Archives for September 2002
Google News is people! It’s people!
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What interests me, though, is the story these articles all seem to tell. Namely, that this could put reporters out of business. Today’s column by Howard Kurtz in the Washington Post is typical of the ink Google News has gotten:
Who needs reporters?
Why spend money on whiny, self-centered, 401(k)-obsessed human beings when you can produce a nice news Web site with quiet, easy-to-abuse computers?
That’s the thinking at Google.com, the popular search engine, which just rolled out a spiffy, up-to-the-minute page with hundreds of links to news stories — untouched by sweaty hands.
Which raises an intriguing question: Is news in the Net age just a bloodless compilation of electronic connections to global media outlets, allowing users to point-and-click their way to bleary-eyed nirvana? Or does it require sharp editing judgments, seasoned beat reporters, provocative columnists and a small dollop of personality?
What the hell is he talking about? It reads as though Kurtz didn’t visit the Google site. All it does is aggregate news from around the Web. You still need (and I dare say will always need at least until the advent of AI) reporters–whiny, sweaty or otherwise. I don’t see how Google is doing away with “seasoned beat reporters, provocative columnists [or] personality.” Yet this is what all the stories about Google News trumpet. The only people Google seems to be edging out are editors, and even they are somewhat indispensable.
Google’s feat of producing a neat, informative page that harnesses the full potential of the Web is a fantastic one. But people will still gravitate towards sites like Slate, Fox News, NRO, MSNBC, and the rest because they like a particular editorial slant and because readers have built a certain amount of goodwill and trust with these outlets.
In his article, Kurtz seems to end up at this conclusion, but only after first sounding the robot alarm. This is an alarm that we’re going to be hearing more and more often as computers begin to match humans in judgment. Some day my reporter friends will be liberated by robots. They will be free to stay home and write the great American novel instead of having to follow around congresscritters or whatnot. But not today.
Poor, poor Miami
So it turns out that the Census Bureau has declared my hometown of Miami the “poorest big city” in the nation. According to that agency, 28.5 percent of the population there is living in poverty. This figure did not jive with the reality I experienced living there for the first 23 years of my life. Something that also didn’t jive was the idea that Cuban immigration had anything to do with increasing poverty, as suggested by the Miami New Times–the city’s “alternative weekly.” Being half-Cuban, I’m acutely aware that Cubans did nothing if not turn metropolitan Miami into an international center of trade and prosperity from the swamp it once was.
Then I realized (and I’m not sure too many other people have) that it is the City of Miami they are talking about. Not Miami. Allow me to explain.
What most people think of when they think of Miami is Miami-Dade County; the huge metropolis of almost 2.5 million people that is larger in area than Rhode Island or Delaware. This is the Miami that includes Miami Beach and the Everglades. Miami-Dade County has a mayor and a commission that are the truly powerful regional government. It is then divided up into “cities” like Miami Beach, Hialeah, Homestead, Coral Gables, North Miami, South Miami, West Miami, Miami Lakes, Miami Shores, etc.
The City of Miami is one of those municipalities and has a population of 362,470. Granted the City of Miami includes Downtown Miami and the skyline we all now and love, but the calculation the Census has used is akin to only taking Southeast Washington into consideration when tallying the poverty of D.C. Additionally, government-calculated poverty lines often mean little. So no, Miami is not the poorest big city in the nation.
The boy with the thorn in his side
There is a wonderfully keen and honest look at Morrissey’s career in the Independent. The author focuses on the last six years, during which time Morrissey hasn’t released any new material. The article catalogs Moz’s stumblings since his apogee, but concludes that somehow he’s still loved. Check out the piece to see why–although having matured considerably and toned down any fixation–some of us are fascinated by the quiffed one.Cheney, the GAO, and Iraq
Remember Dick Cheney wouldn’t turn over some papers to the GAO? Soon after taking office, the President had Cheney chair a National Energy Policy Development Group, which came out with its report in May of last year. After Enron imploded, it surfaced that its officers had met with Cheney and his commission. So, the GAO wanted to know who Cheney met with and what they talked about.Since then, Cheney has refused to turn over any information. The White House hasn’t exercised executive privilege and has told the GAO to go get a subpoena if they’re serious. Of course, they can’t do that without the approval of the Republican-controlled House. The end-result: Comptroller General David Walker has taken Cheney to federal court, and according to the New York Times, the case was argued yesterday before a Bush appointee.
So what does this have to do with anything? Well, it occurred to me that maybe the reason Cheney and the gang are so adamant about keeping the meeting records to themselves has nothing to do with Enron. Instead, it might have to do with the war. The commission’s report made recommendations for U.S. foreign policy such as, “The NEPD Group recommends that the President make energy security a priority of our trade and foreign policy.” Here’s some more from the Cheney report:
By 2020, Gulf oil producers are projected to supply between 54 and 67 percent of the world’s oil. Thus, the global economy will almost certainly continue to depend on the supply of oil from Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) members, particularly in the Gulf. This region will remain vital to U.S. interests. … By any estimation, Middle East oil producers will remain central to world oil security. The Gulf will be a primary focus of U.S.international energy policy, but our engagement will be global, spotlighting existing and emerging regions that will have a major impact on the global energy balance.
