This is heartening.

A U.S. diplomat to Athens, Greece (J. Brady Kiesling) has resigned in protest over the Bush Administrations' foreign policy in the Middle East.

"Our fervent pursuit of war with Iraq is driving us to squander the international legitimacy that has been America's most potent weapon of both offense and defense since the days of Woodrow Wilson," Kiesling wrote, according to The New York Times.

This is what we need to see more of.

If anyone missed it, yesterday saw the first "virtual march" on Washington D.C. According to organizers Win Without War, over a million volunteers called, emailed and petitioned Congress and the White House to avoid war with Iraq. Government secretaries said they had never seen anything like it. Almost every Congressional office was flooded with requests, which crashed servers and kept phone circuits busy.

In other news...

Photo essay from the last Portland protest shows where we're headed...

On a sadder note......Mister Rogers, R.I.P.

Saw another benchmark film last night.

For all those curious about the circumstances surrounding U.S. involvement in Vietnam, the film "Vietnam: In the Year of the Pig" is a trove of historical importance. Not only does it give context to the Vietnamese revolution against French colonization, it also delivers some previously unseen war footage shot by the North Vietnamese. Shot in black and white w/no narration, the images speak for themselves.

Find this one at Movie Madness....the best video store in the known universe.

Also...

Check this out....a great gallery of protest photos from Feb. 15th.

Ever wonder what happened to that lawsuit over the transcripts of Dick Cheney meeting with the heads of Enron? The last thing anyone heard - was that the General Accounting Office had mysteriously dropped its lawsuit against the Executive Office.

Some mystery.

According to reports, the GOP actively threatened to cut funding to the GAO if they did not drop the suit against Cheney.

Hmmmm.....what ever could they be hiding?

Also...

Get ready for more adventures in the Philippines! 3000+ U.S. Troops are being sent to help battle "terrorists" in that country.

Can you say Panama, Grenada, and Nicaragua?
Not without killing a few people.

And finally....

This is some silly-ass business. At high school up in Dearborn, Michigan they've banned t-shirts that call the pResident an international terrorist. The student who wore the shirt was SENT HOME. I remember when they did this in grade school. Jeez.

What has happened to Colin Powell?

There was a time when I thought this guy had some common sense. When he declined to run as V.P. with Bob Dole for personal reasons, he gave the impression of being someone who might be less susceptible to the dogmatic world of partisan politics.

Right.

Undoubtedly, Powell accepted G.W's offer of Secretary of State based on devotion to country, and perhaps to contribute a moderate voice to a decidedly right-wing administration. Unfortunately, it looks like he's either been steamrolled - or has drunk the Kool-Aid.

Today, Powell found the nerve to call out France as "afraid of upholding their responsibility to impose the will of the international community", based on their anti-war stance.

This is amusing.

Whose will are we REALLY talking about Mr. Powell? Certainly not that of Russia, France, China - and a host of other nations (U.N. and otherwise) who are resisting the full-court press of the Bush Administration. Maybe Mr. Powell is referring to the tenuous "coalition of the willing" - a collection of nations who ARE AFRAID of losing U.S. or IMF funding if their opinions run counter to Bush and his cronies?

One wonders....

This might be left field, but what the hell...

One wonders how different these thieves will be treated - in comparison the corporate thieves (Duke, PG&E, California Edison) who stole billions from the coffers of California ratepayers in the winter of 2001 (that the general public seems to have forgotten about).

In other news....

Just in time for the arms show in Saudi Arabia - the latest in American military technology! Tested for use on the future battlegrounds of Iraq! You too, can be the first (third-world) country on your block to own a Sensor Fuzed Weapon! Watch your enemies cower when you break out the latest in satellite guided bombs, courtesy of the United States Military Industrial Complex.

and again...

Read the headline and then the story...
Check out the Memory Hole for similarly misleading headlines...

and again...

In case all of you 30 million protesters were wondering....
BUSH STILL DOESN'T GET IT.

What a weekend!

In PDX, the protests against war were small and spirited, but the global picture was staggering. Estimates place the total number of protestors at somewhere around 30 million in over 600 cities worldwide.

Ok....this is just a little creepy.

An internal memo from ClearChannel making it sound like February 15th is D-Day. Since the U.S. got the high hand from Blix and the U.N. yesterday, I would be suprised if we decided to go in.....but one never knows. The Bush administration has said that it may ditch U.N. approval in favor of unilateral action.

Well see.

Ok...I'm going to go off on a non-war tangent here.

Last night I had the good fortune to see Crop Circles: Quest for Truth at the Clinton Street Theater. I was expecting the usual collection of conspiracy theorists and alien afficiandos - but instead, was treated to a superb documentary backed up by physical, mathmatical and historical data that left me scratching my head and looking skyward. Check out the movie's website for more info.

In other news....

Just when you thought reality shows couldn't get any worse...

Just picked up Jello Biafra's latest spoken word album "Machine Gun In The Clown's Hand" - and strongly recommend it for the ears of the curious and questioning. His latest 3-disc set blasts the Bush administration with surgical precision. No factoid is left unnoticed - or unskewered - as he builds a strong case against the war at home and abroad.

While the former lead singer of The Dead Kennedys is an acquired taste, his dissemination of media and American foreign policy are spot-on. He rants occasionally, but his words very rarely stray from the insidious truth that many are trying to avoid....that Americans are being conned into giving away their rights in exchange for an Orwellian future.

You may not always agree with him, but he says the things that need saying - and he doesn't mince words. Make room for Jello....you won't be disappointed. Visit Alternative Tentacles for more info on his CDs.

More creepy national database stuff. Credit cards bills, bank transactions, library records, phone records, etc. are being assembled to "root out the terrorists before they strike". They call the program Total Information Awareness. Sounds like Big Brother to me.

This is choice.

Congressman Howard Coble (R - North Carolina) let it be known that HE thinks Japanese internment was the right thing to do in WWII. This leads many wonder what Mr. Coble thinks about all those Arab families that are running loose within our borders.

You would think that all the flap from the Trent Lott fiasco would have made a difference. Apparently, that was only good for African Americans. Instead we are again exposed to more hidden racism lurking under the veneer of Republican leadership.

In other news...

I would laugh harder, if it wasn't so true.
The Modern World strikes again!

And finally...

Hunter S. Thompson marches for peace.
It makes my heart glad to see the Doc up to his old tricks.

More hot air from on high.

Secretary of State Colin Powell brought out the high-tech explainations to justify our continued march to war with Iraq. With the flourish of a polished statesman, he unloaded a pile of half-truths and gorilladust. Photos of "chemical weapons facilities" and "mobile biological weapons vehicles" were bandied about with no solid proof that they actually carry or supply any weapons (of mass destruction...i know, i know).

Little suprise that Iraq rejected the claims. China, Russia and France remain unmoved regarding the militaristic designs of the United States.

So what's next? War, most likely.

And after that? How about a showdown with North Korea? If you really want to see the "red menace" of China get involved, wait until we start rattling sabers in that direction.