:: NEWS COCKTAIL aka BlahBlahBlog ::

:: 3.28.2004 ::

:: So Weird ::

From Chuck Shepherd's News of the Weird:

In February, social workers found a feral family of six (only the father spoke a recognizable language; others used hand signs and noises) living in a shed on a farm at Theunissen, in Free State, South Africa. None of the kids (aged 14 to 26) had ever met anyone outside the family and simply ran into the woods any time visitors approached. One boy ambulated only in a frog-like manner. The father said the kids were born normal, and he assumed their poor development was punishment because he could not afford the ceremonial sacraments of the Majola tribe. [The Star (Johannesburg), 2-24-04]

Send your Weird News to Chuck Shepherd, P.O. Box 18737, Tampa FL 33679 or WeirdNews@earthlink.net

posted by me

:: 7:51:00 PM [+] ::
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:: More On Dubya ::

From VOANews.com:
Ex-Terror Czar: Terrorism Not Urgent Concern in Early Months of Bush Administration
By Meredith Buel

A former high-ranking counterterrorism official says in the months before the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, the Bush administration considered the threat of terrorism important, but not urgent. Richard Clarke made the comments before a special commission investigating the failure of U.S. intelligence to prevent the attacks.

Mr. Clarke, the former National Coordinator for Counterterrorism in the White House, began his testimony before commission members by apologizing to people in the audience who had lost family members in the September 11 terrorist attacks.

"Your government failed you," he said. "Those entrusted with protecting you failed you and I failed you. We tried hard, but that doesn't matter because we failed."

Mr. Clarke served as a top counter-terrorism official under four presidents.

He told members of the commission that fighting terrorism was an extraordinarily high priority in the Clinton administration, but was not an urgent concern in the early months of the Bush administration prior to the attacks on New York and Washington.

"I believe the Bush administration in the first eight months considered terrorism an important issue, but not an urgent issue," he said.

Mr. Clarke also criticized President Bush's decision to invade Iraq, saying it has undermined the war on terrorism.

Mr. Clarke's testimony was much anticipated because in a series of interviews and in a recently released book he has alleged that President Bush paid too little attention to the al-Qaida terrorist organization before the September 11 attacks, and then focused too much on a possible link with Iraq.

posted by me

:: 9:10:00 PM [+] ::
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:: Dubya in space ::

RE the Bush plan to build a moon base and send manned spacefilights to Mars:

If he wants to go to Mars, I say let him go.

-- Nathan Lane on David Letterman

posted by me

:: 10:02:00 AM [+] ::
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:: Red Planet update ::

Politics of Water: Ancient Sea on Mars Begs Human Exploration
By Tariq Malik
Staff Writer, SPACE.com

The discovery that a salty sea once covered party of the surface of Mars will have lasting effects on the future exploration of the red planet, according to scientists and policy experts inside and outside NASA.

Space agency officials said the briney find by the Opportunity rover has singled out its Meridiani Planum landing site for future robotic exploration and given a timely boost to President George W. Bush (news - web sites)'s recently stated vision of eventually sending humans to take a more personal look around.

During a Tuesday announcement of the finding, NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe said the ancient sea has "profound implications" for future investigations in which the space agency plans to send "more sophisticated robotic capabilities" to Mars.

"And it's in due course that human explorers will follow," O'Keefe said.

posted by me

:: 9:58:00 AM [+] ::
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:: "Engineers Just Wanna Make Art" ::

From Wired News:

PALO ALTO, California -- Conventional computer interface design is all about control, not real interactivity, but that doesn't stop new-media artist Jim Campbell from trying.

Campbell is a leading figure in exploring computer technology as an art form. An MIT graduate with dual degrees in electrical engineering and mathematics, Campbell also holds more than a dozen patents on video-image processing, and standard-definition and high-definition television.

The Palo Alto Arts Center's Jim Campbell exhibition, which runs through April 25, spans more than a decade of the artist's work.

Campbell worked as a video repairman, filmmaker and television-chip designer before delving into electronic art in the late 1980s.

"From the beginning, art was a balance for the engineering," Campbell said. "It was a different way of thinking that was not so logical and cold."

