~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

inconceivable.

http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/manhattan/ny-saidobit0925,0,1201707.story?coll=nyc-manheadlines-manhattan

Edward W. Said, a Columbia University professor and leading spokesman in the United States for the Palestinian cause, has died. He was 67. Said had suffered from leukemia for years.

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http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/343998.html

The [Israeli] Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee said Thursday it would discuss next week the protest letter that nine Air Force pilots signed to indicate their refusal to take part in operations in the [Palestinian] territories. Altogether, 27 reserve pilots signed the letter... but only nine of them are still on active duty with the force. The signatories... described aerial activity in the territories as "illegal and immoral."

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http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=341954&contrassID=1

A group of reserve pilots in the Israel Air Force is planning to publicly announce their refusal to participate in attempts to assassinate senior wanted men in the Palestinian Authority.

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http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/344427.html

Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom told the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday night that it "must reform" and criticized its anti-Israel "hostility." ...Every year, he said, the General Assembly passes a "litany of resolutions" to "discredit Israel."

...Last week, the General Assembly passed a resolution that demands Israel halt threats to expel Arafat and condemns Palestinian suicide attacks against Israelis. The resolution also deplores Israel's "extrajudicial killings and their recent escalation," and says those killings are both violations of international law and an impediment to relaunching the peace process.

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unresistance is futile

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/24/international/middleeast/24IRAQ.html

SICHIR, Iraq, Sept. 23 — Tahseen Ali Khalaf was asleep beside his brother Hussein when the shooting started early this morning outside their ramshackle house in this farming community 40 miles west of Baghdad, he said. Then a pair of United States fighter jets swooped in, dropping nearly a dozen bombs or missiles — it was not immediately clear which... Now Tahseen, 12, and Hussein, 10, are lying beside each other again, in the main hospital in nearby Falluja... The air attack in Sichir killed three men and wounded another, in addition to Tahseen and Hussein, family members said today.

...From a preliminary examination of the scene, it was obvious that a major attack had occurred. Bomb or missile craters dotted the yard of the house, and family members pointed to two places where the ordnance had landed but failed to detonate. Bullet holes punctured steel doors and shattered windows... For the second time in two weeks, a unit of the 82nd Airborne appeared to have attacked an unresisting group of Iraqis.

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don't read all about it

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=8058

Reporters Without Borders voiced outrage and disappointment today at the US Department of Defence's announcement that an official investigation has cleared the soldiers who shot and killed Palestinian cameraman Mazen Dana on 17 August in Baghdad. A Pentagon spokesman, Lt. Col. George Krivo, yesterday said the investigation concluded that "although it was a regrettable incident," the soldiers "acted within the rules of engagement." Dana's employers, the British news agency Reuters, were not told prior to the announcement that the investigation had finished or what its findings were.

...The organisation wrote to US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on 18 August asking that soldiers in the field be given very clear instructions to act with restraint and care in order to respect the freedom of movement of journalists and not expose them to excessive danger. This request elicited no response and further incidents have occurred since then.

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http://www.hrw.org/press/2003/09/us-iraq092403.htm

Overaggressive reactions by U.S. military forces in Iraq are putting journalists and other civilians in unnecessary danger, Human Rights Watch said today. On September 18, U.S. army troops opened fire on an Associated Press (AP) reporter and photographer in the town of Khaldiya, 50 miles west of Baghdad. No one was injured, but the photographer's car was badly damaged. On August 17, U.S. forces shot and killed a Reuters television cameraman, Mazen Dana, outside the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad. According to the military, they mistook his camera for a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG)... Human Rights Watch also spoke with Ghaith `Abd al-Ahad, an Iraqi national who works as a news assistant for the New York Times. He told Human Rights Watch that U.S. soldiers threw him to the ground, and handcuffed and verbally abused him [and so on.]

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speaking of journalism

http://salon.com/news/feature/2003/09/24/moon/index_np.html

Last December, at his three-day God and World Peace event, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon [founding publisher of the Washington Times] drew a notable slate of political figures, from Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., to Rep. Danny Davis, D-Ill., and, perhaps most notably, James Towey, director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, who offered some respectful opening remarks to Moon's Unification Church faithful.

