__  _____ _       ___   __
 \ \/ /   | |     / / | / / LIES -- RENAISSANCE OF PEACE -- ALIEN
  \  / /| | | /| / /  |/ / ABDUCTION -- FISKal OBJECTIVITY -- WMD
  / / ___ | |/ |/ / /|  / EVOTING  --  QUAKERS CMS  --  ECONOMICS  
 /_/_/  |_|__/|__/_/ |_/http://www.acronymchile.com/yawn.html
                        2003-06-05


###!!!--###### LIES ################################(##)##################


Good article, reproduced from the New York Times:
    "It's no answer to say that Saddam was a murderous tyrant... it's about
    us. The public was told that Saddam posed an imminent threat. If that
    claim was fraudulent, the selling of the war is arguably the worst
    scandal in American political history"
    ...
    But here's the thought that should make those commentators really
    uncomfortable. Suppose that this administration did con us into war.
    And suppose that it is not held accountable for its deceptions, so Mr.
    Bush can fight what Mr. Hastings calls a "khaki election" next year. In
    that case, our political system has become utterly, and perhaps
    irrevocably, corrupted.
    http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0603-03.htm


###!!!--###### RENAISSANCE #########################(##)##################


What could peaceful action achieve:
    The Department of Peace would be created by legislation sponsored by
    Rep. Dennis Kucinich, an Ohio Democrat and presidential hopeful.
    It's also a grass-roots project of the Global Renaissance Alliance, a
    group whose mission, it says, is "to harness the power of nonviolence
    as a social force for good." 
The article is here:
    http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0603-12.htm
Global Renaissance Alliance is here (haven't had a chance to read yet):
    http://www.renaissancealliance.org/
On this topic, the article "Dealing With Bullies Without Using Bombs" is
very interesting (by Scilla Elworthy, a Google search will turn it up
quickly).


###!!!--###### ALIENS ##############################(IB)##################


Alien Abductions Inc. offer to help you actualise your desire for an alien
abduction experience, even if the damn aliens refuse to take you.
    "Once your Abduction Experience has been implanted, we offer a wide
    range of add-on options, from the 24/7 Surveillance Special... to our
    exclusive Evidence Kit... We even offer a low cost course of
    deprogramming, medication, and therapy that is available to any of our
    customers who may choose to discontinue their Experience.
    http://www.alienabductions.com/index2.html


###!!!!-###### FISK ################################(##)##################


Interesting interview with Robert Fisk of the Independent:

    Pacifica:    Do you recognize a goal of objectivity; do you see a
    distinction between writing commentary and what a reporter thinks, and
    reporting facts?

    Fisk:       I think we are dealing here with a problem in American
    journalism school, which thank god we brits don't go through. We do
    politics and history and other subjects at University. I think that the
    foreign correspondent is the nerve ending of a newspaper. My paper
    sends a correspondent to live abroad to tell us what happens there, not
    to tell us what two sides are saying, I can read that on the wire.
    ... if you send a reporter to a region, if you send him there because
    you think he is intelligent, fair, decent reporter; you don't have to
    ask him to give 50% of every paragraph to each side. I mean if you
    follow the rules that a journalist seems to have to follow in the
    Middle East, what do you do say if you cover the slave ship and the
    slavery campaign? Do you give the same amount of time to the slaves and
    the slave ship captain?

    http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=36&ItemID=3699


###!!!--###### WMD #################################(##)##################


Originally from the New York Times
    "A new poll by the Program on International Policy Attitudes finds that
    41 percent of Americans either believe that W.M.D.'s have been found,
    or aren't sure. The program's director suggests that "some Americans
    may be avoiding having an experience of cognitive dissonance." And
    three-quarters of the public thinks that President Bush showed strong
    leadership on Iraq."
    http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0530-07.htm
"Strong leadership" *is* a morally neutral term, though.  Stalin and Hitler
were surely strong leaders, but that doesn't mean people like them.
    "Showtime is filming a docudrama about Sept. 11... The
    script shows Mr. Bush as decisive and eloquent." 


