We have a theme going here in Fortune Land: dastardly little men seem to be coming out of the woodwork. Here is an article from The Independent Online on a new book about Donald Rumsfeld:
He’s a Machiavellian warmonger whose actions will forever be associated with the catastrophe that is Iraq. But how did a popular congressman known as ‘Boy-Boy’ become a ‘ruthless little bastard’?
Donald Rumsfeld: Andrew Cockburn on an American disaster – Independent Online Edition > Features
Robert Fisk on Tony Blair:
My Dad used to call people like Blair a “twerp” which, I think, meant a pregnant earwig. But Blair is not a twerp. I very much fear he is a vicious little man. And I can only recall Cromwell’s statement to the Rump Parliament in 1653, repeated – with such wisdom – by Leo Amery to Chamberlain in 1940: “You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go.”
Robert Fisk: Blair’s lies and linguistic manipulations – Independent Online Edition > Robert Fisk
Robert, tell us how you really feel…
Speaking of Blair, rumors abound that he is under consideration as the replacement for Paul Wolfowitz in the Presidency of the World Bank.
Of Course, If He’d Said That about Clue I’d Have to Club Him
Theater fan: What would you say about a person who saw The Rocky Horror Picture Show only once and didn’t feel any need to see it again?
Tim Curry: I’d say that was a person who was in full possession of their senses.
–Actor’s Fund event, 52nd & Broadway
Overheard by: Big Larry
via Overheard in New York, May 17, 2007
Pawn tries not to pile-on the easy political topics. There is only so much interest in the latest flap in the US Attorney imbroglio, for example, and not much reward in picking the low-hanging fruit. Sometimes, though, one just cannot pass it up.
Here, then, in the very spirit of a White House that thought nothing of trying to slip the domestic spying program past then debilitated A.G. John Ashcroft:
“I was very upset. I was angry. I thought I had just witnessed an effort to take advantage of a very sick man who did not have the powers of the attorney general because they had been transferred to me. I thought he had conducted himself — and I said to the attorney general — in a way that demonstrated a strength that I had never seen before, but still I thought it was improper,” [former Deputy A.G. James B.] Comey told the [Senate Judiciary] committee.
Aide: Sick Ashcroft pressed to approve domestic spying – CNN.com
Slate has no similar compunction, and pile-on they do in their new interactive guide to graft, corruption and incompetence in the current administration:
Having a hard time keeping track of all 10,000 GOP scandals? Between fired U.S. attorneys, deleted RNC e-mails, sexually harassed pages, outed CIA agents, and tortured Iraqi prisoners—not to mention the warrantless wiretapping, plum defense contracts, and golf junkets to Scotland—you could be forgiven for losing track of which congressman or Bush administration flunky did which shady thing. Renzi—now, was that the guy with the skeezy land deal? Or the woman Paul Wolfowitz promoted?
An illustrated guide to Republican scandals. – By Holly Allen, Christopher Beam, and Torie Bosch – Slate Magazine
In a bookend to the testimony of Ashcroft’s Deputy, Comers, we have the resignation of his successor, Paul McNulty. The ranks are getting might thin over there at Justice:
Mr. McNulty, the fourth and highest-ranking Justice Department official to resign since the uproar began in Congress over the dismissals of the United States attorneys, had told friends for weeks that he was planning to step aside.
Gonzales’s Deputy Quits Justice Department – New York Times
Mr. Wolfowitz, is prominently featured in most guides to bad governance. Ironically while he tries to promote good governance at the World Bank, his top aide in good governance and transparency had to step down because Wolfowitz’s own ethical lapses have made the job untenable. The bank is now calling for Wolfowitz to follow his aide out the door.
The report charged that Mr. Wolfowitz broke bank rules and the ethical obligations in his contract, and that he tried to hide the salary and promotion package awarded to Shaha Ali Riza, his companion and a bank employee, from top legal and ethics officials in the months after he became bank president in 2005.
