Tuesday, October 25, 2005

An interesting conversation about Rosa Parks in the comments to this morning's post. Yasminah states flatly that "Ms. Parks' action was thorougly planned by local civil rights leaders." She repeats it at her own blog. Ruby says, "Yasminah is correct," but seems to soften that a bit by adding, "[The NAACP] may not have planned the exact date or person, but Mrs. Parks took her action in the context of that strategic campaign." But the NYT obit, while stating clearly that Parks was active in the NAACP, quotes Parks as saying it was a spontaneous decision on her part. That is consistent with other statements she made, and the accounts of other people. It's worth noting that Parks was not seated in the whites-only section of the bus, where she would have been sure to be confronted, but in the middle section, where there was no certainty that a confrontation would ensue. On one level, I don't think it matters a bit whether her actions were planned carefully or spontaneous, or -- as seems likely to me from my admittedly cursory study of the events -- a decision made both in the moment and the context of an organized campaign for civil rights. Ruby is right when she says at her blog that it's important to understand that change requires organization and planning, and that Parks was part of an important social and political movement. But I don't think that rules out individual initiative and the seizing the moment. In fact, I think those things are essential, even with the best of plans. In any case, Rosa Parks was a hero. (Thanks to Chewie for her research.) Update: More in a similar vein here  (via Instapundit). 8:33:57 PM   permalink   comment []

Raw Story is saying that indictments are a go. Ditto Washington Note. Drudge, after days of hurricane coverage, is still not saying much about all this -- just a below-the-banner link to the NYT Cheney story. Whatever the truth of the reports, it's fascinating to see Drudge give away his franchise on this story. Update: I should note that Matt Gross spawned the "Drudge punts" meme a week ago. 6:04:27 PM   permalink   comment []

Cunning Realist, no fan of Greenspan's, says Bernanke was probably the best choice for the Fed job. Oh, and he expects the stock market to crash within three months of Bernanke's confirmation. 4:43:36 PM   permalink   comment []

Philadelphia story: coming soon to a city near you. Will Bunch posts about saving the Philly Daily News, and other newspapers. "If we don't change, we will die -- and it will be our fault." Read the whole thing. 4:27:44 PM   permalink   comment []

Strategy Page: Doing good undercuts al Qaeda. "The U.S. noted the large amount of good will generated in Moslem Indonesia because of vigorous American relief efforts last year after the Indonesian earthquake and tidal wave, and is apparently out to repeat that process in Pakistan...The quakes have had more impact on the military and political situation in Kashmir than any diplomacy or military efforts in the last several decades." (via Instapundit) 12:01:29 PM   permalink   comment []

Ivan Cutler's Inside Furniture blog lives up to its name. Yesterday, he reported that a rival group may challenge the High Point Market Authority, which is seen as ineffectual in the face of a strong challenge from the new Las Vegas trade show. Cutler: "The secret meetings of the past several weeks indicate raw fear at the highest levels in High Point's civic, political and showroom building ownership levels." Today, he says Market Authority head Judy Mendenhall may have been forced to walk the plank. "Officially, Mendenhall is retiring, although her depature will be interpreted as involuntary...To the surprise of many people, Mendenhall declined to attend the new market, choosing to go on vacation. Instead, she sent her lieutenant Tammy Covington, a decision widely criticized in the industry." Inside Furniture seems to be out in front of the trades and the local dailies. 11:55:02 AM   permalink   comment []

Bin Laden must have been furious.  Here he had gone to all this trouble to murder thousands of Americans, and Saddam---Saddam, the infidel!---was getting all the credit!  Who was the head of al Qaeda?!  Who was funding al Qaeda?!  Somewhere along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border there was a very angry terrorist mastermind. From Al Franken's new book, The Truth (with jokes) excerpted at Kos. 11:43:06 AM   permalink   comment []

Now that the Community Foundation is accepting online donations, why not drop a little dough into the Y-Bler Buonya Scholarship Fund? I will. Frustrating that the Foundation still doesn't take PayPal...but it's a start. 9:49:51 AM   permalink   comment []

White House spokesman Scott McClellan on the Plame leak, September  29, 2003: "There's been nothing, absolutely nothing, brought to our attention to suggest any White House involvement, and that includes the vice president's office, as well...if anyone in this administration was involved in it, they would no longer be in this administration." (emphasis mine) Whatever Fitzgerald comes up with, we now know that Cheney told Libby about Plame. Bush said he wanted to get to the bottom of the story, when in fact the story unfolded at the highest levels of his own administration. That seems to leave two options: Bush lied to the American people, or he was out of the loop on operations run by Cheney. Update: this is just a rumor, but I hear the Fitzgerald team has a theme song taken from the old TV commercial: "If it says Libby Libby Libby on the label label label, You will indict indict indict Just as soon as you are able..." 9:18:58 AM   permalink   comment []

The Times: "The people of Iraq have approved the country's draft constitution after its opponents narrowly failed to overturn the blueprint in referendum results announced today." More: "Passage of the draft constitution paves the way for elections to the Iraqi Parliament in December, although Iraqi leaders are expected to convene before then to make final adjustments...Around 15.5 million Iraqis voted in the referendum ten days ago, a turnout of 63 per cent. The draft constitution places considerable power in the hands of regional authorities, and enshrines the autonomy of the Kurds autonomy in the north. Iraq's Shia-dominated south is also expected to become an autonomous region." 8:49:13 AM   permalink   comment []

NYT: The arctic is melting, and human activity seems to be accelerating the trend. "Even with just modest growth in emissions of the greenhouse gases, almost all of the summer sea ice is likely to disappear by late in the century." The good news: shipping lanes through polar seas. The bad news: pretty much everything else. 8:30:51 AM   permalink   comment []

DarkTimes: Kristof, in "Hurricane Fitzgerald Approaches the White House," warns that "we should be uneasy that he is said to be mulling indictments that aren't based on his prime mandate, investigation of possible breaches of the 1982 law prohibiting officials from revealing the names of spies. "Instead, Mr. Fitzgerald is rumored to be considering mushier kinds of indictments, for perjury, obstruction of justice or revealing classified information. Sure, flat-out perjury must be punished. But if the evidence is more equivocal, then indictments would mark just the kind of overzealous breach of prosecutorial discretion that was a disgrace when Democrats were targeted." He says the White House smear campaing was "appalling," and that Robert Novak "was absolutely wrong to print the disclosure," but that it all adds up to "back-stabbing politics, but not to obvious criminality." Kicker: "I find myself repulsed by the glee that some Democrats show at the possibility of Karl Rove and Mr. Libby being dragged off in handcuffs. It was wrong for prosecutors to cook up borderline and technical indictments during the Clinton administration, and it would be just as wrong today. Absent very clear evidence of law-breaking, the White House ideologues should be ousted by voters, not by prosecutors." OK, then. File it under We'll See What We See. You can throw Tierney's column in the same file. "And Your Point Is?" is even more dismissive. He says he would have voted against the Iraq war had he been in the Senate, but "No one deserves to be indicted on conspiracy charges for belonging to a group that believed Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Foreign policy mistakes are not against the law." 8:22:01 AM   permalink   comment []

Thank you Miss Rosa. From the obituary for Rosa Parks in today's New York Times: "The events that began on that bus in the winter of 1955 captivated the nation and transformed a 26-year-old preacher named Martin Luther King Jr. into a major civil rights leader." More: "Her act of civil disobedience, what seems a simple gesture of defiance so many years later, was in fact a dangerous, even reckless move in 1950's Alabama." Read the whole thing. 8:10:58 AM   permalink   comment []