Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period.
I've just been offered a "real" job in a library in DC. Perhaps this weblog will resume in a few weeks once I get settled in ... It's been fun attempting to surf about for a sustainable-alternatives newsfeed!
To dig out the sort of material linked on Sassafrass Log for youself, here's a start:
Check Metafilter, World's End, the international, environmental, and tech links on Green Man Ark; also Unknown News, Random Walks, Red Rock Eater, NewsInsider, MaxSpeaks, Cursor or BuzzFlash, Rantburg, anything with Dr. Menlo ... and then surf around a bit at random through the material in my blogroll ...
Count on those independently-minded Oregonians to be uncomfortably forthright and direct!
"The key question is whether a candidate can successfully run on his record of service while actually serving the country, instead of spending all his time trawling for money and votes."
"A self-confident elite might have children early, late or never. But it wouldn't have an ongoing angst about the immediate impact of children on your wallet, sex life, career path and social life. It would treat children as something you did, and the future as something you talked about."
"Where is Saddam? Where are those arsenals of weapons of mass destruction, if indeed they ever existed?
"Perhaps Saddam is still hiding somewhere in a bunker underground, sitting on cases of weapons of mass destruction and is preparing to blow the whole thing up and bring down the lives of thousands of Iraqi people."
"Worn down by job searches that have stretched on for months, demoralized by disappointing offers or outright rejections, some unemployed people have simply stopped the search. Over the last two years, the portion of Americans in the labor force — those who are either working or actively looking for work — has fallen 0.9 percentage points to 66.2 percent, the largest drop in almost 40 years ...
More than 74.5 million adults were considered outside of the labor force last month, up more than 4 million since March 2001 ...
"This is what we see today — job searches that can take 6 to 12 months," said Charlie Beck, who has directed the support group, Priority Two, for the past 20 years. "By six months, people really start to doubt themselves, and they start to doubt they're ever going to find anything. They start to doubt everything."
Uncertainty crept slowly into Mike Guido's outlook. But after the third "really good opportunity" slipped away, "it started to dawn on me," Mr. Guido said. "It just wasn't happening. It wasn't going to."
"The Pentagon's decision to close its only peacekeeping training institute must be the ultimate in false economies."
"For political progressives in the US, the first item on a new agenda could be how to reconstitute the Peacekeeping Institute. As the ongoing conflict in Iraq demonstrates, international issues today require civil-military partnerships as never before. Whether it is called peacekeeping, public security or nation-building, the fact is that success or failure in Iraq will be measured largely on the extent to which social and political stability is built over the long-term."
"What is lacking today is not a need for patriotic service, nor a willingness to serve, but the opportunity. Indeed, one of the curious truths of our era is that while opportunities to serve ourselves have exploded---with ever-expanding choices of what to buy, where to eat, what to read, watch, or listen to--- opportunities to spend some time serving our country have narrowed ...
"Americans did not fight and win World War II as discrete individuals. Their brave and determined energies were mobilized and empowered by a national government headed by democratically elected leaders. That is how a free society remains free and achieves greatness. National service is a crucial means of making our patriotism real, to the benefit of both ourselves and our country."
"Want to be healthy? Strong? More open and lickable and less bitter and baffled and cynical? Ask for it, place some divine intent behind it and breath it in and imagine what it would feel like to radiate health and sexual vibrancy and self-defined joy and really cool taste in shoes. That's how you start.
Because this is the biggest collective delusion of all, that you can't get at it, that it's so much wimpy tofu-hugging BS, so much fluffy New Age psychobabble. What a convenient excuse that is to remain wallowing and acidic and humming at a simplistically low, want-based pitch, happily drunk on the disinfo They want to sell you. It's just too easy. And lazy.
And it does require work. It takes some concentrated and open-hearted effort to raise that awareness, to tune in on that level, sift through the bogus media and healers and teachers and pretentious yoga classes, gurus, smarmy inane Chicken Soupy books to find the authentically divine heat and rush and thrust.
You gotta get off your ass. You gotta question everything. You gotta see the world anew, always, every moment, to progress and evolve and vibrate higher. And, to be sure, it can be a total divinely annoying pain in the ass.
But, really, when you get right down to it, what else is there?"
Toxic fuel traces found in grocery lettuce -
and in organic salad mix too!
"A laboratory test of 22 types of lettuce purchased at Northern California supermarkets found that four were contaminated with perchlorate, a toxic rocket-fuel ingredient that has polluted the Colorado River, the source of the water used to grow most of the nation's winter vegetables ...
"State and federal environmental officials now believe that perchlorate, a salt widely used by the U.S. government to help power missiles and the space shuttle, may cause health problems, even in trace amounts."
"Seven monks swathed in saffron robes padded onto the moist grounds of Arlington National Cemetery yesterday, followed by six uniformed Marines in crisper pace bearing the coffin of a fallen comrade.
"Even in death, Kemaphoom Chanawongse, 22, straddled two worlds -- the Thailand he left when he was 9 and the America he ultimately gave his life for. The corporal died in Iraq March 23 in an ambush outside Nasiriyah.
Friends and family called him "Ahn." His fellow Marines called him "Chuckles," for his sense of humor and love of laughter."
"Aspasia, quite simply, is the inspiration for this page. She is also one of the great dissenters of world history. Arriving in Athens around 450 BCE, she challenged gender prejudice by opening a school of rhetoric and philosophy that welcomed both men and women. She introduced salon culture to the city and counted amongst her contemporaries Socrates, who claimed he learned from her the art of rhetoric, the playwrite Euripides, the philosopher Anaxagoras, and the sculpter Pheidias. When Aspasia married Pericles, the great statesman of the Golden Age, his opponents charged her with impiety (the age-old slur of the malcontent), and spread rumors that her salon was a bordello. Her successful defense in court wasn't enough to put an end to this kind of politics, as it occassionally resurfaces to torment our own vulnerable democracy. Nonetheless, Aspasia can be counted among the great figures of our Hellenic heritage, as much for her courage in the face of ingrained superstition as for her eloquence."
"You will not be able to stay home, dear Netizen.
You will not be able to plug in, log on and opt out.
You will not be able to lose yourself in Final Fantasy,
Or hold your Kazaa download queues,
Because revolution is not an AOL Keyword.
"Revolution is not an AOL Keyword.
Revolution will not be brought to you on Hi-Def TV
Encrypted with a warning from the FBI.
Revolution will not have a jpeg slideshow of Dubya
Calling the cattle and leading the incursion by
Secretary Rumsfeld, General Ashcroft and Dick Cheney
Riding nuclear warheads on their way to Iraq,
Or North Korea, or Iran ...
"Revolution will not be right back after
Pop-up ads about eCommerce, eTailers, or eContent.
You will not have to worry about a
Cookie in your browser, a bug in your email, or a
Worm in your recycling bin.
Revolution will not run faster with Intel inside.
Revolution, dude, is not getting a Dell.
Revolution will increase your Google rank.
Revolution is not an AOL Keyword, is not an AOL Keyword,
"Is not an AOL Keyword, is not an AOL Keyword.
Revolution will be no stream or download, dear Netizen;
Revolution must still be live."
"Vested interests -- the music and movie industries, telecommunications companies and governments -- are starting to clamp down politically and economically ...
"They would very much like to get us back to the days when there were three radio stations and one telephone company," he said. "We're going to have to fight to remain users and not be turned back into consumers."
"Rheingold cited a range of political, legislative and technological barriers to innovation, including the broadcast flag, trustworthy computing ("don't trust the user," Rheingold dubbed it) and tight control of the radio spectrum by incumbent telcos.
