Month: July 2003

I’ve read and heard a lot of complaints about the CIA in the whole “speech-gate”/Bush lies issue that has sprung to life (thankfully!) recently. Unfortunately, the impression I’ve received is that the White House pressured the CIA to include and support this kind of evidence, not the other way around. For instance, the Boston Globe today writes

Even as the CIA found little to verify the reports, Bush administration officials repeatedly tried to put them into public statements. Sometimes CIA succeeded in getting the information removed.

For instance, the agency tried to have the Niger reference removed from a State Department fact sheet in December 2002, but the document was published before the change could be made, one U.S. intelligence official told The Associated Press, speaking only on condition of anonymity.

This isn’t the view of a CIA that was inept, but an Administration, clearly led directly bu Bush, pushing evidence that was almost certainly fabricated to support their flismy argument for directly invading another sovereign nation without any real provocation. My only hope is that this fire continues to simmer…

More Bush Lies… This guy is more slippery than Clinton!

Someone else beat me to another of my ideas…

I finally heard it–“speech-gate”. Slate picks up the cause with two articles, here and here.

I look at this as a simple act of comparitive hypocrisy. During the Clinton impeachment scandal, Clinton was derided repeatedly for lying about the nature of his relationship with Monica Lewinsky. This nearly led to his impeachment. Bush, on the other hand, fudges some facts, trots out a similarly weak defense, and everyone is supposed to roll over. From the details, it appears to be clear that at least some of the White House staff, if not all, were aware of the false nature of the reports, yet they included it anyway. William Saletan writes the following:

It’s also now OK to hedge your language just enough to avoid clear falsehood. According to Tenet, CIA “officials who were reviewing the draft remarks on uranium raised several concerns about the fragmentary nature of the intelligence with National Security Council colleagues. Some of the language was changed.”

It makes you wonder what else this administration is fudging, like, say, the estimates for the Iraqi reconstruction project, or the real beneficiaries of the tax cuts?

I found this site the other day regarding CO2 emissions and the upcoming implementation of the Kyoto Protocol regarding the reduction of CO2 emissions around the world (with the exception of the unilateralist United States).

The idea of trading emissions credits strikes me as one of the best market-based ideas to reduce pollution. This presents a wonderful carrot and stick approach, by capping emissions by all groups, but by creating a method to reward those who volutnarily reduce their emissions below the mandated caps by enabling them to trade their quotas to other producers.

In fact, I would argue that once such a system has been implemented, it would be worthwhile for governments to, over time, step in to those markets to buy off existing credits on a permanent basis, thus forcing the worldwide caps even lower. Since those credits would no longer be in the market, the overall emissions caps would be lowered using the laws of supply and demand, not through regulation. Now what Republican couldn’t agree with harnessing the powers of capitalism in order to reduce environmental pollution?

My computer has been running now since April 5th or thereabouts, bringing my up time to 13 weeks, 5 days, 21 hours, and 57 minutes…

A scathing critique of the Bush Administration appears in the Washington Post.

An MSNBC commentary argues there are signs of life again in the Democratic Party, which would be welcome news. I’m not sure that “tacking left” is necessarily going to win national elections, but at least having a platform of ideas (to quote an overused buzz-phrase) would be a start.

04 July 2003
Friday I woke around 7 a.m. and proceeded to slowly wake up and prepare myself for the day. The previous evening I had asked the proprieter of the hotel to arrange a guided hike for me this morning, but I had not heard anything last night so I was not expecting to have anything to do. However, upon leaving my room to head up to breakfast about 8 a.m., she came running out telling me that my guide was here. I hurridly asked for a piece of toast before heading out on the hike.

