Yet another anti-Bush rally that I wish I could have attended.

The protesters would disrobe, form the Chinese symbol for peace, and a photographer would climb up into a cherry picker and take their picture from above. I wasn't really sure how nudity was going to help the peace movement, but I'd never gotten naked in front of more than two people at a time, and the idea of doing it for something I believed in seemed like a great idea.

Salon.com Life | Bushes against Bush

WASHINGTON - President Bush's aides did not forcefully present him with dissenting views from CIA and State and Defense Department officials who warned that U.S.-led forces could face stiff resistance in Iraq, according to three senior administration officials.

This is much like having bad news and not telling grandpa. "No, don't tell him, it'll only upset him."

Charlotte Observer | 03/29/2003 | Bush reportedly shielded from dire forecast

He was goofing around, and there's only one way to interpret that kind of behaviour just seconds before announcing war on Iraq: the man is an idiot.

...

I've seen the footage they're talking about. It's not the hair combing, it's the antics. I watched as he sat there trying to practice his serious face and asking if it was good or not. It was pretty sickening.

George's little antics

Ellsberg is best known for leaking the Pentagon Papers, a top secret Defense Department study on the Vietnam War that he considered proof that American officials were lying about chances for victory. He said he hoped that his willingness to get arrested might encourage someone in the federal government to release more information about the war with Iraq.

I'd love to read about a demonstration with all of the recently resigned cabinet and upper administration members attending. I doubt that it would be enough for Bush to consider it more than a "focus group," though.

Daniel Ellsberg arrested at antiwar protest

“I have challenged regulators, business professionals and utility companies in Iowa to work toward achieving 1,000 megawatts of renewable energy by 2010, which will require the addition of more than 500 megawatts of renewable energy facilities,” Vilsack said. “I am pleased that MidAmerican is taking a leadership role in that effort.”

Now that just plain rocks. It's nice to see some good news these days.

MidAmerican to build Largest Wind Farm in the World

So there's this 14 year old, "The Boss", and all he wanted to to do was figure out "how he could make money, fast." The plan? "The Boss envisioned making as much as $100,000 by assigning various 'jobs' to his friends, then taking a 25 percent cut for himself. The Boss, according to one of the lists he compiled, envisioned his "family" making money in prostitution, weapons sales, money laundering, recruiting hit men - even candy sales." Well, atleast they new their market with the candy sales. So the story gets better. Another student "arrested on the misdemeanor charge was nicknamed 'The Hacker' because he was supposed to alter grades in the school's computer system." Now, I won't ruin the plot or climax for you but I'm thinking this should be a TV show or movie called Youngfellows.

Middle-school 'mafia boss' arrested on felony charges

This definitely qualifies as propaganda for big corporations! For extra wholesome fun, check out the links on the sides of the article, where you can read papers about how the U.S. isn't being isolationist and how the Earth is just fine!

There is global warming. It has been going on now for anywhere from 14,000 to 10,000 years since the last Ice Age. There was a slight period of warming between 1850 and 1950 and, since then, there has been NO warming in terms of any dramatic rise in temperature worldwide. Indeed, the meteorological satellites have found, if anything, a slight cooling.

Ah, that explains the bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef. Maybe even explains why the Arctic Ice Shelf is breaking away. Er, wait, no it doesn't.

What can Tony Blair possibly mean when he talks about "protecting our environment", let alone the rubbish about "the devastating impacts of climate change"? We cannot protect the environment except to insure against the obvious problems of keeping rivers clean of industrial wastes or intelligently managing forests. We can require, too, that industry does not befoul the air, but in fact we have already done that. In America and Great Britain, levels of this kind of man-made pollution have been dramatically reduced since the 1970s.

Aha! So it was pollution in the 70s that was keeping my allergies in check! No wonder I need to take so many anti-histamines, it's because the pollutants aren't there to help me!

No amount of statesmanship will ever create "a global community" so long as a particular religion (Islam) or economic theory (Communism) requires large groups of people to devote themselves to the enslavement of other large groups of people. Nations do not have "friends." Nations have "interests" which they pursue, often to the detriment of their neighbors and others.

I don't know if I can even touch that one with a 10 foot stick.

And, afterward, Iraqis will dance in the streets and throw flowers at their liberators.

Are we talking about the Iraqis that still live in Iraq, or the ones who moved to Tennessee several years ago?

National Anxiety Center - Warning Signs!

Donald Rumsfeld often quotes a line from Al Capone: "You will get more with a kind word and a gun than with a kind word alone."
But should the guiding philosophy of the world’s leading democracy really be the tough talk of a Chicago mobster?

The Arrogant Empire by Fareed Zakaria

] For the 30th anniversary of one of the best-selling
] recordings of all time %u2014 a recording that spent 741
] weeks, or a total of 14 years, on Billboards Album
] Charts EMI/Capitol has produced a gift for its
] fans: Pink Floyds CDark Side of the Moon.
] It is being released today for the first time in full
] 5.1-channel surround sound.

Dark Side of the Moon turns 30

"Last time around, the attorney general announced that he was sending up a bill and that he expected Congress to enact it within three days," the ACLU's Timothy Edgar said of Ashcroft's post-9/11 push for the first PATRIOT Act in an interview with Salon. "They ended up taking six weeks, but they still didn't have a single hearing, and members were unable to obtain a complete text of the legislation even after they voted on it."

To hear that the gun lobbyists and the ACLU both agree on something should strike a chord with everyone. If the reports are true about what Ashcroft wants to push through with Patriot Act II, it's no wonder that everyone can see the problems with this. Write to your representatives in Congress and let them know that you want to keep your rights.

The drumbeat began just days after Sept. 11, when George W. Bush told the nations of the world: "Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists." It grew louder -- and closer to home -- when Ari Fleischer warned that "all Americans" should "watch what they say," and then again when Attorney General Ashcroft said that those who complained of lost liberties during the war on terror "aid terrorists" by giving "ammunition to America's enemies and pause to America's friends."

Not only are we losing our civil liberties in a legal sense, we are being intimidated for voicing our opinions.

"I'm a little too young to remember McCarthyism, but I've got the feeling that it might be happening again," Saviano told Salon. "I wonder where it came from, this idea that anybody who wants to question this administration or debate things publicly is labeled unpatriotic?"

What are the big bad problems looming in Patriot Act II?

Cancel judicial consent decrees that prevent local police departments from spying on civil rights groups and other organizations that might once have been deemed subversive.

Would that include hacker conventions?

Allow the attorney general to revoke the U.S. citizenship of anyone who provides assistance to any group the government considers to be a "terrorist" organization. Once the individual's citizenship is revoked, the attorney general would then be free to deport him -- or to hold him indefinitely in government custody.

I was born in America. Where would I be deported to if the Attorney General decided that I was supporting terrorism by calling him a big doody head?

"The real danger to our liberty comes from politicians wanting to look like they are doing something in a time of crisis," said the ACLU's Edgar. "Unfortunately, it's inevitable that there will be politicians, including politicians in the Justice Department, who aren't really looking to make us safer but to take advantage of the situation."

'Shut Your Mouth'