Words Matter

Several days ago, contributor P. D. Pepe brought to our attention a forensic examination by Christopher Ketchum, published in the New Republic, of a series of plagiarisms committed by Chris Hedges, formerly a Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter & now an independent "journalist."

Not having read the Ketchum piece, I noted that it is now pretty easy to inadvertently plagiarize another's work. A good deal of research is cutting & pasting original or secondary sources, then using those sources to illustrate whatever you're writing about, & attributing the ideas and/or language to the original sources where you've used their material. Even if you use your own language, & it it quite different from the way your source expressed it, you still attribute the idea to him/her, & you cite book & page where the author expressed that idea.

So if Akhilleus writes that Bill Kristol is a "walking, talking cartoon," Since Akhilleus is a pseudonym, I might write, "One of my contributors likened Kristol to a cartoon," & I'd link the Reality Chex page where Akhilleus wrote the comment. I only "copied" one word of Akhilleus's piece & obviously it isn't necessary to footnote that, but what I lifted was his idea.

Nonetheless, since standard writing is, well, standard, it is sometimes difficult to tell your own work from something someone else has written. Over time, I might forget that it wasn't my original idea that Kristol was a cartoon character, & I might fail to attribute the idea to Akhilleus. I might even write, "Kristol is a walking, talking cartoon." That's a standard English sentence that lifts Akhilleus's original phrase, & I could easily forget it was not of my own making. It sounds like something I would say or write. Akhilleus could either call me out on it or let it go & take it as the highest form of flattery.

However, since reading the Ketchum piece, I've learned that lifting a phrase or two is not what Hedges did. Some of the incidences of Hedges' plagiarism are indefensible. They had to have been intentional. To make matters much worse, he clearly lied about how he came to include extensive passages from the work of another writer. In the most egregious -- and most obvious -- case Ketchum cited, Hedges pretended that he had conducted interviews that a Philadelphia Inquirer reporter had in fact conducted & previously published. Hedges copied the Inquirer reporter & his interviewees almost verbatim. You cannot forget that you never sought out or spoke to or even met the people somebody else interviewed. When confronted by a Harper's editor, Hedges alleged that the Inquirer reporter told Hedges it was A-okay to lift his original reporting without attribution. This is not even plausible, & Matt Katz, the Inquirer reporter, of course denied it. No reporter, nor his paper, would permit such a thing.

In another case, which is sort of funny & tremendously audacious, Hedges lifted a few sentences from Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms. Since the novel is often required reading in college American lit classes, some readers were certain to catch Hedges on this. In addition, Hemingway's novelistic style is not standard English, & a writer would know, in rereading & editing his own work, that he was not the author of the Hemingway stuff. Hemingway writing contents notwithstanding, nobody else really writes like Hemingway. (In fact, that's the point of Hemingway writing contests.)

At this point, I would say the only reason to read Hedges is to find out what other people are saying. Were I an editor or a publisher, I would not accept any material from Hedges. He should be toast. The fact that publications -- including the Nation -- are still willing to defend Hedges & accept his work is disturbing. ...

     ... Update: Hedges responds to Ketchum's New Republic piece in a statement published by TNR. Ketchum & the New Republic respond to Hedges' statement. If you read the original article & the newly-linked responses, I think you'll come down on the side of TNR. Hedges' response does not comport with what multiple sources told Ketchum & others. This doesn't seem to be a case of he-said/he-said. I think Ketchum made his case, especially on the worst incidents.

P.S. On the subject of words, see also Jeff Shesol's post on Justice Scalia's crafty manipulations of the meaning of words, linked in today's Commentariat. I knew Elena Kagan would be a smart jurist. (I'm still not sure she'll be a smart liberal jurist.) It looks as if Nino has met his match. No wonder he pouts all the time.