ALSO:
Turning Energy Into Pretty Things

DNA Spirals Into Artists' Medium

posted by me

:: 6:44:00 PM [+] ::
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:: "Rumsfeld trips on own words- Censure Dubya!" ::

Found at AlternativeTentacles.com:
Local heroes Move On dot Org forwarded this video of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld being called on his pre-Iraq invasion lies. It's part of Move On dot Org's push to censure President Bush- check it out!

posted by me

:: 12:38:00 AM [+] ::
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:: So Weird ::

From Chuck Shepherd's News of the Weird:

The Entrepreneurial Spirit
Among recent U.S. patents (according to a January story in the East Bay Express, Emeryville, Calif.): (1) a penile prosthesis with a magnet, from Deborah Knoll-Ewers, Hercules, Calif. (to overcome erectile dysfunction with new-age magnet therapy); (2) a plastic liner for men to use beneath their underwear, from Wesley Johnson, Burbank, Calif. (to keep the clothing clean while engaged in fully dressed sex, such as lap dances); and (3) an electrically safe device that attaches to the tongue, to make it vibrate, from Eric A. Klein, Mountain View, Calif. (to enhance a partner's sexual pleasure). [East Bay Express, 1-14-04] [Patent No. 6,482,147] [Patent No. 6,406,462] [Patent No. 6,572,569]

Recurring Themes
News of the Weird has remarked several times on the late composer John Cage's "4'33," a 273-second "musical" number containing nothing but utter silence. In February 2004, according to a New York Times report, cuts from "White Album" by the band Sonic Youth were being listed for downloading on Apple's iTunes online store, and included was "Silence," a 63-second cut consisting of no sound at all, for which fans were nonetheless expected to pay the regular iTunes price of 99 cents. (In a subsequent clarification, a Sonic Youth spokesman said "Silence" would only be sold to purchasers who bought all of the album's cuts.) [New York Times, 2-9-04, 2-16-04]

Send your Weird News to Chuck Shepherd, P.O. Box 18737, Tampa FL 33679 or WeirdNews@earthlink.net

posted by me

:: 12:35:00 AM [+] ::
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:: Chomsky in the Great White North, eh ::

Antiwar protesters take to streets
Hundreds of thousands march around world
EIlis Quinn
The Canadian Press

From The Edmonton Journal - Canada.com:
VANCOUVER -- More than 15,000 demonstrators crowded together on a small Vancouver beach Saturday to listen to left-wing activist Dr. Noam Chomsky speak out against the presence of American troops in Iraq.

The demonstration was one of several across Canada and around the world to commemorate the first anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and call for the removal of troops from the Middle East country.

"The important thing for us is that it's a struggle that we can determine the outcome, it's outrageous to leave it to the people of Iraq to fight this battle," Chomsky said.

The American author noted last year's global demonstrations to oppose the war represented the first time in history that millions of people spoke out before a war started. He said he believed the military presence in Iraq could end if activists continue to stage demonstrations.

OTHER Anti-War News:
US military families, veterans join peace marches on Iraq war ...
Canoe.ca, Canada

posted by me

:: 9:46:00 PM [+] ::
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:: RE George ::

Ex-Adviser Blasts Bush's Terror Response
From an AP report:
WASHINGTON - President Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, "looked skeptical" when she was warned early in 2001 about the threat from al-Qaida and appeared to never have heard of the terrorist organization, according to Bush's former counterterrorism coordinator.

"Her facial expression gave me the impression that she had never heard the term before," wrote Richard A. Clarke in a new book - "Against All Enemies" - that is scathingly critical of Bush's response to the 2001 terror attacks against New York and Washington. The Associated Press obtained a copy of Clarke's book before its Monday publication.

Clarke said Rice, who previously worked for Bush's father, appeared not to recognize post-Cold War security issues and effectively demoted him within the national security council. He said Rice has an unusually close relationship with Bush, which "should have given her some maneuver room, some margin for shaping the agenda."

Clarke, expected to testify Tuesday before a federal panel investigating the attacks, recounted his meeting with Rice as support for his contention that the Bush administration failed to recognize the risk of an attack by al-Qaida in the months leading to Sept. 11, 2001. Clarke retired in March 2003 after three decades in the U.S. government.

Clarke said within one week of the Bush inauguration he "urgently" sought a meeting of senior Cabinet leaders to discuss "the imminent al-Qaida threat." Months later, in April, Clarke met with deputy secretaries. During that meeting, he wrote, the Defense Department's Paul Wolfowitz told Clarke, "You give bin Laden too much credit," and he said Wolfowitz sought to steer the discussion to Iraq.

