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tonight's lead-in by Jimmy Carter

http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20030902/5460386s.htm

We face the strong possibility of another Korean war, with potentially devastating consequences, so the endangered multilateral talks in Beijing are of paramount importance.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/30/international/asia/30KORE.html?ex=1063254789&ei=1&en=02180bba0e083657

BEIJING, Saturday, Aug. 30 - The United States, North Korea and four other nations ended three days of sometimes fiery negotiations here on Friday and decided to keep talking, as Bush administration officials concluded that the diplomatic track still offered the best hope of resolving the Korean nuclear crisis.

..[But] a member of North Korea's delegation to the talks, who did not identify himself, told reporters in Beijing today that he saw no need for further talks. "We are no longer interested. Our expectations have diminished,'' he said, but did not provide details.

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please condy just shut UP.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_30-8-2003_pg4_7

After World War II, the United States came back to Europe and helped to create a whole set of institutions... “We’re now trying to do that, in a sense, in the Middle East, with Iraq and with the Palestinian state and with what we’ve done in Afghanistan,” Dr Condoleezza Rice said Thursday. “There, again, it is the spread of values that will make us more secure."

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a pirate's life for me

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/30/business/30BANK.html?ex=1063299170&ei=1&en=46f2db07370b4af8

J. P. Morgan Chase has been selected to operate a bank the United States is creating in Iraq to manage billions of dollars to finance imports and exports. J. P. Morgan will lead a group that includes 13 banks representing 13 countries to run the bank for three years, said Peter McPherson, the top United States economic adviser in Iraq.

Operating the bank, the Trade Bank of Iraq, will give banks access to the financial system of Iraq, which has huge oil reserves; foreign bank companies have not operated in the country since a policy of nationalization in the 1950's and 1960's.

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hooray for environmentalism. not a satire.

http://www.startribune.com/stories/535/4075320.html

Inside the Federal Cartridge Plant in Anoka [Minnesota]... at the request of the U.S. military, Alliant's ATK ammunition division is embarked on the somewhat oxymoronic quest to design a new "green" bullet that is every bit as lethal to people but doesn't pose the same threat to the environment as lead-based ones. If Alliant is successful, the U.S. military hopes to eliminate lead from most of its bullets over the next decade.

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hooray in general. not a satire.

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/6611094

(Sept. 2, 2003) -- The Oval Office welcomed NFL dignitaries as NFL Kickoff events continued in Washington D.C. Commissioner Paul Tagliabue joined NFL owners... to present President George W. Bush with the official NFL 2003 Kickoff ball. The inscription on the ball says, "The first football of the 2003 season, presented to President George W. Bush, with deep appreciation, Sept. 2, 2003."

The group spent 20 minutes in the Oval Office chatting about the upcoming season... President Bush was joined by Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Powell, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice and Chief of Staff Andy Card.

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but in the meantime...

http://asia.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=3378091

American soldiers struggling to keep a lid on violence in Iraq and concerned by near-daily fatalities yearn to see more troops from other nations share the work of occupation... Lieutenant Israel Guzman, from Texas, [said,] "...The world must understand we cannot only take U.S. troops to do this. Fighting terrorism and nation-building is an international responsibility."

...[Sergeant Michael] Evans said his fellow soldiers, many of whom have experience of multilateral operations elsewhere, were surprised to be still leading the occupation of Iraq. "We all thought we would be seeing those blue goofy helmets everywhere long ago."

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you be the goose. no, YOU be the goose.

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-12755313,00.html

American forces have entered an area in the north of Iraq where they believe Saddam Hussein may be hiding. US troops backed by helicopter gunships moved in on the town of Mosul earlier today.

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rummy explains it all: blend, and blend, and blend.

http://slate.msn.com/id/2087712/

[Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio,Texas, Aug. 25, 2003] - Q: "...Did the administration plan properly for post-war?" A: "...Was it possible to anticipate that... there would be very little killing and capturing of those folks, because they blended into the countryside and they're still fighting their war?"

[Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld at a town hall meeting at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, Feb. 20, 2002] - "The dilemma that the country is facing right now, Afghanistan, is... they have got Taliban and al Qaeda milling around, that have blended into the countryside... and are ready to come back."

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12096-2003Sep1.html

U.S. battlefield casualties in Iraq are increasing dramatically... with almost 10 American troops a day now being officially declared "wounded in action." The number of those wounded in action, which totals 1,124 since the war began in March, has grown so large, and attacks have become so commonplace, that U.S. Central Command usually issues news releases listing injuries only when the attacks kill one or more troops. The result is that many injuries go unreported.

... The number of troops wounded in action in Iraq is now more than twice that of the Persian Gulf War in 1991... Pentagon officials point to advances in military medicine as one of the reasons behind the large number of wounded soldiers; many lives are being saved on the battlefield that in past conflicts would have been lost.

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word from pax salaam, the baghdad blogger

http://dear_raed.blogspot.com/2003_08_01_dear_raed_archive.html#106210341104140826

Our house was searched by the Americans. That happened almost ten days ago. I wasn’t home, but my mother called the next day a bit freaked out.

They came at around 12 midnight they were apparently supposed to do a silent entrance and surprise the criminal Ba’athi cell that was in my parents house, unfortunately for them our front gate does a fair amount of rattling so my brother heard that and opened the door and saw a couple of soldiers climbing on our high black front gate. When the silent entrance tactic failed they resorted to shouty entrance mode. So they shouted at him telling him that he should get down on his knees, which he did. He actually was trying to help them open the door, but whatever.

