Entry tags:
Hot button items
I happen to be a big fan of the Bill of Rights.
The Tenth, as used, is problematic. The Ninth, as ignored, is also problematic.
The Second has some contentious issues (What defines militia? What is meant by well organised? I hold it's an individual right, there are interesting; but to me, non-compelling, arguments to be made it's a collective one).
The First, on the other hand, is pretty damned clear (well, the whole debate about what constitutes political speech, and Holmes' sad use of, "fire in a crowded theater," notwithstanding) and the freedom of the press ought to be cut and dried.
Used to be it was.
Yesterday I linked to Reporters Without Borders talking about a couple of cases of photographers being abused. One had not only his images stolen but his equipment smashed and his press pass destroyed. Given that he was from a local paper, this may not have been the best tactical move those cops made, but that's not the point.
Now I find this from Rueters, which says FEMA is barring reporters from moving freely, to prevent them from taking pictures of the dead.
Brian Wilson, of MSNBC said he saw, what I can only describe as intimidation, a cop pointing a weapon at reporters, as well as being told to cross the street when an Oklahoma Guard sergeant got annoyed.
An interesting dynamic is taking shape in this city, not altogether positive: after days of rampant lawlessness (making for what I think most would agree was an impossible job for the New Orleans Police Department during those first few crucial days of rising water, pitch-black nights and looting of stores) the city has now reached a near-saturation level of military and law enforcement. In the areas we visited, the red berets of the 82nd Airborne are visible on just about every block. National Guard soldiers are ubiquitous. At one fire scene, I counted law enforcement personnel (who I presume were on hand to guarantee the safety of the firefighters) from four separate jurisdictions, as far away as Connecticut and Illinois. And tempers are getting hot. While we were attempting to take pictures of the National Guard (a unit from Oklahoma) taking up positions outside a Brooks Brothers on the edge of the Quarter, the sergeant ordered us to the other side of the boulevard. The short version is: there won't be any pictures of this particular group of Guard soldiers on our newscast tonight. Rules (or I suspect in this case an order on a whim) like those do not HELP the palpable feeling that this area is somehow separate from the United States.
At that same fire scene, a police officer from out of town raised the muzzle of her weapon and aimed it at members of the media... obvious members of the media... armed only with notepads. Her actions (apparently because she thought reporters were encroaching on the scene) were over the top and she was told. There are automatic weapons and shotguns everywhere you look. It's a stance that perhaps would have been appropriate during the open lawlessness that has long since ended on most of these streets. Someone else points out on television as I post this: the fact that the National Guard now bars entry (by journalists) to the very places where people last week were barred from LEAVING (The Convention Center and Superdome) is a kind of perverse and perfectly backward postscript to this awful chapter in American history.
These are not good signs.
Yes, I can hear the counterclaims... respect for the dead, and all. Well we didn't show that sort of tender feeling for the tsunami victims. Right now, painful as it is, the dead are the news. The people who were trapped in nursing homes, who couldn't break out of their homes, who were swept away. The ones who are sitting by the side of the road, waiting to be picked up. The how and the why of their demise, as well as what is being done about it, and how to prevent its like again. Those are the stories we need to hear, and read, and; yes, see.
The people who are going to get dysentery, or cholera, or God knows what from contact with the water sloshing around New Orleans (and no one can say what's going to happen to Lake Pontchartrain when the city is emptied into it, but there's no other place to put the water, and leaving it there to fester is a worse option) are the story.
Those are the stories we need to hear, and read, and; yes, see.
The people who refuse to leave, what happens to them? And who will tell the tale? The Administration isn't happy with the press right now, in part because the press has started to do it's job (the press always needs to play the role of gadfly to the occupant of the White House, by definition the president is one of the Comfortable; since he is also the employee of every single person who lives in the US, has his salary, his rent, and his [not-inconsiderable] household expenses paid for by them; while doing things which directly affect them all, he needs some oversight, and probably some afflicting).
For those who want to see what an active press corps might, and should, have been doing for the past few years, this press gaggle shows something which has been rare, of late, penetrating questions, and an unwillingness to accept pablum as caviar.
My favorite piece of it is,
Q I just want to follow up on David's questions on accountability. First, just to get you on the record, where does the buck stop in this administration?
MR. McCLELLAN: The President.
Q All right. So he will be held accountable as the head of the government for the federal response that he's already acknowledged was inadequate and unacceptable?
It isn't just the pleasure of seeing a pair of politicians skewered (because McClellan was run through on the way to the President) but because the people in office keep talking about accountabilty, but none of them ever seem to be held accountable for the failures they admit to happening, on their watch, by their underlings, or even by themselves.
Blacking the press out of New Orleans, intimidating them into not taking pictures; or notes, is the sort of thing which is meant to reduce accountability, because what is not seen, just isn't. If people don't know, they can't be offended. If they aren't offended, nothing will change.
And looking at the mess which was one of the prettiest, most interesting cities in America... it makes me think something has to change.
