More On Stephen Hatfill

From the Los Angeles Times:

The federal investigation into the deadly anthrax mailings of late 2001 was undermined by leaks and a premature fixation on a single suspect, according to investigators and scientists involved in the case.

More than six years after the mailings, no one has been charged, and the top suspect, former Army scientist Steven J. Hatfill was all but exonerated Friday when the U.S. Justice Department agreed to pay him $5.82 million to settle a lawsuit.

Five people died. As a protective measure, many had to take powerful antibiotics which sometimes cause rather serious side-effects. Post offices were shut down and had to be decontaminated. Throughout the country, folks were afraid of their mail. I watched for white powder myself for a while. Citizens were advised to communicate by email or phone and not to send mail to their representatives in Congress.

Behind the scenes, FBI agents chafed at their supervisors' obsession with Hatfill, who in 2002 was publicly identified by then-Atty. Gen. John D. Ashcroft as "a person of interest." The preoccupation with Hatfill persisted for years, long after investigators failed to turn up any evidence linking him to the mailings. Other potential suspects and leads were ignored or given insufficient attention, investigators said.

Hatfill's apartment was searched more than once, but the news media helicopters were overhead as the FBI arrived. Someone inside the agency had tipped them off. Twice it was suggested to Robert Mueller, the director of the FBI, that lie-detector tests be given within the agency to find the leakers, but he refused, saying it would be "bad for morale".

In addition to the searches, a caravan of FBI agents photographed and videotaped Hatfill seven days a week for months. An FBI employee drove over Hatfill's foot, prompting Washington, D.C., police to ticket him for "walking to create a hazard."

Media coverage of the 24-hour surveillance helped cement Hatfill's public image as a central figure in the investigation. The constant aspersions provoked a vehement response from Hatfill, who proclaimed his innocence in a sidewalk news conference.

We are spending $12 billion a month in our occupation of Iraq, a country which never attacked us, but we badly mishandle the investigation of a terrorist attack within our own country. And Osama bin Laden is still free.

Said Peter Setlow, a University of Connecticut biochemist who has served as a consultant to the FBI:

"They're not going to ever catch him until somebody confesses on their deathbed or something like that. You're not going to find a smoking gun."

The attempt, often successful, by the Bush maladministration to politicize virtually every agency of the federal government results in this sort of disastrous outcome. From the military, to the Justice Department, to FEMA, to the CIA, to the Centers for Disease Control, to the Veterans Administration, and on and on and on, Bush/Cheney and their minions have taken the country down a path to destruction. It will be decades before we recover from their depredations, if we ever do.

I commend the LA Times for excellent investigative reporting on the government's treatment of Stephen Hatfill and in exposing the FBI's dereliction of duty in not conducting a proper investigation of a terrorist attack. It wasn't the fault of the investigators; it was the leadership that failed us all. What does that do to morale in the agency? The entire article is worth a read.