"If all the attempts to control people's use of technology are successful, "it really could make the Internet something we look back on with nostalgia," he said.
"EPA criminal agents are being diverted from their normal investigative work to provide security and drivers for agency Administrator Christine Todd Whitman ... EPA agents assigned to investigate environmental crimes have at times been ordered to perform more personal tasks ..."
Good luck, you sick and injured Iraqis! (When the US regime signs on to the UN Declaration of Human Rights, we'll let you know.)
""Why shouldn't the typical citizen, faced with a choice between Bush-style tax cuts and a plan to provide health insurance to most of the uninsured, choose the latter?"
"The calamity of 9/11 demonstrated that modern technology and human intelligence guided by hatred can lead to immense destruction. Such terrible acts are a violent symptom of an afflicted mental state. To respond wisely and effectively, we need to be guided by more healthy states of mind, not just to avoid feeding the flames of hatred, but to respond skillfully. We would do well to remember that the war against hatred and terror can be waged on this, the internal front, too."
"They are happy here that the Shia mosques have taken control of the Mukhabarat files, and seem confident that the religious establishment is well suited to the task of finding the missing. "I think the mosque is better than any government," says Fadil Eissa, another man just back from Baghdad, searching for a lost cousin."
Now Iraq will wear Brand America
"One has to wonder about the convenience and efficacy of Iraq losing its cultural heritage for those hell-bent on remaking the society in the image of rapacious capitalism and thoughtless consumerism. Of course, that’s yet another discussion that is light-years beyond our media’s capabilities."
"So here’s my cartoon:
"Teenager holding progressive magazine with headline “Chaos all part of the plan”: Dad, how could you have supported an action that is so fucked up?
"Dad, head in hands: I didn’t know. I didn’t know."
"Did you know that a US Marine of the rank of Private or Corporal, ranks that make up a majority of the Corp, brings home less than 10,000 dollars a year? I knew our service people are not getting rich but this is shameful. If a Marine Corporal is married, or married with kids his pay would have his family ranked as 'poor' by US Census Bureau standards."
BlogMatcher is a program that helps people find weblogs that match their interests and find like-minded blogs. When given an URL to a weblog (called "Reference Blog") the system finds other blogs that appear to discuss similar topics.
"Showing that I'm not _completely_ submerged in ephemera, here's a new, serious project that I think has been soundly overlooked. It's courtesy of San Francisco-based Worldlink TV and the place I sometimes volunteer/help at, the Internet Archive. [I have nothing to do with this particular effort, though, just dig it.] Basically, the two parties are teaming up to offer streaming daily news sourced from the TV stations of the Middle East. The show is called 'Mosaic', and it takes footage from national broadcasters in Jordan, Lebanon, Iran, Yemen, Syria, and more, creating a fascinating compilation of news as it's reported in those countries ..."
"The answer is conservation. Fuel efficiency. Solar and wind power. And keeping our promise to care for creation. Care about America. Care for America. For our families, for our future.
"Brought to you by the Sierra Club and the National Council of Churches"
"VIPS, made up of 25 former intelligence officials in the CIA, State and Defense Departments, Army Intelligence and FBI, made their first public statement on February 5, critiquing Powell's presentation before the UN Security Council seeking an international mandate for the war.
"Never before has a group of veteran CIA graduates -- all cum laude -- gotten together to critique the government," McGovern said.
"CIA spokesman Tom Crispell, asked for comment on the former officials' remarks Thursday, said: "They're criticizing policy, not intelligence."
"...there's power, wonder-working power, in the goodness and idealism and faith of the American people."
"That phrase was not mere wordsmithing. I know it well. I know about polished church pews; I know about dress shoes that blistered my young feet and the smooth heft of the hymnal. As the son of a Baptist minister, I know ...
"Bush was stealthily passing the message to the flock, to my flock. The issues that have plagued that flock for a quarter century are integral to understanding the second self-professed "born-again" man in the White House, his political tactics and his war in Iraq."
"The City Council voted Monday to repeal an old ordinance that prohibited immoral conduct, including extramarital sex. The law was passed after the city incorporated in 1957.
"The ordinance banned immoral conduct defined as "any person exposing his or her person or the private parts thereof; or the doing of any other act with the intent of arousing, appealing to or gratifying the lust or passions or sexual desires of any person to whom he or she is not married."
Violating the law could result in a $250 fine or three months in jail, or both.
"Our paradigm now seems to be: something terrible happened to us on September 11, and that gives us the right to interpret all future events in a way that everyone else in the world must agree with us," said Clinton, who spoke at a seminar of governance organized by Conference Board.
"And if they don't, they can go straight to hell."
The Democratic former president, who preceded George W. Bush at the White House, said that sooner or later the United States had to find a way to cooperate with the world at large.
"We can't run," Clinton pointed out. "If you got an interdependent world, and you cannot kill, jail or occupy all your adversaries, sooner or later you have to make a deal."
"The digital divide is not just about the haves and the have-nots. It's also about the yawning gap between those who are comfortable using technology and those who fear or despise it.
It's a gap strewn with broken computers, faulty ISPs and confusing technical manuals, as well as various other financial, social, psychological and physical factors ...
1: One who loves his or her country. 2: One who loves and protects the people of his or her country. 3: One who perceives national defense as health, education, and shelter of all people in his or her country. (Orig. FPA, 1991)
"I mean, you look at dictatorships and basically, they get up in the morning and the single most important thing is not looking out for their people, it's how do we preserve the regime. How do we continue our ability to control everything and repress everyone and control the press and deny freedom of religion and enlarge our prisons and force people, in the case of other countries, to live on subsistence food. I don't get it."
-- U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, on April 14's "Meet the Press"
However, Google's turning up very little info about this National Library in Iraq. What gives?
"The leading libraries of Iraq include the University of Basra Central Library; the University of Mosul Central Library; and the library of the Iraqi Museum, the National Library, and the University of Baghdad Central Library, all in Baghdad. Public libraries are in most of the provincial capitals." MetaFilter thread
"Google is a privately-owned US company that has a policy of collecting as much information as possible about everyone who uses its search tool.
It will store your computer's IP address, the time/date, your browser details and the item you search for.
It sets a tracking cookie on your computer that does not expire until 2038.
This means that Google builds up a detailed profile of your search terms over many years.
Google probably knew when you last thought you were pregnant, what diseases your children have had, and who your divorce lawyer is.
It refuses to say why it wants this information or to admit whether it makes it available to the US Government for tracking purposes."
"Troops were driving past the German embassy even as looters carted desks and chairs out of the front gate ...
"It also provided a glimpse of the shocking taste in furnishings that senior Baath party members obviously aspired to; cheap pink sofas and richly embroidered chairs, plastic drinks trolleys and priceless Iranian carpets so heavy it took three muscular thieves to carry them."
A CNN executive describes the horrible incidents he's had to keep to himself. How much collaboration with a criminal regime is acceptable for the sake of keeping your operations running?
"One of my research areas is public sector efficiency, which means the analysis of diverse methods of providing public services, such as by contracting out, vouchers, public enterprise, etc.
"The new Iraq is now one giant Federal government program, the new libertarian nightmare. Much of it will be under the purview of contractors ...
Pharmaceuticals and related topics - SARS therapies, how to identify a chemical weapons plant, Cipro in Iraq, patents, etc. A good spot to check in on the industry.
"Bruce asked what kind of non-violent cause or causes might unite America and why Democrats have not proposed it. I can suggest at least three: homeland security, energy security, and national productivity.
