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Raid on Iraqi Militant Group Indicates Ties to al-Qaida but Leadership on the Run to Iran.
I am shocked and appalled! Inconceivable!
Eventually, everything evil and sinister about Iraq will come to light and the No Blood For Oil loudmouths can shrink back under the rocks from whence the came.
Not for nothing, but a 55 year old woman is really not quite efficient to guard a grain silo from a bomber.
I just know that if I was the child of a woman who went off to Iraq to guard our enemy's storage bins against certain destruction and my mother said she was prepared to die for the anti-war cause, I would say something like "Wow, what an idiotic and self-centered mother I have." And then I would say "Where's that good china you had in storage because I would love to take it before my sister tries to lay claim to it after you're dead."
But that's just me.
Yessssssssssssssss!
The Yankees are back on Cablevision.
They are winning 1-0.
It's finally spring.
UPDATE: $%#$%&%$#
to rock a rhyme
There are reports (as of yet no link) that Peter Arnett has been fired by NBC and National Geographic.
Which is interesting considering last night NBC had this to say about Arnett:
NBC, in a statement Sunday, praised Arnett's "outstanding" reporting from Iraq and said he was trying nothing more than to give an analytical response to an interviewer's questions.
And today, he's gone, giving no credence to the reports that Arnett might have had a gun to his head or been under "duress" when he made the offending statements.
I'm sure Iraqi TV has an opening for him.
Speaking of news, I will be posting from time to time at Connie Du Toit's new blog Keeping the home fires burning because even though I write about media bias, I am still a pro-war, pro-troops American kind of gal.
We are a group of ordinary people who wanted to do something to make it easy for our troops to find out how the vast majority of people feel about them. This website provides links to many of the great things that are being done to support our troops. The contributors to this site are listed in the upper right of every page. None of us are professional journalists. We're just ordinary folks, doing what we can to make life a little better for our troops, the families of our troops, and other ordinary folks who want to be counted.We are biased. We support our troops 100%. The people who post comments to this site share our bias.
I've disabled comments on this entry because I do not want anyone using this post to belittle Connie's great effort.
Much has been made about the flag-waving pro-war stance of Fox News. Although they call themselves "Fair and Balanced," most people think they are anything but.
In fact, Oliver Willis recently compared Fox to al Jazeera, while Laurence Simon pointed out the blatant jigoism of Fox.
The fact is, you will not be able to find a fair and balanced television news channel anywhere in the world during wartime.
I watch Fox News because I find it has the most interesting reports, the best view of Iraq and the most straight-forward war reporting. That is not to say it is even handed all the time. The cheerleading and pro-war ruminations exist often on Fox. One only has to listen to Sean Hannity or Neil Cavuto to see that.
There's not a lot of choice out there, despite the fact that there are a zillion news channels between cable tv and live streaming news on the internet. You're either going to get feel-good, rally around the U.S.A. and tie a yellow ribbon reporting, or you are going to get look at the carnage the U.S. and coalition forces are producing reporting.
Each view of the war exploits different things. al Jazeera exploits American casualties and death in general. Fox exploits the same thing, but in a different way. They want to tug at your red, white and blue heartstrings so you start seeing things through the same colored glasses as they do.
The war is everywhere. If you turn on your tv or radio or boot up your computer it is staring you in the face, be it with bombs or bodies or flags. The media is changing to fit itself into the war niche. Radio stations are either banning war related songs or urging listeners to go to pro-war rallies. Every local news station has already done a story on how the war is effecting children.
It's really not up to the media to decide what we see or how we perceive their views. It's up to us to make our own choices and to disseminate the information as best we can. Even if you watch a channel that seems to trasmit with a closed mind, it's up to us to watch with an open mind.
Yes, there is liberal media bias. And there is conservative media bias. And in this age of readily available information from all over the world, there is bias news to be found everywhere. Pro-Palestine and anti-Israel, pro-Iraq and anti-America, whatever bias you are looking for, it's out there.
If al Jazeera is not your cup of tea - and I imagine that most of us look at in to fuel our outrage - then make the choice to not watch it. If Fox News is too jingoistic for you, try CNN. If you are sick of the war at all, turn on your local news station where they are probably right now debating the merits of fertilizer. And you just know that someone is going to write into the station accusing them of being biased against the fertilizer industry.
Baseball season has started.
It's snowing.
There's an ice warning for tomorrow morning.
This is not spring, damn it. Don't those evil gnomes in charge of the weather know that it's not supposed to snow after the first pitch is thrown?
Well, they're obviously not paying attention because baseball season has not only officially started, it's being blogged, so those weather gnomes in their weather pods can't tell me they didn't know. I know for a fact they have a DSL line over at the weather making palace.
Get on the ball, guys. Stop the snow, break out the flowers and tree buds, give me Bob Shepherd's voice and then I'll believe it's spring.
Although the season won't really start until a) Roger Clemens beans someone and b) I make a snide Red Sox comment to Solonor.
Is anyone still reading this blog? Did you all desert me for blog stock trading and war news? Would it help if I became an embedded reporter in other blogs and I could tell you what color underwear Jim Treacher wears and if Robyn is wearing a bra or not?
It's just been so....lonely here lately.
I brushed my teeth. I put on deodorant. You can come back, now!
Peter Arnett is either:
A) Being held at gunpoint by Iraqis
or
B) A traitor and and flaming gasbag.
Either way, he is in deep, deep shit.
The bad thing about spring is the return of the ice cream man. I hate the ice cream man. I have evil fantasies about taking his jingly jangly bells and shoving them so far up his ass that his ears start ringing. It's not even one guy. We have the dueling trucks around here. They circle the block morning, noon and night, each one turning up their sound system louder on each pass down my street.
There's Mr. Softy, Doug's Truck o' Ice Cream and some ominous looking white truck that I swear plays the theme from "Rosemary's Baby" while it circles the block.
When I was a child, I thought of ice cream men as evil beings sent to earth by Satan to ply children with goodies into joining the force of the dark side. Those bells and happy recordings you heard on the speakers was just a mask for subliminal messages, meant to hypnotize into becoming one of the devil's minions, and then you would be put to work selling cigarettes to minors and selling Elvis albums to old ladies.
it turns out they aren't satan's helpers at all, just capitalists in action. They fight for our allegiance with specials and discounts and the coolest, trendiest ice cream ever. Twenty five flavors of gelato. Ice cream cones coated with peanut butter sauce. Yellow, gooey, Pikachu shaped pops.
One flavor is more disgusting than the next. The Rugrats ice pops leave purple and yellow stains on the sidewalk. The Flinstone push up pops taste like Triaminic.
And yet, the kids run to the ice cream as if he were the Pied Piper of Sweet Treats. They eat these disgusting, fake flavored, stain-inducing pops and beg for more.
I wonder what life on our block would be like during the summer if our only ice cream truck was driven by a man from Japan who imported all his goods from his home country.
Would the kids run for the truck every day to scoop up the Ox Tongue flavor ice cream? Would they beg us for money to purchase a scoop of eggplant? Would risk life and limb by running after the ice cream man just to get some squid flavored cones?
Where do they get these ideas from? Do people really buy chicken wing flavored dessert? Would anyone order a confection that was made with eels?
I wouldn't tempt fate by serving Japanese desserts, anyhow. The last time I gave some kids Japanese candy, it turned out the candy was recalled.
Natalie: Eww, did you fart, DJ?
DJ: No! I was just going to ask you that!
Natalie: Well it smells like someone let one out. Mom?
The very true story of how Easter eggs signify the onset of spring, over at Raising Hell.
Death to Smoochy:
Interesting concept. Mostly, ill-conceived. It could have been a great, dark comedy. Instead it was just...dark.
Also, I think I broke out in hives at one point, which I am prone to do when I am feeling uncomfortable enough to cringe at something.
So Death to Smoochy gets the rating of 3 tablespoons of Benadryl out of 4, which means it was not as uncomfortably horrible as say, See Spot Run, but it was worse than Billy Madison.
I guess you would have to live inside my head to understand my movie reviews, which is why I don't do movie reviews very often.
Plus, there's not a lot of room in there and I don't think you would enjoy living there very much anyhow.
Yes, I am quite overtired, thank you for asking.
So am I the only one asking the question "What ever happened to the Backstreet Boys?" I always knew they were destined for a Where Are They Now episode, but I didn't think it would be so soon.
Thankfully, the whole boy band plague seems to have come to its end, with just a few scratchy pock marks like Justin Timberlake hanging around as a reminder.
I wonder what the next phase or vanilla-flavored trend coated with sprinkles will be. Not just in music, but in pop-culture in general. If I could just learn to predict trends, or at least the coolness factor in fledgling products/ideas/music/shows, I would, of course, be rich.
Back many years ago - and yes I do go back so far as to remember a world without Shredder - I read in a magazine about a new show coming to the tube called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turltes. I scoffed at the name. I laughed at the idea. What kind of hip, with-it kid would admit to liking such an ill-conceived thing.
Did I mention that just last week I bought myself a Ninja Turtles Katana? Who knew that the Turtles would still be rockin' the sewer more than a decade later? Come on, there's no way you predicted their success, either.
When I try to predict future trends, I only come up with the thought that it's all been done before. Every cartoon and comic has been drawn already. There's not much difference between Yu Gi Oh! and Pokemon.
Every song has been written. The new punk bands are the old punk bands with less flare. Every Good Charlotte song has a Ramones song underneath it.
Every recreational fad is just the idea of the skateboard built a different way. How many ways can one fly off the ground using a wheel-driven object that will eventually obey gravity and leave you with life-long scars?
Allthe clothing trends are just rehashed fabrics from the 60's and 70's slapped with a "retro" tag. Retro is another way of saying "we're all out of ideas."
Is the trend dead? Just look at Christmas 2002, which went down in history as the year without a "must have" toy. No Tickle-Me Elmo or robotic pet or Playstation 2 for parents to fight over in the aisles of Toys-r-Us.
All the action movies and kung-fu movies and films with fake British accents have been done. If they make another white-guy/black-guy buddy movie, nobody will notice. They will think it's the same Martin Lawrence movie they saw the last time. Every disaster has been re-created for the big screen. There's nothing left.
Of course, the entertainment industry will prove me wrong. Months from now there will be a new fad, a new product to buy that will spawn twenty like products within a weeks time. There will be a new band with a new sound and fifty other bands will rush to the stuido to recreate the sound. All the kids will be wearing the same t-shirts or hats or shoes that they will discard for next year's cool shirts and hats and shoes.
I wouldn't mind the trends so much if I was just prescient enough to cash in on them. But as long as I didn't think of them I still reserve the right to label all future trends, fads, phases and genres as crap.
The usual Saturday morning/afternoon content portion of this blog has been pre-empted by life outside the house and the start of Little League season.
Enjoy your day and ASV will return tonight with the snide commentary, boobie shots, antagonistic war talk, troll baiting, nude pictures of Michael Moore and mindless drivel that you have come to expect.
Now get outside and enjoy the start of spring.
Also, if you have been looking for Davezilla the past day or so, please note that he is experiencing a major crisis of the Evil ISP sort and will be back eventually.
It's Friday. I've got the computer to myself.
What are you in the mood for?
UPDATE The Mother of All Headaches has stopped by for the evening. I'm going to try that thing they call sleep.
If it's war stuff you want, go hang out at Command-Post, which never sleeps.
If it's funny stuff you want (with some war thrown in) go read Treacher's postings for the past few days.
I think I slept with him in my dream last night. And Rick Leventhal was there.
Yea, I'm leaving.
The thought has entered my mind quite frequently that Charles Rangel just may be an incredibly thoughtless jerk.
There's that saying that goes something like - Better to have people question whether you are an ass or not than to open your diseased mouth and remove all doubt.
Yea, that was heavily paraphrased.
