Interesting articles and blog posts:

A list of the more recognizable names of people who are running for governor in California.

W: The Truth will out. You know, all this is doing is reinforcing the stereotype that conservatives are idiots. Bush Misuses Science. Link from Daypop.

Sorry God. I quit. This is just disgusting. Sex Crimes Cover-Up By Vatican. Link from Eschaton.

Interesting that Google thinks that Gore is synonymous to Bush and that Democrat is synonymous with Republican. Hence, the 2000 election. God help us all. Fun with Google's New Synonym Operator

I don't know. I'm seriously considering renouncing my faith. The Vatican has strayed from its message of an all-inclusive loving God. I'm on the verge of saying fuck the pope and his army of pederasts. If God really exists, this would be an excellent time for him to make his presence known. The Pope condemns homosexuals. Link from This Modern World

This article from the SF Chronicle is hilarious. " Nothing Left To Lief About," describing the growing list of utter and complete nonsense uttered by our beloved commander-in-chief and his friends. Seriously, folks, if Bush and his cronies are not deposed soon, then this country is no longer America.

Non sum Caesar. The problem is that people make shit up all the time (like that fake Nostradamus prophecy about September 11). snopes.com debunks the attribution of this quote to Julius Caesar.

An interesting comparison of America under the Bush regime and Italy under the Fascists on Eschaton.

I know it's wrong of me to prejudge a book before even reading it, but something about In Praise of Nepotism just strikes me as sick and wrong. I do believe that it is anti-American. Maybe it's because I've equated nepotism with the phrase "white affirmative-action." So this book sounds like racism apologia to me. But, I suppose, I must abey judgement. It also makes me think of Mad Emperor George II. I wonder if, in the future, all they'll remember is him sitting on his ass while the WTC burned down. The bastard couldn't even at least fiddle.

Not to make light of the fact that true patriots have died for a misguided cause, but I find the phrase "Bush lies, soldiers die" very catchy. (Although I wasn't even a twinkle in my parents' eyeat the time, it makes me think of "Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids have you killed today?" but in fewer words.) You can find it on Eschaton scattered quite liberally. (Bad pun, I know, but hey, at least we're honest about our biases.)

The Anti-Imperialists are back. " Manifesto Warns of Dangers Associated With an Empire" The Empire must fall. Long live the Republic!

The New Roman Coliseum. " Hunting for Bambi" This article is about a bizarre and disturbing misogynist sport where guys hunt naked women down with paintball guns. Link from popdex.com

An interview with a 27-year CIA veteran speaking out against the way the Bush junta is scapegoating the CIA for the false line in the State of the Union Address.

Are you serious? "Bigger Than Watergate!" This article gives evidence that a computerized ballot-counting system has serious security flaws that could easily be manipulated in order to influence elections in the U.S., and it spins a sordid theory about how the Republicans are trying to take over the country. Link from daypop.com

"Flirting with Fascism" Article from the American Conservative, link from blogdex.net. A neoconservative is inspired by Italian fascism. Why am I not surprised?

" How bad maths sent 'LaLaland' plunging $38 billion into the red" Article from the Telegraph, link from daypop.com. California must be in some serious shit if even the British care about whether or not Gray Davis is getting recalled or not. Note well: whatever happens in Cali will resound into the 2004 presidential campaign.

"A Former Special Forces Soldier Responds to Bush's Invitation for Iraqis to Attack US Troops." Article from counterpunch.org, link from daypop.com

This article was entitled "The Troll-King Is Dead" on popdex.com, reporting the death of Strom Thurmond, Foe of Integration. As a person of color, I spit on your grave. How Un-American can you get?

History continues to repeat itself. " Occupation Forces Halt Elections Throughout Iraq" We went to Iraq to free the Iraqi people and give them democracy, right? Hehehe.

" U.S. Finds War in Iraq Is Far From Finished" An article in the L.A. Times. Can we say "duh"?

Out of context. "Indeed, Ho Chi Minh in 1945 modeled his declaration of independence on the words of Thomas Jefferson, appealed for American help against France, and might have got it if FDR had lived. Uncle Ho shared in the delusion that there could be an anti-colonial and anti-dictatorial empire." Quote from an article in the Slate regarding John Kerry. Link from popdex.com

Random context. "But there are more than 60 million people in the United States alone who use file sharing--more than the number of people who voted for our current President." Quote from the EFF's stance on file sharing. Link from popdex.com

RFID tags everywhere. In theory, these tags would allow your every movement to be tracked. Link from slashdot.org

The worst scandal since Watergate? What if W lied about WMDs in Iraq?. Link from popdex.com

Bush II regime's Doublespeak revealed. Currently at the top of popdex.

Maybe I am starting to perseverate, but, once again, history repeats itself. First America promises independence soon, then it decides that the little brown people are incapable of self-government. The disturbing extension of U.S. rule in Iraq. Link from popdex.

An article about what essentially amounts to the continued occupation of the Philippines by the United States. No doubt, 100 years from now, U.S. troops (assuming that the U.S. still exists), will still be roaming the Iraqi desert, scouring it for "terrorist organizations."

