Wicked funny....

You can tell I'm catching up on my favorite blogs today. For those unfamiliar with Jesus' General, this post from Monday, entitled, The other "Incredible Victory, will give you a taste:

Our triumph in Baghdad overshadowed another terrific victory that occurred this week. On Tuesday, boxing's world light heavyweight champion, Roy Jones Jr, knocked out physicist Stephen Hawking in the third round of a championship bout. Conservative Boxing Digest's Peggy Noonan said it best: "It was magnificent. Only three rounds--Jones is absolutely unbelievable."

It's not a surprise to me. Jones won because of the superiority of his training plan. He ate nothing but Cheetos for a month prior to the fight. That's how he was able to beat Hawking so soundly.

Of course there were a few naysayers who said that the plan was insane, but Jones' win proved them wrong. I wonder where they are now. Probably crying in their fancy foreign beers. Assholes.

Yep...!

What do you say...?

Is this ex-POW flashing a "V" for victory, or a peace-sign? The corpsman (corpswoman?) handling the stretcher seems a bit uncertain. It doesn't seem beyond the realm of possibility that after spending 3 weeks in the company of Iraqis, Army Spc. Shoshana Johnson might view them as human beings, rather than just the enemy. Or am I being naive?

$1,125....

Last time I checked the Iraqometer, each American's share of the cost of the war in Iraq was $1,125. No wonder I owed federal taxes this year, despite the fact I was unemployed for 5 months in 2002.

U.S. strikes blow for Islamic fundamentalism....

From a Reuters story via Common Dreams.

BAGHDAD - Muslims poured out of mosques and into the streets after the first Friday prayers in a U.S.-controlled Baghdad, calling for an Islamic state to be established.

Carrying Korans, prayer mats and banners, tens of thousands marched in the city's biggest protest since U.S. forces toppled Saddam Hussein over a week ago -- a protest unthinkable under the former president.

"Leave our country, we want peace," read one banner aimed at the Americans who seized control nine days ago but failed to check looting, power blackouts and chaos in the aftermath.

"No Bush, No Saddam, Yes Yes to Islam," read another. [Emphasis mine.]

I really wonder how many middle-of-the-road Americans who supported this invasion realized that Saddam's Baath Party, which ruled for three decades, was secular. I'd like to see a poll on that! True or False: Saddam Hussein's Baath regime was diametrically opposed to the establishment of an Islamic fundamentalist state in Iraq.

Uhh...but wait, weren't Saddam and Osama allies?

Well, thanks to the Bush cabal, Hussein seems to have indirectly accomplished more for bin Laden's cause than any run-of-the-mill Islamic fundamentalist leader. So what now, Mr. Bush? Will democracy be permitted in Iraq if it leads directly to the establishment of an Islamic state?

Republican sleight-of-hand & dirty tricks....

Digby, at Hullabaloo, discusses how, when most Americans support the Democratic agenda, the Republicans still manage to get away with governing from the Far Right.

Yet, they have successfully enacted a radical economic and social agenda of supply side tax cutting, begun a revolutionary overhaul of the legal system, initiated massive regulation rollbacks and dissolution of the traditional separation of church and state. And they have also, not incidentally, completely overturned half century of foreign policy doctrine in just 2 years.

What’s amazing is that they have done all of this not only without a mandate, but without even explicitly campaigning on those issues or being honest about their implications. They are secretive and uncooperative with both the congress and the press and have assumed an inappropriate level of power in the executive branch. They do this because they know that they cannot win with their real agenda.

[...]

The fact is that they haven’t won anything without cheating since Bush ran as a moderate, seized office on a technicality and began to govern from the most radical edge of his party. The tax cut was passed with fuzzy math and outright falsehoods about the beneficiaries and the election of ‘02 was (barely) won because of smears against a disabled Vet and a coordinated talk radio campaign against a dead man’s grieving family. The invasion of Iraq was sold on lies about WMD and ties to terrorists.

The Bush administration, then, really is the political equivalent of Enron. Ken Lay and George W. Bush and Karl Rove and Andrew Fastow and Jeff Skilling and Dick Cheney are all cut from the same cloth....

The post is long, and well worth the read.

Good point....

On Wednesday, Emma, at Notes on the Atrocities, referenced an excellent article in the May Harper's (not yet online) to make the astute observation that the goal of the Iraq war is the "Latin-Americanization of the Middle East."

There’s a reason Iraq was such a great country to invade—it’s unrulable, at least in the short term. Weighted down by hundreds of billions in foreign debt and confronting the burning rage of a divided population, Iraq is spoiling for years or decades of instability. From the US’s point of view, this means opportunity. It can support whatever government emerges, and in a pattern well-established in Latin America, slowly bind the country to the US through a kind of free-market colonialism.

[...]