Moon followed, and called for all religions to come together in support of the Bush plan for faith-based initiatives. Coming from Moon that made perfect sense, because he already believes all religions will come together -- under him. "The separation between religion and politics," he has observed on many occasions, "is what Satan likes most." His gospel: Jesus failed because he never attained worldly power. [details follow - but because salon.com is the biggest sellout ever, you can't read them unless you pay for them. oh, rock on --mrs.h]

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that's my bush

http://www.msnbc.com/news/970681.asp?0cv=OB10&cp1=1

Sept. 23 — Has an American president ever delivered such a bafflingly impertinent speech before the General Assembly as the one George W. Bush gave this morning? ...He cited only three areas in which the role of the United Nations (or any other nations) should be expanded: writing an Iraqi constitution, training a new corps of civil servants, and supervising elections.

...Otherwise, Bush’s message can be summarized as follows: The U.S.-led occupation authority is doing good work in Iraq; you should come help us; if you don’t, you’re on the side of the terrorists.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/24/international/middleeast/24ASSE.html?ex=1065384645&ei=1&en=d8f0a2256a15248d

Fidgeting in an almost eerily silent hall — where the audience observed a tradition of not applauding before or during a speech and offered only perfunctory applause at the end — the president spoke in an even tone, occasionally smiling but rarely becoming passionate.

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from the full text

http://www.msnbc.com/news/970663.asp

...Events during the past two years have set before us the clearest of divides: Between those who seek order, and those who spread chaos; between those who work for peaceful change, and those who adopt the methods of gangsters... Between these alternatives there is no neutral ground. All governments that support terror are complicit in a war against civilization.

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http://truthout.org/docs_03/092403A.shtml

"That's the spirit, George. If nothing else works, then a total pig-headed unwillingness to look facts in the face will see us through." -- General Sir Anthony Cecil Hogmanay Melchett, 'Blackadder Goes Forth'

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http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/Main.asp?SectionID=25&SubSectionID=354&ArticleID=89671

Vice President Dick Cheney’s appearance at the Center of New Hampshire drew fewer than 90 supporters inside and roughly twice as many protesters across Elm Street outside Tuesday night.

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http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20030922-124058-1300r.htm

The Bush administration decided to arrest Army Capt. James J. Yee... Capt. Yee, a Muslim chaplain who counseled al Qaeda and Taliban detainees at a specially constructed prison at the base, was arrested Sept. 10 by the FBI upon arriving in Jacksonville, Fla., on a military charter flight from Guantanamo. The Washington Times reported Saturday that agents confiscated classified documents in the West Point graduate's possession... [that] included a list of detainees and the names of U.S. prison personnel at Guantanamo.

...The source said there was a debate within the administration on whether to arrest Capt. Yee or keep him under surveillance. The source declined to say which agency advocated the Sept. 10 arrest, but said the order came from "the highest levels." ...The official said the case was "extremely sensitive. Nobody wants to create the impression we listen to clergy while administering to the flock. But this guy warranted attention."

...Camp Delta, the Guantanamo prison, is one of the government's most secure locations. Every conversation and document inside the compound is classified... According to the law-enforcement source, a military officer listed five charges against Capt. Yee: sedition; aiding the enemy; spying; espionage; and failure to obey a general order.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/sep2003/yee-s23.shtml

Why has the government thrown Yee into the navy brig reserved for those US citizens alleged by the Bush administration to be “terrorists”? ...Yee is a professional army officer and a West Point graduate. It hardly seems credible that he is a secret collaborator of Al Qaeda... One US police official, again speaking not for attribution, told the Washington Post that the “fear and suspicion” guiding the persecution of Yee is that he was too sympathetic to the Guantanamo detainees and may have been planning to help them in some way.

...There have already been 31 suicide attempts among the detainees... US military personnel at Camp Delta outnumber the prisoners by a ratio of 4-to-1 and conduct constant interrogations... The media has reported recently that these interrogations have been stepped up as Washington prepares to conduct drum-head military trials of at least some of the detainees. It has also been reported that a death chamber is already being prepared at Guantanamo. It is possible that Yee knows more about the illegal and appalling treatment of the prisoners at the US concentration camp in Cuba and was prepared to make it public.