"Americans should be enlisted in an urgent national effort to secure our neighborhoods against terrorist attacks. We can volunteer for training in emergency medical response in case of mass casualties and assume auxiliary police and fire duties. Our people would also rally around a national project to make us sufficiently energy efficient that no American need die for foreign oil in the future. And we can all participate in shifting our economy from one of consumption to one of saving, investment, and productivity."
A brief, informative dissertation on Iraq, plus MetaFilter's dhartung's pick of links on overthrowing dictators.
"To ask whether democracy, even in a non-Western sense, has a chance in Iraq is to jump one step ahead of the game. The fundamental questions we need to answer first are: What was the nature of Iraqi civil society before the Ba`thist regime destroyed it? How did the Ba`th oliberate it? And can Iraqi civil society be rebuilt after Saddam has left the stage?"
Even Republican congressmen are cut out of the loop on post-war Iraq planning
Q: How do you get the attention of the Bush Administration? Say, for example, you have run across lots of information that Saddam's fanatics are organizing to fight a guerrilla war ...
A: You can't get their attention. First, they're not willing to listen. Second, they are committed to cutting out the long-term, strategic research at agencies like the CIA, thereby ensuring that the country can't think more than 5 minutes ahead.
"How refugee camps are laid out: buildings, supplies, logistics ("Aid workers try to give the food to women instead of men. Workers find the food is more likely to get to older people and children that way because women are the ones who cook the food. Men are more likely to sell the rations for money to buy something else").
"There's also a well-done Flash version that shows a typical layout."
"The only thing I can do is to be available." Why do people say where they are when they're on a cell phone? What's different in intergenerational cell phone use, vs. teenagers on the cell phone? Plus a bunch of info on wireless and networking ...
"It's particularly disturbing that a group headed by a man who openly states he believes the faith of Islam is evil would enter into a Muslim country in the wake of an invading army," said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesmen for The Council on American-Islamic Relations."
"To those who tuned in for the Thursday morning press conference, there seemed to be another glaring discrepancy between the two men: forthrightness. This may be more a reflection of the way politicians need to speak in the U.S. because of the oversimplifying American media, or it may be because of the American political system and the short attention span of the American voter. But whatever the reason, there were obvious differences when the two men were called upon to address serious issues surrounding the war. Blair acknowledged them and discussed them; Bush ignored their validity altogether and obfuscated with misleading information.
"To sway public opinion (with the ultimate aim of affecting the government), and to add one's presence and voice to a chorus of opposition. Violent or disruptive protests, while they will get attention, will neither win public sympathy, nor change government policy.
"The disrupters are mostly just alienating the mainstream and marginalizing their own viewpoint. This is counterproductive. Justin Raimondo at Antiwar.com points out that disruptive protests make their perpetrators look narcissistic and self-dramatizing, and could even bring on a whole new wave of surveillance and crackdowns from Ashcroft.
"So what kind of protests are valid and useful?
"I'm still up for peaceful marching, which did make a national impact on February 15 and March 22. Other smart ideas: protests by key groups whose opinions are respected (hint: this doesn't mean Hollywood celebrities), and concerted efforts to positively influence media coverage."
"An ethics instructor at the U.S. Naval Academy explores how fighting a ruthless enemy can provoke ordinary soldiers to become ruthless themselves:"
"In the spring semester following the attacks of September 11, 2001, and the start of President Bush's "war on terror," I gave an unusual assignment to my students. I asked them to write essays detailing exactly why they are different from terrorists. The midshipmen were to spell out as clearly as possible how the roles they intended to fill as future Navy and Marine Corps officers are distinct in morally relevant ways from that of, say, an Al Qaeda operative. They dubbed the assignment "creepy," but gamely agreed to do it. After they had read their efforts aloud, I gave the project a twist. I had them exchange papers, and told them each to write a critical response to their classmate's paper, from the point of view of a terrorist. Then I had them read those responses aloud."
"The midshipmen found the entire exercise very disturbing because it forced them to reflect on that thin but critical line that separates warriors from murderers ..."
Skip the TV fluff, spend 10-15 minutes on these general military sitreps, and get a life! Somebody's gotta get to work and keep the economy functioning. (Are these reports accurate? Who knows. At least they're plausible and substantive.)
"Halliburton, Stevedoring Services of America get government contracts for early relief work. "It puts Halliburton in a prime position to handle the complete refurbishment of Iraq's long-neglected oil infrastructure, which will be a plum job."
- Not surprising at all
"... is the news on who is being awarded government contracts to clean up the mess in Iraq. I mean, honestly, could it get more obvious than this?"
"If Cheney were pushing this war to get money for Halliburton, and Bush is the new Hitler, stifling free speech and advancing his agenda with dictatorial glee, how did it happen that Halliburton actually lost its bid for reconstruction in Iraq?"
- This retired former chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force does not hold back on the firepower! Opening gambit:
"There's some things that surprised me a little bit. One is, as a consequence of the clumsiness, political clumsiness, we do not have help from Turkey and Saudi Arabia ...
"So why do people watch Fox News? Its popularity is linked to the belief that most mainstream media is liberal. I couldn't understand either viewpoint until I started living and working among knee-jerk Republicans, the types who feel entitled to squander resources, who think violence can solve problems, and who are pitifully overweight because they drive oversized cars to eat supersized meals."
"People in conservative suburbs know they live immoral lives. They know they drive too much and eat too much, and they know their bloated lifestyles impoverish the world. They know they are permanently degrading the environment, and, somewhere down inside, they know it takes a massive
military machine capable of unprecedented murder to keep their SUVs rolling. And they also know the government they support could easily turn on them, take away their nominal prosperity in the name of higher corporate profits. Finally they know they are unhealthy and could do much better for themselves and their families. But they don't want to admit it, because then they would have to take action. And that's why Fox News is popular. It doesn't confront viewers with the sordid truths of our society. Instead it creates
a steady, slick flow of opinion that comforts people who would prefer not to change. Who prefer working for others than for themselves. Fox gives them a feeling of belonging, the same way a sportscast creates team spirit. It
does so by lying ..."
"Feel sorry for the tyrant
Champion his cause
I admire your conviction
But your logic has some flaws
Protest marchers march for peace
Rallies on the hour
Yet you offer no solution
On removing him from power ..."
- Hints from the National Mental Health Association
"Middle- and high school age youth:
-- Plan for shared time in front of a reliable national newscast. Because the war will be discussed in school every day, your teen may be more ready to talk when he or she gets home than you’d guess. This is a good opportunity for conversation.
-- Discussing history with this age group can help put the war and related politics in context.
-- Get teens to open up about what they’ve heard each day about the war. Use the opportunity to correct any misinformation they may have acquired.
-- This age group may ask very technical or even grisly questions that may seem off the wall to you. Take each question seriously and do the best you can to answer it.
-- Encourage them to work out their own positions on the war – even it differs from your own. This is an age when kids are developing personal ethics and morals, a process you can support with open discussion and debate."
"A group of higher education experts is calling on the federal government to change the way it handles visa applications for foreign graduate students in math, science, and engineering. Since 9-11, the State Department has become more cautious about issuing visas for those students, saying their skills could be exploited by terrorists. The new scrutiny has led to an application backlog of as many as 2,000 cases.
"Last week, David Ward, president of the American Council on Education, testified at a House Science Committee hearing on the issue. Here he speaks about what he thinks are the main problems with the State Department's policy on foreign students."
"`When the Priest asked us to gather for a Peace Service we said we didn't want to come`. He said.
`What do you mean` I inquired, confused. `We didn't want to come because we don't want peace` he replied.
`What in the world do you mean?` I asked. `How could you not want peace?` `We don't want peace. We want the war to come` he continued.
What in the world are you talking about? I blurted back.
