On Monday, March 31, the Los Angeles Times published a front-page photograph that had been altered in violation of Times policy. Editors Note, Los Angeles Times
"I am an American," he says after a minute. "I stand with the pope and former President Jimmy Carter. In this country, you say what you think."LAT: An antiwar Arab, a proud American.
originally posted by xowie
U.S. officers say they recognize that roundups of men who appear to be civilians, and who may or may not be armed, will be among the most controversial tactics they could employ, and, if applied indiscriminately, could undermine their campaign to win the "hearts and minds" of the Iraqi people.WP: U.S. Forces Rounding Up Civilian Suspects.
originally posted by xowie
"What's the sin of the children? What have they done?"WP: A boy who was 'like a flower'.
originally posted by xowie
originally posted by xowie
I’ve got an old pair of red/blue 3D glasses near my desk, “just in case” – Boy Scouts motto, you know, ‘be prepared’ – so I was searching images.google for some 3D pictures. There doesn’t seem to be any way to view the results as a slideshow, which seems not only fairly obvious but probably trivial with the Google API. In fact, the halfbakery has already considered the idea but I’m not sure the lazyweb has. What do you think?
Blogs Against War aggregates posts for peace across a growing number of weblogs. If you use Movable Type, it’s easy to have links to (and excerpts of) your peace-related posts show up on Blogs Against War automatically. If you don’t use Movable Type, there’s a form you can fill out which will accomplish the same thing. I really hope this takes off. Please encourage your favorite peacebloggers to contribute.
See also the wonderful A Beginners Guide to Trackback from the brilliant folks at Movable Type.
‘The enemy we’re fighting is a bit different than the one we war-gamed against.’That stroke of brilliance from U.S. Army jackass Lt. Gen. William Wallace, who obviously missed this fabulous Guardian article about last summer's rigged war games:
Van Riper had at his disposal a computer-generated flotilla of small boats and planes, many of them civilian, which he kept buzzing around the virtual Persian Gulf in circles as the game was about to get under way. As the US fleet entered the Gulf, Van Riper gave a signal - not in a radio transmission that might have been intercepted, but in a coded message broadcast from the minarets of mosques at the call to prayer. The seemingly harmless pleasure craft and propeller planes suddenly turned deadly, ramming into Blue boats and airfields along the Gulf in scores of al-Qaida-style suicide attacks... "A phrase I heard over and over was: 'That would never have happened,'" Van Riper recalls. "And I said: nobody would have thought that anyone would fly an airliner into the World Trade Centre... but nobody seemed interested."
originally posted by daiichi
In the midst of all this, Dr Ahmed Sufian lashed out: "Our floors are covered with blood of our people, the walls are splashed with blood. Why, why, why? Why all this blood? I'm a doctor, but I can't understand such things. They say [they] come to free us? Is this freedom?"SMH: Gruesome toll grows as army grinds to a halt.
originally posted by daiichi
R.A.: Most of the drawings in it are of Aline. Is she your muse?NYTM chats with R. Crumb.
R.C.: Oh, you know. She's around a lot, and she always wanted me to draw her. Back in the 70's and 80's, she'd say: ''I'll pose. I'll pose.'' After about half an hour, she'd say, ''Can I go yet?''
L.E.: Do girls ever dress up like one of your fantasies to meet you?
R.C.: When Aline first met me, she used to dress up to suit my fancy. She kind of got tired of that. She used to put on white knee socks and these little schoolgirl outfits. She was a lot chubbier in the early days. Now she's gotten quite thin. It's a little disheartening to see her derrière go down. But she's happier being that way, so what the heck. But she's still quite muscular. She says her ideal body type now is Lance Armstrong's.
originally posted by xowie
[....] a small number of anti-Muslim American soldiers endanger their brothers-in-arms and tarnish the reputation of American soldiers generally.Deliberately misquoted from this racist tract.
It won't help him at the polls, but Pat's message has penetrated the smoky haze and captured the imagination of the stoner demographic.Stoner's campaign signs are a steal. c/o Fark.To them he offers the promise not of a chicken in every pot, but of a pot sign for anyone who isn't chicken to grab one.
"It seems the younger generation has decided that being a stoner is cool," said Pat, who was born a Stoner and will die a Stoner. He is running for re-election as alderman.
