AM radio watch
I was driving around late tonight and I turned on the Trucking Bozo program. This is generally not a political program, but since the war with Iraq has been looming large in the news lately, the host and his callers were talking about it, spreading some rumours that aren't rooted in reality. One caller said that she read in Time magazine that all these protesters, "One person on the Internet goes online and tell them to protest", and that "many of these people do not know what they are protesting." The host concurred, and I said to myself, 'ARGH! WHAT THE @#$%! WHAT ONE PERSON HAS THAT MUCH POWER?! THIS IS OBVIOUSLY CRAP!'

Before the show cut to a commercial, the host annouced that Col. David Hackworth was going to be his guest for the next hour. Frustrated, I turned it to FM and listened to some tunes. I thought that I was familiar with the hawkish views of Col. Hackworth, having heard him on the Michael Reagan Show a few times before. Make no mistake, he is still a hawk and I disagree with much of what he has to say. However, after I got bored with the music and switched back to AM, I hear the host mention something about how, "Col. Hackworth, you're no dove, but.."

Col. Hackworth gets into a rant about how Iraq is hardly a threat to us, they are not a threat to the national security of America, the missiles we just made them destroy only had a range of 100 miles, "How are they going to get their chemical and biological weapons here, in a wheelbarrow?" He also mentions that Iraq has no connection to terrorism. He gets into how we should be being more attention to North Korea, very much a hawk with those views, but then he gets back to Iraq and the first Gulf War, says that under 200 people died during the war actions then, but then he gets into Gulf War Syndrome, and talks about how a group called Soldiers For The Truth (sftt.org) estimate that 160,000 of our troops from the first Gulf War have Gulf War Syndrome, and 10,000 have DIED from it.

Those of us in the progressive community have known this for a while, and we also know just how underreported this is. Col. Hackworth touches upon this, because he's trying to get the story out . It has been rejected by ABC, NBC, Fox, and CNN. He finally got 60 Minutes' Mike Wallace, an WWII vet., to cover the story. At least somebody is listening.

I thought the best part of this interview is when Col. Hackworth said that we should take the "chickenhawks", like Paul Wolfowitz and Newt Gingrich, get them in the desert and fire chemical weapons at them. If they don't die or contract Gulf War Syndrome, then send the troops in! I still don't agree with sending in the troops, but I had a good laugh.

I was very, very surprised to hear this from a hawk. He still has hawkish values for going to war, and I find myself in disagreement with a lot of the things he said we should do about North Korea, but he preached patience for the situation we have Iraq. This is the same message that France, Germany, China, and Russia are trying to teach to us. We should start listening.

recession? what recession! let's spend money on war!
I think the following cartoon goes great with a story stating that jobs have plunged to the tune of 308,000.


from rall.com

media watch
I think the BBC now lives in fear of American mall rent-a-cops: Anti-War shirts cut from George Michael's "Top of the Pops" performance.

Tony Blair gets grilled by an MTV audience over his stance in Iraq. Wow. when MTV gathers a panel of vieewers that do a better job of questioning the war than journalists do, you really have to wonder.

The US is continuing the search for bin Laden. You know.. Dead, alive, or whatever.

Remember Guantanamo Bay? Many Guantanamo inmates are attempting suicide. I find it ironic that one building there is called "CAMP 4", especially with descriptions like this included in the article: "He said Guantanamo prisoners were often kept shackled, in awkward positions for an inordinate amount of time, in solitary confinement while interrogators rely on sleep deprivation and artificial light to glean information from the inmates." Camp, indeed.

from agonist.org/annex/nowar

media watch
Republicans fail to stop the Estrada fillibuster. The other side of this struggle shows a surprising amount of backbone from the Senate Democrats delegation, something I wish the country saw before last years election.

war watch
We all now know that France, Germany, Russia, and now China will oppose a UN war resolution, and Colin Powell says that Saddam is trying to split the UN Security Council.

What, exactly, is the big deal?

The United Nations, as far as I can understand, was founded after World War II as a measure to avoid World War III from ever breaking out. That is exactly what's happening right now, so the UN is performing as they should.

We all know that Saddam is a despot that most of the world would like to see out of power, but the world doesn't want war. It's up to the US to work with the world community to see that a peaceful resolution is reached, not to demonize the world community because we cannot compromise with them.