Seconds later around 25 soldiers are in the house my brother, father and mother are outside sitting on the ground and in their asshole-ish ways refused to answer any questions about what was happening. My father was asking them what they were looking so that he can help but as usual since you are an Iraqi addressing an American is no use since he doesn’t even acknowledge you as a human being standing in front of him.

They (the Americans) have a medic with them and he seems to be the only sane person amongst them, my brother tells me they were kids all of them.

Anyway so my brother and father start talking to the medic and he tells them what this is about. They have been “informed” that there are daily meetings the last five days, Sudanese people come into our house at 9am and stay till 3pm, we are a probable Ansar cell. My father is totally baffled, my brother gets it. These are not Sudanese men they are from Basra the “informer” is stupid enough to forget that there is a sizeable population in Basra who are of African origin. And it is not meetings these 2 (yes only two) guys have here, they are carpenters and they were repairing my mom’s kitchen. Way. To. Go. You have great informers.

While my family is waiting outside something strange happens, one of the soldiers comes out, empties his flask in the garden and start telling the medic to give him his, the medic shoos him away. They all think that the soldier is filling his flask with cold water from the cooler. Later it turns out that he emptied my father’s bottle of Johnny Walker’s into his flask and was probably trying to convince the medic to give him his to empty another bottle. Weird shit.

Aaaaanyway, they are looking thru my father’s papers by now and their genius translator comes to the commander of Operation [Pax House Bust] and tells him he has found “suspicious documents”. They are passes to various conferences he has attended and bank cards for old closed accounts he used to have and most alarmingly for the person in charge was an invitation my father received a couple of days earlier to a meeting with General Abi Zaid to which he and others were flown to the Bakr Air Base north of Baghdad.

Now the guy who was in charge starts trying to cover his ass and asks a lot of pointless questions, one of the more surreal ones was “so if one of your sons is writing for a foreign newspaper why are you still here?”.

After this goes on for a while he gets the family out of the house again, closes the door and stays in there for 15 minutes. Comes out with the 20 galactic troopers and tells my father that he should inside check everything “I don’t want any complains filed later on”, my father just opens the front gate and tells him that if he wants to file a complaint he will thank you and bye-bye.

...After refusing to get one my father finally conceded to get one of those cards that basically say you are a “collaborator”, and my mother will be spending a couple of weeks at her sister’s in Amman.

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/08/31/wirq131.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/08/31/ixhome.html

An estimated 500,000 mourners descended on the holy city of Najaf yesterday for the burial of Iraq's leading Shia cleric who was among at least 80 people killed by a car bomb on Friday... The crowds beat their chests in sorrow and denounced the American-led occupation of Iraq. Chants of "down with America" filled the air... The American occupiers [were] held to be responsible for failing to provide security.

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http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/09/01/1062403457957.html

The Iraqi Governing Council [is]... demanding more control over the day-to-day safety of its citizens... At times visibly upset, members of the US-appointed body criticised the apparent reluctance of US authorities to let Iraqis safeguard the country. The council chairman, Ibrahim Jafari, said US officials should not have dismantled the Iraqi security forces... The result has been a dangerous power vacuum... Another council member, Mohsen Abdul Hamid, said he would step down from his position until the security situation improved.

...One of Iraq's most prominent religious leaders, Ali Hussein al-Sistani, also blamed the US-led coalition for the country's lack of security. "We are putting upon the occupation forces the responsibility for what Iraq is witnessing now. There is a lack of security. There is a lot of crime,"Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani said in a letter made public Sunday.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8636-2003Aug31.html

BAGHDAD, Aug. 31 -- The U.S. military will delay transferring authority in southern Iraq from the Marines to a Polish-led international force because of the car bombing at a mosque in Najaf, a U.S. commander said today. "To leave in the middle of this crisis, the message that sends to the people of Najaf is that we are abandoning them in a time of tragedy and crisis," said Lt. Col. Chris Woodbridge, who commands the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, in the Shiite holy city.

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uh-oh

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3200907.stm

[The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)] in Turkey says it is ending a unilateral ceasefire... A spokeswoman for the group, which has been pressing the government to announce a truce of its own, accused the authorities of failing to grant Kurds greater political and cultural rights... The announcement came as thousands of Kurds staged a demonstration in Diyarbakir - the biggest city in the south-east - to press for more rights and to urge a general amnesty for Kurdish prisoners.

...The Kurds are Turkey's biggest ethnic minority, estimated to make up about one-fifth of the population of around 70 million people.

...Turkey - which along with the US and many European countries regards the PKK as a terrorist organisation - has repeatedly rejected calls to negotiate a solution to the Kurdish conflict.

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http://www.mmorning.com/ArticleC.asp?Article=537&CategoryID=6

As the region’s former imperial ruler, Turkey was claiming a historic duty to intervene in Iraq... while Kurdish leaders in the North of the occupied country were vehemently against the deployment.

While a parliamentary vote on the deployment of troops in Iraq was not expected before mid-September, community leaders within Iraq have already been issuing their own warnings, and the issue has kicked off a debate in Turkey where most of the population was against the US-led war.

...Northern Iraq is also home to that country’s Kurdish minority and, according to Ankara, a hiding place for Turkish Kurdish rebels.

Turkish commentators have been recalling the fact that Iraq was for several centuries under Turkish control, in the form of the Ottoman Empire, until its collapse after World War I. “These lands of the fatherland were in the past defended by our ancestors; we have today the duty to do the same”, read a recent editorial in the mass-market Hurriyet newspaper.

