(Many thanks, as usual, to Cursor.org for helping locate these articles)

When 10,000 Nukes Isn't Enough: If the ability to drop one nuclear weapon on every 137mi by 137mi section of the earth wasn't enough - if the ability to destroy every city on the earth with a population over ~40,000 wasn't enough - the US has now resumed developing nuclear warhead plutonium pits - the heart of modern nuclear weapons - for the first time in 14 years. The plant is scheduled to peak at 500 per year. Again, to put our current number in perspective, on a country the size of Iraq, we could drop one nuclear warhead in a 4m X 4mi square; on a country the size of Syria, that's one every 2.6mi X 2.6 mi square. In Iraq, the entire surface of the country would be utterly obliterated, with everyone - even those in bomb shelters - killed; in Syria, much of the country would be vaporized as well. Do we *really* need *more*? Or is Bush planning to take on, say, China and Russia?

Jesus Plus Nothing: In a new article for Harper's titled "Jesus Plus Nothing: Undercover among America's secret theocrats", Jeffrey Sharley writes what should be one of the biggest exposes in recent history. The author went undercover, joining a group called "The Family", which tries to keep a low profile while involving itself in almost every aspect of American and international politics; its only public event is the National Prayer Breakfast. With huge private contributions, this group of religious fundamentalists of an extreme that puts Osama bin Laden to shame, has forged relationships with dictators from Suharto to Somoza, and includes amongst its Senatorial members, our own Charles Grassley. You have to read to truly comprehend how extreme this organization which considers God's covenant with the Jews broken and themselves God's new chosen ones is; it's long, but worth every word. Grassley has a few questions to answer... ;) Plus: Six members of congress living on the cheap thanks to The Family.

An Answer? Out Of The Question!:: "It was, perhaps, inevitable, and it happened late last week. The White House went completely incommunicado ... In an exchange of nearly 3,800 words, the spokeswoman managed not to answer about 75 questions. Thursday went like this... (read on for examples of amazing levels of dodging). Plus: "Q: Hold on. We're entitled to a follow up, Ari - this isn't homeroom."


An Answer? Out Of The Question!:: "It was, perhaps, inevitable, and it happened late last week. The White House went completely incommunicado ... In an exchange of nearly 3,800 words, the spokeswoman managed not to answer about 75 questions. Thursday went like this... (read on for examples of amazing levels of dodging). Plus: "Q: Hold on. We're entitled to a follow up, Ari - this isn't homeroom."

What Has The World Lost?: TheArtNewspaper.com lists the only detailed catalog of what was once held inside the Iraq Museum, with photographs. Plus: On "Democracy Now!", the head of the Cambrian Archaeological Association debates the head of the American Council for Cultural Policy, an art-traders lobby which seeks to loosen import restrictions of foreign cultural artifacts, and evidence surfaces to the extent that the US army was warned in advance about the looting and told exactly where to safeguard, with Iraq's national museum being identified by the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA) as the "second top priority for securing by coalition troops after the national bank." ORHA was supposed to supervise Iraq's reconstruction. The memo was never even read.

The Vanishing Bush Sr. Article: Everyone's favorite "controversial article mirroring site", The Memory Hole, recently discovered that Time Magazine was curiously missing a single article from their site: one by former president, George H.W. Bush, and his adviser Brent Scowcroft, on why invading Iraq would be wrong. Includes an actual scan from the print copy of the article.

Three More Down: Three more administration officials join the ranks of those who have resigned over president Bush's policies - this time, cultural advisers, furious with the utter lack of attempt to prevent looting of antiquities.

AWOL Again: When it comes to Homeland Security, Bush and Cheney appear to have gone AWOL again. Plus: When Bush *actually* went AWOL

More On Bechtel: You've probably heard some of the recent scheme where the Bush administration gave a "few bid" contract to Bechtel in a rather self-serving relationship. Here's the rundown on Bechtel's Washington ties, Bush put a Bechtel executive on his export council, and Iraq got a boost from Bechtel in the 80s. Plus: Given that Bush recently named former Bechtel executive Connelly to the head of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), one may be forgiven for taking the time to look at the OPIC site and wonder: When it comes to children and overseas private investment, how young is too young?

7 Billion Dollar Boon: The scope of Halliburton's no-bid contract for fighting oil well fires in Iraq is revealed to be a whopping 7 billion dollars.

Psychological Warfare Inverted: Many soldiers are already starting to show signs of severe trauma from the scale of one-sided nature of the war against the Iraqi military, and how they still wouldn't surrender, forcing the soldiers to kill them all. Some attacks by the US military were designed to kill everything within a square kilometer. Plus: Will this war be a breeding ground for not only new bin Laden's, but also new McVeighs?

He's No Estrada, That's For Sure!: Abandoning even the fig leaf of stealth, the Bush administration's latest appointment for the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals is about as radical of a right winger as we could possibly imagine ever being appointed. A man who became a lawyer "because I wanted to fight the ACLU", and stated "God has chosen, though his son Jesus Christ, this time and place for all Christians ... to save our country and save our courts.", has worked dilligently to keep the 10 commandments posted in public buildings and maintain the vibrator ban in Georgia.

What About Private Lori?: While the buzz is about "Saving Private Lynch", her less fortunate roomate, Lori Piestewa, tells a much deeper, and more disturbing story. The first native American in the US army to be killed in combat and the only American servicewoman to die in this war, she is one of the many poor non-whites that now disproportionately make up our army. In her (mostly Navajo) home, more than 50% of the inhabitants are unemployed that looks straight out of South Africa, she has left her three children behind.

A Little Bit Too Often?: Robert Fisk ponders whether there is some element of the US military that desires to harm journalists. Earlier: The US threatened to attack independent reporters (with links)

No Sunset For The Patriot Act?: A bill written by Orrin Hatch is taking seed amongst Republicans, which would completely repeal the sunset clause on the Patriot Act. How bad are things? Well, it's got one reporter pining for Nixon.

On Bush, Greed, and God's Ministers: The manager of FDR's economic policy, now 95, talks about a lifetime of politics and his fears about the current situation. Plus: What if Fox News was reporting at different periods in history, and what would happen if US soldiers seized the major news outlets, is (amusingly) detailed.

Thank You, Mr. Bush, For Legalizing Terrorism: According to the Geneva Conventions, Iraqi attacks on the US homeland would now be legal, so long as the Iraqis wore uniforms. "In fact, under international law, if Iraq were to attack the U.S. with teams of sappers, blowing up bridges, tunnels, TV stations, power plants, factories, or refineries ... they would not be terrorists at all, but rather soldiers engaged in acts of war". They couldn't suffer a worse fate than a well-conditioned detention and release. Plus: The US slips into civilian clothes in Iraq.

You, Sir, Are No Paul Wellstone: Norm Coleman, in an interview, told a newspaper that he's a "99% improvement" over the late Paul Wellstone. "To be very blunt and God watch over Paul's soul, I am a 99 percent improvement over Paul Wellstone. Just about on every issue."

Time To Pack Up And Leave?: An incredibly disturbing poll has shown its head, indicating that 3/4 of Americans support the decision to go to war, 4/5ths of those saying that even if no WMD are found, it was still a good plan. Many are now willing to go on to Syria and Iran, near 80% think that there was evidence found tying Iraq to al-Qaeda (there wasn't), and 60% think Saddam was involved in Sept. 11th (which even Bush hasn't tried to claim).

The CNN Insider?: Back when the US was still ostensibly using diplomacy to resolve the Iraq situation, on March 4th CNN executives were reportedly telling staff members that the war was scheduled for March 19th and that plans were under way. How did they know?

Reich and Barbados: Otto Reich, speaking on TV, warned Carribean nations about the dangers of not supporting America, in a move that seriously offended them.

Bush's Scariest Word Yet: After Donald Rumsfeld threatened Syria, an aid stepped into the Oval Office to inform Bush that his unpredictable defense secretary had just raised the specter of a broader confrontation. Bush smiled, and said, "Good.".

The Rundown From Cincinnati And Santa Fe: In Cincinnati, a trucker drove his truck up onto a sidewalk to chase away peace protesters and became a "yokel hero" to talk radio, while in Santa Fe, a pizza deliveryman was nearly run over by a motorist when he tried to stop the man from tearing down pro-war signs.

April Fools!: Portland antiwar activists staged a fake pro-war rally as an April Fools Day prank. People turned out with signs of "Blood For Oil", "War Is Healthy For Children And Other Living Things", "Nuke 'Em Into Freedom!", and more.

Paging Mr. McNamara: Tensions between Donald Rumsfeld have gotten to the point that, when interviewing high ranking officers, a New York Times reporter found many comparing him to Robert S. McNamara, the famous architect of the Vietnam war. Plus: The poetry of D.H. Rumsfeld.

Worse Than A Death-Smirk: George W. Bush - who has shocked many with his callousness by smirking every time he talks about killing people - was caught in the news feed before his presidential address making a fist and saying "Feels good." Plus: Bush's on-air preening.

Robert Byrd Responds: "Today I weep for my country ... We flaunt our superpower status with arrogance ... After war has ended the United States will have to rebuild much more than the country of Iraq. We will have to rebuild America's image around the globe.

Where'd Rand Beers Go?: A blogger editorializes on the resignation of Rand Beers, Bush's National Security Council senior director for counter-terrorism, who has served under Reagan, Clinton, and both Bushes; also comments about two other new resignations.

Who's Talking War?: FAIR (Fairness And Accuracy In Reporting) has completed a study of various TV news broadcasts when talking about Iraq. The results? 2/3 were from the US; of those, 3/4 were government officials, of whom all but one touted the government line. Of all guests, 76% were officials, and 75% of those were from Bush-allied governments. Only 2% of those dissented. Etc. In short, most newscasts have turned into government mouthpieces.

Clearly, It's Clear Channel: Clear Channel - the radio megaconglomorate that has benefitted hugely from media deregulation - has been sponsoring most of the large pro-war rallies. Their head? Tom Hicks, a long time Bush ally who was involved in some of his scandals.