The process feeds on division. While foolish anti-war types like me were busy howling that this war would destabilize the region, Rumsfeld was nodding sagely: that's the only way this model can spread. In countries like Iran, where the population is generally homogenous, the Bushies need to stir up a little trouble. As a new regime establishes itself in Iraq, there will inevitably be charges that it's a US puppet. The fall-out will lead to divided populations. The evidence that the US is after destabilization abounds (and I don't know how I missed it): the war's not even over, and the US threatens Syria? An ally?

And so the US fiddles while Iraqis loot. Even the most nonpolitical Americans have a gut sense that this probably isn’t so hot for a healthy democracy in the long run. They wonder why the US didn’t foresee or try to prevent it. We’re left to conclude that a healthy democracy isn’t what the President’s after. He’s after an unhealthy one. And for that, looting and revenge are just what the free-market colonialist ordered.[Emphasis mine.]

Notes is a regular on my must read list.

What's going to happen when they come home...?

From a story in the Seattle Post Intelligencer, highlighted by Common Dreams:

...Anguish and guilt are what at least some of the soldiers in the Army's 3rd Infantry Division, which has borne the brunt of the fighting in Iraq, are now experiencing. They have found themselves fighting a grossly outmatched opponent. The Christian Science Monitor quoted one 3rd Infantry Division soldier saying, "For lack of a better word, I feel almost guilty about the massacre. We wasted a lot of people. It makes you wonder how many were innocent. It takes away some of the pride. We won, but at what cost?"

The Monitor reported that as waves of Iraqis armed only with rifles came against U.S. armored divisions in Najaf, the U.S. commander called in an air strike on the factory sheltering the Iraqis rather than have his troops continue the slaughter. Lt. Col. Woody Radcliff at the 3rd Infantry Division Operations Center said, "There were waves and waves of people coming at them, with AK-47s, and they were killing everyone. The commander (in the field) called and said, 'This is not right. This is insane. Let's hit the factory with close air support and take them out all at once.'....

Troubling, isn't it, that "taking them out all at once" is seen as somehow morally preferable?

An air-strike certainly spares our grunts the agony of mowing down an outclassed enemy then living with nightmares for decades. Small wonder our government prefers the video-game illusions afforded by an air war.

But what's going to become of the young men of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division when they return home? The recession is gobbling up U.S. jobs like a glutton at an all-you-can-eat pancake breakfast. With the House voting to cut veterans' benefits by $14 billion over the next 10 years to fund Bush's proposed $1.4 trillion tax cut, where does that leave veterans' mental healthcare? Will these guilt-ridden trained killers be turned loose, to navigate the challenges of civilian life solo? Is it mere coincidence that two of the craziest mass murderers in recent U.S. history--Oklahoma City bomber, Timothy McVeigh, and alleged D.C. Beltway sniper, John Allen Muhammad--were both Gulf War I veterans?

Bush advisors bail in protest....

This certainly supports claims reported here earlier this week that meetings were held with American military officials before the war to warn of the extreme likelihood of looting of antiquities should an invasion occur.

WASHINGTON - Two cultural advisers to the Bush administration have resigned in protest over the failure of U.S. forces to prevent the wholesale looting of priceless treasures from Baghdad's antiquities museum. Martin Sullivan, who chaired the President's Advisory Committee on Cultural Property for eight years, and panel member Gary Vikan said they resigned because the U.S. military had had advance warning of the danger to Iraq's historical treasures.

"We certainly know the value of oil but we certainly don't know the value of historical artifacts," Vikan, director of the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore, told Reuters on Thursday.

[...]

"It didn't have to happen," Sullivan told Reuters. "In a pre-emptive war that's the kind of thing you should have planned for." Sullivan sent his letter of resignation earlier this week....

Full story here [thanks, Common Dreams].

Personae non gratae....

Less than 24 hours after issuing a press release criticizing the U.S. military's handling of humanitarian aid in Iraq, Voices in the Wilderness personnel have been banned from meeting with the U.S. Civil Military Operations Center ( CMOC) or with international journalists working out of the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad. (One email makes it sound like they've been kicked out of the hotel all together.)

An excerpt from their press release:

CMOC also reported that they spent several days locating hospitals, power plants, and water & sanitation plants in order to do needs assessments. Apparently no one in the U.S. military thought to ask the United Nations, or other international organizations working in Iraq, for any of this information prior to, or even after, the fall of Baghdad. The World Health Organization and the Red Cross have been working in Iraq for years. The United Nations Development program has been working to assist Iraq in restoring electricity since 1996. Locations and assessments of civilian infrastructures are not secret information - except in the Pentagon's world. Why didn't anyone ask for this information? Why wasn't a plan for rehabilitation developed prior to the war?

When told that of rumors of a cholera outbreak in Hilla, CMOC even asked Voices in the Wilderness where that neighborhood was located in Baghdad - unaware that Hilla is a major Iraqi city located approximately 1 hour south of Baghdad!

