] OLYMPIA -- The state's powerful teachers union is backing
] a proposal to expand gambling in the state to pay for
] cost-of-living raises for teachers and other education
] priorities.
]
] In an unusual alliance, the Washington Education
] Association and the Entertainment Industry Coalition have
] joined forces to make a case for expanded gambling when
] the Legislature reconvenes for a special session May 12.
]
]
] Read more legislative news
]
]
]
] The EIC approached the teachers union in the final days
] of the regular session that ended Sunday, dangling the
] prospect of between $200 million and $300 million in new
] gambling revenues to help fill a $2.6 billion budget
] shortage.

the fed gov. raged war with iraq because the end justified the means.
http://www.livejournal.com/users/ndr/255264.html

And now other community facets are using the same fuzzy logic to get what they need. I feel so out of whack with what the main stream media considers right and wrong. I’m like in a bad thought pool in a canoe without a paddle.

Legislature 2003: Teachers join in push to expand gambling

] To build its case for war with Iraq, the Bush
] administration argued that Saddam Hussein had weapons of
] mass destruction, but some officials now privately
] acknowledge the White House had another reason for war
] %u2014 a global show of American power and democracy.

Officials now say they may not find hundreds of tons of mustard and nerve agents and maybe not thousands of liters of anthrax and other toxins. But U.S. forces will find some, they say. On Thursday, President Bush raised the possibility for the first time that any such Iraqi weapons were destroyed before or during the war.

If weapons of mass destruction were not the primary reason for war, what was?

ABCNEWS.com : Officials: 9/11 Was Main Reason for War

] Federal authorities in Portland, Ore., filed charges
] against an Intel Corp. contract worker Monday, accusing
] him of trying to enter Afghanistan to help al Qaeda and
] Taliban forces a month after the Sept. 11, 2001,
] terrorist attacks.
]
] Maher Mofeid Hawash, 38, faces three charges: conspiracy
] to levy war against the United States, conspiracy to
] provide material support and resources to al Qaeda, and
] conspiracy to contribute services to al Qaeda and the
] Taliban, according to an affidavit filed in federal
] court.
]
] Hawash, a Palestinian-born software engineer who became a
] U.S. citizen 15 years ago, was taken into custody by the
] FBI on March 20. He has since been held in solitary
] confinement as a "material witness."

Intel worker charged with helping al Qaeda / He's 7th in Portland to be accused of terrorism

] It seems this morning that bloggers have taken over the
] world.
]
] Or at least the 2004 presidential campaign.
]
] Or at least the not-so-invisible primary leading up to
] the campaign.
]
] The pundits are blogging. The journalists are blogging.
] And now the candidates are blogging.
]
] Who needs television? Let's just eliminate the middleman.

Modem Madness (washingtonpost.com)

] Sometimes the next big thing on the Net reshapes the
] online world (universal e-mail, a graphical browser for
] the Web); sometimes it evaporates upon contact with
] business reality (PointCast, anyone?). Wise companies
] explore new trends cautiously, and that seems to be
] what's happening with weblogs.
]
] Most of the companies I've observed using blogs are
] trying it on their customers before unleashing it
] internally on their staffs. The external need,
] apparently, is more pressing. Many businesses already
] have other systems in place for managing internal
] information, ranging from simple brown-bag lunches to
] overkill knowledge-management regimens. But companies are
] always looking for better ways to touch base with
] existing and potential customers, and there's no hotter
] way to communicate on the Net than via a weblog.

Management by Blog?

] It's been more than a month since Dixie Chicks' lead
] singer and Lubbock-native Natalie Maines made
] controversial remarks about President Bush. But the
] country trio is still one of the hottest topics in
] Lubbock.
]
] The phone lines at 99.5 The Bear was jammed with callers
] Thursday, wanting to voice their opinion on the group.
] "I'm kind of disappointed they are from Lubbock because
] you don't go off into London and do a concert right
] before the war and say something like that," was the
] opinion of one of the callers.