The Turkish authorities believe that around 5,000 militants of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, now known as Kadek, have sought refuge in the mountains that straddle Turkey’s border with Iraq... Not only would Turkish troops be able to track down fighters from their own secessionist Kurdish minority, but they could also curb Iraqi Kurdish aspirations to an independent state.

Ankara is counting on Washington to persuade Kurdish leaders to let Turkish troops through. In return, the deployment of a large number of Muslim Turkish troops in Iraq would, Turkish analysts argue, be a propaganda victory for the United States.

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bratty little yellow brothers

http://www.emedia.com.my/Current_News/NST/Monday/World/20030901090031/Article/

TOKYO, Aug 31: US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage has expressed strong frustration at Japan’s intention to postpone dispatching troops to Iraq... Armitage told Arima that supporting reconstruction in Iraq is not like attending a "tea party"...Cautious remarks by senior Japanese Government officials over the dispatch of Self Defence Forces (SDF) troops may disrupt the international community's unity and cooperation in fighting terrorism, Armitage was quoted as saying. Such Japanese remarks will also nullify efforts by the Iraqi people to reconstruct their country, Armitage said. Armitage also indicated to Japan's ambassador to the US Ryozo Kato in a meeting on Monday that he expected the Air SDF to participate in transport operations in Iraq, Kyodo reported.

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http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20030903_413.html

Japan's foreign minister on Wednesday urged the United States and other holdouts to ratify a treaty banning nuclear weapons tests... Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi told delegates attending a conference on the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty that enacting it would help the world achieve peace... The Bush administration underlined its opposition to the treaty by not formally attending the opening session.

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http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/6666103.htm

BAGHDAD - A shortage of money is seriously hampering the U.S.-led effort to rebuild Iraq, and American taxpayers may end up footing a much larger bill than they expect, according to members of Congress and top U.S. officials in Baghdad.

...Contrary to what Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz told a Senate committee at the start of the war, the reconstruction of Iraq won't be financed almost completely by Iraqi oil revenue.

...To make it through the current year, officials are using a patchwork of funds that include United Nations aid, assets seized from Swiss bank accounts, and the hundreds of millions of dollars in cash that soldiers found in Baath Party safe houses.

''We are going to run a very substantial cash deficit this year, a cash deficit of somewhere in the neighborhood of $3,500,000,000.00,'' Iraq's U.S. administrator, L. Paul Bremer, said at a recent news conference... ''The U.N. estimates that in the next four years, we should spend $16,000,000,000.00 on water alone -- just trying to fix the water,'' he said.

...The total tab, Bremer has estimated, could reach $100,000,000,000.00. Other experts predict it will be many times that.

According to several polls, a majority of Americans already think the government is spending too much in Iraq.

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no way,really?

http://www.zaman.com/default.php?kn=3944

The European Union's (EU) newly appointed weapons inspector Dimitris Perrikos said 'no evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq that could have justified the war could be found'. Perrikos who was talking to the Greek Elefterotipiya newspaper yesterday said, "The weapons found in Iraq weren't enough to start a war. We couldn't find evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, anywhere. Our inspections continue."

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editorial

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/aug0304.html#0828031144am

This article in today's Boston Globe... lays out the "case" the Kay report is going to make about Iraqi WMD or, what the author calls, "the White House's best case so far that Hussein hid an outlawed weapons program." The strategy behind the Kay report will apparently run something like this: Present a body of evidence that utterly discredits the administration's pre-war arguments about WMD. But dress it up with tons of documents and details. Say it confirms the administration's arguments. And then hope no one notices.

Here's the lead from the Globe article: "Investigators searching for Iraq's suspected weapons of mass destruction will report next month that Saddam Hussein's regime spread nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons plans and parts throughout the country to deceive the United Nations, according to senior Bush administration and intelligence officials... The weapons programs were intended to be pulled together quickly... although the development of a nuclear weapon would probably take many months, if not years."

That "many months, if not years" line is really one for the chronicles of egregious understatement. But look at the broader point. What they're talking about is stuff like the centrifuge parts Mahdi Obeidi had under his rose bush.

...Then there are gems like this: "Officials said the investigators plan to paint a picture of an Iraqi government intent on expanding its ability to produce chemical and biological weapons and continuing its search for a nuclear bomb... A key aspect of the case, the sources said, will be so-called "dual use" equipment designed for making, for example, pesticides, but also useful for producing chemical weapons."

...The argument here is that the thoroughly shuttered and static state of the Iraqi WMD 'programs' are a sign of how ingeniously covert they were.

Or another pearl like this: "The Iraqis' so-called "break-out" program -- which could rely on small, dispersed teams of specialists and hidden equipment and supplies to build weapons of mass destruction in the event of relaxed scrutiny -- also could explain why the Republican Guard did not use chemical weapons against American troops in the war."

...Let's translate this: the Republican Guard's failure to use weapons of mass destruction might be explained by the fact that Saddam had shuttered his WMD programs until sanctions were lifted. That logic is pretty hard to dispute, isn't it?

...We really do need a comprehensive report... But Kay's report is clearly going to be as political as it gets. And full of funny business. This is a deadly serious issue. But as long as they're approaching it in this way, it merits ridicule. -- Josh Marshall

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http://www.gsnonweb.com/gsnlib_a/GSN2003/2003_09/20030901/215923.html

A human rights law firm in Belfast said on Monday it was supporting the families of Iraqi civilians shot dead by the U.S. military in a planned multimillion dollar law suit. Madden & Finucane, set up by a high-profile Catholic human rights lawyer who was later murdered by Protestant guerrillas, said plans were at an early stage to mount a 15 million dollar legal challenge in U.S. courts.

