Bill's Big Diamond Blog

Docs at STF—Political Journalism with Punch

As I scan through my mail, I would like to pass on listings about upcoming screenings for New York readers interested in documentary films that resonate over time. The Stranger Than Fiction series at the IFC in Greenwich Village includes:

The Selling of the Pentagon, a CBS documentary that Academy Award winner Peter Davis made in 1971 about the intertwining relationships between military contractors and the Defense Department. As the ad copy prompts, “Ahhh, for the days when a documentary could be controversial enough to warrant a Congressional investigation…” (May 6 at 8 PM)

Also coming to STF is The Agronomist, by Jonathan Demme. This film is about the courageous Haitian radio journalist, Jean Dominque. (May 27)

Indy Star Politics

On the third day of my Indiana sojourn, I’m looking for what makes political news here. Today, some tidbits from the Indianapolis Star:

Indiana rated 49th out of the 50 states in a Forbes America’s Greenest States ranking. Only coal-mining West Virginia was lower. Wonder what that means to primary voters?

Both Democratic candidates met over the past week with the editorial board of the Indy Star, both getting good marks and eschewing the negative campaigning that marked the Pennsylvania and other primaries. Video is available here at the Indy Star site (I deleted these video links, since they play together and incessantly).

(deleted videos were here)

The Star backs the Supreme Court’s decision upholding the state’s Voter ID Law. Big surprise— their primary is next week and the decision clears Indiana’s status as a battleground state a bit more.

The Democratic campaign takes 50% of the front page again, reinforcing the way most Hoosiers seem to regard their primary as significant and their vote as more meaningful than past elections. 90,000 early ballots have already been filed.

Indiana ID Law Upheld/ Hoosiers Will Test Gas v. Environment

Indiana’s Voter ID Law will be in effect for the upcoming primary here. The possibility of a number of poor, older, and minority voters being unable to vote or being discouraged from going to the polls without a holding a current driver’s license or passport here may be significant in a tight race for the Democratic primary. (See earlier post on the possible suppression effects of voter ID laws)

Another significant issue in Indiana is that Hillary Clinton is now joining with John McCain in calling for a gas tax holiday this summer, in an effort to persuade voters that they should be able to drive as much as they’re used to in tough economic times. Whether most voters care as much about the environmental consequences of such a policy as they do about their wallets is doubtful. (One of my Hoosier hosts paid $60 for a fill-up yesterday.)

Barack Obama is risking the high road at a moment when Clinton sees an opportunity in portraying him as an elitist. Interesting… and would be worth some coverage in a general election campaign— if Obama ends up running against ‘straight talk’ McCain. McCain claims to understand that global warming is a serious issue, despite a number of energy policies that look a lot like the Bush Administration’s.

What, if anything, will Al Gore have to say about the gas tax holiday as a campaign issue? Global warming has yet to surface in this race as a serious issue, despite polls showing Democrats and Independents view it as significant…

(see Memeorandum for discussion)

Indiana Enthusiasm for Democratic Primary

Arriving in Indianapolis this morning, I asked the rental car van driver whether the primary was taking a prominent place in the news here.

“It’s the only thing on the news, pretty much every day,” he said.

I wondered if Indiana folks were getting as tired of the Democratic race as most of the country. Apparently, they aren’t.

“I can’t remember an election in which we mattered before,” the young man mused. “Usually, Indiana turns red about five minutes after seven on election night and that’s it. Now, we have people stopping by my sister’s place to make sure everyone knows about early voting and how to do it. It’s good to know we’ll have some say in what happens.”

NY Times on Battle to Close Arabic Language Program

Today’s NYT carries a major piece by Andrea Elliott about the hatchet job done on Debbie Almontaser and the Khalil Gibran International Academy, an attempt to teach Arabic in the New York City school system.

Daniel Pipes, Rudy Giuliani’s Middle East policy advisor and head of the neoconservative Middle East Forum, figures heavily in the story’s description of the PR campaign to fire Almontaser and brand her as a fundamentalist.

Ultimately, Mayor Bloomberg caved in and demanded Almontaser’s resignation after a NY Post article apparently twisted Amontaser’s words to associate her with the Palestinian intifada. Soon thereafter, the Mayor’s office made the following deal:

… in exchange for her resignation, the school
would still open, and she would remain employed.
She resigned the next day, taking an administrative
job at the Education Department. She kept her
principal’s salary of $120,000.

On his radio program, Mayor Bloomberg
announced that Ms. Almontaser had “submitted
her resignation,” which “was nice of her to do.”

“She’s certainly not a terrorist,” he said, adding that
she was not “all that media savvy maybe.”

Three days later, Ms. Almontaser was replaced by
an interim principal, Danielle Salzberg, who is
Jewish and speaks no Arabic.

The school opened in chaos and in an atmosphere in which Arab students have frequently been harassed and taunted. Meanwhile, Pipes’ organization, the Stop the Madrassa Coalition, has lobbied for the school’s closure.

