I'm very sorry about the IAM downtime, I had an application crash (totally my fault; bad code to be honest)… there are still some real problems with the submissions engine, so I think re-writing that from the ground up (time to dusk off my assembler skills) for HARDCORE SPEED is the task of the day. That and finding a cork for Leeta's ass.
Anyway, on with the news: Genetics be damned! Cloning is beginning to answer the nature versus nuture questions… What's surprising is that cloned beings don't even neccessarily look the same as their “source being”.
Here's some
freaky honesty from Tony Blair… Does this mean that the UK will get bombed by the US next? Or does it just mean that we're going to admit that this whole thing is a farce but keep doing it anyway?
Reporter: Is there any link between al-Qa'ida, Iraq and terrorist groups in Britain?
Tony Blair: No.
Reporter: So, the US government knows of no link, either?
Tony Blair: I've said what I've said, and I don't think I can add to it.
Too bad we don't get those kinds of answers on this continent (not that I'm holding Blair up in any way)… Ari is far more evasive. Seriously, he's probably avoided tens times as many questions as he's answered.
Reporter: You and the President have said that Saddam has repeatedly gassed his own people. Why do you leave out the part that the United States in effect gave Saddam the green light?
Ari Fleischer: You have a question about statements that were purportedly made by the administration in 1988, you need to address those somewhere other than this White House.
Well, that ignores a couple key points, most obviously that (a) it was Bush's dad, and (b) almost all of the key staff involved are the same. It also ignores the point that since it's being used to help make the argument for invasion it should be up for questioning. Finally, it makes the frightening statement that investigation into the actions of the US government expire every four years!
So, the Ameri can people have said NO to war (including many city governments). So has Europe and two key members of the UN (Germany and France). But still, Bush et al is pro mising war no matter how flimsy the excuse.
So tell me this: what does it mean when a country launches a major war that is opposed by both its people and the international community? What does it mean that the ruling class in the US does not act in the interests of the people who “elected” it, nor in the interests of the United Nations? There is only one conclusion: the US is a rogue state run by wealthy dictators.
The tree of liberty, from time to time, must be replenished with the blood of patriots.
— Thomas Jefferson
Jefferson et al warned we would lose democracy if we allowed too much power to collect in too few individuals. We've done that, and the world is being ruled with a bloody iron first by the ultra rich and their corporate tools. Revolution is coming. It's time to send the pigs of the megacorp monsters to slaughter. Off with their heads! Some quick links on that:
- Doubling Up of Taxation Isn't Limited to Dividends – On how Bush's tax strategy works to shift the tax burden to the lower classes, effectively making the rich richer and the poor poorer and widening the class divide.
- The New American Filter – On how big corporations silence any debate as to the value and meaning of the extreme power they hold.
- Congress Meets Wall Street – How Big Corporate Campaign Contributors are Buying America…And What the Rest of Us Pay. Tons of charts and info, plus a cool poster.
- Pork Greases U.S. Weapons Program – “We have a bloated, corrupt and unaccountable military industrial congressional system that thrives on a policy of perpetual war for perpetual peace.”
Finally I wanted to mention this story from Robert Wiener, CNN's executive producer in the first Gulf War. He describes, well, to put it simply, the death of journalism and the death of the unbiased news media, at least in the US. In the US, most of the media you see (including the books students learn from) is under absolute control of the government. Land of the free…
It is better to die on your feet than live on your knees.
— Emiliano Zapata
Recommended reading to go with this entry: RADICAL