Code Red Detailed: "Red means all noncritical functions cease.", said New Jersey's top anti-terror czar. "The state will restrict transportation and access to critical locations ... You are literally staying at home .. unless you are required to be out."

Scary Scalia: Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who recently stated that it was a wonderful feeling to help Bush win the election, has stated that he thinks that there is plenty of room to scale back individual rights without violating the constitution. Plus: Who's GEn. Tommy Frank's new top spokesperson? Why, none other than Jim Wilkinson, who was in charge of Bush's anti-recount efforts.

Deadly Force Against Protesters: Vandenberg Air Force Base has authorized deadly force against protesters if they infiltrate the complex. Plus: Cronkite Strikes Back

"Scum Go Back To France": A 23-year US resident, initially from France, had the garage door of her home in Kingwood, TX (where I grew up) vandalized, with the words "SCUM GO BACK TO FRANCE" painted across it.

Les Nincompoops: First the renaming of French Fries to "Freedom Fries", and then the bill to fund the moving of American soldiers' graves from France to America, the St. Petersburg Times is fed up. "And we can only hope that Turkey's parliament reconsiders its decision ... Otherwise, the .. fools in Washington will have us eating Freedom Birds next Thanksgiving."

Sadly, McCarthy Returns: We thought the days of blacklists were gone. Sadly, they have returned. Now, in addition to the private boycott going around, even the Oscars are forbidding certain actors on a blacklist from speaking because they may talk about the war.

Another Month?: Marine Gen. Peter Pace, the #2 military officer in the US, has stated that he informed the president that - while he would be ready to launch an invasion "tomorrow" if President Bush gives the order - waiting a month or more would not necessarily cause greater US casualties. A retired general in attendance concurred, stating that he'd rather wait 14 more days than not.

Planting The Seed: While shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks only 3% of Americans mentioned Iraq or Hussein, in January of this year 44% of Americans thought that "some" or "most" of the 9/11 hijackers were Iraqis (just over 20% knew the correct answer: zero). Now, 45% believe that Saddam was "personally involved" in the attacks, despite absolutely no evidence. The blame? The Bush administration's continual subtle and not-so-subtle insinuations that there was some link, without providing evidence that could be shown to be false.

Billboards and Soldiers: While Working For Change says "Support Our Troops", our troops have a different message for us.

More Evidence That Perle Is Insane: Richard Perle - source of the famous quote about how our children will sing great songs about us if we just follow the Bush administration's plan and wage total war - just called Seymour Hersch "the closest thing American journalism has to a terrorist.", in response to Hersch's expose about Perle's financial interest in a new Gulf War. Plus: While Richard Perle has threatened to sue (on what grounds is questionable), Slate's Jack Schafer says: Bring it on.

Way To Go Hersch!: Seymour Hersch, after winning the Goldsmith Career Award for Excellence in Journalism, used the podium to speak about the Bush administration's control of the media: "I have never seen my peers as frightened as they are now." Read more of his sharp words. And: They're tougher than the Nixon White House because you can't get them to talk.

Sen. Levin Criticizes Intelligence Giving: Sen. Carl Levin, a proponent of war and ranking member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, has criticized the Bush administration for undermining the UN by refusing to give them our best intelligence information.

Warning: Library Surveillance!: The Santa Cruz's library system has posted on their website warnings to patrons that the FBI may force librarians to turn over records of what books they read to spy on them, in an effort to help overturn the Patriot Act. "Questions about this policy should be directed to Attorney General John Ashcroft, Department of Justice, Washington DC 20530."

Arrested For Whistleblowing?: A British employee of their government's easedropping center was arrested recently, and there is a possibility that it was over the leaked memo about the US eavesdropping on the UN.

Not Halliburton Again!: Yet another Halliburton contract was granted by the government, this time to Kellog Brown and Root Services, a subsidiary for military maintenance. For those who don't remember, Cheney not only is their former CEO and a major shareholder, but still even gets a salary from Halliburton.

How Low Can We Go?: Nathan Newman puts together a beautifully argued essay detailing just how much danger we're in of economic catastrophe. For example, a huge amount of equity was turned over last year, giving the economy as much of a boost as Bush's entire 10 year economic stimulus plan, in only one year; and we still just stumbled along. These equity cashouts are a one-time deal, and now we have war with Iraq on the horizon, massive state and federal deficits, the threat of the US dollar being replaced by the Euro and foreign investment pulling out, the housing bubble, the upcoming baby boomer retirement...

Advertising Boon Turns Bane: Media corporations pushing for a war to help increase their advertising revenues may want to close their eyes for this one...

Whitehouse.gov Censors Least???: The Memory Hole points out that the whitehouse.gov transcript is one of the only transcripts out there that left in Bush's slip of the tongue that his "press conference" was a scripted event. Virtually all of the others dutifully stripped the remark from the record, so as not to annoy the administration.

Was That Answering MY Question?: Bush's speech... er... "press conference"... sums up into a few answers no matter what question was posed.
That Sounds Familiar...: Apparently short on material, Bush has been "cribbing" from his father's speeches - whether on purpose or not is unknown. Ironically enough, the most ripped-off parts are about how we were going to bring freedom and prosperity through invasion. Of course, we knew what we were going to cause.

Whistleblower Strikes Back: Coleen Rowley - the FBI agent who sent a "bombshell" memo talking about the blatant US intelligence failures that led up to Sept. 11th - has now sent another one about the pressure the FBI has been getting to lie/distort about Iraq.

Bush: Clap For Me!: George Bush recently pulled out of a speech to the European Parliament when MEPs wouldn't guarantee a standing ovation, in the style of the State Of The Union address. From Yelena: "Stalin had a button under the podium which he pressed when he felt satisfied which the length and strength of the ovation. The bell ringed, and it was a signal for the audience to stop clapping and sit down."

Like Father, Unlike Son: George HW Bush has been warning George W Bush, in as unobtrusive of a way as possible, that multilateralism is almost a necessity in this world for things to work out well.

Harkin: Whoops!: Tom Harkin has stated that he was "fooled" by the Bush administration on the war resolution into thinking that they actually planned to attempt diplomacy. That's a big "Whoops". That's a multi-hundred-thousand lives whoops.

Full Metal Bonnet: Toy companies - apparently convinced that Easter isn't corrupted enough yet - have been pushing for this year's basket centerpiece to be new weapons-bristling action figures.

Thus Ends Tradition: Helen Thomas - who has covered every president since JFK, and typically gets the first question - was entirely snubbed by George Bush. This was a first, according to other white house journalists.

McCarthy II: The Vengeance: The screen actors guild has issued a statement decrying the return of McCarthy-era policies of blacklisting those in the public light who express an opinion on a controversial issue.

Praise The Lord, Drop The Bombs: A reporter visits a "Rally For America". Favorite line: "That is when it hits me: Being an American means being a Republican." Ends with a Hermann Goering quote to sum up the experience.

Government Claptrap: A media monitor kept track of NBC, ABC, and CBS from Sept. 14th to Feb. 7th. Of the 414 stories on Iraq, over 90% originated from our government.

Does Bush Have A "Tell"?: A blogger catches on to a Bush gesture that seems to be a "tell" (a gesture a person unconsciously does when they're lying) - biting his lip.

U.S. Spying On The UN: Nothing New: The wonderful archival site TheMemoryHole.com, famous for its backing up the creepy logo and details from the Office Of Total Information Awareness site before they changed it, has referenced Freedom Of Information Act documents from the NSA about project "Magic", as published in the Cryptography journal Cryptologia. The project's purpose? To intercept and descramble encrypted embassy cables between friendly countries to manipulate the very founding of the UN in 1945.

Busted!!!: A leaked memo, investigated by The Observer, talks about the US's bugging of wavering security council members - not just to learn their plans, but to also be able to identify their weak points in bargaining, alliances, etc. Outrage in: 3, 2, 1...

Deporting A Parliamentarian: The youngest ever member of British parliament (elected at age 21) and a key figure in the conflict between Ireland and Britain, the 55-year old grandmother Bernadette Devlin was recently stopped and threatened by disbelieving security agents in Chicago, who had received a fax from the British calling her a security threat to the US. After confirming who she was, they reluctantly were forced to deport her nonetheless because of policy. She was on her way to give an antiwar speech.

A Poor Image Overseas: "The messages from U.S. embassies around the globe have become urgent and disturbing: Many people in the world increasingly think President Bush is a greater threat to world peace than Iraqi President Saddam Hussein."

Media Deregulation: Not So Fast!: Kevin Martin - a Republican member of the FCC - bucked chairman Michael Powell (yes, Colin's son - nepotism rears its ugly head) and voted with the Democrats, giving a narrow one-point preservation of existing rules preventing media deregulation. Will he continue to keep media safe from monopoly? Only time will tell.

Democrats Regenerate Spines!: In an amazing turnabout, the Democrats have taken the extraordinary step of actually criticizing the president that they're in opposition to. Read their chronology of the Bush Credibility Gap.

"Weapons Inspectors" Arrested: "United Neighbors", wearing UN badges and dressed as weapons inspectors, tried to inspect missile production at Raytheon.

You'd Expect It From Fox, But CNN?: FAIR has (confirmed with CNN) a report that US PSYOPS forces have been working as interns in their newsroom.

Taking Liberties: A journalist writes about the view of Guantanamo bay as a tourist to Cuba.

We (Won't?) Abandon You: Not for lack of trying of the Bush administration. Their proposed budget this year included not a single cent of aid for Afghanistan. Plus: Germany threatens to pull out of Afghanistan if the war on Iraq threatens the stability there.

Still Falling: The latest Harris Poll places Bush's popularity at 52%, a 12% drop from their last recording. Meanwhile, in a new Gallup poll, they uncover what we have long held as truth, but pollsters haven't asked: That the antiwar crowd is much more adamant about the issue than the pro-war crowd. In fact, of Americans who care strongly about the issue, there are equal numbers at both ends of the spectrum. The fastest falling segment of the population is those who are strongly supporting the war, most of that shifting to less support. From all Americans, support for going to war without UN support is at 1 in 3.

