Lieberman's lunatic comments
Fake democrat Joe Lieberman sucked up to
his true allies during Rumsfeld's testimony
before the Senate Armed Services Committee last week.

LIEBERMAN: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Secretary, the behavior by Americans at the prison in Iraq is, as we all acknowledge, immoral, intolerable and un-American. It deserves the apology that you have given today and that have been given by others in high positions in our government and our military.

I cannot help but say, however, that those who were responsible for killing 3,000 Americans on September 11th, 2001, never apologized.
Those who have killed hundreds of Americans in uniform in Iraq working to liberate Iraq and protect our security have never apologize.

Here's what Atrios says about it: "Lieberman is making one of two
points. Either he's just saying 'USA! Not quite as bad as the worst
people on the planet!' Or, he's saying 'I just want to point out that some brown people unconnected to this event did some bad things!'" Link also through boing-boing.net

Mad Cow Cafe


On Edith NW, Albuquerque New Mexico
More on Mad Cow in this blog - 2/14/04

West Wall

In the unmade light I can see the world
as the leaves brighten I see the air
the shadows melt and the apricots appear
now that the branches vanish I see the apricots
from a thousand trees ripening in the air
they are ripening in the sun along the west wall
apricots beyond number are ripening in the daylight.

Whatever was there
I never saw those apricots swaying in the light
I might have stood in orchards forever
without beholding the day in the apricots
or knowing the ripeness of the lucid air
or touching the apricots in your skin
or tasting in your mouth the sun in the apricots

W. S. Merwin

The racism behind the general American view of the world, and in particular of the Arab world, is so all-pervasive that Americans don't even notice it anymore. Think about this excerpt from an article by Virginia Tilley (and think about it in particular if you ever have the misfortune to read any of the anti-Muslim rantings of Daniel Pipes and his ilk):

"The irony here is that, if these photos had instead portrayed American soldiers abused in some Arab prison, screaming right-wing US media would have waved them as substantiating every racist claim of inherent Arab depravity. On Fox News, ranks of flunky intellectuals would have soberly propounded the social-psychological violence inherent in Muslim theology and the 'Arab mind'; tears of patriotic passion would have celebrated US military might as the golden force opposing the dark ferocity of the savage Arab masses. Feeble liberal protest - that it is wrong to extrapolate from one prison policy to a whole culture - would have been derided and silenced. And high-minded speeches would have emerged from the White House, mustering US patriotic zeal to combat these forces of evil which produced such an outrage. Yet when others launch similar stereotyping distortions of us, we claim the high ground: those ignorant savage Arabs, we sneer, with no conception of our culture. How gullible and backward they are, to fail to grasp the truth and be so enflamed. It must be al-Jazeera's fault."

Continue reading - More from Xymphora -

Update May 7 2004:
True to form, the horrible syndicated columnist, Charles Krauthammer (could you have a worse name than that?) wrote this, published in the Albuquerque Journal today --

Let's be clear. The things we have learned so far about Abu Ghraib are not, by far,
the worst atrocities committed in war. Indeed, they pale in comparison with what Arab insurgents have done to captured Westerners, and what Saddam Hussein did to his own people.

OMIGOD -- these photos, eg a uniformed American woman holding
a naked Arab man on a leash - are not just accidental, incidental, humorous or even voyeuristic digital capturing....There is more going on here than meets the eye. I did not want to see these photos. I don't want to see a "snuff film" of innocent Iraquis...but there has to be an explanation why these images have been staged and created and distributed. Why? the Congressional hearings today were by and large sycophantish ass-kissers condoning and congratulating Rummy for his "expert handling" of two very difficult wars and a large budget. the slime actually had the cojones to say that, "under other circumstances", such "effective methods of eliciting intelligence would have been considered a job well done." OMIGOD!

