Left I on the News  

600? How about 18,000?

"In the first year of war in Iraq, the military has made 18,004 medical evacuations during Operation Iraqi Freedom, the Pentagon's top health official told Congress Tuesday."

Interestingly enough, although this story reports on testimony to Congress (and thus is hardly a secret), the only press coverage of this appears to be the not-very-widely-carried UPI story quoted above. At this time, there isn't a single additional link to this information on either Google News or Yahoo News.

The best defense is a good offense

"In her report on Hussam Abdu [the mentally challenged 16-year-old would-be suicide bomber] last week, Guerin noted Israel's desire to gain a public relations advantage from the arrest. She described how the army 'paraded the child in front of the international media', and observed that journalists had been prevented from asking him questions and therefore were left only with the army's account of the arrest."

There's even more to this story, none of which has been reported in the U.S.:

"A week earlier, when a 12-year-old boy, Abdullah Quran, was stopped while unwittingly carrying explosives at an army checkpoint, Israeli embassies called news editors to insist they cover the story and warn that failure to do so would be viewed as bias against Israel.

"When several news organisations failed to report it, an Israeli newspaper called for their correspondents to be expelled, including Sky's Emma Hurd and Stephen Farrell of the Times."

Another part of the Israeli-Palestinian story you don't hear about in the U.S.

"Armed Israeli settlers moved into this populous and largely rundown Palestinian neighbourhood of East Jerusalem yesterday as they opened a new front in their co-ordinated - and bitterly contested - effort to establish Jewish footholds in Arab districts of the city.

"Police fired tear gas at stone-throwing residents and arrested nine Palestinians after clashes when the settlers arrived in the early hours with police and security guards to occupy two buildings - one a seven-storey apartment block - previously owned by Arabs below the walls of the Old City. As local Palestinians said that some residents had been beaten, a police spokesman, Shmulik Ben-Ruby, said that six police officers had been hurt.

"A similar group of armed activists broke into and took over the home of a sleeping Palestinian family in nearby King David's City last month."

Dead Americans in Iraq

"Four American contractors killed Wednesday in Iraq - whose charred bodies were dragged through the streets of Fallujah - were reportedly employed by a security firm based in Moyock, N.C.

"MSNBC reports that U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said all four worked for Blackwater USA.

"Blackwater USA supplies security guards to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, and has provided protection for Iraq administrator L. Paul Bremer, among other coalition officials."

By the way, note how prominent in the coverage of this event was the fact that, at first, the nationality of the four dead contractors was unknown, and it was thought that one was American. Why was that even an issue? Should it be of less concern if they were British, or South African, or Italian? The chauvinism implicit in this kind of coverage, which is so ingrained it isn't even noticed by the mainstream media, makes me sick. And it is part and parcel of why the U.S. government is able to ignore world opinion, and international law, and the world court, with impunity. Because Americans have been completely conditioned by their media to think that "we're number one," and everyone else in the world is number two, in the scatalogical sense of that term.

White House lies spread

"Last night we showed a clip of the President giving a speech. Behind him stood a lad who was obviously bored silly. The 14-year-old or so yawned, scratched, yawned, yawned, checked his watch, bent over, stared at the ceiling, and then fell asleep during the President's speech. It was very funny. So funny, in fact, that CNN replayed the clip Tuesday during their broadcasts. But, but, but, the first time it was shown, CNN anchorwoman Daryn Kagan reported that the White House said the clip was a total fake, it was merely the Late Show having fun with their ability to edit and do TV tricks. Dave says what the CNN reporter said was an out and out 100% lie. A couple hours later, CNN anchor person Kyra Phillips reported that the kid was at the speech but not where the Late Show had him. Dave again makes the claim, 'That's an out and out absolute 100% lie. That kid was exactly where we said he was.' It's true. The speech was at a Florida Rally on March 20th at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. Dave is irked that the White House was trying to make him look like a jerk. But he's glad he got his side of the story out in the open."

Of course, the White House was not "trying to make Dave Letterman look like a jerk." What they were trying to do was to conceal the fact that the emperor has no clothes. A fact which, amazingly enough, nearly half of Americans still do not perceive.

Israel workers...passed over

"It is the season of Passover, traditionally the time when Jews eat hard, flat matza, or 'lechem oni,' literally, the bread of poverty, the bread of affliction.

"For hundreds of thousands of Israelis, out of work and out of luck, their 10 personal plagues of distress rooted in war and a suddenly gaping socio-economic divide, the lessons of the central symbol of the Passover seder - meant to remind Jews of the hardships of the less fortunate - need little relearning. They are brought home with blunt force anew every day of the year.

"But for the heads of Israel's major banks, the message of the season is a markedly different one. Bank Hapoalim announced Wednesday that its 2003 net profit had rocketed 290 percent above that of the year before, and Bank Leumi said it notched a rise of 171 percent.

"The plight of Israeli workers has been driven home by a series of demonstrations by employees of towns throughout Israel, some of whom have been working for eight months and more without receiving salaries.

"Social workers and gravediggers, garbage workers and religious court officials have all been affected."

The "strong" economy

"Tuesday, 87-year-old Radio Flyer Inc. announced it was closing its Chicago plant and moving the production of its metal red wagons loved by generations of American children to China, resulting in the expected layoffs of nearly half of its 90 employees.

"Asked in a newspaper interview whether he thought outsourcing of jobs to other countries made the U.S. economy strong, Snow replied, 'It's one aspect of trade and there can't be any doubt about the fact that trade makes ... America strong.'" (Source)

Examine the story. 90 people are out of work making wagons in Chicago. We always hear about all the increased jobs from "trade." What jobs? The company is now going to have one or two people liasing with the factory in China; possibly those will be new employees, although since they no longer need people managing their own factory, even that is doubtful. There will be more work for dockworkers unloading the wagons at the ports as they arrive, but it takes a lot less time to unload a crate of wagons from a ship than it does to manufacture them; at most there will be work for 5 more dockworkers (and probably not even that). Teamsters drive the wagons to distribution centers, but the only change here is that they'll be doing so from the docks and not from the factory, so there's no change in the amount of work there. And, last but not least, the 85 (net) newly unemployed workers (-90 in Chicago, +5 in Seattle) might still have enough money to buy their kids a new wagon for Christmas, but they certainly will be buying cars, or refrigerators, or clothes, a lot less frequently than they were before, so that even corporate profits (if not of the Radio Flyer company, than of dozens of other companies) will eventually be lowered.

Will someone please explain how this is "making America strong"? With Snow (and Bush and their cronies), it's simply an article of faith, like the free market. But when you actually stop to analyze it, it falls apart completely, like so much other nonsense that emanates from that source.

Fake news, real results

Religious men with Bible-phobia

Another thing that has pretty much slipped under the radar - this testimony by Bush and Cheney will not only be private, but not recorded. The Commission is allowed to take notes. To which "long-standing principle" does this restriction correspond?

Media notes

Lucky thing I don't have time to watch this crap full-time.

American tax dollars at work...terrorizing Iraqis

At long last, have you no shame?

"Mr. Clarke's theatrical apology [to the families of 9-11 victims] on behalf of the nation was not his right, it was not his privelege, it was not his responsibility. In my view, it was not an act of humility, but it was an act of arrogance, of manipulation."

The depths get lower and lower

"One of New Mexico's biggest American Indian-run casinos has pulled a controversial TV ad that promoted gambling as a financial solution to people who are short on cash or deeply in debt.

"The Isleta Casino Resort commercial ran earlier this month featuring a young woman who suggested that the answer to unpaid bills piling up from holiday-season shopping sprees could be found at the casino, which operates just south of Albuquerque.

"One image in the ad showed a smiling woman with an outstretched hand receiving dollar bills.

"'So, the holidays have passed, and those credit card bills just keep piling up?' an announcer intones in the ad, according to a transcript published in local media. 'Well, Isleta Casino Resort comes to your rescue.'"

The elephant in the room becomes visible

"IPS [Inter Press Service] uncovered the remarks by Philip Zelikow, who is now the executive director of the body set up to investigate the terrorist attacks on the United States in September 2001 -- the 9/11 commission -- in which he suggests a prime motive for the invasion just over one year ago was to eliminate a threat to Israel, a staunch U.S. ally in the Middle East.

"Zelikow made his statements about 'the unstated threat' during his tenure on a highly knowledgeable and well-connected body known as the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (PFIAB), which reports directly to the president.

"'Why would Iraq attack America or use nuclear weapons against us? I'll tell you what I think the real threat (is) and actually has been since 1990 -- it's the threat against Israel,' Zelikow told a crowd at the University of Virginia on Sep. 10, 2002."

Condo-lie-zza: all lies, all the time

"It is a longstanding principle that sitting national security advisers do not testify before the Congress."

• Fact 1: It is not a "longstanding principle." Sandy Berger, the National Security Adviser to the very last President, Bill Clinton, testified before Congress.


• Fact 2: The 9/11 Commission is not "Congress" or even a committee of Congress. The chair of the commission was appointed by the President; not a single member of the commission is a member of Congress, and the Commission's executive director was a member of Bush's transition team, and co-authored a book with Condo-lie-zza!

Quote of the Day

"Ten years out, in terms of actual hardware costs you can almost think of hardware as being free." - Bill Gates

French elections a blowout

[For the French-impaired, "gauche" means "left" and "droite" means "right"]

This is a huge deal and, in my cynical opinion, if the "gauche" and "droite" labels were reversed, even though we're talking about a "foreign country" it would have been huge news even in the U.S. But it was a huge victory for the left, and you're lucky to find the story. The Washington Post managed a story on page 18. Interestingly enough, I found this only by using the search tool online; the story not only doesn't make the front page of the Post online, it doesn't even make the front page of the "World" section. The New York Times does manage to get the story on the front page of its website (I can't tell where it is in the print edition). My guess is that my local paper, the San Jose Mercury News, is more typical of what most people in this country will see - a short item in the "News in Brief" section. Local TV news I've been watching hasn't mentioned the story at all; neither have the cable news shows I've seen (CNN etc.).

Both the Post and the Times use words like "crushing defeat" and "strong rebuke," but neither gives their readers a feel for what that means. The Times says the left are going to win a "large majority" of the 26 regional councils, while the Post says they will take control of "at least 21 of 26 regional governments." In fact, as you can see from the map, the number is 24 out of 26, which qualifies as a "landslide"; even 21 (perhaps the stories were written before the final results were known) out of 26, which is 81%, is a lot more than just "a large majority." But neither the Post nor the Times provides the context, which is that before these elections, the right was in control of 14 out of the 26 councils. Without knowing this, an American reader really has no clue about the extent of the electoral shift represented by this election.

Both papers also manage to betray their class bias (yes, newspapers are big business). The Times writes about how Chirac "has fought to strip expensive entitlements from workers," and how workers "have taken to the streets in recent months to protest changes that are meant to make the French work harder and get less in retirement." Those darn greedy French workers - they actually want to have vacations to enjoy life, and have enough when they retire to avoid eating cat food. You know, like the editors (and even the reporters) of the Times. Similarly the Post refers to France's "costly health care, pension and education systems." Who says these are "expensive" (Times) or "costly" (Post)? Everything government does costs money; who says that this particular expenditure costs "too much" and is therefore worthy of being called "expensive" or "costly"? Have the Times or the Post ever referred to the U.S. military budget as "expensive" or "costly"? My money is on "no."

Both the Times and the Post could have easily said that Chirac or the right thinks that France's social programs are "costly" or "too expensive." Instead, they say so, which is their not-so-subtle way of telling their readers what they should think about the situation.

Freedom of the press

"American soldiers shut down a popular Baghdad newspaper on Sunday and tightened chains across the doors after the occupation authorities accused it of printing lies that incited violence.