The White House responded that it kept Clarke on its staff after the election because of its concerns over al-Qaida. "He makes the charge that we were not focused enough on efforts to root out terrorism," White House spokesman Dan Bartlett said Sunday. "That's just categorically false."

Bartlett said Clarke's memo to Rice in January 2001 discussed recommendations to improve security at U.S. sites overseas, not inside the United States. "Each one of these, while important, wouldn't have impacted 9/11," Bartlett said.

Clarke harshly criticizes Bush personally in his book, saying his decision to invade Iraq generated broad anti-American sentiment among Arabs. He recounts that Bush asked him directly almost immediately after the Sept. 11 terror attacks to find whether Iraq was involved in the suicide hijackings.

"Nothing America could have done would have provided al-Qaida and its new generation of cloned groups a better recruitment device than our unprovoked invasion of an oil-rich Arab country," Clarke wrote.

Clarke added: "One shudders to think what additional errors (Bush) will make in the next four years to strengthen the al-Qaida follow-ons: attacking Syria or Iran, undermining the Saudi regime without a plan for a successor state?"

posted by me

:: 9:34:00 PM [+] ::
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:: "One year of Iraq war - By Noam Chomsky" ::

From Hi Pakistan:

There’s a lot of focus on the American death toll but personally I think that’s partly propaganda exaggeration. Polls have demonstrated time and time again that Americans are willing to accept a high death toll - although they don’t like it, they’re willing to accept it - if they think it’s a just cause.

There’s never been anything like the so-called Vietnam Syndrome: it’s mostly a fabrication. And in this case too if they thought it was a just cause, the 500 or so deaths would be mourned, but not considered a dominant reason for not continuing. No, the problem is the justice of the cause.

Right after the war, by April, polls demonstrated pretty clearly that Americans thought the United Nations, not the United States, ought to have prime responsibility for reconstruction, political and economic, in the post-war period.

There’s little support for the government’s efforts to maintain what amounts to a powerful, permanent, military and diplomatic presence in Iraq.

In fact, it is little discussed, probably for that reason. Not very many people are aware of the fact that the US is planning to construct what will be the world’s largest embassy in Iraq, with maybe 3,000 people. The military plans to maintain permanent bases and a substantial US military presence as long as they want it. The facts are reported, but marginally. Most people don’t know about it. The orders to open the Iraqi economy up to foreign takeover are again known to people who pay close attention, but not to the general population.

The general population offers little support for the long-term effort to ensure that Iraq remains a client state with only nominal sovereignty and a base for other US actions in the region. Those commitments have only a very shallow popular support and that’s more of a reason for the objections, the uneasiness about policy, than the number of casualties.

The trial [of Saddam Hussein] ought to be under some kind of international auspices that have some degree of credibility, so not something which is obviously victor’s justice, which, no matter how much of a monster one is, doesn’t carry credibility.

So first of all there’s a matter of form, but also there’s a matter of content. The trial should bring to the bar of justice his associates, those who gave decisive and substantial support for him right through his worst atrocities, long after the war with Iran. Again in 1991 when he crushed the rebellions viciously - the rebellions that might well have overthrown him. All of those people should be brought to justice. They’re not all equally culpable but they were all critically involved - that includes European countries right through the 80s, including Russia and France, Germany and others, it includes, crucially, the United States and Britain all the way through, including 1991.

They should also bring to justice those who were responsible for the murderous sanction regime which surely led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and devastated the society so completely that they could not carry out what has happened elsewhere, where the US and Britain supported comparable monsters - namely, they were overthrown from within.

It seems not unlikely that the same might have happened in Iraq had the society not been devastated and had people not been compelled by the sanctions to rely on the tyrant for mere survival. Actually there’s even more evidence of that coming out today as it’s been revealed in the Kay investigation and others how fragile the hold on power was at the end.

So anyone who contributed to Saddam Hussein’s atrocities to whatever degree they did, they’re culpable as well and in some fashion an honest trial should deal with that.

ALSO:
Chomsky on Haiti
From DemocracyNow.org

posted by me

:: 6:48:00 PM [+] ::
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:: 'The all singing, all dancing crap of the world' ::

** While touring to promote his book Diary, Chuck Palahniuk read a short story he wrote entitled Guts, and it was reported that people routinely passed out because of the graphic nature of the piece. So reprinted below -- from The Guardian UK -- is an excerpt presented for your pleasure. *** 8^)

Guts

If you thought Fight Club was shocking, Chuck Palahniuk's new short story will probably make you sick.

