] The Our Documents initiative will use the Internet
] to bring infor-mation about and the text of 100 of
] America's most important documents from the National
] Archives to classrooms and com-munities across the
] country. These initiatives are important, for it is
] only when our children have an understanding of our
] past that they will be able to lead the future.

Oh, so we release all the documents the Bush administration feels are non-threatning to its interests.. But when there is information that might actually be relevant to current affairs, like past presidental records, or records pertaining to "September the 11th", they sequester it.

You know they are clueless when "information" is written as "infor-mation", and there isn't a line break..

] The Congress, by Public Law 85-529, as amended, has
] designated May 1 of each year as "Loyalty Day," and I ask
] all Americans to join me in this day of celebration and
] in reaffirming our allegiance to our Nation.
]
] NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the
] United States of America, do hereby proclaim May 1, 2003,
] as Loyalty Day. I call upon all the people of the United
] States to join in support of this national observance. I
] also call upon government officials to display the flag
] of the United States on all government buildings on
] Loyalty Day.

Loyalty Day?

Something about this does not sit right with me.. Maybe its just my paranoid nature, but I can't help but think there is a subtle reasoning behind a number of things this administration is doing, and I don't like the vibe I get from it.

I'm really starting to feel like public opinion is being managed in a way where we appear to be free, and have government oversight, yet in reality, we are being managed and controlled. Maybe its been that way all along, only now because we are more connected and informed, we are seeing it for what it is..

Loyalty Day.. I love my country.. I really do. But I fear that its not the ideas and philosophy it was founded based on which we are asked to be loyal, but rather, its current rulers and policies.. Thats not the way I think America works. America loves diversity and opposing opinions, as they are the engines from which new ideas are created.. America allows descent. America tells the truth. America does not have to ask for loyalty, it earns it. Thats my America, and it never had to ask for or demand my loyalty. It has always had it.

There is irony in this sharing a date with May Day..

Bush declares May 1st 'Loyalty Day'

] Twelve Palestinians, including a 2-year-old boy, were
] killed Thursday when Israeli forces thrust into a Gaza
] neighborhood in a sweep for wanted militants shortly
] after the release of a Middle East peace "road map."
]
] The tank and infantry raid sent a strong signal to a
] "Quartet" of U.S.-led mediators and to the new
] Palestinian government that Israel would press ahead with
] such operations despite the new proposal to end 31 months
] of bloodshed.

] Witnesses said six of the dead were civilians, including
] the 2-year-old, a 13-year-old boy and a 17-year-old, and
] six were militants. In the West Bank, three Palestinian
] gunmen were killed in clashes with Israeli troops in two
] separate incidents.

] Ahmed Ayyad, a blacksmith, said his 2-year-old son,
] Amir, was killed by a bullet to the head as the toddler
] stood near a window facing Israeli troops.
]
] "I could not help him," Ayyad said, choking back tears at
] the local morgue. "What road map? It is nonsense ... the
] Israelis do not want peace -- you can ask my son."

Reuters | Israeli Troops Raid Gaza, 15 Palestinians Killed

] An American citizen detained for more than a month as a
] material witness in a terrorism case in Oregon was
] charged today with plotting to fight against American
] soldiers in Afghanistan.
]

] The American, Maher Hawash, a 38-year-old software
] designer in Portland, was accused of conspiring with a
] group of six others who had already been charged with
] trying to provide material support to Al Qaeda and the
] Taliban.

Hawash Charged With Plotting to Fight U.S. in Afghanistan

] "I looked at it and found the emperor has no
] clothes, and now everyone's mad at me."

The Washington Post gives Billy Hoffman the Quote of the Day.

Link to my posting of the original story:
http://www.memestreams.net/users/rattle/blogid2864198

The full quote:
] "All I wanted to do is tell everyone, 'Hey, this
] is a problem, and it needs to be protected,'"
] Hoffman said. "Everyone was blissfully unaware of
] how it works. I looked at it and found the emperor
] has no clothes, and now everyone's mad at me."

