Mac Net Journal

Joshua Marshall offers a glimpse of the kind of lies that campaigners for George W. Bush are spreading to help get their man four more years in the White House. Apparently these people think no one is paying attention to anything...

Bush as a failed businessman and president
Tuesday, February 10, 2004, 10:21 AM

Given the president's... - Given the president's record as a businessman, and since he's now run the country hopelessly into debt, isn't it about time he sells the country off to some rich friends who will swallow the loss so he can move on... [Talking Points Memo]

Winner - democracy!
Saturday, February 7, 2004, 7:08 PM

Tacoma mayor Bill Baarsma talks with members of our precinct before the finally tally of votes in today's Washington state Democrat caucus.

Natalie and I did our part by joining more than 1,000 of our neighbors to vote in the Washington state Democratic caucus today. We filled a local school gymnasium to overflowing, talked about the issues, and walked away energized behind the goal to kick George W. Bush out of the White House.

Although it looks like John Kerry has pulled out a majority in Washington today, Natalie and I stayed off what is largely being viewed as the safe bandwagon and stuck with our convictions to vote for Howard Dean. In fact, I will be one of the four Dean delegates from our precinct when the Pierce County Democratic Caucus is held on April 24.

Why did we stick with Howard Dean? Simple. Dean is someone who has a record of actually accomplishing something as a public servant, and among the candidates he has the best record to face Bush in November. John Kerry is being christened by Big Media as the runaway winner en route to a showdown with President Bush, but Kerry has no leg to stand on. He voted with President Bush on the decision to rush to war in Iraq, on the unfunded mandate of No Child Left Behind, and on passing the Bush budgets. If John Kerry has any backbone to stand up to George W. Bush, he hasn't shown it yet. And while his chants of "Bring it on" may be popular among bandwagon jumpers, many of those people would be better off asking where Mr. Kerry has been during his time in office as an elite Massachusetts senator. Mr. Kerry hasn't bothered to show up for some of the biggest votes during his tenure in office, and when he does show up, he simply votes to support George W. Bush's ideas.

We need fresh ideas and someone who will really represent us in the White House. Howard Dean is eager to serve, and he has a record to stand on. The decision was easy. With his past record, I am not even confident that John Kerry would bother to show up for the inauguration if he were voted into the White House.

Did the Dean campaign just lose its heart?
Wednesday, January 28, 2004, 5:26 PM

It is way too early to tell if Howard Dean's people-powered campaign for the Democratic nomination for President has lost its heart, but today's firing of campaign manager Joe Trippi in favor of a Washington, D.C. insider who managed the Gore campaign in 1998 sounds like a huge compromise of what makes Dean stand out from the other bland Democrats running for the top office in the US. I guess time will tell whether this means Dean is switching fully to the traditional campaigning that all other candidates are doing. If he does, his campaign is done. Even if he doesn't, I think many Deaniacs, myself included, can start to see the writing on the wall. That writing should be much more clear by this time next week...

Weblogs and the U.S. Presidency
Sunday, January 25, 2004, 7:45 PM

For those unable to listen to The Blogging of the President live tonight on NPR, Doc Searls offers a live blogging report on the report about blogging. Consider it crib notes for the radio report.

On tonight's State of the Union address
Tuesday, January 20, 2004, 6:21 PM

Bush's warnings, delivered with constant smirks:

- 9/11 was more than two years ago, but we should all remain afraid (Translation: Only I can keep you safe from the boogeyman)

- On the Patriot Act, it has helped catch drug dealers and criminals, and it may even someday help catch terrorists

- Asserts the right to defend the U.S. against countries that may support terrorism. (Translation: Watch out Iran, Syria, Pakistan, and any other country that the administration feels it can overrun, with the help of thousands of American troops, many of whom will die)

- People of Iraq are free (Translation: We own the country now, and we plan to bail out as much as possible before the November 2004 elections)

- "We feel the pain when one is lost" (Let alone when more than 500 have already died in Iraq alone...)

