Panama City Spin

UPDATED BELOW

The schizophrenic personality of Panama City Beach is evident in the Real Estate section of today's New York Times, right from the get-go. Using an unexpected simile, Julia Lawlor likens our distant eastern neighbor to a fashion model like one of these.

She writes --

Like a supermodel showing off her good side, Panama City Beach is not shy about flaunting its most valuable asset. “The World’s Most Beautiful Beaches,” boasts the sign at the end of Hathaway Bridge, which leads into the city.

But anyone driving through this resort on the Florida Panhandle can’t fail to notice the honky-tonk strip on the main drag, Thomas Drive: video arcades, body piercing shops, tattoo parlors, adult novelty shops, down-at-the-heels motels, vacant lots. [print version here]

Of course, city boosters don't market Panama City as an anorexic Victoria Beckham, much less a schizophrenic. They prefer to spin it as a 'town in transition' climbing the social ladder.

“We’re going from what used to be a blue-collar resort and sharing that with a higher-end customer,” said Bob Warren, president of the Panama City Beach Convention & Visitors Bureau.

The good news?

“Spring breakers are a lot better behaved,” said Patrick Pfeffer, who owns Club La Vela.

The bad news? Pfeffer actually boasts --

“You don’t see as much nudity and throwing TVs out of the windows.”

Huh. Imagine that.

It must be challenging to market Panama City as a "family resort" when the local papers are filled with news that a Panama City judge has dismissed over thirty felony and misdemeanor charges against the film-makers of the notorious "Girls Gone Wild" video. The video was filmed in 2003, presumably before Spring breakers cut back, some, on their nudity and TV smashing.

Allegations included charges that the film-makers turned their cameras on under-aged intoxicated Panama City female visitors. The judge dismissed the charges not because they might not be true, or that the video isn't disgusting; and not because the video isn't marketed with all sleazy tricks pioneered by The Video Professor.

No, she dismissed the charges on the grounds that Panama City cops were "intentionally misleading or reckless with the facts" when they applied for a search warrant to gather evidence.

That's not the kind of law enforcement behavior likely to be of much help to a beach town longing for Resort Respectability.

UPDATE
March 28, 2007

Hooking Freebies on Panama City Beach
Libby Copeland explores the aggressive commercial marketing that infects Panama City Beach every year at Spring Break. It's an "ocean of promotion" she says.

Word of the Day

Counterfactually (KOWN-ter-FAC-tu-ally). Adv. Root: "counter-factual" (which see).
Def. In a manner contrary to truth; outright lying; prevaricating.
Usage: as in --

The NYT, continuing to dominate coverage of the story, has ... Iraqi officials claiming, counterfactually, that “What has happened is not an insult or degradation,” and “There was no rush,” in attempts at damage control.

Dad, Please Phone Him

"Here we have a slacker son of a powerful patrician father who resolves unconscious Oedipal issues through inappropriate acting-out in foreign countries.
* * *
"To admit that he did wrong is to admit that he is not the man his daddy is, the one who fought in a war.

"Hey, we've all had issues with our dads. But do we need this many people to die so that one dude can look like a leader?
* * *
"It's time for 41 and 43 to work something out, and they can't do it by way of James Baker or Brent Scowcroft. Pick up the phone, old man, and tell 43 you love him dearly and it's time to think about sparing the lives of American soldiers, many of whom have sons, too."

-- Garrison Keillor, "Daddy Issues:
Our president is resolving unconscious
Oedipal obsessions by lashing out at
foreign countries -- and it's time
his father stepped in,"
Salon Jan. 3, 2007
[subscription or endure ads for a day
or see this re-post copy]

Man Overboard (Soon)

"Over the past 12 months, as optimism collided with reality, Mr. Bush increasingly found himself uneasy with General Casey’s strategy. And now, as the image of Saddam Hussein at the gallows recedes, Mr. Bush seems all but certain not only to reverse the strategy that General Casey championed, but also to accelerate the general’s departure from Iraq, according to senior military officials."

