The Jam-Packed Cruelty-Free Three-Ring Screed

Greetings, friends,
First of all, I am asked by Miss Light to encourage you to buy "Breast Cancer" stamps at the PO. They cost 40¢ instead of the usual 37¢. I can't think of too many cheaper ways to do your good deed for the day.

This time there is plenty of "Iraq" to talk about. If I skip the California election entirely, it's only because it is so hard to believe. But truth is always stranger than fiction, and we should be grateful. You can't make this stuff up. I did include the recent "Doonesbury" which we may all have to mail in with our new "Breast Cancer" stamps.

The first item I have about Iraq is a wonderful conspiracy theory which, if you don't believe it, plenty of people in Iraq do:
http://www.iribnews.com/Full_en.asp?news_id=188551&n=32
.......
> According to the Sunday Mirror report, Saddam is demanding safe passage to the former Soviet Republic of Belarus in exchange for information on weapons of mass destruction and his bank accounts. US President George W. Bush is being kept up to date on the talks by his National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice who is coordinating negotiations led by US General Ricardo Sanchez, the Sunday Mirror said.

This is much less amusing:
A Poignant Iraqi Tragedy
By Robert Fisk
The Independent
Pietro Cardone is an elegant, discreet man, an Italian diplomat who hates polemics and who pleaded with me that his story should speak for itself.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/092503G.shtml

And more suffering:
Americans Draw a Veil of Secrecy as Casualties Grow
By Robert Fisk in Baghdad
Independent Digital UK
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/092103A.shtml

Without even much of the naive helpfulness we've offered our enemies (and friends) in the past:
"Marshall Plan to Bush Iraqi Plan: No Comparison"
t r u t h o u t Statement
West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/092603E.shtml
Thomas L. Friedman: Reality doses for Americans
By Thomas L. Friedman
http://www.iht.com./articles/111652.htm

Even the troops are crying out, more loudly than they ever did it Vietnam:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1045345,00.html
We are facing death in Iraq for no reason
A serving US soldier calls for the end of an occupation based on lies
Tim Predmore
Thursday September 18 2003
The Guardian

And their parents:
'You Lied, They Died,' U.S. Parents Tell Bush
By Duncan Campbell
The Guardian
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/092803E.shtml

And our enemies are getting organized...good thing the Soviet Union isn't around to arm these guys:

Iraqi guerrillas fight for independence, for their leaders
BAQUBA, Iraq - A mournful voice singing of dreary days and disappointing
harvests drifted across a canal and onto the hidden grounds where Abu
Abdullah teaches his recruits to kill.
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/special_packages/iraq/6757356.htm


Phew, I can't take much more. Can't we protest with a certain humor?
If you are looking for a good bumper-sticker, I will recommend this one (thanks, Andrea); there is already one on my rather dirty '91 VW:
www.nobodydied.com

This is almost as good:
North Korea Calls Rumsfeld Illiterate Psychopath
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030927/ts_nm/korea_north_rumsfeld_dc

Yeah, Rumsfeld is really going over the top...
** Dean, Kerry call on Rumsfeld to quit **
Democratic presidential candidates Howard Dean and John Kerry have called for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to resign, citing a "pattern of deception" in his statements on Iraq and a failure to plan for the postwar period.
http://www.msnbc.com/modules/exports/ct_email.asp?/news/972546.asp

But why have him leave? No one is more fit to oversee the largest army on the planet:
low concept
The Poetry of D.H. Rumsfeld
Recent works by the secretary of defense.
By Hart Seely
Other American Comedies.
Article URL: http://slate.msn.com/id/2081042/

And more words of wisdom from our Attorney General:
> >From John Aschroft, the man who brought you the
> Patriot Act comes a beautiful and touching song
> which
> is neither melodic nor patriotic...
http://www.cnn.com/video/us/2002/02/25/ashcroft.sings.wbtv.med.html
> *****************************

But that doesn't stop the rest of Mr. Bush's people from ask for even more credulity from us. "Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice..."
Bush Seeks to Expand Access to Private Data
By Eric Lichtblau
The New York Times
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/091503E.shtml

And this one is truly scary...WHO PICKED THAT NAME???
Concerns about citizen privacy grow as states create 'Matrix' database
By Jim Krane
The Associated Press
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/092603I.shtml

It gets worse...even your votes may not be safe...these articles will have you longing for the days of the "hanging chad". At least then we knew what we were up against, not this surreal 21st century tech war:
New Voting Technology Questioned
By Finn Bullers
Kansas City Star
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/092503F.shtml
Vietnam Vet ahead in polls loses by 13% on Diebold
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0309/S00131.htm


http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0307/S00246.htm
I think this is one of the first articles I read about someone figuring out
exactly how the vote count can be manipulated. The woman who wrote this is the one whose website was shut down.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0307/S00065.htm
Florida County Concerns about Diebold Security
(skim through it until you find the name Diebold)
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/6849670.htm
Maryland Diebold Concerns
http://www.cleveland.com/election/index.ssf?/base/news/106207171078040.xml
University of Iowa Computer Science Department analysis of Diebold flaws
http://www.cs.uiowa.edu/~jones/voting/dieboldftp.html
New Zealand Piece on Right Wingers on Diebold Board
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0211/S00081.htm
NZ got a hold of Diebold support manual
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0309/S00157.htm
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But you won't hear about this scandal in the mainstream media (that's for me and the other malcontents, natch). Nor will this one knock Governor Arnold (which is, after all, a great Hollywood moment) off the front page:
Greenpeace Obtains Smoking-gun Memo: White House/Exxon Link
Greenpeace
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/091203G.shtml
Meantime, our "media" is playing games:
CNN's Tucker Carlson Angry Over Phone Flap
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030929/ap_on_en_tv/people_tucker_carlson
Amanpour: CNN Practiced Self-Censorship
Peter Johnson
USA Today
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/091603C.shtml

But nothing will hide the truth when the great beast of government turns on itself:
CIA Seeks Probe of White House
By Alex Johnson with Andrea Mitchell
Exclusive MSNBC and NBC News
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/092803A.shtml
The Most Insidious of Traitors
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t Perspective
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/093003A.shtml
Bush Administration Is Focus of Inquiry
By Mike Allen and Dana Priest
Washington Post
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/092903B.shtml

Not that the truth is any less absurd:
City Tries to Block Concert Suicide Plan
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030930/od_nm/life_suicide_dc

Holy s**t!
Vive le Screed!