That was the beginning of a strange odyssey that deeply shattered my convictions and moral base but at the same time gave me hope for my people and, in fact, hope for the world."
Your SIRIUS Talk Alternative. When you’re left of center there aren’t many talk personalities to listen to - People who think like you. Sirius Left has solved that problem with hosts like Peter Werbe, Ernie Brown, Mike Malloy, consumer advocate David Horowitz, shows like The Young Turks, and SIRIUS’ own, John McMullen. Sirius Left offers uncompromised dialogue about the political and social issues affecting both the national and international community. Progressive, liberal, and open minded - Sirius Left your SIRIUS talk alternative.
PROGRAMMING:
The Peter Werbe Show
Weekdays on Sirius Left, Peter Werbe presents alternative political discussion and analysis about the current war in Iraq. Peter says that Iraq does not represent a threat to the Middle East and certainly not to the U.S. It is not about "liberating the Iraqi people." It is not about "ending terrorism." It is about oil and empire. Learn the arguments to the Bush regime's lies and how the people of the world are reacting with mass resistance... Weekdays at Noon and 6 pm EST.
Your home for conservative talk. When you’re right, you know it. You’re probably Republican and like less government. Sirius Right offers you a place to listen and talk with people who think like you.
Leading the hard-hitting line-up is Oliver North, Bob Dornan, and The BQ View and Dateline Washington.
If you’re conservative or even middle of the road, your home for talk is on Sirius Right.
NEW SHOW: The Roger Fredinburg Show
Roger's confrontational style provokes his many listeners to call in and participate while his engaging dialogue with guests illustrates his populist points of view on the issues ... His trademark monologues include colorful insights on life, experiences, and a variety of events that are both domestic and global. He's conservative, but willing to criticize fellow conservatives, giving no one the opportunity to take the easy way out.
Recent Guests include:
Ross Perot, Former Presidential Candidate, Reform Party - Pat Buchanan, Conservative Commentator - Al Gore, Former Vice President - Nitty Gritty Dirt Band - Bill O'Reilly, Fox News Channel - Senator Bob Dole, Former Presidential Candidate, Republican Party
How to facilitate discussions about the war while maintaining a safe, open atmosphere, and respecting others' rights to privacy and their own opinions. Explanations of typical emotional reactions by different age groups, and among people who are experiencing different sorts of personal impacts as a result of the war. THIS SHOULD BE REQUIRED READING FOR ALL OF US!
(This factsheet is not quite as convincing; but it does tell who to call for more help. This morning at coffee, in a DC suburb, one fellow in a suit opined that it will probably turn out to be necessary to organize an anti-war movement just like Vietnam all over again; his buddy, a policeman in uniform, said a single mother in his circle of acquaintances was in the Reserves, and had been told to sign the papers handing her kid over to someone else as soon as she was deployed ... )
This morning my new housemate told me a great story about being a little boy walking eight miles to school past the leopards and wolves outside his village.
Sounds a lot like something that was going around in Pittsburgh about 3 years back. Think I might have picked it up from a neighbor who had it. Not exactly a flu, a cold, bronchitis, or pneumonia -- somewhere between the four --- makes you cough, and totally knocks you out. FWIW, the neighbor was doing medical research on killed cold viruses at the time.
Best advice: Everybody, get lots of sleep and eat good the next few weeks! If you're strong, buff, and energetic you'll fight this thing off, eventually. I tried Echinacea on it, but didn't notice the usual immediate overnight effect. (Could be the Echinacea is what cured me, but I was too sick to notice at the time.) I recommend a Reiki treatment, cough syrup, and neighbors bringing you hot soup to get you through the first 3-4 days.
"When he's not talking about blowing himself up and killing American troops, Fadi talks about his other great dream. ''I want to be a programmer at Microsoft,'' he says. ''Not just a programmer. I want to be well known, famous.''
"Fadi doesn't see anything strange about using American self-help tapes to get a job at an American company, while at the same time harboring hatred of the American government to the point of self-annihilation ...
Feeling a little isolated down there on Pennsylvania Avenue yet? Maybe y'all need to step outside the Beltway for a few minutes. There's this big, unemployed American Public out there invitin' ya to step outside ...
CNN has reported that Barbara Bodine, mentioned in the next section of this article, will be "administering" central Iraq once the forthcoming "war" is over.
(March 10, 2003) IRAN has a far stronger nuclear weapons program than earlier thought, US officials said today ...
"(How in the hell is this a suprise? I've been carrying on about this since March 12th, 2001 when Russia agreed to hand over bio-chem and nuke technology for oil exploratory rights in the Caspian Sea! Suprise!! news.com.au has been scooped for 2 whole years on this story!!!...-Ed.) - Worlds End"
"Why I am going to the Gulf with a heavy heart ... I have been a serving officer in Her Majesty's Armed Forces for more than 23 years ... After the Gulf War, I helped to administer and enforce the no-fly zones over Iraq ... In my service career, I have never felt compelled to speak to a journalist or contact a newspaper. Until now. I should also add that I am not alone in my views."
Squares with my limited, random personal input from that sector. Running across a staunch ally type who says "this doesn't seem to be very well planned," ya gotta wonder ...
"And these Islamist groups played a big part in the anti-Communist massacres of the mid-60s that killed 500000 people, with many of the victims being Chinese ..."
... doing a sudden 180 degree turn in its editorial line. Maybe FoxNews is next! We're Left, They're Wrong quotes the story for those of us who can't afford the WSJ subscription.
"Watching this Iraq story unfold, all I can say is this: If this were not about my own country, my own kids and my own planet, I'd pop some popcorn, pull up a chair and pay good money just to see how this drama unfolds." - Thomas Friedman
"The pace of Special Operations forces will also be stepped up. Their main focus will be denying Iraqi forces access to certain chemical and biological weapons sites that cannot be bombed for fear of setting up toxic plumes ... " - WaPo
"Promises of a Marshall Plan-like reconstruction plan for Afghanistan never materialized, Singer said. It is estimated it would take about $20 billion to get Afghanistan on track, but the U.S. financial commitment has fallen far short of that figure, he said. The Bush administration forgot to add funding in its 2004 federal budget proposal to reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan, only to have go back and put in $300 million."
"This is a guide to monitoring radio stations transmitting to and from Iraq. Although television coverage on Iraq is even heavier than before the Gulf War of 1991, shortwave and mediumwave radio still offer a unique chance to get alternative, first hand accounts and opinions on the crisis - at least if you speak Arabic or Kurdish. Here you can find a listing of radio stations involved in the crisis, complete with frequencies and audio samples."
"He noted that the Botswana Defence Force (BDF) and the Prisons department, which were perceived as the main culprits in the use of fuelwood collection, had now shifted to other forms of energy."
"The controversial Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator (RNEP) programme has been awarded $15 million development funding in 2002, with the same amount likely in 2003. But a new clause attached to the funding calls for the US National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to investigate what effect any use of the weapon would have."
This article not only describes environmental damage, it also alleges that bombing Afghanistan provoked earthquakes ...
"US intelligence officials have identified more than 2,000 members of the Iraqi elite, including some to be captured and tried as war criminals and many more the American military will try to turn against Mr Saddam Hussein during any invasion, senior government officials said on Tuesday."
"Will you hear the cries of Iraqis executed in acid tanks in Baghdad? the Iraqi women raped in front of their husbands and fathers to extract confessions? Or of children tortured in front of their parents? Or of families billed for the bullets used to execute military "deserters" in front of their own homes?
"No. I suspect that most of you will simply retire to your cappucino cafes to brainstorm the next hot topic to protest, and that you will simply forget about us Iraqis, once you succeed in discrediting President Bush.