Update May 12 2004
This situation has gotten more and more bizarre, I feel - especially with the recent video
release of the Arab beheading of a 26-yr old from Philadelphia, info about photoshopped
cellphone pics and staged abuse - I don't know what is true anymore. Worse yet, the highest
hits I have gotten on this site (via Blogger stats) is incoming links on the words Ira-i
abu-e phot-s and I don't want this site found by people looking for those photos, like I
would post them. I think I will drop this subject and try to forget it, but please look at
this very strange link - to a psychic/mystic who channels St.Catherine and thinks God loves
condoleeza more than you and I and that the photos were all staged to discredit The Shrub.
Link Reaaaaallly weird stuff.

Cinco De Mayo

West Wall - Casa San Ysidro

______________________________________________
From a new blog-discovery:
www.xymphora.blogspot.comSaturday, May 01, 2004

The announced withdrawal of American troops from Falluja, unless it is
scuppered by the neocons (and I have no doubt they are working on scuppering
it), is a very important development.

It represents the first acknowledged defeat for the neocon 'shock and awe'
mad-dog strategy of American military dealings with the rest of the world.
Basically, psychos like Ledeen and Perle decided that the United States has
the only domineering army in the world, and American foreign policy should
be to use it to violently coerce the rest of the world to follow American
big business interests. This would be accomplished by picking example
countries like Iraq and using American military violence to completely
destroy the country and terrify the population.

The massacre in Falluja is the most blatant manifestation of this policy.
The neocons were prepared to kill almost every person in Falluja until any survivors were so terrified that their terror and the deaths of the rest could be used as an example to any others in Iraq or the rest of the world who might question the decisions of the American occupiers. It didn't work.

Again, facts have proven that an army, even the best army in
the world, is useless in fighting a determined civilian resistance (Vietnam,
southern Lebanon, the thirteen colonies, etc.). The only way you can 'win'
such an encounter is if you are morally prepared to murder or incapacitate
every last inhabitant (are the Americans ready for the Byzantine Empire
solution of blinding every male in Iraq?). We have seen the neocon strategy
over and over again in Iraq, starting with the 'shock and awe' bombing of
civilians, and carrying through the murder of journalists, the abuse of
civilians, and the torture of prisoners.

It is laughable for the Americans to claim that the recent evidence of misuse of prisoners is an anomaly, when we have seen so much evidence of other incidents in the past. Now they claim they are going to 'investigate'.
How many investigations have been promised
before? How many people have been punished?

American claims of innocence won't fly anymore. Brutality is the express and implicit policy of the Pentagon in Iraq. The soldiers who brutalize Iraqi civilians and prisoners
do so because they understand that they are supposed to.

The withdrawal from Fallujah represents an incredible loss of control by the Pentagon in Washington over the American military. It is apparent that the American commanders on the ground in Falluja came to the conclusion that whoever was giving the orders in Washington was insane (Dr. Strangelove), and that they were no
longer prepared to participate in a massacre that not only would fail in its
short-term military goal, but would turn the whole country violently against
the Americans (not to mention completely destroying the moral integrity of
the American military by forcing soldiers to murder civilians). They
negotiated a cease-fire unknown to the Pentagon in Washington and against
the express wishes of the civilian neocons in charge of the Pentagon. In
fact, Falluja was being micromanaged by the White House itself. No to put
too fine a point on it, the cease-fire in Falluja was a mutiny by the
American commanders in Falluja (the hero seems to be Marine Lt. Gen. James
Conway). This explains why we were simultaneously hearing announcements of a
cease-fire in Iraq and vehement denials from the Pentagon in Washington. It
also explains why some Americans had stopped the massacre, while others,
still under the control of Washington, continued. Paul Wolfowitz (Captain
Bligh) said the situation was 'confusing', which is a very odd thing for the
guy supposedly in charge to say. It was confusing to him because a
cease-fire was being negotiated on the ground in Falluja behind Wolfowitz's
back. The central command in Washington has become so bad - both incompetent
and treasonous - that American soldiers in the field have to make their own
cease-fires. Perhaps there is hope for the United States yet.

There are conflicting accounts of just how close the new Iraqi military
leader of Falluja was to Saddam Hussein, but he looks just like him!