As VIW points out, curtailing freedom to critique U.S. policies in Iraq right off the bat does not bode well for the establishment of democracy there.

Why...?

I honestly don't understand why it's necessary to tape a prisoner's mouth shut before covering his head with a hood.... This captioned photo makes it seem like common procedure. Considering how hard it is to breathe under a hood as it is, it sounds like an unnecessarily cruel and dangerous practice to me.

Any law enforcement types out there who can enlighten me, please email me.

Form-1, Substance-0...

EL PASO, April 16 — Saying they want to honor soldiers killed and taken prisoner in Iraq, restaurant owners here announced today that they would begin an effort to collect $400,000 to build the nation's tallest flagpole at nearby Fort Bliss.
The group hopes to build a flagpole as high as 342 feet, 4 feet taller than a pole just across the border in Cuidad Juárez, taller than the 308-foot pole in Laredo....

Personally, I'd rather have benefits....Story here.

Is this the only way our vote counts anymore...?

A New York Times/CBS News poll taken over the weekend found that 73% of Americans approve of President Bush's job performance — up from 59% the week before the war. His approval rating among Democrats (!) was 61%.

One person polled was quoted:

"We have all of Iraq right now," said Carol Hayward, 59, a Democrat [!] from New York City. "We don't need Saddam Hussein or his weapons. "We have all the oil fields under control and the cooperation of the people."

What weapons? All of Iraq? Cooperation of the people? Just exactly which newspaper is she reading?! Oh, what am I saying? Probably getting her news from Fox....

And this....

The poll found that Americans believe that their nation would continue its aggressive effort to police the world. About 6 in 10 said they thought it was very likely or somewhat likely that the success of the war in Iraq would prompt the United States to intervene in Korea or Syria, while 3 in 10 said it was not very likely. Half foresaw a very or somewhat likely military intervention in Iran.

Do they even know where Iran is?! ...There's more:

Ina Urness, 71, of Higginsville, Mo., said in a follow-up interview that she approved of the administration's moving pre-emptively against nations that posed a threat to the United States. "We ought to nip it right in the bud, because it's better them than us," she said. "Get over there and get them before they can have a chance to turn those missiles loose on us over here." [Emphasis mine.]

Omigod. ...And yet more:

The White House yesterday stepped up its criticism of Syria, accusing it of harboring Iraqi fugitives. But the Times/CBS News poll found that among Americans who said they believed another country posed a serious threat to the United States, North Korea was of far more concern than Syria: 39 percent of those respondents named North Korea, compared to just 5 percent who cited Syria. One percent named Iran.

That could change soon. The poll found that 81 percent of respondents said that Iraq probably had weapons of mass destruction, and of those in that group, 27 percent said they believed the weapons had been spirited off to another country. The White House yesterday suggested that that country was Syria.

Fasten your seatbelts, folks. Here we go again!

Hold your nose and read the entire poll here.

Out of context....

Some choice quotes from today's New York Times:

"Frankly, the people are beginning to lose their trust in America," he said. "Because America promised Iraq to remove the tyrant government, but now things are even worse. Some people are even beginning to wish Saddam had stayed because all the troubles erupted after his departure."
Walid al- Fartousi, 33, a fruit and vegetable vendor in Baghdad. Full story.

"Tell me," said the doctor, who asked that he not be identified, "Why do the American troops allow the looting? These people are cowards, the looters. All the soldiers have to do is fire one shot, and the looters will go away. They are cowards. And the Americans do not do this. Why?"
Chief doctor at one of Baghdad's larger hospitals, speaking about the presumed designs of the Americans on the Iraqi nation. Full story.

"This is our American liberation!" spat Ms. Khedairy, 70, as she waded through the half-burned books of her second-story library. "I never thought you would do it. I went to the American School. I believed in your moral values. And every night you bombed. Every night, I ran through the streets, an old woman in my nightgown..."
Amal al-Khedairy, whose eclectic collection of art objects, music and books--from antiquated LP recordings of Beethoven and Wagner, to collections of Turkish and Arabian music, to books on Oriental architecture and French literature-- was renown among Baghdad's intellectual inhabitants.

The 70-year-old art-collector is later quoted as promising, "We will kill them all one day, Rumsfeld and every one of them...Look at what they have done to my library." Full story.

Janeane Garofalo to speak at Peace Williamsburg...!

For you lucky people in the Big Apple, Janeane Garofalo will speak on the War in Iraq at Peace Williamsburg's next fundraising event, Get Your War Off-Another Party for Peace! She'll share the stage with a cast of local performers, musicians, artists and others. May 6th at Galapagos in Williamsburg (Brooklyn, NY). PW rocks-check it out! More information here.

Chaos....

