drat fink
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wonder bread
"This plan, in the form of a budget resolution tied to a firm tax-cut mandate, is moving forward on Capitol Hill even as lawmakers' boilerplate speeches resound with calls for shared wartime sacrifice by all Americans. How an average $90,000 tax cut for each millionaire counts as sacrifice is only one of many unexplained mysteries as Republican leaders fiercely protect President Bush's second wave of tax cuts. The gallant troops in Iraq who are being invoked daily in speeches by members of Congress might be interested to know that the array of cuts includes an estimated $14 billion reduction in military veterans' programs."
surrender at yorktown
many articles worth a look from the new yorker today.
a day in pictures
"(YellowTimes.org) -- YellowTimes.org was temporarily shut down Sunday night. Its new hosting provider shut it down due to publishing "Inappropriate graphic material."
After removing pictures of civilian Iraqi deaths and injuries, along with photos of American POWs, YellowTimes.org was allowed to print again."
tie died
wish i could find thisarthur schlesinger op-ed but heres a part of it in an atrios thread and heres a newsweek interview.
not in my hood
"To anyone who has looked closely enough, Al Qaeda and its sister organizations plainly enjoy yet another strength, arguably the greatest strength of all, something truly imposing -- though in the Western press this final strength has received very little attention. Bin Laden is a Saudi plutocrat with Yemeni ancestors, and most of the suicide warriors of Sept. 11 were likewise Saudis, and the provenance of those people has focused everyone's attention on the Arabian peninsula. But Al Qaeda has broader roots. The organization was created in the late 1980's by an affiliation of three armed factions -- bin Laden's circle of ''Afghan'' Arabs, together with two factions from Egypt, the Islamic Group and Egyptian Islamic Jihad, the latter led by Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, Al Qaeda's top theoretician. The Egyptian factions emerged from an older current, a school of thought from within Egypt's fundamentalist movement, the Muslim Brotherhood, in the 1950's and 60's. And at the heart of that single school of thought stood, until his execution in 1966, a philosopher named Sayyid Qutb -- the intellectual hero of every one of the groups that eventually went into Al Qaeda, their Karl Marx (to put it that way), their guide."
pro-warts
as would be expected, the local news played up a pro-war rally in times sq today. apparently "thousands" gathered, that being 1 or 2 not 1 or 2 hundred thousand. and, of course, they shoot tight shots to make it seem like there are alot of people. but what irked me most was that they offhandedly mentioned that there would be another pro-war rally at the un on friday. i have never heard any news outlet mention an anti-war protest prior to the event. so much for fair and objective.
warped speed ahead
"Osama bin Laden, in his wildest dreams, could hardly have hoped for this. A mere 18 months after he boosted the US to a peak of worldwide sympathy unprecedented since Pearl Harbor, that international goodwill has been squandered to near zero. Bin Laden must be beside himself with glee. And the infidels are now walking right into the Iraq trap.
There was always a risk for Bin Laden that worldwide sympathy for the US might thwart his long-term aim of holy war against the Great Satan. He needn't have worried. With the Bush junta at the helm, a camel could have foreseen the outcome. And the beauty is that it doesn't matter what happens in the war."
i mfer
gotta love this one from ethel - the imf disses the efficacy of the imf.
its a fothermucker
great cover of sun-ras Nuclear War by Yo La Tengo. (scroll down)
also a couple of mp3s from their upcoming album at the bottom of this page.
perle jam
"Famed Prince of Darkness Richard Perle is a political animal unique to Washington. He has successfully melded personal, ideological and commercial entrepreneurship into a polished package that looks kosher just so long as no one examines its particulars. Too bad for Perle, Rabbi Sy Hersh decided to take a look in the March 17 New Yorker."