Existing and emerging regions? Can anyone say Iraq?
What blogging should be…
…but rarely is: The Washington Post’s Web site has posted a sorta-blog-thing of streaming dispatches from their reporters around town covering today’s “anti-capitalist protests.” Pretty neat.Besides the more visible police presence–evinced by helicopters, frequent sirens, and paddy wagons all over the place–the day’s been pretty quite. Apparently, the largest arrest happened a few blocks from my place at McPherson Square where the protestors broke a window at a Citibank branch. That’ll stop the capitalists!!
I guess that after the Seattle surprise of 1999, the cops figured out they couldn’t play around, and have increasingly made things uncomfortable for these thugs. One thing is protest and quite another is stupid vandalism.
Why we’re going to war…
…and why Russia, China and France will soon fall in line, too:Iraq has yet another key attraction for US oil strategists: Whereas most of Saudi Arabia’s major fields have already been explored and claimed, Iraq possesses vast areas of promising but unexplored hydrocarbon potential. These fields may harbor the world’s largest remaining reservoir of unmapped and unclaimed petroleum–far exceeding the untapped fields in Alaska, Africa and the Caspian. Whoever gains possession of these fields will exercise enormous influence over the global energy markets of the twenty-first century.
From a good explanatory article in The Nation.
Ron Paul is a depressing patriot
Today Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.) spoke at my school. It’s amazing that I could actually like a politician. The guy has principles (namely the Constitution’s) and he sticks by them. Unfortunately, this seems to make him irrelevant in Congress.He talked about the state of liberty since 9/11 and he wasn’t optimistic. He said that for years some Republicans and civil-liberties-minded Democrats in the House had successfully slowed down–certainly not stopped or reversed–the erosion of our Constitutional liberties. They did this by resisting “know your customer” banking legislation and refusing to fund the development of a national ID or a national medical database, among other things.
But 9/11 changed all that, he said. Since then the statist powers-that-be have gotten everything they ever wanted, very quickly and in the name of homeland security. Much of it in the form of the PATRIOT Act. Rather than looking at our own failings to learn why 9/11 happened–failings in foreign policy, intelligence gathering, law enforcement–they simply rushed to give more power to the state.
What’s worse, he feels Congress has totally capitulated to the executive and is now poised to relinquish to it its constitutional war-making power. He’s afraid that once the imperial machine gets going, the draft may even be reinstituted. I’m afraid too.
Bush’s logic succinctly stated
From The Onion’s “What do you think?” section:“It’s clear to me that nothing short of war will stop Iraq from using its weapons.” -John Englund, Software Developer
U.S. troops at Iran border just hanging out?
Reuters reports today that U.S. troops in Afghanistan have begun to set up camp near the Iranian border. Call me paranoid, but this begins to turn into reality my pal Chuck Pe–a’s prediction that after the U.S. is done with Iraq, Iran would be next. Having already occupied Afghanistan, once Iraq is also occupied (and it’s a forgone conclusion) the U.S. could easily squeeze Iran from each side.
According to the report, “20 U.S. troops in armored personnel carriers were now based in the town of Doupushta near the border post of Islam Qala” and they were asking to buy land.
South Dakota: Legal pioneer state?
The New York Times has a nice piece today on the proposed South Dakota jury nullification law that voters will decide on this November. Basically, it’ll let defendants in criminal cases admit to doing what the law makes illegal, but still allow juries to let them go free.Why is this a good thing? Well, there are two types of cases that could benefit from this. First are people who technically did illegal things, but sending them to jail would be an injustice. The article gives examples:
Among recent misguided prosecutions in South Dakota, Mr. Newland said, were those of a man convicted of cruelty to animals for using his cane to fend off an attacking dog, and parents convicted of child pornography after taking pictures of their toddler in the tub. He said these people were guilty under the letter of the law but should have been able to argue to the jury that the laws in question made no sense.
The second type are folks who did exactly what the law intended to prohibit, but that thing shouldn’t be illegal. Smoking marijuana and owning guns are two examples that come to mind.
If you recoil at the thought of having juries asses the law as well as the facts in a case, then consider how you would vote if you were on a jury? Would you cast a vote to send an 18-year-old straight-A student to a federal prison for 25 years even if in fact he did posses Marijuana and offer to sell some to a friend? Would you cavalierly ruin that life because the law says so? Maybe there should be an escape valve.
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This is the personal site of Jerry Brito, a lawyer and writer in Washington, D.C. He’s an academic researcher and the creator of Unclutterer and several other blogs. More »
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