..."To a great extent there seems to be complete impunity for American soldiers in Iraq and no accountability at all for the victims' families," [Solicitor Richie MacRitchie] told Reuters. "There is no process for independent and full investigations of state killings in Northern Ireland and it's also severely lacking in Iraq," he said.

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the passion of tony blair

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=438772

A new "Department of Truth" headed by a top-ranking civil servant is to be set up in Whitehall after the departure of Tony Blair's leading spin-doctor, Alastair Campbell. The decision to appoint a new Permanent Secretary in charge of the entire government communications network will be part of an effort to end damaging publicity about the role of politically appointed "spin-doctors".

...The brain behind the strategy is Peter Mandelson, the former Labour Party communications director who is credited with being the first of the new wave of spin-doctors when he worked for the party in the 1980s.

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/3193823.stm

About 1,000 anti-war campaigners gathered in central London on Saturday to hold an alternative inquiry into the war in Iraq. Speakers demanded the government be held to account through a "people's dossier" on the war on Iraq.

...Organised by the Stop the War Coalition, the meeting on Saturday adopted a peace declaration that called for the government's actions to be open to full public scrutiny... The British Government should now dissociate itself from further wars planned by the US "under the pretext of the 'war on terror' and adopt instead a foreign policy based on principles of peace and social justice," they added.

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http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=0-ARMYPAPER-2152000.php

At least one family, and possibly two, want independent opinions on what caused the deaths of their loved ones after they became ill in Iraq. In a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the Bellville, Texas, family of Army Spc. Zeferino Colunga requested medical records, personal effects and blood and tissue samples of the 20-year-old soldier... The family was told he had pneumonia and acute leukemia, his 19-year-old sister, Teresa Colunga, said. “We gave the military my brother alive,” she said. “They gave him back to us dead. I want to find out what happened.”

...The letter was drafted on the family’s behalf by the National Gulf War Resource Center. The group sent a virtually identical letter to Rumsfeld in the name of the family of Spc. Joshua Neusche, 20, of Montreal, Mo., who died in Germany on July 12 of pneumonia... Since March, 18 U.S. service members in Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom have suffered severe cases of pneumonia and needed ventilation. Two have died... Defense health officials can’t release data on the deaths without the next of kin’s written permission. Officials say they have one unsigned letter that seems to be from the Neusche family but have not seen the letter from the Colungas.

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meanwhile,back at the valley of armageddon

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/09/01/mideast/index.html

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israel declared "all-out war" against Hamas Monday and said it is freezing diplomatic relations with the Palestinian Authority.

...Before the Israeli announcement, Israeli military helicopters fired missiles at Hamas members Monday in Gaza City... Twenty-five people were wounded in the attack, according to Dr. Mauia Abu Hasanin, director of the Shifa Hospital emergency room. In addition to Monday's strike, Israeli helicopter attacks during the past two weeks have killed 10 Hamas activists and wounded more than 50 Palestinians.

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http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=1EK5SCPPBW5D0CRBAEKSFEY?type=topNews&storyID=3363724

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel's defense minister on Sunday raised the specter of an Israeli invasion in the Gaza Strip, where Palestinian militants already face a deadly air campaign... "We always have the option of a ground operation in Gaza," Shaul Mofaz said. "We will exercise it when we decide it is right to do so, at the appropriate time."

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"armageddon sick of it!"

http://www.forward.com/issues/2003/03.08.29/oped3.html

The Zionist revolution has always rested on two pillars: a just path and an ethical leadership. Neither of these is operative any longer... The Jewish people did not survive for two millennia in order to pioneer new weaponry, computer security programs or anti-missile missiles. We were supposed to be a light unto the nations. In this we have failed.

It turns out that the 2,000-year struggle for Jewish survival comes down to a state of settlements, run by an amoral clique of corrupt lawbreakers who are deaf both to their citizens and to their enemies. A state lacking justice cannot survive. More and more Israelis are coming to understand this as they ask their children where they expect to live in 25 years. Children who are honest admit, to their parents' shock, that they do not know. The countdown to the end of Israeli society has begun.

...Even if the Arabs lower their heads and swallow their shame and anger forever, it won't work. A structure built on human callousness will inevitably collapse in on itself... If all this were inevitable, divinely ordained and immutable, I would be silent. But things could be different, and so crying out is a moral imperative. Here is what the prime minister should say to the people:

The time for illusions is over. The time for decisions has arrived. We love the entire land of our forefathers and in some other time we would have wanted to live here alone. But that will not happen. The Arabs, too, have dreams and needs.

Between the Jordan and the Mediterranean there is no longer a clear Jewish majority. And so, fellow citizens, it is not possible to keep the whole thing without paying a price. We cannot keep a Palestinian majority under an Israeli boot and at the same time think ourselves the only democracy in the Middle East. There cannot be democracy without equal rights for all who live here, Arab as well as Jew. We cannot keep the territories and preserve a Jewish majority in the world's only Jewish state — not by means that are humane and moral and Jewish.... He should present the choices forthrightly: Jewish racialism or democracy. Settlements or hope for both peoples. False visions of barbed wire, roadblocks and suicide bombers, or a recognized international border between two states and a shared capital in Jerusalem.

But there is no prime minister in Jerusalem. The disease eating away at the body of Zionism has already attacked the head... Israel's current prime minister personally embodies both halves of the curse: suspect personal morals and open disregard for the law — combined with the brutality of occupation and the trampling of any chance for peace. This is our nation, these its leaders. The inescapable conclusion is that the Zionist revolution is dead.