Nuclear Expansion: A leaked Pentagon document discussed the planning of a new meeting to create brand-new types of nuclear weapons, resume testing, and how to sell the idea to the American public. Now they won't just be selling war, but the Apocalypse as well!

Targetting The French: Molly Ivins writes about the recent spate of French bashing, and how innaccurate and demeaning it is. A news search on the term surrender monkeys" gets 80 hits, and anti-France events have been popping up across the country, including renaming words that contain the term "French". WWI, anyone?

Merci For The French: Justin Vaisse likewise targets French bashing, with an equally astute, albeit more sarcastic, approach. Mentions that exports to Iraq account for between 0.12 and 0.2% of France's total exports.

Bullying Not Winning Any Friends: The US's heavy-handed and unilateralist posture on the international scene has been driving away potential allies. Plus: Turkey imperils the US plans by considering saying 'no' to the massive proposed aid package, a US lobbyist with the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq helped draft the Vilnius 10's statement of support for the war, and how much will all of this "buying off" cost us?

Bush Administration: Shut Down The Protest: The Syracuse Post-Standard comments about the ethical issues of the Bush Administration's filing of an amicus curiae brief to stop the Feb. 15th protesters from marching past the UN, and instead hemming them into a small area (which they later overflowed, forcibly divided into several smaller protests).

"Monty Python" Security: "Duct tape and plastic sheeting is a dandy way to cover the windows if, say, you're getting your porch stuccoed. It's a joke, however, if you're hoping to insulate your family from clouds of poison gas or anthrax germs." Plus: Anti-terror focus groups.

Sticker Shock: Dick Cheney recently addressed a convention that was selling "No Muslims -- No Terrorism" bumper stickers.

Lieberman In 2004!: A new parody website pretending to be a campaign site for Joseph Lieberman proudly proclaims: "Joseph Lieberman. A new kind of Democrat. The Republican kind."

Not ANSWER...?: So, who's *REALLY* behind the anti-war protests in the US?

A Biship Takes On Bush: A high ranking Methodist bishop has appeared in a recent anti-war ad attempting to convince president Bush (also a Methodist) that such an attack would violate God's law. Plus: The White House cancelled a poetry symposium because of concerns that some of the poets wanted to use it to protest the war.

Congressional Reapproval For War?: Senator Ted Kennedy has introduced legislation requiring the president to go back to congress before going to war with Iraq.

No Anti-War On Comcast: The Comcast cable television company rejected anti-war ads that a group had paid to broadcast during Bush's State of the Union address. Plus: William Saletan notices something missing from the State of the Union address: The state of the union.

The Link Doesn't Add Up: "In his state of the union address President Bush returned to one of his favorite themes: Saddam Hussein 'aids and protects' al-Qaeda. Yet the evidence for this claim is somewhere between tenuous and non-existant." Plus: US intelligence officials surprised at Bush for pushing the worn al-Qaeda connection theory.

Ready For War?: TomPaine.com (maker and publisher of excelent antiwar op-ads) contends that the antiwar movement is at a critical juncture, and that it needs to stand up and state in what circumstances beyond "when an army invades us" that it would be willing to go to war.

Stormin' Norman Against The War: General Normal Schwartzkopf - the head of US armed forces during the first Gulf War and who was given the nickname "Stormin Norman" for his aggressive stance - wants to give peace a chance. :)

Ari's Bad Day: White House spin man Ari Fleischer is finding out that the press is getting less and less accepting of the status quo, as they pepper him with hard questions about the war.

Local Antiwar Rally Coverage: The Daily Iowan covers the "Real State Of The Union" protest which had over 100 people turn out, and the Press-Citizen gives more details and photos.

Derride The Peace Movement? Lose Sponsors: A Vietnam War veteran, angry at Rush Limbaugh's reference to the antiwar protestors as "anti-American", "anti-capitalist", and "communists", published a list of Rush's advertisers with contact information for people to pressure them to drop his show. Within 18 hours, RadioShack folded. Within 36 hours, Amtrak and Bose were gone as well. See our mirror at mirrors/rush.txt if you don't want to register at the site.

A Credibility Problem: Paul Krugman writes about Bush's State Of The Union, address, and reminds us of how last year he assured us that "our budget will run a deficit that will be small and short-lived." and that his economic plan could "be summed up in one word: jobs". Memorable quote: 'We can be sure that some pundits will acclaim the speech as bold and brilliant; they would do that if he read from "The Very Hungry Caterpillar." '

9/11 Investigation To Make Officials Talk: Two commissioners of the bipartisan 9/11 investigation panel have told TIME magazine that they will push for a wide-ranging, aggressive probe that will push for testimony from top Bush administration officials. Plus: The huge public knowledge gap concerning 9/11. Plus: A bizarre link between the head of the 9/11 panel and al-Qaeda.

Why Bush Is Sunk Without Europe: Will Hutton of The Guardian writes that European support on a war with Iraq isn't just needed as a fig leaf of international support, but is critical in keeping the U.S. economy going. He also discusses what would happen when foreign capital started pulling out of an already shaky American economy.

WMD Evidence "Soon": Colin Powell repeats the line yet again that the US will release its evidence on Iraq "soon". Where have we heard that one before??

Fisk Offers Propaganda-Detection Tips: Robert Fisk decries the media for cosying up to the military (blurring the boundary between what is a target and what is neutral), and offers tips on how to identify propaganda during the war.

Gulf War Syndrome Revisited: CNN reported back in 2001 that as many as 100,000 of the 700.000 U.S. Gulf veterans have complained of ailments linked to Gulf War Syndrome; mentions that the three affected countries (the US, Britain, and to a lesser extent, France) were the countries that used anti-nerve gas drugs, and the U.S. and British additionally took the experimental "cocktail" inoculations against botulism, plague, and anthrax.

Bush's Rating Fall Continues: Bush's ratings, falling quickly in recent weeks, have now reached a new post-9/11 low of 54%, with all other categories of ratings falling as well. Only 36% of Americans say the country is moving in the right direction. 72% of Americans want evidence on Iraq.

A Successful Sting or Sleazy Setup?: Antiwar.com makes their case that Scott Ritter's arrest release has to be the "sleaziest set-up job in recent history", and asks, "Could it be that the records were sealed not to protect Ritter, but to protect whoever set him up?

Bush's Box Backdrop Bust: Speaking in St. Louis, President Bush appeared to be speaking in front of a distribution center, filled with boxes stamped "MADE IN USA", which was supposedly a "Mom and Pop" business that would be aided by his tax plan. However, it turns out that he was actually speaking in front of a painted canvas backdrop. There were a few real boxes in the scene, in front of the podium - strangely with tape over them. It turns out that the tape was to cover up the "Made in China" (and other foreign countries) labels. View the scene here.

Lots Of Warnings: The Memory Hole revives a 2001 Parade magazine interview in which Donald Rumsfeld states that there were "lots of warnings", and strangely states that a missile hit the Pentagon. Flustered?

Wealth Gap Still Widening: The Federal Reserve issued a report Wednesday showing a strongly widening gap between the rich and poor from 1998 to 2001, along with equally increasing gaps between whites and minorities. Meanwhile, President Bush is opposing affirmative action and pushing a major tax cut for the wealthy that heavily shoves our nation into debt... (implying cuts in social services that benefit the poor....). Plus: A New York Times business section writer who strongly opposes the dividend tax, but thinks Bush's proposal to rid of it now is foolish, asks: Where's the Bang for the Buck?"

What An Appointment...: To serve on the Presidential Advisory Commission on HIV and AIDS, the Bush administration has chosen a man who refers to AIDS as the "Gay Plague", refers to homosexuality as a "deathstyle", and asserts that "Christ can rescue the homosexual". Plus: Atrios profiles all of Bush's appointments to the committee, and finds them all to be fringe right-wingers.

Mokhiber and Ruskin Crash Coke's Party: (earlier): Russel Mokhiber writes about an event that nearly got he and Gary Ruskin arrested, wherein they crashed the party Coca-Cola had thrown for its new partnership with the Library of Congress.

How Did Cable Portray The Protests?: Stewart Nusbaumer of Intervention Magazine analyzes the coverage different networks gave to the DC protests. While CSPAN went overboard on the Muslim angle, while Fox attempts to demonize the protestors, even criticizing them for protesting "before there even is a war" (as if you can save lives after the fact).

The REAL State Of The Union: Thanks to some technological magic, Bush gives a more plausible State of the Union address... In case the site goes down, the .rm version is mirrored here (slow). Plus: Yet another State of the Union address.

Bigger Than We Thought!: Police in San Francisco have upped the crowd estimates from their initial "50,000" guess to between 100,000 and 125,000 people (ANSWER puts it at 200,000). Will the DC police correct their embarrassingly low "30,000" estimate, seeing as the DC protest was by all counts far larger (ANSWER placed it at about 500,000)? For those who like to dismiss ANSWER's estimates offhand, they placed volunteers along the march routes at both events to make their counts. Pictures of the San Francisco protests can be found here

Gary Hart For President?: John Nichols, while giving him poor odds of succeeding, praises Gary Hart's recent speeches and how resoundingly stronger he came across in debates than the current candidates. Hart, who co-chaired the 1999 U.S. Commission on National Security/21st Century that predicted a terrorist attack along the lines of the 9-11 attacks, has called the current steps taken by the Bush administration to fight terrorism as "comic", and has flatly contested Donald Rumsfeld's assertion that attacking Iraq won't increase the risk of terrorism. Plus: Howard Dean blasts John Kerry for trying to have it "both ways" on Iraq.

Panel Budget Woes: The special commission set up to investigate the 9/11 terror attacks - an investigation the Bush administration spent over a year trying to defeat - has been given only 3 million dollars and 16 months to complete their investigation. (60% the size of the budget and 75% of the time given to study legalized gambling).

War Stories: While the Pentagon promises "greater access in the event of war", David Folenflik looks at the past of military coverage and the trend of heavier and heavier restrictions on the media during wartime, and the embracing of a pro-war "patriotic" stance by media companies to boost ratings. Plus: The LA times writes about how journalists were coerced into leaving Iraq during the first Gulf War.