Please, prove me wrong."
Wednesday, February 27, 2002 01:55 p.m.
"If it doesn’t want to hibernate for another 20 years, then the peace movement – in reality a multicolored collection of different groups – should work more intensively than it has on alternatives…. It must learn to say more than a loud “no.” It must ask itself whether there are situations in which people with pacifist leanings can agree to rescue actions of a military character. It must formulate its justified call for conflict prevention much more precisely than it has so far. Then something could grow that a demonstration, no matter how large, can only sow the seeds for: a lasting effort on the part of civil society for peaceful conflict resolution."
"So it is no small thing that the bases run by Forces Command have embarked on an ‘Installation Sustainability Program’ (‘installation’ is Army-talk for ‘base’; apparently, only the Air Force has ‘bases’). And that these installations are busily setting long-term goals for transformation that are some of the most visionary I’ve ever seen.
"In consultation with their surrounding communities, and a small invasion of American sustainability ‘wonks’ - Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, Bill McDonough and myself have all done tours of duty - they are setting long-term goals like 80% reduction in fossil fuel use. All new buildings constructed to Platinum standard on the US Green Building Council’s rating scale. Zero toxic emissions."
"I asked a .mil reader for a view of the situation with Iraq from where he sits. His account of the attitudes which prevail inside the military caught me by surprise:
'Inside the military' is not an easy place to get to. There are at least three sub-communities: green suiters, people who are enlisted or commissioned in the military; DOD civilian employees, such as myself, who do a lot of the work of making the military function; and contractors, who are also civilians, but are not federal employees.
"Starting with Federal employees, I'll say that those that I know of and work with in the base operations and training communities view Iraq as an enormous waste of time, money and resources. We're all praying that it gets put off past the summer, so that the funds for our projects aren't sucked back into the black hole that is Desert Storm II or whatever they're calling it. The political leadership is not held in esteem. No one is planning on them being around past 20 January 2005.
"The green suiters I work with are ambivalent about Iraq. They recognize it as an inordinate allocation of resources and effort that is distracting from actual threats, such as the continued fighting in Afghanistan and the real threat from North Korea. The higher you go in the military hierarchy, the more pronounced this perception is, or, at least, the more loudly it is vocalized. (At least up to the level I work with, which is the 0-6 and 0-7 level.)"
"David Dill is trying to "organize opposition to unauditable electronic voting machines by technologists, especially computer science researchers". Hopefully they can make enough noise that people will listen."
"I believe that Dick Cheney has thought all these considerations through in vastly greater detail than I¹m providing here and has reached these following conclusions: first, that it is in the best interests of humanity that the United States impose a fearful peace upon the world and, second, that the best way to begin that epoch would be to establish dominion over the Middle East through the American Protectorate of Iraq. In other words, it¹s not about oil, it¹s about power and peace ...
"By these terrible means, they will create a world where war conducted by any country but the United States will seem simply too risky and the Great American Peace will begin. Unregulated Global Corporatism will be the only permissible ideology, every human will have access to McDonald¹s and the Home Shopping Network, all ³news² will come through some variant of AOLTimeWarnerCNN, the Internet will be run by Microsoft, and so it will remain for a long time.
She began to consider directing her clients away from their traumas and toward the parts of their lives that ''gave them more juice.'' She found that it worked. With trauma survivors, Miller now never begins a group session by asking, ''How are you feeling?'' ''Oh, my God, that would just be a disaster,'' she says. ''All I'd get was, 'Terrible, fearful, awful.' Instead I say, 'What strengths do you need to focus on today?'''
All the more reason to reach out to our fellow humans who are sad, having a tough time, upset, or justifiably disgruntled. Today I was rather shocked when an out-of-work fellow who fought in Panama and Desert Storm said to me, "Maybe it would be better to move to Canada, where they still care about people." Well, I'm an American, and I care. Don't we people who care about the disadvantaged and unemployed still count as Americans? What ever happened to "United We Stand?"
"My own formula is roughly two hours alone for every hour of socializing. This isn't antisocial. It isn't a sign of depression. It does not call for medication. For introverts, to be alone with our thoughts is as restorative as sleeping, as nourishing as eating. Our motto: "I'm okay, you're okay—in small doses."
"German Defense Minister Peter Struck has outlined cuts and re-allocations of funds so Germany's armed forces can better operate in crisis zones abroad, such as the ISAF peace mission in Afghanistan. By reducing outlays on planes, tanks, naval boats and helicopters, at least three billion euros would be freed up over ten years for new projects."
2 million refugees possible - RealPlayer video clip of German preparations for humanitarian assistance to Iraq. An aid worker reports he's received a request for gas masks in anticipation of chemical attack.
Friday, February 22, 2002 02:25 a.m.
"The thing that's interesting about living in another country,'' he says, ''is that it's difficult to forget you're an American. The actions of the American Government won't let you. They make you self-conscious, make you aware of yourself as an American. You find yourself mixed up in world politics in more subtle ways than you're accustomed to. On the one hand, you're aware of America's blundering in country after country. And on the other hand, you're aware of the way in which people in other countries have created the myth of America, of the way in which they use America to relieve their own fears and guilt by blaming America automatically for anything that goes wrong."
Key concepts:
war, depression, anguished and jittery rich people
Attention Conservation Notice:
It's charming personal gossip about the rich and powerful that the gossiper didn't intend for us to hear. So I feel kind of bad about letting on to it to 1,800+ people. On the other hand, Viridians need to hear this, so that you can go buy duct tape, survival weapons and bags of rice.
"There is a tendency to think of the Information Age threat as consisting of software worms or viruses or a shutdown of electrical power, but there is a middle ground where energy is used to erase or disrupt or destroy digital systems without cutting off power and without introducing contaminating software."
"Meanwhile, outraged Iraqi exiles report that there won't be any equivalent of postwar de-Nazification, in which accomplices of the defeated regime were purged from public life. Instead the Bush administration intends to preserve most of the current regime: Saddam Hussein and a few top officials will be replaced with Americans, but the rest will stay. You don't have to be an Iraq expert to realize that many very nasty people will therefore remain in power — more moral clarity! — and that the U.S. will in effect take responsibility for maintaining the rule of the Sunni minority over the Shiite majority.
"If this all sounds incredibly callous and shortsighted, that's because it is. But then what did you expect? This administration doesn't worry about long-term consequences — just look at its fiscal policy. It wants its war; there's not the slightest indication that it's interested in the boring, expensive task of building a just and lasting peace."
"A group of editors from leading scientific journals have called for restraint in publishing articles that might contain information useful to terrorists."
Thiodiglycol, a chemical that could be used to make mustard gas, shipped out of Baltimore? A lawsuit 'alleges that companies knew "products and/or manufacturing facilities supplied ... were to be used to produce chemical and biological weapons."'
"If you start a small business that pays most employees the minimum wage, those employees will have difficulty making ends meet in much of the country ...
"For workers trying to grab that brass ring, any misfortune can be devastating. A car accident, a house fire, an illness, an unplanned pregnancy or a divorce can be a major setback. As a former social worker, I've met some impressively talented and industrious people who've been levelled this way. Some perfectly civil, amiable, well-groomed and talented folks have experienced more than one misfortune, completely negating new-age karmic philosophies, religious, and Ayn-Randian myths that suggest good people always go far.
"Most US politicians do not cater to such folks. We remain one of the few developed countries without accessible health care for an appallingly high number of its citizens. Politicians in both major parties are guilty of neglect in this regard, but some heap insult upon injury by marginalizing the working poor even more."
