3.26.2003

[Expletive Deleted]

• More than 14 civilians are dead after Allied missiles hit a Baghdad market. Tony Blair's spokesman, from the security of London, asserts, "We have always accepted that there will be some very regrettable civilian casualties."

• The man Bush selected to govern occupied Iraq has ties to right-wing anti-Palestinian groups. In 2000 he signed a statement blaming Palestinians for Israeli-Palestinian violence. The statement, sponsored by the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, includes signatures by JINSA advisory board member Richard Perle and past board member Dick Cheney.

• With a humanitarian crisis mounting in Basra, British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon denies that American and British bombing had been aimed at the water supply. Oh, yes? In 1966, Assistant Secretary of Defense John McNaughton, quoted in Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States," discussed his strategy in North Vietnam: "Destruction of locks and dams, however--if handled right--might...offer promise. It should be studied. Such destruction doesn't kill or drown people. By shallow-flooding the rice, it leads after a time to widespread starvation (more than a million?) unless food is provided--which we could offer to do 'at the conference table.'"

• On-the-ground reports conflict with the network's gushing praise of "surgical" and "precision" bombing raids by U.S. and British troops, writes the media watchdog group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. (While you're there, support FAIR and buy a "Don't Trust the Corporate Media" t-shirt or bumpersticker.)

• Rep. John Conyers demands an investigation into Bush war advisor Richard Perle's work as a paid consultant to Global Crossing and his guidance on investment opportunities resulting from the Iraq war. Meanwhile, Dick Cheney's former company Halliburton, from which he still receives up to $1 million a year, gets the contract to put out Iraq's oil fires, without a bidding process. (Anybody want to write a letter to The Ethicist?)

Images the media won't show and no one--yet everyone--should see. WARNING: EXTREMELY GRAPHIC IMAGES.

• Peace activists doing a die-in at Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman's office don't miss the irony: it used to be Paul Wellstone's pad. At least 28 were arrested. Today, 67 more were arrested for civil disobedience at the Federal Courthouse in downtown Minneapolis.

• And, simply because my dad asked for it, please take a moment to read this. Thanks.

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