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probing the breeches, heh, heh

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A60415-2003Sep24?language=printer

An investigation into possible security breaches at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp for terror suspects has expanded to a third member of the military, Pentagon officials said Wednesday... So far, charges have been filed only against Senior Airman Ahmad I. al-Halabi, 24, who worked as an Arabic language translator for the detainees... He is accused of failing to report improper contacts between prisoners and unidentified other members of the military. Military authorities say he took pictures of the base and stole information such as maps, flight schedules, and prisoners' cell numbers to give to someone going to Syria and an unidentified "enemy." The Air Force hasn't told defense lawyers who that "enemy" is. [and so on.]

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http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/09/23/1064082998267.html

The US military has launched an investigation into the alleged shooting by a US soldier of a rare Bengal tiger at the Baghdad zoo... Adel Salman Musa, the head of the zoo, said the tiger was killed last week during an apparently drunken party between US soldiers and a group of Iraqi police officers. "One of the soldiers, whom the Iraqi police said had drunk a lot, went into the cage against the advice of his colleagues and tried to feed the animal, who severely hurt his arm," he said. The tiger tore off one of the soldier's fingers and mauled his arm. One of the other soldiers immediately fired at the animal and killed it, he said.

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http://world.std.com/home/dacha/WWW/emg/public_html/2003_09_01_blog_archive.html#106415898754461953

Didn't the drunken yahoo realize he could have been a contender for the Darwin Awards if only he had persevered in his interactions with the creature? And isn't the whole incident an apt metaphor for the US invasion of Iraq?

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A49361-2003Sep22?language=printer

The president has issued not only a pair of 10-point plans but four six-point plans, two five-point plans and a three-point plan, not to mention plans with 16, 22, 23 and 30 points apiece. "I have proposed a six-point plan to create jobs, strengthen small businesses and build employer confidence," Bush said in his radio address on Saturday... In that same week, he addressed the nation to explain his three-point plan for Iraq. But no sooner had Bush uttered those words than his man in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer III, wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post outlining "seven steps" for Iraq.

...Looking for Bush's policy on border security? The 22-point plan (an agreement with Mexico) and the 30-point plan (with Canada) should come in handy. Wonder how a country qualifies for a Millennium Challenge grant? Consult the 16-point plan. How about Bush's conservation policy? Check the "Five-Point Plan to Encourage Conservation" from June 2002... The energy proposal he unveiled during the 2000 campaign had 23 points... [But] by far, Bush favors the six-point plan as his all-purpose panacea. [examples abound --mrs.h]

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les cartes indiquent la vérité

http://www.reseauvoltaire.net/article9576.html

Le dessous des cartes de l'administration Bush révèle une équipe qui conduit une « révolution néo-conservatrice » en rupture avec l'histoire et les valeurs de son pays.

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in other words

http://www.reuters.com/printerFriendlyPopup.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=3507575

PARIS (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is the Ace of Spades and al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden a Joker in a provocative pack of French playing cards depicting "the 52 most dangerous American officials."

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from the poetry of donald rumsfeld

http://slate.msn.com/id/2088664/

On NATO: "You may think it's something / I ought to know,/ But I happen not to./ That's life." (July 9, 2003)

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http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/09/21/1064082853908.html

Ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein had been in secret negotiations with US forces in Iraq for the past nine days, a British tabloid newspaper said today. According to the Sunday Mirror report, Saddam was demanding safe passage to the former Soviet republic of Belarus in exchange for information on weapons of mass destruction and his bank accounts. US President George W Bush was being kept up to date on the talks by his national security adviser Condoleeza Rice who was coordinating negotiations led by US general Ricardo Sanchez, the Sunday Mirror said. Sanchez is the commander of US forces in Iraq.

"A representative of Saddam in Western-style civilian clothes came to coalition people at Tikrit at sunset on September 12. He led them to a house where the security official was waiting," the Sunday Mirror quoted a senior Iraqi as saying. "The discussions are now going on under the direct authority of General Sanchez," the source said, according to the newspaper.

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http://www.dw-world.de/english/0,3367,4789_W_978845,00.html

U.S. troops have raided four wealthy homes in Saddam Hussein's hometown Tikrit in a bid to choke off financing of a string of attacks in northern Iraq including sabotage efforts against a vital oil export pipeline... Troops, backed by armoured cars and helicopters overhead, descended on the four locations in the dead of night in downtown Tikrit.

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http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_IRAQ_REBUILDING?SITE=DCTMS&SECTION=HOME

President Bush's $20,300,000,000.00 proposal for rebuilding Iraq includes money to establish ZIP codes there, help Iraqi workers learn English and start a museum of former leader Saddam Hussein's atrocities, an administration document shows.