The Bell Verdicts

It’s hard to find the words for the sweeping nature of the Bell verdicts.

Several black men celebrating an upcoming wedding with a batchelor party are followed from a strip club. In the middle of the night, they go to their car. Plain-clothed police then box in the car with an unmarked police van. Police suspect the men may be going to the car for a gun. One plain clothed officer raises his own gun towards the car. The car lurches towards the officer, glancing him.

Police fire fifty bullets into the car, while none are fired out of the car at police. The driver is killed, while others are seriously wounded. There’s doubt that the police identify themselves, certainly great doubt that the men in the vehicle actually know that the armed men confronting them are police. One of the police officers stops in the midst of emptying 31 shots into the vehicle to reload, then continues firing.

No gun is found in the vehicle. No crime, save the reported high blood alcohol level of the deceased, is found to be committed. The officers, who are allowed two alcoholic drinks as undercovers, are never tested for their blood alcohol.

No crime?

It's hard to find the words for the process that follows from these events, the police questioning scores of associates of the victims, frantically searching for a gun, any gun that might be the missing, neverfound gun, while families grieve their loss.

It's hard to find the words for the lack of a special prosecutor, for the days that follow the shooting without an initial interview of the officers, for the coverage of the victims as criminals, for the portrayal of protest against the shooting as agitation.

Yes, it's hard to find the words.

May Sean Bell not have died in vain, one more black man gunned down in the night in New York City. There must be change in the way communities of color are policed, covered by our media, respected by our government. Let there be investigation, protest, civil suits. May we peel back the onion on how far we need to come in this city.

May the silence of this verdict not be the last word on these events. May there be some justice for Sean Bell— and some hope for his daughters to grow up knowing that their father didn't die in vain.

But now, there is a great sadness that fills the moment. It’s hard not to feel that the life of a young black man warrants no recourse, has no weight in the courts of this city.

(see Memeorandum, Race Wire, Village Voice, Brilliant at Breakfast, for discussion)

Wright on Moyers, Friday

For those who would like to know more about the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who we mostly are acquainted with through the 5-second “God damn America” sound bite that the North Carolina GOP and others want to play over and over and over, Bill Moyers will be interviewing him on his Journal tomorrow (Friday) night.

Might just be more interesting than a flag pin discussion…

EPA Cooking Science

The Union of Concerned Scientists released the results of an investigation at the EPA yesterday and the findings are extremely troubling. Even after the Administration was outed for having pressured scientists to make their studies conform to the Administration’s political ends, the practice continues to be rampant.

Here are the top findings:

– 889 scientists (60 percent) said they had personally experienced at least one instance of political interference in their work over the last five years.

– 394 scientists (31 percent) personally experienced frequent or occasional "statements by EPA officials that misrepresent scientists' findings."

– 285 scientists (22 percent) said they frequently or occasionally personally experienced "selective or incomplete use of data to justify a specific regulatory outcome."

– 224 scientists (17 percent) said they had been "directed to inappropriately exclude or alter technical information from an EPA scientific document."

– Of the 969 agency veterans with more than 10 years of EPA experience, 409 scientists (43 percent) said interference has occurred more often in the past five years than in the previous five-year period. Only 43 scientists (4 percent) said interference occurred less often.

– Hundreds of scientists reported being unable to openly express concerns about the EPA's work without fear of retaliation; 492 (31 percent) felt they could not speak candidly within the agency and 382 (24 percent) felt they could not do so outside the agency.

North Carolina GOP Starts Down the Willie Horton Road‚ Early

I thought this kind of thing wouldn’t start until after the summer. I also didn’t think a state Republican Party would have the chutzpah to put their official name on something this low and racially intense (I figured it would be the outside ‘Swift Boaters’ working this material). But this campaign seems to be headed towards the low road really early.

Welcome to North Carolina. Baton down the hatches, folks. We’re gonna have to endure a lot of this bilge over the coming months...

(See Memeorandum for discussion)

Urban Affairs Spectacular: Presidential Smackdown Coming Up

Now that we’ll be enduring at least another few weeks of the country’s most tiring primary battle since the “Survivor” series began, imagine this:

(dissolve to dreamy, out of focus look) The candidates for the Democratic nomination face off in a debate relating to cities, transportation, housing, and fair access to metropolitan resources. Both candidates agree that a discussion of these important issues will shine light on issues that impact voters throughout the country and that will make a difference in almost every area affecting our lives.

I know, I know, it won’t happen. Now it’s all about 3AM calls, lapel pins, favorite ministers, and Bosnian snipers. I just can’t help myself. Listening to WNYC's Andrea Bernstein reporting on an urban affairs proxy debate (not important enough for the candidates themselves) during the last couple of days just got me thinking about how wonderful it would be if we actually covered these issues as if they mattered more than bitter vs. tougher.

Meanwhile, listen at the link…

and imagine what it would be like if this was on the political agenda.