"In the world which is upside down, the true is a moment of the false."
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Saturday, August 30, 2003 don't wait. act today! Large Middle Eastern country with world's second-largest oil reserves. Infrastructure shot to hell by previous owner, and successive UN sanctions enforced by US administrations. Also, now a magnet for terrorists. New owner has to feed and protect 25 million people. But, if you decide to trim the population, present owner promises to turn a blind eye and not complain (please do so discreetly). A real fixer-upper. Present owner needs to sell because he has to win an election in 2004, and Iraq is a drag in the opinion polls. Also forgot to tell the American people the true cost before invasion and occupation. Get it cheap while you can. 5-day sale. Buyers with negative feedback will not be considered. Serious bidders only!!! going once. going twice.... posted by downtown | 11:57 PM A deadly franchise The global war on terror is a smokescreen used by governments to wipe out opponents Naomi Klein Thursday August 28, 2003 The Guardian The Marriott hotel in Jakarta was still burning when Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Indonesia's security minister, explained the implications of the day's attack: "Those who criticise about human rights being breached must understand that all the bombing victims are more important than any human rights issue." In a sentence, we got the best summary yet of the philosophy underlying Bush's so-called War on Terror. Terrorism doesn't just blow up buildings; it blasts every other issue off the political map. The spectre of terrorism - real and exaggerated - has become a shield of impunity, protecting governments around the world from scrutiny for their human rights abuses. Many have argued that the War on Terror is the US government's thinly veiled excuse for constructing a classic empire, in the model of Rome or Britain. Two years into the crusade, it's clear this is a mistake: the Bush gang doesn't have the stick-to-it-ness to successfully occupy one country, let alone a dozen. Bush and the gang do, however, have the hustle of good marketers, and they know how to contract out. What Bush has created in the WoT is less a "doctrine" for world domination than an easy-to-assemble toolkit for any mini-empire looking to get rid of the opposition and expand its power. .... Indonesia's president, Megawati Sukarnoputri, got the same memo. She came to power pledging to clean up Indonesia's notoriously corrupt and brutal military and bring peace to the fractious country. Instead she has called off talks with the Free Aceh Movement, and in May invaded the oil-rich province in the country's largest military offensive since the 1975 invasion of East Timor. Why did the Indonesian government think it could get away with the invasion after the international outrage that forced it out of East Timor? Easy: post-September 11, the government cast Aceh's movement for national liberation as "terrorist" - which means human rights concerns no longer apply. Rizal Mallarangeng, a senior adviser to Megawati, called it the "blessing of September 11". The Philippines president, Gloria Arroyo, appears to feel similarly blessed. Quick to cast her battle against Islamic separatists in the southern Moro region as part of the WoT, Arroyo - like Sharon, Aznar and Megawati - abandoned peace negotiations and waged brutal civil war instead, displacing 90,000 people last year. But she didn't stop there. Last August, speaking to soldiers at a military academy, Arroyo extended the war beyond terrorists and armed separatists to include "those who terrorise factories that provide jobs" - clear code for trade unions. Labour groups in Philippine free trade zones report that union organisers are facing increased threats, and strikes are being broken up with extreme police violence. it slices! it dices! it's a do-it-yourself domestic dissent suppression kit! posted by downtown | 2:40 PM Friday, August 29, 2003 forty years ago today... 
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecutions and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow. I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. timeless. posted by downtown | 3:03 AM Thursday, August 28, 2003 everybody to the limit! homestar has arrived. 
Kindred World in Animation By NEIL STRAUSS n the 1990's the brothers Matt and Mike Chapman hoped to achieve some notoriety in indie rock. Mike Chapman played in a band from Athens, Ga., called Hi-Score, which recorded several songs for the label Kindercore. Matt Chapman was in Tallahassee, Fla., writing clever lyrics with his group the New You, which released a locally admired CD called "Here's Where Things Turn Around" on AAJ Records. Neither band made it. So the brothers turned to Flash animation and created a Web site, www.homestarrunner.com, that is a 180-degree turn from the world of indie rock. Its music is inanely catchy, synthesizer-based children's music for adults. The seamless, richly nuanced animated universe they have created is a place not of indie sarcasm but of pop innocence, where the mentality of the characters is at fifth-grade level. Its influences are not the Velvet Underground, Big Star and the Stooges but "Peanuts" cartoons, Japanese anime and Atari video games. go, homestar, go! posted by downtown | 3:02 PM Wednesday, August 27, 2003 quote of the day "I believe gay marriage should be between a man and a woman." - Arnold Schwarzenegger (Sean Hannity Radio Show, 8/27) via MWO. posted by downtown | 7:35 PM 10 Commandments Monument signs with William Morris Agency 
In a stunning development, the William Morris Agency announced this morning that they have signed an exclusive representation contract with Montgomery, Alabama's Ten Commandments Monument. In a hastily distributed press release, William Morris Agency called the signing 'the greatest management coup since Jessica Lynch.' .... Rumors that 'The MonumentTM' will appear in the upcoming Jessica Lynch TV movie - and that it will head to California to campaign for Republican gubernatorial candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger - were not confirmed at press time. hee hee hee.... Update: monument now on tour. in other news... ..the dow closed 6.66 points down today. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 6.66 points, or 0.1 percent, to close at 9,333.79, having gained 22.81 points Tuesday in a late-day advance. coincidence? guided by voices: "glad girls" posted by downtown | 12:30 PM Saturday, August 23, 2003 heroes. posted by downtown | 3:57 PM Thursday, August 21, 2003 the slippery slope 
this is what really, really concerns me. it seems that this administration is far more concerned with managing the perceptions of the war in iraq than with actually prosecuting the war itself. the picture of the occupation put forth by the bushies and the pentagon bears precious little resemblance to the reality of the war on the ground. and, make no mistake, it's a war. call it what you will, a guerilla war, a low intensity conflict, whatever. it's a war. and it's gonna get worse. we need answers. we need them now. how many troops on the ground do we need to do this? how many of these troops are going to be americans? where are the other troops coming from and when do we expect them? how much is this thing gonna cost? what are we spending right now? how long will american forces be on the ground in significant numbers? what are we spending per month? what about reconstruction? what is the infamous "exit strategy"? the time for giving these lying, incompetent assholes the benefit of the doubt is over. it's time to demand answers and and to insist on investigation and review of the whole damned situation. this has gone far enough. as the photo above illustrates, this is hardly the war we were sold, but this is the war we've got. the asministration needs to level with the american people about what their plans are, if any. this whole escapade has gone from bad to worse and stands to get even worse still if we don't start looking at this thing in the soberest of fashion. faith based planning has put us in quite an ugly pickle. enough! you know what to do. do it! posted by downtown | 3:27 AM Wednesday, August 20, 2003
sucky indeed. posted by downtown | 12:25 PM Monday, August 18, 2003 wow, what a weekend. working like a mutha. raised damned near $500 on the rncfilm.org site. sold a few shirts. (though nowhere near as many i should have. fuck, kids, am i gonna have to model the damned things to show you how freakin' cool they are? note to the fellas: chicks dig 'em.) i finally made a post on the blog graham site, too. it's only taken me like two weeks to find twenty freakin' minutes. fuck a duck. the (p)resident was here the other day. i know many that had time to go pretend to protest. me, i had work to do. he didn't come anywhere near where they thought he would either. they basically shut down the santa monica mountains for 24 hours anyway. the bastards kittyboo says, "hi, all". posted by downtown | 3:53 AM Friday, August 15, 2003 i ordered one of my own shirts the other day. it arrived today... and it rocks! i'm wearing right this moment. comfy. stylish. intant street cred. gonna make a trip down the street to wine lovers with some friends and dare folks to ask about it. i have now turned myself into a walking billboard. i feel so sexy. don't you want to feel as sexy as i do right now. you could. you could buy one too. really. it could do wonders for your sex life as well. it could change your life! don't wait! do it today! posted by downtown | 1:06 AM Wednesday, August 13, 2003 laura is my hero. laura was the first person to make a contribution to the rncfilm.org site. a significant contribution at that. let it never be said that laura does not rock most hard. don't you wanna be a hero, too? help support independent media! you'll live longer! you'll never go bald! you'll lose inches and pounds in mere minutes! while you sleep! better than viagra! do it today! laura rules. do you? posted by downtown | 8:49 PM Tuesday, August 12, 2003 ok, ok. here it is. it ain't quite perfect yet. but it will be soon. i just can't wait any longer. i present to you the new, non-ghetto, pretty much fully functional... ...rncfilm.org website. here you'll find some info on the production including a very bloggy-like filmmaker's journal, some background, lots o' cool links, a place to support the production with either a contribution or by purchasing a really bitchin' t-shirt or two. (or both!) i wish to thank gene profusely. this entire site exists because of him. gene totally ruleth. so, go take a look around. kick the tires. make suggestions. sign up for the email list. bitch. moan. let me know what you think. i'm dyin' to know. posted by downtown | 11:58 PM so busy i can't see straight these past few days.... major announcement forthcoming... posted by downtown | 2:47 PM Friday, August 08, 2003 almost there, kids. a few final tweaks... posted by downtown | 11:48 PM damn! it's so freakin' close... posted by downtown | 4:59 AM Thursday, August 07, 2003 hours away tops. i almost can't stand it... posted by downtown | 7:20 PM it's so close i can almost smell it. i can't wait. can you? posted by downtown | 3:13 PM it's really cool and it may even be ready later today. can you believe it? posted by downtown | 12:11 PM it'll be here sooner than you think.... posted by downtown | 3:51 AM it's coming posted by downtown | 3:25 AM Wednesday, August 06, 2003 i could go on all morning about how reckless, stupid and dangerously precedent setting the recall is. really. it's a bad idea all around. but there is finally some good news from the golden state. arianna is in. go, girl, go. posted by downtown | 10:56 AM Tuesday, August 05, 2003 from the mouths of babes... 
more yum from a softer world. posted by downtown | 12:37 AM Monday, August 04, 2003 Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Illinois) asks a most important question. i personally think that it is perhaps the most important question we can ask of ourselves right now. How Badly Do You Want to Win? "Do you want a different president in 2004? I’m asking this as a serious question, not a rhetorical one. Do you want it badly enough to actually do what is necessary to win the election that will take place just 17 months from now? Everywhere I go, everywhere every Democrat goes, we hear, “Where are the Democrats?” I take that challenge seriously, and many of us are working day and night to make ourselves heard, putting together a strategy with members who are willing to use tougher language and “creative” tactics in coordination with outside organizations. Yes, we need more Democrats who believe, as Paul Wellstone said, that “the politics of conviction is a winning politics.” But I challenge you to do the same by asking, “Where are you?” I say that as an activist and organizer myself, and with a great deal of respect for the work that all of you are doing. I acknowledge the magnificent visibility of the antiwar activities, and the Web-based organizing that has generated millions of e-mails to Congress, the work of the Anti-Tax Cut Coalition and others. I say that with enormous respect for the work of organized labor nationally and locally. I know we are all grateful to President John Sweeney of the AFL-CIO and his incredibly effective leadership. Even so, there have been too few examples of viewpoints, other than those consistent with the administration’s, breaking through to the public. If we are to win, it’s clear we need to do more, do it louder, do it faster, and do it better. And if we don’t, in 2008 we will live in a country and a world far different from the one we have had and the one to which we aspire. " (....) "If we are serious about getting rid of George W. Bush in 17 months, then we have to make some decisions and some commitments. (....) "Because like it or not, either George W. Bush or the Democratic nominee, whoever he may be, will be our next president. All of you know who I’m talking about; I may be talking about you. We should, by all means, be working to promote a progressive agenda with each and every candidate and to make the nominee as progressive as possible. But in the end, we are going to have to dedicate ourselves to electing the Democrat. To do otherwise is a luxury we cannot afford." i've called out called out the bushies in this space many times before. ditto the press. today i'm callin' us out. really. i mean, how badly do you want to win? look, it's now august of 2003, kids. what did you do today to beat bush 15 months from now? i'm serious. it's time to get to freakin' work, folks. it's time to roll up yer sleeves and dig in. got a candidate? yes? great. no? get one. hell, get two or three. it's early still in that respect. anybody who has visited this space knows that sen. bob is my guy in this thing. but, please, by all means, don't let the fact that you may have not decided on one candidate or the other disengage you from the process. this one is just too goddamned important for that. i've heard the argument made about "..this being the most important election in the history of the nation.." in every election i can remember, the first being carter/reagan in '80. but,.. ...ahem. um, take a good long look around, friends. can anyone make the argument that this isn't arguably one of, if not the most crucial election in the history of the republic? anybody? anyone at all wanna take a swing at that one? this nation has been hijacked by a gang of lying, murderous theives. they've absolutely got to go. are you ready? the past few weeks have seen a great deal of the luster stripped from these folks. there are a number of folks who are starting to tune in, to catch a whiff. doubts and uneasieness about the administration are starting to exhibit themselves in significant portions of the electorate. one can see it in the polls, hear it in conversation, see it in letters to the editor in your local paper. it's time to start turning these doubts into action. i wanna hear from the students at cash-strapped state universities who have their tuition jacked up to pay for tax cuts. i wanna hear from parents of students whose schools had to truncate the school year for lack of money or whose children were dropped from state funded health care programs because of state budget deficits. i wanna hear from the damned 3 million people who have lost a job in the past 2 and a half years. i want to hear from the families of the poor kids bustin' a hump over in iraq. everybody has a part to play here and now is the time get movin'. willie ain't waitin' around. this guy isn't either. the bushies will spend the next month photo opping the ranch and raising gazillions of dollars while, as steve gilliard points out, most folks can't take a month off. asked recently about how he could possibly spend what is estimated to ultimately amount to a $170 million war chest, he replied, "just watch me." these loathsome folks are gonna have a ton o' money and all the advantages afforded an incumbent president. blah, blah, blah. we've got one hell of a not so secret weapon though. we've got the truth. all that money isn't going to hide a deficit of close to half a trillion dollars next year. it's not going to obscure the more than likely possibility that, at the time of the election, well over 100,000 americans if not double that number will still be on the ground in iraq. 170 million smackers ain't gonna buy back 3 million and counting new jobs. it's not going to be easy and i have a feelin' it's gonna be a squeaker. time to mount up and get this thing done. so, how badly do you want to win and what are you willing to do to make that happen? posted by downtown | 2:53 AM Saturday, August 02, 2003 the dam breaks... Report on 9/11 Suggests a Role by Saudi Spies "WASHINGTON, Aug. 1 — The classified part of a Congressional report on the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, says that two Saudi citizens who had at least indirect links with two hijackers were probably Saudi intelligence agents and may have reported to Saudi government officials, according to people who have seen the report." from the NYT to the LAT... Saudi Government Provided Aid to 9/11 Hijackers, Sources Say "WASHINGTON -- The 27 classified pages of a congressional report about Sept. 11 depict a Saudi government that not only provided significant money and aid to the suicide hijackers but also allowed potentially hundreds of millions of dollars to flow to Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups through suspect charities and other fronts, according to sources familiar with the document. One U.S. official who has read the classified section said it describes "very direct, very specific links" between Saudi officials, two of the San Diego-based hijackers and other potential co-conspirators "that cannot be passed off as rogue, isolated or coincidental." Said another official: "It's really damning. What it says is that not only Saudi entities or nationals are implicated in 9/11, but the [Saudi] government" as well." it was only a matter of time. those 28 pages have been the worst kept secret in washington since before the report was released. this puts the bushies and the saudis, not to mention the hapless FBI, in quite a pinch. the war in iraq was sold as not only a hunt for those nasty WMDs that have yet to be found, but also, in a really manipulative and cynical way, as some sort of retribution for the events of 9/11. ahem. this document is very interesting as much for what it says as for what it doesn't say. what is interesting to me is that there seems to be precious little being said in the press about the big, absent 800lb gorilla, iraq. there really isn't much there about the iraqis, nothing of signficance anyway. but, there is plenty about the saudis. absent any WMDs, we went to war with iraq for what again? it seems to me that if we were really after those responsible for 9/11, we would have steered those M1A tanks south from kuwait. i am also of the opinion that there is a reason that this info is coming to light now, not last dec/jan when the report was done. if this comes out in january of 2003, there is no iraq war. max cleland thinks so as well: "The report was completed late last year, but its publication was delayed by endless wrangles with the administration over what could be declassified. Former Georgia Sen. Max Cleland, who served on the committee, said the report's release was deliberately delayed by the White House until after the war in Iraq was over because it undercuts the rationale for the war. The report confirms that there was no connection between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda. "The administration sold the connection to scare the pants off the American people and justify the war," Cleland said. "What you've seen here is the manipulation of intelligence for political ends." make no mistake. there's gonna be hell to pay. posted by downtown | 1:24 PM Friday, August 01, 2003 i knew it couldn't be too long before this shit started to leak. too many people have read the full 9/11 report and are unhappy about the infamous 28 page redaction for it to remain out of the public domain for long. as i'm sure you are aware, the WH redacted those pages, a section titled "Certain Sensitive National Security Matters". these pages are largely believed to detail the involvement of certain Saudi nationals, charities and possibly members of the Saudi royal family in the 9/11 plot. some yummy tidbits from TNR: " But an official who has read the report tells The New Republic that the support described in the report goes well beyond that: It involves connections between the hijacking plot and the very top levels of the Saudi royal family. "There's a lot more in the 28 pages than money. Everyone's chasing the charities," says this official. "They should be chasing direct links to high levels of the Saudi government. We're not talking about rogue elements. We're talking about a coordinated network that reaches right from the hijackers to multiple places in the Saudi government." (....) "The official who read the 28 pages tells The New Republic, "If the people in the administration trying to link Iraq to Al Qaeda had one-one-thousandth of the stuff that the 28 pages has linking a foreign government to Al Qaeda, they would have been in good shape." He adds: "If the 28 pages were to be made public, I have no question that the entire relationship with Saudi Arabia would change overnight." (link via the incomparable talking points memo.) it's rather odd to me that significant portions of the press still seem to buy the iraq-al qaeda link when almost no one in the intel community does. but, here we have, in black and white, some evidence that the 9/11 hijackers did indeed have state support. the problem for the bushies is that that state is at least nominally an ally. ouch. i was about to ask myself why the press isn't all over this, but, now that the leaking has begun, it's only a matter of time. for some excellent analysis of the junkie/pusher relationship between the US and the Saudis, read this salon piece. it's pretty freakin' scary. UPDATE: i should probably mention that, as laura has pointed out to me, sen. bob has been all over this. he really has. i have a dog in this fight and it's sen. bob. it does indeed make me proud to see him out there fighting like he really means it. go, sen. bob, go! posted by downtown | 6:21 PM apropos of nothing and with precious little, if any, further elaboration, let me now state what is probably obvious to anyone with a pulse. life is weird. sometimes it's really weird. the universe does indeed work in many odd ways. (furtively scratching head...) posted by downtown | 1:36 PM |
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Cost of the War in Iraq
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