The hike, through a private reserve, lasted about two and a half hours. During that time, the guide and I discussed many topics, including conversation, the various flora and fauna, and I learned some fascinating tidbits about the rainforest. For instance, I saw a species of tree that sheds its defense against parasitic vines. I also saw some orchids and micro-orchids, bromeliads, tree-ferns, banana and coffee plants, and a variety of berry and seedlings. We also spotted a tucan, and the three-wattled bellbird, which has a unique call that goes “Boonnnggg!” followed by a whistle.

After the hike (and a milkshake at the cheese factory), I wandered around killing time before the Sky Trek zip line canopy tour I had scheduled for that afternoon. This fun-filled activity involved taking eleven ziplines through the jungle canopy, the longest of which was 750 meters, and the highest of which was, well, high. A group of about 10 was assembled, along with two guides that would attach us and detatch us at each end. The first zipline had me freaked, but by the third one I was really in to it, having a blast. The point wasn’t so much to see nature as it was to hurtle at high speeds. Unfortunately, about halfway through the tour, the afternoon rains rolled in, leading all of us to get soaked through, as none of us were smart enough to take along the raincoats. In fact, the rain had started coming down so hard that when combined with the speed of the zipline it actually stung. I could barely keep my eyes open on the last three or four lines.

While drying out in the lodge waiting for the bus, I started talking with Laurie, from Washington State, and Ellen (see the photo! She did NOT look like she’s 22, regardless of what she said!), from Toronto, who were on the tour (and also quite soaked through). They had been working on a Habitat for Humanities project for the previous five weeks and were finishing up some fun touring about before heading home. In order to warm up, I also had my very first cup of coffee, ever. And it was AMAZING. If you try one thing in Costa Rica, make it coffee. You won’t regret it. Not that I plan to start drinking coffee here, but I would definitely have some again when I find myself back in Costa Rica.

After the zip line tour, I was dropped off back at my hotel. I changed in to some dry clothes and walked the half a kilometer down to Teormonti, an Italian restaurant, where I had some good Lasgana for dinner. The dessert, a pineapple pie a la mode, was incredibly sweet, and I could barely take a bite without wincing. I couldn’t help but think that the ice cream must have come from the Cheese Factory, and I happily ate it all. The walk back, after dark, without a flashlight, was not one of my smarter moments. I was less-than-pleased to not be able to see where I was walking at all, as it was pitch black outside. And when the dog started following me, I was even less happy (yes, dogs do run wild in Costa Rica. I was cautioned not to pet any dogs unless I could see that they were clearly owned by someone).

Stumbling through the dark, I arrived back at La Colina and went to bed…

05 July 2003
This was the first day my stomach was upset since leaving. I left about an hour later than I had intended, not that it would have mattered. I had been planning to set out to the Monteverde Cloud Reserve, hopefully to arrive in time to secure a guided hike. As it turns out, I wouldn’t have been able to, as the person at the entrance instructed me you really do need a full day’s advance notice.

Regardless, I paid the entrance fee and headed in to the reserve, guidelessly viewing the various flora and, with less success, fauna of the rainforest. It really is a spectacle, walking along narrow paths through an overwhelming green forest that feels both peaceful and vibrant at the same time. The sounds of the insects and animals abound, and it’s rarely silent, though it can quite down some.

Along the path I met a couple (apparently in their early 60s (Betty and Donald, I think. At least, that’s the names I’ve convinced myself of), though I thought they were perhaps in their late 40s/early 50s when I first met them). We talked for much of the trip, about the rainforest, our experiences in Costa Rica, and our mutual desire to travel. I received many words of wisdom, which I will try to put in to practice. I also encountered a woman in her early 30s (my guess at least), who was doing some birding. Oddly enough, it turns out that all are of us are originally from NJ, and that three out of the four of us are Rutgers grads. Talk about a small world! As coincidence would have it, the young(er) woman, whose name I absolutely can’t recall, was staying at La Colina as well. Actually, in the room next door.

After the hiking, I picked up some souvenirs at the Hummingbird Gallery’s gift shop, I accepted an offer to take a taxi back to La Colina, sparing me a further two+ kilometer hike. I also made a quick stop at the Cheese Factory, taking in my last ice cream for the trip.