"Thousands of outraged Iraqis protested the closing as an act of American hypocrisy, laying bare the hostility many feel toward the United States a year after the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

"'No, no, America!' and 'Where is democracy now?' screamed protesters who hoisted banners and shook clenched fists in a hastily organized rally against the closing of the newspaper, Al Hawza, a radical Shiite weekly."

The New York Times. Judith Miller. Invasion of Iraq. Tens of thousands of Iraqis and Americans and others dead or permanently injured.

The "free market", a.k.a. crony capitalism

Sweetheart deal for Iraq contract
"A Virginia company that was awarded a $240 million government contract to develop 'a competitive private sector' in Iraq helped write the specifications for the work that knocked its competitors out of the running, a federal investigation found.

"BearingPoint [formerly KPMG Consulting], of McLean, Va., spent five months helping USAID write the job specifications and got permission to spend money to train employees to work in Iraq long before the contract went out for public bid. The firm's competitors had only a week to come up with their own bids for the complicated program after final revisions were made, the inspector general found."

Air Force let Boeing rewrite terms of tanker contract
"The Air Force gave the Boeing Co. five months to rewrite the official specifications for 100 aerial refueling tankers so that the company's 767 aircraft would win a $23.5 billion deal, according to e-mails and documents obtained by Knight Ridder.

"In the process, Boeing eliminated 19 of the 26 capabilities the Air Force originally wanted, and the Air Force acquiesced in order to keep the price down.

"The Air Force then gave Boeing competitor Airbus 12 days to bid on the project and awarded the contract to Boeing even though Airbus met more than 20 of the original 26 specifications and offered a price that was $10 billion less than Boeing's.

"Among the original Air Force requirements Boeing eliminated was that the new tanker be equipped to refuel all the military services' aircraft, refuel multiple aircraft simultaneously, and carry passengers, wounded troops and cargo. Boeing also eliminated an Air Force requirement that the new tankers be at least as effective and efficient as the 40-year-old KC-135 tankers they would replace."

Pet peeve

He prayed, and then he found the boy. How many other searchers, looking for how many other lost people, have prayed and then not found the person they were searching for, only to see that person die? We'll never know, because they never speak up, and the news media never interview them.

It's the same story with people who "dream their father died," and the next day their father died (substitute any other coincidence you like). Of course, when this happens, they tell everybody about it. When someone dreams something happens, and then it doesn't happen, of course they don't tell anybody. So the world is filled with people who believe in miracles and prayer and coincidences, and don't understand the laws of probability.

Since I'm ranting about religion, I'll throw out my second, related, pet peeve - people who, when some tragic event occurs (e.g., 9/11) and their particular loved one is spared, talk about how "the Lord spared" their loved one. Do they realize how insulting that is to all the people whose loved ones did die? How arrogant to think that their particular loved one was better, or more deserving to live, or more "favored by God," then someone else.

Questions on the Richard Clarke - Condi Rice situation

Bill Frist said today that if Richard Clarke lied under oath it would be much worse than if he had just lied. Wouldn't that also be a reason for him to demand that Condo-lie-zza should testify under oath, so we can believe what she says? [Not that we would anyway] And if they are trying to get Clarke for perjury for saying one thing in classified testimony last year, and another thing in the last few days, why do they need to declassify his testimony? Can't you be charged (and convicted) of perjury even where what you said is classified?

And finally, I do not approve of "backgrounders." Government officials (and that includes Presidential advisers) are being paid a salary by the American people, and if they have something to say they should say it out loud; reporters should simply refuse to talk to them if they aren't willing to be identified. Nonetheless, given that there are "off-the-record" conversations, it is absolutely bizarre that the White House could "gave permission" to Fox News to make Richard Clarke's "background" conversation public (without Clarke's agreement), and that at the same time, other than on various blogs, not a single "mainstream" source (or even Democratic politician) has demanded that the White House similarly release all reporters from their "confidentiality" as to who outed Valerie Plame to them as a CIA agent.

This woman is not happy

And the fact that she's being publicly exposed as a greater liar than even her boss may help explain why:

"Some of Rice's rebuttals of Clarke's broadside against Bush, which she delivered in a flurry of media interviews and statements rather than in testimony, contradicted other administration officials and her own previous statements.

"Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage contradicted Rice's claim that the White House had a strategy before 9/11 for military operations against al Qaeda and the Taliban; the CIA contradicted Rice's earlier assertion that Bush had requested a CIA briefing in the summer of 2001 because of elevated terrorist threats; and Rice's assertion this week that Bush told her on Sept. 16, 2001, that 'Iraq is to the side' appeared to be contradicted by an order signed by Bush on Sept. 17 directing the Pentagon to begin planning military options for an invasion of Iraq.

"Rice, in turn, has contradicted Vice President Cheney's assertion that Clarke was 'out of the loop' and his intimation that Clarke had been demoted. Rice has also given various conflicting accounts. She criticized Clarke for being the architect of failed Clinton administration policies, but also said she retained Clarke so the Bush administration could continue to pursue Clinton's terrorism policies."

These Iraqis are happy

...watching an American military vehicle go up in flames after an attack.

They'll be even happier when American troops leave Iraq. But, according to the New York Times article from which the picture comes, that doesn't appear likely to happen any time soon:

"With fewer than 100 days to go before Iraq resumes its sovereignty, American officials say they believe they have found a legal basis for American troops to continue their military control over the security situation in Iraq.

"After months of concern about the legal status of the 110,000 American troops who are expected to remain here after the occupation formally ends on June 30, the officials say they believe an existing United Nations resolution approving the presence of a multinational force in Iraq, approved by the Security Council in October, gives American commanders the authority needed to maintain control after sovereignty is handed back.

"The Americans hope they will not be forced to rely on a legalistic argument. They plan to negotiate with the interim Iraqi government in place after June 30 for the kind of "status of forces" agreement the United States has in dozens of nations where its forces are deployed.

"But if negotiations snag -- many Iraqi political leaders are often hostile to the foreign military presence -- the Americans believe that they will be able to fall back on the United Nations resolution."

Fidel Castro challenges the U.S.

"President Fidel Castro has called on the governments of the United States and Europe to imitate the example of Cuba, which is capable of maintaining more than 16,000 health professionals working in Third World nations.

"Referring to persons who slander this type of Cuban aid, especially that dedicated to Venezuela, he stated: 'They are ashamed and protest as if it were a crime or a conspiracy to take care of millions of excluded Venezuelans. If (the doctors) are Cuban agents, why don't they don't send agents from the United States who are capable of living where the poor do, and practicing medicine in order to save so many lives among the marginalized people in those barrios,' Fidel asked."

"During his speech, the Cuban president listed the health programs put into practice in Cuba over the last few years, and especially noted the program for top-quality treatment of heart attack victims, using preventative methods.

"That health project implies some 20,000 arterial explorations being done per year through cutting-edge technology, as compared to the 6,000 to date by conventional means.

"Another important program is that of the intensive therapy departments, which emerged as a result of the global threat of the SARS syndrome, and in just 10 months, that type of serves was extended to 118 Cuban municipalities.

"Before the end of this year, Cuba's 444 polyclinics will be able to attend to patients with emergency cardiac pathologies, which is the top cause of death in the country, he announced."

George Bush, funnyman

A recurring joke involved photos of the president in awkward positions -- bent over as if he's looking under a table, leaning to look out a window -- accompanied by remarks such as "Those weapons of mass destruction must be somewhere!" and "Nope, no weapons over there!" and "Maybe under here?"

While we're on the subject of the so-called President, today here in Northern California I saw not one but two of his ads. The first was an ad attacking John Kerry's past (criticizing him for being "against the troops" for voting against the $87 billion "supplemental" for Iraq), and the second was talking about George Bush's future vision ("I know where I want to take America" - yeah, to hell in a handbasket). Strange how Bush failed to mention anything about his past, specifically the last four years during which he has taken America to new heights - its highest budget deficit in history, record numbers of people having lost their jobs during his administration, the highest ever negative feelings towards America by people around the world, the highest gasoline prices in history, record levels of assault on individual and privacy rights, and lots more. C'mon George, these are your accomplishments. Surely you're going to remind people about them in your campaign ads?

Israel and the U.S.

So I wonder how such people explain stories like this:

"Israel has informed the United States that it is prepared to withdraw from the entire Gaza Strip and six settlements in the West Bank.

"Dov Weisglass, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's bureau chief, has held talks over the past two days in Washington with U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice on U.S. concessions to Israel in return for withdrawing from the territories. Weisglass presented the prime minister's preferred plan: withdrawal from the entire Gaza Strip and six [small] settlements in the West Bank, namely Ganim, Kadim, Homesh, Sa-Nur, Mevo Dotan, and Hermesh.

"The U.S. has asked Israel that disengagement not interfere with the 'Bush vision' for the establishment of a Palestinian state, and not be perceived as a 'prize to terror.'"

No further comment needed on the idea of a "Bush vision," which is an oxymoron of the first order.

The safer world

"Britain is to build a massive concrete wall to surround the Houses of Parliament to ward off possible terror attacks following the Madrid train bombings, a British newspaper said.

"The Daily Mirror tabloid reported that Prime Minister Tony Blair's Government was planning to replace the Westminster Parliament's historic iron railings with a 4.6-metre tall wall topped with razor wire.

"'A terrorist strike is now inevitable and certain changes must be made,' a senior security source was quoted in the tabloid as saying."

Workers comp

Harmonic convergence

Lesser-evilism

*Everyone refers to "ABB - Anybody But Bush." I always liked the formulation I heard from Scott Ritter better - "ABC - Anybody but Bush and Cheney." But that never caught on, evidently. By the way, that doesn't mean I endorse either variant. I don't.

Living in a fantasy world

Headline of the Day

"The administration began the day by avoiding direct criticism of Israel after the killing of Sheik Ahmed Yassin in Gaza City. Instead, Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser, said in a morning television interview that Hamas was a terrorist organization, that Sheik Yassin had been involved in terrorist actions.

"Only later in the afternoon did the administration shift tone and criticize Israel's action as harmful to the cause of bringing peace to the region. 'We're deeply troubled by this morning's events in Gaza,' said Richard A. Boucher, the State Department spokesman, adding that all sides, including Israel, should now 'exercise maximum restraint' and 'do everything possible to avoid any further actions that would make more difficult the restoration of calm.'"

John Kerry, a man of principle

And then there's Venezuela. In a totally revolting press release issued a few days ago, Kerry, living in a country with a President who received fewer votes than his opponent and was selected by the Supreme Court after serious, and proven, election irregularities in Florida (and elsewhere), dares to lecture Venezuela about democracy.

Kerry: With the future of the democratic process at a critical juncture in Venezuela, we should work to bring all possible international pressure to bear on President Chavez to allow the referendum to proceed. The Administration should demonstrate its true commitment to democracy in Latin America by showing determined leadership now, while a peaceful resolution can still be achieved.

Left I: This administration doesn't have the slightest "commitment to democracy in Latin America" (or elsewhere), as it demonstrated quite clearly in supporting the brief-lived coup against Chavez, along with the more recent, and so-far successful, coup against Aristide in Haiti. And the implication that Kerry (or Bush) is concerned in the slightest about a "non-peaceful resolution" of the situation in Venezuela is equally fanciful. The U.S. endorsed, and probably helped facilitate, a military coup against Chavez; that would hardly suggest that "peaceful resolutions" are of any concern to them.

Kerry: Throughout his time in office, President Chavez has repeatedly undermined democratic institutions by using extra-legal means, including politically motivated incarcerations, to consolidate power.  In fact, his close relationship with Fidel Castro has raised serious questions about his commitment to leading a truly democratic government.