Protests Get Coverage: Of all of the TV news networks whose websites I tried, all of them - including Fox News - led off with stories about the DC protests. Of all of the major US newspapers that I tried - all but one (the New York Times) also had their lead story as the DC protests. The organizers of the protest estimated that the last protest had 200,000 participants, and this one has 500,000. Police estimated the last protest had about 100,000, and have made no total estimate on the size of this one except to say that it is "larger". Many papers only cite the police estimate of the number who took part in the main march, at 30,000, leaving the rest of the protesters off the chart. A number of papers also mention the minuscule turnout (about 50) for the counter-rally. Even the Des Moines rally got mention. Plus: Picturing the last round of rallies.

Gates Sr. Supporting The Estate Tax: The father of one of the richest men in history apparently is an active lobbyist for a progressive taxation system, especially concerning stopping the repeal of the estate tax, which he calls "the most intelligent tax ever devised" because it requires that people can only become rich through merit, not through luck of birth.

Deleting Dissent?: Did ABC censors delete the loud boos that greeted the former President Bush at the American Music Awards?

Affirmative Action, For Some: Joe Conason writes: "The president opposes affirmative action. So how does he defend the institutional favoritism that got him into Yale?" Plus: Terry Moran valiantly tries to get a response to the question from Ari.

City Workers Steal Antiwar Sign: As organized thefts of antiwar signs in Minnesota proliferate, Minneapolis recently agreed to replace two antiwar signs stolen in broad daylight from the front yard of a Minneapolis man - by city workers, in a city truck.

We Need A More Aware Public!: A new Knight Ridder poll finds that 65% of Americans think that al-Qaeda (a fundamentalist secular-hating radical organization) and Iraq (led by a secular, paranoid dictator who doesn't even trust his own generals, and has executed several Muslim religious leaders) are allied; 44% say that "most" or "some" of the 9/11 hijackers were Iraqi citizens (now that's just plain ignorance :P ).

Dean: Repeal The Tax Cuts, Don't Attack Iraq: Democratic candidate for president and Vermont governor Howard Dean accuses the democrats of being "timid" in letting Bush get away with his fiscally irresponsible and wealthy-favoring tax cuts, and states that Bush "has not made the case" for war with Iraq, and that his priorities are all wrong.

Organizational War: Republican senators have been accusing Democratic senators of "an attempted coup" over the drawn-out proceedings going on during this change of Senate control. Democrats want committee funding to continue to be split on a proportional basis to representation, while Republicans want to revert it to the earlier method of "majority party gets two thirds". Until it is resolved, the Democrats will keep their positions chairing the different Senate committees.

A New Dispute At Berkeley: The Emma Goldman Papers project recently had a fundraising drive censored by Berkeley, because it included quotes from Goldman - a staunch anti-war and free speech advocate - speaking against, of all things, war and repression of free speech. You'd think Berkeley would have learned when it tried to limit free speech in the 60's and got a less than warm response...

Lovely Outrage: Two young Serbian journalists working in America talk about their disdain for the low standards set by US reporting. One mentions how hard it was trying to get his paper to recognize that the potential for nuclear war between India and Pakistan was newsworthy, while the other mentions that the Fox News Channel sounds disturbingly like Milosevic's old nationalist propaganda station, and that the average Serb heard more critical reporting about Milosevic during the height of his power than the average American hears about the Bush administration today, despite the freedom of Americans to report without repercussions.

An Old Fashioned Fight: Donald Rumsfeld has signed off on a plan for the conquest of Iraq that owes more to D-Day than to lightning-fast 21st century warfare. Take care to note the very first objective: Capturing the southern Rumaila oil fields intact. Plus: The US now may expect to need more than350,000 troops between the attack and occupation of Iraq - one in every 800 Americans being directly involved in the attack, ignoring the many times higher number whose labor/money goes to support the attack.

GOP At War: With Bush?: Andrew Card was recently forced to listen to a long recital of complaints from a long list of Republican congressmen, accusing the administration of snubbing them, leaving them out of the loop, overriding the authority of even the most senior members at a whim, and a host of other complaints. Card's response, when asked about actually presenting evidence against Iraq? "Don't worry." Plus: Is the US pulling a Clonaid in respect to Iraq?

A Wartime Tax Cut???: George Bush breaks with 140 years of history, by proposing a tax *cut* (massive at that, and focused on dividends), during what even he considers wartime. He is ignoring the words of Woodrow Wilson in World War I: "The industry of this generation should pay the bills of this generation." minusculebly, he is passing the bill off to the next generation, a generation that already has to fund the Baby Boomer retirement - thus locking in long-term economic failure for the benefit of large dividend-earners and the miniscule "stimulus" (estimated 0.5% GDP boost, 0.2% unemployment drop) that would bring. Plus: Bush's bold strategy seems to be to use the world bold - often.

Children Left Behind Act: Democratic Senators, at the anniversary of the "No Child Left Behind Act", are accusing Bush of betrayal in his refusal to give a significant increase in school funding. To quote Bush, "larger sums are not feasible in a wartime budget". This, coming from a president who wants an over 300 billion dollar cut in dividend taxes, with most of the rest of the cut being on income taxes instead of payroll taxes (to shift the cut to the wealthy again). But the requested 7.7 billion for education is apparently far too much.

It's Clinton's Fault: As TalkingPointsMemo references, in response to yet another problem, the Bush administration blames Clinton - in this case, the North Korean nuclear crisis - without really explaining why; meanwhile the Bush administration apparently has been sitting on the information about the illicit program for two years, stopping a new round of negotiations attempted by the outgoing Clinton administration about it. Plus: Former National Security Adviser Samuel Berger states, "The fact is that there are 100 nuclear weapons that were not produced... 100 nuclear weapons, a few million barrels of oil, that's not a bad deal. And I must say, for some people in the administration, I'm beginning to think that blaming Clinton is a substitute for thinking."

Peace In Chicago: Chicago has now become the largest city in the US to pass a resolution opposing a preemptive strike against Iraq not recognized by the UN. And, no, it didn't pass 24:23 or anything close - it passed 46:1.

The Problem With The Predator: Mark Harold another of his excellent reports, discusses that, despite how much the US loves to tout its technological toys like the Predator drone, it has a horrible track record. One third of the 65 predators built by early 2002 have crashed, and of the 4 publicly reported Hellfire attacks they've made, they've killed at least 13 civilians. The Global Hawk drones have fared even worse. Contains some excellent quotes.

Arab Boycott Spreads: The long-present but minimally enforced Arab embargo of US goods has began spreading and taking on new forms, going so far as Moroccan papers pressing Moroccans to use the Euro instead of the dollar.

Flaws In The War Machine: Peter Hartcher asks why the US needs an amount of military spending larger than the entire economy of Russia, amounting to half of the world's total military spending coming from a country with 5% of the world's population and one quarter of the world's economy. Meanwhile, a war with Iraq is expected to cause a police shortage as reservists are called up.

Deficits, Defecits, Defecits!: While the Bush administration touts plans to increase defense spending to near half a trillion dollars, the combination of increased military spending and "stimulus" focused by far on the outspending wealthy have driven the US from a $236 billion surplus in 2000 to what will be, according to the broad range of analysts who have been predicting, $300-350 billion deficit next year - just a few years before the Baby Boomer generation begins to retire. To quote the chief economic analyst of Economy.com, a Pennsylvania economic research firm, "The next president will have some very difficult decisions to make."

The Cop, The Agent, and The Judge: Three "battlefield conversions" in the War On Drugs talk about why it has failed to keep drugs off the street, its aiding of crime, the alliance between the US and the drug lords, and how every enforcement branch is filled with a huge sense of pessimism about the war. Plus: Drug legalization proponents ask: did Jesus treat people with cannabis?

When The Press Corps Attack: Helen Thomas joins the usual Russel Mokhiber in becoming a pain in expert White House spin-man Ari Fleischer's side. Today, Helen asks, concerning Iraq, "Have they laid the glove on you or the United States, the Iraqis, in 11 years?" while Russel asks "Can you give me a list of convicted criminals on the White House staff, other than Elliot Abrams?"

The Tax Cut Trap: Bush preemptively attacks opponents for invoking "class warfare" - before he even unveils his new tax package, which half of its 600b$/10yr cost will be to completely eliminate the taxes on dividends (almost exclusively payed by the wealthy). The faulty logic of "the money is being taxed twice" gets invoked again - all money gets taxed at regular intervals, most often in much shorter succession than with dividends. Plus: Two of the nation's top economists mention that this defecit-growing plan will spur the economy by about 0.5 percent, with a 0.1 to 0.2 percent cut in unemployment.

Bush The Gunslinger: A Haaretz Daily editorial puts in the argument that while targetting an "esoteric" terrorist group such as the Red Brigades or the Baader-Meinhof gang that don't enjoy wide public support, the overt targetting of a group that does - such as Hezbollah, Hamas, and Al-Qaeda is the absolute worst thing to do.

War To Try Out War Toys: The Sydney Morning Herald discusses the US's completely unhidden enthusiasm about getting to try out its new "toys" in an upcoming war, including a microwave weapon (which, not mentioned, causes damage to organic things by instantly boiling water inside their bodies) and gives a nice cozy lie about every JDAM in Afghanistan hitting within 3 meters of its target (for more reality, visit Mark Harold's well referenced report and search for "JDAM" in the summary alone: http://www.cursor.org/stories/civilian_deaths.htm

Missile-Defense Whistle Blowing: MIT is considering an investigation into accusations that fundamental flaws in the "Son of Star Wars" system have been covered up, after the chairman of MIT's aeronautics and astronautics department stopped insisting on avoiding the confrontation. MIT runs the government-funded research center that initially gave the go-ahead to the project.

Drugged-Up Pilots Revisited: Lawyers for the two F16 pilots charged in the friendly-fire deaths of Canadian troops who had informed the US of their location, have talked about how they - along with, as admitted by the air force, most combat pilots - were required to take dextroamphetamine ("Dexedrine") to be able to fly, to keep them awake for longer shifts - but were not informed about the side effects of the "go pills" or the warnings not to "operate heavy machinery" or "engage in hazardous activities" while on the drug.

