The prerequisite for salvation

The poster exploits the howling demons of our culture. It’s my morning smack-in-the-eye, bright gold, four feet high, dominated by a female in stark silhouette striding resolutely into the wreckage of post-apocalypse Las Vegas. She wields a wicked-looking blaster in each hand.

The ad, for the movie “Resident Evil: Extinction,” occupies the spot on the elevated train platform where I await the start of my daily commute to work. This is not a movie I’m going to see, but I can’t avoid feeling the impact of its throbbing message: Justice cometh, and she has a nice butt, and she’s armed.

Wow. The gears mesh — yet again! — on the perfect delusion. For entertainment, we hop ourselves up on sex and road rage, and fantasy bleeds into reality. The result is an armed, frightened society and a high-tech war on terror that promises to cut a terrible swath of destruction across the planet before it runs out of, so to speak, gas.

Bush's Baghdad Shell Game

As the deadline approaches for official assessments of American policy in Iraq, the Bush administration is maintaining a steady barrage of diversions, obfuscations and manipulations. These great clouds of smoke, emanating from Washington's think tanks and the mainstream media as well as the press offices of the White House and the Pentagon, have a single purpose: to blind us to objective realities so that the war can continue indefinitely.

            The arguments change but the underlying style remains the same. Since they're losing the debate, they want to change the subject. When congressional leaders sought to schedule hearings on two important Iraq reports -- one from the Government Accountability Office and another by an independent commission of military experts -- they invited U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker and General David Petraeus, the commander of American forces, to testify. The Pentagon flacks tried to schedule those appearances for Sept. 11 -- a ridiculous maneuver properly rejected by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Thomas Friedman: Hooked on war

Reading his “Letter From Baghdad” column in the New York Times on Sept. 5, you’d never know that Thomas Friedman has a history of enthusiasm for war. Now he laments that Iraq is bad for the United States -- “everyone loves seeing us tied down here” -- stuck in the “madness that is Iraq.” And he concludes that the good Americans who have been sent to Iraq will not be deserved by Iraqis “if they continue to hate each other more than they love their own kids.”

     The column, under a Baghdad dateline, is boilerplate Friedman: sprinkled with I-am-here anecdotes and breezy geopolitical nostrums. For years now, the man widely touted as America’s most influential journalist has indicated that his patience with the war in Iraq might soon run out. But, like the media establishment he embodies, Friedman can’t bring himself to renounce a war that he helped to launch and then blessed as the incarnation of virtue.

Welcome Back Congress National Call-In Day

Join the nationwide effort to flood the offices of our member of Congress with calls demanding an end to the U.S. war in Iraq. Let's make it clear: there cannot be "business as usual" in Washington until effective action to bring all the troops home is taken! Call your Representative and both Senators on Thursday, September 6th. Capitol Hill Switchboard: 202-224-3121

Tell them: I want you to act now to end the war and occupation of Iraq. The Congress has the Constitutional right and a moral responsibility to use the power of the purse to withdraw all U.S. soldiers and contractors from Iraq on a rapid and binding schedule. Four and a half years of this war is too long - it has to end now!

Not sure who represents you in Congress? Look Here.

Background:

"I will salute no more forever"

St. Louis – His government broke his heart but it could not break Air Force veteran Charles Powell’s spirit.  Fighting back tears, the 64 year-old vet stood tall and resolute in front of 400 of his comrades, describing in verse the final steps of a painful disillusionment.

Each summer during the national convention of Veterans For Peace, time is reserved for a Veterans’ Speakout, where any member can rise to say whatever is on their mind.

When the veterans gathered in 2002, prior to the invasion of Iraq, George Bush and the hawks of Washington were pounding away on the war drums.  That year, Powell, who had served on a Titan ICBM launch crew during the Cuban missile crisis, read his poem titled, “I Won’t Let Them Take My Flag.”  He noted the warmongers were “again waving my flag” as a buildup to invasion, and he countered what he felt was a manipulation of the national symbol with the following lines reminiscent of the great Langston Hughes.

World War III

The administration of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney is set on a course that leads directly to a third world war.  And a third world war leads almost inevitably to most of us dying horrible deaths.  And we're not talking about it. 

The White House has made clear it is seriously considering attacking Iran with massive bombing aimed at destroying the nation's military and changing its government.  Iran will certainly retaliate.  If attacked, and possibly even if not attacked, Israel will join in the fighting.  The resistance in Iraq will intensify dramatically.  Controlling the oil of Iran and Iraq will be out of the question short of thorough genocide.  Anti-American furor will sweep the Muslim world.  The nuclear nation of Pakistan will be a prime target for an Islamic revolution. 

US Arabs and Muslims: the search for common identity

As the security check line began moving slowly at Washington Dulles airport, one passenger standing a few steps ahead of me appeared particularly uneasy. His dark skin, long beard, trimmed moustache, prayer spot centered on his forehead, and overall demeanor quickly gave away his identity, though he had obviously labored little to hide it. He was a Muslim and a religious one at that. Predictably, a few minutes later he was singled out and his clothes spread across a separate station reserved for those "randomly" selected for extra security check.

Labor Day

The Death of the DRE: gone the way of Lawn Jarts

Let’s make it official. The DRE is dead. DRE, of course, stands for “Direct Recording Electronic” voting machine. It also goes by the name of touchscreen voting machines. But whatever you call it, for all practical purposes, it is dead.

Consider the evidence. How many new DREs have been sold by vendors such as Diebold (ah, Premier), Sequoia, ES & S, and Hart? The vast majority of sales have already taken place. And there are still some states that have statewide implementations from one vendor without VVPAT, such as Maryland and Georgia . But the truth is that no one recently has come out with a new DRE device. Third tier vendors (see my site for a listing) have had little success and many of them are now folding up shop, and the ones that are still remaining have got to be hurting, or working on other lines of business.

Gonzales between the lines

A corrected transcript of the resignation letter by Alberto Gonzales:

      Original: "Thirteen years ago, I entered public service to make a positive difference in the lives of others.''

      Corrected: My client asked me to come to Washington to hide his mistakes from the nation, like we did in that DUI business in Texas.

      Original: "I have traveled a remarkable journey, supported by the unwavering love and encouragement of my wife, Rebecca, and our sons, Jared, Graham and Gabriel.''

      Corrected: Like other Texas Bushies, I came from Houston to find unwavering love and support from Karen, Dick, Scooter, George and Karl.

      Original: "Yesterday I met with President Bush and informed him of my decision to conclude my government service as attorney general of the United States effective as of September 17th, 2007."

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