Monday, February 02, 2004

TODAY'S TOP FIVE: Guess who's back. At Least 67 Killed in Suicide Attacks on Kurdish Political Parties This comes during one of the deadliest 10-day periods since Operation Enduring Freedom began back in 2001: 7 U.S. soldiers killed in Afghanistan, 7 U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq over the week, and now this. Boy, think there's going to be elections for an Iraqi assembly in June? "There's a Choice We're Making / We're Saving Our Own Lives" That cringe-inducing couplet from "We Are the World" has new meaning, as George W. Bush now quietly plans to massively reduce America's commitment to fighting AIDS, poverty, and infectious disease throughout the world. Hardest hit will be the global fund to fight AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis: The US's annual contribution looks like it will shrink from $550 million annually to $200 million. Oh, and remember that $20 billion he promised in the summer of 2002 to help fight disease and poverty in Africa? I hope you guys haven't cashed that check yet! Hutton Decision: So What? That seems to be the case for the majority of Britons, at least according to this article: "Some triumphs are simply so unlikely that the public refuses to acknowledge them. This is one of them." The facts remain, as I mentioned last week, that Tony Blair is now in the position of watching as a probe into faulty intelligence is launched in the U.S. Blair has publicly staked his tenure in Downing Street on the discovery of weapons of mass destruction. No amount of whitewash from the House of Lords can cover that up. This is Above Suspicion Oh, and speaking of that historic and important investigation in the United States... it looks like George Bush will handpick the members of the panel charged with investigating the "failure of U.S. intelligence" in the run-up to the Iraq war. Should be quite a crew! Of course, as anyone who has been paying attention knows, U.S. intelligence did not fail: They reported accurately that Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction. The failure was on the part of the administration, which lied to the American public in order to launch an illegal war of aggression. Think Bush's guys are going to say that? Taliban Militants Are Easy to Spot: They Tend to Be Short, and Congregate in Schools and Daycare Centers Hey, remember those "Taliban militants" our warplanes killed in an air raid last week? Well, it turns out they were actually women and children civilians, according to our hapless puppet: "The Afghan president on Saturday said a U.S. air strike this month killed 10 civilians, including women and children, contradicting American military reports that claimed the casualties were Taliban militants," says the story. -Consider Arms 1:07:47 PM    comment []

I still can't believe Radio 4 sold one of their songs for a Toyota commercial... We Should Worry More About The White Dudes Nine months after the fact (way to bring us the breaking news Atlanta!) this CNN article describes the frightening arsenal of cyanide and half a million rounds of ammo found in an East Texas town during an April raid. The stockpile was amassed by two white dudes, Judith Bruey and William Krar (who one New Hampshire resident fantastically describes as being "wicked anti-American). It may seem tres mid-90s to say so, but x-raying the turban cloths of Sikhs at an airport probably isn't as important as going after the various militia and white power wackos here at home. Coca Cola: Always (Or At Least Until You Die of Toxic Poisoning You Indian Bastard) The Indian parliament has banned the sale of Coke and Pepsi products in its cafeterias and some are suggesting the ban of the colas across the entire sub-continent. It seems that test have found that the soft drinks contain pesticides and insecticides in concentrations 30 times the standard allowed by the European Union. Coca Cola has also been accused of creating severe shortages of water in the communities in and around their bottling plants. Coca Cola's response? Hire a PR firm, of course. And If We Expel ALL The Students We Will Have NO Rules Infractions What 9-11 did for domestic anxiety and insanity, the shootings at Columbine did for high school anxiety and insanity. Most notably was the implementation of "zero tolerance" laws against drug and weapons possession that dole out the same draconian sentence regardless of the actual offense. We've all heard the news reports about a student getting suspended for cutting an apple with a plastic knife, or a student getting expelled for letting his asthmatic girlfriend use his inhaler. This excellent Salon piece details how damaging and widespread "zero tolerance" rules have become. Democracy A High School Kid Could Hack Maryland hired a technologies firm to look at the security of their new touch-screen voting machines to be used in the March 2nd primary there. The firm had a geek field-day with the new machines hacking them with low tech methods such as picking locks and pulling out cords, to high tech strategies like hacking the systems via a modem. The end result is an electronic system that is severely in doubt and a month away from its first use in an official election. Maybe representative democracy will show up on a Vh1 "Wasn't the 21st Century Wicked Freaking Awesome" special... C'Mon California, The Recall Didn't Make You Look Stupid Enough? A Democratic Assemblyman from San Francisco, Leland Y. Lee has introduced a resolution that urges the California Building Standards Commission to adopt standards that would use Feng Shui, the Chinese practice of environmental design. I wonder if this will mak it into the next Center for Growth ad? "The latte-drinking, sushi-eating, Hollywood-loving, red bamboo flute-hanging, Feng Shui-ing California freak-show..." I Know A Tactless PETA Ad Will Come Of This; I'm Just Waiting For It. -The Sikh Geek, literalist. Literally. 11:10:12 AM    comment []

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