- The only way to defeat terrorists is to kill them, not indict them. (This also works wonders in places like Israel, which should now be the safest country in the world...)

- "Weapons of mass destruction related program activities" (The new doublespeak to cover the fact that Iraq posed little threat to the U.S. prior to the start of last year's invasion, and that no weapons of mass destruction have been found...)

- A long list of countries that paid $100 each to support the war in Iraq. You too can be part of the coalition. Just send $19.95 to...

- This economy is strong and growing stronger (Despite the fact that many more of you are out of work today than when Bush took office...)

- Much of job growth in fields like health care and biotechnology (especially in the growing need for RNAs and other low-wage fields...)

- Jobs for the 21st Century (aka summer school...)

- Pro-growth economic agenda (aka businesses get to do whatever the hell they want, even if it means sending your job overseas)

- Tax cuts should be permanent (so that no one has to pay for all of the military spending, at least no one alive today. Let the kids pay!)

- Social security changes (let people roll the dice with the money that could support them in their old age)

- Temporary worker program (to make it easier for businesses to hire people from overseas to work as serfs, saving the companies' money while not requiring them to offer living wages or to make any commitment to these workers)

- Medicare - "Giving seniors the modern medicine they deserve" (and padding the bottom line of pharmaceutical companies thanks to the provisions that prohibit the medicare program from negotiating for lower priced drugs)

- Private system "makes America's health care system the best in the world" (especially for those who can afford health care. Many of my friends have no health care, and the situation is getting worse. Nothing in this address deals with this problem. But if you don't talk about it, it doesn't exist...right?)

- $23 million for schools to do their own drug testing (privacy rights be damned...)

- Double federal funding for abstinence programs (Talk about flushing money down the toilet while ignoring the exact issues the Bush uses to justify the expenditure, children's health be damned...)

- "Our nation must defend the sanctity of marriage" (Translation: It's time to send those homos back into the closet)

- "Even the youngest understand that we are living in historic times" (Especially poignant since all times are historic times...)

John Robb on the turnabout Republicans
Tuesday, January 20, 2004, 6:00 PM

Isn't it funny (maybe not) how the... - Isn't it funny (maybe not) how the roles of Republicans and Democrats have shifted over the past 30 years. The aspects of the Republican party that attracted me to them years ago are gone, and they have subsumed by the Dems. For example:

Fiscal responsibility.
A non-interventionist foreign policy.
Personal rights.

Republicans have failed on all of these counts. They are profligate spenders, able to send troops to all corners of the world on a whim, and ready to turn us into a police state. There is nothing left of the Republican party. [John Robb's Radio Weblog]

An open letter to the Howard Dean campaign
Tuesday, January 20, 2004, 12:18 PM

Mr. Dean,

I am a supporter from Washington state who is concerned about the way the campaign may be going after last night's Iowa caucuses. I am not so worried that your campaign, our campaign, finished third in the caucus. I am worried about the way you and the campaign are coming across to voters.

To win the Democratic nomination, your campaign needs to stop the cheerleading and start focusing on the issues and differences between you and your campaign and those running against you. Last night's speech in Iowa in which you pumped up your supporters with an exhibition of enthusiastic yells did much to excite solid Dean supporters, but I am afraid it did much more to turn off potential supporters.

We need to win in New Hampshire, and in order to do so we need to translate the chearleading and money-raising wins of the pre-primary season into a reasoned and passionate campaign for the Democratic nomination for President. Less ranting and more focus are in order.

A humble supporter and Tuesday morning quarterback in Washington,

Rob McNair-Huff

Bush bypasses process to appoint judge
Friday, January 16, 2004, 4:09 PM

George Bush the Lesser has done it again, pulling a slick move today to appoint a judge that could not meet the muster in the U.S. Senate. This honorable move ranks right up there with adding new curbs to Americans' rights by slipping provisions from the second incarnation of the so-called Patriot Act into a bill a few weeks ago, and his move to open up thousands of acres in the Tongass forest area in Alaska to logging right before Christmas last year. Hey, no one can claim that Shrub doesn't know how to work around the system, although many will doubt that he actually figured out how to pull these fast ones on his own...