A glance at today's New York Times (full story here) paints a bleak picture of Iraq. Banks plundered, industry shut down, oil fields idle, government leaderless:

... Money continues to spill from Iraq's broken banking system, although the amounts are smaller now than they were in the first days after President Saddam Hussein's son Uday reportedly arrived at the bank to load sacks of cash into waiting cars. Since then, armed gangs have been slowly working their way through the strongboxes and vaults. Many people have died in the chaos.

The rest of the country's formerly government-run economy is faring little better. Almost all of Iraq's thinly spread industry is at a standstill, its offices charred shells, its computers cannibalized or carried off by looters, its paperwork blowing down countless streets.

The oil fields that provided almost all of the government's revenue and accounted for most of the country's economic output are not operating, largely because the people who ran them have disappeared. Agriculture is about the only part of the economy untouched, although dates and tomatoes do not provide much beyond subsistence.

American military officials, hoping to jump-start the economy by restoring basic services like electricity and water, complain that the country's leaderless bureaucrats are paralyzed, waiting for commands that no one is giving...

What a mess.

Bechtel take 4 (let's stop counting after this)....

This is really no surprise...but I am nonetheless outraged.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The government awarded Bechtel Corp. a contract on Thursday that could reach $680 million to help rebuild Iraq, including the nation's power, water and sewage systems.

The U.S. Agency for International Development said the initial contract was for $34.6 million but it could be worth the larger figure over 18 months, subject to congressional approval.

Several Democratic lawmakers have complained the Bush administration did not allow open competitive bidding, but rather invited a small number of firms to submit proposals....

Whole story here.

Found them...!

On Monday, I asked, “Where in the hell are the 40%, 50%, 65% or whatever percent of Americans the latest polls are claiming support this insane, immoral military adventure” in Iraq?

Well, I saw not a few of them last evening when I stood out in front of San Diego’s main post office with a small contingent of 50 or so demonstrators, peace signs in hand.

“Money for you, not for war!” didn’t seem to resonate very well with many of the last-minute tax-payers inching grimly by in cars, pickup trucks and SUV’s. Yes, here and there a driver among the hundreds honked for peace. Most, however, pointedly ignored us, looking pained at the very fact we were there. Then there were the memorable few who were unabashedly furious.

Why does the sight of citizens exercising their First Amendment right to oppose this war send certain people right over the edge? One large, heavyset guy actually got out of his car and bore down on a young demonstrator—the one holding our only megaphone. He proceeded to stand over the activist, a regular at local peace protests, and make demands: did we have a permit for the megaphone, if not, we were breaking the law, we should cease and desist immediately, blah blah blah. The activist, a slender guy who wears a yarmulke and looks barely old enough to be in college, held his ground as other protestors gathered ‘round. When the driver found himself dealing with people his own age, he stalked off, claiming he was going to bring back the cops, presumably to arrest us if the megaphone was still in evidence.

He never returned. And what an utterly ineffectual argument! There we were, standing alongside a windswept 4-lane road in an industrial neighborhood, bothering no one—least of all the drivers creeping by in bumper-to-bumper traffic to drop off their taxes before the deadline. But we sure got under this guy's and a few other people's skin.

Invariably, at any peace protest near a roadway, you see this: a large truck, van or SUV slows, the power-window (often tinted) comes down and a face glares toward demonstrators, contorted with fury, lips moving but no words intelligible. A few choice hand gestures clarify the message, then up glides the power-window. Always that last step, sealing in the fury. Against what? The possibility of hearing another point of view, perhaps one more reasonable than your own?

And the most commonly hurled insult is always, “Get a job!” Well you know what? I just spent eight months finding one, no thanks to the policies of the cabal in Washington. And now, like every other employed demonstrator I know, I’m spending large amounts of my meager “free-time” making signs, leafleting crowds and marching against this war. Exercising our Constitutionally-protected right, in other words, to peacefully express our opinions. At least, last time I checked we still had that right.

Feel better now...?

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration lowered the national terror alert level to "yellow" Wednesday, saying the end of heavy fighting in Iraq has reduced the threat of terrorist attacks....

Full story here.

Ali update....

NPR reported this morning that Ali, the little boy who lost his family and both his arms to an American missile strike, has been airlifted by Americans from Baghdad to a hospital in Kuwait City.

Now, if we could just do this for all the people gravely wounded in Iraq as a result of our invasion, who now find themselves languishing in hospitals looted of all critical medicines, equipment and supplies. Many of them would still have no families, homes or jobs to return to if or when they recovered. But it would be a start.

The personal face of "victory" in Iraq....

Yeah, let's go do this in Syria, too!

BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 14 — The old man stood waist deep in the grave. Black flies swarmed around his ankles and scattered whenever he plunged his shovel into the dirt.

The body of his brother lay at his feet — mangled, rotting, unrecognizable as human. On a nearby headstone sat a white plastic bag. It held what was left of his sister-in-law, his two nephews and his two young nieces.