"Sundry articles, comments, and links on topics broadly political by BILL HOWELL. He is both a stout Democrat and a democrat from Stout, Texas. He was Dallas County Democratic Party Chair from May 1999 through April 2002."
"The Bush folks are big on attitude, weak on strategy and terrible at diplomacy.
"Seeing senior Bush officials abroad for any length of time has become like rare-bird sightings. It's probably because they spend so much time infighting in Washington over policy, they're each afraid that if they leave town their opponents will change the locks on their office doors.
"Also, you would think that if Iraq were the focus of your whole foreign policy, maybe you would have handled North Korea with a little less attitude, so as not to trigger two wars at once. Maybe you would have come up with that alternative — which President Bush promised — to the Kyoto treaty, a treaty he trashed to the great anger of Europe. You're not going to get much support in Europe telling people, "You are either with us or against us in a war on terrorism, but in the war you care about — for a greener planet — America will do whatever it wants."
"Except with close friends, most Americans used to avoid political subjects in conversation. But now that our country operates on an endless war footing, it's less likely to be true. You may not be able to avoid the subject. The more Americans start talking with each other about where our country is headed the better. But these conversations need to be genuinely helpful, not exercises in mutual misunderstanding. And since they are most likely to occur without much prior arrangement, you need to get ready."
"Your search - "talking about peace with people who think differently than you do" - did not match any documents."
"A study by the Physicians for Human Rights organisation two years ago found that more than 70 per cent of Afghan women suffered from major depression, nearly two-thirds were suicidal, and 16 per cent had already attempted suicide. Even in areas not controlled by the student militia, the study showed that more than half “perceived their mental health as poor”."
Opium addiction is rising. "These women have not become addicted for pleasure. The main cause of their addiction is 23 years of war."
The Scud ship returns to North Korea with a thoughtful gift of sodium cyanide. What's on the menu today, plastics and agricultural products, or sarin nerve gas? Starving people want to know.
A blog of "What Alice Found." Top-notch, thought provoking quotes and newslinks. Takes one to know one! This style of directness is a dead giveaway for a liberal arts heritage or a Swedish-American upbringing.
"Now take a look at the budget just presented to the Congress by the Bush administration. The first thing you'll notice is that there is no accounting for the cost of the coming war. None. ... The only description for this kind of fiscal insouciance is irresponsible."
Tuesday, February 19, 2002 04:06 p.m.
"Two hundred and fourteen years ago the First Congress standing upon the holy ground of a new Constitution met in this city. Their permit came from the Declaration of Independence. The same High Power which entrusted them entrusts us with the Declaration, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. We call upon the Spirit of the Founders to guide us as we create a new world where all may live in peace.
"The United States, brought forth by the power of human unity, seeks to be reborn. We invoke the Spirit of Freedom. We hear the cadence of courage echo across the ages: "Life, Liberty, pursuit of Happiness." Once again, the hour has come for us to stand for unity, even as our government tells us we must follow it into war. Once again the hour has come for us to be strong of heart. The direction of human unity is forward. We are on the march. It is our government which must follow, or be swept aside."
"Progressive news & commentary from
the armchair activist: musings, clippings, links, do-gooding, rants, dissent, & occasional music and recipes from a journalist, activist, Earth citizen, nonconformist, & mom working for a more peaceful, civilized, safe, just planet... & struggling to find moments of kindness, joy, and love despite this lonely, dangerous world's overwhelming lack of peace, humanity, safety, and fairness"
"I actually find it encouraging that the anti-war movement is developing without any prominent national leadership. Our media is obsessed with personalities. If any one or two individuals were to rise to that level then the whole movement would become, in the media's presentation of it, a minor adjunct to those people's personalities.
"Furthermore, when there is a prominent leader the movement becomes that much more vulnerable to being killed off at the head (either by a convenient scandal or a real death).
"I like the way this is developing and I'm not sure I want anyone to become too prominent. Especially not if they are a politician who is looking to make a name for themselves by riding the crest of a new wave."
"Well today, it happened for me, so I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't affecting a lot of other people. We've been sent to the Home Depot for tape, told not to bother with the tape, told we'll suffocate if we use the tape, told we should probably still use it anyhow, and made fun of for buying tape and now we're fed up.
"I know there are people who are un-affected by this stuff. But the relentlessness isn't our fault. The constant stream of information, the shifting sands of perspective always tilted toward war war war weren't built by us. Maybe it's time to declare a blackout ... Force yourself to the surface of this morass and think for yourself!
"When democratic nations face foreign policy challenges, their leaders usually pursue domestic policies designed to promote social solidarity and national unity ...
"Churchill recognized that a time of war places a special obligation on the governing classes to those who benefit least from a nation's social and economic arrangements. Bush, on the other hand, is doing all he can to benefit the economic elites and, through stealth, to undercut government's commitments to the least fortunate.
"This not a liberal fantasy. Conservatives acknowledge that Bush's long-term goal is to reduce the federal government's capacity to act -- yes, to spend -- without saying so publicly."
Don't ask, don't tell.
It's classified!
Never criticize the President. Or use a public terminal to look for work. It's suspicious.
And if you do, make sure you log off properly, so you don't wind up like this poor schlunk!
"The way our country is now, the only way people apologize anymore is with money. So I'm going to sue."
Isn't anyone out there astute enough to figure out how Mr. Fischer's background could be of value in resolving the current situtation? If you're too square and rigid, when the earthquake hits, your structures collapse.
"Senior Bush administration officials are for the first time openly discussing a subject they have sidestepped during the buildup of forces around Iraq:
what could go wrong, and not only during an attack but also in the aftermath of an invasion."
Possibly, but the folks at MSNBC can't tell. Evidently, there's nobody around who speaks Arabic well enough to be certain of what he was trying to say.
"When President Bush announced the USA Freedom Corps and said that every American should donate 4000 hours of unpaid volunteer work to his country, I answered the call! Since then I have spent at least 1000 hours reading, studying, and writing anti-Bush "rants" and essays. (Only 3000 hours to go!)"
"HCL eServe has put in place a team of 75 people to work on the project out of its call centres in Noida and Gurgaon ...
These operators are required to call up people in the US seeking their support for President George W Bush and a donation for the Republican cause."
The implications of this technology could complicate things considerably.
Monday, February 18, 2002 10:55 a.m.
"So if a terrorist group is trying to drive in we can identify the car, it can be flagged up instantly and we can even possibly be in a position where we can recognise the driver."
"The 39-year-old anthropologist allegedly angered the military when she wrote a groundbreaking report blaming state anti-insurgency campaigns for killing Mayan Indians during the country's 1960-1996 civil war."
LANDAU: "I remember, more than 30 years ago when planes were being hijacked to Cuba from the U.S. and the Cuban government said we won’t accept anymore of this and that stopped the hijackings. I can’t recall any planes that have been hijacked to Cuba recently, but there are regularly Cubans who hijack planes to the U.S. Do you think that the U.S. doesn’t understand that this sets a precedent?"
ALARCON: "30 years ago we kept telling Americans that you’re playing with fire. The hijackings began, from Cuba to U.S. The first hijacking was on January 1, 1959. The Batista people that escaped and landed in your country by plane or boat without visas, passports and authorization, yet all of them were warmly received by U.S. authorities. That was the beginning of this whole story. Then commercial planes were hijacked from Cuba to the U.S., using violence. We always said this was creating a new form of international crime and that was the case.
"So, Americans started doing the same thing the other way. We stopped that. We said this is wrong and we won’t admit anyone and we will punish you. On one occasion, a plane was hijacked by 2 Cuban Americans and we returned the plane to the U.S. as we always did.