DID YOU HEAR? . . . (washingtonpost.com)

quoted:
===

Easy to blame the war on those who love war; I blame it also on those who opposed it. They should have done a better job – produced arguments that smacked less of ancient ideology, found subtler people to express them, put language to better use than sloganising, sought the support of less obviously biased or hysterical groups, kept one issue separate from another, not turned the cause of peace into a ragbag of associated or not-at-all associated grievances, jeered less, cheered less, put their minds, every inch of the way, to the fears no less than the ambitions that fuelled the war, and why others, who were not all Bush's poodles, did not always think as they did.

...

Any decent peace movement could have picked me up and made me theirs in seconds.

As it was, they put a wall up, forbidding if you weren't already camped on the other side of it, if you didn't take it as a given that Americans were hyenas, or that the world's stockpiles of poisons would go away by wishing them away, or if you believe that only those capable of listening are capable of answering. And thus they left me out there, where I didn't want to be.

...

But if they couldn't address the concerns of a man in my condition – a nobody loitering by the banks of the River Indecision with his finger fluttering to his lips – how were they ever going to get through to the hard men, to Blair or Bush or Saddam Hussein, or to those who could get through to Blair or Bush or Saddam Hussein, or to those who could get through to those who could get through? The slow drip drip drip of mind-changing. And don't tell me that those who organised for peace never entertained such grandiose ambitions, because in that case who were they trying to reach?

I know the answer to that – one another.

If you want peace, preach to the unconverted - Howard Jacobson - from Argument

] Three Iraqis who aided the CIA in the March 20 attempt by
] the United States to kill Iraqi President Saddam Hussein
] were executed this week by Iraqi counterintelligence,
] former and serving U.S. officials told United Press
] International.

] Sources told UPI that Iraqi counterintelligence killed
] the three, shooting two and cutting out the tongue of a
] third, who bled to death. They said U.S. intelligence
] had learned this from their forces on the ground in Iraq.

] One former long-time CIA operative said it was the
] Delta men, already in country, who made the breakthrough
] for the U.S. attack by infiltrating a key Baghdad
] telecommunications center and tapping a fiber optic
] telephone line.

] Iraqi assets, recruited by the agency, played a key
] part in the operation by providing "priceless"
] information, relating to the phone system and details
] of Dora Farm, according to one former senior CIA official.

] A senior administration official told UPI that Saddam
] had suffered two burst eardrums in the attack, and "was
] bleeding from the nose and mouth." This source added
] that Saddam was so disoriented by concussion damage that
] he was in "a vegetative state" for hours after the strike.

] Another administration official said that Saddam was
] "definitely alive" after the strike and appeared on
] Friday, March 21, wearing glasses because of concussive
] damage to the capillaries of his retinas.

UPI Exclusive: 3 CIA assets killed in Baghdad

] Are Weblogs one more tool in the arsenal used by online
] journalists to report the news? Or does a blog%u2019s
] typically individualistic voice and unfiltered attitude
] place it outside the journalist's palette? These
] rhetorical questions have exploded into a raging debate
] among online journalism watchers following CNN's
] decision to force war correspondent Kevin Sites to stop
] posting items to the popular blog he created while on
] assignment in northern Iraq.

] Some big media companies -- notably MSNBC, Fox News,
] Knight-Ridder and Advance Publications -- believe that
] blogs are a new and exciting form of journalism. These
] companies are actively bringing new blogs by reporters
] and columnists onto their Web sites.
]
] "Weblogs are journalism," says Joan Connell,
] executive producer for Opinions and Communities at
] MSNBC.com. "They can be used to great effect in
] reporting an unfolding story and keeping readers
] informed."
]
] Some of them are strongly against it. At CNN.com,
] for example, a spokesperson says that its news
] executives do not believe in blogs. “CNN.com prefers
] to take a more structured approach to presenting
] the news,” the spokesperson said. “We do not blog.
] CNN.com will continue to provide photo galleries,
] video clips, breaking stories and interactive
] modules as ways to involve readers in learning about
] the war.”