"This is the first time I have a dug a grave myself," said the old man, Khali Abbas Ali. His relatives died five days ago when an American missile struck their car.

"The cemetery workers have all left," Mr. Ali, 65, went on. "There is no one around to help, so we must do everything ourselves."...

The whole heartbreaking story is here if you have the stomach to read it.

Right on Finland...!

A woman president and prime minister! Cool....

... Anneli Jäätteenmäki will be her country's first prime minister after her party - the Centre Party - won the elections last month.

The coalition has agreed to cut taxes by a little more that €1b during their period in office, and to give higher subsidies to families with young children.

Ms Jäätteenmäki is the first woman premier in Finland. The country got its first woman president, former EU Commissioner Tarja Halonen, in 2000, and was, incidentally, the first country in Europe to introduce votes for women, in 1906....[More here.]

And look what their government plans to do right off: cut taxes and raise subsidies to families with young children. Nothing there about tax cuts for the richest of the rich.

I am so sick of "trickle down" economics! More like, "Piss on the poor and call it dew from heaven."

What country do we live in...?!"

How did I miss this from a month ago?

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AP) - Security forces at Vandenberg Air Force Base are allowed to use "deadly force" in some cases if any anti-war demonstrators infiltrate the military complex, officials said.

Some anti-war activists have announced plans to trespass in hopes of disturbing Vandenberg's mission and to vandalize sensitive equipment they believe helps the war effort.

Vandenberg officials revealed Friday that military security police have always been allowed to shoot to kill, if necessary, to protect base residents and equipment.

It is more critical now that people understand the severity of that policy, a base spokeswoman said.

"This is not fun and games anymore," said Maj. Stacee Bako. "We're living in post 9-11. We don't know what's going to happen with the war effort in Iraq."

Military police will use their judgment, experience and training to determine if lethal force is necessary, she said....[Emphasis all mine.]

Oh, they'll use their judgment. Then that makes it alright!

And in just which time period was protesting against the military "fun and games?" ...I guess I missed that one, too.

Like the lobsters in the pot, the water's heating up all around us but the increase is so gradual and steady, our asses will be cooked before we realize it's hot.

Like watching a train wreck, right before your very eyes....

I can't believe this!

Of course, I also never believed that an inarticulate, clearly incompetent buffoon with the emotional complexity of a six-year-old, who deserted the National Guard during a time of war and failed at every business endeavor he ever set his hands to, could be elected president of the United States.

Well, okay, elected is a bit of a misnomer....

WASHINGTON, April 14 — The Pentagon declared today that major combat operations in Iraq were over after United States forces took control of Tikrit, the last bastion of the old government.

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, meanwhile, accused Syria of harboring fleeing officials of Saddam Hussein's government and threatened Damascus with economic or diplomatic sanctions. Other administration officials accused Syria of backing terrorists and amassing chemical and biological weapons.

The White House spokesman, Ari Fleischer, used even harsher language, calling Syria "a rogue nation" and its president, Bashar al-Assad, an "untested leader" who now has his chance "to be a leader who makes the right decisions."

Current and former Bush administration officials said Mr. Hussein's family members have fled Iraq into Syria in recent weeks, a contention Syrian officials have denied.... [Emphasis mine...whole story here.]

Deny all you want, al-Assad. You saw the difference it made in Hussein's case! It's beginning to look like your days are numbered....

Jesus Christ in a hand-basket! We've got to stop this U.S. war juggernaut!

Amen to that...!

Steve Gilliard at daily Kos says it like it is!

This is the kind of economic crisis which will trump any temporary gains from the war. Most Americans will be happy we "won" and then will wonder why their bills are going up when they can't get a raise. But the severe cuts we're facing in New York haven't been seen since the 1970's. The official unemployment rate is 8.8 percent. The real rate is at least two points, maybe four points higher. Personally, most of the people I know working are either freelancing or doing spot work. I could go to dinner with my friends and only one or two would have full-time work with benefits.

I can attest to bleak job prospects in New York City. I just returned to California after spending almost 8 months fruitlessly looking for work in the Big Apple. In that time, everyone I knew was either (1)unemployed; (2) working a service job (Starbucks or a variation); (3)an unpaid intern, subsisting on unemployment, savings and/or a credit card; (4)a student (the lucky ones!); (5)a temp (the unlucky ones); or, (6)employed at a job they hated but were terrified to leave for fear of not finding another.

...No, wait! I just remembered one person who, I believe, was happy and satisfied and relatively well-paid in her job.

During the months I beat the online-pavement in NYC, I suffered through two temp assignments. (I hunted for more, registering with six temp agencies, but to no avail.) The first, was to be "on-call" for Morgan Stanley.

Ohhh-kay.... I squared my shoulders, donned my suit and tie and showed up on-time in their Times Square high-rise, prepared to sell my soul to corporate America to pay my rent.

