Confessions of a bottom-feeding blogger

I took several days off from blogging, ostensibly to plant a vegetable garden. However, the garden was planted several days ago, the drip irrigation system is working, and I haven’t been posting.Is it because I’m finding the greatest joy being with my grandchildren, with whom I spend a couple of days a week? If I’m honest with myself, the reason I haven’t been posting is because I’m not sure I’m adding any value to the world of information. I describe myself as a “bottom-feeding blogger” because I rely on what others write. I described this in my March 27th post, "How important are newspapers?" “With blogging in mind, each morning I check The New York Times and The Washington Post. Then I check four well-known blogs, Juan Cole’s Informed Comment, Glenn Greenwald’s Unclaimed Territory. Scott Horton’s No Comment, and Steve Clemons’s The Washington Note.... I, in turn, rely on these and other bloggers to help me understand what’s going on. Then I attempt to distill what I learn into a few paragraphs for my blog.”

The following describes the sequence of events that prompted me to examine the time it takes to post almost every day when I'm home:

1. On April 6th, I read The New York Times article, "In Web World of 24/7 Stress, Writers Blog Till They Drop." The article described the death of two bloggers who were working for pay. I’m working for fun and for free. However, blogging almost every day creates stress, which is not good for my health as I turn 68 on Sunday.

2. April 9th was a stunningly beautiful day. In the late afternoon as I hunkered over my computer pulling together my post "Fear for Iran," I kept looking outside, wondering what I was doing inside.

3. On April 10th, I was shocked to see that one of my favorite bloggers, the most prolific blogger I’m aware of, Scott Horton, posted "Is There Life After Blogging?", noting the Times article about bloggers dropping dead and announcing that he would no longer be blogging daily.

I can’t answer the question of whether or not I add value by blogging. I know I miss the discipline of finding something every day worth a post. However, I’m pleased to report that while I was “away,” I explored two new blogs:

1. South Jerusalem: Gershom Gorenberg and Haim Watzman, described as “A Progressive, Skeptical Blog on Israel, Judaism, Culture, Politics, and Literature”;

2. Best Guess Commentary: “Commentary and Analysis on Current Events in Politics, Business, Foregin Affairs and More."

Now that Scott Horton isn’t posting each day, I’m taking the time I used to spend reading his blog to check:

1. Tony Karon’s blog, Rootless Cosmopolitan. I highly recommend his April 9th post, "Healing Israel's Birth Scar";

2. Ken Silverstein’s Washington Babylon.

Lastly, I want to recommend Dan Froomkin’s Monday through Friday post for The Washington Post, White House Watch. I’ve been reading it each workday for many, many months.

I still can’t answer the question “Am I adding value?” But I enjoyed pulling this post together.

(photo of my garden taken this afternoon; photo of my grandchildren from a week ago)

The power of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency

Two articles published shortly after Benazir Bhutto's death (the cause still a mystery) caught my attention.

1. Ken Silverstein, who blogs for Harper’s Magazine at Washinton Babylon, posted "Support for Taliban Missing from Bhutto Obits" on December 29th. Silverstein quotes from Steve Coll's best-seller, Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden: “Benazir Bhutto, who was secretly authorizing the Taliban’s covert aid, did not let the Americans know. She visited Washington in the spring of 1995, met with President Clinton, and promoted the Taliban as a pro-Pakistan force that could help stabilize Afghanistan… During her visit and for many months afterward Bhutto and her aides repeatedly lied to American government officials and members of Congress about the extent of Pakistani military and financial aid to the Taliban… Bhutto had decided it was more important to appease the Pakistani army and intelligence service than to level with her American friends.”

The intelligence service Coll referred to is the Inter-Services Intelligence agency, or ISI. I have Ghost Wars, so I checked the index for references to the ISI. There are 26 separate references, including:

A. Bhutto opposed by, 191-92, 212, 217, 289, 349
B. bin Laden’s collaboration with, 16, 212, 327, 341, 375, 407, 439, 452, 456, 477
C. CIA collaboration with, 11, 63-65, 99, 127, 129, 131-132, 148, 150, 152, 164, 180, 183-84, 191. 207, 208, 211, 213, 217-20, 225, 233-37, 277, 315, 329, 336, 373, 374, 375, 415, 436. 442-43, 505, 508, 513, 516, 551-52,
D. Taliban aided by, 291, 292-94,296, 331, 332, 348, 414. 456, 510, 517, 565.

2. The next item appeared in an e-mail from my election integrity allies at Election Defense Alliance, linking to a McClatchy Newspapers article posted on December 31st, "Bhutto report: Musharraf planned to fix elections": “The day she was assassinated last Thursday, Benazir Bhutto had planned to reveal new evidence alleging the involvement of Pakistan's intelligence agencies in rigging the country's upcoming elections, an aide said Monday.

“Bhutto had been due to meet U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., to hand over a report charging that the military Inter-Services Intelligence agency was planning to fix the polls in the favor of President Pervez Musharraf.”

(symbolic intelligence agent and Pakistan flag: BBC News)

Why is WellCare wooing me?

Late last week, I noted Ken Silverstein’s post, Alert: A mega-scandal in the making, and quickly glanced at it. Because it involved WellCare, a health care firm I had never heard of before, I decided to read the post later.

On Saturday, I received a brochure in the mail from WellCare Health Plans. The ten-panel brochure (click to enlarge) with cute cartoons urged to me sign up for Part D Medicare (prescription drugs) for “just $19.00.”

Hmmm, now I was curious about the WellCare "mega-scandal" and why it's now wooing me, so I went back to read Silverstein's post.

According to Silverstein, who is the Washington editor for Harper's Magazine, “There’s a new scandal unraveling that has a great cast of characters and sounds like it should be fun to watch unravel." Six bullet points of information follow.

Here’s the first:

"Yesterday, the Feds raided WellCare, a fast-growing Florida health care firm which has a Cayman Islands subsidiary and whose “independent sales agents in Georgia enrolled dead people in Medicare plans.”

And the last:

"In the aftermath of the raid, WellCare’s stock has fallen through the floor. 'Some WellCare insiders managed to escape that crash,' TheStreet.com reports. 'Director Neal Moszkowski executed the most recent transaction, selling more than $1 million worth of stock four days before the raid. Meanwhile, WellCare CEO Todd Farha has been unloading company stock for months. He executed his last big transaction, which generated more than $1 million as well, just two weeks ago.'"

The points in between are fascinating.

Silverstein concludes, “Enjoy–and spend some time on Google, because there’s plenty of low-hanging fruit still to be picked.”

(scanned image of one panel of the WellCare brochure I received)

Ken Silverstein posts about Henry Siegman's article on Israel and the peace process

Yesterday, Ken Silverstein, who blogs for Harper's Magazine at Washington Babylon, posted Siegman on Israel, linking to the same article I did in my most recent post.

(frog from banner at Silverstein's blog)