Caution: this extract is not for the squeamish, or for children. Some may find it offensive.

Inhale.

Take in as much air as you can.

This story should last about as long as you can hold your breath, and then just a little bit longer. So listen as fast as you can.

A friend of mine, when he was 13 years' old he heard about "pegging". This is when a guy gets banged up the butt with a dildo. Stimulate the prostate gland hard enough, and the rumour is you can have explosive hands-free orgasms. At that age, this friend's a little sex maniac. He's always jonesing for a better way to get his rocks off. He goes out to buy a carrot and some petroleum jelly. To conduct a little private research. Then he pictures how it's going to look at the supermarket checkstand, the lonely carrot and petroleum jelly rolling down the conveyer belt toward the grocery store cashier. All the shoppers waiting in line, watching. Everyone seeing the big evening he has planned.

So, my friend, he buys milk and eggs and sugar and a carrot, all the ingredients for a carrot cake. And Vaseline.

Like he's going home to stick a carrot cake up his butt.

At home, he whittles the carrot into a blunt tool. He slathers it with grease and grinds his ass down on it. Then, nothing. No orgasm. Nothing happens except it hurts.

Then, this kid, his mom yells it's suppertime. She says to come down, right now. He works the carrot out and stashes the slippery, filthy thing in the dirty clothes under his bed.

After dinner, he goes to find the carrot and it's gone. All his dirty clothes, while he ate dinner, his mom grabbed them all to do laundry. No way could she not find the carrot, carefully shaped with a paring knife from her kitchen, still shiny with lube and stinky.

This friend of mine, he waits months under a black cloud, waiting for his folks to confront him. And they never do. Ever. Even now he's grown up, that invisible carrot hangs over every Christmas dinner, every birthday party. Every Easter egg hunt with his kids, his parents' grandkids, that ghost carrot is hovering over all of them.

That something too awful to name.

People in France have a phrase: "Spirit of the Stairway". In French: Esprit d'Escalier. It means that moment when you find the answer, but it's too late. Say you're at a party and someone insults you. You have to say something. So under pressure, with everybody watching, you say something lame. But the moment you leave the party?

As you start down the stairway, then - magic. You come up with the perfect thing you should've said. The perfect crippling put-down.

That's the Spirit of the Stairway.

The trouble is, even the French don't have a phrase for the stupid things you actually do say under pressure. Those stupid, desperate things you actually think or do.

Some deeds are too low to even get a name. Too low to even get talked about. Looking back, kid-psych experts, school counsellors now say that most of the last peak in teen suicide was kids trying to choke while they beat off. Their folks would find them, a towel twisted around the kid's neck, the towel tied to the rod in their bedroom closet, the kid dead. Dead sperm everywhere. Of course the folks cleaned up. They put some pants on their kid. They made it look better. Intentional at least. The regular kind of sad, teen suicide.

Another friend of mine, a kid from school, his older brother in the Navy said how guys in the Middle East jack off different than we do here. This brother was stationed in some camel country where the public market sells what could be fancy letter openers. Each fancy tool is just a thin rod of polished brass or silver, maybe as long as your hand, with a big tip at one end, either a big metal ball or the kind of fancy carved handle you'd see on a sword. This Navy brother says how Arab guys get their dick hard and then insert this metal rod inside the whole length of their boner. They jack off with the rod inside, and it makes getting off so much better. More intense.

It's this big brother who travels around the world, sending back French phrases. Russian phrases. Helpful jack-off tips.

After this, the little brother, one day he doesn't show up at school. That night, he calls to ask if I'll pick up his homework for the next couple weeks. Because he's in the hospital.

He's got to share a room with old people getting their guts worked on. He says how they all have to share the same television. All he's got for privacy is a curtain. His folks don't come and visit. On the phone, he says how right now his folks could just kill his big brother in the Navy.

On the phone, the kid says how - the day before - he was just a little stoned. At home in his bedroom, he was flopped on the bed. He was lighting a candle and flipping through some old porno magazines, getting ready to beat off. This is after he's heard from his Navy brother. That helpful hint about how Arabs beat off. The kid looks around for something that might do the job. A ballpoint pen's too big. A pencil's too big and rough. But dripped down the side of the candle, there's a thin, smooth ridge of wax that just might work. With just the tip of one finger, this kid snaps the long ridge of wax off the candle. He rolls it smooth between the palms of his hands. Long and smooth and thin.

