Politics

They certainly seem to be better with the new editors/owners. People such as David Ehrenstein and Atrios/Eschaton are contributing to their Daily Billboard.

A carnival float shows paper mache figure of German conservative opposition leader Angela Merkel emerging from the buttocks of Uncle Sam during the traditional Rose Monday carnival parade in Duesseldorf, March 3, 2003. Merkel has strongly criticized the German government’s anti-Iraq war stance and recently visited Washington. The Rose Monday parades in Cologne, Mainz and Duesseldorf are the highlight of the German street carnival season.

[via Boing Boing]

From the French Embassy:

The French Embassy in Washington said French fries actually come from Belgium.

“We are at a very serious moment dealing with very serious issues and we are not focusing on the name you give to potatoes,” said Nathalie Loisau, an embassy spokeswoman.

Buried in a NY Times article, I found this (Abdullah is King of Jordan):

Jordanian officials say that Abdullah, told by President Bush at the White House last summer that he would not be dissuaded from military action to topple Mr. Hussein, chose to limit Jordan’s losses. “The king asked the president, ‘Can I change your mind?’ and the president told him bluntly, ‘No,’ ” one Jordanian official said. “From that point on, we began preparing for war, and trying to minimize the political and economic costs.”

Do you see the word “disarmament” in there?

This is one of my favorite artists’ anti-war things I’ve heard about — Drawn In — which happened on March 5.

We invite artists and others around the world to gather on Moratorium Day, March 5, in their local museums which exhibit ancient near eastern art. In New York, this action will take place from 9:30 to 5:30 in the
Assyrian gallery at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

We will respectfully draw with pencil on paper the art around us, which was created as early as five thousand years ago in the land now known as Iraq, where urban life and the written word originated.Our goal is to call attention to all of the civilizations which have flourished in Mesopotamia under so many names and cultures: Sumer, Babylonia, Assyria, the Arab/Muslim Abbasid Empire and contemporary Iraq.

This is a peaceful vigil, made in protest against US foreign policy under George W. Bush. If someone asks what we are doing, we will speak quietly with them and explain our position, then continue to draw. We will keep in mind the intention: to pay homage to this land, culture and people, which our government is planning to destroy. We are deeply concerned about an imminent threat to human life, and to the memory and history embedded in all of Mesopotamia, modern Iraq.

The web site has pictures of the action.

Go sign up to get his regular emails, so you don’t miss things like this:

I get this a lot: Hey Mark, you know what you should do, you pathetic piece of liberal S.F. scum? You should kneel down right now and thank our angry God there’s a hard-ass non-pussified non-wimpy U.S. military out there protecting your pathetic little butt, baby. Isn’t that thoughtful?

…

Let us now speak blasphemy. Let us point up something no one seems to be mentioning, as Shrub sends in 300,000 of our youth to blast a cheap thug who is, by every account, no serious threat to the U.S., and never has been, and who had nothing to do with 9/11, and whose ties to terrorism are tenuous at best, all while rabid North Korea happily buys more nuke technology from desperate Pakistan and sells the finished product to the highest bidder.

Here it is: The military does not protect my freedom. Our soldiers are not out there right now safeguarding me, or you, or us, from some sort of total, ’50s-era, Red Scare-esque dictatorial overthrow of our nation; nor is the military guaranteeing I have the right to write this column any more than it is protecting your right to read it, or to protest the war and speak freely and smoke imported French cigarettes and watch porn and drive really fast. Not anymore, they’re not. Not this time.

More than ever before in recent history, the otherwise worthy U.S. military is right now in service not of the people, not of the national security, but of the current government regime and its corporate interests. Has it always been this way? Of course. But this time, with our smirky Enron president and cash-hungry CEO administration, it’s never been so flagrant, or insulting, or invidious.

…

Is the military protecting us from terrorism? Doubtful. By most every estimate, Shrub’s war will only ignite more anti-U.S. hatred, spark more countries to fuel up and prepare for America’s random attack. We are not pouring water on the dying embers of U.S. revulsion — we are kicking them. As hard as we can.

I understand and value the need for a strong military. I appreciate the necessity. But the war in Iraq does nothing but denigrate the value and integrity of our military. Note to conservatives: Those soldiers aren’t out there dying for you, they’re dying for strategic political power, for some oil exec’s portfolio. They’re protecting the American oligarchy. Does that make you feel proud?

…

From the Guardian:

A chemical plant which the US says is a key component in Iraq’s chemical warfare arsenal was secretly built by Britain in 1985 behind the backs of the Americans, the Guardian can disclose.

Documents show British ministers knew at the time that the £14m plant, called Falluja 2, was likely to be used for mustard and nerve gas production.

Senior officials recorded in writing that Saddam Hussein was actively gassing his opponents and that there was a “strong possibility” that the chlorine plant was intended by the Iraqis to make mustard gas. At the time, Saddam was known to be gassing Iranian troops in their thousands in the Iran-Iraq war.

But ministers in the then Thatcher government none the less secretly gave financial backing to the British company involved, Uhde Ltd, through insurance guarantees.

Our SCLM (so-called liberal media) sucks. I just heard about this.

February 22, 2003

Carol Gilbert, 55, Jackie Hudson, 68, and Ardeth Platte, 66, have been held since shortly after their Oct. 6 arrests at the tiny Clear Creek County Jail in Georgetown. The sisters have cooled their heels there since the Federal Detention Center in Englewood can’t accommodate women.And, although they could have been free months ago on personal recognizance bonds, they have stayed put because they decline to sign a promise they will stay clear of further legal trouble.

But they appeared no worse for wear after nearly five months of confinement and were met Friday by several dozen fellow pacifists who crowded the court benches to show their support.

…

The nuns, operating under the umbrella of Sacred Earth & Space Plowshares II, a national movement for nuclear disarmament, trespassed early the morning of Oct. 6 on to the site of a Minuteman III nuclear missile site in northeastern Weld County.

There, as they chanted and prayed, they allegedly poured what is believed to have been their blood on the silo missile lid, in the shape of crosses.

They are slated for trial March 31 on charges of damaging of federal property, and of injuring, interfering with or attempting to injure national defense material.

Their defenses largely are linked to a theory this was a crime of necessity. They say America, by arming itself with hundreds of first-strike capability nuclear missiles, is in violation of the United Nations charter, numerous treaties and long-established, internationally accepted rules of war.

More than once, a defendant or her lawyer pointed to America’s nuclear arsenal and the fact that recent reports indicate the Bush administration has considered scenarios where a nuclear response could apply to Iraq.

No War Blog has links to two good refutations of Kenneth Pollack’s arguments for attacking Iraq.