Volume 2 Issue 42

April 1, 2003

Destroying American Liberty

How Homeland Security is destroying the nation, does Rumsfeld call McNamara to complain at night, and why you need to be careful when you do translation

First, I apologize. I did not have the energy this morning to construct some elaborate April Fool's thing. Perhaps later in the week...

So this morning, the city of Philadelphia decided to stick with its plan and reopen the stretch of Chestnut Street in front of Independence Hall that had been closed since 9/11. For those of you new to this topic, the Independence Hall area of Philadelphia was probably home to the worst new security measures after that attack. Major city streets were closed, trapping businesses on the other side of Independence Mall, and access to the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall was only allowed after standing in hour long lines for security checks. No wonder tourism to the area plummeted. Finally, local businesses prevailed on the city to overrule the Park Service and reopen Chestnut Street, since it really played no role in securing Independence Hall, as the streets along side it were still open. The Park Service took this decision rather well, retaliating by indefinitely closing Independence Hall and the rest of the park to visitors.

Adding to the madness, the City of Chicago this morning demolished Megis Field, the downtown airport most famous for it's role as the starting point in Microsoft's Flight Simulator. Meigs had been threatened before, but a recent agreement had kept it open for another 15 years or so. But Chicago, run by the latest Boss Daley, decided instead to in the middle of the night destroy the place, not bothering to notify the FAA or anything like that, and stranding dozens of planes there. The reason? Security supposedly, though that whole development plan that Daley has for that lakefront property can't be part of the plan, can it? And I'm sure the whole middle of the night thing was just the only time they could get a construction crew, with those tough union rules and all.

These two incidents today are just another example of how the United States is losing the war on Terror. Time and time again our leaders have used the possibility of attack as a tactic for fear, instead of actually preparing to confront the problem before it gets to our airports and historic buildings. After all, wouldn't an attack, even a failed one, still be a failure for Homeland Security? But that's not what they want you to think about, they practically want you to hide in your house...that is, when you're not out spending money to keep the economy afloat. The freedom to visit our historic places, now taken away from us, and the freedom to freely come and go as we please, taken away from the people of Chicago today, are not things that we should be giving up lightly. I'm not saying that security isn't important. I agree that people should have to go through a metal detector to enter Independence Hall. I disagree that in order to give a level of security an entire section of a city needs to be cut off. It appears that buildings made of rock and stone are now more important than ideals such as freedom and liberty. Long gone are the days when our nation's leaders would actually hold public office hours in the White House, now you can only gaze at it from afar, unable to tour it or visit what we have always said is our house. I guess it's not ours anymore. Once before I remember thinking about how bad it was to have the residence of the national leader cut off from the people, fenced in so you couldn't see it, or visit it. I think I was in France actually, looking at the Elysee Palace from blocks away. Guess we're not that far apart after all.

Here are some stories about the battle for Independence Hall -
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/5529709.htm
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/5528290.htm

And RIP, Meigs Field -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A63428-2003Mar31.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2906487.stm

The War Plan: Rumsfeld continues to be attacked by officers in the field, some of who have compared him to Bob McNamara -
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/01/international/worldspecial /01PENT.html

Is any land in Iraq secured? After an other day of American leaders saying how well things were going, Iraq somehow managed to fire a missile at Kuwait. Again. -
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,1-630940,00.html

The Heart's and Minds: Nick Kristof says we're still not winning them over -
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/01/opinion/01KRIS.html

Reporters Being Bad: Arnett defends himself -
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/page.cfm?objectid=12795 678&method=full&siteid=50143

One writer argues that Arnett should not be fired because of his interview, he should be fired because he's an idiot -
http://slate.msn.com/id/2080947/

Cronkite on Arnett -
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/01/opinion/01CRON.html

So Fox was able to pull some strings at the Pentagon, so now Geraldo is just leaving Iraq, not being kicked out -
http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/04/01/sprj.irq.geraldo/i ndex.html

Maybe they should send Geraldo to France...
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/01/international/worldspecial /01WATC.html

And finally, a reporter for the state-run Swaziland radio who was purportedly reporting from Baghdad has actually been reporting from a broom closet. He was outed after he was seen in the Parliament Building just after one of his reports -
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_766355.html?menu=news.q uirkies

Media owners being bad: Is Clear Channel stifling dissent to the War?
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/31/business/media/31RADI.html

Is Clear Channel just plain evil?
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/31/business/media/31MINO.html

More Idiot Lawmakers: Washington State lawmakers are trying to encourage a boycott of French wine. But not for patriotic reasons mind you...they're just trying to get more people to buy Washington State wines -
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,82694,00.html

That Other Country: North Korea launched an anti-ship missile yesterday in a test -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A63583-2003Mar31.html

Look Who's Running for President: John Edwards continues to not even be able to win his own state, much less the Presidency...though th article says maybe the North Carolinians just want to keep him -
http://www.dailytarheel.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2003/03/31/3 e8840171fea8

Look Who's Running for Camden County Freeholder: Oh boy...
"At a meeting this Thursday night, Camden County Democrats are expected to pick Joseph Ripa, the retired President of the South Jersey Transit Workers Union, to run on their ticket for Freeholder. Ripa, a Berlin resident, is the father of Kelly Ripa, the co-host of ABC's popular Regis and Kelly show. He will replace incumbent Helen Albright, who announced recently that she would not seek re-election to a second term, on a line with incumbents Jeff Nash and Tom Gurick. "
Let's just hope she doesn't show up at meetings!

Look who may run for Senate again: Former Georgia Senator Max Cleland, now a professor at American University, says he has not ruled out a run for Zell Miller's seat next year -
http://www.adn.com/24hour/politics/story/834192p-5875930c.html

Daniel Patrick Moynihan: Was laid to rest at Arlington yesterday after a funeral at St. Patrick's in Washington -
http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/03/31/moynihan.ap/index. html

Outbreak: Hong Kong is getting more desperate and panicky in trying to stop SARS, which some have now hypothesized may be an escaped Chinese chemical weapon -
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/2905391.stm

A jet has been quarantined in San Jose after arriving from Tokyo with 4 sick passengers -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2999-2003Apr1.html

Opening Day Fun: Opening day in Baltimore was interrupted by a snowstorm -
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=230331101

And Tom Glavine got booed off the mound in New York -
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=230331121

But the Phillies seem to have done well for themselves -
http://espn.go.com/mlb/columns/stark_jayson/1532046.html

Language Barrier: A PETA sign in Spanish urging people not to drink milk caused some trouble when the translation actually told people to "discharge sperm" -
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_766330.html?menu=news.q uirkies