Stoned and horny, he slips it down inside, deeper and deeper into the piss slit of his boner. With a good hank of the wax still poking out the top, he gets to work.

Even now, he says those Arab guys are pretty damn smart. They've totally reinvented jacking off. Flat on his back in bed, things are getting so good, this kid can't keep track of the wax. He's one good squeeze from shooting his wad when the wax isn't sticking out any more.

The thin wax rod, it's slipped inside. All the way inside. So deep inside he can't even feel the lump of it inside his piss tube.

From downstairs, his mom shouts it's suppertime. She says to come down, right now. This wax kid and the carrot kid are different people, but we all live pretty much the same life.

It's after dinner when the kid's guts start to hurt. It's wax so he figured it would just melt inside him and he'd pee it out. Now his back hurts. His kidneys. He can't stand straight.

This kid talking on the phone from his hospital bed, in the background you can hear bells ding, people screaming. Gameshows.

The x-rays show the truth, something long and thin, bent double inside his bladder. This long, thin V inside him, it's collecting all the minerals in his piss. It's getting bigger and more rough, coated with crystals of calcium, it's bumping around, ripping up the soft lining of his bladder, blocking his piss from getting out. His kidneys are backed up. What little that leaks out his dick is red with blood.

This kid and his folks, his whole family, them looking at the black x-ray with the doctor and the nurses standing there, the big V of wax glowing white for everybody to see, he has to tell the truth. The way Arabs get off. What his big brother wrote him from the Navy.

On the phone, right now, he starts to cry.

They paid for the bladder operation with his college fund. One stupid mistake, and now he'll never be a lawyer.

Sticking stuff inside yourself. Sticking yourself inside stuff. A candle in your dick or your head in a noose, we knew it was going to be big trouble.

© Chuck Palahniuk
The story appears in full in Guardian Weekend magazine. 'Guts' will be part of a new collection of short stories by Chuck Palahniuk, to be published in August of next year.

ALSO from The Guradian UK:
13.03.2004: Interview: I dare you
Online chat: Chuck Palahinuk

:: 6:41:00 PM [+] ::
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:: The war @ home: update ::

Thousands worldwide decry war
By VERENA DOBNIK
Associated Press

NEW YORK -- Thousands of protesters turned out around the world Saturday to mark the first anniversary of the start of the U.S.-led war on Iraq and call for the removal of American troops from the Middle East country.

"It is time to bring our children home and declare this war was unnecessary," said the Rev. Herbert Daughtry, a New York activist addressing a rally in Manhattan.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg estimated the crowd at about 30,000, but organizers said later that number had grown to more than 100,000.

It was one of 250 anti-war protests scheduled across the country by United for Peace and Justice. Hundreds of thousands of activists also raised their voices at rallies in Rome, London, Tokyo and other cities around the globe.

New York police in riot gear walked calmly past barricades marking off the demonstration area on Madison Avenue as speakers mounted a stage to address the crowd on a sunny afternoon.

The event was peaceful, unlike a demonstration one year earlier that produced several clashes between demonstrators and police. Bloomberg and police Commissioner Ray Kelly stopped by the rally, but didn't speak to demonstrators or participate.

The rallies coincided with the anniversary of the first bombings in Baghdad last year. Although President Bush ordered the attacks on March 19, the time difference made it March 20 in Iraq.

Chicago police in full riot gear lined downtown streets as thousands of war opponents marched about two miles to the city's Federal Plaza.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson told the Chicago demonstrators to express their opposition to the war by voting against Bush. "It's time to fight back: Remember in November," he said.

Thousands marched from Seattle's First Hill neighborhood to the waterfront, including Alberto Salazar, who has a 20-year-old son in the Marines who served in Iraq.

"I feel angry that we have gone this far," Salazar said. "I feel hopeful people are waking up and seeing the truth of this whole matter."

In San Francisco, hundreds of demonstrators chanted "End the occupation" and "Impeach Bush."

A crowd of 500 to 600 people held a silent march in Montpelier, Vt., and placed hundreds of shoes on the front steps of the Statehouse, each pair symbolizing a soldier killed in the conflict.

Several thousand people turned out in Denver to protest the war.

"This is just the start of the process, a public expression of our opposition to the war," said Mark Cohen, 58, one of the march's organizers.

