Quickies

Strap on your helmet. We'll be traveling pretty fast today.

Reaching Out to Citizens, Not Just the Usual Suspects. In an open letter to the new superintendant of the Cleveland Schools, the always-insightful Bill Callahan does a particularly fine job of explaining the difference between reaching out to the usual suspects in "the community" and staying in touch with average citizens, who will eventually be asked to vote on a school levy. Let's hope Mr. Sanders eventually reads this and reflects on its wisdom.

A Poetic Twist on Yet Another Plagiarism Scandal. NPR's On the Media, aired on Saturday afternoons, is one of the small jewels of the network. It can be lost amid all the larger, gaudier Hope diamonds (Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Fresh Air, etc.), but it's always worth tuning in. Last week's fill-in for co-host Bob Garfield, a fellow named Mike Pescas, had an inspired riff on the whole dreary Opal Mehta/Kaavya Viswanathan plagiarism story. He invited listeners to think of the affair as their ancestors in the Elizabeathan age might have: by putting it into perspective, and realizing that all writers borrow from others. Parts of her book, he argued, "had the unfortunate character of already having been written." He ended this way: "Eventually, plagiarists will be treated like hack comics. You can steal a joke, but not a career."

Cut and Run? You Bet. That's the headline on this piece in the new issue of Foreign Policy magazine, written by Lt. General William Odom. The subhead is similarly pointed: "Why America must get out of Iraq now." It closely echoes the message that Congressman Jack Murtha has been sharing with anyone who will listen, which is an increasing majority of the country. "In reality," he writes, "a civil war in Iraq began just weeks after U.S. forces toppled Saddam." As for the argument that withdrawal would undermine U.S. credibility around the world, he says, "were the United States a middling power, this case might hold some water. But for the world's only superpower, it's patently phoney. A rapid reversal of our present course in Iraq would improve U.S. credibility around the world." Interestingly, he seems to have some pretty serious conservative credentials. He's a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and was director of the now-infamous National Security Agency during the Reagan years. If you like to keep up on the world with well-written, authoritative reports, you might consider periodically adding FP's new blog to your reading list.

Jones Day is Everywhere You Want to Be. I was surprised--or on second thought, perhaps, not so surprised--to learn that our favorite hometown (well, sort of) corporate law firm has at least a tangential role in Lewis "Scooter" Libby's defense. The former Dick Cheney aide, dubbed "Dick Cheney's Dick Cheney," became the first White House staff member to be indicted in over a century. And today, the Washington Post reports that he's singing to prosecutors about Cheney's personal role in going after Joe Wilson and his wife, the CIA agent Valerie Plame. Anyway, according to this week's New York Observer, the Jones Day California office is part of Libby's far-flung, high-powered defense team. That couldn't perchance, be the L.A. office, where my friend Adele Eisner's daughter (Samantha) toils as a presumably overpaid young associate?

Santorum Nearly Toast? Some time ago, I mentioned an excellent New Yorker piece which examined the shifting politics of the abortion debate through the lense of the Pennsylvania Senate race. I'm thrilled to learn from The New Republic that the neanderthal incumbent, Rick Santorum, seems destined for a loss. TNR: "Even Republicans have privately started to refer to Santorum's campaign as a lost cause and are lobbying party leaders to shift money to more promising contests." We can only hope. I've written before about how the U.S. Senate, once home to enough old lions with safe seats and sufficiently high character to focus more on what's best for the country than partisan concerns (people like Pat Moynihan, Sam Nunn, George Mitchell, Bill Bradley and some others) has in recent years become a place filled with too many ignorant demagogues. These chuckleheads bring disgrace to the chamber where Daniel Webster and Abe Lincoln once spoke to our better nature, and Santorum is certainly high on that list, if not at the top. Let's keep our fingers crossed on this race, shall we?

Can this be the trade mag PR Week? I loved this Q&A with the infamous (at least in some circles) British muckraker Greg Palast. The walking quote machine wonderfully riffs about how U.S. papers shy away from investigative journalism, opting instead for the straightjacket of "acceptable discourse," as defined by elites. "Forget Watergate and Woodward and Bernstein; Woodward himself today would never, in a million years, as managing editor of The Washington Post, publish the Watergate story. It's official denial against an unnameable source. Forget it." Asked if he's ever thought of writing for U.S. outlets, he responds brightly: "Considered? That's the whole idea. I don't like being in journalistic exile. I don't like my words trying to swim across the Atlantic. They could drown..." But he's not holding his breath, either. Over the years, he's taken plenty of shots at the American media's timidity, and "when you pee on these outlets, they pee back."

And from an equally unexpected source, the ordinarily lame U.S. News & World Report, comes this powerful piece about how police across the country are using the post-9/11 atmophere to ramp up their spying. It's a deeply reported and well-written account, covering crucial ground I haven't seen covered anywhere else (most other outlets have their hands full just scrambling to keep track of the D.C.-based "security" outrages emanating from the federal government). Here are a few important highlights, but I urge you to read the entire piece, and perhaps share it with friends. "A U.S. News inquiry found that federal officials have funneled hundreds of millions of dollars into once discredited state and local police intelligence operations. Millions more have gone into building up regional law enforcement databases to unprecedented levels...Good or bad, intelligence gathering by local police departments is back...Among the changes: Since 9/11, the U.S. Dept. of Justice and Homeland Security have poured over a half-billion dollars into building up local and state police intelligence units reaching into nearly every state." Let's hope all serious media outlets keep close watch on this, along with the well-funded American Civil Liberties Union, which has been getting bogged down in other really pressing matters, like policing the internal dissent of its board members as they object to the latest outrage from this numbskull executive director, late of the Ford Foundation. Just kind of makes you shake your head...