The Tenth, as used, is problematic. The Ninth, as ignored, is also problematic.
The Second has some contentious issues (What defines militia? What is meant by well organised? I hold it's an individual right, there are interesting; but to me, non-compelling, arguments to be made it's a collective one).
The First, on the other hand, is pretty damned clear (well, the whole debate about what constitutes political speech, and Holmes' sad use of, "fire in a crowded theater," notwithstanding) and the freedom of the press ought to be cut and dried.
Used to be it was.
Yesterday I linked to Reporters Without Borders talking about a couple of cases of photographers being abused. One had not only his images stolen but his equipment smashed and his press pass destroyed. Given that he was from a local paper, this may not have been the best tactical move those cops made, but that's not the point.
Now I find this from Rueters, which says FEMA is barring reporters from moving freely, to prevent them from taking pictures of the dead.
Brian Wilson, of MSNBC said he saw, what I can only describe as intimidation, a cop pointing a weapon at reporters, as well as being told to cross the street when an Oklahoma Guard sergeant got annoyed.
An interesting dynamic is taking shape in this city, not altogether positive: after days of rampant lawlessness (making for what I think most would agree was an impossible job for the New Orleans Police Department during those first few crucial days of rising water, pitch-black nights and looting of stores) the city has now reached a near-saturation level of military and law enforcement. In the areas we visited, the red berets of the 82nd Airborne are visible on just about every block. National Guard soldiers are ubiquitous. At one fire scene, I counted law enforcement personnel (who I presume were on hand to guarantee the safety of the firefighters) from four separate jurisdictions, as far away as Connecticut and Illinois. And tempers are getting hot. While we were attempting to take pictures of the National Guard (a unit from Oklahoma) taking up positions outside a Brooks Brothers on the edge of the Quarter, the sergeant ordered us to the other side of the boulevard. The short version is: there won't be any pictures of this particular group of Guard soldiers on our newscast tonight. Rules (or I suspect in this case an order on a whim) like those do not HELP the palpable feeling that this area is somehow separate from the United States.
At that same fire scene, a police officer from out of town raised the muzzle of her weapon and aimed it at members of the media... obvious members of the media... armed only with notepads. Her actions (apparently because she thought reporters were encroaching on the scene) were over the top and she was told. There are automatic weapons and shotguns everywhere you look. It's a stance that perhaps would have been appropriate during the open lawlessness that has long since ended on most of these streets. Someone else points out on television as I post this: the fact that the National Guard now bars entry (by journalists) to the very places where people last week were barred from LEAVING (The Convention Center and Superdome) is a kind of perverse and perfectly backward postscript to this awful chapter in American history.
These are not good signs.
Yes, I can hear the counterclaims... respect for the dead, and all. Well we didn't show that sort of tender feeling for the tsunami victims. Right now, painful as it is, the dead are the news. The people who were trapped in nursing homes, who couldn't break out of their homes, who were swept away. The ones who are sitting by the side of the road, waiting to be picked up. The how and the why of their demise, as well as what is being done about it, and how to prevent its like again. Those are the stories we need to hear, and read, and; yes, see.
The people who are going to get dysentery, or cholera, or God knows what from contact with the water sloshing around New Orleans (and no one can say what's going to happen to Lake Pontchartrain when the city is emptied into it, but there's no other place to put the water, and leaving it there to fester is a worse option) are the story.
Those are the stories we need to hear, and read, and; yes, see.
The people who refuse to leave, what happens to them? And who will tell the tale? The Administration isn't happy with the press right now, in part because the press has started to do it's job (the press always needs to play the role of gadfly to the occupant of the White House, by definition the president is one of the Comfortable; since he is also the employee of every single person who lives in the US, has his salary, his rent, and his [not-inconsiderable] household expenses paid for by them; while doing things which directly affect them all, he needs some oversight, and probably some afflicting).
For those who want to see what an active press corps might, and should, have been doing for the past few years, this press gaggle shows something which has been rare, of late, penetrating questions, and an unwillingness to accept pablum as caviar.
My favorite piece of it is,
Q I just want to follow up on David's questions on accountability. First, just to get you on the record, where does the buck stop in this administration?
MR. McCLELLAN: The President.
Q All right. So he will be held accountable as the head of the government for the federal response that he's already acknowledged was inadequate and unacceptable?
It isn't just the pleasure of seeing a pair of politicians skewered (because McClellan was run through on the way to the President) but because the people in office keep talking about accountabilty, but none of them ever seem to be held accountable for the failures they admit to happening, on their watch, by their underlings, or even by themselves.
Blacking the press out of New Orleans, intimidating them into not taking pictures; or notes, is the sort of thing which is meant to reduce accountability, because what is not seen, just isn't. If people don't know, they can't be offended. If they aren't offended, nothing will change.
And looking at the mess which was one of the prettiest, most interesting cities in America... it makes me think something has to change.