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One year later "It's easy to send soldiers off to war. It's a lot harder to face them when they come home"
comment posted at 2:51 PM on Mar-21-04
comment posted at 2:53 PM on Mar-21-04

FORMER WHITE HOUSE TERRORISM ADVISOR: BUSH ADMIN WAS DISCUSSING BOMBING IRAQ FOR 9/11 DESPITE KNOWING AL QAEDA WAS TO BLAME Former White House terrorism advisor Richard Clarke tells Lesley Stahl that on September 11, 2001 and the day after - when it was clear Al Qaeda had carried out the terrorist attacks - the Bush administration was considering bombing Iraq in retaliation. Clarke's exclusive interview will be broadcast on 60 MINUTES Sunday March 21 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. Clarke was surprised that the attention of administration officials was turning toward Iraq when he expected the focus to be on Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. "They were talking about Iraq on 9/11. They were talking about it on 9/12," says Clarke
comment posted at 6:34 PM on Mar-19-04

The Apparat: George W. Bush's back-door political machine -- "It's anti-democratic, anti-Constitutional, and is working to create a one-party America"

Consider this article from Media Transparency regarding how "hundreds of tax-exempt organizations of the far right have been exploiting the twilight zone of campaign and IRS regulations for three decades -- receiving billions of dollars in grants and contributions to wage ideo-political warfare for far-right ideas, causes, and Republican candidates."

Might it already be too late to stop this juggernaut?
comment posted at 3:19 PM on Mar-19-04
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comment posted at 3:55 PM on Mar-19-04

Bob Zangas killed in ambush in Iraq. Bob was a Public Affairs officer with the CPA in Iraq and a pretty good blogger. After spending 6 months in Iraq as a Marine he returned as a civilian to do what he could to help the Iraqi people rebuild their nation. His blog posts were sometimes funny, sometimes sad but always told from the point of view of someone who wanted nothing more than to help. Link goes to the last post before his death.
comment posted at 3:50 PM on Mar-16-04

Rumsfeld waffles on Face the Nation when asked about the "immediate threat" argument in favor of war with Iraq. Link is Windows Media video.

This to me is a gregarious example of how semantics and linguistic framing has been used to manipulate the American public, and one clear moment of this questionable tactic breaking down.

Interesting how he tries to blame it on the media and "folklore", and then segues right into noncommittal doublespeak.

Via Joi Ito (text available), via Center for American Progress.

comment posted at 2:43 PM on Mar-16-04
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comment posted at 5:37 PM on Mar-16-04

Refusal of Caesarean=murder? Anyone seen/heard this? [Search didn't turn up anything, spare me if I overlooked.]
comment posted at 8:12 AM on Mar-16-04
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comment posted at 2:58 PM on Mar-16-04
comment posted at 5:17 PM on Mar-16-04

Now Toyota enters the robot race. Honda's humanoid robot, ASIMO, is such a splash, Toyota is entering the race, making robots designed to assist the elderly and incapacitated, and play trumpet with artificial lips. Shouldn't the US be making humanoid robots too? What do you really want your robot to do?
comment posted at 5:48 PM on Mar-14-04

A precious, limited resource. 10 African countries want more water from the Nile. The Nile just doesn't have enough to satisfy their wants and needs. Can there be a solution to this problem short of war?
comment posted at 8:02 PM on Mar-12-04

If diamonds are a girl's best friend, hand jobs are a close second.
comment posted at 2:44 PM on Mar-12-04
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comment posted at 3:14 PM on Mar-12-04
comment posted at 8:05 PM on Mar-12-04

"There is no separation of church and state," she said. The Boston Statehouse and surrounding area is crawling with fundamentalist Christians who have come from all over the country to push for a constitutional amendment in our state. You can read minute-by-minute updates on the debate in the Statehouse at Boston.com.
comment posted at 2:59 PM on Mar-11-04
comment posted at 5:37 PM on Mar-11-04

You’re going to lose more people this summer than you did last year, I guarantee it.
Do you feel it is possible for American citizens to support the troops without supporting the policies under which the troops are acting?
Yes. Most definitely.
comment posted at 3:51 PM on Mar-11-04

Charges of racism have been leveled against this president in the past. But this stunt even surprised me. Then I remembered a similar scene on the Capital steps. There hasn't been much media about it, so I'm wondering...is this a regional racism, such that it slid under the radar of the east and west coast news machines, or has the myth of rubbing the head of a black man for luck thankfully faded from the cultural unconscious?
comment posted at 2:46 PM on Mar-10-04
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comment posted at 7:31 PM on Mar-10-04
comment posted at 9:26 PM on Mar-10-04

How the Left views the Right, as viewed by the Southern Baptist Press. “I don't get it,” said the movie critic, “the people aren't listening to us... don't all those unwashed cretins out there in flyover country understand that we're the ones who tell them what they can watch?”
comment posted at 5:12 PM on Mar-9-04

Ben Kacyras is the inventor of the portable Cyrax 3D scanning camera traditionally used by surveyors for quickly creating "surgical exact" 3D models of large structures. Ben has set a goal to scan every World Heritage Site on Earth and make it available online so that if anything were to happen to a site, an exact replica could be re-built. Example Cyrax pictures. More 3D Camera links and other World Heritage Digitization efforts.
comment posted at 2:06 PM on Mar-8-04

Whoah. I accidentally typed our favorite blog's URL minus a period, and stumbled upon this educational reference site. Those devious hippies have gone too far....
comment posted at 2:16 PM on Mar-8-04

Bush's flip flops Bad mouth Kerry? Look who truly speaks out of both sides of his smirking head. Compare and contrast in 500 words. Spelling counts.
comment posted at 6:52 AM on Mar-8-04
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comment posted at 5:06 PM on Mar-8-04

He couldn't stand the complexity of the facts or the ambiguity of intelligence. William Saletan of Slate suggests an interesting strategy to oust Bush. Will it work? Should John Kerry take Saletan's advice? Republicans, what say you?
comment posted at 11:35 AM on Mar-6-04

Where is my gay apocalypse?
I have been waiting patiently. I have been staring with great anticipation out the window of my flat here in the heart of San Francisco, sighing heavily, waiting for the riots and the plagues and the screaming monkeys and the blistering rain of inescapable hellfire. I have my camera all ready and everything.
comment posted at 12:17 PM on Mar-5-04
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comment posted at 3:49 PM on Mar-5-04
comment posted at 5:43 PM on Mar-5-04
comment posted at 7:09 PM on Mar-5-04

A vote against Bush is a vote for Hitler. Previously it was suggested that a vote for Bush was a vote FOR Hitler. What is with all the darn Hitler talk this election season?
comment posted at 4:05 PM on Mar-4-04

Yet another extremist environmental group blows hot air on "global warming" (PDF).
comment posted at 4:27 PM on Mar-3-04

Portland joins other cities in offering gay marriages. Multnomah County didn't consult the state Attorney General before they started issuing licenses, though, which is a bit unusual. Forgiveness easier than permission? There's also a Unitarian Church in downtown Portland that is performing same-sex marriage ceremonies, if you're interested in a church wedding.
comment posted at 3:19 PM on Mar-3-04

Gay sex -- so good, it just might destroy the planet. Family Research Council founder Paul Cameron is frequently cited as an authority on sexuality by the religious right. In his view, "lesbians are particularly good seducers" and the thrill of gay sex is like "pure heroin" -- which is why homosexuality must be stopped before we all suffer gay-orgasm death, apparently. (I don't know about you, but after reading Cameron, I could sure use a... something in my mouth.) [via TBogg.]
comment posted at 2:15 PM on Mar-2-04