Left I: Hugo Chavez has used his large, democratically elected support in Parliament to push through his own agenda, just as Bush has in the U.S. He has, at every step of the way, respected democratic institutions, again unlike those who attempted to overthrow him in a military coup (and, I might add, also unlike Bush who has admitted he wouldn't mind being a "dictator," and who illegally took his country to war without a formal, and Constitutionally required, declaration of war by Congress).

Kerry: Moreover, President Chavez’s policies have been detrimental to our interests and those of his neighbors.  He has compromised efforts to eradicate drug cultivation by allowing Venezuela to become a haven for narco-terrorists, and sowed instability in the region by supporting anti-government insurgents in Colombia.

Left I: This is just pure slander. It is the U.S. which has sowed instability the world over, for example in its recent support of anti-government forces in Haiti. And, as is well known, the greatest collaborator with drug trafficers in the entire world is the CIA.

Kerry: The referendum has given the people of Venezuela the opportunity to express their views on his presidency through constitutionally legitimate means.

Left I: The election in which Chavez was elected also did that; Kerry "neglects" to mention that Chavez is the legally, and undisputed, elected President of his country. He also neglects to mention that the referendum procedure was, in fact, put into place by Chavez's government.

Kerry: The international community cannot allow President Chavez to subvert this process, as he has attempted to do thus far. He must be pressured to comply with the agreements he made with the OAS and the Carter Center to allow the referendum to proceed, respect the exercise of free expression, and release political prisoners.

Left I: The internal politics of Venezuela are none of the "international community's" business. Chavez's only legal obligation is to the Venezuelan people and to the Venezuelan constitution, not to the OAS and the Carter Center. He certainly has no obligation to allow the Venezuelan opposition to turn in a million invalid signatures and to consider them valid because the OAS, or the Carter Center, or John Kerry says he should.

Kerry: Too often in the past, this Administration has sent mixed signals by supporting undemocratic processes in our own hemisphere -- including in Venezuela, where they acquiesced to a failed coup attempt against President Chavez. Having just allowed the democratically elected leader to be cast aside in Haiti, they should make a strong statement now by leading the effort to preserve the fragile democracy in Venezuela.

Left I: Again, Kerry criticizing the U.S. past and not succeeding in extrapolating to the future. The U.S., through political and financial means, is attempting to subvert democracy in Venezuela. The implication that it is Chavez who is "threatening Venezuelan democracy" is simply proposterous.

Preventing terrorism

"His assertion that there was something we could have done to prevent the Sept. 11th attacks from happening is deeply irresponsible. It's offensive and it's flat-out false."

The funny thing is, I actually agree with McClellan, to a point. If your idea of preventing terrorism is bombing Afghanistan and overthrowing its government, or bombing Iraq and overthrowing its government, then not only can you not prevent terrorism that way, you're likely to increase it, just as Israel's assassination yesterday of Sheik Yassin will not prevent Palestinian attacks on Israelis, but only increase them (and, in this case, likely extend attacks to attacks on "Westerners" worldwide). The only way to prevent terrorism is to deal with its root causes, which are not "Palestinians who hate Jews," or "Muslims who hate Christians," but Palestinians who are being oppressed being belief and beyond the ability to bear by Israelis, and, since last year, Iraqis who are similarly under the boot of the American military. Not to mention people around the world who almost literally have nothing to live for, confronted with the excess and seemingly insatiable appetites (for resources, money, and power) of the U.S. and its allies.

Quoting, as I often do, the marvelous songwriter David Rovics [emphasis added]:

You can say that it's about the savages
You can say you have a better way to live
You can call it Manifest Destiny
You can talk of all your civilization will give
You can say that we're a thing of history
And progress is the future you will bring
You can send your armies to these mountains
You can say we'll prosper beneath your king

(Chorus)
But there will always be resistance
The next battle will always be near
As long as you have everything
There will be those who have nothing to fear
And little by little, or maybe all at once you will lose
Because our future is not yours to choose

March 20 in Iraq

Security for the march in Baghdad was a little more serious than we had in San Jose:

Dennis Kucinich = Rodney Dangerfield?

The view from within

"But we've learned a lot. We've learned that terrorism isn't actually the act of creating terror. It isn't the act of killing innocent people and frightening others… no, you see, that's called a 'liberation'. It doesn't matter what you burn or who you kill- if you wear khaki, ride a tank or Apache or fighter plane and drop missiles and bombs, then you're not a terrorist- you're a liberator.

"The war on terror is a joke… Madrid was proof of that last week… Iraq is proof of that everyday.

"I hope someone feels safer, because we certainly don't."

We can only hope...

I'm sure it's unnecessary to tell my readers that the Economist is hardly a left-wing or progressive or even a liberal publication.

The ruling class is definitely giving serious consideration to withdrawing its support for Bush and Blair (and, I guess, Howard), who are increasingly becoming liabilities. And so in the U.S. we'll move on to President Kerry as the ruling class cons the masses once again with their "good cop, bad cop" routine.

Incidentally, this last paragraph might seem to contradict the headline of this piece. But although I do see John Kerry as the "good cop" to Bush's "bad cop," and wouldn't lift a finger (even in the voting booth) to see him elected, it will still give me a certain satisfaction to see Bush sent packing, and made to pay some small price for his arrogant, criminal behavior.

Iraqi soldiers are human beings

But there is another, totally forgotten group - Iraqi soldiers. I have written about this before, but the two events above force me to repeat myself. Iraqi soldiers are just as "innocent" as the "innocent civilians" people talk about, and no more deserving of death. To begin with, most of them were draftees. But whether they were, or whether they joined the army just to get a job, or whether they were simply the kind of people who find a military career a desirable option, all of them were killed in the process of defending their country against an illegal invasion by a foreign power. Not only is this not a crime punishable by death, in every country in the world it is considered an honorable action; indeed, soldiers who don't fight when their country is invaded are almost certainly committing treason or some similar crime.

And last, and certainly not least, the Iraqi soldiers who were killed were just as human as the civilians, with mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, friends and lovers. Left I totally rejects the idea that their deaths are any less important, or any less a part of the price the Iraqi people have had to pay for this invasion, than the deaths of "innocent civilians." Nor are their deaths any less a part of the cost of this war than the deaths of American, or British, or other "coalition" soldiers.

Language lesson

Now let's examine the article which follows. The first sentence reads "The White House is disputing assertions by President Bush's former counterterrorism coordinator that the administration failed to recognize the risk of an attack by al-Qaida in the months leading up to Sept. 11, 2001" which is a reasonable statement - "dispute" not implying that they have "proven" those statements to be "false or erroneous," only that they have "denied the accuracy of truth of" them. But have they? Here's an example of this "disputing":

"Rice, appearing Monday on ABC's Good Morning America, said she did not recall a meeting the day after the Sept. 11 attacks in which Clarke maintains that Bush was focused only on Iraq, not al-Qaida.

"'I don't remember this meeting. He said that the president pulled him aside. I don't know, maybe the president pulled him aside,' she said."

Followup: Judy Woodruff on CNN's Inside Politics also claims the White House "rebutted" Clarke's charges, and correspondent Suzanne Malveaux noted how Condoleezza Rice was "taking the lead" in doing so. Pretty funny coming on a day when Rice says she will not testify before the 9/11 commission. Funny how Condo-lie-zza has all the willingness in the world to talk dissemble to the press and attempt to smear the reputation of a previous colleague, but none at all to testify before a government commission which is supposed to be trying to learn things which will help prevent future acts of terrorism. Not that they will, of course, since they won't be asking the right questions.

Death, followed by silence

Naturally, the New York Times downplays the "collateral damage," informing its readers that "at least two of his bodyguards were killed with him." The facts, as reported by Ha'aretz, is that six of his bodyguards were killed and 15 additional people wounded. The Times also says Yassin was "killed" by the Israelis, when even Ha'aretz uses the proper term - "assassinated." Yassin is, or rather was, a wheelchair bound quadriplegic.

Followup: Britain and France have condemned the killing, but Germany "avoided condemnation" and "urged all sides to show restraint." From the U.S.? Still not a word. A remarkably strong statement from British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw:

"[Israel] is not entitled to go for this kind of unlawful killing, and we therefore condemn it. It's unacceptable, it's unjustified, and it's very unlikely to achieve its objective."

More followup: Silence is broken. The expected nonsense from the U.S.: "In Washington, State Department spokesman Lou Fintor said: 'The United States urges all sides to remain calm and exercise restraint.'" Yes, right, "all sides" should exercise restraint. Imagine if Iraqi forces had assassinated George Bush, and in response the Swedes urged "all sides to remain calm and exercise restraint." Not a perfect analogy, of course, given (as noted above) the total complicity of the United States itself in the action, with military, financial, and political support for Israel, the withdrawal of any one of which would almost certainly cause Israel to finally "exercise restraint."

Yee free

Today the government dropped all charges against Capt. Yee.

Now you know why they want the ability to simply imprison people as "terrorists" or "enemy combatants" or whatever term they make up, and hold them indefinitely without charges. Because when they actually have to charge somebody with something, it eventually becomes clear their evidence is about as solid as their evidence for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Yee's real "crime," it is almost certain, was showing some kind of sympathy or just plain human kindness towards the men illegally and unjustly imprisoned in Guantanamo, many of whom, rather than being the "worst of the worst" as Donald Rumsfeld calls them, were simply the "unluckiest of the unlucky."

Peeping through the keyhole

"Richard Clarke, who headed a cybersecurity board that gleaned intelligence from the Internet, told CBS '60 Minutes' in an interview to be aired on Sunday he was surprised administration officials turned immediately toward Iraq instead of al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden.

"'They were talking about Iraq on 9/11. They were talking about it on 9/12,' Clarke says. Clarke said he was briefing President Bush and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld among other top officials in the aftermath of the devastating attacks.

"'Rumsfeld was saying we needed to bomb Iraq. ... We all said, 'but no, no. Al Qaeda is in Afghanistan,' recounts Clarke, 'and Rumsfeld said, 'There aren't any good targets in Afghanistan and there are lots of good targets in Iraq.''"

Quote of the Day

"Those differences [about whether or not to invade Iraq] belong to the past. All of us can now agree that the fall of the Iraqi dictator has removed a source of violence, aggression and instability in the Middle East."

- George Bush

Score one for our side

"MP George Galloway has accepted damages and a public apology over an American newspaper article that alleged he accepted money from Saddam Hussein.

"Mr Galloway, expelled by Labour for his stance on the Iraq war, said he had been 'completely vindicated'.

"The Christian Science Monitor admitted a set of documents upon which it based its story were 'almost certainly' fake.

"The MP, who described the settlement as 'substantial', has always denied taking cash from the Iraqi regime."

Counting the dead

Rats deserting the ship

Political (sick) humor of the day

"Growth in U.S. mid-Atlantic manufacturing slowed in March but remained at strong historic levels."

Followup: Some details to back up my claims above, from an AP article from Feb. 22:

"When the Ford Motor plant [in Edison, N.J.] closes its assembly line Thursday, it will continue the steady departure of manufacturing jobs from New Jersey, particularly in the auto industry.

"New Jersey's auto industry once included plants in Mahwah and Edgewater and had more than 14,000 workers in 1970.

"After the closing of the Ford plant, that number will drop down to little more than 1,000. General Motors, which operates the state's lone remaining auto plant in Linden, said last week it will lay off 350 of the factory's 1,350 employees.

"In all manufacturing, New Jersey has lost 241,000 jobs, or about 40 percent, since 1990."

How to drive Left I crazy

Lead page one headline in today's San Jose Mercury News: "Baghdad car bombing: 'Target is democracy'." Did the bomb speak for itself? Was there a note attached? No, although "target is democracy" is actually a quote, it's a quote from one of the members of the "Iraqi Governing Council," appointed to the office by an "occupying power" who overthrew the legitimate government of his country. A strange person to deliver a lecture on democracy!

