coming out at a time when the nation is facing significant budgetary challenges," Rep. Bart Gordon (news, bio, voting record), a Tennessee Democrat on the House Science Committee, said in a statement. "Getting agreement to move forward on it is going to be heavy lifting in the current environment, and it's clear that strong presidential leadership will be needed."
To get astronauts back to the moon for the first time since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, one team of designers envisioned an Apollo-style capsule sitting atop rockets fashioned from shuttle components, including the shuttle's massive external tank and solid rocket boosters. There would be a separate space vehicle to carry only cargo.

US Ambassador to Iraq Predict US Will Go Into Syria

Dr. Zalmay Khalilzad, the US Ambassador to Iraq, made the off the record prediction that the US will go into Syria to combat insurgents that have been using the country as a staging ground for terrorist activity in Iraq.
Ambassador Khalilzad’s comments were made at businessman Teddy Forstmann's annual off the record gathering in Aspen, Colorado this weekend.

NYT Mag: Cronenberg and "The History of Violence"

Those who still identify the director with the early movies that made his reputation may notice that "A History of Violence" is without a few of what have come to be regarded as signature Cronenberg elements. No one's head explodes, for instance, as in the most indelible image from the 1980's "Scanners"; nor are any new orifices into the human body proposed, as in "Videodrome" or "eXistenZ" or "Rabid" or "Crash." But even though his films branched out beyond so-called body horror (in which characters are terrorized not by some vanquishable monster but, much more formidably, by something inside them) two decades ago, his obsession with the body itself - what he calls "the primary fact of human existence" - persists.
"Even with the question of one's past," he says, "you're talking about the body because you're talking about genetics, about how much your physical form affects your philosophical form and your mental form. I think 'History of Violence,' like 'Spider,' is a very physically focused movie. That's why there are no big shootouts; the violence is all very intimate and close-up, hand to hand, face to face."

Iran Proclaims Right to Nuclear Energy

Iran's president proclaimed his country's "inalienable right" to produce nuclear fuel Saturday, defiantly rejecting a European offer of economic incentives if the Mideast nation would halt its uranium enrichment program.
In a fiery speech to the U.N. General Assembly, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denied his nation had any intention of producing nuclear weapons. To prove that, he offered foreign countries and companies a role in Iran's nuclear energy production.
The Iranian leader lashed out at the United States for its insistence on keeping its nuclear weapons even as it rejected Iran's efforts to build a peaceful energy program.
He said Iran has a right to produce nuclear fuel under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and implicitly accused the Europeans and Americans of "misrepresenting" Iran's desire for civilian nuclear energy "as the pursuit of nuclear weapons."
"This is nothing more than a pure propaganda ploy," he said.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran reiterates its previously and repeatedly declared position that in accordance with our religious principles, pursuit of nuclear weapons is prohibited," Ahmadinejad said.

Looking for a Corpse to Make a Case

On Sept. 9, Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions called his old law professor Harold Apolinsky, co-author of Sessions' legislation repealing the federal estate tax, which was encountering sudden resistance on the Hill. Sessions had an idea to revitalize their cause, which he left on Apolinsky's voice mail: "[Arizona Sen.] Jon Kyl and I were talking about the estate tax. If we knew anybody that owned a business that lost life in the storm, that would be something we could push back with."
If legislative ambulance chasing looks like a desperate measure, for the backers of repealing the estate tax, these are desperate times. Just three weeks ago, their long-sought goal of repeal seemed within reach, but Katrina dashed their hopes when Republican leaders put off an expected vote. After hearing from Sessions, Apolinsky, an estate tax lawyer who says his firm includes three multi-billionaires among its clients, mobilized the American Family Business Institute, a Washington-based group devoted to estate tax repeal. They reached out to members along the Gulf Coast to hunt for the dead.

Q: How does Bush feel about Roe versus Wade?

A: He really doesn't care how people get out of New Orleans. [thanks, Sharon]

EFF, Florida Disability Rights Advocates Fight to Avert E-voting Debacle

Volusia County, FL - On Wednesday, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals supporting Volusia County, Florida, in an ongoing legal battle to permit the County to consider voting systems that are both accessible to the disabled and auditable for everyone. EFF's brief strongly urged the Court to reject an argument by the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) that Volusia County should be forced to purchase paperless touchscreen voting machines for the upcoming October 11th election. This deadline, EFF argued, would require the County to rush to prepare for the election, possibly jeopardizing its efforts to program the machines, train election and pollworkers, and educate the public. Instead, the County should be given the chance to acquire voting technology that creates an auditable paper trail, as well as provides accessibility features for a wider range of disabled voters.

FEMA Official Says Agency Heads Ignored Warnings

In the days before Hurricane Katrina hit land, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, FEMA Director Michael Brown and other top Homeland Security officials received e-mails on their blackberries warning that Katrina posed a dire threat to New Orleans and other areas. Yet one FEMA official tells NPR little was done.
Leo Bosner, an emergency management specialist at FEMA headquarters in Washington, D.C., is in charge of the unit that alerts officials of impending crises and manages the response. As early as Friday, Aug. 26, Bosner knew that Katrina could turn into a major emergency.
In daily e-mails -- known as National Situation Updates -- sent to Chertoff, Brown and others in the days before Katrina made landfall in the Gulf Coast, Bosner warned of its growing strength -- and of the particular danger the hurricane posed to New Orleans, much of which lies below sea level.
But Bosner says FEMA failed to organize the massive mobilization of National Guard troops and evacuation buses needed for a quick and effective relief response when Katrina struck. He says he and his colleagues at FEMA's D.C. headquarters were shocked by the lack of response.
"We could see all this going downhill," Bosner said, "but there was nothing we could do."

Katrina Information Google Map

Some attention is being given to this map of the hurricane zone, which uses Google Maps and citizen reporting to display conditions of specific houses and neighborhoods. It's a great use of the Google Maps API, which I've been urging news organizations to take advantage of.
This technique could be extremely valuable for news websites as the Katrina disaster continues to unfold. For example, it's estimated that in the city of New Orleans thousands of people died in the floodwaters. As information about bodies found at specific locations becomes available, that could be included in this sort of interactive map.
As victims are identified, they could be added to the map according to their home addresses, linked to photographs and biographies (and even guestbooks for friends and relatives to share their memories, a la Legacy.com). Built out, you could end up with an interactive memorial to those who died in New Orleans -- a combination of professional journalism and citizen reporting. Viewing such a map-memorial by neighborhood, this would be an important and compelling service for survivors.
If any news organizations are working on or contemplating such a project, please let me know.

NBC News to Open Gulf Coast Bureau in New Orleans