Volume 2 Issue 10
February 14, 2003
It's the End of the World and We Know It...
Will DC get destroyed by fire or ice, Anti-Valentine's Day, and Jerry Springer throws his hat out there
UPDATE, 4PM Accu-weather is now calling for 16+ inches of snow over the weekend for the DC area. It's all over folks, time to start looking for a new capitol! The biggest blizzard of the century thus far and I'll be out of town. I'm not sure if I should be sad or happy... :) Well, anyway, off to the airport!
Well, folks, I think it may finally be over. The DC metro area may have met it's match. First we have the terror warning, which is apparently still valid despite reports of bad information, and the threat level may actually be increasing. And then...snow. And no, not the dusting to an inch the area has finally gotten used to, or the 2 inches that used to close schools but now barely gets noticed. We're talking a big puppy, 3 days long, with ice and snow and all sorts of goodies mixed in. I'm sure that soccer moms are attacking the trucks as they pull in to the Giant, and toilet paper probably is worth more than gold on the street.
Two quick observations from my way into work this morning. While it has clouded over now with the approaching storm, this morning the skies were quite clear...except for the dozen contrails in the sky from the fighter jets patrolling back and forth over the city. Also I noted that the traffic was light, and the radio said this as well (guess the combo of Vday, the Monday holiday, and the threat of imminent destruction kept some folks home today). So the only traffic tie ups...were from flower trucks blocking the road while they delivered their wares.
Yes, Valentine's day is upon us. If you've been following this week's issues, it will come as no surprise to you that I greatly dislike this holiday. Below you'll see the last of my anti-valentines, culminating in the best anti-valentine ever written, I highly recommend it. For those of you who have asked, my annual gift will be a trip this weekend to San Francisco. For those of you new to this, annually I spend an amount of money on myself in proportion to the national average someone spends on Valentine's day. This year, it's taking me out West, so instead of just spending the evening with Mr. Jack Daniels, I'll be spending the evening with Mr. Jack Daniels and satellite TV at 35,000 feet!
So as the snow and ice begin to fall and l make my way out of town for a few days away from all the madness, a few quick notes. While the Swamp usually wouldn't appear on Monday, I may go ahead and give you a special edition from the West Coast, and I will be publishing as normal from the Bay Area on Tuesday. So enjoy your weekend, and those of you in the DC area stay safe and enjoy shoveling your way out of a foot of snow!
Anti-Valentines for you today:
The Department of Homeland Security wants you to have a safe valentine's day. So...no flowers or cards! -
http://slate.msn.com/id/2078502/
Looks like the commander of the Kitty Hawk battle group en route to the Persian Gulf has been relieved for having an affair with another officer. Love can make you lose your job! -
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2760459.stm
Some Pakistanis want to ban the holiday -
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20030214-5292090.htm
Oh, and here's a lovely Valentine from the past...the Valentine's Day Massacre gang shooting in Chicago in 1929, which was orchestrated by Al Capone. -
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0214.h tml
Greg's Pick of the Day: And finally, as my anti-valentine to all of you, I
give you Andrew Sullivan, the conservative columnist who wrote this article
2 years ago. Applies just as much today. Enjoy! -
http://www.andrewsullivan.com/culture.php?artnum=20010211
Panic in DC: Apparently the terror alert was partly based off of some bad information. But the FBI is still tracking Al-Queda operatives in the states -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7435-2003Feb14.html
But one source says the situation is much more serious, and that a "severe/red" level threat may be issued today (Officials yesterday denied this), and that officials are being told to send their families out of town. Bill Frist said today this was untrue, and he felt very safe at the Capitol building. A "Severe threat" means that an attack is imminent or taking place -
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/politics/whispers/whisphome.htm
The New York Times says that the government is tracking 2 possible attacks, on in the US, and one on oil operations abroad, which could screw the economy -
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/14/politics/14TERR.html
And to make matters worse for Congress, the Blackberry system is apparently down. This 2-way paging system is enormously popular among Members, since it was introduced as a safety precaution after 9/11 -
http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/02/13/blackberry.outag e/index.html
In New York City, police are especially watching the subway -
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/14/nyregion/14SUBW.html
Sally Quinn says the Feds are blowing it, and offers her set of preparedness recommendations. She does bring up a good point...in Israel the government provides gas masks, why don't they here? -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A401-2003Feb12.html
The Federal Government did provide this preparedness primer. Now...I think it's supposed to be serious, but some of things on it are a joke...like, do you know where your nearest fallout shelter is? -
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/02/20030207-10.html
And the journalists who report all this too us are making plans to get out too -
http://washingtonian.com/inwashington/buzz/evacplans.html
"We shall fight on the beaches, in the fields and the streets, and in Aisle 4 of the Hardware Store": Outside of DC and NY, the panic is somewhat reduced, and you can even buy water and duct tape. -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5317-2003Feb13.html
In the San Francisco Bay Area, most residents are calm, and watching the panic on the East Coast with some fascination. It is noted however, that most Californian's already have emergency supplies stocked away for earthquakes, so there's no real big sense of urgency -
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/02/14/MN92677.DTL
Is the media feeding the alert? Kurtz discusses -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7392-2003Feb14.html
