How low as people do we dare to stoop
Making young broccolis bleed in the soup
Untie your beans, uncage your tomatoes
Set potted plants free, don't mash that potato...

Reuters reports, "Cheney said Americans were safer and he stood by prewar characterizations of Iraq as a threat despite the failure to find weapons of mass destruction and new warnings by Cheney and other administration officials that another major terrorist attack may be coming."

Iraq was not a threat to the United States. Period. Let me repeat the statistics as of the late 1990s:

US population: 295 million
Iraq population: 24 million

US per capita annual income: $37,600
Iraq per capita annual income: $700

US nuclear warheads: 10,455
Iraq nuclear warheads: 0

US tons of lethal chemical weapons (1997): 31,496
Iraq tons of lethal chemical weapons (1997): 0

   

Undercover federal air marshals on board a June 29 Northwest airlines flight from Detroit to LAX identified themselves after a passenger, "overreacted," to a group of middle-eastern men on board, federal officials and sources have told KFI NEWS.

The passenger, later identified as Annie Jacobsen, was in danger of panicking other passengers and creating a larger problem on the plane, according to a source close to the secretive federal protective service.

"The lady was overreacting," said the source. "A flight attendant was told to tell the passenger to calm down; that there were air marshals on the plane."

The middle eastern men were identified by federal agents as a group of touring musicians travelling to a concert date at a casino, said Air Marshals spokesman Dave Adams.

But it also revealed an unpleasant underbelly of fear and loathing among ordinary passengers terrified of seeing a dark-skinned male face board their plane. It showed a world in which passengers saw terrorists around every corner and an innocent band of Arab musicians going to play a gig were mistaken for suicidal jihadis intent on mayhem.

Critics have accused Jacobsen of creating a drama out of what turned out to be an uneventful flight in the company of a well-known Syrian band, some of whom go to the toilet a lot. Patrick Smith, a well-known columnist on aviation said her piece was 'spring-loaded with mindless hysterics and bigoted provocation' and accused her of paranoia.

'The notion that 14 saboteurs ... would boisterously proceed in and out of a plane lavatory, taking turns to construct a bomb, is so over-the-top ludicrous it deserves its own comedy sketch ... I half-expected her to tell me one of the men wore a cardboard sign labelled "terrorist",' Smith said.

The first hints of boiling resentment were released today in a survey by Zogby International for the Arab American Institute. The survey asked 3,300 people in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, and the United Arab Emirates to rate their feelings toward the United States.

Since April 2002, already low favorable attitudes toward the United States have plummeted in Jordan from 34 percent to 15 percent, in Morocco from 38 percent to 11 percent, in Egypt from 15 percent to 2 percent, and in Saudi Arabia from 12 percent to 4 percent...

...The percentage of people who have a favorable attitude toward the American values of freedom and democracy has dropped in the last two years from 52 to 39 percent in Saudi Arabia, from 58 percent to 41 percent in Lebanon, and from 50 percent to 39 percent in the UAE.

Do not even ask about policy. In Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Lebanon, and the UAE, support for the US policy in Iraq is at 1 to 4 percent. Support for US policy toward Arabs is between 4 to 8 percent. Support for US policy toward Palestinians is between 3 to 9 percent. The strongest support for any US policy in the region is for the war on terrorism, but even that ranges from 3 percent in Saudi Arabia to 21 percent in Jordan.

TERROR FEAR HORROR IN THE AIR!

by Dermot O'Connor

I had been due to fly a week after September 11, 2001. As we all know, most flights were grounded following the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Fortunately, I have friends in the highest levels of the Bush administration who were able to place me on a flight. I was relieved; my trip was vital to my business interests. I knew how priveleged I was to be able to fly (at taxpayer expense).

Indeed, the plane was marvellous, superior to any I had travelled on before. I managed to take a snapshot:



As I entered the plane, I realised that something was very very wrong. All the other passengers were Saudi Arabians.

It was already common knowledge that the mastermind behind the 911 attacks was Usama Bin Laden, a high-ranking Saudi! What was going on?

I took my seat. The plane was luxurious. I had never seen anything like it; it far surpassed the First Class section of Virgin Airlines. The attendents were clearly terrified. The Saudis wore Dishdadi-thingies (like Lawrence of Arabia). They could have had Anthrax bombs under them for all I knew.

What the hell was our government doing, transporting potential allies of Usama Bin Laden in a luxury aircraft one week after the WTC attack? Shouldn't we have been torturing interrogating them instead?

Once we were in the air, I tried to relax. Our President (Praise be to Him) knows what he's doing, surely? The Saudis must be our friends, I assured myself. I looked back and saw them whispering among themselves. Several laughed, in an evil, James-Bond supervillain kind of way. One of the more swarthy ones got up and went to the back of the plane to ''relieve'' himself.