Only, one other temp arrived there before me. The single assignment that came down the pike that morning went to him.

Shit...! But all was not lost. Oh no! For it seems MS has a vetting procedure for temps, and I was offered the opportunity to complete that while I was there.

First, I was asked to fill out an affidavit, detailing every job I'd ever held, every address I'd ever called mine and every name I'd ever been hailed by. Next, I was handed a permission slip to sign, allowing the company to perform a full-scale criminal background check on me.

That's not all. I tromped through freezing rain to a nearby auxiliary office, where I followed instructions and made crisp, black ink copies of every single finger print and both my palms, presumably to facilitate the aforementioned background check. Still there was more. I slogged back through the rain to yet another location, where I was required--to qualify for a future temp position, remember, that had yet to materialize--to pee into a cup to prove that I wasn't--at least on that morning--a user of illegal substances--at least, ones they test for.

This entire ordeal took four hours--I was paid for three, at $15/hour. Afterwards, I was not offered a job (despite almost daily calls to the temp agency) until months later, when a five-day Morgan Stanley assignment was dangled before my eyes (after yet another required interview!). Unfortunately--or fortunately, however you look at it--I already had my ticket to return to California before that week was out.

My second temp assignment, for Weider Publications (of Men's Health Magazine fame), lasted six weeks, during which American Media, Inc. (of National Enquirer fame), who had purchased Weider just before I started there, secretly prepared to lay off a substantial number of Weider employees. Which they proceeded to do, with no warning, the last week I worked there.

What a bloodbath. In a matter of hours, while large, beefy guys in blue polo-shirts, AMI's logo emblazoned over their hearts, roamed the halls in twos and threes, making sure no one made a scene or tried to cut out with company property, employees were called in, one-by-one or sometimes in groups, to be told their fate. People were crying in the halls, stumbling around, white as ghosts, dazed expressions on their faces. Name plates vanished from doorways, that's how you could tell who was gone. Rumors went wild. "So-and-so was out! No, in! No, out!" Who knew?! On one desk, a stainless-steel coffee mug sat sentry for days; its owner had brought it in, steaming, to work, plunked it down in anticipation of a savory, busy morning, only to then disappear in the blink of an eye.

Last to be laid off, at least from my temporary perspective, was my boss. A senior vice-president, she'd known the mass-firings were coming. She embraced them as necessary. Good for the company, even! She told me that, when she still didn't expect to get the axe herself.

Then sometime between Thursday evening when I left work and Friday morning, they gave her her pink slip. Was she shocked! She put up a good face. And, with her connections, she'll surely land on her feet. Not to mention, AMI probably gave her some sort of golden parachute.

But for that one day, her last eight hours at Weider Publications, she walked the hallways, ashen-faced like us other working stiffs, and with trembling lips that even her forced, brave smile couldn't quite conceal.

I was told at 4:45 p.m. that Friday, not to return on Monday.

To end this pitiful tale of personal woe, lest anyone out there believe my arduous job search was due to some sort of blighted employment history or terrible skills, rather than New York's serious recession, let me say this. I was offered interviews for both the first two job applications I filed in California, and then was offered the first job I interviewed for. A permanent job. With benefits, paid holidays and retirement. Retirement, that is, unless GW and his global-capitalist cronies decide to raid that particular retirement fund, too, for more money to go out and invade some other unlucky developing nation sitting on a goldmine of oil.

Bechtel surfaces for a third time....

In the New York Times today, yet another expose of Bechtel's long-term interest in and behind-the-scenes scheming for an oil pipeline from Iraq to Jordan, and by proximity, to Israel.

It ends:

This unilateral war and the ouster of Saddam have given the hawks and their commercial allies carte blanche in Iraq. And the company with perhaps the sleekest and most effective of all the inside tracks, a company that is fairly panting with anticipation over oil and reconstruction contracts worth scores of billions of dollars, is of course the Bechtel Group of San Francisco.

Full story here. (Again, thanks Common Dreams.)

Sleazy art collectors worldwide are salivating....


It seems U.S. troops may have acted on orders to safeguard the Iraqi oil ministry in Baghdad, while ignoring pleas from international archeologists to protect the Iraq National Museum--before hostilities, perhaps the world's greatest repository of Mesopotamian culture.

...Dr Jeremy Black a specialist on ancient Iraq at Oxford University, said: "What has befallen Baghdad and Mosul museums was foreseen by archaeologists worldwide. Meetings were even held with the American military before the war to warn of the extreme likelihood of looting should an invasion occur.

"Sadly, however, the occupying forces failed to implement in practical terms the measures to protect Iraq's and the world's cultural heritage....

[....]