Howard Dean's response to the appointment:

"It is especially offensive that the President made this decision on the eve of the Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday, and one day after his photo op at Dr. King's grave."

Good questions about Howard Dean
Monday, January 5, 2004, 1:50 PM

Scott Rosenberg asks some excellent questions about the motivation behind Howard Dean's Democratic opponents in the primaries who are picking apart two Dean statements and pointing to them as evidence that Dean is not ready to be the nominee. Nevermind that Dean's statements are hard to refute...

Bush slipping...excellent
Tuesday, October 14, 2003, 7:16 PM

The Agonist points out:

ABC News/Washington Post Poll: Bush Slipping
If the 2004 presidential election were today, 46 percent of Americans say they would vote to re-elect Bush, while 47 percent would favor the Democratic candidate - the president's weakest showing to date in this so-called generic horse race.
ed: doesn't exactly look like a bounce back, as USA Today/CNN claimed in their poll
Also, more than eight in 10 continue to see the alleged White House leak of a CIA operative's identity as a "serious matter," and the number who think the administration is fully cooperating in the investigation has declined to 39 percent. About two-thirds still favor appointment of an outside special counsel to look into the matter. [The Agonist]

Digging into local politics
Tuesday, October 14, 2003, 2:27 PM

This afternoon I will make a short speech in nearby Lakewood, Washington, to argue against the Pierce County's plans to build a short highway called the Cross Base Highway through the middle of critical habitat for the endangered Western Gray Squirrel. I will make the speech in my capacity as the chair of the Conservation Committee for the Tahoma Audubon Society. Although public speaking is not my forte, it is something I find myself doing more and more as I dig in and get involved in local politics.

Here are the points I will make in my talk today:

- The Cross Base Highway is an outdated idea that makes no sense today. It would do nothing to aid traffic flow, simply moving the traffic jams on I-5 south of their present location, and it would have people living in Spanaway and the surrounding area drive even further to get to their jobs in the north. To make matters worse, the construction project would take seven years and more than $200 million to complete.

- The proposed highway would cut down the middle of critical habitat for the Western Gray Squirrel, our native squirrel that is listed by Washington state as a threatened species, and that has been considered for federal Endangered Species status. Is it worth the cost of losing the last major Oregon white oak habitat in South Puget Sound for a road that will serve no purpose? The highway would also damage acres of marsh habitat in the Spanaway Marsh, an area that is home to dozens of bird species and that is full of native plants found in few other places in the region.

- The Tahoma Audubon Society and 1000 Friends of Washington have met with Pierce County officials and offered alternatives to preserve critical habitat and the county has ignored our efforts and pushed ahead to build this road, no matter whether it makes sense or sacrifices too much.

- The Tahoma Audubon Society and the Northwest Ecosystem Alliance petitioned the federal government to grant Endangered Species status to the Western Gray Squirrel, and so far the government has only responded following legal actions. The Bush Administration says that ESA status is not warranted for the Western Gray Squirrel, even though it admits that the species is a distinct population. An appeal is planned to save these squirrels that may not survive the bulldozers and punching an unneeded road through the middle of their remaining habitat.

- Even if the county will not listen to sound environmental concerns and science, or the arguments that the Cross Base Highway will not fix the traffic mess caused by years of poor county planning, in the end the voters hold the final power to reject transportation tax measures that would waste money on this highway.

- The Cross Base Highway is unnecessary, expensive, and destructive, and Pierce County has more pressing issues to deal with than building pet highways that will serve no purpose.

The 'party of the average guy'
Monday, October 13, 2003, 3:07 PM

Brent Simmons makes a good point in his post today about the party of the average guy, and how in recent years it seems that the Republicans have managed to cast themselves as the average person's party of choice, taking over a spot that was once held by Democrats. Brent writes:

The Democratic party has become—in the popular perception—the party of Rhodes scholars and policy wonks, of complex solutions and nuance. The NPR party.