Multiple news articles which, when describing the bombed Mount Lebanon Hotel, said it was located "behind Firdaus Square, where Iraqis toppled a bronze statue of Saddam on April 9 with the help of U.S. Marines." Talk about maintaining a fiction! Every single denizen of the Internet knows (and has seen the pictures to prove it), that the Iraqis, who were organized by U.S. P.R. people to be there, could not pull down the statue, and that is was toppled by the U.S. Marines, pure and simple. The fact that they let the Iraqis pull it down the last few inches certainly does not justify the claim of "Iraqis topping the statue."

Voted off the island

"Jay Garner, the US general abruptly dismissed as Iraq's first occupation administrator after a month in the job, says he fell out with the Bush circle because he wanted free elections and rejected an imposed programme of privatisation."

Kerrywatch

"As I said yesterday about the events in Spain, they cannot become the reason to leave. And I call on Prime Minister [Jose Luis Rodriguez] Zapatero to reconsider his decision and to send a message that terrorists cannot win by their acts of terror."

""I will not hesitate to use force when it is needed to wage and to win the war on terror. But at the heart of that force must be a fully prepared, fully equipped, fully staffed, state-of-the-art military, ready to face any adversary anywhere in the world. If I am president of the United States, we will do whatever it takes to ensure that the 21st-century American military is the strongest in the world."

Followup: Zapatero is having none of it:

"Zapatero, the Socialist who won Sunday’s general election, noted that he had campaigned on a pledge to withdraw those 1,300 troops unless the United Nations takes charge in Iraq, and did not devise the plan simply because of last week’s terrorist bombings in Madrid.

"'Maybe John Kerry does not know – but I am happy to explain it to him – that my commitment to withdraw the troops goes back before the tragic, dramatic terrorist attack,' Zapatero said."

Bushit anniversary

Hear no evil

"A briefing on the results of a mental health survey of troops in Iraq was abruptly canceled Monday because military officials said they did not want bad news to come out on the eve of the anniversary of Operation Iraqi Freedom, congressional sources said."

Terrorists for Bush

"A group claiming to have links with al Qaeda said on Wednesday it was calling a truce in its Spanish operations to see if the new Madrid government would withdraw its troops from Iraq.

"The statement said it supported President Bush in his reelection campaign, and would prefer him to win in November rather than the Democratic candidate John Kerry, as it was not possible to find a leader 'more foolish than you (Bush), who deals with matters by force rather than with wisdom.'

"In comments addressed to Bush, the group said 'Kerry will kill our nation while it sleeps because he and the Democrats have the cunning to embellish blasphemy and present it to the Arab and Muslim nation as civilization. Because of this we desire you (Bush) to be elected.'"

Interestingly enough, AP runs a story on the same statement, but omits any reference to the Bush "endorsement."

Why gays and lesbians want to marry

"Marilyn Riedel, 61, a disabled Army veteran, has trouble moving, drinking and eating. It's difficult for her to talk because her worsening Parkinson's disease makes her tongue quiver. But she's so lucky. She's lucky because a woman named Connie Guardino, 58, loves her with her whole heart. Whatever the future may offer, this couple will face it together, and they'd like to do it in a cute little two-bedroom home on Illinois Street. If they were married, they could have it. But because they are a same-sex couple, they've been rejected for a loan by the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs."

Nader's support

But...there is one very interesting thing hidden in the poll results:

"A recent survey has found that Mr. Nader, who is of Lebanese descent, has substantial support among Arab Americans in key battleground states.

"Polling by the Arab American Institute in Michigan, Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania - home to more than 1 million Arab Americans - found that 20% supported Mr. Nader."

The fish rots...from the middle?

"Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson on Tuesday ordered an investigation into allegations that the Bush administration last year withheld information about the higher cost of the Medicare prescription-drug bill from Congress.

"He predicted the agency would be exonerated. But he also lashed out at a recently departed top assistant, blaming the episode on Thomas Scully, who ran the Medicare program for three years.

"Thompson said he personally had seen little of the cost estimates Foster was preparing at the time."

And I'm sure the White House knew nothing about this.

U.N. Security Council

"The Security Council March 11 unanimously condemned the bomb attacks in Madrid and urged all states to cooperate actively in efforts to find and bring to justice the perpetrators, organizers, and sponsors of the terrorist attack.

"In a resolution the 15-member Security Council condemned 'in the strongest terms the bomb attacks in Madrid, Spain, perpetrated by the terrorist group ETA . . . in which many lives were claimed and people injured, and regards such act, like any act of terrorism, as a threat to peace and security.'

"The vote at a public, formal session came just hours after a series of explosions killed at least 190 people and injured more than 1,200 on Madrid commuter trains. Spanish diplomats at the U.N. asked the council to include the mention of ETA as the group responsible.

What am I missing?

And here's the funny thing. If I've seen one talking head, and read one columnist, I've seen and read a dozen, all saying that "the terrorists won in the Spanish election." Of course this is based on the idea that al Qaeda 1) carried out the bombings, and 2) actually wanted for some reason to influence the Spanish election, rather than simply to punish Spain for having supported the invasion of Iraq. But it was also widely said that if this was not an al Qaeda action, but an ETA action, then that would have resulted in the re-election of the party in power. So what if the current "evidence," which is far from conclusive, turns out to be wrong? What if it really was ETA who carried out the bombings? Does that mean "the terrorists have lost"? And what if it wasn't al Qaeda or ETA at all, but Spanish fascists attempt to scare the public into electing a "strong" (right-wing) government because of the threat of terrorism? I guess in that case "the terrorists have lost" as well.

Of course it's all nonsense. The people running around saying "the terrorists have won" are attempting to exploit this tragedy for their own political purposes, every bit as much as the Spanish government was attempting to employ the "ETA did it" story for their own political purposes.

Time to up the ante for the "coalition of the bribed"

"Honduras plans to follow Spain's lead and withdraw 370 troops from a Spanish-led humanitarian and peacekeeping brigade in June, Defense Secretary Federico Breve said Tuesday.

"The decision marked an about-face from the day before, when President Ricardo Maduro said he would not pull his soldiers from Iraq.

"Nicaragua sent about 115 soldiers, mostly sappers and medical personnel, to Iraq last September to join the brigade. Those troops have since returned, and the government announced last month that it lacked sufficient funding for a second contingent."

"Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez offered refuge to Haiti's former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, saying his government won't recognize the new, U.S.- backed regime in Haiti."

The battle for Iraqi souls

"'Southern Baptists must understand that there is a war for souls underway in Iraq', Brady said. 'Even as Islamic leaders try to tighten their grip on the country and its people, cult groups like the Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses are sending hundreds of their missionaries into Iraq to spread their pseudo-Christianity.'

"'God will have his way in Iraq,' Brady said. 'Christian workers from South Korea, Brazil and many other lands are coming to Iraq to share the gospel.'

"'(But) I am jealous to see Southern Baptists be a part of God’s plan for Iraq,' Brady added. 'I am praying (they) will respond to this opportunity, because they are about seeing God’s kingdom grow. I am jealous for Southern Baptists, not to be the only ones working but not to be left out.'"

There are more than 1,300 Spanish-speaking soldiers in Iraq

"The Spanish people, decidedly opposed to the cruel and unjust war of conquest in Iraq, likewise opposed by yourself, and outraged by the crude electoral manipulation of the unjustifiable terrorist aggression suffered on March 11, has decided to entrust you with the leadership of the Spanish government. On the occasion of this important event, which will have repercussions in the international sphere, we express to you our recognition.

"I would also like to extend, and in a special way, our most profound admiration and a tribute of respect to the people of Spain for their nobility and heroism, demonstrated so many times throughout history.

"I congratulate you on your decision to withdraw the Spanish troops from Iraq by June 30.

"Bearing in mind this decision, I beg you not to forget that, by virtue of actions and pressures on the part of Mr. Aznar as president of the government of Spain, more than 1,000 young men from small and impoverished Latin American nations were sent as cannon fodder to Iraq under the command of the Spanish Legion. Thus, the possible death of any of those young people is the responsibility of the Spanish state.

"The peoples of Latin America thus have the right to expect the immediate return of those young people. They do not have a duty to wait until June 30. The death of any one of those young Salvadorans, Hondurans, Dominicans and Nicaraguans would be doubly sad if, being immediately preventable, it is not prevented, given that the political responsibility of the principal author of that measure has been swept away by the Spanish people. The world, and particularly the peoples of our hemisphere, would greatly appreciate anything that you are able to do before assuming the presidency in order to avoid any more Latin American lives being added to those lost in the unjustifiable holocaust that took place in Madrid on March 11.

"I hope that you understand the spirit of this message and transmit to you my most sincere sentiments of respect and consideration."

Today is National Day of Action for Rachel Corrie

Details and resources here.

Another specific action to take here.

Listen to David Rovics' moving song about the events of that day here.

Shocking editorial headline of the day

After a devastating analysis of "pro-business politicies", USA Today boldly concludes that "in light of business' failure to deliver on earlier promises of job and wage growth, worker-friendly ways to stimulate the economy are worth exploring first." Yes, let's "explore" them. Wouldn't want to rush into anything, even though the existing policies have been a miserable failure at supporting the economy.

The most interesting thing in the editorial isn't their milquetoast conclusion, but this fact:

"[Consider] extending unemployment benefits for 760,000 people who have exhausted benefits. According to Economy.com, a consulting firm, every $1 invested in extended benefits generates $1.70 of increased economic activity because the money is spent quickly. By contrast, each $1 spent cutting dividend taxes pumps just 9 cents into the economy, the firm says."

Drink up!

"Federal authorities responsible for ensuring the safety of Washington's water knew about the toxic levels of lead and the likely solution more than a year ago but took no action, according to records and interviews.

"On Nov. 21, 2002, a staff member in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's regional office in Philadelphia told his supervisors in writing that 'fast action' might be needed to solve the lead contamination problem in the water.

"Local officials and experts on lead say the EPA's decisions have had broad consequences. More than 1 million residents relied on a water supply that for at least two years showed unsafe levels of lead. By the summer of 2002, lead levels in the city's water had reached 75 parts per billion, as measured by the EPA, five times the level considered safe."

"Political appointees in the Environmental Protection Agency bypassed agency professional staff and a federal advisory panel last year to craft a rule on mercury emissions preferred by the industry and the White House, several longtime EPA officials say.

"The EPA staffers say they were told not to undertake the normal scientific and economic studies called for under a standing executive order. At the same time, the proposal to regulate mercury emissions from coal-burning power plants was written using key language provided by utility lobbyists."

Headline of the Day

CARICOM? Never heard of 'em.

How far U.S. papers will go to discredit Aristide (other than not mentioning CARICOM's opposition to his ouster) is illustrated in today's Washington Post. They first print the "standard line":

"During the interview, Aristide gave a detailed account of what he alleged was 'a coup and a modern day kidnapping' carried out by the United States. U.S. officials have disputed his account, made previously in telephone interviews and through intermediaries. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell has characterized his claims as 'absurd.' The deputy chief of the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince, Luis Moreno, said in an interview earlier this month that Aristide willingly accepted the terms of departure and signed a letter of resignation."

"Aristide's account was supported by two witnesses present on the evening of Feb. 28 and the morning of Feb. 29. One was Franz Gabriel, a pilot and aide to Aristide; the other was an American security guard.

"'I was at the house at 5 a.m. when Moreno came in to tell the president they were going to organize a press conference and be ready to accompany them,' said Gabriel, who accompanied Aristide and his wife to Africa and to Jamaica. 'We boarded to go to the embassy and we ended up at the airport. That's what Mr. Moreno wanted him to do.'

"The American security guard, speaking on condition he not be identified, described the U.S. security warning as a subterfuge to lure Aristide away. 'That was just bogus. It's a story they fabricated,' he said."