-- New York Times, Dec. 31, 2006

* * *

"In other words, if you say, I'm going to rely upon their judgment, the next question is, how good is their judgment; or is my judgment good enough to figure out whether or not they know what they're doing? And I'm going to tell you I've got great confidence in General John Abizaid and General George Casey. These are extraordinary men who understand the difficulties of the task, and understand there is a delicate relationship between self-sufficiency on the Iraqis' part, and U.S. presence."

-- TPM Cafe, "Bush Repeatedly Gushed
With Praise for General Casey,"Jan. 2 2007
(quoting George W. Bush, Sept. 15, 2006)

* * *

"Bush is a man paralyzed by a need to salvage his own historical legacy, a man so personally invested in a failed policy that he cannot allow himself to see it for what it is, much less fix it.
* * *
It's time to stop coming up with ways of providing Bush "political cover" for leaving Iraq; he doesn't want it. ... The only way significant change will occur is if Bush finds himself so politically isolated that those around him feel it necessary to stage some sort of intervention."

-- Iraq in a Nutshell, Anonymous Liberal at
Glenn Greenwald Jan. 2 2007

Ox-Bow Incident in Baghdad

"All a great, cowardly lie," he said violently. "All pose; empty, gutless pretense."

-- The Ox-Bow Incident (1940) by Walter Van Tilburg Clark, p. 300.

Riverbend, the erudite Baghdad blogger, has published a very angry article about the execution of Saddam Hussein. In it, she expresses a perspective that should disturb every American who holds out hope for eventual reconciliation in Iraq under the government that we largely created.

Riverbend's post is all the more revealing because, until now, she has been such an even-tempered, moderate and reasonable voice as she reports on the shifting, bloody ground that has become Iraq. And she is no supporter of Saddam.

But there is no moderation in Riverbend's post today. In a word, she sees the means and timing of Saddam's death as "a lynching."

Maliki has made the mistake of his life. His signature and unhidden glee at the whole execution, especially on the first day of Eid Al Adha (the Eid where millions of Muslims make a pilgrimage to Mecca), will only do more to damage his already tattered reputation. He's like a vulture in a suit (or a balding weasel). It's almost embarrassing. I kept expecting Muwafaq Al Rubaii to run over and wipe the drool from the corner of his mouth as he signed for the execution. Are these the people who represent the New Iraq? We're in so much more trouble than I ever thought.

And no- not the celebrations BBC are claiming. With the exception of a few areas, the streets are empty.
* * *
Muwafaq Al Rubai ... said he was "weak and frightened." Apparently, Rubai saw a different lynching because according to the video they leaked, [Saddam] didn't look frightened at all. His voice didn't shake and he refused to put on the black hood. He looked resigned to his fate, and during the heckling he looked as defiant as ever. (It's quite a contrast to Muhsin Abdul Hameed's public hysterics last year when the Americans raided his home.)

It's one thing to have militias participating in killings. This is allegedly the democracy the Americans flaunt. Is this how bloodthirsty and frightening we've become? Is this what Iraq stands for now? Executions? I'm sure the rest of the Arab countries will be impressed.

One of the most advanced countries in the world did not help to reconstruct Iraq, they didn't even help produce a decent constitution. They did, however, contribute nicely to a kangaroo court and a lynching. A lynching shall go down in history as America's biggest accomplishment in Iraq. So who's next? Who hangs for the hundreds of thousands who've died as a direct result of this war and occupation? Bush? Blair? Maliki? Jaffari? Allawi? Chalabi?

2006 has definitely been representative of Maliki and his government- killings like never before and a lynching to end it properly. Death and destruction everywhere. I'm so tired of all of this…

The videotape of Saddam's execution is widely available on the Internet, now. Those few Americans who speak Arabic and know the culture may want to see it to judge for themselves. Those who don't speak the language or understand the culture may want to watch it anyway, for reasons only a psychiatrist could explain, just as in their ignorance (and their pathologies) they also wanted to invade Iraq.