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http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0923iraq-spend23.html

President Bush wants to spend nearly $5,700,000,000.00 on Iraq's electricity system and up to $100,000,000.00 next year to restore that nation's drained marshlands [among other things]... L. Paul Bremer, administrator of the Iraqi coalition provisional authority, appeared Monday before the Senate Appropriations Committee... comparing the emergency spending bill to the Marshall Plan that followed World War II. The $20.3 billion for Iraqi reconstruction, he said, "bespeak grandeur of vision equal to the one which created the free world."

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http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/09/23/1064082999079.html

Iraq's Governing Council has banned the Arab satellite television stations Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya from covering official activities in Baghdad for two weeks, a statement said. It said the ban was a warning to the stations and other broadcasters for inciting anti-United States violence. "Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya will temporarily be excluded from any coverage of Governing Council activities or official press conferences, and correspondents of the two channels will not be allowed to enter ministries or government offices for two weeks," the statement said... The decision to bar them from official functions for two weeks... came after a meeting of council officials and an aide to US civilian administrator Paul Bremer.

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http://sg.biz.yahoo.com/030922/1/3edb9.html

The United States and Turkey signed an agreement for Washington to lend Ankara up to 8,500,000,000.00, US Treasury Secretary John Snow said in a statement released on the sidelines of the IMF meeting here. "The purpose of the assistance is to support Turkey's ongoing economic reform process, and to mitigate the economic impact on Turkey related to Operation Iraqi Freedom," Snow said. Snow stressed that the aid is not conditional on Turkey contributing troops to help in the administration of Iraq, despite the language in the text requiring Turkish "cooperation" with the US in Iraq.

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http://jang.com.pk/thenews/sep2003-daily/24-09-2003/world/w10.htm

ANKARA: Turkey’s main opposition party on Tuesday accused the government of "mortgaging" its foreign policy after Washington offered Ankara a multi-billion-dollar loan in exchange for cooperating on Iraq... "With this agreement, Turkey’s foreign policy has been mortgaged and handcuffed," said [Oguz Oyan, the leader of the opposition People’s Republican Party in parliament]. "Any self-respecting foreign policy should separate financial compensation from political issues," he added.

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http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/09/23/1064083001492.html

The United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, attacked American foreign policy - warning it could stoke terrorism and global chaos - just hours before President George Bush was due to defend the US-led invasion of Iraq in a speech to the UN. Mr Annan said the use of military force against terrorist groups could encourage more terrorism, while pre-emptive strikes could lead to a lawless world where nations attack one another "with or without justification".

...Mr Annan said terrorism "will only be defeated if we act to solve the political disputes and long-standing conflicts which generate support for it". "Accordingly, there needs to be more on the horizon than simply winning a war against terrorism. There must be the promise of a better and fairer world, and a concrete plan to get there."

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3130880.stm

Iraq was now free "because a coalition of nations acted to defend the peace - and the credibility of the United Nations", President Bush told the UN General Assembly.

...A year ago, President Bush told the same UN assembly that it had to deal with Iraq or risk the UN becoming irrelevant.

...But [today] the president urged the UN to put divisions over the war in Iraq behind it... "Now the nation of Iraq needs and deserves our aid and all nations of good will should step forward and provide that support," he said.

...In a report coinciding with the meeting, UN food agencies said several million Iraqis remained desperately hungry despite a better cereals crop and the lifting of economic sanctions. The UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation and the World Food Programme said nearly half of Iraq's 26,300,000 people were estimated to be in need of humanitarian aid.

...Mr Bush said the UN could "contribute greatly to the cause of Iraqi self-government", but he did not see the need for a greater UN role in Iraq.

...Mr Bush said that democracy in Iraq could be an inspiration to other countries in the Middle East. [and so on.]