...Anyone who declines to present a clear-cut position — black or white — is in effect collaborating in the decline. It is not a matter of Labor versus Likud or right versus left, but of right versus wrong, acceptable versus unacceptable. The law-abiding versus the lawbreakers. What's needed is not a political replacement for the Sharon government but a vision of hope, an alternative to the destruction of Zionism and its values by the deaf, dumb and callous.

Israel's friends abroad — Jewish and non-Jewish alike, presidents and prime ministers, rabbis and lay people — should choose as well. They must reach out and help Israel to navigate the road map toward our national destiny as a light unto the nations and a society of peace, justice and equality.

[Author Avraham Burg was speaker of Israel's Knesset from 1999 to 2003 and is a former chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel. He is currently a Labor Party Knesset member. This essay is adapted by the author from an article that appeared in Yediot Aharonot.]

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http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/336100.html

Israel has launched a campaign to get the United Nations to declare a moratorium on all resolutions that denounce Israel or demand that it change its policies without parallel denunciations or demands regarding Palestinian terrorism. Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Gillerman presented the idea Tuesday at a special meeting with the UN ambassadors of 25 European states who either are, or are slated to become, members of the European Union.

...Israel is arguing that a moratorium on one-sided anti-Israel resolutions is required by the road map peace plan.

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http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/09/03/1062548898907.html

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has been quoted as saying that the US-backed "road map" for Middle East peace is dead... "The road map is dead, but only because of Israeli military aggression in recent weeks," Mr Arafat said.

...A senior adviser to Mr Arafat said yesterday the Palestinians remained committed to the road map. "The Palestinians continue to respect the road map, and it still exists," Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP... "We appeal to the quartet [the United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia] to work towards its application and appeal to the world to support the Palestinian people in the face of Israel which is trying hard to destroy the road map," he added.

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http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/09/01/world/main570977.shtml

Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz warned Tuesday that Israel may have to expel Arafat soon if he keeps getting in the way of the road map... Over the weekend, Israel's vice premier, Ehud Olmert, said another option is to isolate Arafat completely at his headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

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meanwhile, back at the OTHER valley of armageddon

http://jang.com.pk/thenews/sep2003-daily/01-09-2003/main/main2.htm

ISLAMABAD: The United States has offered sale of modern arms worth $9,000,000,000.00 to Pakistan for its armed forces, it is learnt. Sources said Pakistan has compiled its arms and spares shopping list after the US made this biggest-ever offer to Pakistan.

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mm-hmm.

http://jang.com.pk/thenews/sep2003-daily/01-09-2003/world/w5.htm

BRUSSELS: India has handed over a huge ‘defence shopping list’ to Israel before Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s visit to India... Some of the requested defence equipment was provided to Israel by the US and a report underlined: "Washington seems to have no trepidation in according the required permission for providing such sophisticated arms to India".

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yet more editorializing

http://www.crookedtimber.org/archives/000423.html

More troops now, more money now, and nation-building for the long haul. This is the emerging consensus across much of the political spectrum, left and right... The domestic goal is to get the public used to the idea. [Sen. John] McCain... articulates the Domino Theory of Democratization, saying that

"Iraq’s transformation into a progressive Arab state could set the region … on a new course in which democratic expression and economic prosperity, … define a modernity in the Muslim world that does not express itself in ways that threaten its people or other nations." [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2466-2003Aug29.html]

...I find the new domino theory about as convincing as the old one.

...Now that the U.S. is entrenched in Iraq, it must stay because to withdraw would be to give a victory to “every bad actor in the Middle East.” Iraq is where the war on terror is being fought. But of course it’s being fought there because that’s where the U.S. has chosen to put its soldiers. Which is why it must stay. Around and around we go. That is the logic of a quagmire... The U.S.’s day-to-day problems in Iraq may end up resembling Northern Ireland rather than Vietnam.

...The way to argue against it is to say there are predictable changes to Iraqi society that would trigger a withdrawal. Hence the appeals to post-WWII Europe. I’m not convinced by this comparison, but others are welcome to make the case for it. My questions to them are the same ones I was asking back in March: Since WWII, how many autocratic or totalitarian countries have been invaded by a democracy, had the bad guys deposed, and a stable democratic regime installed? And how does this number compare to the number of invasions or other interventions that resulted in puppet governments, friendly autocrats, messy long-term military occupations, or outright disasters?

...If there is a realistic exit strategy from Iraq, it may depend on having believable measures of terrorism’s root-causes. It’ll be interesting to see the people who sneered at the very idea of thinking in those terms eventually pointing to such measures as evidence of the success of their policies.

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more adventures in public relations

http://www.lewrockwell.com/north/north203.html

I am an ad man. Make no mistake about it... I don't watch much commercial TV, but when I do, I pay close attention to the ads... The ads reveal what the best psychologists on earth and the most skilled public opinion researchers believe will reach out through the noise and grab Americans in their capacity as consumers.

...The bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Iraq may turn out to be the tipping point in Mr. Bush's presidency... The UN explosion... was not of the same order of magnitude as the daily assassinations had been. Now, every death is seen as an amplification of the UN attack. There has been a change in public perception because of the number of the UN victims. There is a phrase of Hegel's, which was picked up by Frederick Engels, Marx's financier and partner: "the transformation of quantity into quality." I think we have seen this transformation.

Unless the attacks somehow cease or become non-lethal, each attack will be seen by all concerned as representing the inability of U.S. forces to bring stability to Iraq... Each attack will be seen accurately. This is exactly the perception that assassinations are always designed by terrorists to produce, going back to the nihilist groups in late-nineteenth century Russia.