In fact, some members of Congress are being critical about the way the alert was handled -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5487-2003Feb13.html
Gene Weingarten has a great story on a release for DC residents yesterday...saving a trapped bird -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5605-2003Feb13.html
Panic all over the world: More arrests at British airports yesterday -
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,1-577781,00.html
The Odds: You know, your more likely to be stuck by lightning than killed in a terror attack. But what the hell, get the duct tape anyway -
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/5177648.htm
Meanwhile, in Baghdad: The UN report today will likely have no effect on the war debate -
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/14/politics/14POLL.html
Remember, these are real people that will die in this war, like the men of Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, NC -
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101030217-421046,00.html
And in addition to all the troops and hardware we've sent to the Gulf, we've also sent...sea lions. -
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101030217-421025,00.html
That Other Country: Japan, which is has a pacifist constitution, threatened yesterday pre-emptive military action against North Korea. Oh great. Just what we need, a militant Japan. -
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/2757923.stm
Get your money for nothing... The 2003 Budget is finally done, and though it's chock filled with pork that no one likes it will pass anyway -
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/14/politics/14SPEN.html
Remember when we were worried about this? Dolly, the first sheep to be cloned, has passed away at the age of 6. The debate is over the disease that killed her (well, made them euthanize her), and whether or not it was related to the cloning -
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/200302 14/ap_on_sc/britain_obit_dolly_8
Headline of the Day: Ah..the British tabs -
http://images.icnetwork.co.uk/upl/mirror/feb2003/1/8/00010A2 9-9D0C-1E4C-9CC180BFB6FA0000.jpg
Harangued into submission? SUV makers have agreed to voluntary new safety regulations to make SUV's safer. While most folks think they're safe, in reality they are the most dangerous vehicle on the road -
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/14/business/14AUTO.html
The Democratic Challenge? Did Democrats lose last Fall's elections because the Soccer Moms have become Security Moms? And what does this mean for 2004? An interesting theory -
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101030217-421027,00.html
Look Who's Running for President: Senator John Edwards yesterday introduced legislation to create an MI5-like domestic intelligence agency to take over terrorism prevention from the FBI -
http://newsobserver.com/news/story/2203369p-2082347c.html
Look Who's Running for President 2: The Boston Globe makes fun of John Kerry for the recent "revelations" about his ethnicity -
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/045/oped/A_Jewish_Kerry_an _Irish_Forbes+.shtml
Look Who's Running for President 3: Terry Neal discusses the Mosley-Braun vs. Sharpton question...is this Donna Brazile's fallback to the "favorite son" plan? -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8352-2003Feb14.html
Look Who won't be Voting for President: The DC State Democratic Committee rejected a proposed January 2004 DC primary, which pretty much kills the proposal. The most interesting thing is the speculated reason for the rejection: That Al Sharpton would probably win it. Um...folks, it really is beginning to look like the Democrats have a "Sharpton" problem. He's not going to win, but he could show up in Boston with 20% of the delegates...and then demand a prime-time speaking role. This will be interesting to see how this develops, and how it is handled by the Dems, who seem scared of it. -
http://www.washtimes.com/metro/20030214-5323534.htm
Look Who's Running for the Senate: Jerry Springer actually gave a serious policy address at Miami University of Ohio yesterday. After taping an episode of his show entitled "I'm Kissing My Cousin." Before you dismiss this out of hand, I heard Springer speak at AU a few years ago, and I think he may have this in him...after all, if Jesse Ventura can be elected Governor... -
http://enquirer.com/editions/2003/02/14/loc_springer14.html
Bad John Edwards Photo of the Day:
"Oh, God, no, oh no, oh crap, he's going to sing."
http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20030130/capt.1043 951748.factory_explosion_ncsh107.jpg
And in other campaigns: A NYC City Council candidate is running into some trouble from a group of transvestites -
http://www.nypost.com/gossip/pagesix.htm
Space Shuttle Columbia: NASA now has determined that a hole in the Shuttle's aluminum skin caused the orbiter to disintegrate on re-entry on Feb. 1. However, what caused the hole is still undetermined. It also looks like trouble developed earlier than first thought. -
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/14/national/nationalspecial/1 4SHUT.html
Hugh Sidey, an accomplished journalist, on why we need to continue to go to space -
http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101030210/scsidey.html
Truth in Advertising? A Ford Executive recently said that Toyota's are better cars then Ford's. First, I don't think we'll be seeing this in any ad soon, and second, me thinks that this Ford Executive may soon be a "former" Ford executive -
http://money.cnn.com/2003/02/13/pf/autos/bc.autos.ford.toyot a.reut/index.htm
And Stalin's Daughter will build the Olympic Village: When China needed someone to revamp parts of Beijing for the 2008 Olympics, which architect did they hire? Why of course Albert Speer Jr., the son of Albert Speer, better known as Hitler's Architect and close friend -
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-576789,00.html
The Free Press: You have to love it when the press go after each other. This Washington Post article discusses a suburban DC paper whose editor may not exactly be running on all 4 cylinders -
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-577399,00.html
Have a great weekend, and don't forget to send those comments along to greg@fromtheswamp.com!
Web Note: We're still having some troubles here with getting the e-mail up here (eventually I'll write this thing on the site and it will send it, but that's another set of issues all together!) without errors, so if you spot any, please let me or the "swampmaster" know so we can fix them. Thanks!
Gregory S. Gadren