Obviously, Armed Forces bashing is the flavor of the week.
click for larger picture. image swiped from the asshat's website
Then again, this is old hat for Rall. I don't think he's had a fresh idea since September 2001.
UPDATE: Well, holy fuck. It just gets worse by the minute.
And they call this higher education.
At an anti-war "teach-in" this week, a Columbia University professor called for the defeat of American forces in Iraq and said he would like to see "a million Mogadishus" -- a reference to the Somali city where American soldiers were ambushed, with 18 killed, in 1993."The only true heroes are those who find ways that help defeat the U.S. military," Nicholas De Genova, assistant professor of anthropology at Columbia University told the audience at Low Library Wednesday night. "I personally would like to see a million Mogadishus."
Commentary later. I'm going to go bang my head against the wall a couple of times, first.
Putin calls for the war to be stopped.
Can you smell what the US is cooking?
That would be Putin's ass in that frying pan, sauteed with a couple of WMDs stamped "Made in Russia."
I can't believe I just used the phrase "what the U.S. is cooking."
Someone slap me.
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You can now buy shares of A Small Victory.
Sure, you won't be able to buy anything with the fake money you make off of me, but at least now when people call me a capitalist whore I can stand up proudly and say Yes, I am
The value of this blog is $17679.28, an outgoing link is worth $711.17. Your bill is in the mail.
I just bought five shares of Instapundit.
A group of Vermont teen-agers threw rocks at a uniformed female Vermont National Guard sergeant last week, in the latest example of a service member facing hostility in the United States.
The teens blocked the sergeant as she went into a store and again on the way out, yelling obscenities at her along the way, Roosevelt said. The group also threw small stones at her car as she drove away, he added.The sergeant said she believed the protesters had taken part in an anti-war demonstration in Montpelier that day. National Guard troops are often deployed to such events to help keep the peace.
"There were various profanities directed in her direction, along the line of '[expletive] murderer, [expletive] baby killer,'" Stirewalt said. "It culminated with some of the individuals throwing rocks at her, and as testament to her disciplined professionalism, she got in her car and left the area."
Murderer. Baby Killer.
This isn't just about the above low-life, ungrateful repugnant creatures who particpated in this display of idiocy. It's for all of you that think soldiers are baby killers. It's for all of you that call them murderers. It's for everyone who thinks that oil is the only reason we are in Iraq. It's for the cowards who hide behind placards and the loudmouths who degrade our armed forces while they enjoy the freedoms this country provides them. It's for everyone who thinks the United States Armed Forces are a group of bloodthirsty men and women hell bent on nothing but destruction and death and have no value for human life. It's for everyone who thinks we want to flatten Iraq without a care for the citizens of that country.
All images from this site; click for larger view
Here "an Iraqi child gestures to an American as other children look on, at a water distribution point in Umm Qasr, Iraq, Wednesday."
From left: Lt. Mark Day, Petty Officer Thomas Wagers, Cmdr. Robert Hinks, Lt. Cmdr. John Uecker, and Capt. John Perciballi work on an unidentifed, 2-year-old Iraqi boy, at Camp Viper, in southern Iraq on Wednesday.
A yound boy is all smiles after receiving water from US and British Civil Affairs troops in Umm Qsar, Iraq, on Wednesday. The water came from Kuwait in tankers.
The very same people who complain and cry that our soldiers are baby killers are never seen decrying Saddam Hussein as the same. There is no moral relativism at play here - Saddam and his army intentionally aim to kill and murder their own people, while we are there to rescue them from that madman. And yet, we are the killers. And our soldiers are degraded and insulted on their own soil.
Where do they learn the phrase "baby killer" from? Who teaches them these things? And who will they all turn to if war should ever come to our homes, on our land? Who will they turn to for protection and defense? The heroes of the left will not save them. They will be cowering under their beds like everyone else, waiting for one of our own baby killers and murderers to come save them.
They wanted to shut down New York City today, but only 500 showed up. But they certainly were a lively bunch.
What in the world was going on here?
And what is that furry thing being pulled out of her ass?
An anti-war protester with her mouth taped sits in the middle of New York's Fifth Avenue blocking traffic Thursday, March 27, 2003. Anti-war groups blocked busy intersections Thursday and staged a 'die-in' to protest media and corporate 'profiteering from the war.' (AP Photo/Radcliffe Roye)
That and Justin Timberlake.
Talk to me boy
No disrespect, I don't mean no harm
Talk to me boy
I can't wait to have you in my arms
Talk to me boy
Hurry up cause you're taking too long
Talk to me boy
Better have you naked by the end of this song
So what did you come for
I came to dance with you
And you know that you don't want to hit the floor
I came to romance with you
You're searching for love forever more
It's time to take a chance
If love is here on the floor, girl
I do not translate well into German.
But hey, I am a Foundress.
Net diaries, which concern themselves with the Iraq war, encounter
large interest. Among the largest "be Blogs COMMAND post office" "ranks". The
Netzeitung spoke with the initiatorin.
Sense and purpose of "COMMAND post office" are it to collect as much as
possible messages to the Iraq war at a place in the Web are called it in
"mission the statement" of the Weblogs. At present approximately 20
persons from all world work free of charge for the project.
Foundress Michele Catalano, law employee from the US Federal State New
York, spoke with the Netzeitung about truth and untruth in Weblogs and the
speed of the InterNet, which traditional media can hardly still follow.
Netzeitung: : Mrs. Catalano, why have you "COMMAND post office" based?
Michele Catalano : When the war broke last week off, I began to set
every ten minutes of updates on-line to my private side, while I looked at
several TV channels at the same time.
I noticed then that many Blogger did. I wrote then a comment that
nevertheless perhaps we should open a community Web log, in order to
unite all the Postings. Later my Web log friend Alan, it wrote me ten minutes
such a server would put on.
Netzeitung: : How successfully is "COMMAND post office" up to now?
Catalano: On the first day we had already 7000 hits. In the meantime we
are daily with 100.000 visitors. The numbers continue to rise.
Netzeitung: : Which advantages have Weblogs of their opinion to
opposite traditional intelligence services?
Catalano: There are no editorial restrictions, that is probably the
most important. Weblogs are also faster updated than the new services - if
CNN the newest from the Iraq finally on its side places, had we the same
history frequently 20 minutes before or still in former times. On COMMAND post
office we have at least 20 people from the whole world, those at each
time a Myriade of sources to sight and then News post.
Netzeitung: : Do you think that Weblogs can be truthful in the case of
the Iraq war as some professional message offer? Are they it?
Catalano: Definitely. We do not hold back anything. Weblogs do not have
to arouse the impression, them are independent. Although COMMAND post
office deviates from because it is a strict News collection. (we have however
also a comment side.) Weblogs altogether offer a more honest, rauere aspect
on current events.
Netzeitung: : The US television was criticized to censor information
about the war. Do the citizens use now the Weblogs, in order to get a better
picture?
Catalano: At least partly. They go generally more into the InterNet. If
you want to really see the pictures, the CNN or other Mainstream media
censored [ Catalano means in this case photographs dead and caught US soldiers, note D talks ], goes it simply on the homepage von Al Dschasira. Afterwards they come into the Weblogs, in order to catch up the most diverse opinions over it - and in this case also whole rage.
Netzeitung: : Which motivation do you and your fellow combatants have
to lead the recruiting log?
Catalano: We live in a time, in which the people want their message
fast. They do not want to wait no more. Particularly with this war, which
will transfer into real time in the television. Most do not have cable
television in the office, for it however InterNet. And if the Mainstream Newssites
is slow then and still the servers under the load of millions accesses
break down, a recruiting log brings such as COMMANDS the message to post
office faster.
Netzeitung: : Who are your authors?
Catalano: We can cover all time belts with our authors. The Web log
runs 24 hours with messages, which do not only come from the USA, but also from countries such as Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, Kuwait and
Israel. We have professors, lawyers, housewives, teachers and student thereby, even arms specialist. We are not the media, we are the people.
Ben swan placed the questions
Keith says I owe him mad props and he's right.
In response to my challenge yesterday to make a playlist of happy songs, Keith wins hands down.
I will forward this list to the BBC so they can be sure to keep everyone shiny and happy and pretending that there isn't a war waging. Ostriches rule!
(Digging out my Saturday Morning Cartoon covers CD)
“Keep Fishin’” - Weezer
“Up All Night” - Unwritten Law
“Acquiesce” - Oasis
“A Praise Chorus” - Jimmy Eat World
“In This Diary” - The Ataris
“As Good As It Gets” - Grand Theft Audio
“Party Hard” - Andrew W.K.
“We’re Going to Be Friends” - White Stripes
“Girlfriend” - Matthew Sweet
“The Globe” - Big Audio Dynamite
And, in case you want to toss a few out of that list, here’s a couple of alternates:
“First Date” - Blink 182
“Short Skirt/Long Jacket” - Cake
“Fire Woman” - The Cult
“I Love You Period” - Dan Baird (admittedly more of a Southern rock song...)
“Hits From the Bong” - Cypress Hill (because pot is one HELL of a mood elevator)
“Love Rollercoaster” - the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ cover
“Walk This Way” - either Aerosmith or the version with Run-D.M.C.
“FNT” - Semisonic
“Go Speed Racer Go” - Sponge’s cover
“Panama” - Van Halen (admittedly, also not so much an alternative song...)
Here's a gift in return for my making you think of Mark Morford:
Small World: A Tiny Little Weblog in Words and Pictures.
Chris Muir's Day by Day
Guest Week at Achewood
Penny Arcade with the best payoff line ever.
Feel free to add your favorite online comics in the comments. Because we all need a little funny stuff in our lives.
UPDATE: How did I miss the Cumbrella yesterday? Jesus, that should have been my moment of Zen.
I almost missed Mark Morford while he was on vacation. He's back.
He spent some time off the coast of Hawaii watching humpback whales. And what did Mark take away from all this?
Well, of course. Bush is dumb, we are all dumb, everyone is going to die and civilization will lie in ruins because Rumsfeld's press conferences are using some kind of mystery laser beam to shrink our brain cells.
This last paragraph will go down in my own personal history as one of the most absurd things to ever appear in print:
They are a reminder. No matter how much we think we know, no matter how many die as a result of Shrub's vicious war, no matter what sort of self-righteous good we think we're ramming down everyone's throat, we are, quite simply, raging deeper into ignorance. We know nothing. And the worst part is, we seem to be learning less with every warhead, every Rummy press conference, every dust-choked reporter and dead soldier. The whales know this. Maybe they're just waving goodbye.
I think he just plaigarized some ten year old girl's school essay with those final two lines.
Oh, how I missed you, Mark. Welcome back.
I'm sorry for the lack of any real content here lately. I'm a bit overwhelmed at the moment.
I will, however, leave you with this.
When Patriotism goes bad:
That's just...wrong.
click for large
That's Carol, the co-founder of TroopTrax and her sons in the Worcester (MA) Telegraph & Gazette, posing for a picture after Carol was interviewed about TroopTrax.
How cute are those kids?
Oh, Carol is cute, too.
I need a moment of zen.
Happy, happy, happy. happy talk.
Sure, there's a war going on. But we must be happy! We must pretend the bombs don't exist and the explosions are a figment of our imagination.
At least that's what MTV and British radio stations propose.
Though images of war are dominating television screens, one channel is not having it. The day after the war in Iraq started, a memo was distributed through the offices of MTV Europe by its broadcast standards department.In the memo, Mark Sunderland, one of the department's managers, recommends that music videos depicting "war, soldiers, war planes, bombs, missiles, riots and social unrest, executions" and "other obviously sensitive material" not be shown on MTV in Britain and elsewhere in Europe until further notice.
And then there's this:
Commercial radio stations are playing inoffensive songs, so as not to upset listeners or drive away advertisers, and the BBC has told producers to play music with a “light, melodic” feel before and after news bulletins, especially when the reports are likely to detail coalition casualties.