I fear that Brent is right, but worse yet, I see nothing wrong with Democrats being viewed as the party of educated, smart Americans who are working to make the country better. I think that the Republicans' false "good-ole-boy who anyone can count on in a pinch" kind of image that is being promoted by Karl Rove and his ilk is far from genuine.

I certainly don't look down on the 'average guy.' Yes, I have a college education, and I like to stay informed and I list NPR among the sources I use to stay on top of what is going on in the world, but I am not some elitist looking down my nose at the rest of the world. I am confused when it became a liability to be smart, however, and I firmly believe that the dumbing down of America stands to hurt our nation - especially if those playing dumb to win elections are manipulating the tides of history and leading the country astray...

Bush team and military resort to bogus letters
Saturday, October 11, 2003, 7:52 AM

The Great Letter Home Conspiracy?

The Olympian (Washington State) has picked up this Gannett News Service story describing how different newspapers around the country are getting letters from soldiers describing a favorable picture of Iraqi reconstruction.

There's only one catch: The letters are largely identical.

Here's the lead:

Letters from hometown soldiers describing their successes rebuilding Iraq have been appearing in newspapers across the country as U.S. public opinion on the mission sours.

And all the letters are the same.

A Gannett News Service search found identical letters from different soldiers with the 2nd Battalion of the 503rd Airborne Infantry Regiment, also known as "The Rock," in 11 newspapers, including Snohomish, Wash.

The Olympian received two identical letters signed by different hometown soldiers: Spc. Joshua Ackler and Spc. Alex Marois, who is now a sergeant. The paper declined to run either because of a policy not to publish form letters.

And there's this:

Six soldiers reached by GNS directly or through their families said they agreed with the letter's thrust. But none of the soldiers said he wrote it, and one said he didn't even sign it.

Marois, 23, told his family he signed the letter, said Moya Marois, his stepmother. But she said he was puzzled why it was sent to the newspaper in Olympia. He attended high school in Olympia but no longer considers the city home, she said. Moya Marois and Alex's father, Les, now live near Kooskia, Idaho.

A seventh soldier didn't know about the letter until his father congratulated him for getting it published in the local newspaper in Beckley, W.Va.

"When I told him he wrote such a good letter, he said: 'What letter?' " Timothy Deaconson said Friday, recalling the phone conversation he had with his son, Nick. "This is just not his (writing) style."

It will be interesting to see where this goes ... [The Command Post]

Dean leading in California polling
Tuesday, July 22, 2003, 7:14 AM

It looks like the online and grass roots work being done by Howard Dean has him in the lead in at least one poll in California this morning. Interesting...

Here are the notes from Dean's weblog:

Dean Takes Lead in Most Populous State in the Nation - We've known that Howard Dean has been doing well in Iowa and New Hampshire, where he is in second place or tied for the lead, depending on the poll. But to learn today that the San Jose Mercury News is reporting that the latest Field Poll shows Dean in the lead in California, with 16 percent of Democrats supporting him in the most populous state in the nation, is simply amazing.

The results of the poll (with the results of the last Field Poll on April 16th in parenthesis):

Dean 16% (7%)
Kerry 15% (16%)
Lieberman 14% (22%)
Gephardt 7% (12%)
Edwards 4% (3%)
Graham, Kucinich, Sharpton 3% (2%, 1%, 4%)
Moseley-Braun 2% (4%)

The Mercury News writes: ``For [Dean] to be leading the pack in California, even though it's a statistically insignificant lead, is big news,'' Field Poll director Mark DiCamillo said of Dean.

How did this happen? How did Dean become the only candidate to move forward outside the margin of error in California? It happened from the bottom up, as a result of your efforts - spreading the word about Howard Dean, going to Meetups, organizing through our Get Local tools, and contributing to the campaign. [Blog for America]

Why are Americans putting up with the lies?
Saturday, July 19, 2003, 6:12 PM

As each day passes and more and more people step forward with news about how the Bush Administration twisted the truth to fool the American people into supporting a war in Iraq, the most amazing thing is the silence. Military members, veterans, CIA officials, and others are peeling back the layers of lies and half truths, but most Americans seem to be ignoring the news that is staring them in the face.