At this point my bowels began to turn cold. Could they be assembling an Atomic bomb in the toilet?

It was the only rational explanation for their strange behaviour.

The flight attendants entered the cabin and began to serve dinner. The food was wonderful. I started with the Crab cakes. The were served with Fresh Chive Sauce and Tomato Concasse. They were quite delicious. I followed with Cream of Fennel Soup. It was less satisfactory, being a little on the lukewarm side. A Salad with Artichoke Vinaigrette was next, soon followed with warm dinner rolls. The main course was Rondelle of Salmon with Juniper Berry Sauce. The salmon was very tender; the Sauce complimented the taste marvellously. For desert, a Chocolate Grand Marnier Torte with Orange Caramel Sauce completed a First Class meal.

Being a First Class flight, the tableware was of course METAL, not plastic. Were the Saudis planning to take over the plane with their forks and kill us all?

As yummy as the food was, I could not shake off the feeling that something was wrong. The Saudi gentlemen were jubilant - in a way that made my stomach churn. I clenched my legs together to prevent my bladder from emptying itself, such was the extreme terror afflicting my palpitating heart. I could hold back no longer: I had to use the toilet.

As I walked past the Saudis, I attempted to remain calm. They looked away, not wanting to make eye contact. One of them had a satchel, another carried a plastic bag...

''Surely one was full of Plutonium, the other contains the detonator!'' I thought to myself. I didn't want to alert them to the fact that their ghastly plan had been exposed, and continued on to the toilet.

I released the contents of bladder and bowels in a violent pungent eruption. The fear of sudden death at the hands of Islamo-Fascists had liquified my stools most effectively. I did not envy the next Saudi gentleman to use the facility.

After limping back to my seat, I eased my tender rear onto the plush cushion. I could tell that the flight attendants were as petrified as I was. I scribbled a quick note on a napkin:

''Bad terror men - tell the pilot!'' was all I had time to write. I handed it to the attendant. She nodded, and said ''I shouldn't tell you this, but we know, the pilot knows, and there are nine secret service agents on board. If they find out that I told you this, I could lose my job. Please don't tell anyone that I told you, please.''

''Thanks Jenny'', I replied. ''I see your surname is Smith - so your family is from England originally?'' I asked. She was very nice. I'm glad she told me about the secret service agents, because I relaxed a bit after that.

As we came in to land, one of the arabs stood up before the seat-belt sign went off. At this point I lost control of my bowels. Fortunately they were mostly empty, minimising the damage to my pants.

As we left the plane, one of the Saudis turned to me and said ''As-Salaam-Alaikum''. I was sure that this was a death threat, along the lines of ''Death to America''. I wanted to hit him in the face, the evil freedom-hating bastard. Once I left the plane, I was met by lots of security people. I told them about everything that happened, including the threatening comment. The bad men were taken to one side, spoken to, and allowed to go on their way.

I was shocked! How can our government allow middle-easterners to move freely? We will only be safe if we can round them up and put them in detention centers in the middle of the desert. The Homeland desperately needs a Final Solution to the Arab Problem.

Fox News! They report...You Decide?

Another phone death threat for Ted Rall!

Clusterfuck Nation: The Optimist's Report

Clusterfuck Nation's Kunstler radio interview

Tony Blair is a total prick! Official!

Nasa photographs of sprites!!!

KFC = klansmen fucking chickens

Is Michael Moore in cahoots with Rumsfeld and Perle???

   

   

Iyad Allawi, the new Prime Minister of Iraq, pulled a pistol and executed as many as six suspected insurgents at a Baghdad police station, just days before Washington handed control of the country to his interim government, according to two people who allege they witnessed the killings.

   

Michael Moore vs Pete Townshend Former ‘The Who’ star and top child pornography researcher, Pete Townshend, has hit out at Michigan-born filmmaker Michael Moore... ...Townshend has posted an entry in the Pete's Diaries section of his website, in which he claims that Moore's accusations "distort the truth"

PERVERT MOORE ATTACKS BUSH

ACCUSED PAEDOPHILE CRITICISES WAR EFFORT

TWISTED KIDDIE - DIDDLER HATES AMERICA

On today's show, Is Michael Moore a threat to our children?

"The worst is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking," the reporter told an ACLU convention last week. Hersh says there was "a massive amount of criminal wrongdoing that was covered up at the highest command out there, and higher."

The women were passing messages saying "Please come and kill me, because of what's happened". Basically what happened is that those women who were arrested with young boys/children in cases that have been recorded. The boys were sodomized with the cameras rolling. The worst about all of them is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking that your government has. They are in total terror it's going to come out.