The Commentariat -- June 18, 2014

NEW. Ha! Mario Trujillo of the Hill: "The Washington Redskins' logo is disparaging and its trademark must be cancelled, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office wrote in a ruling Wednesday. The Redskins will continue to be able to use the name, but the team will not have all the legal benefits afforded to it when it is registered with the federal government.... The team can appeal the decision in court as it did in the past, and the trademarks will remain registered until after the review. The office made a similar ruling in 1992, but the U.S District Court for the District of Columbia reversed the board's decision after a lengthy litigation process in 2003. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) cheered the decision, going to the Senate floor to call for the team and its owner, Daniel Snyder, to end its use of the 'racist' name." Thanks to James S. for the link.

Mark Landler & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "President Obama is considering a targeted, highly selective campaign of airstrikes against Sunni militants in Iraq similar to counterterrorism operations in Yemen, rather than the widespread bombardment of an air war, a senior administration official said on Tuesday." ...

... The Worst People in the World -- Who Should Know to STFU -- Critique the "Obama Doctrine." Dick Cheney & Liz Cheney, in a Wall Street Journal op-ed: "Rarely has a U.S. president been so wrong about so much at the expense of so many." If the Cheneys have no shame, you still would think even the editors of the WSJ opinion pages would know better.

... Katrina Vanden Heuvel, in the Washington Post: "Obama, himself 'right' on Iraq during the war's run-up, is also right today to resist calls for direct U.S. military action -- including airstrikes -- in Iraq.... Experience and history have (clearly) taught us that there is no military solution in Iraq. Only a political reconciliation can quell the unrest, and this requires more than bellicose calls for violence from 5,000 miles away." Vanden Heuvel is still knocking David Brooks. (See video & comments in the June 16 Commentariat.) Also, the major media for inviting neocons & other war hawks (McCain, Graham) to speak about the current crisis. ...

... Michael Tomasky of the Daily Beast: "Joe Biden’s old suggestion about making three countries out of Iraq may or may not be the best solution here, but it sure doesn't look crazy now, even though he was sneeringly pooh-poohed by the people who swore that the war would lead to a garden of multiplying democracies." (Column also linked below.) ...

... Zeke Miller of Time: "Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to step aside from his country as it gallops furiously toward civil war."

David Kirkpatrick & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "United States commandos have captured the suspected leader of the 2012 attack on the United States mission in Benghazi, Libya, that killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, White House and Pentagon officials said Tuesday. Apprehension of the suspect, Ahmed Abu Khattala, is a major breakthrough in the nearly two-year-old investigation into the attack, which also killed three other Americans, just two months before the presidential election in the United States." CW: Obviously, this is an Obama-led conspiracy to influence the midterm elections, which are coming up in a mere 4-1/2 months. Those commandos are Democratic stooges. * ...

... The Washington Post story, by Karen DeYoung & others, is here. (The Post broke the story.) ...

... David Kirkpatrick: Abu Khattala's "apprehension by United States military commandos and law enforcement agents may finally begin to address some of the persistent questions about who carried out the attack and why. Those questions have spawned a small industry of conspiracy theories, political scandals, talk radio broadcasts, and a continuing congressional investigation. Despite extensive speculation about the role of Al Qaeda in directing the attack in Libya, Mr. Abu Khattala is a local Islamist militant, with no known connections to international terrorist groups, according to American officials briefed on the criminal investigation and intelligence reporting, as well as other Benghazi Islamists who know him." CW: Oh. A broader conspiracy than I realized: it appears criminal investigators & intelligence officers are in the bag for Obama, too. ...

... Scott Wilson of the Washington Post: "The weekend capture of Ahmed Abu Khattala, one of the suspected ringleaders of the Sept. 11, 2012, assaults on a U.S. diplomatic compound and a CIA-run annex, gives Obama another I-told-you-so moment in Washington's scorekeeping culture. But the achievement is likely to do little to tamp down the partisan fervor surrounding the administration's public management of the deadly Benghazi attacks.... Within hours of the news that Abu Khattala had been captured, congressional Republicans congratulated the U.S. military, if not the White House. But the partisan concern shifted quickly to the questions of where Abu Khattala would be held, at a time when Obama is seeking to shutter the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and whether the president would extend legal protections given to civilians charged with crimes. The answers from the administration -- no to Guantanamo, yes to due process -- disappointed some prominent conservatives":

Obviously, he should be put on trial. I'd bring him to Guantanamo. Where else can you take him to? -- Sen. John McCain (R-Az.)

