A Petition

Read this post by Arthur Silber, and then sign this petition in support of the Illinois high school students who are being threatened with expulsion and possibly criminal charges for their participation in a peaceful antiwar protest. (via Antiwar.com) I just signed it myself.

The Antiwar GOP Majority

I wasn't aware of this. But as the sole antiwar Republican presidential candidate, perhaps it explains Ron Paul's recent breakthrough.

More Fox Hypocrisy

This 40-second video by by Robert Greenwald (via Fox Attacks) makes clear the real reason Fox censored Sally Field at the Emmys.

Tragic Irony

On August 19, seven active-duty U.S. troops in Iraq coauthored an op-ed piece in the New York Times called "The War as We Saw It." In their essay they wrote that “In the end, we need to recognize that our presence may have released Iraqis from the grip of a tyrant, but that it has also robbed them of their self-respect. They will soon realize that the best way to regain dignity is to call us what we are—an army of occupation—and force our withdrawal.”

Less than a month later, on Monday, September 10, after two 15-month tours there, two of those soldiers, Sgt. Omar Mora and Staff Sgt. Yance T. Gray, were killed in a vehicle accident in Iraq. A third was shot in the head before the essay was published; he is expected to recover.

Ron Paul at the Fox Republican Debate 9/05/07

As a side note: It is a surreal experience watching Chris Wallace and Brit Hume "moderate" this "debate." Their voices practically drip with sarcasm and condecension when addressing questions to Ron Paul. Also, you can't see who it is, but notice that some of the Fox questioners (or is it the other candidates?) begin snickering and cackling inanely into live microphones every time Rep. Paul is asked a question. Journalists, or propagandists? You decide.

War With Iran?

There seems to be an increasing amount of rumor and talking points surrounding this possibility in the past week. Has anyone seen this Times of London piece about the Pentagon's plan for a three-day blitz against Iran, designed to take out not just their alleged nuclear facilities but their entire military? And why is this being reported only in the UK press and not anywhere in the American mainstream media? So plans are drawn up. Whether this scenario or a similar version of events unfolds in the final eighteen months of this unmitigated nightmare called the Bush presidency, we should expect more sabre-rattling and drum-beating from all the usual suspects. But can anyone say this is not totally and criminally insane?

Billions for War, No Health Care for Children

The Bush administration has just adopted new rules making it much more difficult for states to provide health care insurance to children of "middle-income" families. According to the government, if you are a family of four making over $20,560, you are officially not living in poverty. What century are they living in? I guess when your lame-duck presidency is imploding and you're busy killing, maiming, and torturing tens of thousands of people in an unpopular war halfway around the world, now is about as good a time as any to finally toss that mask of compassionate conservatism aside once and for all.

Hiroshima

Today is a tragic anniversary. On this day in 1945 the American crew of the Enola Gay dropped the atomic bomb codenamed "Little Boy" on the city of Hiroshima. Approximately 70,000 people were directly killed, and in the months following, approximately 60,000 more people died of injuries and radiation poisoning. Three days after Hiroshima a second atomic bomb codenamed "Fat Boy" was dropped on Nagasaki.

When we read and hear in the mainstream media about the dangers of other countries possessing weapons of mass destruction, and how even "preventive war" (as in Iraq, and next possibly Iran) is a solution to this problem, it is important to remember that only one country in the history of the world has ever used such weapons on a civilian population.