Think happy thoughts, everyone.
Maybe if we all sing "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" rainbows will appear in the sky.
Maybe if we ban all references to the war from our lives, it will cease to exist.
Maybe not.
We are all doomed to a never-ending loop of REM's Shiny Happy People.
I dare you to come up with a listenable playlist of 10 happy, non-offensive songs that don't pertain in any way to war, soldiers, dying, bombs, explosions, aaron brown or dead animals.
Dave's got an... interesting perspective of the Gulf to share over on Acerbia.
Actually, two Public Service Announcements for the price of one:
1. If upon standing up after going to the bathroom you hear a clunking sound, it is wise to not flush the toilet bowl.
2. If you keep your cell phone in your back pocket, it is certain that at some point, it will fall into the toilet bowl.
They don't give you illustrations for that on ready.gov.
I have a few questions.
After seeing everything happening in Iraq right now, why would you still insist we should not be using force to take that regime out?
And why would you say that George Bush is the greatest threat to the world after seeing what Saddam is capable of?
Why would you protest against Bush and his administration for liberating the Iraqi people and not protest against the Iraq regime itself?
Even if, for argument sake, it was all about the oil, wouldn't the fact that we are bringing aid and liberation to the people of Iraq make this a good thing we are doing?
Do you think that the Bush, or any past president for that matter, would hide his cohorts in day care centers, hospitals and residential homes?
Do you think they would store ammunition in a hospital?
Do you think they would gleefully kill prisoners of war and put the tape on tv?
Do you think they would use women and children as shields?
Did you answer no to any of those questions?
Then why? Why would you protest so hard against this when it is obvious that the conditions the Iraqi people were living under are conditions you would not survive ten minutes in?
If you were living under that kind of vile, murderous dictatorship, would you not want someone to come in and save you?
How would you feel if this country were run like Iraq, if Saddam was your leader and when other countries came in to help you - even if it was with force - you heard that people from that country were protesting that action?
Do you honestly think - after seeing what is happening in Iraq right now - that the people of Iraq could really have staged their own uprising?
Do you really believe that everything the American media is showing you is a lie and everything you see on al Jazeera is the truth?
Do you not think the Iraqi regime is capable of propaganda?
What, to you, is the price of freedom? Or do you think freedom comes with no price at all?
Thanks to NC for pointing me towards The 50 Most Loathesome New Yorkers.
He doesn't quite make it to number one, but I think number two is quite an honor anyhow.
Congratulations, Ted Rall! You must be so proud, finishing ahead of Michael Moore like that.
Next year, I will start a campaign to get you to number one Ted. You deserve it.
Too bad there's no stipend or some kind of monetary award that goes with this. If so, we could have had the New York Press send it to Danny.
*Yes, that was intended as grade-school bathroom humor.
However:
I sense a rivalry in the making. The hell with that, I see a movie in the making.
Dolphins v. Monkeys. Think West Side Story with with explosions.
Someone get me casting!
Just a note to certain people:
When engaging in moral relativism, don't attempt to compare the prisoners at Gitmo to the POWs killed this past week in Iraq.
When you see a tape of an American soldier gleefully killing a Gitmo detainee, broadcast on American tv for all to see and applaud like some deranged call to arms, then talk to me.
Until then, shut it.
UPDATE: In response to some comments, The Truth About Gitmo from Damian Penny.
Gitmo is on its way to becoming an extension of Godwin's Law.
UPDATE (3/26):
Gitmo detainees speak:
''The conditions were even better than our homes. We were given three meals a day -- eggs in the morning and meat twice a day; facilities to wash, and if we didn't wash, they'd wash us; and there was even entertainment with video games,'' said Sirajuddin, 24, a taxi driver from Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban. He said he was forcibly conscripted by the militia and captured by a notorious warlord, General Abdul Rashid Dostum, who ''sold us to the US.''
Jim has all the Michael Moore news that's fit to print. He skewers him so well.
I will do my part to contribute to Michael Moore madness with this link, an interview with The Awful One after the Oscars. Watch if you must, but wear your Idiocy Shield.
link via Chris Pirillo, who has finally agreed to send me his wife in exchange for some Pokemon games
Did I say I was going on a full hiatus? No, I didn't. So stop looking at me like that.
Having a weblog means having a living, breathing record of your life. It differs from a diary in that I can look at what I wrote on a certain date and see who was here, who left a comment. I can immediately see who has come and gone from my life in the span between then and now.
I'll probably be doing a lot of repeat essays in the next few weeks as my energies are focused elsewhere.
One year ago today I wrote this piece. It still stands, perhaps even more so now.
summer of 12
12 then and 12 now are worlds apart.
12 then was blissful ignorance.
12 now is the weight of the world.
When I was 12 my summer days were spent barefoot in my backyard, alternating between the pool and the sprinkler and the blanket on the lawn. I left the backyard only when I heard the tinny ringing of the ice-cream truck. I would run out to the street, hopping like mad from one foot to the other in an effort to not feel the full scorch of the burning blacktop. Al the ice-cream man would hurry us along in a heavy accent. Sometimes we understood him and sometimes we didn't. And sometimes Al was in a talktative mood and he would show us the numbers tattooed on his arm. We would shrug, not really knowing what the story was. We couldn't understand his accent, and even if we did, it seemed like too heavy a story to carry with our melting cones.
Today, 12 means you have read at least three historical fiction stories about the Holocaust. 12 means you would know what the numbers on Al's arm were.
When I was 12 my summer nights were spent in the street, playing kickball with my cousins. Sometimes we played kick-the-can and we would run through the neighbors yards, hiding in their shrubbery and under their porches. We played until we were too tired to run, and then we would walk down to the candy store to buy soda and snacks.
Today, 12 means you can't play in the street because there are too many cars. 12 means your neighbor's lawn is off limits because it was just sprayed with some chemical to make their grass grow greener. 12 means you can't walk to the store at night, because there are too many strangers.
When I was 12 we went to the beach and for family drives and spent leisurely days at the park. We woke up late and watched morning tv in our pajamas until we were shooed outside. Our days were long and unstructured and lazy.
Today's 12 means summer camp or summer school and getting up with the birds. It is structure and bus rides just like the rest of the year. Family drives and trips to the beach are scheduled events. Time is managed. Soccer, baseball, dance, enrichment programs, swim lessons.
When I was 12 I wasn't afraid of the world. Current events in school meant local news, fluff stories, a few science-related pieces. Health lessons centered around hygiene and grooming. Drug education was non-existent. Learning about the environment meant paying attention to don't litter signs.
Today's 12 is frightening. Current events are happening in their own backyard. War and terrorism are part of the daily venacular. Health lessons include segments on AIDS and condoms and learning how to say no. Drug education is imperative. Today's 6th graders know about ozone layers and recycling and toxins in the water.
Today's 12 is better educated than I was. They are more informed. They are better prepared. But they are not the 12 of carefree childhood and innocence. They are somehow older, wiser and a bit more cynical than I ever knew at 12.
Perhaps today's 12 is more prepared to deal with the world than the 12 year olds of my day were. But I still have to lament that their childhood is almost over at an age when it should be in its prime.
Leave it to the New York Times.
They talk to me for half an hour, I give the woman some great observations on the media, the war and weblogs and when the story gets to print I come off like a bored housewife.
She didn't even put the URL to Command Post in.
My fifteen minutes of fame is more like ten seconds of bemusement.
I'll be taking a sort-of hiatus for the rest of the week or so, maybe longer. Not a full-on hiatus, just a maybe-post-once-a-day-instead-of-48-times-a-day hiatus. I mean, someone has to bitchslap Ted Rall and I refuse to give that job up.
Or maybe I'll just write how nice it is to be back in Little League season, with Saturdays spent at the field , or how the days are getting longer and warmer and my lungs ache for some of that fresh air.
You can still find me at Command Post (which is eating up most of my alloted online time) and Raising Hell.
See ya when I ping ya.
P.S. Hug the fuck out of 'em Phillipe!
P.P.S YAY ASPARAGIRL!! You go, girl!
People suck.
Please ignore Dave (see below), I don't know who let him out of his cage today, but it wasn't me. I think he ties with Laurence for "Most Likely to Leave a Weird Post in Your Blog" award.
I'm really not happy being without a tv or radio today.
I'm really not happy that for some reason two posts I previously made not only did not show up on the site, but completely disappeared from the edit screen.
I'm really not happy about the email I received from some loony leftist who promised me that there would be a terrorist attack in the NY/Long Island area before Thursday, perpetuated by our own government so they can impose martial law to stop the protesters from shutting down the city on Thursday. I wrote back one sentence: Don't flatter yourself.
I'm not happy for a lot of reasons, the least of which being I haven't had a good night's sleep in ages and part of it being that people are generally being great big assclowns in my comments and part of it because Chris turned down my offer of all my old Gameboy cartridges in exchange for his wife, Gretchen.
I want my Fox TV. Hell, I would even take Al Jazeera at this point.
Anyone know how to get past a media firewall?
You all are pissing me off.
No matter what I write about, it gets turned into an argument in the comments. I posted a picture of waving kitties last night and I had to delete three comments!
It's Monday and I'm not going to take that crap anymore. So I'll make you a deal. I'll keep my warblogging over here, if you keep your argumentive war comments out of this post, ok?
I'm going to make this real easy for you, by repeating something I did last year, at the request of a reader whose email I lost but whom I will give credit to if she just raises her hand.
It was called "I Used To Believe," and it was a fun post and a pleasure to read the comments. So we are going to spend Monday on that, and the first person who writes "I used to believe in a world without war" or anything to do with Bush, Iraq or the sort, will get their ass kicked and then will be blamed by everyone when I start warblogging over here again. Got it?
Proceed to the rest of the entry and don't piss me off. Thank you.
Originally posted on October 13, 2002:
and babies come from the garden
Funny I should come across this site, I Used to Believe, just days after I had a conversation at work about that very thing.
When I look back at the things I used to believe when I was a child, I finally realize why I am such a cynic and a skeptic. Everything I once thought was the truth was either a lie or some ridiculous notion made up in my head.
When I was a wee, wee child, I thought that there were tiny musicians who lived inside the stereo speakers and played songs for us. As I got a little older, I realized how silly this was. So I then convinced myself that the bands that were playing on the radio were actually at the radio station, playing the songs live. It boggled my mind when I tried to figure out how they could get from one radio station to another so fast. Shortly after that, I received my first record player and figured out that David Cassidy had somehow stuck his voice on that piece of black vinyl and he was not, to my dissapointment, inside my speakers or in my house.
I believed that God had nothing to do all day but sit up on a cloud with a notebook and pen, recording every single one of my misdeeds. At night, he would read the list off to my mother so she could punish me accordingly. How else would my mother have known that it was me who spilled her bingo chips down the toilet bowl?
I believed that God's punishments were always of the physical nature. A cold sore, especially one on my tongue, was a punishment for lying or saying a bad word. If I fell and scraped my knee or had some other minor injury, it was because I did something to offend God.
I believed if I stepped on a crack I would indeed break my mother's back.
I believed that if I stepped on an ant, it would rain.
I believed that somewhere, in some strange country, it really did rain cats and dogs. Then I took that one step further and figured that's where cats and dogs came from and there was someone at the pet adoption place that would watch the weather in that strange country and when it rained there, he would go and collect the cats and dogs in a big bucket and bring them back here to sell to kids.
I believed that thunder was the angels bowling and lightning happened when one of the angels got a strike. I never believed that rain was God crying, but I did believe my neighbor Frankie when he told me that rain was God peeing.
I believed that when a woman wanted a baby, all she had to do was fill out an application at the hospital and they would give her a pill that made a baby grow in her belly. I believed that Frankie was lying when he told me that babies came out of a woman's vagina. I even laughed at him.
I believed that if I got a splinter and didn't take it out right away, it would travel in my blood right to my heart and pierce it.