Prozac in the Water

(We have often said they must put Prozac in the water down there
at The Villages in Florida...those people are just too darn happy.
Now it appears, that may be true!. ed.)

http://www.rense.com/general52/proz.htm

Prozac Found In US Surface Water & Fish
Popular Antidepressant Also Affects Unborn Babies
By Maggie Fox
Health and Science Correspondent
Reuters

One of the most popular antidepressants, best known
by the brand name Prozac, can affect the development of babies when pregnant
women take the drug, according to a government report released on Tuesday.

Normal doses can cause babies to be born lighter and sleepier than normal,
or make them jittery or cause respiratory problems, the panel appointed by
the National Toxicology Program said.

"These effects appear to result more readily from in utero exposure late in
gestation," the report, issued for public comment, reads.

The report is a summary from a working group of experts who studied dozens
of medical studies using the drug, known generically as fluoxetine.

"The observed toxicity may be reversible, although long-term follow-up
studies have not been conducted to look for residual effects," it adds.

"The evidence suggests that developmental toxicity can also occur in the
form of shortened gestational duration and reduced birth weight at term."

The experts also noted several reports that found fluoxetine could affect a
patient's ability to achieve sexual climax -- both male and female.

It can get into breast milk and is found in the blood of newborns of mothers
taking the drug.

The report, available on the Internet at
http://cerhr.niehs.nih.gov/news/fluoxetine/fluoxetine_final.pdf , says
fluoxetine is widely used and can now be found in the environment.

"Fluoxetine has been reported in U.S. surface waters, presumably derived
from urine and feces of people on therapy," the report reads. One researcher
found fluoxetine in bluegill fish.

"The presence of fluoxetine ... in wastewater/groundwater/sediment should be
investigated," the report recommends.

But the report noted it could be more dangerous for an expectant or new
mother to be seriously depressed.

"Mood disorders are common in women of child-bearing years and it has been
estimated that 15.6 percent of women meet criteria for major depression
during the third trimester of pregnancy," the report reads.

The panel also said more study was needed to find out how and why
antidepressants such as fluoxetine can stimulate production of new brain
cells. That could also affect a fetus or newborn baby in unexpected ways,
they said.
-----------------------
---Okay, so what they are saying here is that it is WORSE for a mother to
be depressed during pregnancy than for her baby to be exposed to Prozac --
or for ALL of us to imbibe a little fluoxetine in our drinking water?

Furthermore - last night I saw a TV ad for Paxil....we were out listening to our
friend's band -- Witness Protection ! -- and a TV in the bar was running
the text commentary overlay. It looked to me like it said...in so many words...
that the side-effects of Paxil which had just been recited in a long list could
actually be WORSE when you stop taking it! So, does that mean if you start
this stuff, you had better not stop!?

Oh well, no problem, just drink lots of water, it's good for you!

A Long and Heartbreaking List of Names


BY SUSAN AGER
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
At 15, I curled on my bed to study the glossy pages of that Life magazine, filled with the faces of every American lost in one week in Vietnam.

Many of the 242 photos, 20 per page, were high school senior pictures. These dead weren't much older than my boyfriend.

My parents subscribed to Life, known then as America's favorite magazine. But in that week in June 1969, it smacked us all in the head with those faces. I looked into their eyes, and I thought simplistically, as children do: "This is so sad and so wrong."

Wrong because I couldn't put into sensible words why so many young soldiers had to vanish from the world or how the world would be better for the sacrifice of their heartbeats.

Half an hour of names

Tonight, "Nightline" anchor Ted Koppel will pose the same challenge to Americans with a half-hour recitation of the names of more than 530 men and women killed by hostile fire in Iraq.

Twenty were from Michigan.

As he reads, the screen will unroll their faces, ages and hometowns as a ribbon of whys.

Each of us must choose: to avoid the litany, to watch until we're bored or shattered, or to force ourselves to face all those eyes, imagine those lives and draw what conclusions we will.