And no, France and Germany are not being unreasonable; if anything, they are working like a democracy should. They are listening to their citizens, who do not want a war in Iraq. Tony Blair and the UK government, however, are in breach in the principles of democracy by not listening to the anti-war sentiments that the majority of it's citizens harbor.

I have no doubt that one, if not both, of these viewpoints is true: our own unelected despot hasn't a clue as to what a democracy is, or he's just full of shit.

Unfortunately, since the US doesn't want to listen to the world community, we have to see headlines like this: Troops 'told of March 17 invasion'.

late media watch
Appearently, smoking pot increases your IQ: Holland has the highest average IQ of the European countries. Take that, drug war.

Update on the man arrested at a mall for wearing a shirt that said "Give peace a chance": MSNBC has a follow-up on this story. Protesters storm the mall, and the mall has asked the local police department to drop the trepassing charges. I found a couple things from this story interesting. First, it says that a Macy's employee called security on the man, just because he was wearing an anti-war shirt. How much do you want to bet that Macy's employee goes home and turns on Foxnews every night? Second, this paragraph, "When a few protestors decided to get a little more vocal, a 55-year-old veteran carrying a sign reading 'Remember 9-11' confronted them. The veteran yelled at the protestors and then went so far as to push some of the men." Hmmm.. Remember 9-11, eh? Aren't we also supposed to remember how we should be fighting for FREEDOM? Veteran or not, and regardless of how I support this mans' right to voice his opinion, I voice my own opinion that he needs to get his ass back to high school and into a Civics class.

blatant hypocrisy
I'm on the mailing list for the Republican tabloid Newsmax. Among the plethora of advertisments they send to people on their mailing list, I also get the "Left Coast Report", where they proceed to bitch about how they think that actors lack intelligence simply because they happen to disagree with the Republican agenda.

Of course, when actors happen to agree with the Shrub administration, they have nothing bad to say about them. Here's part of the email that I received today:

1. Celebrity Hawks

Although Martin Sheen, Susan Sarandon and Janeane Garofalo have been dominating the anti-war airwaves of late, some stars with differing points of view have decided to speak up.

Bruce Willis, Brian McKnight, Kid Rock, Rob Lowe and Jean-Claude Van Damme are saying things that are undoubtedly making the anti-war crowd steam. On the other hand, the celebrity rhetoric that's coming out of these guys is warming the hearts of the kick-Saddam's-butt bunch.

According to the New York Daily News, Willis seriously thought about enlisting in the U.S. armed services.

[snip]

The Left Coast Report says it's nice to know that there are celebrities with the mental muscle to go against the grain.

Let me make sure I have this straight: the right thinks that anybody in Hollywood who disagrees with them is an uneducated idiot who should shut up, but people in Hollywood who support their views should be held up for having "mental muscle"? Since they have the same job as other "Hollywood idiots", shouldn't they be treated the same way, no matter what they think? Does anybody else find this just a bit hypocritical?

Maybe we should just start calling Newsmax, "Republican idiots".

media watch
The Korea Times reports that the warhead from the missile North Korea test-fired a couple weeks ago was found in Alaska.

This news item is somewhat old, but it wasn't widely reported: Republicans send telemarketing jobs to India. That's right, those calls you get asking you to support Bush and his economic plans, and fork over some cash to the Republican cause, might not be from an American worker. I have nothing against Indian people, but we're in a goddamn recession right now. If the Republican Party has jobs to dole out, shouldn't they be staying within our borders?

let's get ready to protest!
From michaelmoore.com:

"President" Bush's war on Iraq is not going well. He and Karl Rove and the rest of them thought they were being so smart back in August, waiting to talk about the war until September to force support for it with the approaching elections. If it was up to them, this unjustified war would have started months ago. Unfortunately, they haven't been able to prove a case for war, they've ostracized the global community, they've arrogantly threatened the United Nations and NATO, and they've had to dole out billions of dollars just to convince their few supporters (which they like to call "a coalition") to get on board. Not a very impressive list of accomplishments and certainly not as impressive as killing thousands upon thousands of innocent Iraqis just to seize the second largest oil reserves in the world. Bush and his pals have not gotten their way because of the staunch resistance of Germany and France, and the millions of people around the world who have come together with one voice to oppose Bush's war. But while Bush has had to delay his plans again and again, he is still not ready to give up and admit he's wrong. He still says he will go ahead with this war, whether anyone else supports it or not.