Overseas, thousands marched through central London — some waving placards calling Bush the "World's No. 1 Terrorist" — and organizers said up to 300,000 people had turned out in Rome.

Germany, Greece, the Netherlands and other European countries also saw protests, while demonstrations took place earlier in Japan, Australia and India.

About 500 protesters clashed with police outside the U.S. Embassy in the Philippines capital, Manila. No injuries were reported.

ALSO:

From The Independent UK:
One year on, and still the hard core march the world over
By Cole Morton, 21 March 2004

From Wired News:
Huge Worldwide Protests Demand Iraq Troop Pullout

posted by me

:: 8:24:00 PM [+] ::
...

:: The war @ home: one year later ::

March in San Francisco Starts Weekend of Anti-War Protests

From the NY Times:
SAN FRANCISCO, March 19 — Several hundred people marched through San Francisco's financial district during the morning rush hour today to protest the one-year anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq.

The action, led by the anti-war group Direct Action to Stop the War, kicked off a weekend of demonstrations across the country by people opposed to the Bush administration's policies in Iraq. The biggest protests are expected Saturday here and in New York.

The San Francisco police said the demonstration was progressing peacefully, with eight people arrested for blocking sidewalks as the group assembled outside the headquarters of the Bechtel Corporation about 9 a.m.

A security guard at Bechtel said the company had encouraged employees to arrive early so as to avoid the protesters. About 25 people sat in a line on the sidewalk outside the building, hands locked together in a challenge to the police.

One of the people in the line, Cissy Sims, a retired gardener and a member of the anti-war group Code Pink, said she the expected more people would be arrested as the day progressed..

"I am angry at the administration for spending tax dollars on war and imperialism and spreading suffering," Ms. Sims said. "I think the world is less safe today as far as terrorism."

Last year during the early days of the war, thousands of people were arrested as they blocked intersections and disrupted commerce in a scene that one police official described as anarchy. This time, scores of police officers dressed in riot gear stood on the periphery of the demonstration, and officers kept most of the marchers within crosswalks on busy Market Street.

"Stay on the sidewalk!" one officer shouted, as the pedestrian signal turned from green to red. The leader of a protest group from Seattle, marching with musical instruments, began sounding his whistle and waving the marchers off the street.

Though one organizer with a loud speaker encouraged participants to take "autonomous action" and engage in "civil disobedience," the police described the crowd as largely cooperative and most demonstrators seemed intent on making a peaceful statement of their opposition to the war.

"We want to show the world there is not total acquiescence in the United States in support of Bush," said Dr. Michael Kozart, a physician at San Francisco General Hospital who marched under a banner, "Health Care not Warfare." "We are exercising our constitutional right to free speech. There has been a criminalization of dissent in this country."

MORE ANTI-WAR INFO:

Switzerland prepares for anti-war rallies

Madrid tremors reach Italy

Anti-war protests planned across Australia

Thousands Expected At Anti-War Rally, March

Anti-war protests expected at U.S. bases in Europe

From the Vancouver Sun:
Anti-war protesters get early start on rally
Saturday main event to feature Noam Chomsky

posted by me

:: 6:08:00 PM [+] ::
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:: "Fears Impacted U.S. Reporting on Iraq" ::

From an AP report:
BERKELEY, Calif. - Competitive pressures and a fear of appearing unpatriotic discouraged journalists from doing more critical reporting during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, according to reporters and others at a conference on media coverage of the war.

The journalists on the panels at the University of California at Berkeley this week blamed the Bush administration for leaking faulty information, but said the media also has itself to blame for not being more skeptical about the case for war.

"The press did not do their job," said Michael Massing, who wrote an article in the New York Review of Books that found The New York Times and The Washington Post particularly at fault.

Journalists fear they will be seen as unpatriotic if they challenge White House statements, said Robert Sheer, a syndicated columnist for the Los Angeles Times.

"There is no doubt that there is an atmosphere of fear in the media of being out of sync with the punitive government," Sheer said.

Much of the criticism focused on a Sept. 8, 2002, New York Times article by Judith Miller and Michael Gordon, which said Iraq was importing aluminum tubes that could be used in centrifuges to enrich uranium, a critical step in making an atomic bomb.

Massing said nuclear experts or weapons inspectors would have refuted the evidence had the Times consulted them. Experts later verified the tubes were not used for nuclear weapons, but The New York Times and other papers buried that news in their inside pages, he said.

