Greg Mitchell's Blog, page 124

Friday Cat Blogging

An Internet tradition since 1854....   Zoe baffled by deer outside the window in the snow.

Louis the King

Terrific new piece at The New Yorker on new books and a play that reveal fresh dimensions about the racial politics--often criticized--of the most important American musical artist ever,  Louis Armstrong.   I've read much in the past, and have all the early, groundbreaking music, but this adds a lot to the picture of the mugging "Hello Dolly" figure of his later years.  That's my photo of Louis's very first boyhood horn, now in a museum in his native NOLA.  And here's his classic "Black and Blue."

You Can't Stop Miles O'Brien

Much reporting and good wishes went out yesterday to PBS NewsHour correspondent Miles O'Brien after word of an accident leading to the loss of one of his arms.  Just now got this release in my mail box, announcing his upcoming reports but nothing on the injury.

Friday, February 28         Inside Fukushima
Covered head to toe in protective gear and wearing a respiration mask, Miles O’Brien offers NewsHour viewers a rare look inside one of the most dangerous places on earth – the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.  There, he reports on on-going efforts to contain radiation-tainted water that continues to leak from the plant into the sea and efforts to remove and secure the nuclear fuel from the disabled reactors. 
Wednesday, March 5     Fish Fears
Radioactive water continues to leak from the Fukushima nuclear plant into the nearby harbor.  Now the plume of radioactive water is reaching across the Pacific to the US West Coast, fueling fears and speculation about the safety of Pacific fish. O’Brien speaks with marine scientists in both Japan and the US about the risks to sea life posed by the radioactive plume, and to what extent Americans who enjoy bluefin tuna from Japan should –or should not –be worried.
Friday, March 7                 The Future of Nuclear Power
Before the meltdown, Japan strongly embraced nuclear power.  But three years later, there is not one nuclear plant generating power in the country. Utilities and the current government are anxious to get them re-started by this summer.  But polls show that 80% of the Japanese people prefer they stay shut down forever.  O’Brien takes viewers inside the world’s largest nuclear power plant – also run by Tepco in Japan –to examine the technology and the issues facing the country’s nuclear future.

The Oak Ridge Prisoners--and the Guard

February 27:   Great piece at Wash Post on the three activists--and the security guard who failed to stop them at the outset and thereby lost his job. He has a new job but now relies on food stamps and checks from his mother. "Kirk’s arbitration is now set for April. He thinks the Energy Department owes him, not only for his decades of service but also for properly assessing a threat that was not his job to prevent in the first place, for not escalating a situation that was essentially harmless. He knew right away, from decades of experience, that the old lady and her accomplices weren’t terrorists. He looks at the government, seemingly immune from consequence."

February 18: I've covered this case of the peace activists who broke into part of the Oak Ridge nuclear facility in the past and you can catch up here, including history and commentary from William O'Rourke.  Sister Megan Rice, the elderly nun, was sentenced to nearly three years in the pen today and her two comrades nearly twice that. No need to point out the sentences handed down to criminals ranging from mass murdering soldiers in Iraq to Wall Street crooks.

Mystery Deepens in Death-by-FBI Linked to Boston Bomber

I covered long ago this mysterious death in Florida, at the hands of the FBI, as well as its link to the dead Boston Marathon bomber--and the link between both and an unsolved  triple murder in Waltham, Ma.  Now Boston Magazine has a major feature in its next issue by Susan Zalkind (collaborating with "This American Life").   It has just been posted online and here's an excerpt:

It would take 18 months and two homemade bombs before FBI investigators exhumed the case—and once they did, they were able to move with uncanny speed. It took them mere hours to link Tamerlan to the Waltham triple homicide. The day after Tamerlan was killed in a shootout with Watertown police, plainclothes FBI agents detained his friend, Ibragim Todashev, at gunpoint. Although the FBI seems to have initially been looking for evidence of a wider terrorist cell in connection with the marathon bombings, within weeks its agents were questioning Ibragim about the Waltham murders. According to the FBI, agents were able to bring Ibragim to the brink of a written confession by pressuring him with circumstantial evidence.

If you believe the FBI’s account, then you must also believe this: If Waltham police had figured out who hacked three men to death on September 11, 2011, there’s a good chance we would not be talking about the Boston Marathon bombings. Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Ibragim Todashev might be alive and in jail. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev might be just another mop-headed, no-name stoner at UMass Dartmouth. There would be no One Fund. Krystle Campbell, Lu Lingzi, and Martin Richard would still be alive. Sean Collier would have graduated from the MIT police department to the Somerville Police Department by now. And for the friends and family of the three men who died in Waltham, perhaps their grief would not still be paired with such haunting questions....