Lubbock Radio Stations Refuse To Play Dixie Chicks' Music

] American officials tried to discredit the work of
] inspectors in Iraq to further their own case for war, the
] chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix has charged.
]
] In an interview with the BBC, Mr Blix said American
] officials leaked suggestions that inspectors had
] deliberately suppressed information to the media in an
] attempt to undermine their work in Iraq.

He (Mr. Blix) also reiterated his disquiet at how documents the International Atomic Energy Agency "had no great difficulty finding out were fake" managed to get through US and UK intelligence analysis.

Also disturbing, he said, was the question of who was responsible for the falsification.

(If you are not Familiar with the fake documents, check out the story in the New Yorker.)

WHO LIED TO WHOM?
by SEYMOUR M. HERSH - The New Yorker
Why did the Administration endorse a forgery about Iraq’s nuclear program?

The forgery became the object of widespread, and bitter, questions in Europe about the credibility of the United States. But it initially provoked only a few news stories in America, and little sustained questioning about how the White House could endorse such an obvious fake. On March 8th, an American official who had reviewed the documents was quoted in the Washington Post as explaining, simply, “We fell for it.”

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?030331fa_fact1

Blix: 'US undermined inspectors'

]On Tuesday, the leaders of the antiwar coalition Win
] Without War will gather for a two-day retreat outside New
] York City to discuss their group's future now that the
] war has ended. One of the items on the agenda: Should it
] change its name to Win Without Wars?
]
] The question of whether to go plural reflects how the
] antiwar movement is trying to move forward now that the
] conflict it so passionately wanted to avert %u2014 and
] for a time, thought it might avert %u2014 has ended.
]
] Leaders in the movement do not like to focus on the
] notion that they lost. Yes, they failed to stop the war.
] Yes, the public has overwhelmingly supported President
] Bush's actions. With a swift United States victory over a
] brutal dictator and fewer casualties than most experts
] predicted, it is particularly hard for antiwar organizers
] to argue that their dire forecasts were right.
]
] They focus instead on how much strength the movement
] gained so quickly %u2014 it was largely invisible just
] six months ago %u2014 and on their next moves, even if
] they are not quite certain what those might be.

Antiwar Movement Tries to Find a Meaningful Message

] Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld yesterday rejected
] charges that the US military was to blame for the looting
] by Iraqis of priceless treasures from the antiquities
] museum in Baghdad.
]
] Rumsfeld expressed sympathy over the plunder of the Iraqi
] National Museum last week, when US troops stood by as
] looters walked off with antiquities or smashed what they
] could not steal.
]
] But he denied at a Pentagon briefing that the war plan
] for Iraq had not adequately prepared for such a threat.
]
] "Looting is an unfortunate thing. Human beings are not
] perfect," Rumsfeld said. "No one likes it. No one allows
] it."
]
] But he added: "To the extent it happens in a war zone,
] it's difficult to stop."

Rumsfeld rejects blame over looting

] The British Museum will help in the global search for
] priceless artefacts plundered in the chaos of war
]
] THE British Museum, accused in the past of being one of
] the world%u2019s leading looters of imperial treasures,
] is to come to the aid of a sister institution devastated
] by war.
]
] Downing Street has asked a leading academic from
] Britain%u2019s national archaeological collection in
] Bloomsbury to draw up a list of antiquities that may have
] been looted from the Baghdad museum so that details can
] be distributed to soldiers patrolling the borders of
] Iraq.
]
] Iraq%u2019s priceless national collection traced the
] origins of modern civilisation in ancient Mesopotamia
] %u2014 the birthplace of writing, cities, codified law,
] mathematics, medicine and astronomy. Its virtual
] destruction in little more than a day of lawlessness is
] seen as a disaster comparable to the 5th-century
] destruction of the library at Alexandria, or an earlier
] sacking of Baghdad by the Mongols in 1258.

No stone unturned in hunt for looted treasures