This is what "sovereignty" looks like, Part II

"Article 26:

A) Except as otherwise provided in this Law, the laws in force in Iraq on 30 June 2004 shall remain in effect unless and until rescinded or amended by the Iraqi Transitional Government in accordance with this Law."

Quote of the Day

"I can't vote for these thugs again who led us into a war nobody wanted. They lied about the weapons in Iraq, and they're lying again today. How dare they manipulate the dead?"

- a Spanish grandmother who voted Socialist for the first time. (Source)

On Saturday, we here in San Jose, California will be joining our voices to those of people in hundreds of cities worldwide, shouting the same message. Be there (or somewhere).

"Balanced" response in the Middle East

Countless headlines described the latter action as Israel "striking back" against the Palestinians. Not a single headline I could find described the Palestinian suicide bombings as "striking back" or "retaliation."

Followup: And what is wrong with this picture: "Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said no talks with Palestinians are possible because their leaders don't have the power or courage to tackle terrorism"? Gee, maybe if Sharon lent the Palestinians some of his tanks, jets, and helicopter gunships, they could take on terrorism just like he's doing. The terrorism that runs over innocent people with bulldozers.

Non Sequitur, short and to the point

Followup: Life imitates art...or is it the other way around? Bush administration promotes new Medicare law with fake "news stories" featuring actors pretending to be reporters

Bush's foreign friends

"In 2000...a journalist shouted to Bush that Canadian Prime Minister Poutine was supporting his candidacy. 'I appreciate his strong statement,' Bush replied.  'He understands Canadians are strong and we'll work closely together.'

"There were several problems with this, as viewers of the satirical Canadian television show 'This Hour Has 22 Minutes' might remember. First, the journalist was really a prankster from the cast of 'This Hour.' Second, the Canadian PM had not endorsed Bush. And finally, the Canadian PM at the time was named Chretien, not Poutine, which is really the name for a dish of French fries slathered with a thin brown gravy and cheese curd that's popular with Quebeckers."

Military families speak out...

The New York Times didn't think the event was worth covering, so it only included a tiny clip from an AP article, which claims an attendance of "more than 250 peace activists and anti-war protesters" and only in the fourth paragraph (!) notes "among those participating in the demonstration...were members of families who have lost loved ones." Paragraph five of the article quotes a single protestor, not even objecting to the war, just lamenting the loss of her son, and the final paragraph, paragraph six, quotes a one-man counterprotest (!!!) across the street to provide "balance" to the story [250 peace activists, 1 counter-protestor - don't you wish they "balanced" the rest of their news coverage or their editorial page that way?]

The Washington Post also saw fit to include this story only in their "News in Brief." While noting 600 protestors (compare to 250 in the Times, and realize that, with numbers that small, it really isn't difficult to get an accurate count] and quoting two different military family demonstrators (and not bothering to mention the "counter-demonstration"), they still describe the demonstration simply as "antiwar protestors," even though the two people they interviewed were both members of military families.

Only Knight-Ridder gets it right, in an article written by William Douglas, the same reporter who just yesterday authored an article about the diminishing support for George Bush among veterans and military families. In an actual article (!), not just some News in Brief squib, Douglas counts 600 protestors, and describes the character of the march thusly:

"The protest attracted various groups opposed to the war: veterans, pacifists and church groups that were bused in from Philadelphia, Baltimore and other northeastern cities. But it was the military families -- traveling from around the country -- that were the centerpiece of a 3.5-mile march from a local meeting house to the massive military base.

"Forbidden to enter the [Dover Air Force Base] complex, the marchers crammed a sliver of lawn at a busy intersection outside the base and listened as some members of Military Families Speak Out read the names of U.S. troops -- now numbering 564 -- who have been killed since the war began last March.

"'Bush lies, and who dies?' said Fernando Suarez del Solar of San Diego. 'My son, Jesus Suarez del Solar Navarro, March 27.'

'I'm very disillusioned with the American government,' del Solar said before the march. 'For it to get involved in an illegal war and to play with the emotions of the American people with 9/11 for politics is wrong.'"

Followup: Similar good coverage from AFP with a horrible headline: "Relatives of US Soldiers Killed in Iraq Protest Outside US Base." When I first saw that I read it with "protest" as a noun and "Iraq" as an adjective modifying that noun. Just goes to show to what lengths I think our government is willing to go!

Quote of the Day

"I voted for Bush in 2000, and I'm not going to vote for him again. I just feel deceived. He just kept screaming, screaming, weapons of mass destruction, weapons of mass destruction, we've got to get in there. We got in there and now there aren't any."

- Jean Prewitt, whose son was killed in Iraq, quoted in an article about Bush's diminishing support among veterans and military families.

Economic priorities

Meanwhile, in the unreal world of Washington, George Bush is seeking to double "abstinence-education funding" to $270 million for the next year.

From socialism to capitalism

"Yalimova and her husband, Sharifulla, a retired tractor driver, live on $131 a month -- which includes a $9 bonus that Sharifulla receives because he was poisoned by radioactive waste dumped in a river by Soviet nuclear engineers.

"Sharifulla used to travel all over the Soviet Union working for a state labor contractor. Neither he nor his colleagues got rich, but the work was steady and the social safety net well strung.

"These days, he admits to one indulgence: Balkan Star cigarettes, two 40-cent packs a week.

"Sixty miles south of Muslumovo, in the smoke-stacked city of Chelyabinsk, Fyodor Bikbulatov and his wife, Nelya Ivanova, both 53, live in a 400-square-foot apartment.

"Both have full-time jobs -- he repairs outdated machinery in a factory and she's an office manager for an anti-nuclear group -- but they bring home only $110 a month, out of which they help Fyodor's daughter with college tuition payments.

"They are way behind in their rent, and the only bill they can regularly pay is the $5.70 a month for the phone. They were recently turned down for a small loan to get Fyodor some false teeth.

"Economic corrosion is eating away at another class of Russians - doctors, nurses, professors and schoolteachers.

"Svetlana Andreyeva, 56, earned a degree in mathematics from prestigious Moscow State University, then enjoyed a nice salary and the lofty social status that came with a professorship at the leading university in Chelyabinsk.

"Now, even with 30 years of seniority, she earns just 2,400 rubles a month, about $84. Add in her pension and her monthly take-home pay comes to $150.

"'It's not living,' she said. 'It's existing.'"

Bush fights for women

" President Bush said Friday the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were parts of a struggle to improve the lives of women worldwide."

And on International Women's Day he has the unmitigated gall to pose as a defender of women's rights. And the media, as they always do, dutifully report his fanciful claims without comment.

Iraq, one year later

"Wednesday, the Republican-controlled House is scheduled to hold four hours of debate and vote on a resolution that says the world is better off without Hussein in power." (Source)

From the same article, which describes the various ways in which the administration plans to mark the anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, comes this interesting tidbit:

"Administration officials plan to point out that the demand for oil and electricity has soared now that more Iraqis have cars, air conditioners and satellite dishes. Administration officials have said they overestimated Iraq's modernity before the attack and now want to dampen expectations about the progress of the reconstruction."

Speaking of claims that are hard to believe, perhaps the anniversary of the invasion is a time to revisit a subject Left I has mentioned before - the mass graves in Iraq which are a supposed justification for the war. We have been told that "as many as 300,000 Iraqis killed during Saddam Hussein's 23-year dictatorship are believed to be buried in more than 250 mass graves found so far around the country." Well, we have been told that, but even that is demonstrably false, because even the U.S. State Department admits that 250 is a number that has been "reported," but that only 40 have been confirmed. Does it really take a full year, not to fully exhume bodies and process them properly, but simply to "confirm" the allegations? And, even more curiously, in researching this post I learn that, as with Iraqi use of chemical weapons, the most recent of these mass graves dates from 1991, at a time when the Iraqi army was suppressing U.S.-inspired rebellions by the Kurds in the north and the Shia in the south against the Iraqi government following the first Gulf War. This paints a rather different picture than I suspect most Americans have, who have been (mis)educated to believe that Hussein would routinely round up thousands of his political opponents and have them killed, and that this was an ongoing process in Iraq which "had to be stopped" by the U.S. invasion.

Is this number of 300,000 real? Other than a grave containing 30 bodies found in February, I couldn't find a single article in the press more recent than last May or June about an actual discovery. The largest grave did hold 3100 bodies, but the total number of bodies found thus far seems to barely exceed that, and is certainly well less than 10,000. Claims of 300,000, like claims about the threat posed by Iraqi WMD and collaboration with al Qaida, seem to have been wildly exaggerated in order to provide yet another post-facto justification for the invasion.

Is this signficant? Certainly. Because more than 10,000 Iraqi civilians (and possibly as many as 20,000) were killed in this invasion of Iraq, on top of the 500,000 to one million who died as a direct result of the decade-long sanctions imposed on Iraq by the U.S. and a compliant U.N.

The "two Americas"

"Michael Bloomberg, this city's billionaire mayor, looks at Manhattan's glittering economy and all but chortles. 'Jobs are coming back to the Big Apple,' he said recently. 'Our future has never looked brighter.'

"The Wall Street bull is snorting. Investment bankers arm-wrestle for a $18 million Park Avenue apartment. Slots at prestigious private kindergartens retail for $26,000. Lines trail out of the latest, hot restaurants, and black limos play bumper car in Tribeca.

"'New York,' a recent newspaper article proclaims, 'it's HOT.'

"Except that a closer look at this largest of U.S. cities reveals much that's not so hot. New York's unemployment rate jumped in January from 8.0 to 8.4 percent, the worst performance among the nation's top 20 cities. It has lost 230,000 jobs in the past three years. Demand for emergency food has risen 46 percent over the past three years, and 900,000 New Yorkers receive food stamps. Inflation, foreclosures, evictions and personal bankruptcies are rising sharply. Fifty percent of the city's black males no longer are employed.

"President Bush will journey here this August for the Republican convention, and he is expected to celebrate the revival of the nation's financial capital since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. But at this point, that recovery is characterized more by its weakness -- and by the stark disparities between rich and poor."

"Juan Batista has arrived at his 62nd year without a job or health insurance. For decades, the East Harlem man threaded fabric through textile machines -- until he was laid off in 2002. Now he leafs through the classified ads each morning and walks the streets. He sees rug stores but no longer the factories that make them.

"His wife's salary is his sole support. 'I don't want to retire, but I don't have the possibilities of youth,' Batista said last week. 'I'm worried. What can I do but wait for death?'"

One heck of a rumor

"There have been reports that U.S. forces have unloaded a large cargo of parts for constructing long-range missiles and weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in the southern ports of Iraq.

"The source said that in order to avoid suspicion, ordinary cargo ships were used to download the cargo, which consisted of weapons produced in the 1980s and 1990s.

"The source went on to say that the rest of the weapons were probably transferred in vans to an unknown location somewhere in the vicinity of Basra overnight."

If at first you don't succeed...

"All 15 self-navigating vehicles in a 150-mile race across the Mojave Desert were knocked out within a few miles of the starting gate Saturday, victims of technical glitches, barbed-wire fences and rugged terrain. None could claim the $1 million prize offered by a military agency seeking to develop autonomous vehicles that could be used in combat." (Source)

No doubt the people participating in this challenge, many of them student groups, saw it as great fun and a challenging exercise in robotics. Perhaps it was for them. For some future Iraqis, or Iranians, or Venezuelans, or Cubans, or North Koreans, it was also deadly serious. Because they're the ones who stand to be killed by an army of remote-controlled (or, in this case, self-controlled) robots marching across their border.

You can't handle the truth!

Canadians aren't so dumb, eh?

"Canadian officials say they challenged the U.S. to share secret intelligence showing that the Baghdad regime had dangerous weapons of mass destruction in the run-up to the Iraq war, but Washington failed to deliver, thus cementing the Chretien government's resolve to stay out of the conflict.