Curators said the looters came in two categories – the angry and the poor, most of them Shias, who were bent largely on destruction and grabbing whatever they could to earn some money; and more discriminating, middle-class people who knew exactly what they were looking for. Some of the more famous pieces may be too easily recognizable to be sold on the international market, leading some experts to fear they will be destroyed.

[....]

Their [the missing objects'] value, in total, could quite conceivably run to billions of pounds – with the profits lining the pockets of the more unscrupulous of the European and North American-based dealers. Somewhere between Switzerland and antique shops in Britain and elsewhere, all knowledge of an object's Iraqi provenance will be lost.

A photo accompanying the British Independent's story shows U.S. troops stringing razor-sharp barbed wire around the Iraqi oil ministry. That's right! We gotta keep our priorities straight! (Thanks to Common Dreams.)

It makes me so mad...!

Why do families have to go through this?! An article in today's New York Times talks about Americans opposed to the War in Iraq who have lost relatives--mostly sons-- in the conflict. The first mother quoted can't accept that her son was force-fed, fell for and eventually died for the myth that Hussein was responsible in some way for 9/11.

..."He was doing his job," Ms. Aitken said. "He had no choice, and I'm proud of who he was. But it makes me mad that this whole war was sold to the American public and to the soldiers as something it wasn't. Our forces have been convinced that Iraqis were responsible for Sept. 11, and that's not true. I told Tristan that he should go to Saudi Arabia for that. All he would come back to was, `Mom, I have to do my job.' "

Others are less temperate.

...In Baltimore, Michael Waters-Bey held up a photograph of his son, Staff Sgt. Kendall D. Waters-Bey of the Marine Corps, for news cameras, and said, "President Bush, you took my only son away from me."

In Escondido, Calif., another father, Fernando Suárez del Solar, told reporters that his son, Lance Cpl. Jesus A. Suárez del Solar of the Marine Corps, had died for "Bush's oil."

Escondido! My father lives in Escondido--a bastion of conservative Republicanism if ever there was one, located in northeast San Diego County. Dad, one of the area's beleaguered Democratics, makes do on a modest retirement income in a small condo alongside a golf course. Many of his golfing buddies, on the other hand, are downright wealthy and have the conservative political leanings that go hand-in-hand with money nowadays. Some remarks I've overheard when visiting have set me to drinking, rather than make a scene that would embarrass my father.

Trust me, these are not enlightened folk.

Well, the other day my dad got started on GW and the war--it was at the country club--and, the next thing he knew, two other people at the bar were joining in.

Yikes, I was thinking as he was telling me the story, they wouldn't jump an 82-year-old with two artificial hips, would they?

On the contrary. Far from assaulting him, they agreed with him about the war and Bush's harebrained foreign policy schemes. Three to one--in a crowd of retired, white, for-the-most-part wealthy southern Californians--opposed the war in Iraq. Under the circumstances, the one Bush supporter of the four had the good sense to keep quiet while the others had their say.

So. What I want to know is this: where in the hell are the 40%, 50%, 65% or whatever percent of Americans the latest polls are claiming support this insane, immoral military adventure? Huh? Where are they?!

I'm sitting in my favorite Peet's Coffee in uptown San Diego --yes, I temporarily inhabit one of the most conservative, pro-military, gung-ho-Iraq-War areas of the entire nation, homeport to the Pacific fleet and how many (?) of the aircraft carriers currently plying the waters of the Persian Gulf-- when this guy at an adjoining table suddenly interrupts my online reverie, "Hey, do you know how you find 1510?"

1510...? What the hell is he talking about?

The guy, blank-faced, 20-something and blond, attired in the neighborhood's prerequisite jeans and tight T-shirt, is pawing through a pile of discarded newspapers next to him on the bench. "1510," he says. "Astrology. Where do I find it?" He extends a section of the paper to me--the classifieds.

Light dawns. He's looking for his horoscope, but doesn't understand the distinction between the classified section and the rest of the paper. 1510 is Astrology's classified header. I explain--he gets it right away. I don't think he's dumb, exactly, just woefully ignorant.

He happily trots off with his daily horoscope and I wonder, how many of him are there out there? Never read a newspaper, get their news from Fox, couldn't find Iraq on a map to save their lives, get confused about Iran and Iraq --Aren't they the same country?-- think Hussein was behind 9/11, are convinced the loss of civilian life in this war has been small, and would say yes, Yes! President Bush is doing an outstanding job and if he wants to extend the war to Syria or Iran or Where-Ever, well, right-on!

My god, I am so sick of the widespread, willful ignorance in this country that perpetuates military adventurism and slaughter!

One of the upscale gay bars in this neighborhood (it's San Diego's gay district) has a huge, huge American flag draping the entire outside facade of the bar. It must be 10 feet by 15 feet, in this day and age an incontrovertible expression of pro-military sentiment. And I just don't get it. The U.S. Armed Forces reject gays, they throw them out with dishonorable discharges for the mere fact of being born who they are, but that doesn't stop gay San Diegans from being overwhelmingly pro-military and, presumably --though I haven't tested this assumption-- pro-war. Isn't that a little like feminists rabidly supporting the Augusta National Golf Club? Only worse?

