] As one watches protest marches, antiwar advertising and
] local arts events, one has to wonder whether the left has
] really weighed the moral issues posed by the horrors of
] Saddam's regime -- weighed life by life the repression of
] the 24 million Iraqis who live in a ruthless police
] state, not to mention the thousands or tens of thousands
] who have been imprisoned without trial, tortured, exiled
] or killed. It sometimes seems that the left is so averse
] to war, especially war waged by America, that it is
] prepared to turn a blind eye to even the most ghastly
] realities. Perhaps it is because the left no longer sees
] these realities that its antiwar arguments tend to
] justify continuation of the status quo.
]
] That, too, is a form of paralysis. But it is emblematic
] of an evolution in leftist values that has occurred so
] gradually over a period of decades that the profound
] nature of the shift is often not noticed. Today, the
] political counterculture and the antiwar movement in the
] West often seem to be one and the same. Instead of
] fighting fascists or other genocidal tyrants as it might
] have during the Spanish Civil War or World War II or even
] during the Central American conflicts of the 1980s, the
] modern left fights war; because the United States is the
] world's most significant military agent, and because it
] has so often used military power to support
] anti-democratic governments, the left understandably fights the
]United States. Such opposition to war is reflexive, and too often
]outweighs its outrage on behalf of the oppressed. Its capacity for
]the kind of muscular empathy that leads to action has atrophied,
]leaving only the possibility of reaction, of opposition. The
]antiwar left does not mount massive protests against China,
]Pakistan or Egypt. Millions do not pour into the streets on behalf
]of the student-led democracy movement in Iran. And Saddam Hussein
]and Osama bin Laden are not angrily compared to Hitler -- that
]treatment is more often reserved for George W. Bush.

Salon.com | See no evil

] An airline passenger who had two "No War with Iraq" signs
] in his suitcase says the federal security agent who
] opened his luggage inserted a note criticizing his
] "anti-American attitude."

BZZT! Game over.

Passenger finds 'chilling' note from bag handler

A fairly detailed description of strategy that will be unleashed in about 3 days.

Okay Saddam, here's the plan...

After a couple months of this, Bershadsky had had enough; she wanted to do something about the jobs she was seeing. So she went to a domain-name registration service and bought a URL for a new site she thought would, if not exactly make a difference in the world, at least make her feel better. The URL Bershadsky registered was fuckthatjob.com. "It was exactly what I was feeling," she says. "It felt right. I couldn't think of anything else to call it."

Funny, yet not so funny story.

Take this tech job and shove it

] THE first President Bush has told his son that hopes of
] peace in the Middle East would be ruined if a war with
] Iraq were not backed by international unity.
]
] Drawing on his own experiences before and after the 1991
] Gulf War, Mr Bush Sr said that the brief flowering of
] hope for Arab-Israeli relations a decade ago would never
] have happened if America had ignored the will of the
] United Nations.
]
] He also urged the President to resist his tendency to
] bear grudges, advising his son to bridge the rift between
] the United States, France and Germany.
]
] %u201CYou%u2019ve got to reach out to the other person.
] You%u2019ve got to convince them that long-term
] friendship should trump short-term adversity,%u201D he
] said.

Bush Sr warning over unilateral action

] Reporters watched a video that appeared to show Pakistani
] agents in bullet-proof vests scaling the wall of
] Mohammed's building, then handcuffing him and placing a
] black hood over his head.

okay, can you say stupid? Not only are we beating our chest about this takedown, but we're also giving the 'enemy' too much information about what we are capable of. Is not the reason why we haven't captured Bin Laden because we revealed that we had a lock on his satellite phone and he stopped using it? Does it make sense for both the Pakistani's and the US to reveal detailed information, including *video* of how our intelligence forces work?

Why is it that the press can see this stuff but we're still waiting on the 'conclusive evidence' that points to Iraq's WMD?

How mobile phones and an £18m bribe trapped 9/11 mastermind

] for the offense of exercising her rights as a citizen of
] one of the world's greatest democracies, she was spat on,
] threatened and yelled at.

only in Florida (or TX, TN, MS, AL, SC, NC...)

Pseudo patriotism vs. American values

] When John Ashcroft was in the U.S. Senate he was always a
] champion of states' rights.
]
] Too much power is held in Washington. State government is
] closest to the people.
]
] Now that he's the attorney general, the states are
] wondering where he's gone. The message is clear from his
] U.S. Department of Justice: We feds know best.

I wish he would've gone further into how the Republicans have done a complete about face on party lines. How is it that we're getting ready to amass a trillian dollar deficit in less than 2 years under this administration when Clinton had given us a surplus? Shouldn't Mississippi be back to segregation by now under Bush? Who spiked the punch?

Where's that states'-righter Ashcroft now? (captimes.com)

This is very good. Tony Blair is asked many of the questions that one might ask him about this Iraq situation, and is taken to task, and he defends his position. Both good critical journalism and well handled by Blair as well. However, its an hour and a half long. Be prepared.

[IP] British Prime Minister Tony Blair cross-examined on the BBC

Even if you're not Polish or Canadian, everyone can appreciate the beauty of a jelly donut.

FAT TUESDAY BABY!!!