Here is one example:

Raymond McGovern, a former CIA analyst and supervisor, says, "Never before in my 40 years of experience in this town has intelligence been used in so cynical and so orchestrated a way" - from a CBS News report noted on The Agonist...

But the item that really hits the nail on the head is a letter to the editor in The Tacoma News Tribune, my hometown newspaper, titled Why no public outrage over the president's lies?. Here is a quick excerpt:

In other words, all those brave soldiers died in vain. They died because a group of men with selfish intent conjured up an image that scared the public into believing them. And they continue to die because those same arrogant men refuse to acknowledge their miscalculations.

Why is there now no public outrage? The last president that lied was impeached, and that lie didn't cost the life of a single person. Over 200 Americans and 6,000 Iraqi civilians have died because the administration lied. That is inexcusable.

I couldn't say it any better...

Congressional Black Caucus shows Bush
Wednesday, July 16, 2003, 3:31 PM

Congressional Black Caucus Snubs Bush - AP via TBO:The chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, complaining of being ignored by the White House in the past, turned down an invitation to meet with President Bush on Wednesday about Bush's recent Africa trip.

Several members of Congress were invited to the White House to be briefed by Bush on his five-nation, five-day trip.

"Mr. President, I need not remind you that the CBC's requests for meetings with you have gone unanswered for more than two-and-one-half years," Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., wrote in a letter declining the invitation.

[The Agonist]

Is Patriot II being passed bit by bit?
Friday, May 9, 2003, 7:18 AM

PATRIOT II SNEAKING IN THE BACK DOOR?... - PATRIOT II SNEAKING IN THE BACK DOOR? TalkLeft notes that -- though the bill was "just a draft" -- it appears to be being passed piecemeal.... [Instapundit.com]

On media consolidation
Thursday, May 8, 2003, 3:28 PM

On Tuesday morning I listened to the 1Q03 quarterly earnings call for Cumulus Media, Inc., one of the huge radio conglomerates that competes with and wants to be the next Clear Channel at the expense of diversity in the radio marketplace. One part of the call was especially troubling, when an analyst asked the CEO of Cumulus what he thought would happen with the FCC next month when it considers allowing media companies to hold even more concentrated holdings within single markets:

"I think these people have a genuine desire to come up with a solution that works and that does not adversely impact this business or its continued ability to consolidate and serve the public. So I feel very comfortable after leaving that meeting that we're not going to be disappointed when everything comes out on June 2," said Cumulus CEO Lewis Dickey.

So, tell me this isn't a done deal.

Meanwhile, I was interested in reading this post from Boing Boing:

Future of Music coalition open letter on media consolidation - The Future of Music coalition is gathering signatures for an open letter to FCC Chairman Michael Powell, asking the regulator to keep the airwaves from being owned by megacongloms like ClearChannel. It's been signed by people like Stevie Nicks, Jimmy Buffet, Tom Waits and Michael Stipe. If you or someone you love is in the biz, point them at the FoM site, OK?

We believe the record demonstrates both the value of existing media ownership rules and the dangers in permitting widespread consolidation of ownership. We also believe the FCC has been negligent in listening to important stakeholder groups, like musicians, recording artists and radio professionals, to ensure their testimony is on the record. The de facto boycott of field hearings by you and Commissioners Abernathy and Martin makes us question how interested some commissioners are in understanding the public's interest in these matters. Finally, a refusal to allow Congress and the public to view and debate your specific proposal would be a tremendous disservice to the American public and the citizens who depend on these media structures for their livelihoods.

Link Discuss

(Thanks, Helen!) [Boing Boing Blog]

OK...you can all feel safe now...
Wednesday, April 16, 2003, 4:35 PM

In its infinite wisdom, the Department of Homeland Security has handed the keys to your privacy to Nuala O'Connor Kelly, a former privacy officer for Internet advertising scourge DoubleClick. Congratulations to Tom Ridge for naming a woman to such an important post, but was it really the best idea to make the person in charge of handing out personal information to the highest bidder while at DoubleClick to keep your personal information safe?

