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Peace Rally Pics: Oct 5, 2002
Peace Rally Pics: Jan 18, 2003
Peace Rally Pics: Mar 15, 2003
Peace Rally Pics: Apr 12, 2003
Bush Visits PDX: Aug 21, 2003
The World Still Says No: Mar 20, 2004
"Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything."
-Joseph Stalin (supposedly)
"I am committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year."
- Walden O'Dell, CEO of Diebold, manufacturer of touch screen voting machines. (from an internal memo)
Yahoo! Headline Commentary ...three and a half months of translation.
05/14/04 - Nader wins endorsement from Reform Party
Considering this party ran Pat Buchanan last time around, it's kind of a dubious endorsement. Don'tcha think?
05/11/04 - Bush imposes ban on U.S. exports to Syria
OH CRAP! HERE WE GO AGAIN!
05/10/04 - Bush praises Rumsfeld for 'superb job'
Is this a subtle admission that Bush ordered the torture? How else could Rumsfeld's job performance be considered "superb"?
05/10/04 - Accused soldier's dad blames leadership
Ever notice how our so-called leadership simultaneously claims to be fully in control and completely ignorant of what's going on?
05/10/04 - Gaza graves desecrated with abuse photos
These are the graves of WWI-era British colonial forces in the middle east. The arab world has never been outraged enough to desecrate them until now. Good work, Bush!
05/10/04 - Corporate tax bill brings bevy of tax breaks
Surprise! Corporations are installing the politicians who make the tax laws, which allow the corporations to avoid paying taxes. The solution is to recognize the fact that all political donations amount to bribery (yes, even the $15 you sent to Howard Dean), and to officially criminalize the practice. Public (and by this I mean governmental) financing of elections is the only answer.
05/10/04 - Medicare contractor firm donates to GOP
Medco gets the drug card contract, then they provide campaign cash to George W. Quid pro quo. This manner of cronyism will continue until real campaign finance reform is enacted. Until then, the very laws that govern our lives will continue being auctioned off. This corporation also gave a tiny sum of money to Bush's likely November opponent. That way, Bush can someday claim that Medco supported Ann Richards...I mean, John Kerry.
05/06/04 - U.S. tanks destroy al-Sadr office in Kerbala
This looks familiar. Just substitute the words "Israeli", "Arafat" and "the West Bank".
05/06/04 - Bush: Rumsfeld 'Will Stay in My Cabinet'
It's impossible to get fired by this administration for corruption and gross negligence. You only get edged out if you have any shred of morality.
05/06/04 - House works to make tax cuts permanent
In other words...in these troubled times, the primary concern of the Republican majority is to make the rich people richer. The end.
05/03/04 - Iraq militiamen clash with U.S. troops
05/03/04 - Americans urged to leave Saudi Arabia
05/03/04 - Iraq tops worst places to be a reporter
05/03/04 - Report finds White House wrong on Medicare
05/03/04 - Oil price hits highest level since 1990
This is the current lineup of Yahoo! News headlines. I don't think any commentary is necessary.
04/19/04 - Powell denies he was out of loop on Iraq
I think, from a legal standpoint, you actually want to claim you were out of the loop.
04/19/04 - Bush Names Negroponte Iraq Ambassador
This is the guy who willfully ignored (to be generous) right-wing death squads in Honduras because they were aligned with U.S. business interests. Doesn't Bush ever appoint anybody to anything who isn't a complete monster?
04/19/04 - Honduras Evaluating Troop Pullout from Iraq
It must be a coincidence that this headline is coming out on the same day as the Negroponte announcement.
04/16/04 - Bush and Blair praise UN plan for Iraq
Well, they clearly didn't have a plan of their own.
04/16/04 - Sadr's followers vow war if U.S. attacks
We've already liberated these people - which wasn't even the original scare-tactic justification for this war. Maybe it's time to leave them alone before more of our soldiers are needlessly killed. Halliburton has plenty of mercenaries to protect their oil theft operation.
04/16/04 - Rising partisanship ties up Congress
But I thought George W. Bush was a uniter, not a divider.
04/09/04 - U.S. gunships rake targets in Fallujah
Wanna know the difference between this and "terrorism"? Technical capability. That's it.
04/09/04 - Bush discusses Iraq with foreign leaders
Specifically, the leaders of Italy, Poland and El Salvador - whose populations at large strongly oppose the use of their troops in this charade.
04/09/04 - Coalition tight-lipped on Iraq hostages
What are they supposed to say? "Yes, things are far beyond our control here"? Let's get real for a minute.