One thing is becoming clear: Saddam's execution has not helped to calm the insurgency or anti-American sentiments in Iraq. Indeed, the hostile reaction of many Iraqis explains, as John Burns and Marc Santora are reporting in today's New York Times, why "various American officials" are now said to be "assembling " a new "narrative account" implying Americans 'questioned' the "rush to hang Hussein."

Having captured Saddam Hussein, having imprisoned him in our own facilities, having been his gaoler, and having turned him over on short notice for execution to thugs whom Juan Cole says are now reported to be members of the "Shiite Mahdi Army," we want to disown the whole thing. As if a carefully constructed public relations "narrative" could wash the blood from our hands.

It's "all a great, cowardly lie."

Amplification Dept.

Chris Floyd - "CYA for the USA"

[A]]ll of it is a massive, panicky CYA job by American officials. However, through the heavy fog of this assemblage of spin, it seems fairly obvious what has really happened: the same group of dim-witted fools, ideological cranks and violent sectarians who have driven the whole misbegotten enterprise in Iraq came up with yet another plan that they thought was a great idea. But as always, it turned out to be a botched job that has made a hellish situation even worse.
* * *
Two things stand out in this story by Burns and Santora – or rather, two salient facts lurk behind the furious spin that the reporters have assembled. First, that despite all the protestations by U.S. officials here, it was the Americans who actually had the final say in letting the execution go forward. And second, the rank lawlessness of the execution is in fact a direct emulation of American "democracy" under the Unitary Executive Decidership of George W. Bush.
* * *
You must admit this is rich: Bush officials – creators of the special "military tribunals" for their special, made-up category of "enemy combatants" who can be jailed indefinitely without trial or charges or even killed, all at the arbitrary order of the omnipotent president – fretting over "due process" for Saddam Hussein. American citizens are no longer guaranteed due process – which is now solely in the Decider's gift – but we are to believe that Saddam's rights were uppermost in occupier's mind before his execution.

3,000 - and rising

The Pentagon confirmed today that the three thousandth U.S. soldier was killed in Iraq three days ago. His name was Dustin R. Donica, age 22, of Spring, Texas.

Cubbie's Outsourced Baggage

Bleeding Cubbie Blue is in Arizona. His bags are still in Chicago. The help he needs is sitting in India, repeating cliches from a manual in what is to them a second language -- English.

Where are The Yes Men when you need them?

Newspaper of Record?

How is it possible for Neil MacFarquhar to write an obituary of over 5,000 words in the New York Times (the self-proclaimed "newspaper of record") about Saddam Hussein without once -- not once! -- mentioning how his worst crimes were sponsored and paid for by the C.I.A, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and U.S. Defense Department?

• Nothing about who paid him in 1959 to try to assassinate Iraq's Prime Minister, Gen. Abd al-Karim Qasim.
• Not one word about who nurtured him during his long exile in Egypt.
  
• Not a word about who engineered the 1963 Ba'athist coup that brought him to power. ("We came to power on a CIA train," said the Ba'ath party secretary.")
  
• Nothing about who gave him the list of alleged socialists to be purged by assassination.
  
• Not a word about who supplied him with poison gas or who made sure he continued to receive it even after we knew it was being used against Kurd rebels. ("The Reagan White House killed the bill")
• Nothing about who bankrolled the Iraqi war against Iran.

Yes, Saddam was trash. But he was our trash. Why is the Times unable to admit it?

Amplification Dept.

As the group blog Never in Our Name points out, the U.S. propaganda machine corporate media almost uniformly whitewashes from the record American complicity in Saddam's criminal rise to power. The exception comes, as often is the case, from Robert Fisk of the UK Independent news.