President Bush's now famous "Bring 'em on" remark, daring Iraqi terrorists to attack American troops, is looking more and more like Jimmy Carter's "Trust me" and Richard Nixon's "I am not a crook." The remark is on video, which is always dangerous to a politician. This is why every televised report of each American soldier's death... is no longer likely to be perceived by the viewing public as just another random event in a series of random events. It is now likely to be seen as part of a cumulative development: a permanent terrorist policy. What policy? In four words, "to bring it on."

...Consider the following scenario: a series of TV ads begin to appear nightly immediately after the Republican convention is over next year. They will be negative ads. They will promote no Democratic candidate. They will therefore not be under the tight restrictions of the Federal Election Commission. Each ad will begin with a video clip of President Bush's "Bring 'em on!" challenge. Then the screen will shift rapidly to the burned-out remains of a building or a Humvee. Underneath will be these words: a date, a location, and a death count.

Then a black screen with white print will announce: America needs a new policy. There will be an ID of some kind: "Citizens for a Lasting Peace" or "Mothers to Stop the Bloodshed." There will be no bodies on screen. There will be only bombed-out buildings and equipment. Each ad will last no longer than 15 seconds.

There will be a new ad every night – same time, same station. Every night. Same time, same station. On three networks. But not Fox. The Republican National Committee will scream bloody murder. That, of course, is precisely the problem: bloody murder. Every night. Same time, same station.

...A negative ad that begins with the President's image and defiant words would be a nightmare for the Republicans. No Democrat is visible on-screen. Just the President, offering his challenge, and the charred results, one by one, night after night, with never a repetition. What could the Republicans do to counter the graphic images of these ads? They could send Colin Powell to talk to Tim Russert. Then what? This would be the ultimate talking head: the President of the United States calling for hit squads to bring it on. One by one, the results of these hit squads would be broadcast. Every night, same time, same station... "Don't touch that dial!"

...America needs a new policy. One way or another, America is going to get a new policy. Too many terrorists are bringing it on.

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bite the hands that be

http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2003/08/30/group_gets_private_data_on_us_officials?mode=PF

Almost everything is for sale on the Internet -- even the Social Security numbers of top government officials like CIA Director George Tenet and Attorney General John Ashcroft, consumer advocates warned Wednesday. The California-based Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights said for $26 each it was able to purchase the Social Security numbers and home addresses for Tenet, Ashcroft and other top Bush administration officials, including Karl Rove, the president's chief political adviser.

...The CIA declined to comment, and calls to the Justice Department were not immediately returned.

...Beth Givens, director of Privacy Rights Clearinghouse based in San Diego, said there are at least a dozen sites that provide Social Security numbers and other private data."If you're willing to spend a little money, you can get this type of information very easily on the Internet," said Givens.

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meanwhile, back at the ranch

http://babelogue.citypages.com:8080/ecassel/2003/08/30#a216

According to a report in The Washington Post, support for the Patriot Act is waning in the country, including Idaho, where Ashcroft's summer revival tour traveled this week. Idaho's Rep. C.L. "Butch" Otter (R)... sponsored an amendment approved 309 to 118 by the House in July, which would cut off funding for "sneak-and-peek" warrants. Ashcroft calls this a "mistake," and says that those who voted for the amendment "did not know what they were voting for." Also voting yea was Sen. Larry E. Craig (R-Idaho), a former singing mate of Ashcroft's in the senate quartet, who now is singing dissident chords about the law.

...New Harris Poll numbers indicate that less than 50 percent of those polled like the show's star, and 40 percent disapprove of his performance. And as long as Ashcroft continues to sing his repressive military march and accuse those who would curtail the Patriot Act of being traitors, his popularity is likely to drop.

...Ashcroft's words that he "values debate" and does not want to silence it, is belied by his deputizing his US Attorneys to speak personally with dissident Congressional members and report back to him. Report what? They they disagree? To what end? That they can be prosecuted as national security risks? "It's pretty reckless to say that 309 members of Congress want to tip off terrorists," said Otter, who noted that more than a third of the votes cast for his amendment came from Republicans.

...Some suggest that Bush's handlers sent Ashcroft on the road to test the country's tone toward him and curtailment of civil liberties. If it flops in New Haven (or Idaho), Bush's producers and directors can tweak the show and maybe even replace its star before it opens at the Republican convention next summer... George W. Bush is not into self-sacrifice, so he may very well sacrifice Brother John on the altar of political convenience, if there is the slightest chance it will save his presidency from going to hell.

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change of venue

http://www.talkleft.com/archives/004167.html#004167

Attorney General John Ashcroft has taken his Patriot Act road show to Norway. On the last day of his four day visit, he warns about a suspected terrorist in Norway, and suggests if he's extradited, the death penalty can be avoided... On Friday, Ashcroft talked to reporters in Oslo about weapons of mass destruction... “We’ve already found a number of things which are troublesome, things that relate to the development of the evil chemistry and evil biology that could be very dangerous to the human kind,” Ashcroft told reporters during a visit to Oslo.

Despite urgings from Norway's Justice Minister, Ashcroft also pledged that the U.S. would not change its mind about refusing to provide P.O.W. status to the detainees at Guanatanamo... Ashcroft branded the detainees were "unlawful combatants" who did not qualify as prisoners of war because they had "attacked innocent civilians without warning" and had, for instance, operated without uniforms.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A11745-2003Sep1.html

Listening to Ari Fleischer used to be free... Now, hearing the former White House press secretary praise President Bush can be pricey. Fleischer raised $100,000 for his former boss's reelection campaign on Thursday at a fundraiser in South Burlington, Vt., with tickets running $1,500 a person or $2,500 a couple.