Holding Khattala on a ship shows the haphazard approach which comes from not having rational detention & interrogation policies. Naval vessels were never meant to be detention and interrogation sites. -- Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)

Nor was Cuba. -- Tommy Vietor, former Obama aide & current Hillary Clinton advisor

You know who else kept detainees on ships? George W. Bush. -- Steve M.

Oh for God's sake. With all of these terrorists, we've had four or five convictions in military courts. We've had several hundred convictions in federal courts. Do the math. -- Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.)

* Update: Glad we nabbed a #Benghazi suspect, but the timing is questionable. Did they let him wander, waiting for the perfect political opportunity? -- Former Rep. Joe Walsh (RTP-Ill.) ...

... BECAUSE ... it's important to remember, he wasn't really hiding. -- Rory Cooper, aide to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor

... Jonathan Chait: "Khattala, reports the New York Times,'"told both fellow Islamist fighters and others that the attack in Benghazi was retaliation for the same insulting video, according to people who heard him.' He's part of the cover-up." CW: So it's a pretty vast conspiracy. ...

... OF COURSE Hillary is part of the vast left-wing conspiracy. Evan McMurry of Mediaite: "A couple co-hosts from Fox's Outnumbered Tuesday reacted to the apprehension of Ahmed Abu Khattala ... by wondering about the timing of the capture given former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's book tour and interview with Fox's Bret Baier later this evening." See? She's even sabotaging Fox "News" AND/OR boosting her book tour. ...

     ... CW: I'm pretty sure that using U.S. commandos & the FBI to help Hillary sell more books is an impeachable offense.

... Jed Lewison of Daily Kos does a nice job of taking down the unbridled hypocrisy of the Three Amigos (the group has gone radically gender-neutral by replacing Joe Lieberman with Kelly Ayotte [R-N.H.]). ...

... Michael Tomasky: "What a disappointment! The Republicans are all set to unveil their new select committee to keep the [Benghazi] attack in the news, and Obama has to go and bring the alleged ringleader to justice."

Binyamin Appelbaum of the New York Times: "Federal Reserve officials, who have persistently overestimated the strength of the economic recovery, predicted last June that the economy in 2014 would finally grow more than 3 percent for the first time since the recession. The updated forecasts the Fed will publish on Wednesday are likely to reflect more modest expectations. The economy, after all, actually shrank during a wintry first quarter. High hopes are being replaced once again by disappointing data.... The continuing wait for faster growth has reinforced the concern of some critics that the Fed is retreating too quickly from its stimulus campaign." ...

... New York Times Editors: "The Fed has extracted about all the juice it can from low rates and continues to squeeze.... The basic problem -- spurring demand on the part of consumers and borrowers -- is outside its purview. Only Congress can provide the extra dollars for that, but lawmakers have been unwilling or unable to take action, even just to provide basics like federal unemployment benefits or highway and bridge repair. Given that failure to act, it is a wonder the economy has managed to grow at 2 percent."

Zeke Miller: "Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lashed out at opponents of gun control regulations Tuesday, saying they hold a viewpoint that 'terrorizes' the majority of Americans.'"

One of the most important I think that can happen today, Lynn Jenkins's bill, an idea of fairness, the idea that when you look across the street from the Capitol, you see the Supreme Court, you see the statue sitting there, blinded in the process with the weights in- between. -- House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, talking about something

Dana Milbank: Kevin McCarthy (R-Ca.), who is likely to become the next House majority leader, can't speak in public in full, comprehensible sentences: "... he is a native English speaker and he speaks fluently in private or in small groups. But put him in front of a crowd and his words come out as if they have been translated by Google from a foreign language.... It occurs when he is working from notes or making a prepared statement. What will happen when he takes questions as majority leader, which he seldom does now? ... He has had some high-profile failures as the party's top vote counter (on a couple of occasions, leaders lost or had to cancel votes they expected to win)...." ...