More Amplification

We might have saved ourselves the trouble of writing the above piece if only we'd seen Chris Floyd's appropriately snarky take on Neil MacFarquhar's retched obituary. Here's an excerpt (but please read the whole thing):

People often write to Empire Burlesque in search of an answer to one of the great conundrums of these modern times, namely: "Why are the American people such suckers? * * * How could the American people be so ignorant and misinformed about what goes on in the world? How can they be so ignorant and misinformed of their own history, of the dirty deals done in their names for years on end? How can this be?"

* * * If you want to know precisely how the American people are kept deliberately ignorant, simply click on the link to this story in the nation's "newspaper of record," the journal which sets the standard for and largely determines the news agenda of the American press ... . There, in the stately pages of The New York Times, you will find some 5,200 words written by Neil MacFarquhar detailing the rise, reign and fall of the Iraqi dictator.
* * *
But what you will not find is any detail or examination whatsoever of the prominent, direct and continuing role the United States government played in bringing Saddam to power, maintaining him in office, underwriting his tyranny, and rewarding his aggression.

Oedipus Bush

"Now do you love me more, Mom?"

Oedipus complex:

[A] concept used in psychoanalysis, is a child's unconscious desire for the exclusive love of the parent of the opposite sex. This desire includes jealousy toward the parent of the same sex and the unconscious wish for that parent's death. * * * The Oedipal phase of development is commonly considered to last from the age of 21/2 to 6. During this period, children experience intense feelings--love and hate, yearning and jealousy, fear and anger--that produce emotional conflicts. Most people outgrow the Oedipal phase, but some mentally ill individuals have a strong Oedipus complex as adults.

Oedipus at War:

The term "oedipal" has fluttered around the younger Bush’s presidency from the beginning. Much has been made of the psychology behind the scene of the competitive son marching onto the battlefield his father had vacated, determined to win a war Dad walked away from. When the son raised his fist (symbolically) and cried out, “Mission accomplished!” it wasn’t just about the statue of Saddam being dismantled, ripped to ruins in the center of Baghdad. It was about (again symbolically) conquering his father.

'Shrub' Bush's Pathological Focus on Saddam:

"Shrub" Bush's developmentally immature and regressive obsession with Mr. Hussein seems to be part of an unfolding Oedipal drama. For him, the goal is to "defeat" the idealized father who "Shrub" was never able to measure up to and in whose footsteps "Shrub" seems to have assiduously sought to tread by defeating and destroying Mr. Hussein, someone his father was unable to vanquish. In this fashion, Mr. Bush hopes to win the Oedipal battle. Or as a colleague who is a socially committed, board certified psychiatrist, Dr. Carol Wolman, put it in "Diagnosing Dubya: Is the President Nuts?": "Dubya may be acting out a classical Oedipal drama - overcome Daddy to get Mommy. By deposing Saddam, when his father did not, he may want to prove himself more worthy of his mother's love. His rationale that he is avenging the [alleged] assassination attempt on George, Sr., may be a reaction formation - his way of hiding his true motive from himself." And I might add, to deny, suppress, and repress his own ambivalence and hostility toward his father.

Oedipus Rex:

Persuade me not, nor counsel give to show
That what I did was not the best to do.

Amplification Dept.

For Whom the Bell Tolls: Ten Top Ways The U.S. Enabled Saddam
Prof. Juan Cole reminds us why Saddam's execution had to be rushed.

Partners in Crime
Paul Rockwell's 2003 article fingering Saddam's criminal accomplices. Guess who.

Baghdad Burning: End of Another Year
Riverbend asks the eternal question: "Why make things worse by insisting on Saddam's execution now? Who gains if they hang Saddam? Iran, naturally, but who else? There is a real fear that this execution will be the final blow that will shatter Iraq. Some Sunni and Shia tribes have threatened to arm their members against the Americans if Saddam is executed. Iraqis in general are watching closely to see what happens next, and quietly preparing for the worst."