Summer Hibernating

Movietime again! I watched "Good Night and Good Luck", the 1950s story of newsman Edward R. Murrow's clash with Senator Joe McCarthy, the commie-chaser. Excellent. It's startling to see all the cigarettes in the movie, but that's the way it was back then. Murrow went on the air with his cigarette! David Strathairn is terrific as Murrow. It's obvious that George Clooney made the movie with a passionate drive to get it right - and he does.
In those days the news producers had to answer for their content to the corporate sponsors of the shows, but could still make their own decisions. Today the corporations own the networks and cable channels and give the orders. Back in the day, Morrow thought the standards for TV news had fallen to a low point in catering to folks who want their news easy and entertaining. Surely, he's rolling his grave at the state of news gathering and producing today. I look back and see his era as a golden age.
Joe McCarthy of the House Un-American Activities Committee, which was investigating Communist infiltration into the US Government, ruined and intimidated a goodly number of people before his downfall, and to take him on was a huge risk for Murrow. The movie uses actual footage of McCarthy instead of an actor. To see his accusations and bullying questioning of Annie Lee Moss, a Pentagon communication worker, is stomach-turning. Poor lady. She looks terrified. Ray Wise is excellent in the role of Don Hollenback, a journalist at CBS, who is smeared with charges of being a pinko. You can see the fear in his face as he waits for the ax to fall.
I liked the jazz soundtrack with music by Diana Reeves and a jazz combo. Scenes from performances by Reeves and her group are interspersed between scenes of the movie.
Next up was "Pollock", a film about the artist, Jackson Pollock. Depressing beyond depressing. It's well-done, but a real downer. Does all art involve this much angst? I don't think so. Pollock was an alcoholic, and it's always grim to watch that kind of tale of destruction play out. Along with telling Pollack's story, the moviemakers try to give the viewer insight into the artistic process.
Ed Harris directed the movie and played the role of Pollock. He and Marcia Gay Harden, playing Pollock's wife, Lee Krasner, also an artist, both do fine work in their roles. Pollock gives Lee a hell of a time of it. Amy Madigan is outstanding in the role of Peggy Guggenheim, an early patron of Pollock.
I'll never look at Pollock's paintings in quite the same way after seeing the movie. The photo above shows the real Pollock at work in his later technique of drip painting. I love the moment in the movie when an interviewer asks him what his paintings mean. He looks pained and says, (not a direct quote) "Look at the grass and the birds. Can't people just look at things and enjoy them?"

I Thought You'd Like An Artist Joke

An artist had been working on a nude portrait for a long time. Every day, he was up early and worked late - bringing perfection with every stroke of his paint brush. As each day passed, he gained a better understanding of the female body and was able to really make his paintings shine.

After a month, the artist had become very weary from this non-stop effort and decided to take it easy for the day. Since his model had already shown up, he suggested they merely have a glass of wine and talk - since normally he preferred to do his painting in silence.

They talked for a few hours, getting to know each other better. Then as they were sipping their claret, the artist heard a car arriving outside. He jumped up and said, "Oh no! It's my wife! Quick, take off your clothes!"

Padre Mickey's Crew Respond To GAFCON

Padre Mickey and the Mr. Red Peanut Bank crew respond to GAFCON. This will whet your appetite for more:

Tune: Jesus Loves The Little Children

No one’s holier than we are
No one’s holier than we
Red, and Yellow, Black, and White
Unless you’re with us, you’re not right
No one in the Communion’s holier than we!

Ella Fitzgerald - Cry Me A River

Here's No. 3. Use your mind's eye to see Ella on this one, but you don't need to imagine the gorgeous voice and great style. There is an old video of Ella singing the song, but the picture and sound are of poor quality.

"On Being Spiritual And Religious "

Often, I hear folks say that they are spiritual, but not religious, or that they have a relationship with God, but that they don't need to go to church. Who am I to say that they are wrong? I won't say it. I'll simply say that would not work for me. I have a need to be anchored to a community. In my whole life, I have missed church for a total of perhaps three or four months.

I regularly receive the Abbey Letter from St. Gregory's Abbey, an Episcopal Benedictine monastery in Three Rivers, Michigan. Prior Aelred, who visits around and about in the blogosphere, is a member of the community. The following excerpt is from the abbot's message in the the most recent letter:

A decisive factor that led to my becoming religious as well as spiritual was a dissatisfaction with the eclectic approach. I reached a point where I realized that, in order for my spirituality to be centered, it had to be rooted in a particular religious tradition. My settling on Christianity, however, was not made with the sense that one choice was as good as another. At the time of decision, Christ, who very definitely willed certain things, such as fellowship with me, became very real to me. God’s grace and my choice to give myself to the particular Personhood of Christ were so inextricably entwined that there is no way I can separate one from the other. “Particular” is the key word here. The missing ingredient in spirituality without religion is particularity. Before this conversion, it seemed that believing in an impersonal “god”, whose manifestation on earth was not limited to one holy person, preserved my individuality. The irony is, that it is the making of particular choices in terms of friends, a community, and God that has enhanced my own particular individuality.