     ... CW: Seems to me McCarthy's double-speak (or half-speak) creates plausible deniability, a plus for any GOP leader, since the facts are seldom kind to Republicans.

Gregory Korte of USA Today: "It wasn't just a hard drive crash that led the Internal Revenue Service to lose Lois Lerner's e-mails from the time Lerner was in charge of holding up tax exemption applications from conservative groups. It was seven hard drive crashes, the lack of a centralized archive, a practice of erasing and reusing backup tapes every six months, and an IRS policy of allowing employees to decide for themselves which e-mails constitute an official agency record."

** Jeff Shesol, in the New Yorker, on Justice Scalia's narrow, rigid reinterpretations of the English language, a "skill" he has used for decades to twist interpretations of laws to his liking. When does "creation science" have nothing whatever to do with religion? When Nino gets out his dictionary. Now, in Elena Kagan, Scalia has met his match:

What Kagan has done [in the Abramski v. U.S. straw purchase case], in a neat twist on Scalia's analogy, is to highlight the ambiguity and contingency of language. And that, for Scalia, is something that can never be acknowledged, because it would lay bare the game he plays. His approach has always been to reach for a dictionary; find, in one edition or other, a definition that drives toward his predetermined decision; and express, eyes wide with disbelief, utter amazement that anyone could even think of seeing it any other way.

News Ledes

Guardian: "Islamist militants have attacked Iraq's largest oil refinery in the city of Baiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad, as Iran raised the prospect of direct military intervention to protect Shia holy sites." ...

     ... New York Times Update: "Refinery workers, eyewitnesses and an Iraqi Army officer reported the seizure of Iraq's biggest oil refinery by Sunni extremists on Wednesday after army helicopter gunships failed to repel their attack. But other Iraqi officials, including the commander of the garrison defending the refinery in Baiji, asserted that fighting was still going on inside the huge grounds of the facility, which had been shut down by the violence."

AP: "Ukraine's president said Wednesday that government forces will unilaterally cease fire to allow pro-Russian separatists in the east of the country a chance to lay down weapons or leave the country, a potential major development to bring peace to the country."

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "Georgia inmate Marcus Wellons was put to death late Tuesday for the 1989 rape and murder of a Cobb County teenager in the state's first execution where the source of its lethal-injection drug was cloaked in secrecy. Wellons' execution received heightened scrutiny because it was the first one in the country to be carried out since a botched execution occurred in Oklahoma seven weeks ago."

The Commentariat -- June 17, 2014

Cartoon removed.

Elections Matter. Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "President Obama on Tuesday will announce his intent to make a broad swath of the central Pacific Ocean off-limits to fishing, energy exploration and other activities, according to senior White House officials. The proposal, slated to go into effect later this year after a comment period, could create the world's largest marine sanctuary and double the area of ocean globally that is fully protected."

Ziad Al-Sanjary & Arshad Mohammed of Reuters: "U.S. and Iranian officials discussed the crisis in Vienna on the sidelines of separate negotiations about the Iranian nuclear program, the two sides each said. Both ruled out military cooperation. A U.S. official said the talks did not include military coordination and would not make 'strategic determinations' over the heads of Iraqis." ...

... Alissa Rubin & Rod Nordland of the New York Times: Iraqi PM Nuri al-Maliki is not interested in "the political reconciliation with the Sunni Arabs and Kurds that his international allies in Washington and Tehran have insisted is his country's only possible salvation." He'd rather play commander-in-chief. ...

... Gary Brecher, the War Nerd, explains ISIS & its operational policies & talents. Thanks to contributor Patrick for the link. Patrick notes that Brecher's piece is an entertaining read. If you don't want to know much about the crisis du jour but think you should, here's a painless way to inform yourself & impress your friends & neighbors that you know more than half the senators who sit on the Foreign Relations Committee. ...

... Guardian reporters have a more sober-sided & "terrifying" (the paper's headline) description of ISIS. ...