Koppel's producer contends the show, without even background music, isn't meant to boost ratings. It isn't a political statement, he says, although conservative editor William Kristol slammed it as "a statement with a capital S, and . . . a stupid statement." Its timing falls smack at the end of the worst month of the war and fails, Kristol said, to name the dead from Afghanistan or those killed in 9/11's terrorism.

I'd add that it also neglects the Iraqi dead. Naming them would require a long series of "Nightlines."

Koppel's producers can't predict whether people will watch for 20 seconds or 20 minutes or not at all. But we know from experience that the reading of the names of the dead from any tragedy is compelling and hypnotic.

Continue reading article at Link


Urban renewal - Albuquerque style

Greenspan's Choice: Scylla or Charybdis?
by Nelson Hultberg

In Homer's famous epic, the Odyssey, its hero Ulysses must endure a long series of dangerous adventures in his journey home from the Trojan Wars. He and his men come under fire at every turn, as some new, death-threatening predicament is thrust upon them in their efforts to find their way back to their wives and families. The one-eyed monster Cyclops imprisons them in his cave, while the beautiful seductress Circe turns Ulysses' men into swine. The Sirens force Ulysses to tie himself to the ship's mast so as not to be lured to his death by their irresistible songs.


Only the blind cannot see Scylla and Charybdis looming up ahead -- waiting to consume us. As Richard Russell so sagely puts it, "What the Fed and the US government have done is to build the greatest edifice of debt ever seen by one country in history. And this debt continues to build. For the US government, the debt build-up is continuing at the rate of over $13 billion a WEEK. The current rising trend in interest rates will bear down on this ocean of debt. This pits the forces of deflation directly against the forces of inflation.

"This impending battle of inflation vs. deflation is going to be one of the most critical economic confrontations seen in decades. Frankly, I don't know how it's going to turn out -- and neither does anyone else. In fact, I'd say 99 percent of the US population is unaware that it's even happening." [Dow Theory Letters, April 13, 2004]

Obviously to those of us who are aware of the impending battle, knowing which of these two scenarios awaits us would be most advantageous. Will America explode into hyperinflation, or will she collapse into all-consuming deflation? If that could be known, then one could direct his investments accordingly and reap considerable profit in the markets. If only he knew for sure.

In the long run, collapse of some kind is coming. That is the unavoidable nature of a boom-bust Keynesian economy. But which will come first, Scylla or Charybdis?

Read entire article at Link

My Feathered Friend

I've been asked to post this story again, since my writing website
Tales From The Land of Entrapment has been down for awhile....
This is a tale from our former home of twenty years. Apparently the
new owners moved in and started pissing off everyone, not realizing
they now live in a hornet's nest--a family of warring neighbors that goes
back hundreds of years. The neighbors are not happy that the newcomers
are dealing out some of their own medicine - bulldozing, cutting down
trees, replacing beauty with rocks and gravel, noise and traffic -
just like they did all those years!
So it is with some nostalgia and no regrets I present this...
Tale from the Land of Entrapment:

(This is also a post for May 1 - Sound and Place on the collaborative weblog/wiki
for Writing About Place, Ecotone Wiki)

My Feathered Friend

In the '60s we protested for peace--now?--we'll settle for some peace and quiet.

Our home in Corrales may seem peaceful, yet with the whizzing traffic up front at the road and the barnyard cacophony in back, it is hardly ever quiet. A houseguest emerged from his slumber one morning with a puzzled look on his face, asking, "Is there a zoo around here?" The cows' mysterious mooing is like a cross between a rusty gate hinge and an elephant mating call.

Our second-story bedroom opens out onto a deck facing west towards the irrigation ditch and the rising escarpment. You can hear everything at once from up there?those cows, horses, burros, goats, sheep, yowling tomcats and howling coyotes, literally. Bullfrogs and crickets throb through summer nights occasionally pierced by the eerie feline cries of peahens. Church bells bong on Sunday morning, while hot-air balloons hiss and drift over the field, accompanied by a chorus of barking dogs.