Reintroducing The Draft?: Congressman Charles Rangel, a Korean War veteran who voted against the war with Iraq, has introduced legislation to bring back the draft, so that Americans will be less eager to rush into wars that they don't have to. Mentions that only one member of congress has a child in the enlisted ranks, and that enlistedmen are strongly disproportionately from poor families.

The Invisible Poll: The latest CNN/Time poll (click here for a scan of the poll from Time magazine's print edition - the only place where it appeared) that showed a startling 9 point drop in Bush's popularity, down to 55%, along with other interesting poll results, has taken on a new life on the internet. Now a shockwave flash video about the poll joins the legions of weblogs talking about it.

Canadians Polled On US: Nearly 7 in 10 see the US as a 'bully', according to a 1,400 person poll conducted for several media outlets by a Toronto polling firm.

Economic Accuracy Check: Slate checks the accuracy of Bush's oft-repeated mantra, "In 2002, our economy was still recovering from the attacks of September the 11th, 2001, and it was pulling out of a recession that began before I took office."

White House Trumps EPA: The White House budget office stepped in to stop the Environmental Protection Agency from warning Americans that a particular type of insulation, called Zonolite, that was used in millions of homes contains an extremely lethal form of asbestos that killed or sickened thousands of miners who first mined it by mistake. Both agencies are referring requests for comment to each other, and both are even refusing Freedom of Information Act document requests. Plus: MotherJones reports that the mine that produced the lethal asbestos was well aware of the death sentence it was giving its workers and their families, for decades.

(No?) Child Left Behind: Nathan Newman comments on the Bush administration's cutting funding to its own education plan, and its focus on "teaching to the test". Also comments on the record of similar programs (like the TAAS test) in Texas. Plus: No Child Unrecruited?: All about the rider in Bush education plan that gives the military the name and contact information of every US high school student for recruiting.

Bankruptcies Rule The Year: The number and size of bankruptcies in the US this past year - 186 publicly traded companies with $368 billion in assets - smashed the all-time record for bankruptcies in the US. That record was set the year before ;). The trend is not expected to stop any time soon, as many companies that depended on this year's fallen giants are expected to fall as well. Plus: Executives spent this bankruptcy year living greedily.

Vanishing Spin Men: Joel Mowvbray of the National Review comments on the sudden disappearance of Saudi Arabia's three top spin-men for the US, who dissapeared when US Marshalls showed up with congressional subpoenas.

Atoning For Cats: (off topic, my apologies): PETA has asked newly appointed Senate Majority leader Robert Frist to atone for his previous, admitted, actions - where he adopted cats from shelters under false pretenses, and then experimented on them (killing them) for independent practice as a medical student - by passing laws requiring the use of more humane methods in animal experimentation.

Gotta Help The Wealthy!: In a move that won't even in the widest imagination help increase consumer spending, the Bush administration is working toward a 50% cut in dividend taxes, at a cost of 100 billion dollars over 10 years. Better hope you like national debt! Plus: Is Bush's popularity plummetting because of stunts like this?

Home-Grown Torture: In an ingenious strategy to try and blur the line between who has the better record on human rights, the United States or the terrorists it's targetting - a number of present and former CIA counter-intelligence officials have come out stating that the United States has been coming close, if not outright using, practices defined as torture by the United Nations. Some practices used actually have been denounced by the State Department itself as such in the context of other nations. For more extreme torture practices, prisoners have been taken out of CIA custody and handed to allies from which all forms of torture are used. Plus: Human Rights Watch denunciation.

Oil Industry Dollars: An analysis I conducted on lobbying and election expenditures of the oil industry tends to lend more credence to the fact that in the current day, US oil policy is being set by the hawks in office even more than by oil company efforts. Also revealing is how much Exxon Mobil outspends its competitors in terms of lobbying.

Safer Than What?: The Washington Post interviews a number of top Bush administration and former administration officials about the War On Terror. Virtually all express strong dissapointment about it. To quote one, in response to Tenet's comments about our present level of vulnerability, "With untold billions spent -- money, personnel and blood -- how can we claim any kind of success if we're just as vulnerable as before? It just doesn't balance. It can't balance."

Need For Speed: A 20/20 investigation uncovers the long-accepted reports that amphetamines are standard-issue to U.S. fighter pilots. What a plan - give multi-ton weapons to hopped up pilots in control of multi-ton weapons and then have them bomb cities - who came up with that one? Includes an interview with former White House drug czar Robert DuPont. "People who get strung out on amphetamines are usually crazy. They're paranoid, they stop eating. Their judgment is impaired and they do very bad things... They are among the sickest of all drug addicts." Note that this only gets attention because we hit *allies* - the thousands of civilians killed don't warrant a second thought.

Didn't Vote For Bush? No Job.: Scientific researchers across the country have taken to complaints about Bush administration hiring practices that make having the same ideology as the administration the chief constraint for scientific appointments, not qualifications, including questions about whether the person voted for Bush. Such "ideological problems" include things like support for cloning in medical research and support of regulations to curtail repetitive stress injuries.

Bush Regulator Takes On SUVs?: A top-level Bush administration administrator has started taking on SUVs - not because of the environmental/dependence on foreign oil issues, but because of the danger SUVs pose to passenger car drivers. The rest of the administration is so far not pleased with such a notion.

Internet Monitoring To Begin?: A recent story in the New York Times talks about the Bush Administration proposed system to monitor all internet traffic. It sounds like, in short, a broader application of the program Carnivore and Magic Lantern, whose very existence the government long denied.

Big Vehicle = Big Deduction: Self-employed taxpayers are beginning to find out that, due to recent changes to old laws, you can get a big tax writeoff if you're self-employed and buy a SUV, Humvee, or other large expensive vehicle.

Total Information Awareness Wants You To Forget: The Total Information Office (who, according to their site, will monitor financial, education, travel, medical, veterinary, country entry, place/event entry, transportation, housing, critical resource, government, and communications records) seems to not want *you* to be aware - about it. First they deleted its organizers' bios. Now, they've even deleted their creepy Orwellian logo.

'Ari & I' Returns: Russel Mokhiber, who somehow manages to get into a White House press conference about once a month, continues on with his series, "Ari and I". Recent questions include "Ari, what was the president thinking when he appointed an alleged war criminal to investigate a war crime?" and "Ari, last week when I asked - why is the President appointing convicted criminals like Elliott Abrams to policy positions at the White House? You said that you disputed the premise of the question. What part of the question do you dispute?

Warning: Peace Crowd To Be Violent (???): Bill Berkowitz comments on an email from the FBI's Awareness of National Security Issues and Response (ANSIR) program, warning that "a loose network of antiwar groups" opposed "to possible U.S. military action against Iraq, are advocating 'explicit and direct attack upon the war machine.'"

McSpin: How McDonalds, who just posted their first quarterly loss, panders to customers in regions of heavy anti-Americanism. Methods range from handing out free burgers to anti-US rallies in Yugoslavia with Serbian nationalists caps on them, to in Egypt having an ad campaign for the new McFalafel with a song by Shabaan Abdel Rahim, singer of the chart topping "I Hate Israel".

Gotta Have Faith, Part II: The Bush administration now has made it possible for government organizations to discriminate in hiring practices based on religion, leaving virtually no wall now between church and state. Plus: Trent Lott and Don Nickles blocking the vote on James Hormel being ambassador to Luxembourgg because he's gay (despite Luxemborg, along with the rest of the EU, banning discrimination based on sexual orientation). Finally, when someone is nominated for a position who isn't a human rights violator, convict, or relative, this happens...

Keeping Track of John Poindexter: Online pranksters, in protest of John Poindexter's new Total Information Awareness office designed to store all credit card purchase, travel, internet logs, and all sorts of other personal records on every American in a searchable database,.have taken to posting John Poindexter's personal information on the net. Which, in case you're curious, he's married to Linda Poindexter, they live at 10 Barrington Fare in Rockville, MD, with phone number (301) 424-6613, their house costs 269,700$, has artificial siding, his neighbors are Tom Maxwell and James Galvin, and this is his neighborhood from the air.

Lying To Our Friends: In line with Donald Rumsfeld's recent admissions that the Office of Strategic Influence is currently alive under a different name, the Defense Department has now begun debating the use of propoganda and misleading reports in allied nations which, according to media analysts, will undoubtedly make it into US news sources as well.

The Unfriendly Skies: Several US government agencies are looking to use Predator unmanned drones to patrol the skies over the US looking for illegal immigration, pipeline security, and other domestic security operations.

Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor, Your Huddled Masses Yearning To Be... Taxed More?: In the middle of a recession when the poor need the help the most, the Bush administration has drawn up a tax plan to shift the tax burden to low-income workers to aid the rich, and is working on arguments to justify it to the American public.

McCain The Annoyed?: Senator John McCain, an interview with Bill Moyers, talks about campaign finance reform and how the Bush administration lied to him to introduce loopholes into it. MOYERS: "If you can't trust them, why can we?" MCCAIN: "I don't... I can't answer that, except to say that in 20 years around this town I've never had my word... I've never had people break their word to me in this fashion."

The Politics Of Famine: Britain's environmental minister, Michael Meacher, calls the US foreign aid policy "wicked" for trying to force genetically engineered grain (which would then become next year's seed stocks) on starving African countries if they want any aid at all. Plus: US stingy on aid?

No Hypocrisy Here!: As many here may now be aware, Judge John Bates allowed the Bush administration to continue hiding Cheney's secret meetings with industry officials from the General Accounting Office. What many may not know is that the same judge fought tooth and nail to get Clinton white house documents released during the Whitewater investigation. Plus: Is Cheney going to ground?