Massing noted that a phrase from the article - "The first sign of a smoking gun may be a mushroom cloud" - made it into a speech given by President Bush in the fall of 2002, days before Congress gave him war powers, as well as speeches by national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of State Colin Powell to justify the war.

A call to the Times for comment was not immediately returned on Friday.

posted by me

:: 6:00:00 PM [+] ::
...

:: "Asteroid Makes Close Earth Flyby" ::

From Discovery.com:

March 19, 2004 —An asteroid 30 meters (98 feet) in diameter on Thursday made the closest approach to Earth ever recorded, though there was never danger of a collision, NASA said.

The asteroid, nicknamed "2004 FH," passed 43,000 kilometers (26,500 miles) from Earth at 5:08 p.m. ET, according to researchers funded by NASA.

An average of one object roughly the size of this asteroid passes within a similar distance about every two years, but in the past they had gone undetected.

This particular close approach is unusual only in the sense that scientists know about it," NASA said in a press release.

Asteroid 2004 FH's point of closest approach with the Earth was over the South Atlantic Ocean. The object was bright enough to be seen during this close approach from areas of Europe, Asia and most of the Southern Hemisphere Using a good pair of binoculars, the press release said.

posted by me

:: 3:36:00 PM [+] ::
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:: Iraq: one year later ::

"Today we know that the mission is not finished, hostilities have not ended, and our men and women in uniform fight on almost alone with the target squarely on their backs. Every day they face danger and death from suicide bombers, roadside bombers, and now, ironically, from the very Iraqi police they are training." -- John Kerry

ALSO:
From JohnKerry.com:
"Protecting Our Military Families in Times of War"

John Kerry's Homeland Security Adviser Rand Beers: Why I Left the Bush Administration

"One year ago yesterday, I resigned from the Bush Administration to protest the Administration’s rush to war...yesterday’s horrific bombing in Iraq shows that American soldiers and Iraqis are still very much in harm’s way."

posted by me

:: 10:01:00 AM [+] ::
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:: [subject unavailable] ::

From CNN.com, 3.11.2k4:
Dead Milkmen bassist commits suicide

NEW YORK (Billboard) -- Dave Blood, bassist for defunct Philadelphia rock act the Dead Milkmen, committed suicide Wednesday, according to a post by his sister on the band's official message board (http://deadmilkmen.com).

In a subsequent post, Milkmen drummer Dean Clean confirmed the news.

"This morning Dave Blood is no longer with us," wrote Blood's sister, Kathy. "David is my brother. Since the breakup of the band David has never really found his niche in life. My brother was a smart, clever and talented person. Inner peace has seemed to elude him for the last many years. Sometime last night David chose to end his life. He left a note that I don't know all of what it said, he was not elaborate -- but he said he just could not stand to go on any longer."

A memorial service will be held in the Delaware County area of southeastern Pennsylvania at some point in the near future, with details to be announced.

"I'll miss Dave as a friend and a bandmate," Clean wrote. "He helped make lots of folks here very happy with the music we all made together. He will not be forgotten."

The Dead Milkmen formed in 1983 and quickly rose to prominence in the college radio circuit. Their 1985 debut album, "Big Lizard in My Backyard" boasts the cult-classic single "Bitchin' Camaro," but was overshadowed in 1988 by "Punk Rock Girl," which was an MTV staple of the time.

The band dissolved after releasing "Stoney's Extra Stout (Pig)" in 1995. In late 2003, Restless/Ryko released a retrospective of early and rare recordings, "Now We Are 20," and the "Philadelphia in Love" DVD, which compiled all of the band's videos.

In recent years, Blood had stopped playing bass due to extreme tendonitis. In the mid-'90s, he enrolled at Indiana University to study Yugoslavian culture, and spent nearly a year in the country between August 1998 and April 1999. In an e-mail interview (http://www.markprindle.com) late last year with journalist Mark Prindle, he expressed interest in returning to the country in the near future.

posted by me

:: 11:23:00 AM [+] ::
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:: "Spanish PM Pledges to Bring Home Troops" ::

* Hmmm. What's that? A democratically elected Socialist? I wonder how George II & his cronies will react. Precedent? Can anoyone say C-h-i-l-e? *

LONDON - Spain's newly elected prime minister pledged Monday to bring his peacekeeping troops home from Iraq by June 30. All other governments helping rebuild Iraq said they would stay the course, but there were signs of nervousness after the Madrid bombings and the Spanish government's defeat at the polls.

