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03/25/2003 Archived Entry: "Where is Raed?"

On the Political Front:

The "Where is Raed?" blog purports to be from inside Baghdad. The consensus, backed by some evidence, is that Raed is real.

And while I'm speaking of insider views, the Kurdish perspective on the war is interesting. And North Korea still believes it will be invaded next. I expect Iran and Syria harbor similar fears.

Meanwhile, the domestic war on American civil liberties and constitutional rights continues. Just moments ago, the ACLU sent out this press release opposing the new airline passenger profiling system, CAPPS II, being developed by the government. It reads, in part, "CAPPS II...will use credit information and secret databases to assess your security risk level each time you fly.... Innocent people have already been stopped and banned from flying because their name appeared on government "no fly" lists. And most have been unable to clear their names once they were swept into the federal bureaucracy." I have my criticism of the ACLU but I applaud them as one of the few voices of courage and sanity on this issue.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that, "Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the Justice Department and FBI have dramatically increased the use of two little-known powers that allow authorities to tap telephones, seize bank and telephone records and obtain other information in counterterrorism investigations with no immediate court oversight." Bloomberg reports, "The U.S. Supreme Court refused to let civil liberties advocates challenge the government's expanded authority to conduct wiretapping and searches as part of terrorism investigations. The organizations had sought to appeal a decision allowing the government to get a secret court's permission to conduct surveillance even when the main purpose is law enforcement, not gathering foreign intelligence." Yep. The ACLU is looking good.

On the Personal Front:

The definition of Spring I use has nothing to do with a calendar: Spring arrives for me at the same instant there is no visible snow on the ground, and that day is approaching. A light rain came this afternoon, almost finishing the job of melting the snow. Now there is only one credible snowbank left, about a foot in height, sitting by an area of the house where neither sun nor rain penetrates. From the window that faces our gravel road, I see neighbors walking up and down, inspecting the streams that cross under them through culverts. The road is a corduroy one -- which means it was built by laying down logs and covering them with a gravel mixture that packs down into a hard surface. But the construction doesn't stand the test of weather well. It heaves with the cold, cracks with the melts, and washes away in heavy rain. I'll have to call my neighbor tomorrow and organize a "patrol." In Spring, she and I go up and down the mile-and-a-half of road that's "ours" and pick up the bottles, wrappers, cans, and other flotsam on the shoulders, usually thrown from the cars passing through. The grocery and hardware stores haven't put out bedding plants on the sidewalks yet but seed packets are being displayed everywhere. And the Canadian geese are honking in the sky every morning. Yep. Spring will be here any day now.

And I am officially turning off the war for the next several hours.

Best to all,
mac