"Washington's refusal to share raw intelligence with its close ally seemed puzzling at the time, one senior official said. But a year later, the reason now seems clear: 'They didn't have any evidence.'

"Another Canadian official, a senior diplomat who was in regular contact with the White House at the time, said the Chretien government was always open to persuasion if the Americans had new evidence. But the case Mr. Bush had tried to make in his State of the Union address was unconvincing, the diplomat said. And Mr. Powell's presentation a week later at the UN 'did not change our mind,' he added."

"A third Canadian official, based at the United Nations, said Ottawa had developed a healthy skepticism about the quality of U.S. intelligence in 1998 when then-president Bill Clinton ordered a cruise missile attack on a suspected al-Qaeda nerve-gas factory in Sudan that turned out to be a pharmaceuticals plant."

Shocking news of the day...not

US revealed to be secretly funding opponents of Chavez
"Washington has been channelling hundreds of thousands of dollars to fund the political opponents of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez - including those who briefly overthrew the democratically elected leader in a coup two years ago.

"Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that, in 2002, America paid more than a million dollars to those political groups in what it claims is an ongoing effort to build democracy and 'strengthen political parties'. Mr Chavez has seized on the information, telling Washington to 'get its hands off Venezuela'."

Chavez Says U.S. Is Fueling His Enemies
"Under United States pressure to allow a recall referendum against his rule, President Hugo Chavez has in recent days counterattacked, charging that the Bush administration is trying to oust him by aiding his adversaries, including those who briefly overthrew him in a 2002 coup.

"Mr. Chavez has seized on the information in reams of United States government documents, made public by a pro-Chavez group in New York that show Washington is trying to strengthen political parties and other antigovernment groups that want to remove the populist firebrand through a recall.

"Aid to opposition groups by the National Endowment for Democracy, a nonprofit agency financed by the United States Congress, is not new. Nor is the $1 million spent here last year excessively high for an organization that spends $40 million a year to finance hundreds of organizations in 81 countries."

How low the Times can sink is illustrated by this paragraph from the story:

"Mr. Chavez has lashed out in three recent speeches, telling Washington to 'get its hands off Venezuela' and charging that the Bush administration is 'financing this mad opposition.' He has even gone so far as to threaten to cut off oil exports if Washington gets the 'idea of trying to blockade Venezuela, or, even worse, of invading Venezuela.'

Spanish demonstrations

More on the Iraqi Constitution

"There's a lovely clause that reads, "No one may be unlawfully arrested or detained, and no one may be detained by reason of political or religious beliefs." Will the American troops discontinue the raids and arbitrary detentions (which are still quite common) come June 30? Or is the Transitional Law binding only to Iraqis?"

War on women

"There is indeed depraved indifference and utter callousness at the heart of this story, but it's not Melissa Rowland's."

The silent scream of the dead

Is there anything they don't lie about?

"The government's top expert on Medicare costs was warned that he would be fired if he told key lawmakers about a series of Bush administration cost estimates that could have torpedoed congressional passage of the White House-backed Medicare prescription-drug plan.

"When the House of Representatives passed the controversial benefit by five votes last November, the White House was embracing an estimate by the Congressional Budget Office that it would cost $395 billion in the first 10 years. But for months the administration's own analysts in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services had concluded repeatedly that the drug benefit could cost upward of $100 billion more than that."

"Some say the Bush administration's refusal to estimate costs could erode American support for the Iraq campaign, as well as the credibility of the White House and lawmakers."

Much ado about nothing

One of the people shown on the "Kerry scandal" segment was Republican Sen. Rick Santorum, saying how Kerry should "apologize for his mistake." Strangely, Sen. Santorum hasn't called on George Bush to apologize for his "mistake" of invading Iraq on false pretenses.

On the same show, Inside Politics devoted exactly one throwaway sentence to Bush having backtracked from appointing a new "manufacturing czar" who had recently opened a factory in China. Clearly not nearly as interesting or important a story as the Kerry scandal story.

Followup: Jon Stewart on the Daily Show was thinking along the same lines as Left I, but he had the advantage of actually airing the footing of Bush and Cheney calling Clymer an "asshole."

The Iraqi Constitution

Article 14.

The individual has the right to security, education, health care, and social security. The Iraqi State and its governmental units, including the federal government, the regions, governorates, municipalities, and local administrations, within the limits of their resources and with due regard to other vital needs, shall strive to provide prosperity and employment opportunities to the people.

More class warfare

"Bonuses totaling more than $10 million were paid out to five Kraft Foods Inc. executives at the end of 2003, even as the giant food maker made plans to lay off thousands of workers.

"In its annual proxy statement released on Friday, Kraft said the biggest payout, a $3.7-million bonus, was made to Chief Executive Roger Deromedi. Former co-CEO Betsy Holden got $3.5 million, sweetening her demotion to global marketing chief in December. Other payments were $1.3 million for North American President David Johnson, $900,000 for international boss Hugh Roberts and $1.2 million for global supply chain Executive Vice President Franz-Josef Vogelsang.

"The maker of Velveeta cheese, Ritz crackers and Maxwell House coffee has struggled to meet Wall Street expectations lately, hurt by a lack of attractive new products and by cheaper competition in some sectors.

"In January, Chicago-based Kraft said it would cut about 6,000 jobs and close 20 plants as it tried to restore growth." (Credit to Jay Leno for spotting this story.)

Politicians and the media routinely pooh-pooh those of us who use the term "class warfare" and actually believe that it isn't just some Marxist phrase, but very much part of reality. I wonder if those 6,000 workers, who (involuntarily) sacrificed their jobs so that those struggling executives could afford a third vacation home in Aspen, would scoff at the idea that they are victims of that war, even if, thanks to years of brainwashing by the media, they wouldn't employ the same terminology?

Quote of the Day

"Policy makers take data. They interpret threat. They assess risk. They put urgency behind it. And sometimes it doesn't uniquely comport with every word of an intelligence estimate." - George Tenet, CIA director

Tax cuts lead to jobs?

"On April 24, 2003, President Bush traveled to Timken Company's Canton plant to promote his tax plan. In a speech to workers, he promised that the tax cut plan 'means more money for investments, more money for growth and more money for jobs.'

"Numerous studies have refuted that claim, showing that while the President's tax cuts rewarded wealthy Americans with tens of thousands of dollars in tax windfalls, the rest of America actually received relatively little. The average Bush tax cut for the wealthiest one percent of Americans is $938,000, reports Citizens for Tax Justice.

"According to Reuters, the Chairman of Timken Company, W.R. Timken, made $2.62 million in 2003, clearly placing him in the wealthiest one percent of Americans.

"Two months later, W.R. Timken co-hosted a fundraiser for Bush's campaign in Akron which raised $600,000, and earned Timken 'Ranger' status (for those who raise more than $200,000 for the campaign).

"Then, in September last year, Timken Company announced it was laying off 700 workers."

This is what "sovereignty" looks like

"A US general will be in charge of all military forces in Iraq even after the end of the occupation, a senior British official said on Wednesday. American and British forces will remain in Iraq 'for at least two years', the official said.

"The multinational security force will have a unified military command and will incorporate the new Iraqi army and the Iraqi civil defence force.

"In overall command will be a four-star American general, and under him a three-star American general will be in charge of operations. There will also be a British deputy to the senior officer." (Source)

A boorish, embarrassing President?

"Supporters and critics of Chavez have said that the president's salty, earthy and even profane speeches are anything but presidential. While Venezuela's poor, and its black and indigenous minorities, often find Chavez's use of blunt language appealing, wealthy and middle-class Venezuelans find it boorish and embarrassing."

Class warfare

"Six months after promising to create an office to help the nation's struggling manufacturers, President Bush settled on someone to head it, but the nomination was being reconsidered last night after Democrats revealed that his candidate had opened a factory in China." (Source)

Military families speak out...

"When the invasion of Iraq began, [Richard] Dvorin -- a 61-year-old Air Force veteran and a retired cop -- thought the commander in chief deserved his support. 'I believed we were destroying part of the axis of evil,' he says. 'I truly believed that Saddam Hussein was a madman and that he possessed weapons of mass destruction and wouldn't hesitate to use them.'

"By the time Army 2nd Lt. Seth Dvorin was sent to Iraq last September, however, his father was having doubts. And now that Seth had been killed, at 24, by an 'improvised explosive device' south of Baghdad, doubt had turned to anger.

"'Where are all the weapons of Mass Destruction?' Richard Dvorin demanded in his letter [to the President]. 'Where are the stockpiles of Chemical and Biological weapons?' His son's life, he wrote, 'has been snuffed out in a meaningless war.'"

"The number of military families who oppose Operation Iraqi Freedom, though never measured, is probably small. But a nascent antiwar movement has begun to find a toehold among parents, spouses and other relatives of active-duty, reserve and National Guard troops.

"A group called Military Families Speak Out -- which will figure prominently in marches and vigils at Dover Air Force Base, Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the White House next week -- says more than 1,000 families have signed up online and notes that new members join daily. Other outspoken family members -- Dvorin, for example -- have never heard of the group but, for a variety of reasons, share its founders' conviction that the war is a 'reckless military misadventure.'"

Intentional innumeracy

And so it is in this AP article, which tells us that "President Bush opened the White House and Camp David to dozens of overnight guests last year." Of course this was something that Bush (and other Republicans and the right-wing media) criticized heavily when it was Bill Clinton doing the inviting. So how many overnight guests were there? 36 (3 dozen)? 72 (6 dozen)? No, 270! Which is just a bit less than two dozen dozens! Which is "hundreds" by anyone's standards. Anyone, that is, except someone with an ulterior motive in diminishing the significance of the number.

Political humor of the day

"The Bush administration announced a new plan to crack down on the finanances of terrorists. I think it might work. If Bush is half as successful hurting the finances of terrorists as the finances of ordinary Americans, I would not want to be in their shoes." - Jay Leno

Cutting off your nose to spite your face

"The United States government stopped a group of about 70 American medical school professors, doctors and other scientists from attending an international symposium on coma and death in Cuba this week, several doctors said yesterday.

"Stuart J. Youngner, a professor at Case Western Reserve University who helped organize the conference [said] 'the end result of this is an infringement on academic freedom, our freedom as citizens to travel and also damaging to science in the United States and around the world.'

"Dr. E. Roy John, a professor at New York University's School of Medicine and director of the Brain Research Laboratories there, who was scheduled to deliver two papers...said that in areas like molecular biology and mathematics, Cuba was 'world class.'"

"The U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control recently declared that American publishers cannot edit works authored in nations under trade embargoes which include Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Libya and Cuba.

"Although publishing the articles is legal, editing is a 'service' and the treasury department says it is illegal to perform services for embargoed nations. It can be punishable by fines of up to a half-million dollars or jail terms as long as 10 years."

"The Academy of Sciences of Cuba, formed by scientists of relevant merits, representing the national scientific community, denounces to the national and international public opinion a new aggression against Cuba by the present US administration.

"Since the public announcement of this measure, several US editors have rejected articles presented by Cuban scientists for publication in specialized journals in the USA.

"The publication of research outcomes is the first step in the socialization of knowledge, and an indispensable pre-requisite for the healthy development of science. Only through the free flow of ideas and knowledge among scientists from all over the world can science grow and advance for the benefit of all of humankind. Contrasting with that, the present measures deprive the scientific communities of the USA, and the world at large, from sharing with our scientists the well recognized Cuban scientific developments.

"The adoption of that decision by the present government of the USA violates both, the most elementary rights of scientists in any part of the world, and the USA Constitution itself.