Back at La Colina, I killed an hour and a half reading while waiting for dinner, which I had decided to eat in that night. As it turned out, the woman I had met hiking was also eating at the Lodge. I had a great conversation with her through dinner and until about 8. She’s had quite a number of travel experiences, including a year and a half period when she gave up on work and decided to wander around the world. Talk about inspiration! I feel like I could do it myself, now, and I’m also starting to feel as though I really want to.

06 July 2003
This morning was the morning I was slated to head back to San Jose. The driver came as scheduled, 7:45 A.M.. Much to my surprise and pleasure, it was the nice guy who had driven me up here on Thursday morning.

The ride itself was uneventful, with the exception of the snotty American college students (I’m guessing on those two points) in the back. They sounded as though they had been on a trip, and were making fun of some of the people they had met. Thankfully I was able to just sit there quietly until we reached San Jose. We did have some trouble locating a hotel, including asking several people in San Jose for directions, but everything worked out in the end. One of the guys on the ride was from Argentina, so I peppered him with a few questions, as I am considering it now as a destination.

I arrived at the hotel around 1, ate a delicious lunch, wandered around the area near the hotel for a time, watched some TV to become more acquainted with the goings-on in the world, relaxed, ate dinner, and went to sleep before 10.

07 July 2003
At ten minutes of 4, I awoke to the sound of my alarm buzzing. Running through the morning steps to preparedness, I was ready and out the door for my taxi ride by 4:45 a.m. I arrived at the airport, groggily passed about an hour and a half after check-in until the flight boarded, and it was on the way back home.

Just two things are noteworthy at this point. The Flight Attendants (FAs) on the San Jose – Houston segment of the trip were among the friendliness and most professional I have seen. They were enthusiastic and talkative, and actually appeared to enjoy their work. One of them even came around shaking hands with all the paxs before we landed.

To counterbalance the positives, the Houston – Newark segment was delayed on the ground in Houston by about an hour, and then delayed in the air for another 45 minutes or so. Go figure. Of course, I was seated with two pharmaceutical sales reps from the Houston area on each side of me, from different pharma companies no less. It made for some interesting conversations.

Comments
So, what would I say about Costa Rica? The people are friendly and the country is beautiful. At least once you leave San Jose, and San Jose’s not that terrible. The air quality isn’t the greatest, that’s all. Once you head out of the city, the diversity of plant and animal life is phenomenal and the natural beauty left me feeling happy, relaxed and quite pleasant. Even the other travelers tend to be happy and quite approachable.

Costa Rica has definitely jumped to the top of my destinations list, and I would actaully love to buy some property there. Perhaps one day I will.

I finally saw an article that makes the argument I make about shifting the rationale for the intervention in Iraq away from the Weapons of Mass Destruction argument.

The trouble is, we have not found any such weapons, which has led some Administration supporters to shift their ground. Whether or not Saddam had nukes, they argue, his rule was so vile that getting rid of it was a service to mankind. That is true. But if the test for deploying American power to remove a regime is not the danger it poses to the U.S. but its wickedness, why stop at Iraq? As Mandelbaum wrote seven years ago, “The world is a big place filled with distressed people.” Why not ease the suffering of those in, say, Burma or Zimbabwe?

Given previous American foreign policy, this rationale becomes difficult at best. The U.S. has always been willing to work with and support “less than savory” characters as it serves the interests of the state. Pinochet, Arafat, Sharon, Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, the Shah of Iran, Milosivic, the list goes on and on.

An argument supporting interventions in failing states on moral grounds in some instances while not in other instances is harder to make than that of national interest, as the moral justification of foreign policy must be applied consistently for it to not be purely hypocritical. A policy of intervention for moral reasons that is only applied “when we feel like it” can only lead to bitterness and failure.