It's impossible to say to yourself how do we get there? who are we? Who are these people that sent us there?

   

For your information, Frances Shannon, when you were at home baking cookies, I and thousands of other “wimps with no backbone” were crawling around in Vietnam. While some at home were being “patriotic” and proudly waving the American flag with self-righteousness and vociferously supporting that un-mitigated disaster, as is being done today with Iraq, I and thousands of other Americans were getting shot to hell and back, as is happening in Iraq today...

...The ease at which those of you who so blindly follow Bush can label fellow citizens as “wimps without backbone that do not deserve to be called Americans,” including those of us who are combat veterans, concerns me in some ways more than my serious concerns for George Bush. Having been decorated for counter-insurgency operations in 1966, having been three times wounded and living a life fighting the effects of Agent Orange, I am not a wimp.

So, why is Bush here? A guy who's never accomplished anything on his own, doesn't read, makes snap "gut" decisions that destroy whole cultures and societies, including his own -- why is he here? What could those five Supreme Court judges have been thinking -- or smoking -- in 2000 to anoint such a dangerously ignorant and hollow paranoid schizophrenic as the most powerful man in the world?

I hate to say this, but it looks as if Bush is only here for the killing. He's finally found something he's good at and so far -- thanks to target-eyed flag-waving Americans -- destroying all those who are either with us or with the enemy has been as easy as sticking firecrackers in a frog's mouth.

...in a June 1992 interview with the late, great Sarah McClendon, Poppy Bush confided, "If the people were to ever find out what we have done, we would be chased down the streets and lynched."

   

   

The German TV magazine "Report" revealed that there has been abuse of children and youth by the coalition forces.

"Between January and May of this year we've registered 107 children, during 19 visits in 6 different detention locations" the representative of the International Red Cross, Florian Westphal, told the TV station SWR's Magazine "Report Mainz". He noted that these were places of detention controlled by coalition troops. According to Westphal the number of children held captive could be even higher.

The TV Magazine also reported of evidence and eye witness reports according to which U.S. soldiers also abused children and youthful detainees. Samuel Provance, a staff sergeant stationed in the now infamous Abu Ghraib prison said that interrogating officers had pressured a 15 or 16 year old girl. Military police had only intervened when the girl was already half undressed. On another occasion, a 16 year old was soaked with water, driven through the cold, and then smeared with mud.

The national press missed this blockbuster on June 18: the Pentagon confirms more than 16,000 U.S. service members have been wounded or injured in the Iraq War. DoD failed to report 11,000 soldiers who were wounded or injured. The TV networks and newspapers failed to follow-up on this major scoop. As Steve Robinson of the National Gulf War Resource Center said, "They [the military] believe that by putting this information out, it's somehow going to affect public opion." Donald Rumsfeld must believe that good public relations is far more important than medical care for our wartime wounded.

By Friday, 3,800 gardai (Irish state police), 2,000 army, air force and navy personnel and an estimated 600 to 700 American secret service and other staff had been deployed. Every manhole cover in the road between Shannon and Newmarket-on-Fergus had been welded shut and a garda stationed at each, just in case.

A couple of days before the arrival of Air Force One, a USAF C-130 cargo plane arrived at Shannon to deliver two Blackhawk helicopters. You can't be too careful.

"This carry-on has been going on for six weeks," one exasperated citizen told The Irish Times. "The amount of money being spent would keep Ennis Hospital going for 10 years."

Another non-fan had this to say: "This is typical of the Americans and their contempt for everything from the International Court of Human Rights to the U.N. This is how they operate."

That is a sad observation, because heretofore most Europeans have taken pains to point out that it is not America or Americans that they resent, but the man and his accomplices who have, in just three short years, squandered generations of international good will.

The truckers, who haul hazardous material across 48 states, explained how easy it is to spot "Islamics" on the road: just look for their turbans.

He drafted a new piece of legislation forbidding Iraqi motorists to drive with only one hand on the wheel. Another document solemnly announced that it would henceforth be a crime for Iraqis to sound their car horns except in an emergency. That same day, three American soldiers were torn apart by a roadside bomb north of Baghdad, one of more than 60 attacks on US forces over the weekend. And all the while, Mr Bremer was worrying about the standards of Iraqi driving.

"He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power," the declaration said of George III, and today the military is indulgently allowed to investigate its own crimes in Iraq. George III "obstructed the Administration of Justice." Our George II has sought to evade judicial review by hiding detainees away in Guantánamo, and has steadfastly resisted the use of the Alien Tort Claims Act, which allows non-U.S. citizens to bring charges of human rights violations to U.S. courts.