Pay no attention to the exploding cars and rocket attacks...
Once again, despite an ever-rising death toll for our forgotten soldiers, daily car bombs that kill Iraqis and internationals, and increasingly-sophisticated attacks on larger targets, the Bush administration is feeding us that same line: "the media is distorting the facts...things are FINE in Iraq."

Well, ignoring all the dead people--as the Bush administration seems to enjoy doing--this spin is actually correct in a way. At least for the current administration and their "war on terror (and the US constitution)". From their perspective, the past two weeks have been an increadible success. First, there was a major terrorist attack in Saudi Arabia that (praise Jesus!) killed only Arabs and Muslims (two terms the administration and media would have you believe are synonymous). Then terrorists began targeting another Muslim country in Turkey, killing more innocent people.
While a few people are correctly pointing out that these attacks are more evidence that we are all LESS safe than we were before Bush-Chenney-Rove-Ashcroft-Rummy's war on Islam began, most of the buzz coming across the airwaves is parroting the administration's spin: this is more evidence that we have to continue our war. Sane people need only look at Israel to see where this eye-for-an-eye, kill-your-enemy mentality will get us.

The more Muslims the US kills, the more anti-US terrorists it creates. But as long as the retaliation is carried out on second-hand US sites in OTHER countries--and as long as their fat-cat buddies are getting rich of Iraqi oil and Iraqi-and-American blood--Bush and Chenney can smile and gloat their goofy fratboy (Bush) and evil-overlord (Chenney) smirks.

And finally, there were the two events that have nothing to do with the "war on terror", but will probably help Bush most of all, simply because the average yutz's attention is only as long as the TV tells it to be: the massive photo-op of Bush dressing up in his monkey-suit and playing "Tea-party" with the queen, and the Micheal Jackson media cirkus that has only barely begun. Both of these "stories" are sucking up media attention (and the Jackson saga could continue for years) and diverting Americans' attention away from the fact that more and more of our soldiers are dying each day, and more and more people around the world hate and want to kill us.

Rush listeners...don't worry.
After five weeks in a rehab center for a drug addiction that would have landed any poor minority in prison, Rush Limbaugh is back on the air.

The talk-show host and pathological liar has frequently ridiculed and scoffed at drug addicts in the past, and many of his listeners wondered what his five-week hiatus would have on the show they've come to love and worship like the mindless cult members that they are.

But Rush quickly put their minds at ease, telling them not to worry.
"I don't want anybody to get frightened about this, now," Limbaugh said. "This has no impact on what you have come to know, love and respect here...".
Reminding his avid listeners that common sense, compassion, and evil liberal myths like "the facts" have never stopped him before, Rush vowed to carry on harrassing drug addicts and other criminals like himself no matter how many people rightfully cry "foul" and "hypocrite!"

Evil Liberal Gun-haters...
Not only are they saying our soldiers shouldn't be killing Iraqi women and children, but now they're persecuting (and prosecuting) sportsmen for engaging in their god-given right to hunt.

Sick...just sick. While these liberals whine and moan for Jose Padilla to be given basic civil rights rather than being locked in a cage in Cuba for the rest of his life, they're quietly jailing law-abiding gun owners.

Nutbag Judge sent packing.
Finally, a little good news from the US. That fanatical "christian" Judge in Alabama who defied court orders and the US Constitution by errecting a religious monument in the State Courthouse (and defied reason and logic nearly every time he opened his mouth on the subject) was fired.

AMEN.

NRA's "Sportsman of the Week" Award
And this week, there's this brave sportsman to make us all proud.

Worse and worse
Well, Iraq is going just about exactly how most educated anti-war people expected. Nothing for me to add there that you can't see anywhere else...even murmurs of unrest and disappointment being reported in the conservative media at this point!

However, I did see something on international CNN late last night that I haven't seen reported in any major news outlet within the US yet. After more than two years, CNN was finally reporting on the Bush family's intimate relationship with various Saudi families, and specifically on the mysterious Saudi airlifts that took place on September 12th and 13th, 2001.
Most of us in the blogging world have heard of this and Micheal Moore is just one of many who poses some excellent questions about why several hundred Saudis were allowed to fly around the US in the days when no one else was permitted to fly, and then allowed to leave the country WITHOUT being questioned by police.
Just imagine if Bill Clinton had allowed all of Timorthy McVeigh's family and former military buddies to board a plane and flee to Tahiti in the days after Oklahoma City and didn't even let the FBI question them beyond "did you pack your own bags?"

I only caught the tail end of the report on CNN here in Prague, but I was excited to see that perhaps someone at a BIG media outlet was going to comment on the story. But, looking around the internet today, I see nothing in domestic sources yet.

NRA's "Sportsman of the Week" Award
...goes to this man in Van Nuys California. Like a true athlete, he stayed focused on the task in front of him, blocking out the crowd of shocked onlookers around him and firing all six shots from his revolver at point-blank range.

On a personal note, I saw the footage of this on the news here in the Czech Republic and--having missed the pre-footage blurb--thought it was a scene from the CR. As I watched it with my Czech partner, I said "oh crap...more 'US Culture' seeping its way into the Czech Republic."

"No," she told me. "That was in California."

"Oh," I said. "Well, that's completely normal then. Nevermind."

Some new sources

Well, "president" Bush won't be reading these sources (see story below), but I found a few good links that provide a perspective other than the one being fabricated and then reported by the White House Press (Propoganda) department.

Veterans against the war in Iraq.

Marine-girl's blog The blog of a Marine's partner.

Bring Them Home Now "The truth is coming out. The American public was deceived by the Bush administration about the motivation for and intent of the invasion of Iraq. It is equally apparent that the administration is stubbornly and incompetently adhering to a destructive course. Many Americans do not want our troops there. Many military families do not want our troops there. Many troops themselves do not want to be there. The overwhelming majority of Iraqis do not want US troops there."

Today in Iraq.

Black is white, up is down, and objective is blatantly-biased.
(Alternative Title: Bush Boasts about Current-Events Illiteracy)

So, Bush himself has admitted that he doesn't read newspapers and prefers to get his news from what he (with no apprent knowledge of the extreme irony here) calls objective sources. Here's a great article detailing just how horribly deluded (or just dishonest) the presidents "objective sources" are.

It presents us with somewhat of a dilemma...can we blame the Emperor for not knowing he's naked? Well, since he knowingly and boastfully only listens to people who tell him what he wants to hear, I'm going to vote YES. Impeach the naked Emperor now!

Oh My! Check this out.
Here are some GREAT propoganda posters for the Right Wings. Do yourself a favor and have a look if you haven't already. There some funny stuff there.