Socialist leader Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's remarks came as Spanish police investigated whether Thursday's coordinated bombings were carried out by Islamic extremists - possibly al-Qaida - intent on punishing Spain for its support for the U.S.-led war. The blasts killed 200 people and wounded about 1,600.

Britain, America's closest ally, insisted the coalition must remain committed to bringing stability and democracy to Iraq. So far, no significant opposition party has called for a withdrawal of Britain's 8,220 troops.

Poland, which leads a multinational force in southern Iraq, said a pullout of its 2,500 troops would hand a victory to terrorists. Prime Minister Leszek Miller pledged to stay with the peacekeeping mission despite pressure from opposition lawmakers.

"It would amount to an admission that the terrorists are right and that they are stronger than the whole civilized world," Miller said.

The European Union, meanwhile, announced it would hold high-level security talks Friday in Brussels, Belgium, to assess additional anti-terrorism measures, including a continentwide intelligence service and a European arrest warrant.

Last October, Poland and Spain, also a U.S. ally in Iraq, were named as possible targets on a taped message attributed to al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

"We reserve the right to respond at the appropriate time and place against all the countries participating in this unjust war (in Iraq), particularly Britain, Spain, Australia, Poland, Japan and Italy," said the voice on the tape, broadcast on Al-Jazeera.

posted by me

:: 10:38:00 PM [+] ::
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:: The Anti-Rush ::

Franken, Garofalo to Host Liberal Radio

NEW YORK - Comedian Al Franken is baiting conservatives again, and this time he's bringing along a bunch of friends to back him up.

Franken will be the lead personality on Air America Radio, a startup venture promising a liberal alternative to powerhouse radio talk show pundits like Rush Limbaugh.

The backers of Air America announced their programming lineup on Wednesday and said they planned to launch the network on March 31 in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco.

Franken will be joined by fellow TV comedian Janeane Garofalo, both of whom will have co-hosts for their live three-hour shows. Other shows will be hosted by Randi Rhodes, a radio personality from southern Florida, and Lizz Winstead, a co-creater of "The Daily Show" on Comedy Central.

Franken, in a swipe at Fox News host Bill O'Reilly, plans to call his midday show "The O'Franken Factor."

"Bill, I want you to sue us," Franken said on a conference call with reporters, referring to a case last year in which a judge threw out O'Reilly's request to ban Franken from using the slogan "Fair and Balanced" on the cover of his book. The ruling turned into a bonanza of publicity for Franken.

posted by me

:: 8:00:00 PM [+] ::
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:: "Anti-Bush shirts benefit Move On dot Org!" ::

Found on AlternativeTentacles.com:
Our buddies @ Astropitch have put up a scathing anti-Dubya store called Greedy Bastard! This site, which donates some of the profits to Moveon.Org and Truemajority.org, so far has 4 different delightful designs. Check it here!

posted by me

:: 10:20:00 PM [+] ::
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:: "NASA Gets the Picture About Water on Mars" ::

From NPR.org:
Rovers' Findings, Photos Stir Scientific and Public Interest

The two rovers on Mars continue their pursuit of evidence that water once flowed on the Red Planet.

Earlier this week, scientists working on the rover called Opportunity said the rocks an soil at Opportunity's landing site did shown signs of having been shaped by flowing water. Numerous images from Mars, promptly available to the general public, are proving to be a popular draw for Web users.

ALSO:

From MSNBC:
Life on Mars? Don't bet against it
After NASA findings, some bookies stop taking wagers

LONDON - Some British bookies on Wednesday stopped taking bets that life once existed on Mars after a NASA probe found evidence that the Red Planet at one time had a wet climate.

Ladbrokes said it has closed the book on evidence emerging that Mars had ever harbored living organisms.

"Following the latest news from NASA, we think it is now likely that evidence of past life on Mars will be found in the coming years," said spokesman Warren Lush.

The odds on past life on Mars were 16 to 1 when the book closed, down from 1,000 to 1 when the first bets were taken in the 1970s.

NASA scientists said this week that its Opportunity rover probe had indicated there is strong evidence that at least one part of Mars had a persistently wet environment that could possibly have been hospitable to life.

posted by me

:: 5:42:00 PM [+] ::
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