I would never say that "now I lay me down to sleep" prayer because I believed it was like asking for death.
I believed that when you drove past a cemetery, you had to hold your breath or the living dead would come and get you.
I once believed that I could use a rock in the middle of a lake at Bear Mountain to sail to the Statue of Liberty. Of course, that had to do with more with drugs than with reality.
I used to believe that a person was alloted only so many words they could speak out loud in their lifetime and I would probably run out of words before I died. That's when I began writing my thoughts down instead of speaking them.
I used to believe my action figures came alive at night. Oh, I still do.
I used to believe that 40 was old.
What did you believe?
Key words to his acceptance speech:
Fictitious president.
He pulled a Ted Rall and went for the "but he wasn't elected" rant.
How 2001 of him.
And they booed him. The audience either booed, rolled their eyes or said nothing.
Fuck you, Michael Moore, you opportunstic fat freaky fucker.
Gah.
And just so you know, Kevin is blogging the Oscars and he's really funny and entertaining, as opposed to the Oscars themselves, which are droll and deadly boring, much like Greta on Fox right now.
I'm going to bed. I'm still burnt. Burned.
Whatever.
I'm in a mood. One of those moods. You know, the kind of mood when you've had too much tequila and not enough sleep and you are overstimulated and underfed?
Yea, one of those "I love you, man" moods.
According to Indymedia (where I found this image) America has declared war on Kevin Parrot!
What should we do??
Looking for the cute waving kitties that were here?
I killed them.
mmmm kitty sandwich.
I think I'm burned out.
COMMAND POST CAN NOW BE FOUND HERE.
Will everyone who is linking Command Post please change your links to this URL? Thank you.
To the "peace" activists and anti-war protesters:
You claim not to be anti-American, yet these pictures were taken from the NYC protest yesterday. Photos and moments just like this were repeated throughout the world yesterday and for many days and months before.
The regime you did not want us to take out has now violated the Geneva convention. They have taken troops hostage and killed them.
Those soldiers were out there fighting for a free world. They were fighting so people everywhere can have a right like you do to burn flags and speak out without fear of retribution.
They have been killed by the enemy. The enemy that the human shields wanted to protect. The enemy that Sean Penn visited, the enemy that - by marching against this war - you march for.
Most of you - not all of you by any stretch - should hang your heads in shame right now. While you are out smashing mailboxes and crying about your peanut butter sandwiches in jail, while you are pissed off because your television show was pre-empted by war coverage and while you bitch and moan about tightened security, while you burn flags and tell the children of soldiers that their parents are murderers, some of those very soldiers were being murdered by the people you wish to leave in charge in Iraq.
Do you see what kind of people we are dealing with now? Do you honestly think that the people of Iraq want to be lead by such inhumane, vile people?
Think about this next time you burn a flag. Think about this next time you smash a window for your cause.
Think.
Some will wear ribbons. Some will sport peace signs. Others will be wearing slices of duct tape.
I could not make this shit up.
thanks to the indespensible Robyn for this
Look! The newest Pokemon is here!
Newsday photo/Mayita Mendez
Evolves into the venomoth
This pokemon can be found wherever protesters gather. It's special power is sprinkling magic fairy dust all over the world so we can live in peace and harmony with ponies and lollipops for everyone. When provoked into a fight, it can be heard chanting "it's all about the oiiiiilllll!"
At yesterday's NYC protest:
Jonathan Charles, 8, a third-grader at PS 132 in Springfield Gardens, carried a red felt sign that said simply "Pray" and marched alongside classmates and their parents.
"It's not good to -- what's that big word? -- assassinate someone," Jonathan said. "It's not good to make other people cry."
Obviously, the kid had been coached.
Way to brainwash your children. Great job on that.
I wonder if, when the parents told him about making kid cry, they told little Jonathan about all the little children that Saddam made cry.
Probably not.
Drudge has this huge headline on his site right now:
STARS IN HOLLYWOOD PARTY AS WAR RAGES IN IRAQ
It's in giant size bold font.
My response to this is: So what?
While I may get pissed at stars who use their screen time to spout rhetoric, I have no problem with them partying. Are we all supposed to stop in tracks, hold our breath and wait for the war to end?
I went to McDonald's yesterday. I took my son to Little League practice. I watched a really stupid movie, I drank some tequila and I laughed it up in a chat room with others from Command Post.
Today I might even go wash my car and - gasp! - go out to eat and watch some basketball!
Yes, there is a war waging. I should know, I spend a good portion of my day covering it. But I have a free life to live, which I am very grateful for. I just don't think the fact that celebrities are eating and drinking and receiving awards - shallow as they may have behaved at the podium - warrants a super-sized Headline of Awe.
After pointing out that Ugly Canadian yesterday, I owe it to all my Canadian friends to point out this site as well:
Canadian Friends of America was started as an ad-hoc campaign against increasing anti-American sentiments in Canadian public debate. It is inspired by Norwegian Friends of America. We wish to support the good bi-lateral relationship between Canada and the USA by highlighting the political and historical kinship between our two nations.
Nicely done.
What you saw on tv:
Director Michael Moore is seen wearing an anti-Iraqi war pin at the 2003 IFP Independent Spirit Awards in Santa Monica, California, March 22, 2003. Moore accepted the award for Best Documentary for the film 'Bowling for Columbine.' REUTERS/Molly Riley
What really happened:
Krispy Kreme spokesman Michael Moore is seen wearing a pro-donut pin at the 2003 ISP Independent Snack Awards in Santa Monica, California, March 22, 2003. Moore accepted the award for Best Documentary for the film 'I am a Big Fat Unwashed Hair Man Who Passes Lies Off as Facts and Eats Too Many Donuts.' REUTERS/Molly Riley/NC
photo from indymedia.org
Democracy = Death!!
Silly me. Here I was thinking that Saddam Hussein's regime was the one that brought death when all along it was good, old-fashioned democracy that's been killing people all these years.
The things you can learn from peacenicks.
photo from indymedia.org
Ok. Their bellies say "this is what democracy looks like."
Right. In a democracy girls can wear belly shirts and hip huggers and something across your chest to make your boobs look like balloons.
And after we get through with Iraq, the women there will be able to do the same, although I bet they will have better taste and more decorum than to walk around looking like these three little piggies.
Anyhow, I guess I just don't get their point.
Another human shield gets hit in the head with a reality brick:
We just sat, listening, our mouths open wide. Jake, one of the others, just kept saying, "Oh my God" as the driver described the horrors of the regime. Jake was so shocked at how naive he had been. We all were. It hadn't occurred to anyone that the Iraqis might actually be pro-war.The driver's most emphatic statement was: "All Iraqi people want this war." He seemed convinced that civilian casualties would be small; he had such enormous faith in the American war machine to follow through on its promises. Certainly more faith than any of us had.
Perhaps the most crushing thing we learned was that most ordinary Iraqis thought Saddam Hussein had paid us to come to protest in Iraq. Although we explained that this was categorically not the case, I don't think he believed us. Later he asked me: "Really, how much did Saddam pay you to come?"
Now if only he would bring his message to the streets of San Francisco.
Chronicle photo by Brant Ward
should i stop now?
Everyone take out your violins.
Now, play.
Anti-war protesters emerged tired, hungry and, in some cases, tearful Friday after being held overnight in a San Francisco jail.We understand that we were not on vacation, but it was unacceptable the way we were treated," said a protester who gave her name as Pancetta, 24, of Berkeley.
Overnight, some protesters slept fitfully on the ground in small holding cells that housed 25 each. Others slept on mats with blankets in a gymnasium.
Some women were addressed by deputies as "little girl" or "hon," one protester said.
Can you see my heart bleeding? Perhaps they expected accomodations more like Saddam's palace?
They griped that their requests for water or food were ignored or delayed for hours. When they did get fed, they got cheese or peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches that didn't taste great.
Oh, my! No steak dinner? No Waldorf salad with a nice chianti? No comfy beds with mints on the pillows? You would think it was some kind of.........prison!
Here's an idea, idiots: Next time you get the urge to grab a policeman's baton or block traffic or deface public property, think about those yucky peanut butter sandwiches.
Better yet, maybe they should start protesting for better quality cheese in the state prisons. I can see it now - NO KRAFT, NO PEACE!
I think all this watching and covering the war has hiked up my testosterone level.
I'm in my underwear, drinking a beer and listening to Pantera.
I've got basketball on one tv and war on another.
I'm cursing like a truck driver.
I just sent Justin in the kitchen to make me some pie, bitch.
If I had balls, I'd be scratching them.
At least my underwear is pink.
Look! Look how those horrible soldiers are treating the children of Iraq! Loook at all those dead babies!
Children welcome members of the British 2nd Royal Tank Regiment as they arrive in Basra, southern Iraq (AP Photo/Brian Roberts/ News of the World/Pool)
So, what are those people protesting again?
It's Bitchslap Ted Rall Day (vol. 14) at Kevin's place.
More peace protesters opposing violence:
A riot police officer is engulfed in flames after a gasoline bomb was thrown at his feet during an anti-war demonstration outside the U.S. Embassy in Athens on Friday, March 21, 2003. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
photo via Yahoo, via NC
I don't get it.
Saddam = peace?
War kills but Saddam doesn't?
Nope, I don't get it.
Among those marching were U.S. Rep Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., singer Patti Smith, and actors Roy Scheider, Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee. Rangel said the marchers were anything but unpatriotic.
“We support the troops, but we do not support the president,” Rangel said.
Yet he does not support the troops enough to vote in favor of a resolution doing just that.
This is going to be a banner day.
First up, there's this:
Patton Museum hit by vandalism (reg. required)
Employees at the General Patton Memorial Museum arrived at work Thursday morning to find anti-American, anti-war and pro-Iraqi graffiti on military tanks, a Christian altar and a memorial plaque."No War," in more than foot-tall letters, was scrawled on a wall surrounding a statue of Gen. George S. Patton..."
The vandals used the Arab word for God several times, misspelling it each time: "Alla" instead of "Allah.""Alla is God," they wrote in block letters on the front of one tank. On one side of the same tank they wrote "America is evil," and "Iraq will win" on the other side.
Salam Al-Marayati, executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council in Los Angeles, said it could not have been Muslims who did the defacing.
"Every Muslim knows Allah is spelled A-L-L-A-H," he said. Muslims say, "Allah is the one God," not "Allah is God," he added.
"That's somebody trying to frame Muslims," Al-Marayati said.
The vandals also sprayed paint in an unrecognizable pattern over a bronze plaque commemorating five local Medal of Honor recipients.
Granted, the people who did this are probably not the typical war protesters. But this is indicative of the kind of people the anti-war faction is attracting with their latest round of "civil disobedience."
You know what they say about birds of a feather:
In the Gaza Strip, Saddam sells.Palestinians crammed Tareq Abu Daya's shop on Saturday to buy Iraqi flags, glossy pictures of Saddam Hussein, T-shirts and American flags to set ablaze at a fervent demonstration against the US-led strike in Iraq.
"This is the only thing I can do to show my support to this man (Saddam) and his nation," said Marwan Musallam, a 35-year-old taxi driver who bought two small Iraqi flags at Abu Daya's shop. "Saddam is the only Arab leader to support the Palestinians."
The Iraqi leader is popular in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, partly because of the more than $35 million he has doled out to Palestinian families who have had relatives killed in the armed uprising with Israelis.
Translate: Saddam has paid off suicide bombers. To show their thanks for Saddam's support of terrorism and brutal murder of innocent women and children, the Palestinian are worshiping the sadistic, tyrannical near-dead dictator.
As has been the usual, I will do most of my heavy warblogging over at the command center, and I'll stick to beating down the protesters and japanese baseball porn here.
The war coverage drinking game.
Is it too early to play?
New York City is going to be a madhouse today. I have a really bad feeling about the way these "peace" protests are going to turn out.
