The News

Today we’re doing something different. 3N has a sneaking suspicion that many of you are reading only the fluff and the fodder and never getting down to the real news of the day. So today we’ll put that first, because there’s lots going on. But first, a correction. The guy in Oklahoma who was bitten by a rattlesnake was shopping at a Lowe’s Home Improvement store. 3N mistakenly spelled it Loew’s. Twice. Sorry for any confusion.

Cheney Takes Toys, Goes Home

The U.S. Supreme Court continues to waffle over whether or not it will compel Vice President Dick Cheney to release his personal notes from his energy task force meetings in the early days of the Bush administration.

Cheney and his task force were charged with setting this country’s energy policy over the next four years and proceeded to do so, behind closed doors, with energy company lobbyists and captains of industry such as former Enron chief Ken Lay. An old energy man himself, Cheney was accused of bias, collusion and cronyism in awarding contracts and creating a favorable energy policy for his former peers, friends and colleagues. That was three years ago. It stunk then and it’s really starting to stink now.

What’s at issue is the ream of notes Cheney took while in these conferences and the fact that he refuses to let the public have a look-see. The White House is adamant that those records will never be released and has stood behind Cheney all the way. His biggest champion on the bench has so far been none other than old hunting buddy Justice Antonin Scalia. You remember him from a few blogs back, right? Scalia has repeatedly refused to recuse, saying any relationship he may have or have had with the Veep would in no way influence him or sway his decisions. And he is so far the biggest stumbling block to getting these records released, saying the Bush administration has “broad authority to keep matters private.”

So where does this leave us? Predictably, still in limbo. There’s something in those notes the administration desperately wants to keep private and their release could be not only embarrassing, but potentially disastrous to Bush’s reelection campaign. 3N is laying odds that we’ll never, ever see those notes—not in our lifetime at least and certainly not before the November elections.

Rwanda Remembered

3N promised weeks ago to mark the 10-year anniversary of the tragedy in Rwanda and, with the month fast coming to an end, we figured we’d better get to it. Rwanda got scant news coverage in this country when it was in turmoil and its grim anniversary got even less. So buck up and swallow it here.

Ten years ago this month rival tribes Hutus and Tutsis began killing each other in whole-scale fashion in the tiny African nation of Rwanda. Why? Well, the two simply don’t much care for each other and have basically been killing one another since the 1800s. The tribes flirted with peace briefly in the early 90s and brokered a peace accord in 1993. That peace was short lived, however, when on April 6, 1994, Hutu President Juvenal Habyarimana’s plane was shot down in a missile attack. Hutus blamed the attack on a Tutsi rebel force, the RPF, and the killing began shortly after. Thirteen weeks later, between 500,000 and 800,000 Rwandans lay dead. It was the swiftest, most brutal instance of genocide in history and was performed mostly with machetes and farm implements. And the rest of the world stood by and watched it happen.

What’s particularly infuriating is the fact that the U.S. and U.N. so readily jumped into the fray in the Balkans where Slobodan Milosevic and his party were accused of ethnic cleansing, genocide, etc. Milosevic was a madman, the Western world cried, and the ethnic cleansing there had to be stopped. What we’re rarely told, however, is the fact that the Balkans is home to the Serbian-controlled Trepca Mining Complex, one the richest mines in all of Europe and something the West dearly wants to lay claim to. Had Rwanda had something to offer the West, perhaps our intervention would have been more swift or immediate. Still, conspiracy theories aside, it’s important to remember what happened in Rwanda and maybe be a little more informed and a little more proactive the next time something like this happens. Which it certainly will.

For those of you inclined to read more, check out Philip Gourevitch’s seminal work We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families. It’s grim, awful, fascinating and enlightening. Have it with some warm milk and cookies before bed.

The Fodder

ABC OKs GIs

One last kind of serious item, and this one has to go out today to mean anything. Ted Koppel on tonight’s “Nightline” will devote the entire broadcast to reading the names and showing the photos of all the fallen GIs in Iraq. ABC news is doing the show to “pay tribute to the dead.”

The show is to “remind our viewers—whether they agree with the war or not—that beyond the casualty numbers, these men and women are serving in Iraq in our names, and that those who have been killed have names and faces,” according to “Nightline” Executive Producer Leroy Sievers.

The move has been roundly criticized within media circles as nothing more than a shameless attempt to pull at our heartstrings during the all-important sweeps week. Why else then, media pundits argue, would ABC choose to air the program now rather than, say, Memorial Day? Now 3N is as bitter, jaded and cynical as the rest of them, but can’t we just once take something at face value, sit back and enjoy the ride? This is a nice thing ABC is doing and, whatever their motivations, whatever the airdate, let’s just fucking enjoy it, OK? Watch it if you like.

Brits: Still Dumber Than Us

We’ll wrap it up today with a little jab at our friends in England. Now 3N has no particular gripe with the Brits, but the stories detailing the depths of their collective stupidity just keep coming. And they’re damn funny.

A study by the Wales Post Office found two in five Brits believe “sickles,” the fictional currency used in the Harry Potter books, really exist somewhere overseas. Worse, one in four Brits think they’ll be able to use Galactic “credits,” the official currency of the Star Wars films, the next time they travel abroad. Jesus.

Going further, one in 10 Brits are ready to welcome the country of Luvania into the European Union. Never heard of Luvania? Well, that’s because it doesn’t exist. Researchers threw the fictional country into a list of countries on a survey which asked which nations Brits were most excited about entering the Union. It’s comforting to know that we’re no dumber than our allies, isn’t it?

Have a great weekend—