04/04/04 - Fewer say Bush is serving middle class
Yeah, and don't even get me started about the impoverished.
04/04/04 - Powell: Iraq evidence may have been wrong
Oh please, Colin. Blaming the intelligence community is soooo February.
03/28/04 - Rice rejects calls for public testimony
Gee. Whatever could she be hiding?
03/28/04 - Haiti rebel leader threatens to kill Aristide
Thus providing another victory for democracy. Notice how the U.S. does nothing.
03/22/04 - Five Kerry homes valued at nearly $33 million
Where's the headline for the article which breaks down the Bush family fortunes?
03/22/04 - U.S. predicts higher prices for gasoline
The U.S. government just murdered upwards of 10,000 people in Iraq. You'd at least think that the gas prices would go down, for Chrissakes!
03/18/04 - N. Korea: Disarming will lead to invasion
Gee, what could have possibly given them that idea? Oh, right...the fact that lately, we only invade relatively defenseless countries.
03/18/04 - Scalia rejects Cheney case recusal request
Further proof that ethics and conflicts of interest are foreign concepts to this so-called justice. Suppose the D.C. sniper's best friend were appointed as his prosecutor, and then he was acquitted. It's an imperfect analogy, but it captures the essence of the situation.
03/18/04 - Haiti installs new U.S.-backed government
As usual, we subvert democracy overseas when it's beneficial to U.S.
business interests. Oh, wait...we do that here at home too.
03/18/04 - Report: Saddam's government stole $10.1B
That's just one more way that they were inferior to the Bush government. By the way, releasing these kinds of reports to the press in a continued attempt to retroactively justify the 8000-10,000 Iraqi dead is just pathetic.
03/17/04 - Budget crunch forces parks to cut services
Most of the money for this, Bush gave away to the wealthiest Americans. The rest was given to his cronies in the defense industry to build bombs for illegal military actions overseas.
03/08/04 - Scalia's dinner speech under scrutiny
Stop the presses: Scalia is a homophobe. All of his decisions are ideologically based and irrelevant to the rule of law. Surprise.
03/08/04 - U.S. claims success on Iraq constitution
Claiming success seems to be what we're best at.
03/08/04 - Defibrillators cut heart failure death risk
Can someone please explain to me why this is a news headline?
03/02/04 - Iraqi leaders blame al-Qaida for bombings
And by "Iraqi leaders", they're referring to the U.S.-handpicked Iraqi Governing Council
02/27/04 - Bush limits 9/11 panel interview to one hour
Does this sound like the attitude of someone who is committed to finding answers, or the attitude of someone who is hiding something?
02/27/04 - Officials not shocked by UN spy allegations
What? War proponents illegally bugged the Secretary General's telephone to advance their homocidal cause? Yeah, sounds like something they'd do. No shock here.
02/27/04 - Scalia took trips with lawyer in two cases
This guy needs to recuse himself from public life altogether.
02/26/04 - Richard Perle quits Pentagon advisory board
This guy's staggering conflicts of interest make his extended presence on this board a point of national shame. Or, at least, they should.
02/25/04 - Sept. 11 panel seeks Rice, Bush testimony
Did you see Bush on Meet the Press? Notice how uneasy he got at the mention of the word "testify"? What's he so worried about?
02/25/04 - Greenspan urges cuts to Social Security
Bush just gave away boatloads of money to the wealthy elite. To pay for this giveaway, he first gutted programs for America's needy and is now cutting benefits to American retirees. This, ladies and gentlemen, is an act of class warfare - though it's strangely taboo for anyone to point out that fact. Alan Greenspan has become quite the yes-man. The Republicans must have some serious dirt on him.
02/23/04 - Paige: Teachers union a 'terrorist' group
Education Secretary Rod Paige later claimed his comment was a "joke". Maybe in his thoughtlessness he forgot the magnitude of that accusation as it's defined by the corrupt cabinet of which he's a part.
02/23/04 - Ralph Nader Announces Run for Presidency
When Tim Russert asked him, "Do you believe that Al Gore would have invaded Iraq?" Nader responded, "He would have." Whether or not Nader will broaden the debate in this campaign season remains to be seen, but he's clearly out of touch with reality. Either that or a paid Republican stooge, but I prefer to think he's out of touch.
02/20/04 - Bush installs judge, bypassing Senate
Because Judge Pryor is a neo-confederate enemy of women's rights, Bush couldn't get his nomination confirmed, even by a Republican majority Senate. By this recess appointment, Bush is subverting democracy. Why is this allowed? These judicial nominations are a window into the true ideology of the man occupying the White House. Take note.