All New York City bloggers are welcome to escape the madness and come hang out on Long Island with me, where the kids are too lazy, spoiled and apathetic to protest anything except lack of parking spaces at their high school.
The anti-war protesters are armed for a war.
I had no idea that molotov cocktails were de rigueur for peace protests.
I'm going to pick one up for him:
Saddam has a little secret. He is anatomically correct both in his fly-zone and no-fly-zone. The "interactive" Patriot Missile fits quite snugly up his "no-fly-zone" (if you catch our drift) and if you ram it up there hard enough, he will play "God Bless America."
awwwwwwwwwwwww!!!
furphy n.(pl.furphies) 1 a false report or rumour. 2 an absurd story. •adj.(furphier, furphiest) absurdly false, unbelievable: that’s the furphiest bit of news I ever heard
If you're looking for the warblogging, I'm over here.
These Boots Are Made For Walking:
Operation Iraqi Freedom - The Video.
This gets the Small Victory Seal of Approval.
From Mr. usr/bin/geek via Chris "Bomb Pop" Pirillo.
Watch it and link it.
NOW!
I've lowered the volume on the television. I loaded up the winamp. Playlist is in the sidebar.
Feel free to make fun of my selections as I get drunk and dance around the living room.
Too bad you can't see this.
We've been on pins and needles waiting for this war to start for so long. When it did start, I felt a heaviness in my heart because I knew that people would be dying. We have to avert our eyes from the bombs and fires once in a while to look at the other images of this war. Yes, their are casualties, but there are also bright moments that make the fears and angst worth it.
When I see the photos of children sharing candy with soldiers, of Iraqis cheering the arrival of marines or tearing down posters of Saddam Hussein, I cry. It is an amazing thing to witness, the freeing of a people. There will be no more torture, no acid baths, no fear of human shredders, children's prisons or rape used as a weapon.
The children of Iraq have a chance to grow up free. Their childhood will be vastly different than that of their parents.
The people of Iraq are glad. They are happy. Right now, their world may be filled with the sounds of war, but they know what will happen when the war ends. Their world will change for the better.
Who would deny them that? Who would stand up and say that we shouldn't be there, that this war is not just? Is it not just to give a future generation of Iraqis a chance to taste the freedom that we all take for granted? Is it not just to clean the air of the stench of fear? Is it not just to secure a life for the people of Iraq the likes of which they have only dreamed of?
Look at the images available on every news site. Look at the children running towards the soldiers. Look at the people tearing down posters of Saddam. Look at the women on their knees in thanks and prayer.
I dare you not to end up with tears in your eyes.
We are witnessing history and it's a good history. It's a just history.
The former Lemonheads frontman attacked the president of the USA. He sayd he want to "cut Bush's dick off and shove it up his arse"Evan Dando was performing yesterday an acoustic gig at HMV Oxford Circus in London for launching of his new album 'Baby I'm Bored'.
In his attack he personally named Bush, he declared that he hated him and that he "loved his country. That guy is trying to kill us."
I envision Evan Dando sitting in his dank apartment, wondering how the hell he can get himself back in the news seeing as that his career tanked years ago.
This probably wasn't it.
As war began in Iraq, Pierre Frik feared he might be targeted by zealots because of his Middle Eastern background.Frik never imagined he'd be targeted because of his Central Valley chain of dry cleaning stores, French Cleaners. He just picked the name on a whim and made the Eiffel Tower the stores' logo.
Which just proves that asshats exist on all sides of the equation.
Hey, look at me, I'm drinking French wine! Set me on fire!
My head is going to explode before this day is over.
Making fun of Helen Thomas is so much fun, it should be illegal.
To the asshat who left her/his idiotic pawprint in the comments of this post:
Go here. Watch the video. Wait for the part at 1:25.
And then go fuck yourself.
I can't be sure, but I think Rob is either stalking James Lileks or planning on taking him hostage.
When you spend all day listening to explosions on tv and you go outside and it suddenly starts thundering, you will jump out of your skin.
Ronald McDonald has had a very rough week. He was held up, hung and now this.
via my supplier, robyn
An Iraqi woman welcomes U.S. Marines, as soldiers enter the southern border city of Safwan, Friday, March 21, 2003. The white flag on the car for safety reasons. (AP Photo/Laurent Rebours)
Is anyone out in far-left land seeing these pictures, or are they all too busy vomiting in the streets and claiming that the Iraqis don't want us there?
link via robyn
What do you do if you're throwing a party for self-centered celebrities on Oscar night and there is a war on?
I mean, what celebrity worth their name would want to be seen in public during a war partying it up and grinning for the cameras?
So you do what Vanity Fair did for its party. You ban the press.
And then you claim you did that because you want to make sure the party is private, therefore safe and terrorist free.
But we know the real reason is the stars want to drink themselves into oblivion, get half-naked, dance on the tables and roll around in their millions without the public knowing that their idols really don't give a shit about war, peace or anything but themselves.
Thanks for the link, Rob.
Just because:
Mr. Bungle, Vanity Fair
You're not human
You're a miracle
A preacher with an animal's face
In your sexy
Neon smokescreen
Lie the supersalesmen of vanity
Even your shadow worships you
In your jungle solitude
With the orgies of the sacrament
And the seal of flagellants
God saves those who save their skin
From the bondage that we're in
I'm elated
I could cut you
And remove the sheath of your ignorance
Bless the eunuch
And the skoptsi
Will you hurt me now and make a million?
Say cheese, baby
We all love you
But it's a cheap world and you don't exist...
Slit the fabric of the right now
Spread your legs and wear the crown
Tell me how long, lord, how long?
Till I get my beauty sleep?
Now the hourglass is empty
The moment of my de-sexing
Cut it
Cut it
Cut this cancer from my soul
Now that I've made it...
I'm finally naked...
I'm trying to make a collage of all the uplifting pictures from scenes in Iraq. If you see any, leave a URL.
If this war had an ass, Rupert Murdoch would be vigorously smacking it right now.
Jim Treacher is warblogging. You do not want to miss anything he writes.
I'm really mad at myself right now for something I did. Yet, I'll do it again.
Most of you will figure that out without my admitting to it out loud.
I'll be over at command center for a while.
Leave it to a Pirillo to crack me up just when I needed a laugh:
We just watched the Little People of America storm 16th with their chant: "Hell no - we won't grow!" They were followed shortly by the Bay Area League of Women Menstruators, who could be heard chanting: "Hell no - we won't flow!" Naturally, they were only copying the Crackheads of North America, who were screaming: "Hell no - we want blow!"
The absolute glee that some of the reporters are exhibiting over the shock and awe campaign is making me cringe.
Basically, the Iraqis shoot their anti-aircraft weapons the way I play Street Fighter: Just keep hitting the buttons - something's gotta work eventually.
Faster than Drudge.
More updated than CNN.
Able to post fresh links at the speed of light.
It's the Command Center.
Baghdad is flashing with anti-aircraft fire.
It's amazing to be watching this live.
Feel free to post one on your blog. Thanks.
Palestinian women protest hold posters of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein as they chant slogans against a U.S.-led war in Iraq during a pro-Iraq rally in the West Bank town of Ramallah on Friday, March 21, 2003. Thousands of Palestinians holding pictures of Saddam Hussein poured out of mosques in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank after Friday prayers to protest the U.S.-led attacks on Iraq and cheered for the Iraqi leader to again bombard Israeli cities with Scud missiles. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
Palestinians carrying Hamas and Iraqi flags and a portrait of Saddam Hussein march in Gaza city March 21, 2003. The militant Islamic group Hamas urged Iraqis on Friday to carry out suicide bombings against invading U.S. and British forces in Iraq Photo by Jose Manuel Ribeiro/Reuters
Tell me again why I should feel sorry for these people, because I just can't figure it out.
This is what my sister Lisa does at work:
I'm beginning to wonder if anyone actually likes Ted Rall or if all of his readers are just people who look to see what kind of stupidity he comes up with next.
Via Todd, who is stuck at work and relies on me to amuse him:
Sun brands Chirac 'Saddam's whore'
Thousands of copies of the French Sun were distributed at metro stations in the capital, describing Mr Chirac as a "Paris harlot".
The front page featured pictures of Mr Chirac and Saddam side by side. The accompanying text read: "Cherchez la difference [spot the difference]. One is a corrupt bully who is risking the lives of our troops. He is sneering at Britain, destroying democracy and endangering world peace. The other is Saddam Hussein."
Heh.
I just heard on the radio that Palestinians came out of mosques in droves this morning holding pictures of Saddam and chanting "Strike Tel Aviv."
Nice.
Trying to find a link.
More like this at Acerbia
(photo from ny times)
Saddam has got the wrong idea. A videogame scoring system is not going to help.
During the Vietnam war the Vietcong would chain cowardly soldiers to their anti-aircraft guns, they therefore had no choice but to shoot at anything that came near them. How are we supposed to have a war if the enemy refuses to fight? At this rate we'll have higher loses from friendly fire than enemy action.
There are more Foxholes up on Acerbia, plus a story of D's dinner with some retired Marines. He's turning into quite the little warhawk these days.
(posted by D as he continues to pretend that he is Michele and steal her audience)
File this one under, No Shit, Sherlock.
Fans boo as U.S. national anthem is played
Fans booed during the playing of the U.S. national anthem before the New York Islanders' 6-3 victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday night.The sellout crowd of 21,273 at Bell Centre was asked to "show your support and respect for two great nations'' before the singing of the American and Canadian national anthems.
But a significant portion of the crowd booed throughout "The Star-Spangled Banner'' in an apparent display of their displeasure with the U.S.-led war against Iraq.
Islander Mark Parrish was only spurred on by the boos:
"I came to the game pretty pumped up, but once I heard that it really got me going,'' Parrish said. "So I guess I can thank them a little bit for getting me more pumped up.''
Hosers.
And in case you are one of the people who still believe that Iraqis are indignant about the coalition coming in to liberate them, I repeat this post by from Command Center:
........................
The recently-expelled Iraqi Ambassador to Australia was interviewed on TV in Australia today. There's no transcript available, but I've listened to it several times, and it went approximately like this...
Reporter: "What is going to happen in the next few days?"
Ex-A: "It will be a great Victory."
Reporter: "Who will be defeated?"
Ex-A : "The others. The others will have a great Defeat."
Reporter: "Who will have a great Victory?"
Ex-A: "The Iraqis"
Reporter: "You mean Saddam Hussein's regi...?"
Ex-A: "The people of Iraq. They will have a great Victory."(smiles)
.................
That gentleman will probably be heading to New Zealand instead of Baghdad.
Ted Rall takes one giant leap for idiocy.
(click, etc.)
I can't be sure, because Ted's drawings are sometimes hard to figure out due to their crudeness, but I do believe that Teddy Boy is saying here - If you support the troops and support your country you are a Nazi.
And I'm sure he is also calling the lot of us blind sheep being led into the abyss of hell, brainwashed by our government because we obviously have no minds of our own, no brain power whatsover.
Except for one small detail. While Hitler was leading his troops in a campaign of genocide and mass murder, our leaders have the audacity to liberate people who actually want to be liberated! Imagine the balls on them for doing that! What nerve!
And meanwhile, Ted goes on bitching and moaning about the last presidential election and uses tired cliches and overworked phrases to yell at people who drive SUVs and goes on really bad talk shows where even the liberal host tells him to shut up, and he goes on suing people over petty bullshit and trying to get women to sleep with him and being a mouthpiece for the ignorance of the far left.
Yawn.
The Trooptrax article in today's Telegram, in case you are interested.
Thank you, Carol!
CDs soften the drumbeat of war
Web site offers music for soldiers in Iraq
Donna Boynton
TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
MILLBURY- Carol Milite joined Adopt-A-Platoon to support the troops overseas, sending them care packages of Valentine's Day cookies, St. Patrick's Day greetings, letters and pictures drawn by her twin 5-year-old sons, Jeremy and Jordan.