To be fair, an article about this appointment in the Washington Post notes that O'Connor Kelly made in-roads in creating relationships between DoubleClick and privacy rights organizations in her time with the company. Still, I don't think of DoubleClick as the poster child for privacy rights. Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security stands to create a much more invasive information harvesting system that could hurt privacy rights a whole lot more than receiving more spam...

Another Bush appointee sets out to kill species
Monday, April 7, 2003, 7:50 AM

I dare anyone to read this story from today's The News Tribune in my hometown of Tacoma and then to say that the Bush Administration gives a damn about saving species like salmon that define the Pacific Northwest: Salmon at risk with adviser, critics say.

Free Mike Hawash
Saturday, April 5, 2003, 2:56 PM

If you care about justice, visit the Free Mike Hawash page now. This kind of thing should not be happening in the U.S.

Axis of Weasel
Friday, April 4, 2003, 8:24 AM

Listening to NPR this morning I have heard comments by a U.S. Congressman referring to France, Germany, Russia, and China as the "Axis of weasel." While this may be catchy and funny, whoever this fellow is doing more to create animosity between the U.S. and the rest of the world than the other morons whose idea of being patriotic was to start referring to fries as "freedom fries." The U.S. really needs to be more diplomatic in this world, and this kind of backwards showboating does nothing to help create a more peaceful world...

Doc Searls on the state of current affairs
Wednesday, April 2, 2003, 8:08 AM

Doc Searls offers some eloquent thoughts about the current state of the war:

Peace on

Sheila Lennon: I'm dropping out of the war. She expands:
I'm dropping out of the war. I don't want war in my living room any more. I don't want to give it my attention. I can't stop it, can't change it, won't fight it. All I can do is live as peacefully as I can, without sucking in its virtual fumes.
And Doc agrees:

On the one hand, I'm weary of wall-to-wall war on every other medium, and don't want it around here too, much as I been contributing to it myself.

On the other hand, I think the blogosphere, on the whole, is doing a good job of fact-checking and -sharing; and of creating, finding and linking to some terrific thinking on the whole war subject.

A reader points here and asks,
...do you really believe the best thing for the World would be for the US to pull out now and leave one of the cruelest dictorships in modern times at the helm in Iraq, with all the cruel and innocent deaths that would follow in the wake of such a move.
No, I don't. Now that we're in there, I want us to finish with minimal loss of life on all sides. I hope we take out Saddam Hussein's regime and return the country to its oppressed people. Then I hope we go home.

But I don't have much faith that either will happen. This looks like Vietnam to me, only worse. I hope and pray that I'm wrong. And that Chris Lydon and Jim Moore are right about the peace movement. Hate to say I have my doubts about that too.

It's a big fucking mess. There are no easy answers. Not that I can see, anyway.

[Doc Searls]

Dan Gillmor: America's other war
Tuesday, April 1, 2003, 2:18 PM

Columnist Dan Gillmor points out concerns about the failure to uphold civil liberties as the U.S. goes after those suspected of ties to terrorism in America's other war: On liberty.

Why I have stopped watching TV coverage of the war
Monday, March 31, 2003, 10:02 AM

About four days ago I stopped watching any significant amount of TV coverage of the Iraq war. The reason: There is no way to get a balanced view of the war from TV. Here in the U.S. the main options for war coverage are CNN, whose analysts alternate between being war cheerleaders and then doomsayers, FOX, whose analysts are always drumming up nothing but positive news about the war, and MSNBC, which I seldom watch at all anyway. I find much more balanced reporting by reviewing the news from a number of Web sites that are aggregating the war news - The Command Post and The Agonist among them. And some newspaper coverage available on the Web offers great depth where TV offers nothing but sound bites, cheering, and neverending explosion coverage from a handful of cameras in Bahgdad...