Robert Fisk: "A Dictator Created, Then Destroyed By America"

Who encouraged Saddam to invade Iran in 1980, which was the greatest war crime he has committed for it led to the deaths of a million and a half souls? And who sold him the components for the chemical weapons with which he drenched Iran and the Kurds? We did. No wonder the Americans, who controlled Saddam's weird trial, forbad any mention of this, his most obscene atrocity, in the charges against him. Could he not have been handed over to the Iranians for sentencing for this massive war crime? Of course not. Because that would also expose our culpability.

War Mongering

Senator Joe Lieberman (Likud - Conn.) today is beating the war drums against Iran.

Glenn Greenwald has his number:

What Sen. Lieberman's Op-Ed painfully and conclusively demonstrates is that the people who brought us Iraq are nowhere near done with their wretched work.

Amplification Dept.

Lieberman claims, "After speaking with our military commanders and soldiers there, I strongly believe that additional U.S. troops must be deployed to Baghdad and Anbar province... ." No names, of course. You have to take Lieberman's word for it, if you can somehow conclude his word is worth anything.

But the Associated Press has quite a few names, ranks and serial numbers:

Spc. Don Roberts, who was stationed in Baghdad in 2004, said the situation had gotten worse because of increasing violence between Shiites and Sunnis.

"I don't know what could help at this point," said Roberts, 22, of Paonia, Colo. "What would more guys do? We can't pick sides. It's almost like we have to watch them kill each other, then ask questions."

Based in Fort Lewis, Wash., the battalion is part of the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team of the 2nd Infantry Division. Deployed in June, its men were moved to Baghdad from Mosul in late November to relieve another Stryker battalion that had reached the end of its tour.

"Nothing's going to help. It's a religious war, and we're caught in the middle of it," said Sgt. Josh Keim, a native of Canton, Ohio, who is on his second tour in Iraq. "It's hard to be somewhere where there's no mission and we just drive around."

Capt. Matt James, commander of the battalion's Company B, was careful in how he described the unit's impact since arriving in Baghdad.

"The idea in calling us in was to make things better here, but it's very complicated and complex," he said.

But James said more troops in combat would likely not have the desired effect.

"The more guys we have training the Iraqi army the better," he said. "I would like to see a surge there."

During a recent interview, Lt. Gen. Nasier Abadi, deputy chief of staff for the Iraqi army, said that instead of sending more U.S. soldiers, Washington should focus on furnishing his men with better equipment.

"We are hoping 2007 will be the year of supplies," he said.

Some in the 5th Battalion don't think training will ever get the Iraqi forces up to American standards.

"They're never going to be as effective as us," said 1st Lt. Sean McCaffrey, 24, of Shelton, Conn. "They don't have enough training or equipment or expertise."

Billmon Hanging It Up?

There may be a couple of bloggers with keener insight into political affairs, although that's hard to believe; and it's conceivable a handful of bloggers out there somewhere may be better writers. But no one has combined the two quite like Billmon at his incomparable Whiskey Bar blog.

Today, he seems to be signaling that he's had it. Forever or, perhaps, just for this year. Let's hope for the latter.

All we can think to do now is watch the Billmon watchers in the comment section at Moon Over Alabama.

Holiday Candy

Better late than never -- our favorite Christmas present this year:

Available from Unemployed Philosophers Guild
or Acme Mercantile of Ann Arbor

The FDA disclosure on the package reads:

"Mints made in USA
Tin made in China"

End of the FEMA Line

Why Now? has the essence of the story:

"FEMA signed a contract for debris removal that pays $23/cubic yard, but by the time it went through multiple layers of subcontractors, the people who are actually removing the debris are making $3/cubic yard."

Read - "Corruption, Cronyism, & Incompetence."

Obama in Iowa

Via TPM, we find a remarkably perspicacious analysis of "Why Barack Obama can win the Iowa Caucuses", written by Douglas Burns of the Carroll, Iowa, Daily Times Herald.

Carroll, Iowa, is a nice western Iowa town that, unfortunately, is going nowhere. Douglas Burns is a terrific budding political analyst who ought to be going places very soon. Barack Obama will be on the national Democratic presidential ticket in '08, either at the top or in second place.