While the care packages were appreciated, there was something missing: music. Soon, troops stationed at military bases in the Kuwait desert may be grooving to tunes from home, thanks to Mrs. Milite and her friend, Michele Catalano of Long Island, N.Y.
The two have founded Operation TroopTrax to send music to soldiers taking part in "Operation Iraqi Freedom.' Through their Web site, www.trooptrax.com, the two are collecting new or used compact discs, or donations to purchase them. Mrs. Milite and Ms. Catalano only launched their Web site a few weeks ago and already have collected more than $2,000. Various bands have sent cases of compact discs to the women, Mrs. Milite said.
"It's nice to do something for them, however you feel about it,' Mrs. Milite said from her Millbury home.
"We wish them well,' Mrs. Milite added. "We want to let them know that we are thinking about them and about the job that they are doing. Be safe.'
Mrs. Milite and Ms. Catalano met a year ago through a separate Web site operated by Ms. Catalano, and the two were thinking of things to send to the troops abroad.
Through the TroopTrax Web site, people also have been sending the names and addresses of specific soldiers. Packages have to be sent to specific soldiers, as military regulations prohibit the sending of packages to random soldiers, Mrs. Milite said. The packages will include CDs, magazines, snacks, letters of support and other personal items, which soldiers have promised to share, Mrs. Milite said. Donations can be made on the Internet through PayPal.com and Amazon.com to purchase used CDs for the troops. While the music collected spans all genres, some soldiers have written to them directly through the TroopTrax Web site requesting heavy metal bands.
The first round of care packages is scheduled to be sent next week, as Mrs. Milite continues to fill out customs information forms.
TroopTrax has attracted the attention of media outlets along the East Coast. Mrs. Milite has been interviewed by a talk radio station in Florida, and the Web site was mentioned in a recent Washington Post article.
Information on how to make a donation can be found on the TroopTrax Web site. Locally, CDs can be dropped off at the Millbury Public Library.
I should have known better than to go to sleep. Now I have so much to catch up on, including 300 pieces of mail.
While I make coffee and catch up on the news here's a couple of links:
1. Head over to Command Post, where they have been quite busy all night while I was in dreamland.
2. Venemous Kate worked her ass off on this Iraqi Timeline
3. Co-founder of TroopTrax Carol was interviewed by the Worcester Telegram, which you can only read online if you subscribe, but suffice it to say Carol did a great job promoting the project.
Full day of news and blogging coming.
I never want to hear the word embedded again.
The Command Post will take you through the rest of the night.
I'm exhausted. Going to try to catch a few hours of sleep. Hopefully sleep will not be interrupted by bloody noses, hacking coughs, ear aches or snoring.
The coverage on Fox News has been nothing short of amazing. Watching a war take place right in front of you - it's just stunning. I am watching a convoy travel across the desert from Kuwait into Baghdad.
They are saying Baghdad by nightfall. I wish for a swift, bloodless taking of that city.
Here's hoping that when I wake up we still haven't used shock and awe - and that we will never have to.
Hey, I just saw this:
www.defendamerica.mil
www.operationuplink.org
www.usometrodc.org/care
www.asmallvictory.net/trax
I had no idea.
Now go visit those other sites.
The Thursday quote of the night, courtesy of Jeffrey the Joyful Christian:
A South Carolina House member is attempting to pass a resolution calling on The Dixie Chicks to perform a free concert for S.C. troops to make up for insulting President Bush.I'm ready to establish The Collins Principle: The stupidity with which a public official will respond is geometrically proportional to the private sector stupidity to which they are responding.
Representative Catherine Ceips has forgotten one simple thing. Dissing the president is not a crime in The United States of America, and therefore not punishable by any law, resolution or ridiculous fantasy of some way-out-there dipshit.
How do these people get elected, anyhow? Did you not know she was an assclown before you elected her?
So what was that anti-war coalition meeting like?
Oh, let's stop traffic!
What a great idea!
We'll stop ambulances and cops from getting to emergencies!
And we'll keep buses from getting kids to school!
Little old ladies won't be able to get to church!
My god, we are geniuses!
Bush will never be able to resist us now!
The war will end because Mrs. Wilson couldn't get to the post office!
High fives all around!
I think Tool had it right with their song Aenima.
As Americans braced in recent days for a war against Iraq, many Californians were feeling strangely out of it. The great expanse between the two coasts appeared ever vaster. The sense of threat, so acute in the East, was real but less immediate here.During some lunchtime and office-cooler chatter there has even been longing for President Clinton, a Hollywood favorite, who, the reasoning goes, would never have allowed a war to play havoc with Oscar night, one of the state's most hallowed traditions.
California. What a place.
I'm helping Natalie study for a test on The Giver.
We are discussing how Jonas is disturbed to find out his allowed to lie. Now he will wonder who else has the ability to lie and who has been lying to him all along. His friends? His parents?
We have been watching the news while we study and Natalie says, "Saddam must feel a bit like Jonas right now."
She explains, "He doesn't know if his people have been lying to him, if they are going to surrender or give him away. If he thinks that even if one of them is lying, then they could all be lying. He must be going nuts because he doesn't know who he can trust. Like Jonas."
English lit understood through war. Lesson over.
"NAME THE TEN MOST LYING, PHONEY-BALONEY,HYPOCITICAL ASSWIPES OF THE LAST 50 YEARS."
Who would come up with a poll with a name like that?
Who else but Acidman.
Hey, it will give you something to do while waiting for the shock and awe that isn't going to happen.*
* and i wish some people would get it that we should be glad it's not going to happen.
You have been checking the Command Center regularly, right?
Jolie's outfit was described as a 3,000 pound body-hugging corset dress decorated with cherubs. [emphasis added]
Were they giant cherubs coated in steel?
Ok, I know I sound like a nut, but I don't give a shit. I had a weird dream last night that GW was Hitler reincarnated. When I got out of bed this morning, I did a search online and found that Hitler died on April 30, 1945 and GW was born on July 6, 1946.So, assuming that Babs did the usual 38 week pregnancy (266 days give or take), that means she got knocked up by Poppy around October 15, 1945. Which means Babs got pregnant almost 6 months TO THE DAY after Hitler died.
Somebody's been sniffing The Pentagon's Wacky Juice again!
I've grown tired of listening to newscasters whine about not seeing enough explosions, so now I'm listening to The SF police scanner.
They are bringing the paddy wagons out now.
Come on kids, gather round the poetry corner! Tonight's special guest poet is everyone's favorite tyrant, Saddam Hussein! He is going to recite his very special poem entitled "My Heart Will Go On."
Doesn't that sound just like an Iron Maiden song? I had the sudden urge to flick my Bic, stand on my seat and chant "Number of the Beast!!!"
In a unique form of opposition, some protesters at the Federal Building staged a "vomit in,'' by heaving on the sidewalks and plaza areas in the back and front of the building to show that the war in Iraq made them sick, according to a spokesman.
Only in San Francisco.
The French Interior Ministry said on Thursday that traces of the highly toxic poison ricin have been found in the Gare de Lyon railway station in Paris.
A spokesman told Reuters that two small flasks containing traces of the poison were discovered in a left luggage depot at the mainline railway station which serves the south of France.
For a country that doesn't feel like joining the war on terror, they sure have a lot of terrorist-type things going on there.
My impersonation of almost every television news producer today:
Is that the shock and awe?
Is that it?
We were promised shock and awe!!
Are we there yet? Huh? HUH?
Yea baby, give me those explosions. Oh yea. Bigger! Faster! YESSSSSSSSSS!
They're all going to need an entire box of tissues when that S&A campaign begins.
Q: How many countries does it take to make a unilateral invasion a multilateral one?
A: I don't know, but we are up to 45 and it's still being called a unilateral war.
I really have to nap. I haven't had a good night's sleep in a week and between DJ's health problems and this war, sleep isn't coming at night any time soon.
I think it might be healthy to pull myself away from the computer for an hour or so anyhow.
Stay tuned to Command Center - it's being updated at a whiplash-inducing pace.
Oh, and there's comments there now!
Taken from an email I received as part of a Yahoo community group:
I call for all people who oppose this war to also write a letter to the Iraqi people explaining why their calls for an invasion is meaningless and the human rights abuses that they have been suffering is not worth our time.
Excellent retort.
Read more by the author of that statement, Jamie, at his excellent weblog, My November, which I've just added to the blogroll.
The people at Indymedia have lost their minds.
Pentagon Seeding Clouds with Nerve AgentDomestic Crowd Control Tactic
The Pentagon is infusing the North American atmosphere with a 'pacifying' chemical agent designed to supress dissent and immobilize protest.
The chemical is a low-level, stupefying nerve agent (inhalant) whose effects include a combination of lethargy, memory loss, inhibition, passivity, mild disorientation and lack of coordination.
That would explain a lot, though.
Kevin comes up with another incredibly clever clip-art protest sign to go along with a stellar post on staged protests.
Go read the whole thing, you'll understand. And laugh.
On that Iraq Body Count site I referred to earlier.
It is an anti-war site. I'm assuming the sole purpose of the body count is to use as propaganda later on when people like Ted Rall and Noam Chomsky want to write hyperbole-filled rants loaded with misleading numbers.
It is interesting to note that the major news sources for counting up the civilian deaths for that site include Al Jazeera network, AP, Reuters, New York Times, The Guardian and Agence France-Presse.
Notice a trend?
It's also interesting to note that quite a few people emailed me to call me bloodthirsty when they thought IBC was a pro-war site, but when I emailed them back to correct them, they suddenly thought that counting up the dead - real or imagined - was a good idea.
Besides, when I'm in the mood for a bloodthirsty head count, I go here.
They are coming out of the woodworks today.
I've already deleted five very threatening, ugly comments. The hate mail is piling up.
And now someone has just left this in the comments on my "about" page.
IP Address: 144.160.130.36 Name: a former reader Email Address: URL:Comments:
if i was your daughter, i would kill myself while i still had a conscience and soul. how does it feel to lose all your friends and have no friends or readers to your website left than jingoist people with no personalities who only enjoy your company because of your political views?
you're the idiot, idiot.
Oops. Did I just put your IP address up there? Sorry about that!
If you consider yourself one of the friends I lost, then it looks like I got the better end of that bargain.
Bite me, asswipe.
I realize that some of you are at work and cannot get near a television.
I know how this feels. So I am here to help.
(click for tv size)
Almost as good as the real thing, isn't it?
Alex Knapp does his research and puts up a lengthy post on the links between al-Quaeda and Iraq.
I'm having a hard time keeping up with all the breaking news, blog posts and scrollling updates. I'm looking forward to coaching Natalie's basketball game tonight, as that is the one thing that will make me get out of the house and away from the computer and tv for a while.
Was it live or was it Memorex?
"I am being told by several senior officials not to take that taped speech Saddam gave last night as proof that he survived the attack," CBS NEWS reporter David Martin said on air."They say the evidence that put him in the bunker last night was very reliable, and they are confident that the cruise missiles and bunker-busting bombs that were fired at that bunker last night hit the target. So now, intelligence experts are studying the tape to determine if it is really Saddam, or a body double which he is known to use from time to time. And they are running a computerized voice analysis, comparing that speech with known recordings of Saddam's voice. But that's a process that takes awhile. So we may not have a quick answer."
"There is considerable belief in this government that they may, in fact, have gotten Saddam."
Pretty soon we will be able to answer the question: Who is more dead, bin Laden or Hussein?
Just in case you need a respite from all this:
The posts are flying at Command Post.
I think I'll post more of the brief blog bits there and save the longer stuff for here.
Please keep checking there during the day. The info is coming swiftly.
You can still join. Just let me know.
Watching this play out on television is frightening.
I hear yelling and noise like loud firecrackers and then static.
My heart is in my mouth half the time.
