The Friends of California Libre...

05 December 2003

The Donkeys of Mass Destruction

Greetings, friends,
No, I haven't let Roberta Hoffmann vent her own screed this time. The donkeys I'm speaking of aren't the idiots smashing the Earth to bits piece by piece...they're the beasts of burden that are the unwitting tools of fools.
Donkeys of Mass Destruction
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t Perspective
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/112403A.shtml

So don't bring a nail-file to the airport, and don't be caught out with a donkey.
Life Worsens for Donkeys Under Suspicion
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20031124/od_nm/donkeys_dc
U.S. Searches Target Iraqi Donkeys
By Michael Georgy
Reuters
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/112803I.shtml

Sure, our enemies in Iraq are going to resort to donkeys, because they didn't have any of the super-weapons we were told about last year. Remember last year? The year our democratically elected leaders dazzled us with a blaze of LIES?
CIA Admits Lack of Specifics on Iraqi Weapons Before Invasion
Agence France Presse
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/120103A.shtml

But why worry? Don't they know it's Christmas? And what are you getting for Christmas (thanks, Miles); I mean, this is weird; a Sigmund Freud doll, yeah, a librarian doll, maybe, but an albino bowler doll? What kind of Christmas indeed:
http://www.accoutrements.com/actionfigures/index.html

It'll be the Weird Christmas of 2003. Where will George Bush sneak off to for this holiday? Chechnya? Rwanda? Indiana?

Don't ask me why I'm putting this in the screed. Maybe it's for my cat-loving boss, Helene:
Garage Full of Dead Cats Found in Indiana
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20031202/ap_on_re_us/graveyard_garage

But people have always been a lot more clever, and evil, than kitty-cats:
'Gentleman' Cannibal Poses Legal Dilemma
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20031202/od_nm/germany_cannibal_dc

Yeah, evil always operates best in the open. Take our brave President, slinking into our occupied Middle Eastern base to take turkey with the troops; but do they know it's Thanksgiving?
Iraqis Ask Why Bush Didn't See Iraq on Surprise Trip to Baghdad
By Niko Price
The Associated Press
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/113003H.shtml

The Iraqis know what they want for Christmas: Freedom. Will we give it to them, or are we afraid to see free people vote?
Iraq's Shiites Insist on Democracy. Washington Cringes.
By Alex Berenson
The New York Times
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/120203B.shtml

We've already compromised their free press. Did you ever wonder with the First Amendment is the first? Because no other amendment works without it:
Only Dictators Ban Television News
By Helen Thomas
Hearst Newspapers
The raid by the U.S.-appointed Iraqi officials on an Arab television network bureau in Baghdad and the ban on its broadcasts hardly fits my idea of how to spread democracy in the Middle East.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/120203F.shtml

How stupid do the leaders of this cabal think we are? Not stupid enough:
President's Poll Ratings Still Flagging
By Richard Benedetto
USA TODAY
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/112003B.shtml
Click the following to access the sent link:
USATODAY.com - Poll: Support for U.S. handling of Iraq war drops

Indeed, we're a well-educated nation, if we move slowly:
Army Reserve Battles an Exodus
By Robert Schlesinger
The Boston Globe
The U.S. Army Reserve fell short of its re-enlistment goals this fiscal year, underscoring Pentagon fears that the protracted conflict in Iraq could cause a crippling exodus from the armed services.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/112603F.shtml

But the members of our military aren't entitled to voice their opinion of our government; they only get to die for it:
Gag Order Leaves Troops, Reporters Speechless
Mike Littwin
Rocky Mountain News
Before the press was herded into the giant hangar in advance of George W. Bush's pep rally/photo op with the Fort Carson troops, we were given the rules.
No talking to the troops before the rally.
No talking to the troops during the rally.
No talking to the troops after the rally.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/112903C.shtml

It doesn't work with everyone:
Slain Troops' Parents Could Be Hard on Bush
By Peter Graff
Reuters
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/111903A.shtml
Fiancée of Fort Carson Soldier Skips Meeting With President
Associated Press
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/112803J.shtml

But how would George Bush know? He's completely cut off from the press, the citizenry, and anyone who would challenge his deep, unrepentant Born-again world view:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1089118,00.html
War and peace - inside the two worlds of George Bush
Jonathan Freedland
Wednesday November 19 2003
The Guardian
All is calm, inside the bubble. Outside there may be baying demonstrators, clashing with dense lines of fluorescent-yellow police. Outside, a few streets away, there may sit a House of Commons bristling with anger at a war so many millions did not want. And outside, several thousand miles away, there may be the unfinished business of that decision: an occupation which sees the loss of a British or American life almost every day.

