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Thursday, Mar 13, 2003

wing ding

"This is why conservatives spy left-wing authoritarians everywhere. Seeing the world in terms of norms and presuming others do the same, they easily mistake a liberal tolerance for diverse options, even unconventional options, as an endorsement of the unconventional options. The presence of gay people on TV, for example, looks like a recommendation of homosexuality. That break in the natural order tempts chaos; chaos invites panic. Which is why conservatives fight by any means necessary to make the world look the way they insist it must look, while liberals are busy playing fair. And which is why it is now more accurate to say, as Eric Alterman, The Nation columnist and MSNBC.com blogger, does, that even as it �so perfectly contradicts conventional wisdom . . . the bias of the American media is more conservative than liberal.� They fight the media war ruthlessly, and they are winning."

offshore accountings

"WASHINGTON � Richard Perle, the influential foreign policy hawk, is suing journalist Seymour Hersh over an article he wrote implying that Mr. Perle is using his position as a Pentagon adviser to benefit financially from a war to liberate Iraq.

"I intend to launch legal action in the United Kingdom. I�m talking to Queen�s Counsel right now," Mr. Perle, who chairs the Pentagon�s Defense Policy Board, a non-paying position, told The New York Sun last night.

He said he is suing in Britain because it is easier to win such cases there, where the burden on plaintiffs is much less."

Wednesday, Mar 12, 2003

weiner roast

"The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) announced today that all six national sponsors of MSNBC's "Savage Nation" debut have publicly withdrawn from the program, sending a clear message to NBC News that they refuse to support Michael Savage's attacks on women, people of color, immigrants and the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community."

neoconniving

"In the Middle East, impending "regime change" in Iraq is just the first step in a wholesale reordering of the entire region, according to neoconservatives -- who've begun almost gleefully referring to themselves as a "cabal." Like dominoes, the regimes in the region -- first Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia, then Lebanon and the PLO, and finally Sudan, Libya, Yemen and Somalia -- are slated to capitulate, collapse or face U.S. military action. To those states, says cabal ringleader Richard Perle, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and chairman of the Defense Policy Board, an influential Pentagon advisory committee, "We could deliver a short message, a two-word message: 'You're next.'" In the aftermath, several of those states, including Iraq, Syria and Saudi Arabia, may end up as dismantled, unstable shards in the form of mini-states that resemble Yugoslavia's piecemeal wreckage. And despite the Wilsonian rhetoric from the president and his advisers about bringing democracy to the Middle East, at bottom it's clear that their version of democracy might have to be imposed by force of arms."

know boundaries

"She was an archaeologist, a linguist and the greatest woman mountaineer of her age. And in Baghdad in 1921 she drew the boundaries of the country that became Iraq. James Buchan on the extraordinary life of Gertrude Bell."

step by step

another nyc anti-war protest on march 22, this time with real marching.

vichy soiree

heres some more crazy right wingnut theatre that digby dug up from the national review. and you thought we were joking about invading france.

Tuesday, Mar 11, 2003

sunset boulevard

"Now that it seems certain that the Big Posse ordered up by our Hard Sheriff (President Bush) will soon go thundering into Iraq, scribes and helmers (Variety's words for writers and directors) can hardly be oblivious to the epic possibilities, cinematic and televisual, unfolding here.

My own thought is that it's far too epic a possibility to be relegated to the small screen. Television, after all, is where we'll see the real war -- or, at least, the real propaganda. Desert epics of this magnitude need a screen that will show a lot of sand. Remember "Lawrence of Arabia"? Remember "The Wind and the Lion"? Remember "Ishtar"?"

do i overstate?

wow. it was bad enough when a couple of shitforbrains in buttfuck thought it was ever so clever to redub their french fries "freedumb fries," but for this to be taken up by members of congress is beyond ludicrous.

stormin' norman

"That is a big statement, but I can offer this much immediately: At the root of flag conservatism is not madness, but an undisclosed logic. While I am hardly in accord, it is, nonetheless, logical if you accept its premises. From a militant Christian point of view, America is close to rotten. The entertainment media are loose. Bare belly-buttons pop onto every TV screen, as open in their statement as wild animals' eyes. The kids are getting to the point where they can't read, but they sure can screw. So one perk for the White House, should America become an international military machine huge enough to conquer all adversaries, is that American sexual freedom, all that gay, feminist, lesbian, transvestite hullabaloo, will be seen as too much of a luxury and will be put back into the closet again. Commitment, patriotism, and dedication will become all-pervasive national values once more (with all the hypocrisy attendant). Once we become a twenty-first-century embodiment of the old Roman Empire, moral reform can stride right back into the picture. The military is obviously more puritanical than the entertainment media. Soldiers are, of course, crazier than any average man when in and out of combat, but the overhead command is a major everyday pressure on soldiers and could become a species of most powerful censor over civilian life."

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