Countdown

Feeling Safe in Scarborough Country?

Volume VII, No. 13
Posted on Tuesday April 4, 2006

Feeling Safe in Scarborough Country?

There are some who argue that 24-hour cable stations have lowered the quality of news programming—clogging the airwaves with self-proclaimed “experts” and misinformation. They must be watching MSNBC’s Scarborough Country. Last night, host Joe Scarborough and radio talk show host Michael Smerconish offered the American people their informed opinions on racial profiling. “As far as national security goes, you [Smerconish] also talk about the racial profiling, or lack thereof, when it comes to Arabs or Arab Americans,” said Scarborough. According to Smerconish, the government’s refusal to employ racial profiling at airports is evidence of a “limp-wristedness at home” that “has spilled over into the war on terror.” “When it comes to secondary screening with those—those critically few resources,” he added, “don‘t waste them on us. Don‘t waste them until guys like Scarborough and Smerconish are out there flying airplanes into the Twin Towers, which isn‘t going to happen.” Yeah, don’t waste precious resources on guys with names like Scarborough, Smerconish, or…McVeigh. Waste them on Arab Americans, you know, people with names like Generals John Abizaid (head of US Central Command in Iraq) or George Joulwan (former NATO Supreme Allied Commander). And don’t forget to share your new policy with the airport screeners who found a loaded gun in a child’s teddy bear and a nine-inch knife in the prosthetic leg of a 67-year-old man.

The Battle for Accountability

Former Commander of US Central Command General Anthony Zinni reinforced his reputation as a straight-talker with a recent appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press to discuss his new book, “The Battle for Peace.” Zinni praised the performance and dedication of US troops, saying, “They’ve been magnificent. If anything saves this, it will be them,” but criticized the Administration’s refusal to hold top officials accountable for failures. The retired general called specifically for the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who many feel has retained his position because of President George W. Bush’s renowned loyalty to his Cabinet. “Integrity and getting on with the mission and doing it right is more important than loyalty. Both are great traits, but integrity, honesty, and performance and competence have to outweigh, in this business, loyalty.” He also criticized Administration assertions that Saddam Hussein was not contained, calling it “an insult to the troops who, for 10 years, ran the containment: those brave pilots who flew the no-fly zones, those sailors who enforced the maritime intercept operations, our soldiers and Marines that were on the ground out there that responded to every crisis…”

An Offer You Can Refuse

Last week, in a vote that many saw as a referendum on the occupation, Israel’s newest party, Kadima—which promised to “set the final borders of the State of Israel”—achieved electoral victory, winning 29 seats (rather than the projected 30+) in the 120-seat Israeli Knesset. Kadima leader and Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Labor leader Amir Peretz (who received 19 seats) announced yesterday their plans to work together to form a ruling coalition. While they may have enough seats on the left to do so, some argue that Olmert will seek political cover by bringing in a group further to the right. One candidate is the ultra-Orthodox Shas Party, led by Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. Australia’s The Age reported that before the election Yosef had issued a religious ruling that ”’everyone must vote for Shas’”—or “be consigned to hell.” Readers may remember Yosef for comparison of Palestinians to “snakes and scorpions” who should “be destroyed” and his more recent pronouncement that Hurricane Katrina was retribution for American support of the Gaza pullout. He sounds like the Israeli version of Pat Robertson.

Pipes’ Dream

In the final installment of his Haaretz blog, “The Spin Cycle,” covering Israel’s elections, Bradley Burston took professional war-monger Daniel Pipes to task for his recent criticism that “not one of the leading parties offers the option of winning the war against the Palestinian Arabs.” “I suppose if I were living in, say, Philadelphia,” wrote Burston, “Dr. Pipes’ frustration, disappointment, and prescription for setting things right, might make perfect sense. In fact, a number of our readers who live in North America, some of whom regularly use the word coward to describe Israeli moderates, have any number of suggestions for us as well, up to and including the use of weapons of mass destruction on Palestinians, apparently in an effort to change their minds about us.” Israel Policy Forum’s MJ Rosenberg also commented on the phenomenon, citing a mock election conducted on American campuses. Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu and “parties considerably to his right won 64 Knesset seats…in contrast to the less than 50 seats won by the right in the actual elections…Needless to say, the American student activists who voted to sustain the occupation will not be joining their Israeli counterparts in patrolling the West Bank and staffing checkpoints.”

“The Lonesome Death of Rachel Corrie”

Upset by the New York Theater Company’s decision not to stage “My Name is Rachel Corrie,” British musician Billy Bragg has recorded a new song titled, “The Lonesome Death of Rachel Corrie.” Following is an excerpt from Rachel’s last e-mail, to her father: “One of the core members of our group has to leave tomorrow—and watching her say goodbye to people is making me realize how difficult it will be. People here can’t leave, so that complicates things. They also are pretty matter-of-fact about the fact that they don’t know if they will be alive when we come back here…Let me know if you have any ideas about what I should do with the rest of my life. I love you very much. If you want you can write to me as if I was on vacation at a camp on the big island of Hawaii learning to weave. One thing I do to make things easier here is to utterly retreat into fantasies that I am in a Hollywood movie or a sitcom starring Michael J. Fox. So feel free to make something up and I’ll be happy to play along. Much love Poppy.”