These reporters are out of their minds.
Dave took my advice and started his own little satirical comic strip; the tale of two grunts on the frontline in Kuwait, I still can't work out if he's pro-war or anti-war yet and its making my eye itch.
If I find out that he's making fun of us hawks I'll brutally spork him to death though.
UPDATE:(folks, this is what happens when you give someone your login. though he does write just like me, doesn't he?)
Sirens going off in Kuwait.
Reports of oil fields being set on fire.
Looks like the full attacks will be coming sooner rather than later.
Now I'm going to have to decide what to post here and what to post at Command Center.
Or I can just do this:
I kid you not.
A member of Ohio's 5694th National Guard Unit in Mansfield legally changed his name to a Transformers toy.Optimus Prime is heading out to the Middle East with his guard unit on Wednesday to provide fire protection for airfields under combat.
That is so very cool. Really, really unecessary and silly. But still cool.
It's interesting that they keep firing at us with weapons that they supposedly didn't have.
Good thing we sent those inspectors in there!
Command Post already has ten members - some of the best names in WarBlogging.
I'm mesmerized by the news channels, as usual. I either have to move the tv to the other side of the room or invest in a laptop.
Breaking from the warblogging to get DJ back to the Dr. again.
It's been a long week.
I'll get to all your emails when we get back.
Alan at Avocare ran with my idea of a Corner-like Warblogging site and is in the process of setting it up.
I see it as a temporary blog, just for war news and thoughts and a bit of banter between all of us - mostly very short posts and lots of links, so you are not taking anything away from your own blog by posting there. There are no posting requirements, no pressure.
Please let me know (email or leave a comment) if you are interested in taking part.
Don't forget to check in with Sarge often.
So the Iraqi government is claiming that the first strikes landed in civilian areas and there are civilian casualties.
This is the Iraq version of shock and awe.
They will shock and awe the anti-war supporters with their tales of gruesome civilian deaths at the hands of the criminal, ugly Americans.
The rumor, hearsay and propaganda machines have started humming.
So many of us are blogging minute by minute about this war. We are all basically posting the same news links, with our own comments added in.
We should have come up with something like The Corner to blog this war together.
One of the reasons I will never subscribe to Newsday, even though it is my local paper, is Jimmy Breslin.
Next time one of those telemarketers calls and pleads to know the reason why I won't plunk down the money to buy their paper, I will direct them to this column.
Breslin reprints Hitler's speech of Sept. 1, 1939, that started WWII. And then he added at the end:
On that night, Hitler used this dry, unimaginative language to start a world war that was to kill 60 million, and they stopped counting.
Last night, George Bush, after speech after speech of this same dry, flat, banal language, started a war for his country, and we can only beg the skies to keep it from spreading into another world war.
I am trying to be literate and adult about this. I am trying to find the right words that would express my feelings in an intelligent, courteous manner.
Unfortunately, all I can come up with is: Fuck you, Jimmy Breslin. You are a blithering idiot.
Is anyone else finding the way this war is being reported a bit surreal?
I love the smell of idiocy in the morning. That's why I head right to Indymedia after I read some real news.
I have a BIG sign saying "President Bush: How many people did you kill today? I am going to work tomorrow teaching first grade, but I will stand on a main street with my sign for 1/2 an hour before I go to work. I quit saying the pledge of allegiance a couple of weeks ago. I told the kids that until my government says that it will not drop bombs on children, I will not say the pledge. I respectfully face the flag, standing while those who with to say it do so.
I have no problem with her not saying the pledge. However, if I was a parent of one of those kids - if my six year old came home and said that the teacher talked about America dropping bombs on babies - all hell would break loose.
A first grade classroom is not the place to be spewing your propganda. What a discredit to teachers this asshat is.
I guess that little quote about Palestine doesn't matter anyhow, seeing as that it was not Saddam who spoke those words.
This is going to turn out to be a live version of Where's Waldo?
My plans to blog all night were disrupted by a sick child who needed attention.
I'm just trying to catch up on everything now. But I did take Stephen's advice and call in sick today.
The first thing I see when I open up the CNN page is "Decapitation..."
Damn. Not what I thought it was.
And what the hell is this?
Birds of a feather...
A picture from Bob at Scratching the Itch (truncated here, see Bob's post for huge picture):
Military ship:
(click for bigger)
Thanks to Alan at Avocare.
I really, really want a cigarette.
I'm going outside to breathe some fresh air. I plan on staying up for as long as possible, but I'll probably pass out before Stephen even finishes his first cigar.
Apparently the war wasn't supposed to start just yet.
It's being said there was intelligence that Iraqi leadership was gathering and they took the opportunity to strike.
No ground orders have been given yet - it looks to be an air war at least a day before it becomes a ground war.
Larger strikes loom. Stay tuned.
First sign that the war has started: CNN online has switched from the Bright Red Rectangle of Doom to the Scrolling News Bar of Doom.
Bush: No outcome but victory.
Air raids over Bagdhad.
Fox News; "The liberation of Iraq has begun."
BAGHDAD, Iraq — After air raid sirens went off across Baghdad, anti-aircraft fire and explosions were heard in the capital at dawn Thursday. Moments after the explosions began, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters in Washington, "The opening stages of the disarmament of the Iraqi regime have begun."No airplanes were visible in the skies over Baghdad as the air raid sirens blared. Yellow and white tracers from anti-aircraft fire were seen in the sky, and a number of strong explosions went off in the city.
One explosion raised a ball of fire toward the southern part of the capital.
We are at war.
At war.
All the weeks and months headed towards this, and now we are here and it seems sort of unbelievable to me, and quite scary.
I'm so scared for the men and women over there fighting, and then I read something like this:
Attack USA soldiers everywhere, with words and disgust. Tell them they are not supported, they are pawns of evil, they will be prosecuted as war criminals, they will die in shame. Spray paint slogans on US businesses, products and aircraft: "ALL US Troops = War Criminals, Death to Imperialist Soldiers."Don't stop til the USA no longer exist
And it makes me want to scream.
And then I read this:
In one of the most brutal critiques of the administration's policy toward Iraq by a member of Congress, East Bay Rep. Pete Stark said President Bush would be responsible for "an act of terror" by launching a massive bombing campaign to oust Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein."I think unleashing 3,000 smart bombs against the city of Baghdad in the first several days of the war . . . to me, if those were unleashed against the San Francisco Bay Area, I would call that an act of extreme terrorism," said Stark, a Democrat from Fremont.
And I wonder if this man can hear his own words, if he realizes we are now at war and he is behaving like a sullen child who hurls insults as a last ditch attempt to get attention.
And then I read this:
Today I weep for my country," said West Virginia Democrat Sen. Robert Byrd. "No more is the image of America one of strong, yet benevolent peacekeeper. ... Around the globe, our friends mistrust us, our word is disputed, our intentions are questioned."We flaunt our superpower status with arrogance," Byrd said, adding: "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."
And I think, yes I weep as well. I weep for the men and women who are putting themselves on the line. I weep for the people of Iraq, who have been so downtrodden and so opressed that they welcome a war on their own soil.
This is a time to come together. It is a time to support our brave soldiers, to thank them, to wish them safety.
Do not turn your backs on your own country. Not now, when war is waging and people will surely be dying. Not now, when we are on our way to bringing democracy to people that only dreamed of it before.
Don't sit back and enjoy the spoils of democracy and freedom and then not support our men and women when they are fighting for those very things.
Just shut up, put a yellow ribbon around your tree, and wish for the safe return of every soldier who is engaging in battle.
I would not have called you anti-American before this day if you protested and shouted slogans, even if you called the president a murderer. I would not want to crush your dissent or shut you up.
But times of war call for different behavior. For our enemies and our soldiers to see a nation divided can only lead to terrible things.
Remember your history.
I'm missing posts.
I'm going to blame the French again.
What's really weird is people are commenting on the posts I can't see.
Well, there was no last minute rush to leave by Saddam. He didn't come running out of the palace with his hands up, nor did he use the batphone to call Bush and say he surrenders.
It's 8:00.
In one hour President Bush will speak to the nation. He will announce we are at war.
And then we wait. And hope for the best.
This woman - Mistress Carrie - is apparently a popular radio show host on WAAF in Massachussets.
Mistress Carrie was emailed several times by several people after TroopTrax was started to make her aware of the program and to ask for some publicity. Mistress Carrie never got back to those people.
And now look. Mistress Carrie has a new project where you can donate CDs to send to the troops!
Do you just want to get involved and SUPPORT OUR TROOPS?Here's your way!
I'm collecting MILITARY MAILING ADDRESSES (not email addresses) of service men and women....
I'm also collecting RECENT magazines...and I'm collecting CD's brand new OR used. We're gonna send MISTRESS MAILCALL packages over there so they get a bit of home while they are away. These guys are in the desert, they have NOTHING so anything we send them, they'll love trust me.
Feel free to include letters of encouragement with your donations and I'll make sure it gets to a soldier with their package!
No, I don't believe that she never saw the emails from the TroopTrax supporters and came up with this idea out of the blue. Not for a second.
Sure, the bottom line is that more soldiers will be getting CDs and packages and I am grateful for that.
But I really have the urge to grab Mistress Carrie by her hair and drag her around a parking lot.
Today is the one year blogaversary of the World Wide Rant and Andy said I would be absolved of three or four of my sins if I mention it. He talked to Jesus about it and Jesus said ok.
So Happy Anniversary, WWR, and thanks for taking those murders off of my soul.
From a decision my boss wrote today:
But this is the legal equivalent of the argument that the cinematic quality of the comedian Jerry Lewis is proven by his popularity with fifty million citizens of France.
It may be the twenty cups of coffee speaking, but that made me giggle.
(Yes, I know there were three copies of this post up here. I blame the French. They are sabotaging me somehow).
Apparently Iraqi soldiers aren't big Corey Hart fans. Otherwise they would know that no one can take away your right to fight and never surrender.
Masses of Iraqi soldiers are deserting and senior members of President Saddam Hussein's ruling family circle are defecting as the countdown to a British and US invasion reaches its final hours.In northern Iraq, on the border with Kurdistan, up to three-quarters of some Iraqi regiments have already fled.
Of course, this early into the war - heck, it hasn't even officially begun yet - it's easy to dispel everything you read, see or hear. Rumors fly, psychological attacks are made and one does not know what to believe. Just this morning, we thought Azis was dead and then I see him on tv doing a defiant, angry dance of denial.
Meanwhile, our troops are turning the would-be flag wavers down, "telling them that they must wait until an attack begins before they can surrender."
That's ok. They can wait. Corey Hart says so: Just a little more time is all we're asking for, cause just a little more time could open closing doors.
I apologize in advance for getting that song stuck in your head.
The first shots have been fired and, for all intents and purposes, the war has begun.
I sit here mired in memories now, thinking of two specific days that today's events bring to mind.
There's the day the first Gulf War started. Natalie was barely one, DJ, not even a thought in my mind yet.
Natalie was crawling around on the living room floor. CNN was on the tv. While I was glued to the greenish glow of a war being waged, Natalie had crawled over to the coffee table, gripped the edge and pulled herself up. She stood there a moment, let go of the table and suprised herself by not falling down. Her arms went out toward the television. "Oohhh," she said. "Ohhhh!" And then she walked, one unsteady step after another until she tried to go too fast and landed on her butt. She stayed there on the floor, eyes fixed on the television. We watched the war unfold together, Natalie transfixed by the greenish hue of wartime night vision.
Today, twelve years later, the second phase of that war begins and Natalie is a teenager, oblivious to the war waging while she giggles and gossips with her friends. I see Wolf Blitzer on the tv and I get a sense of deja vu. Wolf - in that fantasy world of television - hasn't aged a bit. My life and my daughter have. Yet it feels like the same day.
And then there's September 11. The day was just like this. Sort of warm, a bit of a breeze. Bright sunshine. Endless blue skies. And I don't have to say what the rest of the day was like.
