looking for a good cowboy

WART
* "Scott Ritter, appearing with journalist Dahr Jamail yesterday in Washington State, dropped two shocking bombshells in a talk delivered to a packed house in Olympia’s Capitol Theater. The ex-Marine turned UNSCOM weapons inspector said that George W. Bush has "signed off" on plans to bomb Iran in June 2005, and claimed the U.S. manipulated the results of the recent Jan. 30 elections in Iraq." scott is about the only guy not yet tainted. if he is correct, i guess the good news is that the next war wont happen for a few months - which is good news for those who will die. i guess. http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/2295/

* amongst the war noise, does anyone remember they faked brit torture pix which destroyed piers morgan at the mirror? and now the aclu bring out another 1000 pages of torture dox. in afghan and iraq? is piers vindicated in his unemployedness? thou shalt not question the empire.

* "There currently are about 155,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, according to the U.S. military command in Baghdad. That is the highest number of the entire war, including the initial invasion." http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0%2C1280%2C-4809175%2C00.html

* oz to add 450 trrops to iraq. i think that is about double? if only that other bloke who lost the election had not decided to ignore the war....


MEDIA
* in a curious twist, the oz health minister who has recently called for abortion laws to be 're-evaluated' has just discovered his adopted-out son. lots of media coverage. fancy that. the story is too creepy to follow - but it looks totally managed (i wont venture that it is fabricated) - there were coverstories in weekly media the day the story broke. somewhat curiously, they are only using one still picture of the son, on his wedding day (and he is grimacing/faking a smile). i cant bear to watch the media to see if it actually mentions his anti-abortion crusade - but i dont think so - meanwhile the story about his lost son is for some reason the # 1 or 2 story for 24 hours... fuck i hate the media. broken broken. and the media is showing old pix of him showing how handsome he was as a youngster - presumably justifying his behaviour) foul foul. (the same guy was also on tv lying thru his teeth in the week prior to the election denying that he had met the head of the catholic church a few days earlier)

* on an unrelated note, speaking of the choice of photographs, ive previously discussed the oddities about the medias choice of pix they use to 'describe' people. (cf ksm, zark, jack kelly) there was a story here last week where a major (literally $billions) drug dealer (ex-client) was in court again and the pic they used in print was emre-esque. (have u seen emre's latest gig? www.mimaroral.com . pornstar. priceless.

* back when martha was first convicted, i recommended buying mso (i dont make many recommendations)- its now 400% higher http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/02/20/wstew20.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/02/20/ixnewstop.html

* and dont forget huntersthompsons awesome article immediately post 911

* bozell on the simpsons: "I'd rather them not do it at all," he added. "You've got a show watched by millions of children. Do children need to have gay marriage thrust in their faces as an issue? Why can't we just entertain them?" http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/21/arts/television/21simpsons.html

* here is an interview with larisa of raw story. rawstory rox. larisa rox. http://radiofreeblogistan.com/2005/02/21/the_big_e_ethics_bloggers_and_independent_media.html#more

* theres a new war reporting trick '3 US soldiers were killed today in a roadside attack' - leading to think that only 3 amgrunts died today - but they forget to mention, or mentino separately, one troop *also* died somewhere else...

* this aarp thing is all over the place - check it here. astonishing really. ots almost so bad, and so bare-faced that one might even venture to imagine that it was to distract the notgannoning bloggers. (and ftr, they are an astroturf outfit, thinly disguised swifties.) (theres a competition going on the mock the campaign)
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2005_02_20.php#004862

* " if Thompson couldn't take it anymore, what hope is there for the rest of us?" http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2005/02/hunter-s.html



* "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's budget is also due for a 12.1 percent decrease (a reduction of $555 million)" ftr, longtime readers will know that i find the cdc spooky. and i didnt know they had a $4bn budget. one imagines that the $555m reduction will actually be the science dept - and the remaining $3+bn will be the pr slush fund.
http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=368191

* hst: "Immediately after the first debate ended I called Muhammad Ali at his home in Michigan, but whoever answered said the champ was laughing so hard that he couldn't come to the phone. "The debate really cracked him up," he chuckled. "The champ loves a good ass-whuppin'." http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/_/id/6562575?rnd=1099009920793&has-player=true

* hst famously hated nixon "Richard Nixon looks like a flaming liberal today, compared to a golem like George Bush. Indeed. Where is Richard Nixon now that we finally need him?"

* hst "Nixon was a professional politician, and I despised everything he stood for -- but if he were running for president this year against the evil Bush-Cheney gang, I would happily vote for him."

* (im trying not to do the hst thing cos i didnt know him well - but i have previously ref'd this article, and his 911 article)

* blinky quoted camut and voltaire - lol

* amyl h asks "Couldn’t Hunter have done something a little less predictable?" which is a good question. i answered 'like staying alive?' which was a good answer

* in other news - amyl h pointed me to this site http://www.massivechange.com/index.html and said "He's not afraid to be explicitly optimistic and use big fonts." which made me laugh a lot. im working my way thru the site - its interesting. design is interesting. i loved working in the design world.

* "What surprises me most about Bush's new budget proposal is that the front gates of the White House aren't being knocked down by legions of outraged clergy armed with spiked bats, pitchforks and acetylene torches screaming for the head of any of the leering corporate lackeys even remotely involved in submitting this moral crime against humanity to Congress. " http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=18592&area=durst

NOTGANNON
* xymph notes that its odd that eberle actually saw the plane hit the pentagon, given that some dont think a plane actually hit the pentagon. given that there are few reported witnesses, and of course there isnt any footage. which is odd given all the lil eichmanns working there - one mite expect that it was closely monitored. http://xymphora.blogspot.com/2005/02/bobby-eberle-eyewitness.html

* "James Guckert sues reality ... for a divorce." http://rogerailes.blogspot.com/2005_02_20_rogerailes_archive.html#110891531736845451

* btw - i sent danny schechter a deans/notgannon email cos he asked 'where tf was the whca?'

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four moron years.
wotisitgood4.blogspot.com