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Right Spirit, Wrong Strategy There's a good chance that most of the more than 100,000 protesters in Washington and other cities last weekend believe that the Bush Administration won the propaganda war leading up to the invasion of Iraq because of its now discredited arguments that Iraq possessed weapons and mass destruction and had strong ties to al-Qa'eda. Sadly, they're wrong. Yes, the "fixed" intelligence was necessary to win acquiescence, if not widespread support, from an American public still shell-shocked from September 11. But as important was the positive vision articulated by the Bush Administration in the lead-up to war--bringing a ruthless, mass-murdering dictator to justice, creating a bastion of democracy in a region desperately in need of one, and through both making America safer from terrorism. In comparison, the peace movement deployed an almost uniformly negative message, which largely ignored the need to do something about Saddam (or any of the
SIMON WIESENTHAL 1908-2005 "For your benefit, learn from our tragedy. It is not a written law that the next victims must be Jews. It can also be other people. We saw it begin in Germany with Jews, but people from more than twenty other nations were also murdered. When I started this work, I said to myself, 'I will look for the murderers of all the victims, not only the Jewish victims. I will fight for justice .'"
"The Rest of the Goddamn Nation" Those aren't the words of a starving prisoner of the New Orleans Superdome, radicalized by the realization that he or she may well die for lack of a school bus. They're the words of Col. Terry Ebert, director of Homeland Security for New Orleans. FEMA's response -- or lack thereof -- he told The New York Times, has been "criminal." Also notably lacking in the response to this disaster are suggestions that Katrina is a punishment sent by God. When the tsunami struck Asia, such notions came from across the spectrum, but most pungently from Christian conservatives who noted that Aceh, an "exporter of radical Islam," as National Association of Evangelicals president Ted Haggard put it, had been hardest hit. Such neanderthal theology apparently does not apply to the U.S. Rather, the God invoked most often now is the distant, inscrutable deity responsible for other no-fault acts such as earthquakes and tornadoes. The
The Only Jew for Miles An unlikely pilgrim to Poland sees more, and less, than he'd hoped. by Gordon Haber On a bright but astonishingly cold morning, at the ungodly hour of 10 AM, I was shivering on the train from Krakow to the nearby city of Czestochowa. I had taken a kind of commuter train for students, on which the railway authorities had cut back on luxuries like heat and comfortable seats and toilets. And I, a man well into his thirties, felt out of place among all the kids frowning over their textbooks and text messages. Even the nun across the aisle, bent over her rosary, had more reason to be here. For Czestochowa is known for two things: students, and the Black Madonna, the Miraculous Painting of the Mother of God. Some say that the painting -- a graceful portrait of Mary with the infant Jesus -- was painted by Saint Luke. Art historians describe it as a Byzantine icon that was completely repainted in the fifteenth century. Either way, the Black Madonna is purported
We Know What You Did This Summer By Nancy Greggs In this past week of tragedy, anguish and death, Bush & Co. couldn't care less about the people who were living in hell. Well, that's no surprise to most of us. Been there, seen that. Just like they don't care about the soldiers they've sent to die in Iraq, or the innocent civilians there who have had their country turned upside down to the point of civil war. Just like they don't care about the millions of Americans they've forced into poverty, the people who have lost their jobs due to their policies. So tell us something we didn't already know. But this week, there was a more than obvious difference to their indifference. In a definite departure from the norm, they didn't even bother to fake it. They didn't start the week off with photo-ops of the president hopping onto Air Force One, wearing that well-rehearsed look of concern on his face, winging his way back to Washington to "‘take charg
Vacation is Over... an open letter from Michael Moore to George W. Bush Friday, September 2nd, 2005 Dear Mr. Bush: Any idea where all our helicopters are? It's Day 5 of Hurricane Katrina and thousands remain stranded in New Orleans and need to be airlifted. Where on earth could you have misplaced all our military choppers? Do you need help finding them? I once lost my car in a Sears parking lot. Man, was that a drag. Also, any idea where all our national guard soldiers are? We could really use them right now for the type of thing they signed up to do like helping with national disasters. How come they weren't there to begin with? Last Thursday I was in south Florida and sat outside while the eye of Hurricane Katrina passed over my head. It was only a Category 1 then but it was pretty nasty. Eleven people died and, as of today, there were still homes without power. That night the weatherman said this storm was on its way to New Orleans. That was Thursday! Did anybody tell you? I
My Pet Goat Part Deux - Let Them Eat Cake! By CactusPat What? They're drowning in New Orleans? LET THEM EAT CAKE! How's that for compassionate conservatism folks? Bob's absolutely right, AmericaBlog is all over this angle . And they have a point! The largest natural catastrophic disaster in the nation's history and Bush is schmoozing and politicin' while people are dying and drowning.... IMPEACH BUSH NOW!!! MMMM, MMMM, Good! Now what was that about something in New Orleans? Next he'll be fiddling while Baghdad burns! Oh, sorry, he's already doing that... Let's hope, then, he'll not be fiddlin' while Washington DC burns! KUDOS TO DEMOCRATS.COM for this one!!
YOU MUST BE KIDDING ME!!!! read this, friends - and don't fall off your chair: HURRICANE KATRINA DESTROYS NEW ORLEANS DAYS BEFORE "SOUTHERN DECADENCE" PHILADELPHIA - Just days before "Southern Decadence", an annual homosexual celebration attracting tens of thousands of people to the French Quarters section of New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina destroys the city. "Southern Decadence" has a history of filling the French Quarters section of the city with drunken homosexuals engaging in sex acts in the public streets and bars. Last year, a local pastor sent video footage of sex acts being performed in front of police to the mayor, city council, and the media. City officials simply ignored the footage and continued to welcome and praise the weeklong celebration as being an "exciting event". However, Hurricane Katrina has put an end to the annual celebration of sin. On the official "Southern Decadence" website (www.SouthernDecadence.com), it