Balanced links about the Iraq War
Monday, March 31, 2003, 9:39 AM

Mega-link Iraq war site

Courtesy of the law school of Lewis and Clark College, this page of links about the Iraq war includes many news outlets and wire services, pro and antiwar sites, and many blogs, including Command Post.

[The Command Post]

Perspective on the anti-war crowd
Monday, March 31, 2003, 8:08 AM

Many supporters of the current war in Iraq try to paint the anti-war movement as a small number of crazy hippies without any backbone, which are the same slurs thrown at the anti-war movement in previous wars, but the truth is the desire for peace seems much broader than say during the days of the first Gulf War. In the weeks leading up to our invasion of Iraq I drove all across my home state of Washington, as well as through big sections of Oregon and the extreme northern California coast. Signs urging the U.S. to make peace and not war were overwhelming and they were found just as equally in normally right-leaning farming communities as they could be seen in the cities. Sure, this peaceful sentiment has given way to support for the U.S. troops now, but at its base there is a broadly held feeling that this war is not in the best interest of the U.S. No one seems to be talking about this since the bombs starting falling and the troops and civilians started dying in Iraq...

Dave Winer: This war is just plain wrong
Friday, March 28, 2003, 5:30 PM

Scripting News's Dave Winer comes out firmly against the war in Iraq...

Sure signs of problems
Friday, March 28, 2003, 12:57 PM

One of the surest ways to guage how the war in Iraq is being seen by the Bush Administration emerged today in this CNN story that said he finds some of the skepticism and questions being asked by the media are "silly." While it is true that some of these questions are a bit premature, it is also true that once things start going badly with a conflict that the administration is going to stop painting the media as a friend and more as a foe in the battle to remove Saddam Hussein from Iraq.

Meanwhile, for those few who have written me about my bias regarding this war, please go read the comments of Scott Rosenberg from Salon in How do you feel about bad news?, who explains on his blog why he wants to see this conflict finished as soon as possible. I wholeheartedly agree. I don't agree with the build up to this war, I don't share the absolute confidence that we will "win" this war, and in the end I cannot see how the U.S. can come out of this conflict as anything other than a loser in the eyes of the world. But that being said, I want to see this thing finished now.

You have to be kidding...bases named Shell and Exxon?
Wednesday, March 26, 2003, 11:52 AM

This war brought to you by......

You are invading oil-rich Iraq, and much of the world thinks -- rightly or wrongly -- you are doing it because you want the country's oil. You deny this vehemently. Yet when your troops name their "forward operating bases," they choose the names Exxon and Shell.

I'm not making this up. Those are the names of the 101st Airborne's helicopter bases in Iraq, according to this New York Times report.

The Pentagon is apparently explaining that these camps are refueling bases, and that justifies the naming. I dunno. This may be true. But it doesn't help us. The Bush administration has been given lots of points for its handling of this war's PR, but this looks like a ludicrously stupid blunder. [Scott Rosenberg's Links & Comment]

And then the numbers game begins
Wednesday, March 26, 2003, 7:03 AM

A reader of this weblog noted an innacuracy in the AP story I linked to yesterday that stated that just 38% of the people in the survey felt the war was "going well." In fact, it appears this is the percentage of people who think the war is "going very well." The number of people who generally think the war is going well is more like 86%.

Why do I split hairs here? Well, the reader decided to take a cheap shot at me and my views when he should be criticizing the folks at the Associated Press. They did the poll, wrote the story, and misled me and others with a poorly written lead. As for my own bias about this war, yes, I am biased. I support the effort now and hope our troops get done with this bloody war as soon as possible, but I don't support the steps that led to this war nor do I support the kind of world we are sure to face if we emerge "victorious." The Bush Administration has managed with this war to create a situation in which we cannot win. We may gain military victory, but to do so we will create more hate for America in the Middle East...

I will try to avoid referring to polls here any longer. No matter what your view you can find a poll to support it. They are innacurate and not all that useful, so that was a mistake on my part to even point to this poll. Lesson learned.