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http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2003-09-22-iraq-govern-bremer_x.htm

Paul Bremer, the top U.S. administrator in Iraq, said he opposed any quick transfer of power to the Iraqis. Asked on CBS's The Early Show, if he thought the Iraqis were ready to rule themselves, Bremer replied: "No, they're not." He called the creation of the Governing Council in July an "important transfer of power" and pointed to the council's naming of a Cabinet earlier this month. "They're running the ministries now," he said... A key official in the U.S.-led coalition told The Associated Press that Bremer would veto any move for sovereignty by the 25-member Governing Council... Bremer has the right of veto over council decisions.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/22/international/middleeast/22BAGH.html?ex=1065251299&ei=1&en=94f38f1f4de8e817

Leaders from the Iraqi Governing Council say they will go to Congress this week to argue that American taxpayers could save billions of dollars on Iraq's reconstruction by granting sovereignty more rapidly to the council, the 25-member interim government here. In interviews, the Iraqi leaders said they planned to tell Congress about how the staff of L. Paul Bremer III, the American occupation administrator, sends its laundry to Kuwait, how it costs $20,000 a day to feed the Americans at Al Rashid Hotel in Baghdad, how American contractors charge large premiums for working in Iraq and how, across the board, the overhead from supporting and protecting the large American and British presence here is less efficient than granting direct aid to Iraqi ministries that operate at a fraction of the cost.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/23/international/middleeast/23CHAL.html?ex=1065292494&ei=1&en=3f5c0ff33e63c101

Ahmad Chalabi, the president of Iraq's interim government, is in New York this week to press alternatives to the Bush administration's occupation policy in postwar Iraq, he and his aides say... His specific proposals were directly at odds with the policies Washington is pursuing in Baghdad and at the United Nations. He demanded that the Iraqi Governing Council be given at least partial control of the powerful finance and security ministries, and rejected the idea of more foreign troops coming to Iraq... This move to lobby other nations for a swift transfer of some sovereignty is going down poorly in Washington, according to the Iraqi leader's aides.

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http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1059480029830&p=1012571727159

The Iraqi delegation to the International Monetary Fund-World Bank annual meetings in Dubai on Monday gave a robust defence of the sweeping economic liberalisation signed into law by the US-led occupying coalition at the weekend... Ministers from the interim Iraqi government said that the almost total relaxation of restrictions on foreign investment was necessary to revive its shattered economy. The liberalisation measures open up Iraq to foreign investment everywhere but the oil industry, slash import tariffs to 5 per cent and impose 15 per cent ceilings on corporate and income marginal tax rates. The plan met immediate criticism from some Iraqi business representatives when it was announced on Sunday, who said it would be impossible for domestic companies to compete.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/23/international/asia/23AFGH.html?ex=1065333399&ei=1&en=f4b89dbbd37511a2

The International Monetary Fund warned today that Afghanistan's opium poppy crops should be destroyed... The fund said that opium, made from poppies grown on fertile lands, mainly in the south, made up 40 percent to 50 percent of the Afghan economy.

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http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/EI23Ag02.html

KARACHI - Faced with escalating unrest and an increasingly stronger and more organized guerrilla resistance in Afghanistan, the United States has stepped up efforts... to draw elements of the ousted Taliban back into the political process.

Asia Times Online broke the news on September 12 that a new Taliban grouping under the name of Jaishul Muslim had been formed to at least talk to the US about political developments... On September 17, the organization was finally officially launched in the Pakistani border city of Peshawar... Asia Times Online sources familiar with the negotiations that led to the creation of the Jaishul Muslim say that the plan is for its members to infiltrate camps in Afghanistan where jihadis are trained. Here, and subsequently in the field, they will attempt to sway Taliban commanders with the offer of a place in the government as an inducement. If they are successful, it would obviously be severely damaging to the Taliban's morale.

However, there are serious doubts that, without Mullah Omar, any movement could really say that it represented the Taliban. At the same time, the organization has been planned and launched in Pakistan, and seemingly it has little, if any, support within Afghanistan itself... The Jamiat's members were mostly former ministers in the Taliban regime critical of Mullah Omar giving shelter to Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. They vowed that they would revive the Taliban in its original form... Such are the shifting sands of Afghan politics into which the US is now treading ever further and further.

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http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=445464

President George Bush is mounting an intensive campaign to force European countries to drop safety tests expected to save thousands of lives each year, internal US government documents seen by The Independent on Sunday reveal... The documents - which include diplomatic cables signed by the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell - show that the Bush administration has threatened Europe with trade sanctions if it goes ahead with the tests... even though they were approved in principle two years ago by EU governments and the European Parliament.

