The Iraq Study Group Report. It has dominated the news today. Who says what? What are the comments? How was the book published? What does the report itself say?

It says Iraq is in the midst of a grave and deteriorating crisis. It says Bush policies have failed. According to polls, Americans agree. (All but the red blogging Americans, apparently.) Gore assures Bush the people’s opinions are not about him. Peter Hart of FAIR encourages the media to broaden the debate during the inevitable week of prime time coverage. I haven’t read the report yet, so I don’t know if the report considers the real costs of the war.

The report is downloadable on NPR or for sale in book format on Amazon. There are even reviews on Amazon. The readers bought, received, and read the report already? It was only printed Saturday night and delivered to stores on Monday morning.

Of course, the content of the report blends perfectly with the hearings and Senate vote on the nomination of Robert Gates to be the new Secretary of Defense. I listened to the Armed Services Committee hearings yesterday. As many noted, the committee embraced Gates (even though the Democratic Underground didn’t). I think I heard Hillary Clinton blow him a kiss.

All of the Senators were certainly senatorially polite. Several of them thanked him for his candor. I’m sure that does create a completely shocking new tone to be able to even dream that a Republican nominee would admit that Iraq is a violent mess and staying the course is not a viable option, while all other options remain on the table.

As I listened to him, I wondered if George Bush, a famously stubbon president, would listen to Gates if he made the same observations to Bush. As I listened to coverage of the Iraq Study Group Report, I wondered whether he would actually and personally read it. And, if he does read it, will he genuinely consider the recommendations of his close allies? Given the responses and the insistence that the administration hasn’t used the phrase “stay the course” for three weeks nows (wow, three whole weeks), it seems possible.

Nevertheless, call me skeptical.

Tomorrow the Armed Services Committee will hear testimony on the Iraq Study Group. Hugs and kisses all around.

read comments (0)

News is just pouring in and overwhelming today. I think an important story is getting lost. I’m not saying it is more important than civil war in Iraq or deterioration in Darfur. No. Those stories rip my heart out every day. The days of Colin Powell’s acceptance of Pottery Barn foreign policy are over. (He says it’s a civil war.) I think more time is being spent on the vocabulary of uncontrolled violence than on the violence itself. Death and suffering are difficult to face, but they are there. We need to SEE it without allowing ourselves to turn away.

But what are we missing while the world suffers? While we look away, the nasty authoritarians still play.

When Newt Gingrich spoke at a First Amendment Award Dinner about how and why first the first amendment should be reexamined. What? Keith Olbermann interviewed a George Washington University law professor about the implications.

Newt Gingrich called for a reexamination of free speech at the Loeb First Amendment Award Dinner in New Hampshire this week, saying a “different set of rules to prevent terrorism” are necessary.

Gingrich’s call to restrict free speech is mainly focused on the Internet.

Keep your eyes on these people. Call your Representatives and Senators to ask them whether they think the first amendment needs to be reexamined.

Update 12/2: Love it when Keith Olbermann goes after a subject like Newt Gingrich’s desire to suppress free speech on the internet.

read comments (0)

This time Charlie Rangel (D-NY) is serious about reinstating the draft. He says it is a matter of fairness. Thomas Jefferson agreed. It is probably no surprise, however, that students don’t tend to agree. Students involved in Nonmilitary Options for Youth in Austin, Texas, asked high school students how they would solve the problem faced by the all-volunteer army.

If most young people are adamantly opposed to universal military conscription, and if some understand the unfairness of the de facto draft we have now, what is the solution?

Students suggest that answers may be found in what schools have taught all along: “I think we should handle things in a nonviolent grown-up way.” “We should be big enough to reach an agreement with our enemies and settle it like civilized human beings.” “I think that people who think war is the best option are completely lazy; there are so many more options!” One student concluded simply, “I believe that the best way to make peace is with peace.”

College students at Campus Progress have been weighing in, too. Some say no way to the draft, others favor joining the Israeli Army (!). Then comes the response that suggesting joining any army is no way to run a progressive website.

I like the alternatives offered by the high school students. I am not crazy about the draft. I do think it would be completely fair to have mandatory national service, though. National service doesn’t necessarily mean serving in the military. No, that’s not an idea that is making me excited either. I don’t know. I don’t know.

read comments (0)

The idea of a Department of Peace been around for a while (since George Washington, apparently). There are a couple of organizations working hard to push Congress to address bills on a federal, cabinet-level Department of Peace.

Dennis Kucinich made the Department of Peace part of his 2004 Presidential platform. The “Department of Peace and Nonviolence Act” was introduced in both the House and the Senate last year, and activists expect to see the issue addressed by the new Congress.

Long shot? Probably. Making the switch to a nonviolent approach takes work. One doesn’t just drift into it.

read comments (0)

I am dazzled by simple displays of bright colors. I noticed when a colorful chart making the rounds in the news several weeks ago showed Iraq moving from Peace toward Chaos. The slide shows by arrows how much closer to chaos the situation was within a week. This was nearly three weeks ago, so I’m sure it is even closer now.

What continues to interest me is finding that this slide comes up in other interesting places. I’m clearly not the only one who notices when dazzling gradients show up in the news. Actually, most of the notice was not about the chaos in Iraq but about the chaotic information of the slide. (See full slide at the New York Times for the full effect.)

One design blog (from the creators of the great project management program, Basecamp) wondered whether the slide would be noticed by Edward Tufte. I wondered this, too! Tufte, the author of Visual Display of Quantitative Information, continues to be a topic of conversation among my friends and family, including one who took Tufte’s design classes at Yale. As it turns out, Tufte posted the image to his own blog (or blog-like complete mess of information. Surely, of all people, Tufte could have a more accessible design for his blog?).

Doesn’t it makes sense to convey chaos with chaos?

read comments (0)