Peace On The Front Page: The growing antiwar movement gets front page at the Washington Post, who also mentions the coordinating group "United For Peace"

Ben Cohen Of "Ben and Jerry's" Arrested: Along with over 100 other people, including a number of religious leaders, Ben Cohen was arrested Tuesday for the peaceful protest of the war on Iraq. CNN actually picked up the story, hurrah! :)

What The World Thinks Of Us: The Pew Charitable Trusts releases a survey of over 38,000 people about what different countries in think of America. The current number one opinion of America? Human-rights violating Uzbekistan, with 85% support. Lowest ranked is our second biggest foreign aid recipient (second to Israel), Egypt.

Bush The Comedian: Saul Landau writes about George Bush's appointments, and how it almost looks like he's making appointments based on if someone said "bookies are giving 100 to 1 odds against it".

Kissinger Declassified: Now that he's the head of the inquiry into the September 11th attacks, lets take a look at, thanks to The Memory Hole, a review of a declassified conversation between Kissinger and Pinochet where he assures him that he's A-OK with overthrowing an elected government and that they're doing their best to quiet criticisms about human rights. Original documents available here.

No Protest?: CNN spiked its own story about people complaining that it spikes stories.

Spend, Spend, Spend: While being referred to as a "terrorism fund", the 10 billion dollars per year being requested by the Bush administration is actually a "war reserve fund", which can be spent anywhere militarily without congressional oversight. This is on top of his call to increase national defense outlays to $442 billion by 2007 (well *over* half of the world's total military spending). Wait, didn't he just *cut* taxes (mainly for the wealthy, but still)? Isn't he currently trying to make the cuts permanent?

The Worst Possible Person: After resisting an investigation into the cause of the 9/11 attacks for over a year, despite intense pressure from the victims families, Bush finally agreed to the investigation. And to head it, he picks... Henry Kissinger? To quote David Corn, "Asking Henry Kissinger to investigate government malfeasance or nonfeasance is like asking KissingerMilosevic to investigate war crimes." Kissenger has been involved in facilitating many of the worst atrocities in the later half of this century, from overthrowing the Allende government to aid Pinochet, to the bombing of Cambodia. One thing is clear, however: there are several countries he won't set foot in during this investigation, because there are several countries who have warrants to arrest him on sight.

Cleaning Up A Military Mess: An EPA whistleblower has released documents showing that unexploded munitions at 16,000 inactive propagandaanges require the largest environmental cleanup ever conducted by the US government. The munitions include chemical and biological weapons.

Deception Department's Deceptive Death: The Federation of American Scientists expresses its concern about Donald Rumsfeld's recent admission that despite earlier announcing that he shut down the Office of Strategic Influence - a propoganda office designed to literally spread misinformation in the news - he actually kept it running, under a different name.

Memo: Take Another Look at Nuke Testing: E.C. Aldridge Jr, the undersecretary of defense for acquisition and logistics, recently sent out a memo encouraging laboratories to look into nuclear weapons testing; this comes shortly after the defense appropriations bill has a little-noticed provision requiring our old testing laboratories to be ready to test within 6 months.

'Draconian' Budget Cuts: At a time where President Bush is pushing for more tax cuts (focused on the wealthy, as usual) and an incredibly costly war, amidst our already heavily ailing federal budget, state budgets are nearing the point of devastating cutbacks, according to the National Governor's Association. Gaps range from 44 million to 6.1 billion.

Poll: GOP Popular, Policies Not: A New York Times/CBS poll places the GOP as fairly popular at this point, mostly due to support for Bush. At the same time, the poll places the GOP's policies as unpopular, especially Bush's. Your Assignment: Figure out what is wrong with this picture. Original here.

Peace Activists and Aviation: ("Liberated" from Salon.com) Across the US, peace activists and other left-wing groups have been finding themselves on a "threats to aviation" list provided by the federal government, making them subject to intense scrutiny and searches at airports. Created by the new Transportation Security Agency, there is no appeals process to get your name off such a list, and no review of who gets put on it. Welcome to the new America. Hoover would be proud. Read the original on Salon's site here.

Nancy "Shoulder To Shoulder" Pelosi: Disappointingly, Nanci Pelosi has taken page one out of Gephardt's losing playbook, repeating for almost every question asked about foreign policy, "I stand shoulder to shoulder with the president", despite her clear policy history of being a progressive and internationalist. She even followed this mantra when it came to discussion of her vote against a war in Iraq. Is this the new mascot of the Democratic Party? Or is it this?

The Air Industry's Worst Nightmare: Salon breaks the story that 25 airline CEOs have been briefed that al-Qaeda have likely smuggled infared-homing antiaircraft missiles into the US, with the intent to shoot down passenger jets as revenge.

Canada To US: Mind Your Business: Defense Minister John McCallum bluntly George Bush to stop lecturing Canada about increased defense spending, while Francoise Ducros, the Prime Minister's communications director, called Bush "a moron" for trying to push Iraq to the top of NATO's agenda.

The Other Drug Cartel: Having spent more than 30 million dollars on the 2002 election mostly on Republicans (73%), executives of the major drug manufacturers met last week at the Westfield International Conference Center to plan on how to use their new-bought influence, with efforts to focus on blocking efforts to limit drug prices and to make it easier to get generics.

Taken On A Life Of Its Own: A list of people wanted for questioning by the FBI - many of them already completely cleared and some never even considered suspects, has taken on a life of its own, after it was released to private businesses, and has been spreading.

States of Pain: With the US government ready to spend a fortune on a 250,000-man war and lengthy occupation, Bob Herbert of the New York Times takes a look at how some cities and states are nearing the point where they'd have to cut back on basic services. To quote, after mentioning New York State's $10 billion budget shortfall, "This comes as New York City is appealing for help from the state in closing a municipal budget deficit that already has the mayor - a Republican businessman - calling for a couple billion dollars in service cuts and more than $4 billion in new taxes." Besides, our schools could really use some funding, too.

A Green Light To Spy: A court hand-picked by one person (William Rehnquist) reverses a 7-0 lower court ruling, giving the Justice Department a free hand to spy on, effectively, whoever they want. With no regulatory oversight. If you don't think that this will be abused, remember at what happened under far *less* strict standards, with COINTELPRO.

Eroding Freedoms 101: "It happens like Clockwork these days", writes TruthOut editor William Pitt, "A significant piece of legislation comes before Congress that was ostensibly drafted to help defend the nation against terrorism ... In the days leading up to the mandated Congressional debate regarding said legislation, terror warnings suddenly bloom like nightshade."

A Democratic Senate?: Some analysts are predicting a 50-50 chance that McCain and Chaffee, who often vote with the Democrats anyways as did Jeffords, will switch parties, the major unknown being a Landreiu victory in Louisiana. McCain has been a harsher critic of the Bush administration than most Democrats, and is considering a 2004 run for president as a Democrat. Chaffee has regularly threatened to switch parties.

Freely Becoming propaganda Tools: The World Socialist Web Site discusses a startling, albeit poorly covered, admission in the Washington Post that it and many other papers were freely allowing themselves to be an outlet for war propoganda, disguised as news.

War Without Death: (From The San Francisco Chronicle): How the military "sanitized" the appearance of the first gulf war, to the extent that a war reporter who had covered Vietnam, where "a little firefight" would leave bodies "stacked up like cordwood", to complain to an Army major, "Where the hell are all the bodies?". The answer, of course, is that they had been plowed-over by plow-equipped Abrams tanks (a friend who was in the Gulf War tells me that they were nice enough to warn the Iraqis who had managed to still be alive that they were coming to plow the area under), and then bulldozed under the arms and legs that stuck out with Armored Combat Earth Movers. Also covers many other things - punching and arresting of reporters to steal their cameras of controversial footage, lying about accuracy figures, selective footage release, and other tricks that led to not a single body showing up on pool-reporter film in a clash between 600,000 people. Also discusses Cheney's involvement. Plus: Pentagon drawing battle lines

Bush At War: Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward's new book, "Bush At War" - compiled from tape-recorded and sometimes somewhat disturbing interviews of George Bush, in addition to various meeting minutes - is discussed on 60 minutes. Bush goes into the fact that negotiating with the Taliban was a farce by talking about how furious he was with the military about having to wait as long as they did to bomb (also making the praise he got for his "restraint" from the international community a mockery); talks about how he doesn't owe anyone an explanation for what he does because he's the president; and many other... interesting things. Read an excerpt from the book here.

Woodward Does It Again: A Salon.com author talks about another revealing moment in Woodward's "Bush At War", where Bush tells Woodward that the story about Bush having an action plan on his desk on Sept. 10th "is probably false.", despite the fact that the outgoing Clinton staff had informed them that Osama bin Laden was one of the top 3 threats facing the US, and had a long seminar about him. In short, the Bush administration lied to the US to boost their ratings and make themselves sound like they weren't ignoring something they'd been warned about, when they had been.

General For President: Former general Wesley Clark appears to be considering running for president in 2004, as a democrat, hoping that his war experience will negate the traditional "Republicans are the party of national security" viewpoint. Compare that to Bush's military record

Spinning Pelosi: Google.com's news search for "San Francisco Liberal" shows that the process of demonizing Nancy Pelosi - the progressive who voted against the war and is now the first woman in charge of a major US political party - has already begun.

Orwell: Not Dead, Just Sleeping: Like the book '1984'? Want to see a live-action version? Well, John Poindexter - you know, Ollie North's old boss, top Iran-contra scandal figure, 5 felony convictions, appointed by Bush during his wave of "appoint most of the convicts and human rights abusers from Reagan's administration" wave - is back in the spotlight, where he's helping out with the aforementioned production, staged right here in the USA. And you've already got a part! Read the source articles here and here. And then there's this.

Eli Lilly Security Bill: With overwhelming support behind passing a cabinet-level homeland security department bill (the idea drafted by the Democrats shortly after 9/11, opposed by the Bush administration for 8 months, and now taken as one of the great accomplishments in the "War on Terror" by the administration), Republican leaders have tacked on dozens of riders - one of which prevents parents of autistic children from suing pharmaceutical companies for including a questionable chemical in childhood vaccines. That rider was requested specifically by the Bush administration. The FDA reports about the drug in question - Thimerosal - "... the IOM's Immunization Safety Review Committee concluded that the evidence is inadequate to either accept or reject a causal relationship ... The Committee did conclude that [thimerosal causing autism] is biologically plausible." and that "Additional studies are needed".

