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Page 762 of 790 pages « First < 760 761 762 763 764 > Last »
May 2002
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And the Crickets Chirped…
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Mon May 20, 2002
6:49 pm
by McGehee
[Flyover Blogdom]
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There having been no great chorus of indignation over the fact this blog hasn’t been updated in over a week, I doubt there’s much need to add this final note. But what the hey.
Between viruses both biological and technological, and the fading novelty of this endeavor, I’ve realized that this just isn’t the kind of thing I enjoy doing. And if I’m not getting paid for something I don’t enjoy—you do the math. Besides, trying to blog in addition to doing Flyover means spending a lot more time in front of this computer than is healthy.
I won’t delete Blogover, simply because I can’t even begin to imagine anyone else wanting this URL. Besides, if I find myself having to be somewhere on weekday mornings and thus unable to keep Flyover going in its present form, this may work out as a passable substitute.
As for the idea of using a blog as a personal journal, I’ll keep it in mind but I’d do it under some other title.
But for now, Blogover is suspended.
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Crimson with Anger
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Sun May 12, 2002
2:58 pm
by McGehee
[Media Ochre]
[Flyover Blogdom]
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Flyover recently included an item about a campaign on Ivy League campuses for divestment from Israel, but an indignant Harvard student has lashed out at Fox News Channel for what she describes as unbalanced coverage intent on making Harvard look bad.
In retrospect, the news item should indeed have mentioned the existence of organized opposition to the divestment campaign. Since (a) I included the item and (b) I was included on the blind-copy list of the student’s e-mail criticizing Fox News, and (c) the counter-activism described in the message is a very good sign, I include the message here. However, without being able to verify the identity and e-mail address of the sender, I’ll leave that off the blog for now—the URLs included in the message will be live and they’re what’s most important here.
Dear Fox News Channel,
I was appalled by your coverage several minutes ago of the divestment campaign at Harvard. For one thing, your report lacked even a basic notion balance.
You did not give adequate coverage to the HARVARD-MIT campaign AGAINST divestment. Why not look at Harvard-MIT justice webpage, http://www.harvardmitjustice.org where over 1500 (yes, one thousand five hundred) individuals affiliated with Harvard and MIT signed a petition against divestment. That includes over 154 faculty signatures. Only 117 faculty have signed on to the petition to divest (with a total of around 350 signing overall). http://www.harvardmitdivest.org.
As a Harvard student, and a member of the group Harvard Students for Israel (HSI), I can tell you that the campaign being waged by pro-Palestinians on this campus is miniscule compared to the number of people supporting Israel. Last week, HSI held an outdoor rally on Harvard’s campus that attracted over 300 participants. We have also gained the support of dozens of faculty members in solidarity with Israel including Alan Dershowitz, a professor at Harvard Law School. See our petition and pictures of the event at:
http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~hsi/events.html
This was never covered in your report. Nor was the fact that “The Crimson,” the Harvard University Daily, came out the day after the teach-in against the divestment campaign. http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=214642 You also neglected to cover the fact that the main organizers of the Noam Chomsky teach-in were located at MIT, not at Harvard. It is unfair to use the Harvard name to play up something that is not even happening at Harvard’s campus.
What would be nice of you to cover is the Op-Ed article in The Crimson written by the pro-Palestinian law student who started the divestment campaign, Faisal Chaudhry. It is a highly ignorant piece that tries to make it seem that the reason that Palestinians and Israelis do not get along is because Palestinians are “brown” and Israeli’s are “white.” Anyone who has been to Israel recognizes that Israelis come in all colors—white Europeans, dark Middle Easterners, and black Ethiopians. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not about color!! Her Op-Ed (as is this entire divestment campaign) is just another instance of pro-Palestinian groups using rhetoric and lies to try to entice the American public. http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=204991.
I am sickened that your news channel, which is supposed to be fair and balanced, is so blatantly one-sided. If this is not rectified I promise to make sure that everyone I know, and everyone that is affiliated with this campus, ceases to watch your news programs, which blatantly do not live up to its promises.
I hope Fox News will apologize or otherwise make it right.
[UPDATE] On subsequent reading, the Fox News article I linked to about the divestment campaign does specifically state that the Chomsky rally was at MIT. Whether that was how it was originally or is in response to this complaint, I couldn’t say.
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I’ll Believe It When I See It
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Sun May 12, 2002
10:48 am
by McGehee
[War]
[Flyover Blogdom]
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Allegedly the Yurrupeens are getting more reconciled to the idea of giving Saddam Hussein an unceremonious heave-ho.
A majority of the European Union’s 15 nations are now expected to support President George Bush’s plans for “regime change” in Iraq, and many of them are prepared to offer military support, a conference of American and European scholars on transatlantic relations concluded Saturday.
“The mood in France has changed after the dramas of the presidential election campaign and the bombing in Karachi that killed 11 French naval engineers last week,” said Jean Haine, who teaches international relations at Paris’s prestigious Sciences Po Institute. “Indeed, I expect France to seek to rejoin NATO’s unified military command later this year.”
Despite widespread forebodings of a serious split between the United States and its European allies over military action against Iraq, and public warnings against it by both French and German political leaders, a broad range of European experts agreed that their governments would comply.
“There may still be problems with European opinion, but those problems will not outlast TV images of cheering Iraqis—just as the swift victory in Afghanistan stilled earlier European qualms,” Michael Cox of the University of Wales told the Villa Le Balze conference in Florence.