Citing what it said was the “central theme†of the matter, the report said Mr. Wolfowitz’s assertions that what he did was in response to the requests of others showed that “from the outset†of his tenure he “cast himself in opposition to the established rules of the institution.â€
“He did not accept the bank’s policy on conflict of interest, so he sought to negotiate for himself a resolution different from that which would be applied to the staff he was selected to head,†the committee said, adding that this was “a manifestation of an attitude in which Mr. Wolfowitz saw himself as the outsider to whom the established rules and standards did not apply.â€
Bank’s Report Says Wolfowitz Violated Ethics – New York Times
The New Yorker magazine has one of the most storied style guides in publishing, as famous to some as those of The Times or The Wall Street Journal. They also tend to have more thorough fact checkers and proofreaders, publishing, as they do, only once a week (or two). Oddly, though, this interesting bit of typography crept into both the print and on-line versions of this excessively blogged-about profile of the elusive English graffitist, Banksy:
But for every litter freak or culture purist driven to indignation by Banksy there’s a person who is entranced. While setting up the show in Los Angeles, Banksy ordered a pizza, ate it, and tossed the box in a Dumpster. Within weeks, the pizza box was sold on eBay, for a hundred and two dollars. The seller suggested that a few anchovies that had been left inside might yield traces of Banksy’s DNA.
Dept. of Popular Culture: Banksy Was Here: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker
Now Pawn will concede that there is a trademark in the books for the word “Dumpster” but unless there is a record of this particular receptacle bearing that brand name, perhaps someone in rewrite got a little carried away. Call a Dumpster a dumpster, and let’s move on.
Looking more like a spook in a sideshow than a presidential candidate, Rudy Giuliani continues to lead in several nationwide polls, though not always with likely primary voters. While many may remember the Rudy of 9/10 — rude, fractious, ill tempered, given to fits of pique — for many more their vision extends only so far back as that clear Tuesday morning in September, and the cool-headed way he led a city, nearly a country, in the aftermath of 9/11.
In this campaign, however, Rudy is showing the public the side of him that earned him the enmity of the New York press corps. He has claimed that voting for a Democrat is akin to voting for bin Laden, and now he is trying to shirk his culpability in the ridiculous decision to place New York City’s disaster response center in the World Trade Center, rather than safely at a distance from likely targets (as any disaster plan would do).
No he has lashed out claiming that a former aide was responsible for that decision, and the aide has fired back with documentary proof that, once again, Rudy is not telling the truth.
Giuliani is blaming an old aide turned adversary Jerry Hauer, the city’s first director of the Office of Emergency Management, for the much-criticized decision to locate the emergency command center at 7 World Trade Center instead of a site in Brooklyn. After terrorists flew planes into the Twin Towers, 7 WTC burned and collapsed, and the 23rd-floor command center was rendered useless.”I thought for a number of reasons that Brooklyn was the better location,” says Hauer. He provided New York with a copy of his February 1996 memo to First Deputy Mayor Peter Powers recommending the Metro Tech facility in Brooklyn as his preferred site for the command center. “The building is secure and not as visible a target as buildings in Lower Manhattan,” the memo says.
Giuliani Blames Aide for Poor Emergency Planning – New York Magazine’s Daily Intelligencer
Let’s see if this gets past the Empire Zone blog at the New York Times and onto the front page (or at least section A) where it belongs.
So labeled was a file folder found in amongst a box of papers from Pawn’s late mother. “Themes, Essays and Outbursts” is how she labeled her collection of high school english assignments. Quite appropriate. In with those were found these treasures…
I like to go on long tramps thru the woods
In the fall when the first leaves fly
To lie on the moss on some high banks
And dreamily watch the river go byI like to be out of doors in the dark
Alone with the stars and the sky
To hear nocturnal creatures sing
And listen to the night winds sighI like to feel the soft rain fall
that softens the dark brown earth
And this, labeled “N.Y.U. Quadrangle” at the bottom:
Chemical Analysis of Women
SYMBOL: Woe. Thought to be a member of homo sapiens.
ATOMIC WEIGHT: Reputed to be 120. Isotopes are known though from 100 to 180.
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES: All colors sizes and shapes. Seldom found in the pure state. Boils at nothing, and freezes without reason. Surface is usually covered with a film of paint or oxide in colors and depth. Unpolished specimen turns to green in presence of a highly polished one. All varieties melt with proper treatment. Very bitter if used incorrectly. Density is not as great as generally supposed.