Join Jeffords?: An email campaign has begun working to try and convince Senatores Chafee, Specter, and Snowe - liberal republicans who already tend to vote with the Democrats anyways - to become independents so that they're no longer deficited to help out a party who's views they oppose.

The Costs Of This War: How much will a war with Iraq cost? Well, it depends - and this article covers the possibilities. Talks about reconstruction costs, but expects us to spend a trivial amount - mentions that we spent 13 billion to bomb Afghanistan, and yet, while reconstruction costs many times more than destruction, we spent a mere 10 million dollars on reconstruction. (That might explain why the country's currently a miserable warlord-feuding roving-gang-infested mess).

The Democratic Dividend: Hate a government that turns to war for all of its problems, supplies tax cuts that give 10s to 100s of dollars for the low and middle classes but hundreds of thousands for the upper classes, spends hugely into defecit and cuts education and health to do the former two, is homophobic, religiously intolerant, and thinks corporations police themselves just fine when it comes to corruption and the environment - BUT, voted for the Republicans anyways because you thought they were good for the economy? Well, a quick look at history should wipe that stereotype out. Thanks to the Daily Kos for pointing this article out.

The Rescue Parties: George Monbiot presents an impressive argument that 3rd parties like the Green party are actually beneficial to the Democratic party, even in the short run, because they keep the party centered on its base and thus increasing voter turnout, as opposed to driving too far to the center where the party's base will lose turnout. Since such a small fraction of Americans vote, turnout is the critical issue, he argues.

Star Wars Spending Spree: While missile defense gets the money, counterterrorism programs go begging.

Those Hippies At The Navy?: A surprising source of opposition to the war on Iraq is coming from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey.

You're Not Supposed To See That!: The pentagon is trying to figure out who released to Art Bell photographs of the transfer of prisoners in the "War on Terror". See the photos for yourself.

Our Very Own Death Squads: "The problem is", says Charley Reese, "that they're described as 'suspected' al-Qaeda. To execute suspects is to use the method of the death squad. It appeals to our childish sense of adventure, to our desire for quick and simple justice, but unfortunately, it erodes the moral values of the United States.

Johnny Headline: How the Bush administration got exactly the headlines they wanted from a recent press conference, because the news media didn't pay attention to what was really being reported.

Pinning The Blame Where It Belongs: Venting democrats take out their anger about this election on... the Democrats! The "Wall Of Frustration" at angrydems.com is the work of 15 hours of venting frustration about how the party's strategy of "lets praise bush and hope it rubs off, while not putting together a single coherent strategy on anything" to win an election was idiotic.

Best Democracy Money Can Buy: Greg Palast talks about the Florida "scrub list" - a list of 3,000 criminals and 91,000 non-criminals who were added by mistake, who had their voting rights stricken during the 2000 election. The list is due to be corrected - but only *after* this midterm election. The list is mostly African-American.

Losing The War On Tax Cheats: Charles O. Rossotti resigns because while the rate of tax cheating has been growing rapidly due to new tax law changes and other reasons, the Bush administration has been cutting the IRS's enforcement budget, to the point where it can only go after a tiny fraction of known tax cheats just to get the money, let alone to prosecute.

Deliberately Instigating Terror: A St. Petersburg Times editor weighs in on the recent news that Donald Rumsfeld is working to create the "Proactive, Preemptive Operations Group (P2OG), whose goal is to try and "stimulate reactions" amongst terrorist groups, provoking them into committing violent acts so we can better target them. Includes a sizable list of references.

Hail Stewart!: Appearing on CNN, John Stewart chastises the news media corporations for failing to actually report on news. Makes amusing comments about how during the sniper coverage they just left the "Breaking News" logo up on the screen, and how he learned, from constant watching, that the sniper "was an olive-skinned, white-black male - men - with ties to Son of Sam, al Qaeda, and was a military kid, playing video games, white, 17, maybe 40."

Pelosi Takes Control: Nanci Pelosi largely takes control of the direction of the Democratic Party as House Minority Leader.

No More GI Guinea Pigs: Wired reports that GIs were dosed with large amounts of drugs unapproved by the FDA before the Gulf War, and many will be again. Also talks about past events, denied for years, that were recently admitted by the DOD, including releasing infectious bacteria in the air above San Francisco and targetting unsuspecting soldiers with hallucinogens.

Pretending They Don't Exist: Homelessness rates have been skyrocketing due to the faltering economy. The response of major cities? Cutting aid budgets and trying to make their lives as miserable as possible in hopes that they'll leave.

Learning From The Past: The earlier-posted article about Rumsfeld's new "intelligence reanalization team" invokes a lesson in the history of allowing people with a vested interest to analyze intelligence data. Plus: Has Rumsfeld lost it?

CIA Back At It: (Reprinted from Agence France Presse): Once again, the CIA is saying things the Bush administration doesn't want them to. Such as how the current counterterrorist operations don't eliminate future attacks because they "fail to address the root causes of terrorism".

Al-Qaeda's New Leaders: "It would be much easier if we had a more centralized structure to aim at, like al Qaeda was in Afghanistan," said a senior U.S. official. "Now, instead of a large, fixed target we have little moving targets all over the world, all armed and all dangerous. It is a much more difficult war to fight this way."

Russian to Conclusions: Now that Russia has used chemical weapons on its own people, they get... praise? What would have happened if, say, Iraq had resolved a hostage crisis this way? Plus: I'm curious about executing the survivors.

Distorting the Dissent: NPR and the New York Times attempt to make the protest look smaller than it actually was, even contradicting statements of the DC police.

Air Force Fun: How Bush has banned showing of news on Air Force One (preferring instead to watch Rangers games and old war movies, while eating from bowls of candy and fresh fruit), and other interesting tidbits.

Liar, Liar: Clinton has a criminal record, Bush has none, Bush can see the future, and other recent lies from the Bush administration.

A Minnesota Farewell: "But still they came, thousands upon thousands of mourners, walking in a procession that looked like God had given new Order's to Noah: Bring 1,000 of every kind of Minnesotan"

Wellstone Remembered: Cursor.org's list of articles about Paul Wellstone, and those who mourn his loss. Read about Bob Dylan dedicating "The Times They Are A-Changin'" to Wellstone (the only words he spoke at a concert were about Wellstone).

Wellstone in Photographs: Cursor.org also presents a tribute to Paul Wellstone in photographs.

Wellstone's Passing: I don't really know what to say... Paul Wellstone, bastion of the progressive cause, died at the age of 58 in a plane crash in Northern Minnesota. The cause of the crash is still unknown. In the election Wellstone had just pulled into the lead with support from the antiwar crowd (MoveOn had just raised over 500,000$ in 3 days for him), Walter Mondale now looks likely to take over the running.

Resolving The Poll Issue: RetroPoll conducts a poll of 150 individuals about support with war with Iraq. They get consistant numbers with most mainstream polls on percentages of people who think Iraq is tied to al-Qaeda and people who think that we should attack Iraq - but they actually bother to correlate the two. The results are quite interesting - those who know that there are no documented ties between Iraq and al-Qaeda (the only presented one - from Prague - denied by its source) oppose the war 4:1, while those who don't know it support the war 2:1.

Trying Again: Frustrated with a failure to either connect Iraq to the Sept. 11th attacks or terrorism in general, Donald Rumsfeld recently established a new task force to re-analyze intelligence to "try again".

Sponsored by the US Government: Over 330 government officials have been enlisted in supporting the Republicans in the midterm elections with public appearances. Scholars have been calling the use of the government so broadly to support a midterm election "unprecedented".

Anti-SUV ads?: An Ariana Huffington article inspires a fund to raise money for ads targetting opposition to driving gas-guzzling vehicles. "I helped blow up a Bali nightclub - by driving my SUV to work every day!"

Antiwar Forces Face A Test: An excellent article about the antiwar movement's current incarnation. Mentions how President Bush's own church has condemned his actions.

'Oh God, here we go again': Backlash-weary Muslims prepare for a new wave of backlash after the DC sniper turns out to be a black muslim. Black groups equally frustrated.

What Bush Isn't Saying About Iraq: A Slate.com editor comments on the differences in reactions to North Korea vs. Iraq, and the possible motives behind this.

Sleuth Without A Badge: An amateur sleuth joins others in trying to track down the anthrax killers. Read his interesting site here.

Smart Bombs and Civilian Lives: How, with the development of new "smart" weapons, civilian casualty rates have actually been rising. Plus: Who's counting?

Hollywood Takes On The White House: While hollywood figures voice their dissent of the war, the antiwar movement gets smeared in a way all too reminiscent of past smear campaigns.

Eclipsing Political Spending Records: While McCain, Feingold, and Durbin attempt to pass the Free Air Time Bill, TV stations are raking in amounts of money that eclipse previous records for advertising. To see how well various stations did, check out this.

Paxil Is Forever: A disturbing report on the addictive nature of Paxil, and how successfully its maker, GlaxoSmithKline, has been marketing it as non-habit forming despite all of this. Plus: Who's getting drug money?

Oregonians and Universal Healthcare: Oregon is close to being the first state in the US to provide universal healthcare for its citizens; proponents are in a dead heat with opponents.

Ignoring the Czechs: Despite the fact that the Czech president Vaclav Havel who initially told Washington that Atta met with an Iraqi intelligence agent in Prague has recanted, and the head of Czech intelligence came out against the information, and, not to mention, that US intelligence officials place Atta in Virginia Beach, VA, at the time - and, given no other information - 53 percent of Americans believe that Iraq was involved in Sept. 11th.

Bush's 300,000 Phony Construction Jobs: President Bush claims his terrorism insurance plan would create 300,000 new jobs (more than have been created in the US in the past two years), by fudging numbers. Read how!