Mornings we awaken, depending on the season, to honking geese, raucous crows, chortly finches and sparrows squabbling; the strange and wonderful sandhill cranes cruising by; woodpeckers working at the eaves, or comedic roadrunners chattering, challenging a watchful cat.

Sometimes I lie semi-awake in bed listening for my favorite bird, so small I?ve never seen her, yet she returns each spring with her distinctive song?a long story with a question mark at the end. She arrives with a big voice by the time the apricot trees burst into blossom, alive with an industry of bees.

Other days are less pleasant--rude awakenings to the sounds of my neighbor?s recreational bulldozing, incessant beeping front-end loaders and backhoes scraping, chainsaws, road construction and heavy equipment hitting it hard at 6 a.m.

continue reading at myfeatheredfriend.html

Show Me The Jobs
By Judith Gorman, AlterNet

For the past several weeks, President Bush has been barnstorming the
country to tell us the good news - the nation's payrolls grew by
308,000 in the month of March, the largest one month jump in four
years. "People are finding jobs, and the nation's future is bright.
America's families and workers have reason to be optimistic."

So what are these "new jobs?" Well, 13,000 of them are California
grocery workers returning to work after an extended strike. Another
31,000 represent new government jobs. 71,000 "new jobs" are in the
construction industry, a seasonal upswing independent of the
President's policies. 11,000 "new jobs" are in credit intermediation,
reflecting the surge in home refinancing due to low interest rates.
And 36,000 "new jobs" are in health care or social assistance, jobs
created to help people who no longer have jobs.

What the President fails to mention is the bad news. As New Jersey
Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) remarked: "Only in the Bush 'economic
recovery' can our country gain jobs and increase the unemployment
rate in the same month."

......So where does President Bush's good news come from? Corporate profits
have risen 57.5% since the first quarter of 2001, while private wage
and salary income has fallen 1.7%. According to Business Week, the
average compensation for CEO's of large corporations in 2003 was $8.1
million, up 9.1% from the previous year. In the Bush lexicon, that's
called a "recovery."

Read more at link
showmethejobs.doc

Operation Iraqui Liberation -- O.I.L.

Here's another consideration, as we wipe away tears for the
human cost of war in Iraq. What about the economy, stupid?
War is good for the economy, isn't it?
Wrong.

War in Iraq Aims a Bullet at the Heart of the Economy
By James K. Galbraith
Los Angeles Times

There's no indication that Bush thought through the potential for far-reaching fiscal damage

The U.S. had one good economic experience with war. World War II conquered the Depression, reindustrialized the country and built the middle class. But that was special. The U.S. fought WWII with full mobilization, super-high taxes, super-low interest rates, big deficits, price controls and rationing. Iraq isn't going to be like World War II.

Economically, the Iraq war is more like Vietnam: insidiously underestimated, sold to the public and Congress on false premises, improperly budgeted and inadequately taxed. During the Vietnam years, there was also economic growth at first. But then came creeping inflation, followed by worldwide commodity shocks, the oil crisis of 1973, international monetary disorder and a decade of economic troubles.

Could it happen again? Yes, it could.

Did Team Bush think through the economics of a long and costly war? There is no evidence it did. It counted on the war being quick, cheap and self-financing. If it thought about the long-range economics, there seems to have been only one goal: control of oil.

Link

View Lots

This is what the escarpment over Corrales
looks like now:

The Truth About Breast Implants

Sherrill Sellman, author of Hormone Heresy, interviews Ilena Rosenthal
<><><><><><><><><><><><>

*********************************

The Truth About Breast Implants - An Interview with Ilena Rosenthal

by Sherrill Sellman

Ilena Rosenthal is an incredibly courageous and passionate woman who
has been dedicated to raising awareness to the true and serious risks of
breast implants and other silicone products. She is a true inspiration
of the power of the Feminine to create healing and change in the world.
And it has not been easy. What began as a small research project for a
friend with tumors and cysts around her 20 year old saline implants in
August, 1995, has become an amazing adventure for Ilena beyond anything
she could have imagined.