CHEMICAL PROPERTIES: Highly explosive and dangerous in inexperienced hands. Extremely active in presence of man. Possesses great affinity for gold, silver, platinum and precious stones. Has the ability to absorb great quantities of the most expensive foods. May explode spontaneously when left alone with man. Undissolved by liquids, but activity is greatly increased when saturated by a spirit solution. Sometimes yields to pressure. Fresh variety has great magnetic attraction. Ages rapidly.
USES: Chiefly ornamental. Efficient cleansing agent. Acts as a positive or negative catalyst in the production of fevers. Probably the most powerful reducing agent known.
This gem proffered in the hand of Uncle John, from long ago:
Peg sat curled up in the chair and remarked, as she opened Arsenic and Old Lace, “Al said today this play is a travesty. I didn’t know what she meant, but I pretended I did.”
“I know what it means” called out ten year old Emily, from the next room. Astonished at her knowledge, we asked her what it did mean. “It’s a man who made real fine violins a long time ago.” she replied.*
We all just about choked, but managed not to laugh. “Peg said Travesty.” I corrected.
“Oh!” answered Emily, “I thought she said magistrate”*thinking, no doubt, of Strativarious
Brownback drops the ball at Wisconsin GOP convention – CNN.com
LAKE GENEVA, Wisconsin (AP) — Note to Sen. Sam Brownback: In Packerland, it’s not cool to diss Brett Favre.
The GOP presidential hopeful drew boos and groans Friday at the Wisconsin Republican Party convention when he used a football analogy to talk about the need to focus on families.
“This is fundamental blocking and tackling,” he said. “This is your line in football. If you don’t have a line, how many passes can Peyton Manning complete? Greatest quarterback, maybe, in NFL history.”
Oops, wrong team to mention in Wisconsin, once described by Gov. Tommy Thompson as the place “where eagles soar, Harleys roar and Packers score.”
Realizing what he had said, the Kansas Republican slumped at the podium and put his head in his hands.
“That’s really bad,” he said. “That will go down in history. I apologize.”
His apology brought a smattering of applause and laughter. He tried to recover, saying former Packer Bart Starr may be the greatest of all time, but the crowd was still restless.
“Let’s take Favre then,” Brownback said. “The Packers are great. I’m sorry. How many passes does he complete without a line?”
“All of them!” more than one person yelled from the back.
“I’m not sure how I recover from this,” Brownback said. “My point is we’ve got to rebuild the family. I’ll get off this.”
the New York Times recently reviewed The Joy of Drinking by Barbara Holland. She offers up this interesting factoid about the founding of The United States:
In 1787, two days before their work was done, the 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention “adjourned to a tavern for some rest, and according to the bill they drank 54 bottles of Madeira, 60 bottles of claret, 8 of whiskey, 22 of port, 8 of hard cider and 7 bowls of punch so large that, it was said, ducks could swim around in them. Then they went back to work and finished founding the new Republic.†Note the 55 delegates and 54 bottles of Madeira. Which founder was slacking?
The Joy of Drinking – Barbara Holland – Books – Review – New York Times
Pawn is getting thirsty just thinking about it.
Bob Zitter, Chief Technology Officer of Home Box Office, wants to do away with DRM — the term, not the concept. Addressing the NCTA (a cable programming trade group), Zitter proposed changing the terminology. Here’s an excerpt from coverage at Boradcasting Cable:
Digital rights management (DRM) is the wrong term for technology that secures programmers’ content as it moves to new digital platforms … since it emphasized restrictions instead of opportunities.
Zitter suggested that “DCE,” or Digital Consumer Enablement, would more accurately describe technology that allows consumers “to use content in ways they haven’t before,”
NCTA: HBO’s Zitter Says DRM Is Misnomer – 5/9/2007 12:04:00 PM – Broadcasting & Cable
Okay, more accurately describe technology… Interestingly enough, Zitter chose to exercise both sides of his mouth; speaking with the reporter after his address, Zitter added that HBO was ready to provide HD content but was loath to do so until they could ensure that consumers could not “use it in ways they haven’t before” — by shutting down the analog component outputs on most cable boxes:
Theoretically, says Zitter, those analog outputs could be disabled, forcing consumers to use a secure digital connection to watch HD content. But current FCC rules don’t give HBO or cable operators that power, in order to protect consumers who bought early HDTV sets that don’t support digital copy protection. “They say we can’t turn off the analog output,” Zitter notes.
Isn’t it time that the word police cracked down on such blatant abuse of the language?
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