Democrats already asking for campaign donations
Tuesday, March 25, 2003, 2:08 PM

Gephardt Mixes War With Campaign Appeal
In one of the first fund-raising forays of the war, Democratic presidential hopeful Dick Gephardt sent prospective donors an e-mail opening with his prayers for the U.S. military and closing with a pitch for cash. [Associated Press war headlines via GoUpstate.com]

The Gephardt campaign called me last night for a donation. I declined...

The reality of war
Tuesday, March 25, 2003, 2:05 PM

Public's Confidence in War Success Drops
Images of battered American POWs, downed Apache helicopters and U.S. fatalities in Iraq have had a dramatic impact on the public's perception of the war. Just 38 percent said the conflict was going well on Monday, down from 71 percent last Friday, according to a poll by the Pew Research Center. [Associated Press war headlines via GoUpstate.com]

Get Your War On
Friday, March 21, 2003, 8:03 AM

The comic Get Your War On has a new series of panes related to the current war in Iraq, and if you like critical thinking about this war along with a dose of satire, this is must-read material...

Dan Shafer on the coming war
Tuesday, March 18, 2003, 11:19 AM

Dan Shafer writes passionately about The myth of a quick war...

Emails from Rachel...
Tuesday, March 18, 2003, 10:13 AM

I point out this post just for general interest. For what it is worth, I live close to Olympia, Washington, grew up just south of there, and I nearly attended Evergreen State College as well. I am not sure how I feel about Ms. Corrie and her political stance, but I am upset about this act by the Israeli military and feel it should be investigated:

Emails from Rachel
From a different front: The Guardian has reprinted a series of emails from Rachel Corrie, the American who was crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer as she tried to keep Palestinian houses in the Gaza Strip from being destroyed:

I spent a lot of time writing about the disappointment of discovering, somewhat first-hand, the degree of evil of which we are still capable. I should at least mention that I am also discovering a degree of strength and of basic ability for humans to remain human in the direst of circumstances - which I also haven't seen before. I think the word is dignity. I wish you could meet these people. Maybe, hopefully, someday you will.

[Jarrett House North]

For a decidedly right-wing view of war times, Instapundit
Tuesday, March 18, 2003, 7:22 AM

I admit up front that I don't agree with this war, or to be more precise that I don't agree with the series of blunders that set the stage for this war. But there are other voices out there. One of the loudest voices in favor of the war and cheerleading the right-wing cause of the day is found on the Instapundit site. Here is an example from this morning:

FOR THE FRENCH, IT'S ALL ABOUT OIL....
FOR THE FRENCH, IT'S ALL ABOUT OIL. AND BRIBERY: The most far-reaching financial scandal in French history reached court yesterday... [Instapundit.com]

I cannot agree with a lot of what this site promotes, but I subscribe to the RSS feed nonetheless because I want to hear all sides of the debate, even those that seem more like cheerleading than critical dialogue and analysis... Discuss Right-wing cheerleading

And others are chosing not to write about war
Monday, March 17, 2003, 7:30 PM

While I noted earlier tonight that I will be writing a bit more about war and politics on MNJ in the coming days, Brent Simmons of NetNewsWire fame is taking the opposite approach:

Not writing about war
My guess is that now and in the coming days some people will be looking for more news and opinion about the war in Iraq and other people will be looking for less, they'll be looking for other things to read about.

So, just so you know, I don't intend to write about the war either here or on ranchero.com. [inessential.com]

In another related note, Damien Barrett offers some comments on political and religious content being published on Mac sites. Both Damien and Brent have some great points and maybe I will consider creating a separate category for my own political comments outside the main page of MNJ. On the other hand, I still believe that there are times when topics in the world at large deserve more attention, even from a Weblog about Macs...

I'm sure this will make them feel better
Monday, March 17, 2003, 5:44 PM

"This will be a war against the lawless leaders of the country and not against you." - George W. Bush addressing the Iraqi people, 3/17/2003.

I am sure that this will be a great consolation when hundreds if not thousands of Iraqis die at the outset of the coming war...