...Fleischer, in his seventh week away from the White House podium, is scheduled to headline five more Republican fundraisers over the next two months, with plans to speak at more Bush-Cheney events later. He is scheduled to give more than 50 paid speeches to colleges, corporations and trade associations by next Memorial Day, earning five figures for each.

...The Republican Party has already opened a huge fundraising lead over the Democrats, according to numbers released last week by the Federal Election Commission.

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but meanwhile, on with the tax-funded not-a-formal-campaign road show!

http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/news/local/6671314.htm

Labor Day traffic flowed smoothly at the intersection of [Ohio] State Routes 303 and 176 -- until 10 a.m... That's when Richfield [Ohio] police and those from neighboring environs shut it down... It was their way of corralling the clamorous and rain-soaked 400 or so foot soldiers [sic] who had come not to welcome but to protest President Bush's visit.

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http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20030902-121410-7295r.htm

RICHFIELD, Ohio (AP) — President Bush announced yesterday he is creating a high-level government post to nurture the manufacturing sector, which is bleeding jobs in states crucial to his re-election.

...Mr. Bush did not name the new manufacturing official, and gave no timetable for offering a nomination to the Senate. Nor did he specify what duties the new post would include... Mr. Bush spent most of his speech expressing empathy for anxious workers and wiping rain from his head, which became thoroughly drenched despite his union hat.

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http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2003-09-01-epa-usat_x.htm

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration has ended a 25-year-old ban on the sale of land polluted with PCBs... The Environmental Protection Agency decided the ban was "an unnecessary barrier to redevelopment."

...The decision, already in effect, has not been made public. It is being treated as a "new interpretation" of existing law, according to the memo, which was obtained by USA TODAY. As such, no public comment was required.

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http://asia.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=3381872

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration said on Wednesday it was easing rules that require hospitals to provide emergency care to anyone who seeks it. The revisions... would make it easier for a facility to turn away patients.

More than 40 million Americans lack health insurance, and many of these uninsured use emergency facilities. Emergency room staff say they often cannot handle the influx.

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signs o'the times, east coast

http://nydailynews.com/front/story/114073p-102888c.html

Sharon Jones stood in the blazing sun the other day, waiting in line to fill the plastic bag folded under her arm with enough food to get through the week. Jones said she used to be a designer at a Tribeca costume store but lost her job after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. Unable to find work, she eventually went to a food pantry - a destination that would be just a year away for 69% of New Yorkers if they lost their jobs today, according to a survey to be released today.

Forty percent of those surveyed said they would be just three months from not being able to afford something to eat if they got fired.

...The Marist College poll, commissioned by the Food Bank for New York City, also found that Jones had lots of company over the past year, with 32% of city parents unable to buy food at all or having trouble at least once coming up with enough cash to buy groceries for their children.

...The hardest-hit borough is the Bronx, where, the study said, 37% of the people could not buy or had trouble buying food at least once in the year.

Latinos are the most likely to face hunger in the future, with 85% saying they would need help within a year of losing work, the study said. For blacks, the number was 78%; for whites, it was 59%.

The line outside Yorkville stretched the entire block on Thursday, when 600 families showed up for pasta, chicken breast, Rice Krispies and bottled juice.

...Pollsters interviewed 937 adults in the city from mid-August to late August. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

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signs o'the times, west coast

http://home.pacbell.net/mabjo/martha.html#40

The S[an] F[rancisco] Chron[icle] has given the annual homeless deaths statistic its top headline today: 169 dead. The figure was collected by the city medical examiner's office administrator, who told the Chron he may actually have undercounted.

...The rich-kid candidate for mayor, Gavin Newsom, is trying to spin this tragedy to say that the problem is (drumroll, please) - panhandling.

...It seems that many of the deaths had something to do with drugs. And why is this? Well, it seems the problem is not poverty, it is not despair, it is not the unconscionable housing shortage, it is not the downtown business philosophy that treats the poor as vermin... it is not the daily uncertainty and fear and worry of living homeless that drives people to escape it through altered states -- no, the problem is allowing homeless people to have cash.

And Mr. Newsom has an answer for us, oh yes he does... yet another anti-panhandling law, so poor people won't ask for money.

Because, he tells us, if they have money, they'll use it to buy drugs.

This is like the part in Oliver Twist where Oliver becomes unsatisfactorily rebellious toward his new masters and Mr. Bumble from the orphanage says the mistake was feeding the boy meat.

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http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/09/02/1416256

Sgt. Vannessa Turner was one of approximately 150,000 American soldiers fighting in Baghdad [this year]. On May 18, she collapsed due to the severe 130-degree heat. Her body was full of mosquito bites. She fell into a coma and nearly died.

Turner was airlifted for treatment in Germany and was further treated in Washington D.C. until she was released on July 10. She came back to her so-called "hometown" in Boston and faced a new battle. She was unable to receive treatment for damaged nerves in her leg. She was unable to have her possessions shipped to her from her military base in Germany. She and her 15 year-old daughter are homeless.

On her return, she was told by the local Veterans Affairs hospital that she needed to wait close to 3 months to see a doctor. When she attempted to secure a veteran’s loan for a house in Boston, brokers told her that her only option was to move to Springfield or Worcester... According to the Boston Globe, army officials say she is the first known homeless veteran of the war in Iraq.

[listen to the radio interview at this website.]