Europeans expressed readiness to support a U.S.-led operation against Iraq, at least in part, after it was presented by Bush administration officials as a litmus test of the loyalty of European allies at a time when America felt itself at war.
“On this litmus test, it is yes or no. There is not question of negotiation. For the Bush administration the question is: are you with us or against us?” Haine said. This did not leave the Europeans with many options, Haine added.
Hmmm. When you put it that way, giving in is just what the Yurrupeens would do. Good going, Dubya.
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Good News Is Bad News
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Sun May 12, 2002
10:29 am
by McGehee
[Wackadoodle]
[Flyover Blogdom]
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When it comes to the environment, seems there’s never any good news that isn’t also bad news. Consider the Chattahoochee rainbow trout for instance. You can tell just from the headline: “Wild trout in Chattahoochee not to everyone’s liking”
Those trout are a reason for anglers and environmentalists to celebrate. Klein says this batch is the latest proof that trout can reproduce in the river north of Atlanta.
For others, particularly government regulators trying to balance environmental concerns with metro Atlanta’s growth, the fish present a dilemma.
While the fry indicate a healthy river, safeguarding them to breed would almost certainly come at a high price. The additional costs would probably start with tighter controls on wastewater treatments and urban runoff from hot asphalt and construction sites.
Sorry, but it seems to me the present existing controls have done nicely to preserve the health of this fish population. But environmentalism can’t survive without problems to solve, so of course they have to make up problems where none exist.
Hey, you don’t suppose that’s where “global warming” came from, do you? Nah…
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Edison Schools Panned By Stock Analysts
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Sun May 12, 2002
10:17 am
by McGehee
[Our Times]
[Flyover Blogdom]
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Those interested in the recent trend of public school districts outsourcing management of their schools, might be interested to read this Fox News report about stock analysts criticizing Edison along with airline Jet Blue.
US Bancorp Piper Jaffray analyst Mark Marostica downgraded Edison Schools to “market perform,” the firm’s second-lowest rating and reduced his price target for the stock from $32 per share to $3.
Shares of Edison Schools, the largest private operator of public schools in the United States, plunged 41 percent because of Marostica’s doubts about the company’s prospects of landing more schools to manage.
Piper Jaffray spokeswoman Erin Freeman said the firm is a longtime advocate of analyst independence and that the report “was based on fundamental research which we strongly support.”
Still, investors should be skeptical about most analyst reports, said Robert Aliber, an economics and finance professor at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business.
That’s because brokerages that provide analyst services make much of their money off investment banking, and provide their research as a side benefit to clients. Clients want their stock recommended in return.
Edison doesn’t really have any major competitors that I’m aware of, who might benefit from pressuring an analyst to offer an exaggeratedly crappy verdict.
Too bad the report doesn’t go into detail about what Piper Jaffray found wrong with Edison.
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In Sunny California, the Storm Gathers
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Sun May 12, 2002
10:02 am
by McGehee
[Here's Your Sign]
[Flyover Blogdom]
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Software Deal Shakes Up California Governor’s Race reads the Fox News headline on an article about the now-heating-up scandal over Gray Davis’ corrupt deal with Oracle—seems to me from what I’ve read, using the word “corrupt” in any sentence containing either Davis’ name or the name “Oracle” is redundant.
“In the past, the state would procure a component at a time, project at a time,” said Elias Cortez, the director of the state’s Department of Information Technology.
Not so this time, and Cortez has been suspended after claims that inexperienced negotiators botched a deal that would have saved the state money by buying the software in bulk.
But critics say incompetence was just part of the problem. Charges of corruption now loom over the administration of Gov. Gray Davis.
As the deal was being negotiated, Oracle donated $25,000 to Davis’ re-election campaign.
“It looks like it was more than a quid-pro-quo. It smells like a payoff,” said Shawn Steel, chairman of the California Republican Party.
Davis claims he knew nothing of the deal or the donation. And after ordering an investigation, he sent the highway patrol to guard trash at the DIT to make sure no documents are shredded.
“No one’s more interested than I am to find out exactly what happened and get to the bottom of it and make it right,” he said.
Thursday, he returned the $25,000 to Oracle, and he is trying to rescind the contract and contain the damage. He received resignation letters from two state workers close to the deal.
But as the fall campaign season approaches, Davis’ $30 million warchest — and the way he raised it — will come under scrutiny.
Not mentioned here is the fact the big contribution was promised months in advance of the contract, yet—as noted in the quote—handed over only afterward.
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PentagOnline
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Sun May 12, 2002
9:56 am
by McGehee
[Our Times]
[Flyover Blogdom]
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Fox News says the Defense Department has begun going around the legacy media—even the friendlies—to get its story out via the Internet.
Web surfers can actually listen to briefings live through the Web site, as well as selected interviews, and chat with senior officials in real time. Pentagon officials say they have finally figured how viable a tool the World Wide Web is, and now the public can truly benefit from the additional information, especially in this time of war.
“We’re looking at a number of ways to tell the taxpayers and the American people and audiences all over the world what we’re up to and the Web is just a part of that,” said Navy Capt. Tim Taylor, who heads the Pentagon press office.
At a time when lily-livered politicians are trying to block public access to public records in alleged fear of terrorists using the information, DoD’s approach is refreshing.
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