"Since that moment, no more planes came from the United States to Cuba. Lately, we have a series of hijackings of small planes and boats from Cuba and the US fails to return them, the perpetrators or planes. They are repeating history. That was the way the hijackings began in the 60s."
"The unique, ultrasonic tone emitted by aerosol paint cans trips the sensors, which signal a transmitter linked to a police cell phone or radio. The global positioning system pinpoints the location of the transmitter, Lerg said.
"Just from the test I have seen and word from Chula Vista it has worked wonderfully," said Officer Judy Ronnebeck of the Escondido Police, adding that the $2,000 price tag for each unit seems a small price to pay for space surveillance."
"Known as a standard-bearer among the notorious hard-line hawks of the Bush administration Bolton never opens his mouth without making anti-DPRK remarks, bereft of reason. Therefore, his recent outbursts do not deserve even a passing note,” said a DPRK foreign ministry’s spokesman on August 31. “If there is any security issue over which the U.S. should worry, it is entirely attributable to the Bush administration’s hostile policy toward the DPRK,” he added."
Gosh, after that kind of praise, let's make the next delegation Jesse Ventura and Newt Gingrich. They can't do any worse at softening these guys up.
"I wonder if there is anyone in the world who works harder at anything than American school kids work at popularity. Navy SEALs and neurosurgery residents seem slackers by comparison. They occasionally take vacations; some even have hobbies. An American teenager may work at being popular every waking hour, 365 days a year."
"The Person Sitting in Darkness is almost sure to say: "There is something curious about this -- curious and unaccountable. There must be two Americas: one that sets the captive free, and one that takes a once-captive's new freedom away from him, and picks a quarrel with him with nothing to found it on; then kills him to get his land."
"As best as I can understand it, the case for war against Iraq rests primarily on what Aristotle — these old Greeks, they understood things — called the argument of future fact, or the possibility that a thing might occur in the future based on events that have happened in the past ..."
A rather hawkish case, but containment nonetheless.
"This is not the first time President Saddam has apparently fallen out with his family. In 1996 he had his two sons-in-law executed ... His estranged first wife Sajida is no longer on speaking terms with him after the mysterious death of her brother."
"We organized a rally here at the US Amundsen-Scott Station, South Pole, Antarctica. We were only five rallying, probably the smallest protest in the world. Antarctica is the only continent where no wars ever happened and where all countries recognise that the only way to survive is collaboration."
"Warren Ball e-mailed Joe about a story on 60 Minutes about a minor scandal involving defective chemical warfare protective suits. While I did not see the story, I am familiar with the scandal.
"My day job is as a quality specialist for the Defense Department. The textile side of military procurement has been a nightmare for years ..."
Sunday, February 17, 2002 04:53 p.m.
"By the time every rich kid is 21, they'll likely have something like $300,000 in assets in their Roth-like accounts. Compound that by the time they retire -- or need a home or anything else they can use the accounts for -- and they'll be living pretty tax-free while the tax burden falls only on those earning wages day to day."
-Nathan Newman
"How in the world do you trust a 'news' organiztion like CNN, when they offer what purports to be a full transcript of Hans Blix' address to the UN Security Council but they leave out nearly 800 words - and those words just happen to be the ones where Blix refutes Colin Powell's 'smoking gun' presentation from earlier this week?"
Note to self: "CNN transcript" does not necessarily mean a "full text."
A new kind of suburbia
Village de la gare in Mont St. Hilaire is designed to discourage car use
"it's got textbook transit-oriented development characteristics--quick access on foot to transit, narrower streets to discourage driving--i hope it works out like it should."
- Affinity
If there are as many as 500,000 Iraqis in Britain, as one article I spotted claimed, surely there are more indigenous strains of leadership than this foundation.
"The Iraqis made a fruitless appeal for fraternal solidarity last month. The Kurdish leader Barham Salih flew to a meeting of the Socialist International in Rome to argue for 'the imperative of freedom and liberation from fascism and dictatorship'. Those marchers who affect to believe in pluralism should find his arguments attractive, if they can suppress their prejudices long enough to hear him out."
On February 13, 2003, teams of artists and activists began postering New York City with snapshots from Baghdad. Quiet and casual, the snapshots show a part of Baghdad we rarely see: the part with people in it.
Q: Mr. Secretary, You put Germany in one category with Cuba and Libya in remarks this week that have outraged many Germans. What's the point of such blunt characterization of one of your allies? ...
"Only on the surface is this about a refusal of preventive military assistance for Turkey. At heart, the conflict is over the soul of NATO: Should it remain a defense organization or, in line with the new U.S. security doctrine, be developed into an instrument of global preventive intervention?… Bush's mantra - those who are not with us are against us - removes the alliance's foundation cemented together out of voluntariness, equality and solidarity. NATO will not fall apart over the conflict over Iraq. Rather it will collapse as a result of its own inner aimlessness. The old NATO is, for lack of a clear enemy, already dead. As yet, no one has been able to breathe life into a new one. And the likelihood that this might yet succeed looks close to zero at this point."
Stuttgarter Zeitung
(February 12)
"As the U.S. government's latest terror warnings underscore, Americans have been living with the knowledge that they are at war since September 11 [2001]. Nothing justifies the war [in Iraq]? You can't tell them that. What separates the allies is more than an ocean or a dispute. It is varying sensibilities. Following the end of the Cold War, these changed gradually, after September 11, 2001, rapidly. With this [divergence] and its expansion, the Atlantic alliance loses the significance it had for decades. Open conflict without end threatens to accelerate the process. You don't have to be a cynic to predict that a war in Iraq would ensure a new orientation and more cohesion. If it ends quickly and victoriously, the success will have a hundred fathers. If it unleashes chaos, we will all have to deal with the consequences."
Der Tagesspiegel
(Berlin, February 13)
"Even NATO must recognize that the U.S. is really the only world power. And the European part of NATO will have to get used to the idea that in many cases this world power is a world power first and a partner second. The task at hand for the Europeans is structurally not so different from Willy Brandt's Ostpolitik. There needs to be a new Westpolitik, an attempt to come to acceptable arrangements with a difficult and occasionally stubborn partner. In contrast to those days, the structure for such discussions exists. It is NATO. But it must be used so cleverly that no one finds a reason to shove the mechanism aside. Then the alliance would indeed be in danger."
"The pension fund manager for New York City's firemen and policemen has filed shareholder resolutions to force General Electric and two other large US companies to review their commercial ties to what it calls "terrorist-sponsoring states".
Don't miss this winning combination of sitcom and dry British humor! A MUST SEE.
"A great (and funny) 50-minute show from on the history of Iraq and the problems with the current attack. They should show this on every channel here." - Aaron Swartz
"The BBC is asking people attending Saturday's anti-war protests who are carrying new combination camera/cell phones to relay their pictures to its newsroom at (44) 7970 885089 or email them to yourpics@bbc.co.uk. The broadcaster said that it hopes to provide coverage of the demonstrations 'from a protester's perspective.' It is also accepting photos taken with digital cameras." - MetaFilter
(Or do they? What's with this CIA director who keeps insisting it's his job to present the actual facts, not make policy?)
Like someone said recently, "I was in the military, and in the military it doesn't matter whether it's good or bad, you have to tell the truth. If you don't tell the truth, people die."
"Unless America is willing to police the new order for many years and invest vast political and economic resources in assisting, not imposing, the reconstruction of state and society, Iraq will fracture and descend into chaos. Its neighbours will be destabilised. New jihadi groups will arise. Not only will there be no peace and democracy in Iraq, but the West’s security interests will be endangered further. Sadly, this worst-case scenario is hardly entertained by American officials, who now seem to be prisoners of their own rhetoric."