"It's irritating," he said. "They're $4.87 apiece with the wires."
originally posted by xowie
Bush is still really pissing me off. Why can't I just forget about him?Kim Jong Il's LiveJournal. [mefi]
originally posted by daiichi
According to a report to be published today by the US watchdog Center for Public Integrity, at least 10 out of 30 members of the Pentagon committee are executives or lobbyists with companies that have tens of billions of dollars' worth of contracts with the US defence department and other government agencies.Guardian on Richard Perle's resignation. See also: Halliburton Handed No-Bid Iraqi Oil Firefighting Contract.
originally posted by xowie
4. Have you noticed that what the Iraqis say in press conferences is essentially true, even those things which are mocked by the U. S. press because they conflict with the American stories which turn out to be lies, but everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, said by the Americans is a lie (I'm not exaggerating - EVERYTHING)?Xymphora.
originally posted by xowie
1. The anti-war movement supports our troops by urging that they be brought home immediately so they neither kill nor get killed in a unjust war. How has the Bush administration shown its support for our troops?
a. The Republican-controlled House Budget Committee voted to cut $25 billion in veterans benefits over the next 10 years.Iraq War Quiz by Stephen Shalom.
b. The Bush administration proposed cutting $172 million from impact aid programs which provide school funding for children of military personnel.
c. The administration ordered the Dept. of Veterans Affairs to stop publicizing health benefits available to veterans.
d. All of the above.
originally posted by xowie
Yesterday, in southern Iraq, U.S. troops provided an ironic example. They named two temporary refueling facilities Camp Shell and Camp Exxon.c/o WP.
A tad indelicate? Deliberately insensitive, given the criticism that the United States has undertaken the war to secure Iraqi oil? Neither, said a Pentagon spokesman, who explained that the camps are "basically gas stations."
originally posted by xowie
originally posted by xowie
Dear President Bush,Bruderhof Communities: Dear President Bush.
Please stop the violence because I believe it is wrong. And can you stop war and bombing places? I want peace to come soon! I love everybody in Iraq. Please could you change your ways?
Love Marianne Blough — 2nd grade
The New York Times: Channels of Influence, Paul Krugman.
Bushologists let out a collective "Aha!" when Clear Channel was revealed to be behind the pro-war rallies, because the company's top management has a history with George W. Bush. The vice chairman of Clear Channel is Tom Hicks, whose name may be familiar to readers of this column. When Mr. Bush was governor of Texas, Mr. Hicks was chairman of the University of Texas Investment Management Company, called Utimco, and Clear Channel's chairman, Lowry Mays, was on its board. Under Mr. Hicks, Utimco placed much of the university's endowment under the management of companies with strong Republican Party or Bush family ties. In 1998 Mr. Hicks purchased the Texas Rangers in a deal that made Mr. Bush a multimillionaire.
"It's something that we eat, and drink and breathe every day," he said.Pentagon Officials Say Depleted Uranium Powerful, Safe.
The Americans are again using depleted uranium (DU) munitions in Iraq, just as they did in 1991. Before the war began, they stated that they intended to use these warheads, which are manufactured from the waste of the nuclear industry — to pierce armor — and which are believed by thousands of Gulf War Syndrome sufferers, along with Iraqi doctors, to be responsible for a plague of cancers. Yesterday, the BBC told us that the US Marines had called up A-10 strike aircraft to deal with ‘pockets of resistance ‘ — a bit more military-speak from the BBC — but failed to mention that the A-10 uses DU rounds. So for the first time since 1991, we — the West — are today spraying these uranium aerosols in battlefield explosions in southern Iraq; and we’re not being told. Why not?Fiskie: The shocking truth about 'shock and awe'.
originally posted by xowie
"One group of Iraqi boys on the side of the road smiled and waved as a convoy of British tanks and trucks rolled by. But once it had passed, leaving a trail of dust and grit in its wake, their smiles turned to scowls. 'We don't want them here,' said 17-year-old Fouad, looking angrily up at the plumes of grey smoke rising from Basra. 'Saddam is our leader,' he said defiantly. 'Saddam is good'."G: Flags in the dust.
originally posted by xowie
Most Americans don’t do blood sacrifice, except for giving blood to the Red Cross.c/o Counterpunch.
Most Americans don’t kill goats or sheep or chickens ritually. If they drink the blood of Christ it’s wine or grape juice.
As we watch the reports of our fighting men making the ultimate sacrifice we don’t see mangled bodies and blood, but faces of family pain and official piety. Mothers say he died doing what he loved in service of a cause he believed in.
We change the blood into fine noble wine. The Secretary of Defense is already tipsy. Our now-dry President is in the grip of a mortal addiction.
originally posted by xowie