I sit here and avoid work and play around with my memories until the two days combine as one and the dread and fear run into today.
I feel sick and I want a cigarette.
Meanwhile, the angry farmer is still in the D.C. lake.
In case you were wondering.
Dear Mr. Speaker: (Dear Mr. President:)
Consistent with section 3(b) of the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002 (Public Law 107-243), and based on information available to me, including that in the enclosed document, I determine that:
(1) reliance by the United States on further diplomatic and other peaceful means alone will neither (A) adequately protect the national security of the United States against the continuing threat posed by Iraq nor (B) likely lead to enforcement of all relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions regarding Iraq; and
(2) acting pursuant to the Constitution and Public Law 107-243 is consistent with the United States and other countries continuing to take the necessary actions against international terrorists and terrorist organizations, including those nations, organizations, or persons who planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001.
Sincerely,
GEORGE W. BUSH
And with that, I am off to lunch, at a diner that shows CNN on ten different TVs.
Whatever shall we do? The Oscars are at the mercy of the war!
If there is any person in the world who right now is bitching and moaning and pissed off that their red carpet moment will be "truncated" be it a spoiled superstar or a groupie who hangs out at the red carpet are three days in advance, you need to have your ass kicked.
"Keeping in mind the world situation, the Academy has elected to prepare a more sober pre-show and a scaled-back arrivals sequence," Cates said during a Tuesday afternoon news conference. He said celebrities will not go through, as he puts it, the "business-as-usual" interviewing and photograph-taking familiar to television audiences from ceremonies in the past.Cates said the celebrities will get out of their limousines and go directly through what's known as the "arrivals arch."
He said that many celebrities simply would feel uncomfortable, given the world situation, about doing some of the usual things.
Motion Picture Academy president Frank Pierson said at the press conference that the Academy "didn't want to do something that would look self-serving and frivolous on a night when our troops were in bloody combat. It would be absolutely inappropriate."
I guarantee you, right here in writing, that there are some celebrities who will be quite self-serving that evening, going out of their way to practically chew on the microphone while screaming no blood for ooooiiil!
Celebrities are not a group of people known to feel uncomfortable doing anything. Some of these people were the first to speak out on The Arrogance of America(tm) within days after 9/11.
It's only Wednesday, but it's not too early to start taking bets on who will make the first stupid statement during the awards.
I hope someone trips on that damn red carpet. Hopefully Melissa Rivers.
The news sites are slow to load today and all kinds of rumors are flying.
Has Tariq Aziz defected? Has he been killed as he tried to escape? Have shots been fired already? Has the war begun? Will the CNN page ever load?
By the way, wartime profiteers who engage in price gouging of medical supplies, safety equipment and food staples in a time of war should be strung up on a sharp pole.
Jody Mason of Olympia is locked to the Washington State Grange office building Tuesday to protest war. He intended to chain himself to a federal Department of Energy office building, but discovered he was at the wrong location.
Yes, I'm easily amused.
I saw two fighter jets on my way to work today.
I'm still not sure if I feel comforted or frightened by that.
Amusement still lingers. Two more clip art madness contributions:
Scooter of Karma to Burn.
Something tells me all those countdown clocks are going to be wrong, anyhow.
Blogger and regular commenter on this site David is quoted in this AP article at MSNBC.
Way to go, David!
(via OW)
Just a programming note:
The forecast for today's blogging is 90% warblogging, 10% filler. There is a war going on.
Fair warning to those who come for the fart jokes and boobs and don't like stick around for the war and politics: Run away. Now.
It's one of those days when I have too much going on in my mind and the thoughts are entwined like snakes in a cage. I can't separate the war from the protests from the local news from every other news flash and headline and whining child that appears before me. They've all combined to form a huge black cloud that is going to taunt me all day.
Is anyone else jumping out of their skin today? Yea, I bet we all are.
Even with all war, all the time playing on your local tv stations and weblogs everywhere, the mundane things of life still play an important part of the day. Lunches to make, clothes to iron, work to do, kids to shove out the door and onto the bus, a lunch date to keep. Life goes on around us while we worry about life not going on around us.
Anyhow, it's going to take me a while to sort out everything I wanted to write about today. In the mean time, I thought we squeeze the last drops of fun and games out of world events before we latch ourselves to the remote tonight, switching between news channels to see who is ahead in the race to bring us Live! War! on the tv.
An emailer this morning suggested that we find a decent name for this war, as Gulf War II is just lame and what kind of graphic will that make on CNN? How droll.
And forget Iraqi II. I already thought of that one. (Rocky II, get it? No? Damn.)
Nothing says "heightened security" like traffic cones strategically placed in front of federal buildings.
"Stop, you terrorists! My magical orange cone will keep you away!"
I feel so much safer now.
And to think, I once thought Neal Pollack was funny.
See, there's parody, there's irony, and then there's Neal Pollack, whose make-believe song about 9/11 crosses that line between humor and "you are a fucking idiot."
It's as if Ted Rall and Dave Matthews gave birth to a song. It's pretty damn ugly.
(thanks to NC for pointing this out. I think.)
note: my sense of humor is on low level tonight.
NC of Carthaginian Peace weighs in with this gem:
I think the word for this is overboard:
My favorite comment of the night was a trackback to this post, which I wrote Sunday, but was linked by Mr. Instapundit today. (I got an Instalanche and a Quickalanche within an hour of eachother. Wheee!)
John Avelis III at pr9000.net:
If the cretins described in this pos t were ever exposed to reality, I imagine their tiny brains would explode....I could start by explaining to them that some of Iraq's liberators will come from a warship driven by my "peaceful, nurturing, verbal" wife...and meanwhile, I'll be the "bullying, violent, testosterone-poisoned" husband at home making chicken alfredo for a few friends and taking care of the cats.
Priceless.
John, please tell your wife I said thank you and be safe.
I feel like we are all sitting on our hands waiting for something. Probably because we are.
I've managed to flip the news station off for a while. Correction, Natalie has forced me to turn off the news because it is Tuesday and it is 8:00 and that is when we are supposed to watch American Idol together. Generally how it works is, I sit at the computer in the living room, she watches American Idol and every once in a while I say something like "Hey, that dude looks like K.D. Lang!"
Tonight's theme (I bet you didn't know they had theme nights on this show. I'm still waiting for the Death Metal theme) is Songs from Movies. The contestants have picked some bottom of the barrel crap so far. A Whitney Houston song, that song from the movie about the mice and A Whole New World.
How come none of these people are daring? If I recall correctly, Slayer's Angel of Death was used in Gremlins 2. Even New Order's Bizzare Love Triangle, heard in Married to the Mob, would be better than the Shoop Shoop song.
They're all going for sap and high notes instead of showing their versatality and range. If I was a judge on that show I would be saying "Yo, show me you can reprezent! Let's hear some Snoop Dogg!" I mean, anyone can put on that fake nasaly sound and sing a love song like they mean it. Show me that you can take Johnny, Are You Queer (Valley Girl) to new heights and then I'll call you an idol.
Now, if I were a contestant - which I would never be, not unless the show was called Girl, Please Stop Singing Before the Jackals Attack! - and I had to pick a song from a movie I would go all out and sing The Trammps' Disco Inferno because if I was going to make a fool of myself, there's no better way than to do it with disco.
Don't ever invite me to a karaoke bar.
There's an hour left. I bet you ten dollars someone does Wind Beneath My Wings before the show is over.
Juan Gato is an authority on everything, so he has compiled a glossary of terms he has learned the meaning of since becoming the world's most authoritative pundit on everything under the sun.
Sample:
Dissent:
Wearing costumes.
He's so smart it's scary.
Here's all the links and clipart fit to print:
Dasheeka Jones
Keith Susskins (edited to reflect his real name and not the name I accidently bestowed on him)
Nothing like a little cheap fun in the midst of war angst.
The clipart links and pictures are coming in faster than I can keep up. I just walked in the house (DJ does not have The Deadly Disease of Death, mom), so give me a bit to catch up.
Here's Kevin's.
While you are over at Kevin's place, read his post on enablers.
Another Photoshop guru lends his hand to the fight against prejudiced clipart:
from Dave at Acerbia who just started running a pool on Iraq's chances for survival
I can't get on to any news sites. I shouldn't even be on here at all as I'm swamped with work and besides, there is a juicy sex scandal of a trial going on down the hallway and I'm busy trying to get the goods.
Anyhow, the day and life goes on as if war didn't matter:
On top of all the stuff we had to deal with in regards to DJ last week, we have to bring him back to the doctor today because he is still running a fever, hasn't eaten in five days and has a very wet cough.
I call mom to tell her.
Me: Dr. Andy says DJ may have pneumonia.
Mom: Oh! You know there's that deadly disease going around?
Thanks, mom.
This is the woman who sent me the following email last week:
i am in the process of compiling a list of all my stuff and who gets what. if there is anything of mine you'd like to inherit please let me know. and not next year. asap? if not, i'll see that the stuff is either sold or donated to something.
She claims she is very healthy (and she's young, relatively speaking), she just felt like making a list for future reference. It seemed rather abrupt to me, but that's my mother. I bet she's just doing this because she feels like she'll be gipped out of some good entertainment if we fight over this stuff after she's dead.
My two sisters can fight over the Precious Moments and good china, but Lisa and I are going to have an all out brawl over mom's collection of hockey fight tapes and the autographed Islanders jersey.
So, what's going on out there?
I knew someone would come to the rescue and change that clipart for me.
From reader Paul, who wants us all to do the humpty dance:
Come on, break out those Photoshop skills.
Hmmm. I thought that France was under the impression that Saddam wasn't an imminent threat because he had no chemical or biological weapons of mass destruction.
Then what do they mean by this:
"If Saddam Hussein were to use chemical and biological weapons, this would change the situation completely and immediately for the French government," Jean-David Levitte told CNN.
So, he's going to use those weapons that HE DOESN'T HAVE?? Can anyone spot the inconsistencies here?
How do you say "Don't call us, we'll call you" in French?
My sister was going through her clipart (Gold Edition Art Explosion, 1996) at work this morning and came across a category called "rallies." She decided to take a look at it and you will not believe what she found.
Were the makers of Art Explosion clipart trying to send a not so subtle message to its users?
I'm pretty offended by this blatant piece of propaganda tucked into an art program.
I only wish I had photoshop at work.
(if you think this post is about you, then it probably is. and there are several of you)
As the minutes tick away on the war clock, the great divide grows wider and more dangerous.
Where once there was at least a level field between us and them, there is now a steep valley strewn with shards of glass and sharp, pointed rocks.
It is now impossible to pass.
We stand on our cliffs and look over at the other side. Where once we saw friends that we could at least meet in the middle to talk about the things that did not divide us, we now see strangers who claim to know us, but don't.
Yes, it is an us and them situation. The shades of gray disappeared some time in the past 24 hours, as the yelling between the sides grew louder and we started waging a little war of our own.
I've already seen my first casualties of this mini-war and my friendships lie on the battlefield, wounded and writhing and so close to death you can hear the rattling of their souls trying to get out.
I've been here before and in those times, I ran to rescue those who perceived me as the enemy. I tried to breathe life into those dying friendships, I tried drag complete strangers away from the light and back towards life. I did this publicly, I did it privately. I did it for people with whom I had once shared my life's secrets and I did it for those who I knew only through a faked email address.
In my previous battles I was an appeaser. I fought with diplomacy. I compromised my own self in order to keep the peace and stave off confrontation. I muzzled myself so as not to offend those who I later realized were nothing more than my enemy, for they refused to think of me as a living, breathing person with a heart and instead treated me like a piece of scrap metal. When I kneeled before them and asked forgiveness though I really didn't need to, they kicked me in the teeth.
Sometimes it is not until after the battle that you find out what your enemy really thinks