One of the particularities of Christianity is that the Holy Spirit makes spirituality religious by binding people and God together. The Holy Spirit is more than “the bond of love” between the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit is a Person who actively brings the Father and the Son together and also actively brings each one of us, in our own particularity, to the Father and the Son and to each other in that same bond of Love. That Holy Spirit inspires us to love everybody, not in general, but in particular. This does not mean that the Holy Spirit gives us the impossible task of relating personally with billions of people. Rather, the Holy Spirit inspires us to follow Jesus’ commandment to love our neighbors. Our neighbors are the particular people who happen to be present in our lives. With the Holy Spirit binding us together with God in this way, there is no room for binding together by way of collective violence. This is how the Holy Spirit makes religion spiritual.

Abbot Andrew in the Abbey Letter, Summer 2008, from St. Gregory's Abbey, Three Rivers, Michigan.

UPDATE: At the Episcopal Cafè, Mark Barrett speaks of "presence" in Benedictine life.

"Troubled Senators" Sponsor Bill

Everyone has this truth-is-stranger-than-fiction story, but I liked the Times-Picayune's "Troubled Senators" euphemism in the headline, and I wanted to share. In truth, they are troubled.

From the Times-Picayune:

U.S. Sens. David Vitter, R-La., and Larry Craig, R-Idaho, have signed on as co-sponsors of a proposed Marriage Protection Act that would amend the constitution to declare that marriage is a union between one man and one woman.
....

Some groups that support gay marriage charged that Vitter, whose number had appeared on the phone list for a Washington prostitution service, and Craig, who was arrested June 11, 2007, accused of lewd conduct in the men's bathroom at Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport, were engaging in hypocrisy.

The groups can't mean that. Hypocrisy is such a harsh word. "Troubled Senators" will do nicely. A touch of irony perhaps?

But Vitter, who has backed legislation against gay marriage since first being elected to the House in 1999, said he will not walk away from his beliefs.

"I strongly oppose attempts by liberal judges to redefine marriage, and so do a very large majority of Louisianans," Vitter said. "As I've said, I am deeply remorseful over having sinned in my past. But I don't think walking away from my beliefs is the way to make up for that."

He won't walk away from his beliefs. A stand-up kind of guy who demonstrates that he has backbone, don't you think?

In addition to Vitter and Craig, also co-sponsoring the proposed amendment are Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo.; Sam Brownback, R-Kan.; James Inhofe, R-Okla.; Pat Roberts, R-Kan.; Richard Shelby, R-Ala.; and John Thune, R-S.D.

All my faves are in the act.

Diana Krall - "Cry Me A River"

Here's my No. 2 version of "Cry Me a River". Can you tell I like this song? I like Diana Krall, too - a lot. Her backup musicians are excellent.

The North Pole Without Ice!

To get your weekend off to a cheery start, I give you this article from The Independent:

It seems unthinkable, but for the first time in human history, ice is on course to disappear entirely from the North Pole this year.

The disappearance of the Arctic sea ice, making it possible to reach the Pole sailing in a boat through open water, would be one of the most dramatic – and worrying – examples of the impact of global warming on the planet. Scientists say the ice at 90 degrees north may well have melted away by the summer.
....

If it happens, it raises the prospect of the Arctic nations being able to exploit the valuable oil and mineral deposits below these a bed which have until now been impossible to extract because of the thick sea ice above.

Yes, they'll plunder and pollute that area, too, to produce more of the oil and gas, the use of which contribute to further global warming. As I said in an email to Lapin, who sent me the link to the article, "Sometimes, I'm glad that I'm old. What kind of world will my children and grandchildren inhabit?"

Say That Again

Grover Norquist, a Republican strategist, referred to Barack Obama as "John Kerry with a tan". At present, the Republicans seem prone to stepping in it, don't they? They should watch where they walk.