OJR article: Kevin Sites and the Blogging Controversy

Christopher Hitchens is a liberal and a dedicated critic of Henry Kissinger and US foreign policy in general..

quoted:
===

Now hear this. Ever since [September 11th], the United States has been at war with the forces of reaction. May I please entreat you to reread the preceding sentence? Or perhaps you will let me restate it for emphasis. The government and people of these United States are now at war with the forces of reaction.

This outcome was clearly not willed, at least on the American side. And everybody with half an education seems to know how to glibly dilute the statement. Isn't Saudi Arabia reactionary? What about Pakistani nukes? Do we bomb Sharon for his negation of Palestinian rights? Weren't we on Saddam's side when he was at his worst? (I am exempting the frantic and discredited few who think or suggest that George W. Bush fixed up the attacks to inflate the military budget and abolish the Constitution.) But however compromised and shameful the American starting point was--and I believe I could make this point stick with greater venom and better evidence than most people can muster--the above point remains untouched. The United States finds itself at war with the forces of reaction.

Do I have to demonstrate this? The Taliban's annihilation of music and culture? The enslavement of women? The massacre of Shiite Muslims in Afghanistan? Or what about the latest boast of al Qaeda--that the bomb in Bali, massacring so many Australian holidaymakers, was a deliberate revenge for Australia's belated help in securing independence for East Timor? (Never forget that the Muslim fundamentalists are not against "empire." They fight proudly for the restoration of their own lost caliphate.) To these people, the concept of a civilian casualty is meaningless if the civilian is an unbeliever or a heretic.

Confronted with such a foe--which gladly murders Algerians and Egyptians and Palestinians if they have any doubts about the true faith, or if they happen to be standing in the wrong place at the wrong time, or if they happen to be female--exactly what role does a "peace movement" have to play? A year or so ago, the "peace movement" was saying that Afghanistan could not even be approached without risking the undying enmity of the Muslim world; that the Taliban could not be bombed during Ramadan; that a humanitarian disaster would occur if the Islamic ultra- fanatics were confronted in their own lairs. Now we have an imperfect but recovering Afghanistan, with its population increased by almost two million returned refugees. Have you ever seen or heard any of those smart-ass critics and cynics make a self-criticism? Or recant?

Chew on This : Saddam's crimes, al Qaeda massacres, Kurdish freedom, oil worth fighting for... and a few other things Seattle's potlucking peaceniks might want to think about this weekend., by Christopher Hitchens

] Reminiscent of the Hitler Youth of World War II, Saddam
] Hussein has trained an 8,000-strong army of children to
] face coalition forces in Baghdad.
]
] In a report by the New York Daily News, Peter Singer of
] the Brookings Institution explains the children are
] considered a junior Fedayeen Saddam %u2013 the
] paramilitary forces Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
] has dubbed "death squads" for the atrocities they commit.
]
] The child army is called Ashbal Saddam, or Saddam's Lion
] Cubs, according to the report.

Geez, could Saddam be more deplorable? Sending kids into battle?

WorldNetDaily: Saddam trains kids to kill

] Sturgis police arrested seven Sturgis men for placing
] more than 20 threatening letters on various businesses,
] schools, banks and at the post office. At least 12 signs
] were posted Monday morning. Another 20 were put up
] Tuesday evening, according to Sturgis police.
]
] The letters all read "All your base are belong to us and
] you have no chance to survive, make your time."

The bar for committing a "terrorist act" is pretty damn low these days.

Ahh.. This will remind the world of the whole "all your base" thing, and within a week we will have an "all your base" take on the Iraq war.. I know it..

'All Your Base' Signs Land Seven in Court