His government approaches the world like Pollyanna, like Candide; hear no evil, see no evil...but speak a lot of evil.
A government safely trapped in bubbles
By Richard Reeves
http://www.iht.com./articles/118277.htm

They ignore the voices of reason around the world, even people who know a lot more about the world than oil company executives from the Midwest:
Bleak Outlook for U.S. in Iraq, Says Blix
Reuters
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/112203B.shtml

I mean, we're the most powerful nation on the Earth, right? When in doubt, bomb away...that's a way to get the Iraqis to love our kind of democracy:
US calls in air support in central Baghdad for first time since invasion
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20031119/wl_afp/iraq_us_031119124745

As long as we admit the truth...later:
War Critics Astonished as U.S. Hawk Admits Invasion Was Illegal
By Oliver Burkeman and Julian Borger
The Guardian UK
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/112103F.shtml

But never listen to foreigners, unless they agree with us. What do they know? They only blasted each other to smithereens 50 years ago...what do they know about war?
Italian: U.S. Is Fueling Iraqi Anger
By Nicole Winfield
Associated Press
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/112003C.shtml

No, our President is only being led by these good and just men, an innocent donkey, needing only a ring through his nose:
"The President Ought to be Ashamed"
By Eric Boehlert
Salon
Former Sen. Max Cleland blasts Bush's "Nixonian" stonewalling of the 9/11 commission, his "lies" about Iraq, and his flight-suit photo op on the USS Lincoln after "hiding out" during Vietnam.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/112303A.shtml

He's a symbol of our greatness, a failed businessman who crept out of the military himself, but now he's a mighty warrior:
Bush as the Lone Ranger
By Pascal Riche
La Liberation
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/112403G.shtml

We've almost forgotten the underhanded grace that other men used in dealing with our neighbors; Jimmy Carter, John Kennedy, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, Richard Nixon, Dwight Eisenhower, even Ronald Reagan...today we put away the spies and bring out the tanks and the bombers:
JFK: We Still Wonder What Might Have Been
By William C. Kashatus
History News Service
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/112203A.shtml

We make war while the whole planet Earth starts to burn:
Exxon Rep: CO2 Output to Rise 50 Percent by 2020
Reuters
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/112203H.shtml

Anything for a quick buck, anything to keep the rich going a few years more:
Ozone Layer 'Sacrificed' to Lift Re-election Prospects
By Geoffrey Lean
Independent UK
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/112603G.shtml
Billions May Suffer Severe Water Shortages As Global Warming Melts Glaciers
Agence France Presse
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/113003G.shtml
A Year of Extremes Provides Evidence of Global Warming
By Michael McCarthy
The Independent UK
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/120403H.shtml

And other nations think, "Why should we suffer and let the United States get even richer while the world falls apart?"
Russia Rules out Ratifying Kyoto Pact
The Associated Press
Kremlin rejection deals mortal blow to pact to cut emissions.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/120303I.shtml

Will this great nation of ours even last to see the Earth roasted to the cinder, or will we be a country of donkeys by then?
Gen. Franks Doubts Constitution Will Survive WMD Attack
Gen. Tommy Franks says that if the United States is hit with a weapon of mass destruction that inflicts large casualties, the Constitution will likely be discarded in favor of a military form of government.
Franks, who successfully led the U.S. military operation to liberate Iraq, expressed his worries in an extensive interview he gave to the men’s lifestyle magazine Cigar Aficionado.
To read the rest of this article, go to http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/11/20/185048.shtml
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To continue the donkey theme, here an Iraqi joke sent to me by a colleague in the Middle East; a "khar" is a donkey cart:
> There is a story that Mullah Nasruddin used to go on frequent trips abroad.
> Of course he brought along his ubiquitous khar but as his trips were rather
> extensive, he would sometimes bring along several others for the journey.
> The local officials came to suspect that the Mullah was engaged in some kind
> of illegal activities and always stopped him and searched his gear for
> smuggled goods. However, they never found anything. Despite this, the police
> chief was convinced that Mullah Nasruddin was smuggling something.
>
> Many years later, when the Mullah was too old to travel and the the police
> chief was retired from his job, the two got to talking. The chief asked
> Mullah, "Tell me, I know that you were smuggling something all those years
> even though my men could never discover it, what was it that you were
> smuggling?" Mullah Nasruddin replied back, "Why, donkeys of course!"
>
> :-)

Credit for the cartoons enclosed goes again to Aunt Nona and Dana.

And finally, in honor of John Lennon this December, it's the Mack White Conspiracy Cartoon (thanks, Geri):
http://mackwhite.com/lennon.html

Vive le Screed!

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