Recruiting for al-Qaida?: A guest op-ed by a member of IFP in the Iowa City press-citizen talks about the dangers of stirring up more anti-American sentiment in a time where it's already quite high. Plus: An open letter to Iraqi mothers and Parents can understand Bush theory

Got To Love Our Allies!: Saudi Arabian citizens continue raising funds for al-Qaeda unabated by their government, and the US has yet to have a showdown about it. Meanwhile, Pakistan's Islamic party coalition named as their prime-ministerial candidate a man who supports Osama bin Laden and once called Muslims to kill Americans.

We're Just Special: Ari Fleischer tells reporters that preemptive attack is allowed for us, but not for India or China.

Donald Rumsfeld, the Unpopular: Despite the clean outward appearance, civilian and military officers alike in the Pentagon have been growing very upset with Donald Rumsfeld, to the point that all three service secretaries are considering leaving by the end of the year.

Free The Kuwaiti Twelve!: Twelve Kuwaiti prisoners in Guantanamo Bay are mounting, with the strong support of their government, a challenge to their detention. The twelve have already had presented for them documents showing their release from their jobs to work in charity jobs in Afghanistan, and report that they were rounded up by Pakistanis who "sold" them to US troops, who were looking for any Arabs trying to leave the country.

Taking Canada: 4 in 10 Americans, according to a recent poll, support annexing Canada.

The Peace Movement Grows: The war resolution actually seems to have strengthened the national peace movement.

Wrong Target: After rapid-fire terrorist attacks worldwide, the Bush administration begins to take flak for shooting at the wrong target. Plus: A tourist describes the Bali explosion.

Derailing Justice: Lawmakers ranging from Lieberman to McCain, and a good portion of the Sept. 11th victims' families, accuse president Bush of trying to derail the creation of an independent commission to investigate the attacks. I wonder why?

Who Needs To Read Something As Trivial As A War Resolution?: Rep Ralph Hall, a conservative Texas Democrat who almost always votes with the Republicans, was called in for a 'look, we're getting along!' photo-op with the president. At the photo-op, while giving his unwavering endorsement of Bush's plan, he stated that he hadn't even read all of the resolution being taken up by the House.

Forked Tongue Warriors: An interview with US Psy-Ops. Mentions past hare-brained schemes, such as a plan to project a giant holographic image of Allah over Baghdad telling the people to overthrow Saddam, and how pamphlets in Somalia meant to talk about aid from the United Nations instead referred to the "Slave Nations".

Please Step Down, Mr. Secretary.: The American Gulf War Veterans Association calls for the resignation of Sec. Donald Rumsfeld for pretending not to know anything about Iraq's bioweapons capabilities that we gave them.

Trapped, Cuffed, and Bussed: Two college reporters describe their experience being arrested without charge simply for covering the IMF protests.

Busting the Budget on Bombs: The US prepares to pass the largest defense spending increase since the Reagan administration, an increase more than the *total* budgets of every country except Russia. And this *excludes* missile defense, the War on Terrorism, the War on Iraq, and others.

Administration won't release 9-11 data: They're *still* refusing to release data on what they knew? I thought they got over this long ago, this has been over a year! Reminds me of a saying... "If there's nothing to hide, why hide it?"

Nelson Mandela Vs. The U.S.A.: Nelson Mandela, 84, one of the world's most respected statesman, breaks from retirement to talk about how the U.S. is a threat to world peace. Plus: Salman Rushdie, famed for being targeted by radical Islamists, agrees.

Iowan Support For War Lagging: Iowa trails the nation in support for war with Iraq; only one in three Iowa democrats support the war.

Reporters and Nonaggression Pacts: How White House reporters broke with self-serving but purpose-defeating tradition and didn't give a White House spokesman a way to dodge a sticky question.

Politics and Cheerleaders: A look into the reaction to Germany opting out on Iraq. Makes the amusing observation that, should we really be criticizing the Germans for wanting to be pacifists? Plus: If you're happy and you know it...

Bear Market Longest in 60 Years: Analysts pin most of the blame on uncertainty over a war with Iraq.

Forbidden Thoughts About 9/11: Salon.com readers fess up to the things they were thinking on 9/11 that they really shouldn't have been.

Running On Nothing: Apparently, there hasn't been a single cross-agency assessment of Iraq's military capabilities, including biological, chemical, and nuclear programs, since Bush came into office.

Bad Sign: Colin Powell gets booed by our allies while speaking in Johannesburg. Powell. By our allies. Imagine if Cheney had been speaking, or if had been to people who historically haven't been our friends... Plus: Noam Chomsky says Drain the swamp and you'll have no more mosquitoes.

Our Former Rights: The Associated Press catalogs the main changes to our rights during this administration.

Warned on Sept. 11th... by the Taliban?: For all of you who thought we had been overeager to lump the Taliban together with al-Qaeda so that we could bomb the entire country instead of small enclaves... Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil, the Taliban's foreign minister, had an aide deliver a warning to the US that Osama bin Laden's organization was planning a "huge attack", describing the situation with al-Qaeda being in Afghanistan while doing this as, "The guests are going to destroy the guesthouse."

More On The Rigged War Games: An interview with Red leader, retired Lieutenant General Paul Van Riper. Goes into the fact that his tactics would have left the US with the biggest naval disaster since Pearl Harbor in an actual invasion of Iraq.

More On The Congressional Jehadi: Orange County Weekly reports in more detail about Dana Rohrabacher, who was on the front lines helping Afghanistan's jehadis in '88, did covert negotiations in the name of the US without authority, and once even stated that he believed the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban was a positive development.

Agenda Interrupted? Hardly.: "Hijackers armed with boxcutters attacked the nation's financial and military headquarters, so the White House increased the budget for missile defense. We were told it was a time for sacrifice. We were told to go shopping. (etc) :)

Ann Coulter: You're Fired.: The MuslimsDaily Times, in an article, fires Ann Coulter and bans her from ever writing for their paper again, for lying and being intolerably hateful. More on Ann.

Not Beloved By The World: Colin Powell, as the representative for the US since Bush opted not to attend the World Summit like most other world leaders, was repeatedly booed throughout his speech.

So, how do we define 'terrorist' to get around this?: Tampa-area muslims mad at the government for not classifying Dr. Robert Goldstein, a non-practicing Jew who plotted to blow up mosques and a local education center, as a terrorist.

Freedom of speech?: First Amendment Center of Arlington, VA, conducts poll of Americans - finds 49% think the First Amendment goes too far. 48% think the government should be able to monitor religious groups, 42% think the government should have more power to monitor Muslims, 57% (vs. 69% the year before) think newspapers should critize the military's actions, 70% think newspapers should publish freely (a slight drop), most of the toward being the uneducated, Republicans, and evangelicals; many other disturbing findings.

Ya Gotta Have Faith!: George Bush begins to implement his faith-based programs, and says he will continue with or without congress's approval.

How Much Money???: Saudi investors withdrew 100-200 billion dollars from the US in the past several months.

Bush's Mideast Sand Trap: In a show of the lack of care towards what the word "War" means, President Bush announced plans to attack Iraq from a golf tee. Plus: Betty Bowers brings us Bush's 18-Hole Plan to Invade Iraq. For those of you who are becoming annoyed, amuse yourself with this.

CNN: Of Course We Censored Ourselves: The executive vice president and general manager of CNN states quite resolutely that the US media as a whole censored itself, voluntarily, out of fear of public opinion of a popular war.

Cooking The War Games Books: How the US military demonstrates its trustworthiness by rigging the most expensive war-games battle test ever.

Iowa, Center Of The Peace Movement: A Connecticut paper talks about how Iowans are upset with the fact that no presidential candidate has come out very staunchly against the war, if at all.

The Administration You Don't See: The Department of Veterans Affairs telling subordinates to do their best to make sure as many veterans as possible don't know they're entitled to benefits? Vetoing money for veterans health and firefighting equipment? Cutting the budget for mine safety? And yet, getting a photo-op each step of the way with those they've stabbed in the back.

Who Did We Get? Nobody!: According to recent interviews with intelligence officials, the total number of al-Qaeda leaders amongst the 600 prisoners at Guantanamo bay is a staggering 0.

Exxon Again?!?: President Bush recently opted out of attending the upcoming Earth Summit in Johannesburg at the end of August, thanks largely due to the efforts of "grassroots" conservative groups. Guess where many of these groups got tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars - each - from?

Whodunnit?: As much as it seems the government wants to place the blame on foreign nationals or countries (not naming any specifics here!), each bit if new evidence tends to point to an inside job for the anthrax mailings. Read what Don Foster, a linguistics expert who helped convict Ted Kaczynski and unmasked Joe Klein as the author of Primary Colors, has to say.

Korean War Germ Warfare?: Japanese researchers return from Pyongyang with a copy of a Korean War-era video showing US troops conducting germ warfare.

Everything But What They Want: 9/11 widow: "At this time of year, everyone is asking us, you know, what can we do to memorialize, what can we do to memorialize. And you know what? An independent investigation.

Detainees Equal Dollars: Profitting from a huge increase in the number of immigrants detained by the government

US Navy Retracts Denial About US Arms Going to the Red Sea: Well, at least we can trust them to tell us the truth when it comes to war coverage, right? :P

Not The Saudis: The US to begin fingerprinting Arab citizens from several countries coming into the US.... of course, the source of 19 of the 20 Sept. 11th hijackers is not on the list.

>Selective Memri: How US taxpayers are funding MEMRI, an organization who works diligently to try and create hate for the Arab world in the US.

The Congressional Jehadi: Democratic challenger of Republican congressman Dana Rohrabacher charges that not only did Rohrabacher used to be a Mujahideen enlistee, but just last year attempted unauthorized negotiations with the Taliban

The Ever-Growing War: Fond of the War on Terror? Tired of us not attacking places we're not at war with? Then you'll just *love* Donald Rumsfeld's latest plan!

Expanding Target List: United States actively seeking a complete overhaul of the entire Arab world.

Hopped-up pilots?!?: U.S. officially admits pilots in Afghanistan have been using amphetamines before bombing runs. Amazingly, the US media for the most part doesn't find this newsworthy, opting instead to only report about drug use amongst baseball players. What is wrong with this picture?