- Fawaz A. Gerges is Professor of Middle Eastern Studies at Sarah Lawrence College, and author of the forthcoming “The Islamists and the West”
"First, I want to let people know that the president hasn't made any decision yet about military action," said Victoria Clarke, assistant secretary of defense for public affairs and chief spokeswoman for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.
"Yeah, right," an elderly woman blurted out.
...Clarke went on to say that diplomacy was very important in solving the Iraqi problem. And, despite indications by the Bush administration that war would come "within weeks, not months," she maintained that "the U.S. is not acting so fast."
I can't remember the last time I heard so many people sigh or saw so many roll their eyes and throw their hands up in exasperation.
"Someone tell Bush that Oz is having a sale on brains," a woman said.
The audience was made up mostly of working-class and professional people from throughout the Washington area. Some brought their children in hopes of helping them understand what was going on. They were not your usual peaceniks.
...While talking about the proposed Patriot Act II, for instance, which would essentially give Attorney General John D. Ashcroft more power to spy on and secretly detain U.S. citizens, one woman said, "It's made me think a lot about George Orwell lately."
To which her friend replied, "It's more like the Gestapo to me."
Someone from the audience asked, "Where is the imminent threat?"
Clarke replied with a riddle: "That all depends on what you mean by imminent."
"There are very acute mental illnesses that are specific to the activist scene. For one, you have a society that ridicules and marginalizes your vocation ...
A kiss is still . . . "an osculatory apposition of the orbicularis oris and levator labii muscles with posterior involvement of the sternocleidomastoids, commonly in a dexterous orientation," commented the dashing and romantic German researcher.
"High level Administration figures recently refused to take nuclear weapons off of the table when discussing a possible attack against Iraq. What could be more destabilizing and unwise than this type of uncertainty, particularly in a world where globalism has tied the vital economic and security interests of many nations so closely together? There are huge cracks emerging in our time-honored alliances, and U.S. intentions are suddenly subject to damaging worldwide speculation. Anti-Americanism based on mistrust, misinformation, suspicion, and alarming rhetoric from U.S. leaders is fracturing the once solid alliance against global terrorism which existed after September 11.
"Here at home, people are warned of imminent terrorist attacks with little guidance as to when or where such attacks might occur. Family members are being called to active military duty, with no idea of the duration of their stay or what horrors they may face. Communities are being left with less than adequate police and fire protection. Other essential services are also short-staffed. The mood of the nation is grim. The economy is stumbling ...
"Calling heads of state pygmies, labeling whole countries as evil, denigrating powerful European allies as irrelevant -- these types of crude insensitivities can do our great nation no good. We may have massive military might, but we cannot fight a global war on terrorism alone. We need the cooperation and friendship of our time-honored allies as well as the newer found friends whom we can attract with our wealth."
Now courage call, and dark concerns dispel:
The closed racecourse of fear is better quelled
Than let to run. The shadow has been there
A time; we slept in comfort, unaware.
When now we wake, it casts a fearsome form
That seems a portent of some dreadful storm.
Fear not: the light does it, not us, offend:
It is our waking that will make its end.
"Remember to ask me if regular programming should continue to run on weekends and if we have specialty shows that can't or won't talk about the war, we will probably blow them off. Even Dr. Laura. Remember, no fishing shows, gardening shows. We are AT WAR ..."
"These kids will not take low-paying jobs teaching in the inner cities. They won't join the Peace Corps. If they find themselves with a few extra hours here and there, they won't volunteer at a homeless shelter--they'll take a second job. When young people defer their dreams, when options vanish, America loses."
"When investigating a computer crime or other serious felonies, prosecutors would be able to serve secret subpoenas on people, ordering them to hand over evidence and testify in person. If served with a secret subpoena, you'd go to jail if you "disclosed" to anyone but your lawyer that you received it."
"Honda Motor Co is only major automaker that has not joined Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, industry group that has led fight against tougher fuel and emissions standards."
"Just as there was no act of aggression against Rome to prompt an attack against the Parthians, Ms. Fantham argued, there has been no act of aggression by Iraq against the United States."
"The men, dressed in their military uniforms, approached Officer Matt Dorgan at about 4 a.m. and told him they wanted to surrender, Key West police spokeswoman Cynthia Edwards said. One man had a Chinese handgun holstered to his side, which he allowed Dorgan to take."
"Officers searching their boat docked at the Hyatt Marina Resort found two loaded AK-47 machine guns along with ammunition. The boat was still flying a Cuban flag."
"You may have hear rumors about an FBI agent hovering around the ALA midwinter meeting in Philadelphia. In fact, there is some truth to the rumor. Here's what happened ... "
Saturday, February 9, 2002 07:19 a.m.
"The people who succeeded and did well were those who didn't stand up, who didn't write the big stories, who looked the other way when history was happening in front of them, and went along either consciously or just by cowardice with the deception of the American people."
"Many of us have worked in bureaucracies, and we have seen this dynamic in action. We have met the bureaucratic geniuses, the people who consolidate their power with blind carbon copies and ambush presentations, who move up the organizational chart by paying full-time attention to the organizational chart."
"Saudi Arabia's leaders have made far-reaching decisions to prepare for an era of military disengagement from the United States, to enact what Saudi officials call the first significant democratic reforms at home, and to rein in the conservative clergy that has shared power in the kingdom."
"Concern about a possible war has also changed what had been a relatively positive relationship between Mrs. Bush and the literary community. A former librarian who has made teaching and early childhood development her signature issues, she has held a series of symposiums to salute America's authors."
"A Bush administration overhaul of decades-old labor regulations could force many Americans to work longer hours without overtime pay.
"The administration argues that the pillars of American labor law, which established the 40-hour work week, a minimum wage and overtime pay, are antiquated."
A professor comes back to the office unexpectedly, calls security to report that his computer's missing, and they tell him "Computer's gone? No problem, man, you're cool." So what's that supposed to mean anyway?
"The overwhelming majority of marijuana users quit voluntarily in their early 30s -- often citing health or professional concerns or the decision to start a family."
"I find it irritating how drug-abusing campus residents seem to think they wield an inherent right to use drugs in the dorms. I've spoken with several students who are equally irritated. Occasionally we like to study, and for the most part we would like to study without having to smell somebody's stinky marijuana joint."
Because Mr. Blix can always use another proofreader, why shouldn't it be you? It's not like the rest of us need to get any work done, watch important chick flick videos, etc.
Your associates will cringe when you head 'em off at the pass, by anticipating their every riposte.
The suggestion to scrap the nebulous term "war," and Call an Invasion an Invasion, Call a Premptive Strike a Premptive Strike, could do a lot to clear up the debate on all sides!
For all practical purposes, a war is already in progress. The question is a measured response, which maintains an appropriate degree of containment, so that nobody makes any false moves, vs. erratic escalation which makes people way too nervous ...
Meanwhile, the UN High Commission on Refugees and the good townspeople of Vermont and Upstate New York are doing their best to keep frightened Pakistanis attempting to flee the country warm and fed. I could swear I heard this story on my car radio, but it doesn't seem to appear anywhere on the NPR site. Could it be some pirate radio broadcaster attempting to sow misinformation?
Your tax cut is on its way. Check's almost in the mail! "Meanwhile, the President omits any provision for financing a possible war with Iraq." Trust him, he's President, he knows what he's doing. And if not, his advisors can always turn to Google, the Internet, and our army of highly-paid grad students to figure out what's next.
... When our hero's work is presented in a major speech by a top US official at the UN, as usual, our grad student doesn't get any credit. Give this kid tenure!