"Comparable to the burning of books practiced by fascist regimes, this absurd measure, which is the expression of a strengthening of the US blockade, is a reflection of the viciousness of the present Government of that country, that has not been remiss to resort to irrational limits in total despise of the most sacred principles of international law.

"This is the same government that, without taking into account the voice of the scientific community of its own country, has denied the existence of global warming, has destroyed in savage military actions many unique pieces of the World heritage, and in their contempt for any other opinion, has ignored the voice of the World community of nations.

"Cuban scientists denounce with indignation this measure that affects not only us Cubans, but all of humankind. We call for our colleagues in the USA to act in solidarity with our declaration, and to scientists in the rest of the World to condemn and reject this new absurd aggression."

Implicit assumptions

Case in point: in an article entitled "Bush criticizes Kerry on '95 intelligence bill," AP reporter Scott Lindlaw writes "Republicans hope to raise doubts about Kerry's ability to fight and win the war against terror." Of course the implicit assumption is that there is a "war on terror" which is being fought and could possibly be "won," both claims which are dubious to say the least. There is a war on Palestinians, a war on the rights of Americans, a war on democratically elected leaders from Haiti to Venezuela, a war on the Iraqi people, and lots more.

The most striking thing about the AP claim is that the very next sentence says "Bush also criticized Kerry for indicating he was uncomfortable 'using the word 'war' to describe the struggle we're in.'" So even though the reporter implictly acknowledges that there is some debate over whether there is a "war" on terror, he still uses the phrase as if it's a given, without comment.

San Jose recognizes gay marriages

George & Martha

"So, Martha Stewart has been found guilty and most likely will go to jail. She sold $228,000 worth of ImClone stock before the price plummeted based on insider information and was convicted on obstruction charges. But what I would like to know is, why are the rules not the same for everyone?

"In 1990 George W. Bush dumped $848,000 worth of Harken Energy Corp. stock before the price plummeted. Bush, as a Harken board member and a member of the well-informed Harken Audit Committee, surely had insider information about the oil company's financial woes.

"If Bush didn't think his sale would be considered suspicious, why did he wait eight months to notify the SEC about the trade and then uncharacteristically leave the notification undated?

"He said the timing of his sale of stock before the price plummeted was purely 'coincidental.'

"Lucky for Bush, his father was president at the time, the head of the SEC was his father's appointee and former vice presidential counsel, and the SEC's general counsel was Bush's personal lawyer in his sale of the Texas Rangers. Why is it that Bush seemed to get away with something much worse than Martha Stewart's crime?"

Political humor of the day

"President Bush has just one question for the American voters: Is the rich person you're working for better off now than they were 4 years ago?" - Jay Leno

Still more evidence of the economic recovery

"The West Contra Costa school district Monday night voted to eliminate high school athletics [in six high schools], close all its libraries and lay off 10 percent of its employees as part of $16.5 million in budget cuts. On the chopping block are 407 positions, or roughly 10 percent of the district's employees, including psychologists, speech therapists, teachers, principals, counselors and custodians."

As usual, the proposed solution to failed government is to "turn to the private sector." The schools are planning to ask beg rich professional athletes to help fund their athletic programs. I wonder if they'll have equal success raising money from rich professional librarians.

Meanwhile, in Iraq, $16.5 million doesn't even amount to petty cash. A subcontractor is suing Halliburton for stiffing it for $87 million in unpaid bills for three months of meals it has served to troops in Iraq, and is threatening to start serving the troops sandwiches instead of hot food if it doesn't get paid. The students in West Contra Costa County should be so lucky.

Aristide speaks...but only the left hears him

Quote of the Day

"Please, my dear brothers, let your wives and sisters go to the voter registration process. Later, you can control who she votes for, but please, let her go."

- Afghan President Hamid Karzai, addressing a gathering of 500 women (!) on International Women's Day

Hitting a little too close to home

"Wrapping up his annual bodybuilding and fitness extravaganza....Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Sunday criticized federal regulation of food supplements as misguided...'I have rarely seen the government do anything that was effective.'"

Gov. Gropenegger, the epitome of bad taste from his acting days both on and off screen, also had this to say:

"Schwarzenegger called it 'bad taste' for Americans to criticize their government overseas. 'You may disagree with the policies, but don't go to France, don't go to Berlin and then speak badly about our president or speak badly about our country,' he said. Schwarzenegger...called on critics to do more than talk if they want to change the country."

More evidence of that economic recovery

"Palo Alto High's budget is so tight that Sonia Ferrandiz-Bodoff's German teacher offers three extra credit points to any student who brings a box of tissues to class. In Cupertino, science teacher Katheryn McElwee gives her Monta Vista High students five points for a roll of paper towels."

Aristide update

"A delegation from the United States has arrived in the Central African Republic to meet with overthrown Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. President Aristide was taken involuntarily to the Central African Republic following a U.S. coup d'etat on February 28. The group was granted visas on Thursday and Friday and departed the United States on Friday evening.

"The delegation includes Kim Ives from the Haiti Support Network, and Johnnie Stevens and Sara Flounders from the International Action Center. Ives, Flounders and Stevens are representing former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark. Also on the delegation are Brian Concannon, acting in the capacity of President Aristide's lawyer; and Katherine Kean, a friend of President Aristide.

"Kim Ives, a personal friend of Jean-Bertrand and Mildred Aristide, said '"This morning, the delegation went to the Palace of the Renaissance, the presidential compound where President Aristide is being held.' Mr. Ives had spoken to the Foreign Minister on Thursday to inform him that the delegation was coming to the Central African Republic to meet with President Aristide.

"'We were stopped at the gates by a guard who contacted a Central African Republic official inside the building. A representative of the Central African Republic came out to speak with us,' Ives reported. 'We asked to go in to visit President Aristide and were told we could not. We asked if he could come out to see us, and we were told no. We asked if we could send in a note or our phone number, and we were told no. The official then told us that he had spoken with the Minister of Defense and that Aristide was not allowed to receive visitors.'

"Mr. Ives also reported that he placed a call to the cell phone that the Aristides have been using to place calls to their friends, attorneys and the media. 'Mildred Aristide answered the phone. I said, 'Hello Mildred, this is Kim Ives, we are here.' At that point, the phone line went dead. We have tried to call many times since then but there has been no answer.'"

There been yet to be any mention I can find of Aristide's important "First Address to the Haitian People from Exile,", broadcast Friday in a Flashpoints radio exclusive. AP does briefly mention that Aristide's lawyer was denied a chance to see him, and includes this interesting bit of news:

"When reporters asked Mildred Aristide if her husband was healthy, she nodded. Asked if the couple were prisoners, she sighed."

Did Kerry learn anything from Iraq?

And now he has spoken out against the desposing of Jean-Bertrand Aristide in Haiti. Before the coup, and while it was occuring, he was silent. Now he says "Had he been sitting in the Oval Office last weekend as rebel forces were threatening to enter Port-au-Prince, Sen. John Kerry says he would have sent an international force into the city to protect Haiti's widely disliked but democratically elected leader."

As in Iraq, though, he isn't actually prepared to back his sentiment with a call for action, such as restoring the rightfully elected President of Haiti to office.

Quote of the Day

"If class warfare is being waged in America, my class is clearly winning."

- Billionaire Warren Buffett, writing in the annual report of his Berkshire Hathaway company (!). (Source)

Buffett notes:

"Except for 1983, the percentage of federal tax receipts from corporate income taxes last year was the lowest since data was first published in 1934."

Gaza - the Israeli rampage continues

"Israel Defense Forces troops raided two Gaza refugee camps Sunday morning, killing at least 14 Palestinians. The raid came one day after militants mounted an elaborate attack at the Erez Crossing on the Israel-Gaza border.

"Among the dead were at least three children - a 10-year-old boy, a 12-year-old and a 15-year-old. The IDF said that 10 of the dead were known militants: nine were Hamas members and the tenth a member of the Popular Resistance Committees. No Israeli casualties were reported in the raid on the Bureij and Nusseirat refugee camps that began early Sunday morning.

"Palestinians said that some 80 people were injured in the raids, some of them in critical condition."

The AP, as reported in the New York Times, has a different take on the events. They refer to the dead as "gunmen," and write:

"The military said it was looking for weapons in the Bureij camp, but found none and made no arrests. The raid apparently was also meant to draw out the militants, a possible new tactic by the military ahead of a Gaza withdrawal."

"The fighting pitted hundreds of Palestinians armed with assault rifles, anti-tank missiles and grenade launchers against Israeli troops firing from helicopters, tanks and rooftop sniper positions. Palestinian children chased after Israeli tanks and jeeps, throwing stones."

Meanwhile, in the U.S., people are more concerned about the violence in a movie about a man who died 2000 years ago. This news from Gaza has made the U.S. press, at least the print media, and will probably show up as a brief item on CNN as well. Will any newspaper editorialize against the continuing, brutal show of force by the Israeli military? Will any politician speak out against it? Will any of the talk shows which have devoted countless hours to discussing "The Passion of the Christ" spend even one minute discussing this subject? Not bloody likely.

Remembering Rachel Corrie

And in today's shocking news...

"AT&T Wireless Services, which is being sold to Cingular Wireless for $41 billion, said its officers and directors may gain as much as $83.8 million as the transaction is completed." (Source)

An argument for term limits

"U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., a longtime fighter for gay rights and same-sex marriage, said protests not directed at lawmakers are ultimately a waste of time.

"'I think it is very important for people to pursue legal and political means of changing the law or even testing the law. But I don't think marrying en masse when the law says no is productive,' he said."

Once upon a time, Barney Frank was one of a handful of the most progressive legislators in the Massachusetts State Legislature. I'm afraid it's been downhill ever since he arrived in Washington.

On major issues like this, talking to legislators is a complete waste of time. The important thing is to talk to each other, and to the world, and let the legislators eavesdrop on the conversations and stick their fingers in the wind. When the wind's blowing in the right direction, they'll know all about it.

Mustard gas - theirs and "ours"

The Washington Post redefines the word "coup"

The Post claims that "the constitution [was] drawn up under Mr. Chavez's own administration," which is untrue; the constitution was amended after Chavez came to office. But they fail to note that the entire recall provision, which of course does not exist in the United States or most countries proclaiming themselves democracies, was one of the very things that was added to the consitution at that time. If it wasn't for Chavez and his dedication to democracy, there wouldn't be a recall provision at all.

The Post, evidently filled with experts on Venezuelan electoral law, claims that the electoral commission "invented requirements that didn't previously exist. Most notably, it threw out 876,000 signatures, each accompanied by a thumbprint, because someone other than the voter had entered registration details on the petition." Strangely, they fail to criticize the fact that the commission decided to offer the referendum's backers two days to "re-validate" the disqualified signatures, something which had no basis in law whatsoever. Here in the U.S., or anywhere, if there is a deadline for submitting valid signatures for, say, a referendum for the ballot, if you fail to meet that deadline, you don't get extra time for "do-overs."

The Post makes the proposterous claim that "These signatures were rigorously audited by a nonpartisan civic group before being forwarded to the electoral commission." There is no such "nonpartisan" group in Venezuela, the "civic groups" in question are, in fact, opponents of the Chavez government.

After claiming that "Mr. Chavez...appears eager for a domestic and international confrontation", the Post closes with this invitation for U.S. action: "If Mr. Chavez continues to deny his people a democratic vote, leaders from those nations must be prepared to invoke the Democracy Charter of the OAS and threaten him with the isolation reserved for autocrats." Once again - it is Chavez who is the democratically elected President of his country, and it is the U.S. President who is in office because his "people" were denied a democratic vote. The "autocrat," the one who takes his nation to war by his own decision, the one who "appears eager for a domestic and international confrontation," is sitting in the White House. And incidentally, he is also the one who can only appear in public (as Thursday in San Jose where I and hundreds of others went to "unwelcome" him to town) behind a phalanx of armed police, so "beloved" is he by the people of his country.