Ali...

I know there's been much talk of this 12-year-old Iraqi boy, online and elsewhere. But Jon Lee Anderson's account of a visit to a Baghdad hospital, part of a longer article in The New Yorker, is worth the read. Though not for the faint-of-heart or weak-of-stomach!

Seriously. Don't read this post unless you're prepared for a graphic description of the personal horror our tax-dollars have brought about.

One of Dr. Saleh’s assistants, a young woman, had pulled some images up on a computer screen in his office. Dr. Saleh invited me to look at them with him. The first image the assistant showed us was of a boy lying naked in the emergency operating theatre. A catheter and tube was attached to his penis. The child’s legs were smooth, but his entire torso was black, and his arms were horribly burned. At about the biceps, the flesh of both arms became charred, black grotesqueries. One of his hands was a twisted, melted claw. His other arm had apparently been burned off at the elbow, and two long bones were sticking out of it. It looked like something that might be found in a barbecue pit.

The child’s face was covered by an anesthesia mask. “This is Ali,” Dr. Saleh said. “He is twelve. He was wounded in a rocket attack the night before last in the southeastern part of Baghdad, about fifteen minutes from here. Ali lost his mother, his father, and his six brothers and sisters. Four homes were destroyed; in one of them, the whole family was killed, eight people.”

It was hard to imagine that the person in the photograph could be alive, but Dr. Saleh said that Ali was still conscious. “I don’t think he will survive, though,” he said in a flat tone. “These burned people have complications after three or four days; in the first week they usually get septicemia.” His assistant was pulling up new images on her monitor. They showed Ali again, on the same bed and in the same position as before, but this time without his charred appendages. Both arms had been amputated, and the stumps were wrapped in white bandages. His torso was covered in some kind of clear grease. The mask had been removed from his face, and he appeared to be sleeping. He had a beautiful head, with the feminine features of a prepubescent boy...

[...]

Dr. Saleh asked Ali how he felt. “O.K.,” he said. Wasn’t he in a lot of pain, I said to Dr. Saleh, in a whisper. I spoke in English. “No,” he replied. “Deeply burned patients don’t feel much pain because of the damage to their nerves.” I stared at Ali, who looked back at me and at Dr. Saleh. His aunt got up and stood behind the head of the bed. She said nothing.

I asked Dr. Saleh to ask Ali what he was thinking about. Ali spoke for a moment in Arabic, in a boy’s soft, high-pitched voice. “He doesn’t think of anything, and he doesn’t remember anything,” Dr. Saleh said. He explained that Ali did not know that his family was dead. I asked Ali about school. He was in the sixth grade, he said, and his favorite subject was geography. As he spoke, his aunt stroked his hair. Did he like sports? Yes, he replied, especially volleyball, and also soccer. Was there anything he wanted, or needed? No, nothing. He looked at me and said something that Saleh didn’t translate until I insisted: “He says that Bush is a criminal and he is fighting for oil.” Ali had said this as he had said everything else, without expression. Ali’s aunt began to sob quietly behind him. I asked Ali what he wanted to be when he grew up. “An officer,” he said, and his aunt cried out, “Inshallah”—“If God wills it.”

Dr. Saleh had begun to weep, and I could hear him catching his breath. He tried to compose himself, and we said goodbye to Ali. Neither of us spoke as we walked down the hall to the sterile room, where the orderlies took off our smocks and masks. Dr. Saleh rubbed his eyes and cleared his throat several times. We went back to his office, and he washed his face in a sink. “So it’s untrue what they say about doctors being able to suspend their emotions,” I said.

He looked at me. His eyes were pink. “We are human beings,” he replied...

Anderson's article, which deals with much beyond Ali, is one of the best reports I've read so far on the invasion of Iraq. A gifted writer, Anderson chooses small details that together paint a potent picture of what it's like to actually be there.

As for Ali's current condition, a report in yesterday's British Independent said the 12-year-old had been evacuated from the Al-Kindi Hospital, which like every other large Baghdad hospital has been ransacked by looters, to Saddam General, the worst-equipped hospital in the capitol, located in its most violent slum, Saddam City. Which doesn't bode well for Ali's long-term survival.

Saddam General's director expressed frustration at foreign reporters' preoccupation with the boy.

"Why do you all want to talk to Ali? There are hundreds of children suffering like him, and we are getting more every day," said Moufak Gabriel...

Indeed.

Yes, this is quite a victory Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Perle and Wolfowitz! I have trouble sleeping at night, contemplating its horrors. But from what I've read, not one of you are losing any sleep over it.

If there is a Hell, surely, it will be peopled by the likes of our current national leadership.