Anonymous FBI sources gave numerous accounts of Ibragim’s death to the press, managing to be both vague and contradictory. The agency claimed that, just before being shot, Ibragim had been sitting at a table, about to write a statement that would implicate both himself and Tamerlan in the Waltham murders. In some reports, he lunged at an FBI agent with a knife, while others said he used a pole or a broomstick. It was an agonizing development: The FBI claimed he had been killed at precisely the moment he was about to give the answers so many of us had been waiting for.

Whatever occurred in Ibragim’s apartment the night he was shot dead, his death put the FBI on the defensive. The agency quashed the coroner’s report, leading media outlets and the American Civil Liberties Union to call for an independent investigation. On its editorial page, the Globe declared that “the agency’s credibility is on the line” due to its lack of accountability in Ibragim’s death. Ibragim’s father accused the agency of “premeditated murder” and released photos of his son’s bullet-ridden corpse, showing that he’d been shot in the top of the head—even though the FBI contended that one of its agents had fired in self-defense. Instead of providing answers, the FBI’s investigation of Ibragim had turned into a sudden dead end.

Zim's Last Dinger

Oddly, for all my baseball fanaticism, and writing (see: "Joy in Mudville" etc.), I haven't spent much time at spring training.  One magazine assignment around 1980 took me to Vero Beach and Dodgertown, to interview former Yankees outfielder Roy White--then with the Yomuri Giants of Tokyo.  Got a chance to meet home run kind Sadaharu Oh, the team's manager, and had dinner with Roy.

Around the same time: Went to Miami to interview Earl Weaver and star pitcher (and underwear model) Jim Palmer for a big magazine story. Earl was talking about fellow manager Don Zimmer and I thought I'd shock Earl by telling him I'd seen Zim's final home run--at Hyde Park Stadium around 1968 after the Buffalo Bisons moved to my native Niagara Falls for a couple years due to rioting in Buffalo. 

 Zim was manager of the Bisons, I was covering the game (still in college) for the Niagara Falls Gazette, and fat old Zim had to activate himself for the game due to injuries to players. And he hits a dinger over the ancient brick wall! So I tell Weaver this and he just laughs. "That was against my team," he said, and I recalled he managed the Orioles' farm team in Rochester then. "And you know who he hit it off? PALMER." Then he nearly collapsed in laughter, as did I.

Giant Piece

NYT just posted upcoming piece in this Sunday's mag on new efforts to bring extinct creatures -- such as wooly mammoths (left in their cover art)--back to life.  Writer says this could be very, very, cool--or a disaster.  No kidding.  And can Wooly have it all?

Brewer Vetoes Bill

Live coverage on cable channels of Gov. Jan Brewer announcing decision on vetoing Arizona bill allowing businesses to refuse service to gays.  Brewer says she's given it strong consideration despite "cheers and boos from the crowd." Frames it in context of tough economic times out there and says no threat to religious liberties at present.  So she's already vetoed it.  Calls for taking opportunity to discuss treating everyone fairly.  Then disappears without taking questions.  Crowd outside shown cheering and people waving "Thank you, Gov. Brewer." 

Johnathan's Article (and Song)

Salon with a lengthy piece tonight by woman (now living in NYC but not using her real name)  who describes the final hours of an inmate named Johnathan on death row in Texas.  Good piece, and as some know, I've written two books against capital punishment, including this ebook.  But I was surprised she didn't mention that Steve Earle also witnessed that execution, at the request of Johnathan, has written about it in an essay--and wrote this song about it, titled "Over Yonder (Johnathan's Song)."

Judis Priests

Oh boy.  Ron Radosh attacks new John Judis book that's very critical of Israel and Leon Wieseltier, a colleague of Judis at The New Republic, sends Radosh a note going even further. 

I know with certainty that Judis’ understanding of Jewish history, and of the history and nature of Zionism, is shallow, derivative, tendentious, imprecise, and sometimes risibly inaccurate—he is a tourist in this subject. Like most tourists, he sees what he came to see...Remember Rosa Luxemburg’s letter to her friend in which she proudly announced that she had no corner of her heart for the Jews? Judis is her good disciple.

Peter Beinart tweets:  "john judis is an old, dear friend of mine. don't agree w/ him on everything but will stand w/ him when unfairly attacked."  Andrew Sullivan hits Wieseltier here.  Jacob Heilbrunn does much the same.

Judis has now replied himself in piece at The New Republic titled Conservative Critics Say My New Israel Book Is Anti-Semitic. They Must Not Have Read It Very Closely.