Blair bares teeth

From the Independent:

"Tony Blair confronted his critics over the war on Iraq yesterday with a warning that he was prepared to launch similar pre-emptive strikes against rogue states and terrorists that threatened Britain and the world.

"Revealing a new British doctrine that echoes the 'total war' of President George Bush, the Prime Minister said he would never put the country at risk by not acting, even if that meant operating outside the UN.

"Mr Blair called for reform of international law to allow states to intervene against brutal dictatorships."

"Mr Blair called for the reform of international law and the UN to allow the elimination of rogue, repressive regimes which might supply terrorists with WMD.

"He said: 'Here is the crux: It is possible that even with all this, nothing would have happened; possible that Saddam would change his ambitions; possible he would develop the WMD but never use it; possible that the terrorists would never get their hands on WMD, whether from Iraq or elsewhere.'

"'We cannot be certain. But do we want to take the risk? That is the judgment. And my judgment then and now is that the risk of this new global terrorism, and its interaction with states or organisations or individuals proliferating WMD, is one I simply am not prepared to take.'"

The main nations in the world using WMD and proliferating weapons of all kinds are, of course, the U.S. and Britain, and there are many of us who think that the world will never be a safe place until those rogue regimes changed. Really changed (not to be confused with John Kerry's "multilateral imperialism" vs. George Bush's "go-it-alone imperialism").

This lashing out by Tony Blair is, of course, yet another chapter in the "best defense is a good offense" book. Because Blair, like George Bush, has no actual defense against the charge that he launched an illegal war on completely bogus pretexts.

Iraq becomes Gaza

The story is the same as it has been so many times before:

"US soldiers cordoned off the nearby village of Dabj looking for a suspected anti-coalition fighter, said the officer.

"Believing that the individual was hiding in a Bedouin tent, troops opened fire, killing the family members, he said."

The story above is taken from the Australian press; the story also appeared on Al Jazeerah. I could find only a single reference to the incident in the American press, in the Boston Globe, contained in an article about yet another incident. This incident is described in that article as "a group of Iraqis claimed soldiers shot and killed four people Wednesday in the northern Iraqi city," not even conceding that the event actually took place, even while the Australian press is reporting that the U.S. military has "confirmed" the event.

Gaza - Some facts

• From September 29th up to Monday this week, 94 Israelis have been killed - 27 civilians and 67 soldiers, according to the IDF. From that same date up to February 18th this year 1,231 Palestinians have been killed - all of them were terrorists?


• The human rights group Mezan, based in Jabalya refugee camp, found that 81 women were killed by IDF gunfire in the Strip; 344 children under the age of 18 were killed by IDF gunfire; 255 members of the Palestinian security and police forces, killed either at their positions or offices and frequently in battle; 264 were armed men who took part in battles with the IDF or tried to attack military positions or settlers and settlements. In the IDF's targeted assassinations, 46 of those killed were the targets of the attacks - and 80 were passersby killed with "pinpoint prevention."


• There are 8,000 Jews and 1.4 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The total area of the Strip is 365 square kilometers. The settlements occupy 54 square kilometers. Along with the areas held by the IDF, according to the Oslo accords, 20 percent of the Strip is under Israeli control. That's 20 percent of the territory for half of one percent of the population.

Aristide on Flashpoints

Followup: Transcript here.

Jon Stewart, misinformed

"Article 16 [Ownership, Private Property]

(a) Ownership is a social function, to be exercised within the objectives of the Society and the plans of the State, according to stipulations of the law.
(b) Private ownership and economic individual liberty are guaranteed according to the law, and on the basis of not exercising them in a manner incompatible with the economic and general planning."

There's no doubt Bush is in charge in Iraq

Iraqi Hospitals on Life Support
Babies Dying Because of Shortages of Medicine, Supplies
"The health-care system has been hit by a critical shortage in basic medications and equipment. Babies die of simple infections because they can't get the proper antibiotics. Surgeries are delayed because there is no oxygen. And patients in critical condition are turned away because there isn't enough equipment.

Here's an interesting historical reminder from the same article:

"Iraq's hospitals were once the envy of the Middle East. Wealthy businessmen used to fly their relatives in for everything from heart transplants to plastic surgery, and Iraqi specialists traveled the world lecturing about their research. But medical care deteriorated under the economic sanctions imposed after the Persian Gulf War in 1991, and President Saddam Hussein banned the importation of medications produced by U.S. companies and their affiliates, even though those were often the best available."

U.S. lays it on the line

"The United States on Thursday rejected pressure for an investigation into whether it pushed former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to resign and said it would not prop up 'failed' elected leaders.

"After days of criticism that Aristide was ousted in a U.S.-assisted coup, the Bush administration's new defense of his 'rescue' stoked fears its Haiti policy set a precedent for other leftists in Latin America, such as Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

"State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said that even if the United States 'recognized a leader had been elected,' he could not rely on U.S. support against an armed revolt if America considered he had misgoverned."

And also, I'm sure it goes without saying that the irony of the Bush administration talking about "elected" leaders is lost on few of my readers. As Riva Enteen of the National Lawyer's Guild said today (paraphrasing) at a rally in Santa Clara, California, to "unwelcome" George Bush to town, "This selected President wants to despose elected leaders around the world, from Iraq to Haiti, so that he can select the new leaders of those countries."

In the "I don't know if it's true, but I sure wouldn't be surprised" department...

"A Jordanian extremist suspected of bloody suicide attacks in Iraq was killed some time ago in U.S. bombing and a letter outlining plans for fomenting sectarian war is a forgery, a statement allegedly from an insurgent group west of the capital said.

"Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in the Sulaimaniyah mountains of northern Iraq 'during the American bombing there,' said a statement circulated in Fallujah this week and signed by the 'Leadership of the Allahu Akbar Mujahedeen.'

"There was no way to verify the authenticity of the statement, one of many leaflets put out by a variety of groups taking part in the anti-U.S. resistance."

That didn't take long

"Settlers have until Thursday afternoon to leave six illegal West Bank outposts, after which they will be evacuated by force, the State Prosecution told the High Court of Justice on Tuesday."

"Supreme Court Justice Mishael Cheshin on Thursday evening issued an order that delays by ten days the dismantling of illegal outposts by Israel Defense Forces troops."

And in today's shocking news...

Measuring progress

"Sallie Maranda Fiske, a pioneering journalist and lesbian activist, has died...She hosted her own daily afternoon talk show until KCOP fired her in 1977 for disclosing her sexual orientation on air...Ms. Fiske lost her job a few days after the broadcast and never worked in broadcast journalism again."

Moving on

"With twice-exiled former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide complaining bitterly about the U.S. role in his weekend flight from a potentially fatal Haitian rebellion, the more important issues involve the future of the impoverished nation."

One wonders whether the Chronicle has been editorializing against years of destablization efforts and economic sanctions which played a major part in keeping Haiti impoverished. Somehow I doubt it.

Words not minced

A Havana billboard, photo by Jen Sharpe from the Killing Goliath website, found via Atrios.

Quote of the Day

"If the Democratic policies had been pursued over the last two or three years, the kind of tax increases that both Kerry and Edwards have talked about, we would not have had the kind of job growth that we've had."

- Vice-President Dick Cheney, apparently deluded into thinking that 2.4 million jobs lost since he took office can be described as "job growth."

Shocking statement of the day

"The Bush administration's claim that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had ties to Al-Qaida -- one of the administration's central arguments for a pre-emptive war -- appears to have been based on even less solid intelligence than the administration's claims that Iraq had hidden stocks of chemical and biological weapons."

As usual, of course, the mainstream media reports what the progressive media reported months ago. For example, Knight-Ridder tells us in today's article:

"Vice President Dick Cheney told National Public Radio in January that there was 'overwhelming evidence' of a relationship between Saddam and Al-Qaida. Among the evidence he cited was Iraq's harboring of Abdul Rahman Yasin, a suspect in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

"Cheney did not mention that Iraq had offered to turn over Yasin to the FBI in 1998, in return for a U.S. statement acknowledging that Iraq had no role in that attack. The Clinton administration refused the offer, because it was unwilling to reward Iraq for returning a fugitive."

Who ya' gonna' believe?

Colin Powell and Donald Rumsfeld are both now regularly shown on TV asserting that claims that Jean-Bertrand Aristide were kidnapped are "nonsense." But Aristide has been on the phone talking with his lawyer, members of Congress, activists, and news organizations stating in no uncertain terms that he was kidnapped. News organizations have largely reported Aristide's claims, but given them equal (in some cases) and less (in many cases, most notably BBC) weight to the claims of Powell and Rumsfeld, despite the fact that the latter two are totally discredited liars.

Of course, we can't have this, so today there's this:

"Ira Kurzban, the lawyer who represents President Jean Bertrand Aristide told Pacifica Radio KPFK Los Angeles Radio on March 2 that he had learned that the Central African Republic (CAR) has shut off President Aristide's phone service. He said that armed members of the French and CAR military are guarding President Aristide and he is not free to leave."

The one year anniversary of Rachel Corrie's murder approaches

"As we approach March 16th, residents and citizens of the United States should ask themselves how it is that an unarmed United States citizen can be killed with impunity by a soldier from an allied nation receiving massive United States aid, using a product manufactured in the United States by a United States corporation and paid for with United States tax dollars. When three Americans were killed, presumably by Palestinians, in an explosion on October 15th, 2003 as they traveled through Gaza, the FBI came within 24 hours to investigate the deaths. After one year, neither the FBI, nor any other US-led team has done anything to investigate the death of an American, knowingly killed by an Israeli."

What is wrong with this picture?

News to remember for Thursday

"Settlers have until Thursday afternoon to leave six illegal West Bank outposts, after which they will be evacuated by force, the State Prosecution told the High Court of Justice on Tuesday."

"Everybody" doesn't include you

Followup: 1,000 more pieces of "good news" that "Works for Everybody."

Crime rampage in New York

"A mayor in upstate New York, who made headlines as the state's first official to marry gays, was charged on Tuesday with 19 criminal counts of falsely marrying same-sex couples, officials said.

"Ulster County District Attorney Donald Williams said he charged New Paltz Mayor Jason West -- the state's first elected Green Party mayor -- with 19 counts of solemnizing marriages without a license, a domestic relations law misdemeanor." (Source)

Quote of the Day

"We're about to elect the leader of our country. We don't have enough money for schools, we're at war, and we're worried about this?"

- Pop singer and Justin Timberlake's 'N Sync's bandmate J.C. Chasez, referring to the Janet Jackson/Justin Timberlake SuperBowl "scandal" (Source)

Democratic candidates with poor eyesight

From yesterday's Democratic Presidential primary debate:

DAN RATHER: The fence or wall in the Middle East -- the Israelis say it's a fence, the Palestinians call it a wall.

Senator Kerry, what do you call it?

KERRY: A fence necessary to the security of Israel until they have a partner to be able to negotiate.

RATHER: Reverend Sharpton?

SHARPTON: I think it's a fence, but I think that we must keep Palestinian rights in mind.

And I think it will not work unless we have cooperation of all sides, and we not in any way, shape or form have an unbalanced Middle East policy that we've had so far.

RATHER: Fence or a wall?

EDWARDS: It is a fence, both symbolically and in reality. There are only a very few miles of it that are made of concrete.

And the Israelis have the right to protect themselves. And I agree that until we get to the place that they have a real partner, which America has to play an enormous role in, they're entitled to build the fence.

RATHER: Congressman?

KUCINICH: When Israel builds something on its territory, it's a fence. But when they build something on the Palestinians' territory, it's a wall.

And I think that we need to help bring the parties together, for peaceful coexistence and restart the peace talks.

Chavez revisited

In Washington, George Bush says that "democracy is working in Haiti."