i didn’t intend to spend much time on the documents released by the white house this week that were supposed to clear up the questions about where the united states stands when it comes to toture, but i stumbled into this, and just had to comment.
Q Is there any concern within the administration that now that you’ve released these details and that al Qaeda knows the limits of what they’ll be subjected to, that it might embolden al Qaeda, given the fact that you described them as — they’ll fight until the rest of their lives against America?
MR. HAYNES: I think I heard your question. The Judge already talked about the difficulty of this decision. And we’re fighting a war. And to disclose in such a public way exactly what we do, it is — it hinders us in some way. The enemy now knows what some of the limits are. There’s some value in having some uncertainty. But the decision is made, and sometimes you make tough decisions.
this was the last question – more than an hour-and-a-half into a press briefing.
so if i’m reading this answer by mr. william haynes correctly, it’s bad to convey the simple idea that “the united states does not torture prisoners” because we want the evildoers around the world to think that we might torture our prisoners, even though we would never do that because it’s unamerican?
maybe i’m completely out-of-sync on this international relations stuff, but wouldn’t it be better for us to take the high ground on this, make the simple statement, and stick to it? didn’t we sign some international agreements to that effect anyway? didn’t we have a good reason for doing that at the time?
despite the aministration invoking principles so often, i guess this particular principle is still elusive.
and, by the way… where are the documents from the department of state, the cia and the fbi in this big, unprecedented disclosure?
posted by roj at 5:33 am
unintended consequences?
according to a state department media note, persons residing in the united states on e, h, i, l, o, and p visas will be required to leave the country to renew their documents.
the note says this is because new visas require biometrics, and only foreign embassies will be equipped to handle that little feature in time for an october legislative deadline – i guess our domestic department of state offices around the country won’t be, unless, of course, you’re on an a, g or nato visa.
lots of letter mumbo-jumbo, so let me translate a bit for you:
you can stay here and get your new biometric visa if you are an ambassador or foreign official (a), or foreign government representative to an international organization (g), or to nato (nato).
on the other hand, you have to “go out and come back in to stay” if you are a treaty trader or investor (e), a temporary worker (h), media (i), an intracompany transferee (l), a worker with extraordinary ability (o), or an althlete or entertainer (p).
posted by roj at 4:47 am
in the continuing developments on drm, david weinberger pulled the cluetrain into microsoft and shares this with us…
so between the record labels spin and the outbreak of cluefulness in big places like microsoft, i suppose we’ve got the stage set for the ultimate battle for the future of our culture…
When it comes to creative works, we are not “consumers,” and we are not users. Rather we appropriate creative works, that is, we make them our own. We apply them to our own context.
posted by roj at 12:58 am
to follow up on a previous post here about the bush administrations trouble with counting, today we found out just how bad the counting problem is….
The administration said international terrorism killed 625 people last year, up from the 307 it reported on April 29 but below 2002’s 725 fatalities. It found 3,646 were wounded last year, above the 1,593 initially cited and the 2,013 in 2002.
3646/1593 = 2.29
625/307 = 2.04
ok, so missing half the fatalities and injuries isn’t as bad as it could be, i guess…
just keep the people that worked on this report away from the election this fall, mmmmmkay?
update (2004.06.24): a handy link to the revisions.
posted by roj at 5:02 am
this is, after all, what promoters are supposed to do…. 🙂
An online petition at www.draftbruce.com has been signed by about 50,000 people in 10 days since it was launched, Rasiej said, adding he had also reached out to acts such as REM, The Dave Matthews Band, Bob Dylan and Carlos Santana.
“When it gets to half a million or so I would formally try to deliver the petition to Bruce’s people directly,” he said.
unfortunately, the site seems to be down at the moment.
update: web has a count of 8339 now.
posted by roj at 12:35 pm
buried in an article about cd singles (which is worth noting, in light of the death of the album and ringtones-as-value, there’s a couple notes about copy-protection in germany… so to keep on the drm-crazy news cycle, here you go….
Universal is planning to phase out the sale of copy-protected CDs in Germany, where music piracy has hit the industry, following concerns that not all would play in some stereo systems.
It said it may re-introduce copy-protected CDs at a later date if and when the technology improved.
posted by roj at 8:50 am
a couple weeks ago, we learned that drinking milk (to excess) is punishable by dismissal in american high schools.
A North Carolina science teacher whose milk experiment brought complaints after some students drank milk until they threw up has been dismissed.
The Johnston County, N.C., school board voted 5-1 Tuesday to end Jeff Ferguson’s contract seven months after he was suspended over the experiment. Ferguson had taught chemistry and physics at Smithfield-Selma Senior High School for three years
on the other hand (and on the other side of the world), it’s ok to have students write apology letters in their own blood – as long as you apologize.
A Japanese teenager was forced by his teacher to write an apology in blood after dozing in the classroom, the school’s principal said on Monday.
…
He said the boy was back in school, and neither he nor his parents had asked to switch teachers. The teacher involved is expected to resume classes in a few days, Dan said.
hmmmm. i wonder what would happen if i had some kids test some oobleck armor in class….
[half of this from boingboing]
posted by roj at 3:58 am