Daily Archives: 18 Jul 04

Trudeau skewers Bush

Posted on by
“Cartoonist Garry Trudeau, who has skewered politicians for decades in his comic strip ‘Doonesbury,’ tells Rolling Stone magazine he remembers Yale classmate George W. Bush as ‘just another sarcastic preppy who gave people nicknames and arranged for keg deliveries.‘

Trudeau attended Yale University with Bush in the late 1960s and served with him on a dormitory social committee.

‘Even then he had clearly awesome social skills,’ Trudeau said. ‘He could also make you feel extremely uncomfortable … He was extremely skilled at controlling people and outcomes in that way. Little bits of perfectly placed humiliation.’

Trudeau said he penned his very first cartoon to illustrate an article in the Yale Daily News on Bush and allegations that his fraternity, DKE, had hazed incoming pledges by branding them with an iron.

The article in the campus paper prompted The New York Times to interview Bush, who was a senior that year. Trudeau recalled that Bush told the Times ‘it was just a coat hanger, and … it didn’t hurt any more than a cigarette burn.’

‘It does put one in mind of what his views on torture might be today,’ Trudeau said.

Having mocked presidents of both parties in the ‘Doonesbury’ strip since 1971, Trudeau said Bush has been, ‘tragically, the best target’ he’s worked with yet.

‘Bush has created more harm to this country’s standing and security than any president in history,’ Trudeau said. ‘What a shame the world has to suffer the consequences of Dubya not getting enough approval from Dad.'” (Seattle Post-Intelligencer via Looka!)

"If you want to know about governments, all you have to know is two words: Governments lie." — I.F. Stone

Posted on by
Why the Press Failed: “There’s nothing like seeing a well-oiled machine clank to a halt to help you spot problems. Now that the Bush administration is in full defensive mode and angry leakers in the Pentagon, the CIA, and elsewhere in the Washington bureaucracy are slipping documents, secrets, and charges to reporters, our press looks more recognizably journalistic. But that shouldn’t stop us from asking how an ‘independent’ press in a ‘free’ country could have been so paralyzed for so long. It not only failed to seriously investigate administration rationales for war, but little took into account the myriad voices in the on-line, alternative, and world press that sought to do so. It was certainly no secret that a number of our Western allies (and other countries), administrators of various NGOs, and figures like Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and Hans Blix, head of the UN’s Monitoring, Verification and Inspections Commission, had quite different pre-war views of the ‘Iraqi threat.'” — Orville Schell, Dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley (TomDispatch)

10 Stories the world needs to know more about

Posted on by
“This list includes a number of humanitarian emergencies, as well as conflict or post-conflict situations and spans other matters of concern to the United Nations, although it is far from embracing all of the many issues before the Organization.

The stories are not ones that have never been reported, but are often second-rung issues that need more thorough, balanced and regular attention. The list itself is a snapshot of the most compelling stories that, at this point in time, the Department of Public Information believes are in need of more media attention. And the top story is merely the first among equals.” (UN News Centre)

"…opposite of a friendly place to relax…"

Posted on by

Over at boing boing, Cory Doctorow exerts some consumer clout I wish I had. This post tells a simple story of being treated rudely in an overpriced café in Brighton, UK. He may reach enough readers who have occasion to go looking for a place to sit and sip in Brighton that his recommendation of a friendlier more considerate place just steps down the street could have a discernable effect on the P&L statements of these two establishment.

In an era when the expectations customers could once have of considerate service from businesses are rapidly vanishing, I often find myself wishing I had an effective way of letting others who might vote with their wallets know when I have been outraged or, to the contrary, delighted by the service I’ve received from a store or an eatery.

As the weblogging phenomenon has grown, it has usually seemed appealing to me to have a disembodied presence building a community unfettered by geographic limitations. But, while someone like Cory is a globetrotter with worldwide readership, I am at the moment more thinking about the web being a vehicle for the extension of local community. It would seem to be a natural medium for collaborative, community-based exchange of civic views, organizing around community issues and local politics, and, yes, simple consumer recommendations.

I am not talking about the online presence of the local community newspaper, like the Brookline TAB we have here where I live. Just as weblogging has created a populist, grassroots-based track parallel to the mainstream media in the discussion of matters of national and international importance, it would appear to be an effective parallel medium on a community scale. The way I read weblogs, at least, they are an efficient medium for sifting through an enormous amount of opinion and information to drill down and explore the details of areas that grab my attention or interest me. Why hasn’t this developed as a component of the penetration of the WWW into everyone’s lives over the past decade? Or am I missing something? Do other communities have “community bulletin board” types of public weblogs that mine doesn’t appear to?

[Are there any Brookline readers of FmH? Would you be interested in exploring this further? If so, drop me a line.]

"If you want to know about governments, all you have to know is two words: Governments lie." — I.F. Stone

Posted on by
Why the Press Failed: “There’s nothing like seeing a well-oiled machine clank to a halt to help you spot problems. Now that the Bush administration is in full defensive mode and angry leakers in the Pentagon, the CIA, and elsewhere in the Washington bureaucracy are slipping documents, secrets, and charges to reporters, our press looks more recognizably journalistic. But that shouldn’t stop us from asking how an ‘independent’ press in a ‘free’ country could have been so paralyzed for so long. It not only failed to seriously investigate administration rationales for war, but little took into account the myriad voices in the on-line, alternative, and world press that sought to do so. It was certainly no secret that a number of our Western allies (and other countries), administrators of various NGOs, and figures like Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and Hans Blix, head of the UN’s Monitoring, Verification and Inspections Commission, had quite different pre-war views of the ‘Iraqi threat.'” — Orville Schell, Dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley (TomDispatch)