...The tests are designed to identify the most dangerous chemicals threatening Europeans, including cancer-causing and "gender-bender" substances, so that they can be controlled. Only a tiny proportion of the 100,000 or so man-made chemicals used in the EU has ever been tested for the effects on the people who use them. It plans to reverse the burden of proof by getting industry to provide evidence of the hazards or safety of the chemicals it sells, rather than marketing them and waiting for governments to try to pick out the most dangerous ones when they have already done harm. The European Commission estimates that it would prevent up to 4,300 cases of cancer a year among chemical workers alone; far more lives could be expected to be saved among the public at large.

The US pressure seems to be changing British policy. Up to now Britain has taken a generally favourable approach to the directive. But last week Patricia Hewitt denounced it as "disastrously wrong".

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http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_821707.html?menu=http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_821707.html?menu=

The Dixie Chicks say they don't want to be a country music band any more. Violinist Martie Maguire told Spiegel magazine: "We don't feel part of the country scene any longer, it can't be our home any more." She said she was disappointed other country singers didn't back up the Dixie Chicks in their criticism of George W Bush's politics on Iraq... "So we now consider ourselves part of the big Rock 'n' Roll family."

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http://editorandpublisher.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&expire=&urlID=7602639&fb=Y&partnerID=60

For months leading up this year's war on Iraq, the Bush administration implied that Saddam Hussein had a hand in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks... 69% of Americans continue to believe it likely that Hussein was personally involved in 9/11... So when President George Bush admitted on Wednesday, for the first time, that there was "no evidence that Hussein was involved with the September 11th" attacks, one would assume that would be big news and an opportunity for the press to make up for past failings.

...But an analysis of most major American newspapers found the story either buried deep within the paper -- or completely absent. Of America's 12 highest-circulation daily papers, only [three] ran anything about it on the front page. In The New York Times, the story was relegated to page 22. USA Today: page 16. The Houston Chronicle: page 3. The San Francisco Chronicle: page 14. The Washington Post: page 18. Newsday: page 41. The New York Daily News: page 14. The New York Post and The Wall Street Journal didn't mention it at all.

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horse's mouth. see original for details

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=544&u=/ap/20030921/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_kennedy_1&printer=1

"I don't mind people trying to pick apart my policies, and that's fine and that's fair game," Bush said in the interview that will air Monday night. "But, you know, I don't think we're serving our nation well by allowing the discourse to become so uncivil that people say — use words that they shouldn't be using."

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http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=445128

George Bush probably owes his presidency to the absentee military voters who nudged his tally in Florida... But now... an increasingly disgruntled military poses perhaps the gravest immediate threat to his political future, just one year before the presidential elections. From Vietnam veterans to fresh young recruits, from seasoned officers to anxious mothers worried about their sons' safety on the streets of Baghdad and Fallujah, the military community is growing ever more vocal in its opposition to the White House.

"I once believed that I served for a cause: 'To uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States'. Now I no longer believe that," Tim Predmore, a member of the 101st Airborne Division serving near Mosul, wrote in a blistering opinion piece this week for his home newspaper, the Peoria Journal Star in Illinois. "I can no longer justify my service for what I believe to be half-truths and bold lies."

The dissenters - many of whom have risked deep disapproval from the military establishment to voice their opinions - have set up websites with names such as Bring Them Home Now. They have cried foul at administration plans to cut veterans' benefits and scale back combat pay for troops still in Iraq. They were furious at President Bush for reacting to military deaths in Iraq with the phrase "bring 'em on". And they have given politically embarrassing prominence to such issues as the inefficiency of civilian contractors hired to provide shelter, water and food - many of them contributors to the Bush campaign coffers - and a mystery outbreak of respiratory illnesses that many soldiers, despite official denials, believe is related to the use of depleted uranium munitions.

...How deep the anti-Bush sentiment runs is not yet clear, but there is no doubt about its breadth. Charlie Richardson, co-founder of a group called Military Families Speak Out, said: "Our supporters range from pacifists to people from long military traditions who have supported every war this country has ever fought - until this one."

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and by the way

http://www.dailykos.com/archives/004262.html#004262

Keep an eye on Friday's release of the Census Bureau's statistics on poverty and household income. For the past 15 years, the Census Bureau has always released the report on a Tuesday or Thursday. This year, in order to mask the bad news buried within the report, the report will be released on a Friday.