02/20/04 - Kerry's Past to Star in Bush's Ads
Does the draft-dodging, duty-shirking, over-priviledged party boy Bush really think he's going to compare favorably to Kerry in the late 60's/early 70's?
02/17/04 - Bremer hints he may bar Islamic law
Remember all that talk about bringing democracy to Iraq? This proves that it was a lie.
02/17/04 - Fox to remake talking-horse show 'Mister Ed'
With everything going on in the country and in the world right now, Yahoo! has deemed this item worthy to be one of the six news headlines...which is completely their call to make.
02/08/04 - 2,000 protest gay marriage in Boston rally
Hmmm...I wonder how many of them were pepper-sprayed or shot with rubber bullets. I wonder if they were confined to a "free speech zone".
02/06/04 - Ricin scare may end 'snail mail' to Congress
That's odd. When someone was sending Anthrax-laced letters to Democrats, they didn't talk about ending snail mail to Congress.
02/05/04 - Bush to name McCain to intelligence panel
I've long suspected that McCain is a man of integrity. I guess we'll find out...in 2005, after the election is over.
02/05/04 - Questions arise over Scalia-Cheney outing
I can hear it now: "Hey, buddy. Remember that time I trashed the constitution to install you as vice-president? Woo, good times." Is it possible to investigate the ethics of people who have none?
02/04/04 - Kerry's dealings with insurer under scrutiny
Now that Kerry is the supposed front-runner, the conservative corporate media have to focus on any potential improprieties on his part. Fair enough. Meanwhile, they give the incumbent candidate a complete pass on verifiable quid pro quos while completely ignoring his potentially treasonous actions.
02/04/04 - Bush team defends his military service
He used family connections to steal a National Guard spot from a more deserving person, then went AWOL from that cushy assignment. How exactly do they plan to sugar-coat this?
02/01/04 - Kay: Intel Problems Hurt U.S. Credibility
And by 'Intel Problems' he must be referring to the way our homicidally deceitful policy makers completely disregarded the intelligence.
02/01/04 - Kay: Intel Problems Hurt U.S. Credibility
And by 'Intel Problems' he must be referring to the way our homicidally deceitful policy makers completely disregarded the intelligence.
02/01/04 - Intelligence lapses corrupt policy of pre-emptive strikes
What isn't mentioned is that the doctrine of pre-emption is already a wholly corrupt and corrupting ideology.
01/31/04 - Iraqi Governing Council Limits Al Jazeera Coverage
Incidentally, the "Iraqi Governing Council" was hand-selected by U.S. government officials and not the citizens of Iraq.
01/31/04 - Bush says next budget will be compassionate
Yeah, um, sorry about the budgets up to this point. Trust me again!
01/31/04 - Bush Won't Endorse Call for Iraq Probe
Why would he possibly not want to get to the bottom of this? Oh, right. Because he'd be thrown in jail.
01/30/04 - Bush Seeks More Money for Missile Defense
Has anyone ever heard of cost-benefit analysis? Those aerospace companies are getting a nice return on their campaign donation investment and that's all this is about.
01/30/04 - Bush to unveil 521-billion-dollar 2004 deficit
Is this what passes for conservatism these days?
Iraq, You Ass
A one-scene play by Ross Beach
[curtain rises on a small group of chanting anti-war protestors.]
Passerby: [shouting over the chanting crowd] You all should be hung for treason! You all should be hung for treason!
[Protest group moves offstage leaving Protestor and Passerby]
Protestor: What?
Passerby: I said, you commies should all be hung for treason.
Protestor: Because we're voicing disapproval of our country's war in Iraq?
Passerby: That's right.
Protestor: What if our country's actions over there were wrong?
Passerby: Bombing those bastards was the right thing to do.
Protestor: Why?
Passerby: Because they killed all those Americans.
Protestor: And you feel that killing innocent people is wrong?
Passerby: What kind of question is that?
Protestor: So, if the Iraqi government conspired to knock down the twin towers, that gives us the right to bomb civilian populations over there?
Passerby: Hey, they did it to us first.
Protestor: Who did it to us?
Passerby: Iraq.
Protestor: What if I told you that Iraq had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks?
Passerby: Then, I'd say you were a liar and a traitor.
Protestor: What if I said that there was concrete evidence that Iraq had no involvement?
Passerby: If they didn't do it, who did?