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http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2001684057_bush01.html

The nation marks Labor Day this year with an estimated 9,000,000 Americans on the unemployment rolls — 700,000 more than on this holiday last year.

...The nation's unemployment rate hit a nine-year high of 6.4 percent in June but then edged down to 6.2 percent in July... That improvement, however, partly reflected the fact that 500,000 discouraged workers gave up looking for a job and left the labor market.

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http://www.newhavenregister.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=10097092&BRD=1281&PAG=461&dept_id=517515&rfi=6

[On Monday,] 4,500 marchers [marched] down Dixwell Avenue to the heart of Yale University’s campus in support of its striking workers... The unions representing 4,000 clerical, technical and service workers have been on strike since Aug. 27 over better wages, job security and pensions.

...The workers are seeking wage parity with the state public colleges. The union said the average worker who retired in 2000 took home a $600 monthly pension.

...At the end of the speeches, which were delivered from the steps of Yale’s Battell Chapel, about 30 clergy and union supporters formed lines to block Elm and College streets. After 19 were put in police vans, those remaining in the street quickly dispersed.

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social justice news

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/09/02/national/main571247.shtml

A federal appeals court overturned more than 100 death sentences in Arizona, Idaho and Montana Tuesday, ruling that condemned inmates in the three states were wrongly sent to death row by judges instead of juries.

By an 8-3 vote, the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said all condemned inmates sentenced by a judge should have their sentences commuted to life terms... Ken Murray, a federal public defender in Phoenix... estimated that the decision affects at least 100 inmates on Arizona's death row alone.

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a wee reminder. archived from april 2003.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/04/11/world/main548918.shtml

The number of people executed by governments worldwide fell dramatically last year, but increased in the United States, which is the only known country to apply the death penalty for crimes committed as juveniles, Amnesty International reported.

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more than one way to skin a cat

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3189763.stm

Project Prevention or Crack [is] an American organisation which pays drug addicts and alcoholics to be sterilised.

...As the programme reaches its fifth anniversary, [founder] Barbara Harris also believes she has cause to celebrate. Some 1,050 addicts - mainly women - have undergone sterilisation as part of her programme over the past five years... The number of clients has more than doubled over the past 12 months compared with the year before.

..."People are starting to accept that it's a good idea. Probation officers, social workers and those who work on drug treatment programmes are increasingly referring their clients to us," she says... Some prisons - such as the Bernalillo County Detention Center in Albuquerque - have apparently allowed the group to host information sessions for their female inmates.

...Ms Harris, who was quoted in one of her first interviews as saying "We don't allow dogs to breed. We spay them. We neuter them. We try to keep them from having unwanted puppies, and yet these women are literally having litters of children," has since toned down her language... But the essence of her project remains the same. It offers drug addicts and alcoholics a sum of $200 for opting for a long-term form of birth control, such as sterilisation or a contraceptive implant.

...Dr Laura Schlessinger, one of the nation's most popular radio talk-show hosts, has made hefty donations and has frequently plugged the project. [mrs. henry hates dr. laura with a burning passion that is almost holy in its intensity.]

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counter-convention!

http://www.counterconvention.org/

... Why host a [Republican] convention in September? Why New York? By exploiting our grief and trauma from September 11th, the right wing intends to further their regressive political agenda.

The convention is more than a year away, but already a huge variety of organizations are discussing ideas and strategies for countering the GOP. This site is simply an attempt to facilitate dialogue within the wide range of groups who intend to protesting the convention in 2004.

Imagine: A million people on the street, representing the diversity of New York, and the multiplicity of this nation...

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ani 'n' willie!

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/newsarticle.asp?nid=18586

Ani DiFranco and Willie Nelson are some of the first big-name musicians to align themselves with a presidential candidate: Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich, a proponent of universal health care and increased aid to small farmers.

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'n' eminem!

http://www.thenation.com/edcut/index.mhtml?bid=7&pid=893

In a recent poll that asked about truthfulness, rapper Eminem scored higher than President Bush. According to a global marketing agency, Euro RSCG Worldwide, 53 percent of American adults aged 35-44 believe that Eminem's lyrics contain "more truth" than Bush's speeches. (62 percent in the 18-24 age group agreed.)

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so now for a word from eminem himself.

http://www.eminem-lyrics.net/eminem-show/sing-for-the-moment.shtml

These ideas are nightmares to white parents / whose worst fear is a child with dyed hair who likes earrings / Like whatever they say has no bearing / It's so scary in a house that allows no swearing / to see him walkin around with his headphones blaring / Alone in his own zone, cold and he don't care / He's a problem child, and what bothers him all comes out / when he talks about his fuckin dad walkin out

Cause he just hates him so bad that he blocks him out / If he ever saw him again he'd probably knock him out / His thoughts are whacked, he's mad so he's talkin back / Talkin black, brainwashed from rock and rap / He sags his pants; doo rags and a stockin cap / His step-father hit him so he socked him back / and broke his nose, his house is a broken home / There's no control, he just lets his emotions go...

...And that's why we sing, for these kids who don't have a thing / except for a dream and a fuckin Rap magazine/ Who post pin-up pictures on they walls all day long/ Idolize they favorite rappers and know all they songs / Or for anyone who's ever been through shit in they lives / 'Til they sit and they cry at night wishin they'd die / 'Til they throw on a rap record and they sit and they vibe

We're nothin to you - but we're the fuckin shit in their eyes / That's why we seize the moment, try to freeze it and own it, / Squeeze it and hold it, cause we consider these minutes golden...

[mrs. henry says eminem is a saint augustine for our times.]