...Friday night's network news broadcasts are the least-watched of the workweek. Saturday newspapers are the week's least-read editions.

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http://web.morons.org/article.jsp?sectionid=1&id=3980

Ed Gillespie, chairman of the Republican National Committee, called gay people "intolerant bigots" because, according to him, gays force religionists to accept their "choice" to "be" gay.

...In an interview with the Washington Times, a Moonie-funded rag "newspaper," Mr. Gillespie had this to say about GLBT people: "I think when people say, 'Well, no, that's not enough that you accept me for who I am, you have to agree with - and condone - my choice,' that to me is religious bigotry, and I believe that's intolerant. I think they are the ones who are crossing a line here."

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signs o' th' times

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/24/education/24VIDE.html

BILOXI, Miss. — A digital camera hangs over every classroom here, silently recording students' and teachers' every move. The surveillance system is at the leading edge of a trend to outfit public schools with the same cameras used in Wal-Marts to catch thieves.

...Educators across the country are rushing to install ceiling-mounted cameras in hallways, libraries and cafeterias. But no other district has gone as far as this Gulf Coast community, which, flush with casino revenue, has hung the cameras not only in corridors and other common areas but also in all of its 500 classrooms.

..."It's like truth serum," said Dr. Laurie A. Pitre, principal of North Bay Elementary, who frequently peeks in on her classrooms from a computer monitor in her office.

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straight outta dade cty.

http://www.phillyimc.org/article.pl?sid=03/09/24/1653240&mode=thread

Greetings Activists: As you may be aware, the city of Miami is considering adopting new anti-demonstrator laws, drafted by police chief John Timoney of the 2000 Republican National Convention fame, specifically to squash dissent to the FTAA Ministerial [Free Trade Area of Americas, also known as 'nafta on steroids'], which is coming to Miami this November. If passed, this would be the most restrictive anti-demonstrator law in the US, falling just shy of martial law.

...As written, the law would be in effect from September 25 to November 27, 2003, thereby specifically targeting anti-FTAA demonstrators... The proposed anti-demonstrator law defines an assembly as any combination of three (3) people, animals or vehicles with a common purpose. That means the police can see me (1) driving down the street in my car (2), with a dog (3) and claim we are participating in a demonstration. Or, if two men (2) are sitting on the corner playing dominoes and a dog (3) walks by, the police can declare them an assembly for purposes of "law enforcement."

...By defining and targeting an "assembly," police are granted new powers to stop people (and dogs) and hold them accountable to all kinds of other rules. Other newly outlawed items include: any kind of glass; marbles; vinyl signs (with your organizations name), sticks to hold up signs or placards; baseballs; baseball bats; any other rubber ball; anything police think is intended for use as a weapon.

[see also http://www.stopftaa.org/]

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at least we beyant in britain

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/story.jsp?story=446756

An eye scanner designed to discover if employees have taken drugs or drunk heavily has been launched in Britain amid growing concerns over testing in the workplace. The test, which measures the reaction speed of the pupils, can even gauge if staff are affected by tiredness, the makers said.

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go sufis!

http://www.msnbc.com/news/965292.asp

This is an interesting time to make the acquaintance of the Sufis of Iraq. Under Saddam Hussein they were an embattled minority... Now that Saddam has gone and American occupation has arrived, the Sufis are struggling to find a way back to their old ways—and, in the process, displaying all the ambiguous riches of their age-old religious quest. They call it tariqa, “the path,” a system of esoteric “spiritual experience” that has, at various times, enraged more orthodox Muslims even as it has enticed non-Muslim outsiders attracted to its rarefied mystical techniques.

...The word Sufi is derived from the old Arabic word for the uncomfortable woolen garments once worn by ascetic mystics... “Our path is the soul of Islam,” says the Baghdad mosque’s leader, Abdul sa’am Hussein Salih. As he explains it, the worshipers at their Baghdad mosque (known in the Sufi vernacular as a takiya) consider themselves Muslims of a particularly intense and privileged sort... After all, he explains, one of the functions of the extroverted Sufi rituals—involving chanting, drums and the public experience of ecstasy—is to demonstrate the power of Islam to those who are in search of God.

...This is not to claim that Sufis are different from other Muslims, Salih explains: they’re simply an elect—people who desire not just the pleasures of paradise after death but the loftier privilege of actually “seeing the face of Allah.”