Protestor: Al Qaida maybe?
Passerby: Same difference.
Protestor: Well, actually, Iraq is a country and al Qaida is a terrorist organization made up mostly of people from Saudi Arabia.
Passerby: Well, they were under the command of Saddam Hussein.
Protestor: How do you know that?
Passerby: The president said so.
Protestor: How does he know?
Passerby: He just knows stuff like this. He's the president.
Protestor: Then why have so many foreign policy and intelligence experts come forward recently to refute that claim?
Passerby: Are you calling our president a liar? He ain't no scumbag like Bill Clinton.
Protestor: You're not a fan of Clinton, I take it.
Passerby: That guy was a disgrace to the office.
Protestor: Because he killed all those innocent people in Sudan and the
Balkans?
Passerby: Huh?
Protestor: Because he signed legislation to ease regulations on media ownership?
Passerby: No.
Protestor: Is it because he signed NAFTA into law and encouraged the practice of offshore tax shelters for corporations?
Passerby: What the hell are you talking about? The man was a pervert!
Protestor: Oh, you're talking about the whole Monica Lewinsky thing...
Passerby: What else would I be talking about?
Protestor: You don't think of that as a consensual encounter between two adults?
Passerby: The man lied about it.
Protestor: So, lying is the real issue then?
Passerby: That's right.
Protestor: Maybe if Bill Clinton had lied about something that resulted in the deaths of U.S. servicemen, he would still have the people's respect.
Passerby: He would be in jail, is where he'd be. Or possibly shot.
Protestor: What if the current president did that?
Passerby: Had sex in the oval office?
Protestor: No, suppose that George W. Bush based his war justifications on information he knew to be false. Would that be the same thing?
Passerby: Hey, Saddam could've given the order to nuke San Antonio on 45 minutes notice.
Protestor: I believe the 45-minute claim has also been thoroughly refuted.
Passerby: Says who?
Protestor: Says numerous members of the CIA and former ambassadors.
Passerby: Our national security was at risk.
Protestor: Not according to our intelligence reports.
Passerby: Listen; we did what needed to be done.
Protestor: To make us safer?
Passerby: Right, to make us safer.
Protestor: What if this war on Iraq actually diverted resources that we could have been using to track down the perpetrators of 9/11. What if our attack has resulted in a higher recruitment for al Qaida in the Muslim world?
Passerby: Look Saddam was an evil man.
Protestor: If what I've heard is true, then you're right about that.
Passerby: Iraq is much better off without him.
Protestor: I imagine the whole world would be better off without him.
Passerby: And the Iraqi people want a western style democracy.
Protestor: Doesn't it seem a bit undemocratic to force a democracy on someone else?
Passerby: We're not forcing it. They want it!
Protestor: What if a democratically elected government in Iraq turned out to be a staunchly anti-U.S. Islamic fundamentalist state?
Passerby: We wouldn't let that happen. We'd make sure there were people in there who were friendly.
Protestor: Kind of like they did in Florida a few years ago?
Passerby: Huh?
Protestor: Sorry, it just doesn't sound like a democracy to me.
Passerby: Well, this has been a lovely chat, but now it's time for me to kick your ass.
[Passerby proceeds to kick Protestor's ass]
[curtain]
THOUSANDS OF INNOCENT LIVES SHATTERED...
AMERICAN SERVICEMEN NEEDLESSLY KILLED...
A COUNTRY IS THROWN INTO CHAOS AND MOB RULE...
NO BANNED WEAPONS FOUND...
IRREPLACEABLE ARTIFACTS DESTROYED...
GOP CORPORATE DONORS GET CUSHY CONTRACTS...
I GUESS EVERYTHING WORKED OUT.
WAR CRIMINAL
Whether you felt we were justified in invading Iraq or not, the action taken by the Bush administration was illegal under international law. If the world was truly just, Bush would soon be sharing a cell in the Hague with Milosevic.
"O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with their little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst."
-"The War Prayer", Mark Twain
Governor Bush is explaining to me about how it's okay to kill middle eastern school kids and U.S. servicemen whenever he has a personal vendetta against a head of state and he needs to divert public attention from his unpopular domestic policies that would otherwise hamper conservative candidates, preventing them from imposing the radical right-wing agenda of wealth consolidation via rigid social control that his financiers paid for and expect.
www.notinourname.net
www.nion.us
Fun Quotations:
"As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety than ever before, even in the midst of war. God grant that my suspicions may prove groundless."