How to Settle the Crisis in Iraq
Wherein I Save the Best for Last

CW: I was just thinking, "At least Paul Bremer has had the sense to take his Medal of Freedom & head for the hills rather than pipe up now on Iraq." Wrong. Here he is in the Wall Street Journal, opining on President Obama's "feckless" mistakes & what Obama must do to correct them. ...

... Bremer is apparently enjoying his return to the limelight. He appeared on CNN and on NBC's "Today Show," too. My special congratulations to the network producers who thought it a good ideas to book this incredibly disastrous "manager" of Iraq to offer his sage advice. The news ladies gave Bremer a bit of a hard time. ...

     ... In case you've forgotten Bremer (which is a good idea), here's a reprise of the low points of his glorious tour of duty.

Burgess Everett of Politico: "Sen. John McCain said he spoke to White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough over the weekend as sectarian violence in Iraq swelled." And McCain gave McDonough a piece of his mind, blah blah David Petraeus blah blah surge blah blah. Also, bad news for Baghdad: "'I don't believe Baghdad will fall,' he told reporters Monday evening.... I am pretty confident that [ISIS] won't take Baghdad."

Scott Lemieux in Lawyers, Guns & Money: "Wow, I see that Fred Kagan has teamed up with Mr. Bill Kristol to tell us what to do about the colossal disaster they and their allies made out of Iraq. Goody! Admittedly, they have plenty of company among the idiots who brought us this catastrophe. Of course, none of this stops Kagan from getting an uncritical-to-fawning profile from the newspaper that hired Kristol to write the worst regular op-ed column in known human history. It contains this rather chilling passage." ...

... Jay Bookman of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "Kristol, Kagan have an idea: Let's put troops in Iraq! ... As always, I'm struck at the magical powers that Kristol, Kagan and their colleagues attribute to military power.... None of [what they suggest] sounds even remotely plausible." ~~~

... Shorter Fred Kagan: We've screwed up so much, so badly in Iraq that we can ill-afford to stop screwing up. -- Matt Yglesias, ca. 2006, on Kagan's rationale for the 2007 U.S. "surge" in Iraq ...

... Even Pat Robertson Makes More Sense Than Kristol-Kagan. Until He Doesn't. David Edwards of the Raw Story: "Televangelist Pat Robertson on Monday blasted former President George W. Bush for selling Americans a 'bill of goods' before the Iraq invasion, which led to the violence that is currently sweeping across the country.... In the end, Robertson reckoned that there would be conflict in Iraq until an Antichrist appeared before the Second Coming of Christ." Yup. The solution to the Iraq crisis is the Second Coming. I would like to know why neocons haven't thought of that. It's so simple.

Lyle Denniston of ScotusBlog: "An individual cannot walk into a gun dealer's shop and buy a gun for someone else by claiming to be the actual buyer, a deeply split Supreme Court ruled on Monday. A form demanding to know who the actual purchaser is, the majority ruled, has to be answered truthfully, or else the transaction is illegal. The practical effect of the ruling is likely to be shutting down, or at least cutting back on, an active market in gun-buying by 'straw purchasers' .... The majority opinion by [Justice Elena] Kagan was supported in full by Justices Stephen G. Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Anthony M. Kennedy, and Sonia Sotomayor."

Edward-Issac Dovere & Jennifer Epstein of Politico: "Monday, the White House announced Obama will sign an executive order that would prohibit federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. This will be a week of the administration trumpeting its gay rights record...." CW: Notice how the Politico writers frame the story as one that's all about Obamas' seeking "a political boost" for his gay rights activism, as opposed to even hinting he's doing the right thing.

Lenny Bernstein of the Washington Post: "A report released Monday by a respected think tank ranks the United States dead last in the quality of its health-care system when compared with 10 other western, industrialized nations, the same spot it occupied in four previous studies by the same organization. Not only did the U.S. fail to move up between 2004 and 2014 -- as other nations did with concerted effort and significant reforms -- it also has maintained this dubious distinction while spending far more per capita ($8,508) on health care than Norway ($5,669), which has the second most expensive system." ...

     ... Here's the Commonwealth Fund's summary of the report.