Speaking out on the true dangers of a product so desirable and yet so
potentially harmful, sharing the too real stories of women who made the
fateful decision to have breast implants, almost immediately made her
the target of an unrelenting and incredibly vicious 6 year Defamation
Campaign which continues to date.

In November, 1995, she created the only Usenet Newsgroup,
alt.support.breast-implant, to provide a place for support and a way for
women and
their families to connect. She obviously got in the way of the Silicone
and Plastic Surgery Industries and their Public Relations Machine well
greased by silicone dollars. Nothing was too personal nor too untrue
for her Enemies to post or email about her. To learn more of her personal
encounter with the forces who wanted to silent her warnings and her
message, visit her website at http://www.humanticsfoundation.com

Continue reading at The Truth About Breast Implants.doc">Link
The Truth About Breast Implants.doc

....for more on women's health issues, see chickenlil.org

Beverly Bushhillies

Okay, I promise, I'll just post this one up and
be done with it...But, let's face it, we all need
a little bit of humor about now!

Sung to the tune of the BEVERLY HILLBILLIES theme song.

(It's funnier when you sing it to yourself)

Come and listen to my story 'bout a boy named Bush.
His IQ was zero and his head was up his tush.
He drank like a fish while he's driving' all about,
But that didn't matter 'cuz his daddy bailed him out.
DUI, that is...criminal record...cover up.

Well, the first thing you know little Georgie goes to Yale.
He can't spell his name but they never let him fail.
He spends all his time hangin' out with student folk And
that's when he learns how to snort a line of coke.
Blow, that is...white gold....nose candy.

The next thing you know there's a war in Nam.
Kin folks say, "Georgie boy, you stay with Mom."
Let the common people get killed, maimed and scarred.
We'll buy you a nice spot in the Texas Air Guard.
Cushy, that is...country clubs....nose candy.

Twenty years later George gets a little bored.
He trades in the booze, says that Jesus is his Lord.
He said, "Now the White House is the place I wanna be."
So he called his daddy's friends and they called the GOP.
Gun owners, that is....Falwell....Jesse Helms.

Come November 7, the election ran late.
Kin folks said, "Jeb, give the boy your state!"
"Don't let those colored folks get into the polls."
So they put up barricades so they couldn't punch their holes.
Chads, that is...Duvall County....Miami -Dade.

Before the votes were counted five Supremes stepped
in, Told all the voters,
"Hey, we want Georgie to win!"
"Stop counting votes!" was their solemn invocation.

And that's how Georgie finally got his coronation.
Rigged, that is...illegitimate...no moral authority.

Y'all come vote, now. Ya hear?

Will Rogers Wisdom
Will Rogers was probably the greatest political sage this country has ever
known.

Enjoy the following:

1. Never slap a man who's chewing tobacco.

2. Never kick a cow chip on a hot day.

3. There are 2 theories to arguing with a woman.........neither works.

4. Never miss a good chance to shut up.

5. Always drink upstream from the herd.

6. If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.

7. The quickest way to double your money is to fold it and put it back in
your pocket.

8. There are three kinds of men:
(a) The ones that learn by reading.
(b) The few who learn by observation.
(c) The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence and find out for
themselves.

9. Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad
judgment.

10. If you're riding' ahead of the herd, take a look back every now and then
to make sure it's still there.

11. Lettin' the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier'n puttin' it back.


BRILLIANT QUOTES

"It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it."
- Governor George W. Bush

"The vast majority of our imports come from outside the country."
- George W. Bush

"If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure."
- George W. Bush

"One word sums up probably the responsibility of any Governor, and that one word is 'to be prepared'."
- Governor George W. Bush

"I have made good judgments in the past. I have made good judgments in the future."
- Governor George W. Bush

"The future will be better tomorrow."
- Governor George W. Bush

"We're going to have the best educated American people in the world."
- Governor George W. Bush