###!!!!-###### VOTING ##############################(##)##################


Margaret McGaley's critique of the new electronic voting system being
adopted for elections in Ireland.
    http://minds.cs.may.ie/~lovelace/E-Voting/index.shtml
There is a new mailing list on the topic, you can browse the archives here:
    http://lists.stdlib.net/pipermail/e-voting/
The documents Margaret FOI'ed from the government are here:
    http://minds.cs.may.ie/~lovelace/E-Voting/FoI_request/
There should be some further discussion of these on  the mailing list


###!!---###### GUANTANAMO ##########################(##)##################


"THE US has floated plans to turn Guantanamo Bay into a death camp, with its
own death row and execution chamber."
    http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,6494000%255E2,00.html  


###!!!!!###### QUAKERS #############################(##)##################


Quakers/Society of Friends website on recommendations regarding content
management systems
    http://www.quakernet.org.uk/sites/ituse/CMSs.htm
Nice overview.  I learned a lot.


###!!!!-###### BUBBLES #############################(##)##################


More good observations and writing from Dean Baker:
    A workable system will likely require more money being funnelled though
    the government, but the savings to the private sector would be
    enormous. If the U.S. health care system were only as efficient as the
    second most inefficient system in the first world (Germany), it would
    save the public approximately $300 billion a year, more than $4,000 for
    a family of four.
    http://inthesetimes.com/comments.php?id=210_0_1_0_M
This article is the second of two.  The first explores the various asset
bubbles in the American economic system:
    http://inthesetimes.com/comments.php?id=185_0_1_0_M


###!!!--###### TORTURE #############################(##)##################


Farm worker Oliverio Martinez was stopped and questioned regarding drug
sales.  Martinez complied, but a scuffle started when officers saw he
carried a knife.  He was shot 5 times, and then harassed and questioned for
hours while he waited for medical attention.  The US Supreme Court has ruled
that there was no constitutional violation.  Lisa Rein has links to the
original version of this story and to other commentary on the events.
    http://www.onlisareinsradar.com/archives/001326.php#001326


###!!!!-###### TINA ################################(LR)##################


The Ontology Of The Post Communist Right:
    If we look closely at the discourse of the Post-Communist right, we see
    that it spends its time not so much arguing against economic systems of
    which it disapproves, but claiming that such systems in reality do not
    exist. In the words of the great Margaret Thatcher, “There is no
    alternative.” Because if there were, everyone would take it.
    http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=13&ItemID=3700
The article is shortish and good reading.  Gives a (personal) view on
recent changes in central/eastern European countries and the resulting
contradictions and cognitive dissonance.


###!!!--###### JESSICA #############################(LR)##################


The BBC report which recently alleged that the Jessica Lynch rescue wasn't
quite what it seemed came in for some initial criticism, but didn't get
comprehensively taken apart so it is likely to have some truth.  An
interesting addendum was highlighted by Lisa Rein:
    I'm more upset about reports from "U.S. Officials", such as this MSNBC
    story which embellishes about how Lynch shot several enemy soldiers
    before running out of ammunition after an ambush. How she "did not want
    to be taken alive."
    In fact, there was no ambush. No battle. Only a car accident.
    No bullets. No stab wounds.
    http://www.onlisareinsradar.com/archives/001318.php#001318
There is a link to the original MSNBC story at the above location, along
with its text.

Certainly we are talking about two very different stories of the incident.
In one, Lynch is ambushed by Iraqi troops.  She and her unit fight to the
last woman, who in spite of herself is taken alive and brought to a hospital
(a fact that is NOT contested, and perhaps surprising in this reading of
events).  Later, she is rescued by US troops who storm the hospital using
special weapons and tactics to overwhelm her captors.
The alternative version is that Jessica's vehicle crashed in the desert.
She was found by Iraqi personnel, who brought her to a hospital where she
received treatment.  Hospital staff attempted to return her to her own side
but ran into trouble at a US roadblock.  Later US troops called in to the
hospital and collected her while making a big song and dance of the whole
thing.

Jessica Lynch has lost her memory of the events and may never get it back,
we are told.


###-----###### FIN #################################(##)##################

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