But rather than being reminded of JFK in 1960, as Ted Sorensen is quoted saying, we are reminded of the nail-biting convention vote for Vice-president in 1956 between senior senator Estes Kefauver and a young freshman upstart senator by the name of John F. Kennedy.

Only the result will be different. Remember, you heard it here first.

Wrap Rage

"Wrap rage: Injuring oneself by using a sharp object to try to open hard-to-open plastic packaging like the kind they sell cheap consumer electronics or household items in."

-- Urban Dictionary

Mackenzie Carpenter of the Pittsburg Post-Gazette sometimes is credited with coining the phrase " wrap rage". Others say it was the BBC, which reported more than 67,000 injuries in a single year by people trying to get at the goods once they brought them home.

Whoever came up with the phrase, it's an apt description for the usual consumer response to those clamshell plastic prisons and endless twisties in which everything from computer hard drives and cell phones to Barbie dolls and Dora books are imprisoned. As McClatchey's Jackie Crosby reported a couple of days ago, this is the scene nearly everyone has to face on Christmas morning:

The wrapping paper is in piles. The ribbons are in shreds. Now it's time to get out the heavy artillery: scissors, box cutters, screwdrivers, ice picks, sheet-metal shears, and perhaps a hacksaw or two for good measure.

Freeing the toys, electronics and other gifts of the holiday season from their bulletproof packaging can require the strength of Superman and patience of Job.

"You have to run around the house, find scissors, cut it open, then you hurt your fingers trying to pull it apart, then there's these twisty things you have to untwist, plus the batteries," said Cynthia Salone, 8, of Minneapolis, recalling a recent packaging battle. "It can take 10 minutes to open."
* * *
"It's very, very, very frustrating," said Ann Hunsaid, 76, a retired teacher from Minot, N.D. "Especially for someone like me who is used to simple packaging. I do not follow this new kind of thing."

Most of us assume that manufacturers who encase their products in packages that need a jackhammer to open do so to discourage theft. But there may be more to the story than that. As blogger Sarah Gilbert pointed out earlier this month, it also gives manufacturers control over marketing and display at the retail level.

Consumer Reports posits those two reasons, and more, in suggesting [subscription required to read the whole article] that increased clamshell packaging is due to these factors:

• Plastics. When plastic became cheaper than cardboard, about a decade ago, manufacturers were able to wrap goods in new ways. Many of those options proved harder to open than the cardboard box.
• Safety. Federal safety laws require seals that will show evidence of tampering, and child-safety caps on most over-the-counter drugs. That often makes them adult-proof, too, says Laura Bix, assistant professor of packaging at Michigan State University.
• Theft. Meanwhile, shoplifting losses at retail stores in the U.S. are an estimated $15 billion a year, according to Ernst & Young, leading to electronic tags and big, sealed packaging even for tiny items, so they can’t be pocketed.
• Overseas manufacturing. Products were once largely made in the U.S., but many are now made abroad and must withstand a long sea voyage in a cargo-ship container, says Chris Byrne, editor-at-large of Toys & Family Entertainment, a trade magazine. Rigid plastic containers excel at keeping everything in place.
• “Try me” packaging. Children are encouraged to touch and interact with playthings before buying them. This has led to the creation, for instance, of what might be called Prisoner Barbie--a doll with shackled accessories. They are easy to see but hard to steal, Byrne says.
  

Some suggest voting with our wallets to avoid the impenetrable clamshell. Others say that's hopeless, after three decades of federal prosecutors ignoring federal antitrust laws, too many products have little competition and none that doesn't conspire to adopt the same kind of clamshell packages.

We think the simplest, most effective way of ridding the planet of hard-to-open packages would be for one of the TV networks to launch a new reality show -- one where the CEOs of consumer products companies are put on a desert island and, to earn the right of return, they have to open their own products on camera, using only their bare hands, toes, and teeth.

Until then, we will have to be content with watching Stephen Colbert opening a new calculator: