"In the world which is upside down, the true is a moment of the false."
|
|
| rock and roll means fuck "In the world which is upside down, the true is a moment of the false." |
|
|
Wednesday, April 28, 2004 jesus effin' christ.. More troops suffering severe head wounds Injuries prove devastating for doctors, too 
....More and more in Iraq, combat surgeons say, the wounds involve severe damage to the head and eyes -- injuries that leave soldiers brain damaged or blind, or both, and the doctors who see them first struggling against despair. For months the gravest wounds have been caused by roadside bombs -- improvised explosives that negate the protection of Kevlar helmets by blowing shrapnel and dirt upward into the face. In addition, firefights with guerrillas have surged recently, causing a sharp rise in gunshot wounds to the only vital area not protected by body armor. The neurosurgeons at the 31st Combat Support Hospital measure the damage in the number of skulls they remove to get to the injured brain inside, a procedure known as a craniotomy. "We've done more in eight weeks than the previous neurosurgery team did in eight months," Poffenbarger said. "So there's been a change in the intensity level of the war." Numbers tell part of the story. So far in April, more than 900 soldiers and Marines have been wounded in Iraq, more than twice the number wounded in October, the previous high. With the tally still climbing, this month's injuries account for about a quarter of the 3,864 U.S. servicemen and women listed as wounded in action since the March 2003 invasion. .... "We're saving more people than should be saved, probably," Lt. Col. Robert Carroll said. "We're saving severely injured people. Legs. Eyes. Part of the brain." Carroll, an eye surgeon from Waynesville, Mo., sat at his desk during a rare slow night last Wednesday and called up a digital photo on his laptop computer. The image was of a brain opened for surgery earlier that day, the skull neatly lifted away, most of the organ healthy and pink. But a thumb-sized section behind the ear was gray. "See all that dark stuff? That's dead brain," he said. "That ain't gonna regenerate. And that's not uncommon. That's really not uncommon. We do craniotomies on average, lately, of one a day." "We can save you," the surgeon said. "You might not be what you were." Accurate statistics are not yet available on recovery from this new round of battlefield brain injuries, an obstacle that frustrates combat surgeons. But judging by medical literature and surgeons' experience with their own patients "three or four months from now 50 to 60 percent will be functional and doing things," said Maj. Richard Gullick. "Functional," he said, means "up and around, but with pretty significant disabilities," including paralysis. .... The remaining 40 percent to 50 percent of patients include those whom the surgeons send to Europe, and on to the United States, with no prospect of regaining consciousness. The practice, subject to review after gathering feedback from families, assumes that loved ones will find value in holding the soldier's hand before confronting the decision to remove life support. "I'm actually glad I'm here and not at home, tending to all the social issues with all these broken soldiers," Carroll said. But the toll on the combat medical staff is itself acute, and unrelenting. oh, and in case you didn't know, so many marines have been wounded in fullujah in recent weeks that there is now a backlog of marines awaiting purple hearts. this story also gives us tidbits such as this: During the two-hour midday fight, in which at least eight U.S. troops were wounded, a Marine tank demolished the 150-foot-tall minaret of a mosque, from which machine-gun fire had been raining onto Marines 200 yards away. At one point, the combatants exchanged rifle fire 30 yards apart. The insurgents were close enough to hurl grenades on top of a building where Marines were briefly pinned down. Farther back, on the roof of a U.S. military compound, Marine snipers cranked up the volume on their CD player so they could listen to the music of Metallica as they fired at their foes. i believe the scientific term that describes tragedy such as this is "clusterfuck". we really, really need a new president. the promise ring: "tell everyone we're dead" "and remember we'd tell everyone to tell everyone we're dead. and right now sugar and water will put me down. " posted by downtown | 3:02 AM Tuesday, April 27, 2004 what blinky said 
i always suspected sparky.... no, really. i did. we need more blinkys MC5: "kick out the jams" "right now it's time to... ...kick out the jams, motherfucker!" posted by downtown | 5:46 AM meanwhile.. ..in local news.. lately i've been working and commiserating with some rather interesting and, in some cases, amazing individuals and organizations. this will be of interest mainly to those in the NYC metro area, but a a few of these groups do have national reach. for serious activism i have been fortunate enough to come in contact with an organization called new democratic majority. NDM is essentially brand new, rising from the ashes of the local grassroots dean organization. it seems that the nyc dean die-hards, instead of scattering to the winds, decided to keep plugging away. they are at least nominally affiliated with what has become of the now defunct dean effort, democracy for america. they are a new organization trying to figure out exactly who they are, what exactly they are about, what their mission actually is and such. in this they remind me of our efforts to get arts for action off the ground in the winter of 2002/2003. i wrote a bit about that back here. anyway, NDM does show really great potential and i'm quite happy to be associated with them. if anything, it's kinda nice to be around at the genesis of an organization that has real goals and the means to achieve them and isn't comprised almost entirely of... ..ahem.. .. "artists". we can be something of an indecisive, bickering bunch of shitheads sometimes. the kids at greene dragon have proven to be a hoot as well. they had a week's worth of fun stuff during tv turnoff week last week. on wed. night, they had people meet at two different locations on opposite sides of times square where they were met with 30 foot long green satin dragons and lots of folks with noise making gear. at the bar i was at, the dragon showed at exactly the right time and we followed the dragon and the noisemakers past all the tourists waiting in line for their broadway shows to times square, where we met the other dragon and its supporting cast of weirdness. we then proceeded to one of the islands in the middle of the street and were joined by several people with cardboard televisions on their heads and remote controls in their hands (they kept trying to change the channels on the famously large screens in times square. it was rad.) and most of a brass marching band. we then danced, sang and played in the middle of the square in all our green satin dragon glory for about twenty minutes, much to the amusement and utter bewilderment of the ever present tourists. it was a hoot and a half. then we all went to the siberia bar and got drunk. yeehaw! i like the greene dragon kids. they gots lots o' promise. i should also mention that both NDM and greene dragon are having an event here in nyc on saturday, may 1st, the one year anniversary of the "mission accomplished" speech. for those of you keeping score at home, 583 coalition personnel have lost their lives so far since that bit of lunacy. ( there were 139 before that.) i believe we will be building a coffin here at the house for it. having a large space and woodshop do have their advantages.... finally, there is redefeat bush. i have been doing as much as i can for RDB for the past month or so, not only because i am thoroughly and completely committed to their stated aims and fully invested in doing whatever i can to make them come to pass as i am so totally krushed out on e, the young lady who is the nyc coordinator for RDB. to put it mildly, e is hot as effin' hell. in many more ways than one. i'm happy to do whatever i can for RDB, but it certainly doesn't hurt that i get to spend so much time with ms. rebel girl and all, even if she doesn't even notice. also, i shant let this missive expire without a mention of the billionaires for bush. i love, love, love the billionaires. i do. i even chose a billionaire name last week. after many weeks of deliberation, i settled on a name i think says what i want it to say about the petulant oligarchs that own us all but is also something of an homage to my fave local bar. my billionaire name is: 'I. Ona Yoassis'. the billionaires were brilliant on tax day at the main post office across from madison square garden. "cut out the middleman! make your checks out directly to us!" "thanks for paying your taxes so we don't have to!" "huzzah!" good, good shit. bikini kill: "rebel girl" "that girl thinks she's the queen of the neighborhood. i've got news for you she is! posted by downtown | 4:07 AM Thursday, April 22, 2004 canned. from the dept. of least surprising developments... the very brave woman who gave us this picture has been fired. for good measure they canned her husband too. belle and sebastian: "step in to my office, baby" "we need to talk. step in to my office, baby..." posted by downtown | 12:52 PM Tuesday, April 20, 2004 piper, paying of remember that 87 billion dollar supplemental for iraq last fall? here we go again... War May Require More Money Soon By Jonathan Weisman Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, April 21, 2004; Page A01 Intense combat in Iraq is chewing up military hardware and consuming money at an unexpectedly rapid rate -- depleting military coffers, straining defense contractors and putting pressure on Bush administration officials to seek a major boost in war funding long before they had hoped. Since Congress approved an $87 billion defense request last year, the administration has steadfastly maintained that military forces in Iraq will be sufficiently funded until early next year. President Bush's budget request for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1 included no money for Iraqi operations, and his budget director, Joshua B. Bolten, said no request would come until January at the earliest. But military officials, defense contractors and members of Congress say that worsening U.S. military fortunes in Iraq have dramatically changed the equation and that more money will be needed soon. This comes as lawmakers, returning from their spring break, voice unease about the mounting violence in Iraq and what they say is the lack of a clearly enunciated strategy for victory. The military already has identified unmet funding needs, including initiatives aimed at providing equipment and weapons for troops in Iraq. The Army has publicly identified nearly $6 billion in funding requests that did not make Bush's $402 billion defense budget for 2005, including $132 million for bolt-on vehicle armor; $879 million for combat helmets, silk-weight underwear, boots and other clothing; $21.5 million for M249 squad automatic weapons; and $27 million for ammunition magazines, night sights and ammo packs. Also unfunded: $956 million for repairing desert-damaged equipment and $102 million to replace equipment lost in combat. .... Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), vice chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, charged that the president is playing political games by postponing further funding requests until after the election, to try to avoid reopening debate on the war's cost and future. Weldon described the administration's current defense budget request as "outrageous" and "immoral" and said that at least $10 billion is needed for Iraqi operations over the next five months. "There needs to be a supplemental, whether it's a presidential election year or not," he said. "The support of our troops has to be the number one priority of this country. . . . Somebody's got to get serious about this." .... "If one American soldier in Iraq loses his life because Congress and the administration were afraid of the political consequences of another supplemental appropriations bill, shame on everyone who should be a part of that process," Edwards said. go read the whole thing. it's pretty awful. remember last summer? bush's numbers and support for the war were cruising along quite nicely through the beginning of the resistance which seemed to kick off in earnest in july. it seemed that americans could stomach losing a GI or two a day. they weren't happy with it, but if that's the price we'd have to pay, so be it. then the bill came for the war that was supposed to be, according to paul wolfowitz, largely self-financing. 87 billion? this isn't the war we were sold. bush's numbers as regards the war took a major hit and, with a couple of brief rallies here and there, haven't recovered since. it's worth noting, as is above, that mr. bush included no funding for operations in iraq in his FY2005 budget either. oops. so now, after an absolutely horrific month in which we have lost 103 GIs, and in an election year no less, the bushes find themselves in a bit of a pickle, so to speak. do they ask for the money now as the situation in iraq looks more and more dire and people seem to be paying more attention to our little imperial clusterfuck than they have in months? or, do they wait and try to do so closer to the election in the hopes that things will 'stabilize' and risk turning even more folks off weeks before they cast their ballots? or, do they try to do so this summer and hope no one notices? much like the way they have managed the war itself, they now have maneuvered themselves in to such a corner where there are no good options. they're fucked. they're fucked, and if history is any guide, their reluctance to act in the face of potential political fallout will ultimately result in more dead and wounded GIs. bank on it. billie holliday: "pennies from heaven" "don't you know that each cloud contains pennies from heaven?" posted by downtown | 11:08 PM you are not supposed to see this. 
Tami Silico Flag-draped coffins are secured inside a cargo plane on April 7 at Kuwait International Airport. Military and civilian crews take great care with the remains of U.S. military personnel killed in Iraq. Soldiers form an honor guard and say a prayer as, almost nightly, coffins are loaded for the trip home. world party: "is it like today?" "all that he could see was Babylon. beautiful green fields and dreams, and learn to measure the stars. but there was a worry in his heart. he said, how could it come to this? i'm really worried about living. how could it come to this? yeah I really want to know about this. is it like today? " posted by downtown | 11:51 AM reconstruction of the fables Fables of the Reconstruction A Coalition memo reveals that even true believers see the seeds of civil war in the occupation of Iraq by Jason Vest As the situation in Iraq grows ever more tenuous, the Bush administration continues to spin the ominous news with matter-of-fact optimism. According to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Iraqi uprisings in half a dozen cities, accompanied by the deaths of more than 100 soldiers in the month of April alone, is something to be viewed in the context of "good days and bad days," merely "a moment in Iraq's path towards a free and democratic system." More recently, the president himself asserted, "Our coalition is standing with responsible Iraqi leaders as they establish growing authority in their country." But according to a closely held Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) memo written in early March, the reality isn't so rosy. Iraq's chances of seeing democracy succeed, according to the memo's author?a U.S. government official detailed to the CPA, who wrote this summation of observations he'd made in the field for a senior CPA director?have been severely imperiled by a year's worth of serious errors on the part of the Pentagon and the CPA, the U.S.-led multinational agency administering Iraq. Far from facilitating democracy and security, the memo's author fears, U.S. efforts have created an environment rife with corruption and sectarianism likely to result in civil war. .... Indeed, while boosters of the Iraqi invasion delight in the phrase "25 million free Iraqis," if the CPA memo is any indication, this newfound liberty does not include freedom from fear. "Baghdadis have an uneasy sense that they are heading towards civil war," it says. "Sunnis, Shias, and Kurd professionals say that they themselves, friends, and associates are buying weapons fearing for the future." The memo also notes that while Iraqi police "remain too fearful to enforce regulations," they are making a pretty penny as small arms dealers, with the CPA as an unwitting partner. "CPA is ironically driving the weapons market," it reveals. "Iraqi police sell their U.S.-supplied weapons on the black market; they are promptly re-supplied. Interior ministry weapons buy-backs keep the price of arms high." none of this is surprising actually. anyone watching events unfold can see the train wreck ahead. it is interesting to hear it from someone inside the CPA though. What's so damned tragic is that the end result of spending so much blood and treasure is an iraqi civil war. prepare for more of this: 
bonnie prince billy: "i see a darkness" "but can you see it's opposition.. ..comes a-rising up sometimes.. ..that it's dreadful and position.. ..comes blacking in my mind..." posted by downtown | 10:55 AM Wednesday, April 14, 2004 tv production 101 as anyone paying even a modicum of attention over the past couple of weeks could ascertain, the situation in iraq has grown pretty fucking grim. with hundreds of iraqis killed and at least 90 dead GIs since march 31st, many americans who had previously been able to remain blissfully unaware of the dire nature of the tragedy unfolding in bushopatamia, have had the awful reality of this colossal fuck up in the making shoved right in their faces. they've got questions, concerns. the support for both the war and the (p)resident has taken a beating over the past 14 days as mr. bush has been hiding out in crawford playing cowboy. why isn't the (p)resident in the white house? who are we handing the ball off to on june 30? do we need more troops on the ground? should we declare victory and leave? are we gonna be there forever? what is the freakin' plan? finally, after calls from even those in his own party, karl decided to attempt to staunch the bleeding a bit with a primetime (bush's 3rd since assuming office) press conference. finally, shrub would come before the american people and their press. all would be made known. the stakes for both the administration and the nation couldn't be higher. this could be the defining moment of the bush era. the networks pre-empted their primetime schedules. presses were stopped. the world tuned in. and they saw this: 
pardon me , but what the fuck is that? this is supposedly the most powerful man in the world. (personally, i think that distinction belongs to the vortex of evil known as 'dick cheney') he is alleged to have many competent folks on his staff who are assumed to be somewhat media savvy. it's not like he hasn't appeared on television before. yet they let him walk out to address and field questions on international TV with a tie that was literally exploding with all the colors of the strobin' rainbow. any high school kid who has spent more than a week in a video production class could have spotted a problem at first sight. when he first walked towards the podium and i noticed the tie beginning to go all acid test, i was flabbergasted. we are obviously not dealing with the seemingly hyper competent media stormbots that were so efficient, that at one point, lacking any evidence whatsoever and without ever explicitly saying so, had 7 out of ten americans believing that saddam was somehow behind 9/11. these assholes are finally off their game and this simple oversight illustrates their confusion in glorious technicolor. i know that there are far more serious complaints to lodge regarding shrub's 'presser'. many much more eloquent polemicists are doing just that. take a gander here, here and here. but, video is what i do. i have had people change their clothes many, many times before i put them on camera. and i'm just a schmo in brooklyn. what the fuck were they thinking? UPDATE: wonkette is all over it as well. apples in stereo: "the rainbow" "..so when you look at me i wonder who you see and who i am to you.." posted by downtown | 1:48 PM Tuesday, April 13, 2004 what he said.. from a must read piece by david remnick (wow, did i just really say that?) in the new yorker: Does anyone—save, perhaps, a small core of conservative zealots—still believe that there will be an easy solution to the crisis in Iraq? Perhaps the most discouraging aspect of all this is that, at least until January 20, 2005, George W. Bush is in charge of Iraq’s future and America’s. Through sheer lack of humility and competence, he has squandered the good will of vast numbers of Iraqis and Americans and American allies, and it is difficult to imagine him acquiring the skill and wisdom to regain it. John Kerry has yet to present a clear set of ideas about this crisis. As a candidate, he is a sterling biography in search of a coherent language. He must find one. At a moment when Bush is on the defensive as never before--with Iraq, the 9/11 commission, and the critiques of insiders like Richard Clarke and Paul O’Neill--Kerry has seemed to recede. In many respects, the fusillade of attack ads produced by Karl Rove and company are patently unfair and intellectually dishonest, but Kerry has made it too easy for the White House to make him seem vague on Iraq. Kerry faces a real dilemma. Bumper-sticker clarity is not an option for him. Compared with Bush’s simplicities, Kerry’s views have been complex. The nuances and conditions of both his original support for authorizing force and his later critique of how that authority was used suggest that he recognizes that Iraq is an American responsibility, not just a Republican one. It falls to Kerry to disprove the conservative zealots’ favorite canard: that subtlety of vision is inconsistent with strength and cogency of action. hear, hear. the spinanes: "greetings from the sugarlick" "all your bad plays and morning after days don't mean a thing to this hair of the dog crowd..." posted by downtown | 3:36 AM fucking bloody hell. i found this via counterspin. go read it all. read every last word. Dispatches From Iraq From: Wendell Steavenson Subject: Fallujah Stories Monday, April 12, 2004, at 12:47 PM PT My driver, Mousab, a sweet shy man with a smile like an adorable 4-year-old's, got a call from his cousin in Fallujah. The call was short, the line fizzy, and they were abruptly cut off. His cousin told him that they had tried to send his mother and the children out of the city ("Somehow, I don't know, they don't have a car"), and could he try to come and collect them? Mousab set off the next day from Baghdad at 10 a.m. He took the main highway that goes to Fallujah and Ramadi. Still in the city, among the suburbs, he saw a tank burning and a Humvee on fire. There were explosions. He saw another car; it was also going to Fallujah, and they joined up and got off the highway and tried to find back roads, dirt roads between villages. Soon they came to a mujahideen checkpoint. They stopped. "Who are you? Where are you going?" "We are going to Fallujah." "To Fallujah? For jihad?" "No, we are going to help people there." "Do you need weapons? Do you need someone to show you the way in?" Mousab and the other car declined the offer and drove another two or three hours to Gurma. There was fighting in Gurma. Mousab saw the blackened carcass of a helicopter and a Humvee on fire. There were large numbers of mujahideen there and American helicopters overhead firing rockets. .... He could not get into Fallujah, and he drove back to Gurma, ate some lunch, and set out to try again. The fighting was still going on. Iraqis on the road told him it was too dangerous to go forward, that the Americans were targeting every vehicle, any kind of car. The explosions were continuous. He came across a man in a car with his family. The man asked him to take his family—five women and a multitude of small children—to relatives in Gurma. The women did not want to leave their father. They were crying, "We want to stay with you, we would rather die together." For half an hour this conversation continued, and then the father left them, promising to follow in a couple of hours. He walked back to his own car. Before he got to the car he was shot in the head. Mousab, telling me this, looked down at the ground. "His brain was everywhere. The women were screaming. I got them into the car." There were hundreds of cars in Gurma—families, people trying to get out of Fallujah. The family Mousab had ferried found their relatives. Mousab stayed a few hours in the house of a stranger, and then in the small hours he set off for Baghdad in a convoy of refugees. The mujahideen said it was safer then, there was less bombing. They drove on back roads with their headlights off. There were mujahideen fighters all the way into the city. Mousab saw them outside Khadamiya, a Shiite neighborhood to the west. One had his face covered with a red and white scarf, the others just standing there with their rocket-propelled grenades. The American spin suggests a cordoned-off Fallujah full of small arms fire. I've been talking to people who have been in and out of Fallujah over the past few days, mostly friends of mine trying to take medical supplies in or to get relatives out. The Americans don't control the main highway—their supply convoys are constantly getting hit—and they have not sealed the town effectively. They do not seem to control any tract of country between Baghdad and Ramadi, and every day attacks on the western edges of Baghdad creep closer into the center of the city. The streets in Baghdad are emptier and emptier, the unease is palpable. On Saturday I drove out to the western suburb of Ghaziliya (a town on the way to Fallujah) and saw a tank on fire under an underpass. There were two Bradley fighting vehicles a few hundred yards away craning the surrounding neighborhoods with their gun turrets. Two helicopters circled overhead, like poised dragonflies in the muddy afternoon blue sky haze. .... Three brothers and a neighbor drove their families out of Fallujah on Saturday night. I found them in a relative's house in Baghdad, angry ("We saw them shooting families with children"; "There was a cease-fire but they continued to attack us"). They were family men with their wives and dozens of children crowding shyly around, listening to their fathers talk. "Just tell the truth," they told me. "Because we can see CNN and BBC are full of lies." They held up a weighty pointed piece of steel and said it was an armor-piercing bullet fired at their car. .... The brothers were strong and clear and proud. They did not exaggerate what they were saying or inject it with polemic. Ali stroked his little son Ahmed's head, teasing him, telling me proudly, "He is always pointing his hand in the air like a gun!" The men were going back to fight. "The Americans," Ali seemed sure, "will not leave Iraq without violence. The only way is by violence. All their excuses and reasons are false." 
note: this picture is not from fullujah, it's from baghdad, but i think you get the idea... we are in deep, deep shit, kids. we are creating something of a kandahar west in fallujah. americans won't be safe there for a generation at least. we are also seem to be giving the iraqis something of an arab valley forge or bunker hill: Fallujah Gains Mythic Air Siege Redefines Conflict for Iraqis in Capital BAGHDAD, April 12 -- The U.S. Marine siege of Fallujah, designed to isolate and pursue a handful of extremists in a restive town, has produced a powerful backlash in the capital. Urged on by leaflets, sermons and freshly sprayed graffiti calling for jihad, young men are leaving Baghdad to join a fight that residents say has less to do with battlefield success than with a cause infused with righteousness and sacrifice. "The fighting now is different than a year ago. Before, the Iraqis fought for nothing. Now, fighters from all over Iraq are going to sacrifice themselves," said a Fallujah native who gave his name as Abu Idris and claimed to be in contact with guerrillas who slip in and out of the besieged city three and four times daily. .... "Our brothers who went to Fallujah and came back say: 'Oh, God, it is heaven. Anyone who wants paradise should go to Fallujah,' " Abu Idris said. i guess all nations need their founding myth, their own creation narrative. i just wish we could have given them one that wasn't quite so bloody. mission of burma: "wounded world" "burn their cities and scorch the earth below..." posted by downtown | 1:43 AM Monday, April 12, 2004 oh, it's like that, eh? 
(found at uggabugga.) absent time, date and place i'll just play rancher and clear some brush: This is Bush's 33rd visit to his ranch since becoming president. He has spent all or part of 233 days on his Texas ranch since taking office, according to a tally by CBS News. Adding his 78 visits to Camp David and his five visits to Kennebunkport, Maine, Bush has spent all or part of 500 days in office at one of his three retreats, or more than 40 percent of his presidency. or go fishin' with poppy: On Saturday, Bush and his father were to go fishing at the ranch's bass pond with a crew from the Outdoor Life Network's "Fishing with Roland Martin." The White House approached the network about coming to film Bush, who is eager to cultivate an image as a sportsman with the millions of voters who hunt and fish. The crew was to bring its own boat for the shoot on the small pond. black flag: "nervous breakdown" " i'm about to have a nervous breakdown. my head really hurts " posted by downtown | 3:22 PM Thursday, April 08, 2004 this is fucked up, yo a couple of questions for ya, dear reader... have ya done your taxes yet? you've got about a week or so if you haven't. i know they're a pain in the ass and all and, unless you're way loaded and get tons of dividend income, all this talk over the past few years about these massive tax cuts seems kinda silly. i don't know about you, but my taxes haven't changed much all that much. in fact, comparing this year to last, i'm paying more in federal income taxes this year on much the same income. thanks for lookin' out for folks like me, georgie boy! one more question, you remember the late 90s, right? surely you recall all that peace and prosperity and such. maybe you remember the backstreet boys, some chick named monica or that kooky internet thingy. maybe you also recollect one of the largest economic expansions in the history of the world. were you around for all that jive? i'm sure you were. dig this: Many Firms Avoided Taxes in Boom WASHINGTON - More than 60% of U.S. corporations didn't pay any federal taxes for 1996 through 2000, years when the economy boomed and corporate profits soared, Tuesday's Wall Street Journal reported, citing the investigative arm of Congress. The disclosures from the General Accounting Office are certain to fuel the debate over corporate tax payments in the presidential campaign. Corporate tax receipts have shrunk markedly as a share of overall federal revenue in recent years, and were particularly depressed when the economy soured. By 2003, they had fallen to just 7.4% of overall federal receipts, the lowest rate since 1983, and the second-lowest rate since 1934, federal budget officials say. The GAO analysis of Internal Revenue Service data comes as tax avoidance by both U.S. and foreign companies also is drawing increased scrutiny from the IRS and Congress. But more so than similar previous reports, the analysis suggests that dodging taxes, both legally and otherwise, has become deeply rooted in U.S. corporate culture. The analysis found that even more foreign-owned companies doing business in the U.S. -- about 70% of them -- reported that they didn't owe any U.S. federal taxes during the late 1990s. really. you read that correctly. during that huge economic boom that seems further and further away every day now, 60% of american corporations paid no federal taxes whatsoever and neither did 70% of foreign corporations doing business in our country. nothing. zip. nada. not one effin' dime. so this year, as you are preparing your tax return, or as you wistfully recall their preparation from a few weeks ago, consider this: even during the fucking shitty economic times in which we currently find ourselves floundering about in and even if your total liability to the feds was 10 freakin' bucks, that's 10 more fucking dollars than a majority of american corporations paid over a period five years back when our economy was smokin' hot and corporate profits 'soared'. chew on that for a bit, why don't ya. pavement: "brinks job" "..we got the money!... ..we got the money! " posted by downtown | 2:45 AM Monday, April 05, 2004 be careful what you wish for 
it would be funny if it weren't....... cab calloway: "jungle chant (you ain't done a doggone thing)" "you call yourself 'the jungle king'. i found out you ain't a doggone thing..." posted by downtown | 5:15 AM the beginning of the end 
Eight U.S. Troops Killed in Shiite Uprising Occupation Forces Battle Cleric's Followers As Widespread Demonstrations Erupt in Iraq KUFA, Iraq, April 4 -- An armed Shiite revolt against the U.S.-led occupation erupted Sunday in Baghdad and other cities across Iraq's normally quiescent south. Nine soldiers, eight of them Americans, were killed, and three dozen were wounded, U.S. officials said. .... Militiamen fired rocket-propelled grenades and assault weapons at members of the 1st Armored Division, the U.S. military said. News photos showed militiamen and children cavorting near two Humvees in flames. Tracer fire was visible in the night sky from downtown, and residents reported loud explosions in the neighborhood after dark. i think it's rather difficult to overstate just how bad this news is. the troops on the ground have their hands pretty much full dealing with the persistent and bloody war they are waging with the sunnis in the north central region of the country. now it would appear that the worst fears of the CPA may be coming to pass. a broad popular uprising by the majority shia is probably the worst thing that could happen if your name is either bremer or bush. it bears repeating that, as folks like steve gilliard and juan cole among others have been warning about for about a year now, we remain in iraq as long as the shia wish us to. the day that they decide they've had enough is the day our occupation is effectively over. there is no dispersing a crowd of half a million armed men outside CPA HQ. it won't be pretty. it'll make both saigon in '75 and fallujah last week look tame. i guess we'll find out in the coming days if today's events are an actual popular revolt or just another bloody belch of violence in a viciously violent place. if bush, bremer, wolfowitz and the rest of the gang aren't shitting effin' bricks about the developments of the past week, then they are even more incompetent than they appear. (and that's sayin' something, folks.) 
Protests Unleashed by Cleric Mark a New Front in War BAGHDAD, April 4 -- By unleashing mass demonstrations and attacks in Baghdad and southern Iraq on Sunday, a young, militant cleric has realized the greatest fear of the U.S.-led administration since the occupation of Iraq began a year ago: a Shiite Muslim uprising. Fighting with U.S. troops raged into the night in a Baghdad slum, and hospitals reportedly took in dozens of casualties. But even before sunset, there was a sense across the capital that a yearlong test of wills between the American occupation and supporters of Moqtada Sadr had turned decisive, and its implications reverberated through Iraq. The unrest signaled that the U.S. military faces armed opposition on two fronts: in scarred Sunni towns such as Fallujah and, as of Sunday, in a Shiite-dominated region of the country that had remained largely acquiescent, if uneasy about the U.S. role. If put down forcefully, a Shiite uprising -- infused with religious imagery, and symbols drawn from Iraq's colonial past and the current Palestinian conflict -- could achieve a momentum of its own. .... "Just give the order, Moqtada, and we'll repeat the 1920 revolution," supporters chanted in Baghdad, a reference to a Shiite-led uprising against the British occupation that has grown in political mythology to serve as Iraq's founding act. Across town, outside the headquarters of the U.S.-led administration, Sheik Hazm Aaraji warned, "The people are prepared for martyrdom." UPDATE: U.S. Helicopters Attack Targets in Baghdad BAGHDAD, Iraq (Reuters) - Fresh fighting between U.S. forces and Shi'ite militiamen erupted in a Baghdad neighborhood Monday, with two Apache helicopters firing on targets in the area, Reuters journalists at the scene said. A U.S. vehicle was also in flames in the area, a predominantly Shi'ite neighborhood. what i wanna know is this: just who the hell are we handing the ball to on june 30th? victoria williams: "crazy mary" " that which you fear most could meet you halfway..." posted by downtown | 4:16 AM Thursday, April 01, 2004 just in case you ever wanted to know what heroes look like.. 
in this case, they look much like this. 9/11 Widows Skillfully Applied the Power of a Question: Why? WASHINGTON, March 31 — Kristen Breitweiser was at home in Middletown, N.J., cleaning out closets. Patty Casazza of Colts Neck was dashing to the dry cleaners. Lorie Van Auken of East Brunswick was headed out to do grocery shopping. Her neighbor Mindy Kleinberg had just packed her children off to school. Then came word, Tuesday morning, that President Bush had agreed to allow his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, to testify publicly about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. All at once, the cellphones started ringing and the e-mail started flying and "the Jersey girls," as the four women are known in Washington, were getting credit for chalking up another victory in the nation's capital. Americans just tuning in to the work of the commission investigating the attacks may not have heard of Ms. Breitweiser and the rest. But on Capitol Hill, these suburban women are gaining prominence as savvy World Trade Center widows who came to Washington, as part of a core group of politically active relatives of Sept. 11 victims, and prodded Congress and a recalcitrant White House to create the panel that this week brought official Washington to its knees. "They call me all the time," said Thomas H. Kean, the commission's chairman and a former Republican governor of New Jersey. "They monitor us, they follow our progress, they've supplied us with some of the best questions we've asked. I doubt very much if we would be in existence without them." The families have spent months pressing for Ms. Rice's public testimony; when the White House failed to send her to last week's hearings, they walked out in silent protest. On Tuesday, two Democratic senators, Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts and Charles E. Schumer of New York, suggested that the families think about asking Mr. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney to testify publicly as well. Ms. Van Auken said that had always been their preference. "Of course we would like them to testify publicly," she said Wednesday. .... The women went to Home Depot, sawed wood for signs and staged a Washington rally; 300 people came out in the blistering heat. They staked out lawmakers and boarded the elevators marked "Senators Only." They wheedled their way into the White House. Jay Lefkowitz, a former Bush domestic policy adviser, recalls giving them chocolate chip cookies, even as he successfully opposed some demands. They stayed up nights surfing the Web, taking notes on things like Islamic radicalism and the Federal Aviation Administration's hijacking protocols. .... So the Jersey girls are not congratulating themselves now on Ms. Rice. "There are no victories here," Ms. Casazza said. Ms. Breitweiser added: "A victory implies that this is a game. And this is not a game." these women should be given a medal or something. or, maybe they, and the the rest of us, should be given the truth. just sayin'. les savy fav: "who rocks the party?" "..who rocks the party that rocks the party? " posted by downtown | 4:44 AM a couple of new non-hallmark holidays first, i have neglected to mention a holiday whose time has most certainly come, steak and a blowjob day, if for no other reason than, should i have chosen to celebrate steak and a blowjob day this year, i would have been forced to take myself out for both. regardless, i think it's about time. March 20th is now officially "Steak and Blowjob Day". Simple, effective and self explanatory, this holiday has been created so you ladies finally have a day to show your man how much you love him. No cards, no flowers, no special nights on the town; the name of the holiday explains it all, just a steak and a BJ. Thats it. Finally, this twin pair of Valentine's Day and Steak and Blowjob Day will usher in a new age of love as men everywhere try THAT much harder in February to ensure a memorable March 20th. Its like a perpetual love machine! The word is already beginning to spread, but as with any new idea, it needs a little push to start the ball rolling. So spread the word, and help bring love and peace to this crazy world. And, of course, steak and BJs. simple. to the point. 'nuff said. which brings us to a new holiday i will most certainly be celebrating this year, national "I'm Embarrassed By My President Day". as someone who has spent a good bit of time over the previous few years out of the country, let's just say i have plenty of practice. Are you embarrassed by the arrogance, greed, shortsightedness, selfishness, and outright lies told by George W. Bush and his administration? Join tens of thousands of others across the country and world and wear a brown armband or ribbon to symbolize all the BS coming out of the White House. It's not just that I disagree with the current administration. I'm outraged. And I'm downright embarrassed to talk to anyone from another country. I'm embarrassed to have a President so arrogant, so dishonest, so hawkish, that in three years, he has nearly destroyed any good relations we had before he took office, and worsened those that were already bad. So this April 1st, April Fools day, join tens of thousands of others who are wearing brown armbands or ribbons to signify the bullshit flowing down from Washington. ladies and gents, a holiday for today, a festivus for the rest of us. spread the word! the delgados: "make your move" "so go with me inside believe you have so much to give" posted by downtown | 3:06 AM |
|
Cost of the War in Iraq
(JavaScript Error)
 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. |
|
|
|
|
 |
||||
|
|||||