--Abraham Lincoln, 1864
"All of us have heard this term 'preventive war' since the earliest
days of Hitler. I recall that is about the first time I heard it. In
this day and time...I don't believe there is such a thing; and,
frankly, I wouldn't even listen to anyone seriously that came in and
talked about such a thing."
--President Dwight Eisenhower, 1953, upon being presented with plans to wage preventive war to disarm Stalin's Soviet Union
"Our position is that whatever grievances a nation may have, however
objectionable it finds the status quo, aggressive warfare is an illegal
means for settling those grievances or for altering those conditions."
--Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson, the American prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials, in his opening statement to the tribunal
R.I.P. Measure 28
Due to the Oregon voter's continued reluctance to pay for anything, elderly citizens will be removed from their health insurance, disabled citizens in group homes will find themselves thrown out on the street and violent offenders will be prematurely released from prison. Score one for the enlightened Pacific Northwest. - Jan 2003
Questions I've Had Recently:
Since we don't punish murderers without providing evidence, why is Bush prepared to murder thousands of innocent people without providing evidence of wrongdoing?
Why would Bush re-nominate a federal judicial nominee knowing this nominee was previously rejected for racial bias? Is it because Bush also holds these biases? Are there no non-bigoted candidates available?
Since the CIA has found that Iraq is unlikely to attack or aid in attacks against the United States unless directly provoked, why is Bush so intent on provoking them? Moreover, why is he lying to the American people about the likelihood of an unprovoked Iraqi attack?
Would the United States ever allow U.N. weapons inspectors to look at their arsenal? Are we not the world leader in state sponsored terrorism? Are we not the only nation to ever use nuclear weapons against foreign civilians?
Since Saddam Hussein has no connection to Al Qaeda that can be demonstrated (and is an enemy of Islamic fundamentalism from what I understand), what has suddenly motivated this administration into wanting to attack them? Was it to get the ecomony and corporate scandals out of the headlines before the 2002 mid-term elections?
Would the U.S. ever allow any other country to declare a first-strike preemptive doctrine similar to the one that Bush has proposed? Are we hypocrites?
So, apparently the administration wants to attack Iraq because, when they were U.S. allies in the 80’s, Iraq used chemical weapons, given to them by the United States government, in a manner that we did not criticize at the time. Do I have this straight?
How much low-income housing and soup kitchen meals could be supplied for the cost of one bomb that lands on a middle eastern grade school? Why are domestic humanitarian crises so rarely addressed?
Although Saddam Hussein is (from what available sources have told me) an evil person, are there not many other heads of state who are just as evil? Then why the special attention on Hussein? Will his successor (even if it's an oil company executive appointed by us [see Afghanistan]) be able to keep the region as stable?
Does no one see the conflicts of interest in appointing executives of corporate polluters to head the Environmental Protection Agency?
It seems that large private monetary political contributions almost always amount to a quid pro quo. Is anyone else concerned about this?
John Ashcroft has demonstrated being a proponent of states’s rights only in cases where the state in question agrees with his personal ideology. Does this reveal his confirmation testimony as perjury?
Is the Portland Police Department equipped with any skills for dealing with peaceful, non-violent demonstrators other than pepper spraying infants?
I wouldn’t mind paying taxes to provide basic clothing, food and healthcare to everyone in the country. We actually already do, only the money is instead being used to buy weapons from the military industry. Are these the same military industries that largely bankroll political campaigns?
Will we never have a true democracy of the people in this country before private money is completely removed from politics?
Is this a government of the people or a government of the financial donors?
Fundamentalist Christian factions in this country seem willing to forgive the sex scandals of public officials who support their causes, but denounce comparable behavior by officials they dislike. Do they simply have no real principals?
A local news pundit recently called the Portland anti-war protests a “contradiction” because the country is not technically at war. We haven’t technically been at war since WWII, but that hasn’t stopped us from killing. Is there something wrong with protesting an imminent slaughter rather than protesting it after the fact? Whatever happened to being proactive?
This morning I heard a self-described Libertarian on the radio say that George W. Bush taking away our civil liberties is better than if Al Gore was doing it, because he trusts Bush. Is this person crazy?
I firmly believe that our congressmen are not stupid. If they wanted to write an environmental law without any loopholes, they could do it. Why won't they? Is it because corporate polluters pay for their elections and they don't want to bite the hand that feeds them?
Am I a pinko commie tree-hugging peacenik pansy?
Am I a concerned global citizen raising valid issues?
Am I well-meaning but confused?
Let me know.
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Teddy Bear Satan says...