"I stand by all the misstatements that I've made."
- Governor George W. Bush

"We have a firm commitment to NATO, we are a part of NATO. We have a firm commitment to Europe. We are a part of Europe."
- Governor George W. Bush

"Public speaking is very easy."
- Governor George W. Bush

"A low voter turnout is an indication of fewer people going to the polls."
- Governor George W. Bush

"We are ready for any unforeseen event that may or may not occur."
- Governor George W. Bush

"For NASA, space is still a high priority."
- Governor George W. Bush

"Quite frankly, teachers are the only profession that teach our children."
- Governor George W. Bush

"It's time for the human race to enter the solar system."
- Governor George W. Bush

Oh thou whose face hath felt the Winter’s wind

Oh thou whose face hath felt the Winter’s wind,
Whose eye has seen the snow-clouds hung in mist,
And the black elm tops, ‘mong the freezing stars,
To thee the spring will be a harvest-time.
O thou, whose only book has been the light,
Of supreme darkness which thou feddest on
Night after night when Phoebus was away,
To thee the Spring shall be a triple morn.
O fret not after knowledge - I have none,
And yet my song comes native with the warmth.
O fret not after knowledge - I have none,
And yet the Evening listens. He who saddens
At thought of idleness cannot be idle,
And he’s awake who thinks himself asleep.

John Keats, The Complete Poems (Penguin)

This is the opening poem from a terrific ezine, Axis of Logic
which features Jo Wilding's Voices in the Wilderness and many other articles bringing clarity of the issues
and revealing the mediaplex bias and misinformation. It's pretty upsetting,
but it makes me feel better to know someone will take this project on and
hit it hard.

Last year I wrote my "blog-guru" Cory Doctorow of BoingBoing.net with the "Cost of War in Iraq"
web-counter, asking him to post it on the site...He shot back a one-line email, "I don't
blog about the war." I was shocked at first, How can you NOT blog about the war? What's more important, after all?

On further thought, now that it goes on and gets deeper and more convoluted and
more horrible, there seems little point to belaboring it. But I am grateful for these writers and their courage.

from Axis of Logic:

I believe demolishing Hussein's military power and liberating Iraq would be a cakewalk.
Let me give simple, responsible reasons: (1) It was a cakewalk last time; (2) they've
become much weaker; (3) we've become much stronger; and (4) now we're playing for keeps.
Richard Perle 3-29-03

And this -

Our good friend and colleague, Noah Cohen, translated and adapted this poem from Brecht's,
"An die Deutschen Soldaten im Osten" ("To the German Soldiers in the East").

Noah explains the background for the poem and how Brecht might have written it today:

"The original was written in 1941. Germany had invaded Russia, and after an initial campaign
of rapid conquest and little resistance, summer turned winter, and the Russians rallied at
Moscow. Brecht had his poem read over Moscow radio so that the German soldiers would
hear it.

"I've turned winter to summer, ice-fields to deserts etc. Of course there are differences in
relative situation (thousands of German soldiers died just from the winter itself and the
long march to Moscow), but the parallel is mostly here: that the resistance of the people
of Fallujah now,like the resistance then, is what stands between the world and a fascist
military empire bent on global dominion. Perhaps I should stay closer to the original title
and make it "To the American Soldiers in the East."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A Message to the Troops
1.
Brothers, if I were among you
On the eastern deserts, were one of you
One of the thousands
I'd be saying what you're saying: Surely
There must be a road leading home.
But, brothers, dear brothers
Under my helmet, under my skull
I would know what you know:
There is no more road leading home.
On the map on the wall of the schoolroom
The road to Fallujah is short
Like the pinky of the Commander-in-Chief.
But in the desert it's longer,
very long, too long.
The sandstorms won't last forever, only till the turn of the season.
But man too won't last forever. Till the turn of season
He will not last.
And so I must die, I know that.
In the coat of a robber I must die.
Must die in the shirt of an arsonist.
As one of the many, as one of the thousands
Hunted as robbers, beaten as arsonists.

more