This Link Is Dedicated to Contributor Unwashed Who Had a Close Encounter Yesterday with the Subject. Robert Costa & Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post: Why not Paul Ryan for House majority leader? He's perhaps the best-known member & "is well regarded across the spectrum in the fractious House Republican Conference and would be a unifying figure." He doesn't want the job.

Martha Stewart Just Wants to Make Money. Hilary Stout of the New York Times: "A New York judge on Monday ruled that J. C. Penney unlawfully interfered with an exclusive merchandising agreement between Macy's and Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.... At the root of the dispute was a December 2011 agreement between Penney and Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia to sell an array of her home products, like rugs and bath towels, in Penney's stores. Macy's sued both companies, contending that the pact violated a five-year-old deal it already had to sell many of the same housewares exclusively. Earlier this year, Macy's and Martha Stewart settled their legal battle under confidential terms and their partnership continues."

Dana Milbank: "Representatives of prominent conservative groups converged on the Heritage Foundation on Monday afternoon for the umpteenth in a series of gatherings to draw attention to the Benghazi controversy.... What began as a session purportedly about 'unanswered questions' surrounding the September 2012 attacks on U.S. facilities in Libya deteriorated into the ugly taunting of a woman in the room who wore an Islamic head covering." CW: I suspect there's money to be made in hatemongering, too. If you don't have Martha's talent for making "good things," then doing bad things is one alternative career path. ...

... AND Let's Not Forget Impeachment! Andrew Kaczynski of BuzzFeed: "A Republican congressman thinks a vote to impeachment President Obama would pass the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. Speaking with the Gary Sutton radio program on Monday, Rep. Lou Barletta of Pennsylvania said a vote to impeach Obama would 'probably pass' the House."

Congressional Elections

Lizette Alvarez of the New York Times: "With the midterm elections only months away, efforts to carry out some of the country's strictest photo ID requirements and shorten early voting in several politically pivotal states have been thrown into limbo by a series of court decisions concluding that the measures infringe on the right to vote.... The court decisions have gone both ways, but several have provided a new round of judicial rebukes to the wave of voting restrictions, nearly all of them introduced since 2011 in states with Republican majorities.... And, with challenges still going through the courts, voting rules and requirements remain uncertain in several states before the midterm elections."

Government for Sale. High Bidders -- Charles & David Koch. Ken Vogel & Darren Goode of Politico: "During a closed-door gathering of major donors in Southern California on Monday, the political operation spearheaded by the Koch brothers unveiled a significant new weapon in its rapidly expanding arsenal -- a super PAC called Freedom Partners Action Fund. The new group aims to spend more than $15 million in the 2014 midterm campaigns -- part of a much larger spending effort expected to total $290 million...."

News Ledes

New York Times: "Just as the federal government reached an agreement on Tuesday with SunTrust Banks over questionable mortgage practices, the government's talks to resolve Citigroup's mortgage issues grew increasingly tense and veered toward a lawsuit.... The Justice Department is also in settlement discussions with Bank of America."

New York Times: "Julian Koenig, who is widely regarded as one of the 20th century's most innovative advertising writers -- a creative force behind an array of memorable campaigns, including for the original Volkswagen Beetle and the enduring environmental brand Earth Day -- died on Thursday in Manhattan. He was 93."

New York Times: "Daniel Keyes, the author of 'Flowers for Algernon,' the story of a man with an I.Q. of 68 who temporarily becomes a genius after surgery -- a book that inspired the film 'Charly,' starring Cliff Robertson -- died on Sunday at his home in South Florida. He was 86."

Los Angeles Times: "Los Angeles Air Force Base[, which is in El Segundo,] was on lockdown Tuesday as authorities investigated reports of a suspicious man roaming the facility. A spokeswoman at the base confirmed that it was sealed off as of 1:45 p.m." ...

     ... CW: My best guess: the "suspicious man" turns out to be Darrell Issa (R-Ca.) looking for former IRS employee Lois Lerner, whom he believed the Obama administration was planning to secretly fly out of the country to a location where Issa has no subpoena power.