Even military guys thought it was a bad idea. This is what we get for installing "friendly" governments. Democracy my ass. >Please, no more made-in-the USA monsters (Link from This Modern World)

Apparently a red cross/crescent will not save you from getting shot at. The other side of the story regarding the rescue of Pvt. Jessica Lynch. (Link from This Modern World)

Life is a stage. Some speculation about the true nature of the video clip of Iraqis tearing down a statue of Saddam Hussein.

As the blog post states, the end of the republic is nigh. Congressman Jose Serrano (D-NY) proposes to eliminate the 22nd amendment. While some may choose to interpret that this opens the door for Bush II, Dictator-for-life, others bring up the interesting notion that this would allow Bill Clinton to run in 2004.

The state of the nation. An excellent analysis of the current situation in Iraq explaining why military victory is certainly not the end of the road, pointed out by various sources on the web.

What a lousy bunch of hypocrites. Why is it that it unpatriotic to not support a Republican, but when it's a Democrat, it's open season? Some illuminating quotes culled from Eschaton

Realpolitik in action. Shiites fear coalition support would roil Muslim world. But without their support, the occupation of Iraq will be a bloodbath.

The wrong war at the wrong time, former Mideast envoy maintains. Yes I'm a little behind. I know that the U.S. is in Baghdad already. But this war is far from over.

Shiite cleric tells Iraqis in Southern Iraq not to support the U.S. (from The Agonist) Telling line: "This time we know better than to trust the Americans."

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." €€ Theodore Roosevelt, commenting on Wilson's crackdown on anti-WWI protesters.

The U.S. really has to stop killing their allies

A meditation on how to foster democracy in the Middle East. Link found on Body and Soul

Truth is often the first casualty of War My own thoughts touch upon this post obliquely. In a world gone mad, how do you keep the children, well, not safe, because that is eventually impossible. But how do you make sure they have a fighting chance?

Hmmm. Google in cahoots with the Gestapo Department of Homeland Security? (Hey, just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get me!) Anyway, this link was only available in Google's cache (hence the highlighting), but I ripped it off just in case it disappeared. But it's a semi-serious analysis of "Bombs Over Baghdad" by Outkast.

Absurdity permeates everything. Jennifer Capriati requests "Bombs Over Baghdad" by Outkast before her match.

A quick guide for how to make your protest signs more legible and understandable. Link from communistsquirrel.com

History repeats itself, though not in ways we expect. W's U.S. has now been compared to two Axis powers, Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. A quote from Arthur Schlesinger's article entitled "Our Day of Infamy" originally printed in the L.A. Times and reprinted at the History News Network: "The president has adopted a policy of 'anticipatory self-defense' that is alarmingly similar to the policy that imperial Japan employed at Pearl Harbor on a date which, as an earlier American president said it would, lives in infamy."

Another article about why it might be important for the U.S. to win the war against Iraq quickly. Found on The Agonist

Some quotes from the Great Leader of the U.S., admittedly somewhat decontextualized. If anything, it at least shows that he has poor taste in humor.

Quote from a senior BBC news source. "We're getting more truth out of Baghdad than the Pentagon at the moment." From The Guardian

Wow. Restoring the American Republic, a blog by Gary Hart. (Link from agonist.org)

Who says the U.S. is in it just for the money? Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) is pushing for the adoption of the CDMA cel phone protocol in Iraq. This would highly favor American cel phone companies. In contrast, pretty much the rest of the world uses GSM. First posted on slashdot.org. Read my comments.

Forgotten lesson from 9/11: "When you attack a nation, people tend to rally around their leader, even if they hate him." €€ from This Modern World by Tom Tomorrow

Just because we won the Cold War doesn't mean we turned them into blithering idiots. A Russian warblog.

An article about the philosophical basis of Al Qaeda and other fundamentalist Islamic movements. The author discusses the writings of Sayyid Qutb, who penned In the Shade of the Qu'ran which deconstructs the fundamental problems of Western Civilization. Like many thinking people, I actually agree with his diagnosis. It's just the cure that I don't agree with. Mainly, I do not understand why we have to rely on "chosen" spokesmen in order to understand God's message. As Galileo put it, "I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use." Reason and faith are not intrinsically antagonistic. (Ask any physicist who subscribes to the theory of quantum mechanics.) Strangely, the other writer I'm familiar with who seems to have come up with the same conclusion as Qutb is Philip K Dick, who is often impugned as being a heavy drug user. Both agree that the artificial separation of the physical from the spiritual in the name of technological progress and efficiency is the ultimate cause of misery in modern society.

How many Iraqis is the U.S. going to kill in the quest to "liberate" them? The U.S. killed at least 200,000 civilians in the Philippine-American War, which officially lasted for almost 4 years (and depending on how you look at it, continues until present day in Mindanao) Some historians have estimated the body count to be actually much higher, from half a million to well over a million, and it definitely included women and children (even under the age of 12)

I'm not the only one who noticed how similar the Spanish-American War is to Operation Iraqi Freedom. Especially telling is how Americans promised Filipinos independence from the Spanish in the same way they are promising Iraqis liberation from Saddam Hussein. (And what ended up happening was that the U.S. ended up sticking around for at least 50 years, and even longer, depending on how you look at it.)

It is bizarre how the grievances against King George which are enumerated in the Declaration of Independence are very similar to many thinking people's grievances against W's regime.