That pretty much sums things up, does it?

Goto michaelmoore.com and find out what your mission is -- What YOU can do.

media watch
A lawyer in New York was arrested for wearing an anti-war tee shirt at the mall. The shirt said, "Give peace a chance", and he just purchased it at the mall! Mall security guards, who I guess didn't have enough teenagers to crack down on that day, told the man that he has to remove the shirt or leave. He refused. They then called the police and had the man arrested, brought to court, and he now faces a trial which could land him in jail for a year. This is America?

MSNBC reports that Dr. Pepper is launching an advertising campaign for their new product, out in April, called "Raging Cow". The advertising campaign is exploiting blogs to advertise the drink, and it has even opened up its own blog site, ragingcow.com. The strategy is to pass off their blog as an actual blog by an actual person and not a corporation, and hope that it is trendy enough so that many other people link to it. I hope that irony kills this campaign, as many bloggers just like me will report this fraud.

Thousands of students plan to skip class and work tomorrow, going on strike as a statement against war in Iraq. Books, not bombs.

In the UK, McDonalds get slapped for false advertising. They have to pull an ad for their new steak sandwich because the actual product looks nothing like the product shown in the commercial.

I'm not for war, as many regular blog readders have already guessed, but I have a question: why are we trying, and failing, to prove that Iraq is a threaten to American soil while we don't pay much attention to North Korea, who could be building the Bomb and are now flying their jets within 50 feet of our spy planes? I mean, I honestly feel bad for the country. They must feel like the attention-starved middle child, and they can't believe that even though the US has a war mongering despot in office, but no matter how much trouble they get into, this guy just won't pay attention to them! North Korea is jumping up and down saying, "Lookitmeee! Lookitmeeee! I'm building nukes! We could take out LA! Look here, Gerogie! Do you only care about oil?!"

(yet another) late media watch
Man, go away for a weekend and you miss a lot.

Salon has a story about a little memo from the NSA and was made public. It discusses spying on UN Security Council members to see how they will vote concerning resolutions with Iraq. Salon's story is about how this was a huge headline around the world except in one nation: the United States. I agree with that, because I was out of town this weekend, and the few times I was able to listen to the news, I didn't hear a thing about this story. Media analysis from Indymedia NYC comes to the same conclusion as Salon.

So there was an al-Qa'ida mastermind captured, and the man looks remarkably like Ron Jeremy. I have been reading through nation and international news about this story on news.google.com and no article takes this man, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, lightly. They all argree that he's a top man at al-Qa'ida, making him a real world class asshole. If we have indeed caught somebody who helped plan the 9/11 attacks, my thoughts on that are generally positive. I hope we treat him in a humane manner, which, unfortunately, I have my doubts that we will. There have been musings from Republican pundits, namely Michael Savage, that this is proof that we are going to win the "War on Terrorism". Seeing that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed is just one man part of one terrorist organization, though, the War on Terror still looks about as endless, and pointless, as the War on Drugs.

Ralph Nader has penned on a column on his feelings about MSNBC canceling Donahue.

late media watch
Sorry if some of this might seem like old news, but the weekend never rests for anything.. And I better post something before I have to suffer through my Monday shift at work.

Turkey, despite best efforts from the United States to bribe them for a a vote of confidence, has rejected the US plan to deploy troops from Turkish soil. No matter what you think about this, you cannot deny that this is democracy at work: over 90% of turkey's population is against a US war in Iraq. In a borderline vote, the Turkish parliament (264-250) almost did not listen to the population that it is supposed to represent. 50,000 to 100,000 Turks held an anti-war rally outside of their parliament building before the vote was taken.

A few Arab nations, who are trying to make sure that a war between Iraq and the United States never starts, are calling on Saddam Hussein to resign. Not all Arab naotions are calling for this. Some, like Syria, support Iraq completely. Egypt and Saudi Arabia want Iraq to heed to the demands of the UN. None, it seems, want a war.