Speechifyin'

So apparently George made a speech. One in which he announced, to the resigned dismay of anyone with even the faintest glimmering of a fucking clue, that he was going to feed another 20,000 or so young Americans to his imperialist ambitions in Iraq. This time, however, there appears to be a bit of a backlash against the appalling stupidity of the American president. So, what now? Well, Molly Ivins has an answer, and I draw your attention to the last paragraph of her column:

We are the people who run this country. We are the deciders. And every single day, every single one of us needs to step outside and take some action to help stop this war. Raise hell. Think of something to make the ridiculous look ridiculous. Make our troops know we're for them and trying to get them out of there. Hit the streets to protest Bush's proposed surge. If you can, go to the peace march in Washington on Jan. 27. We need people in the streets, banging pots and pans and demanding, "Stop it, now!"

Good stuff. Particularly as it is becoming clear that the coming months are going to be somewhat of a watershed for our friends to the south, particularly as regards their political system. Essentially, the man who once famously said "If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier - just so long I'm the dictator" seems to have decided to go beyond mere wishful thinking. How else can you explain Bush's deliberate snub of the advice of his top generals and the committee which had been struck for the sole purpose of giving him advice on Iraq? The level of petulance speaks of a man who is deeply emotionally invested in getting his own way.

Yes, I know it's just a gesture, but still...

Colosseum lit over death penalty

Rome has lit up the arches of the Colosseum to highlight Italy's support for a global ban on the death penalty.

Italy launched its campaign in the wake of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's execution, which sparked widespread protest among Italians.

Well done the Italians, I say!

Hello Again!

Well, we're back. And where were we, you ask? Buried in end-of-term stuff, we respond. However, the exams have been marked, the marks submitted, and life returns to a semblance of normal. So what did we miss? Some of the highlights, so to speak, of the last couple of weeks:

Ed Stelmach becomes premier of Alberta. The official Oi! Thump! position on this is that it could have been worse. Oh boy could it have been worse! And now we'll have the fun of watching Stelmach try to find a place for Ted Morton where he won't be able to do too much damage. Don't be surprised if Morton ends up running for the Alberta Alliance at some point in the future.

Stephane Dion became leader of the federal Liberals. Um, ok. A surprising choice, and there are questions about his electability, particularly in the West. However, once again, it could have been worse.

Parliament refused to ditch same-sex marriage. Not that they had much of a choice. Anyway, the next day, the sun amazingly rose in the East and set in the West, and has continued doing so since. Some people are still refusing to take the hint, though.

The Iraq Study Group recommended that George W. Bush do a number of highly reasonable things to rectify that situation. He will, of course, do none of them.

Rona Ambrose made a rather amusing Freudian slip. "These are the kinds of things we can show Canadians that we mean business when it comes to our environmental agenda," said Ambrose. Yes Rona, we know that your government has business, along with heavy industry, at the heart of its environmental policies.

Anyway, stay tuned for Friday Archaeology Blogging!

Whoa, Nelly

Oh, so this is how Harper's gonna get us into Iraq.

Harper mum on Canadian special forces role
Won't confirm reports JTF-2 helped in rescue

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper won’t confirm or deny reports that Canada’s elite JTF-2 special forces helped rescue two kidnapped Canadian aid workers in Baghdad.

He'll just send Canadian troops there unilaterally and not tell anybody! Wheeeee!! (Note to Mr. Harper: You are Prime Minister, not President. Learn the difference, please).

Whoops!

Ok, this actually happened a little over a week ago, but it's still damn funny (first spotted through the Oi! Thump! crystal ball here):

Hatch refers to Iraq as Vietnam

WASHINGTON - Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, flubbed Monday and referred to Iraq as Vietnam while commenting on Fox News against an immediate troop withdrawal.
"The Democratic Party seems to be taken over by the Michael Moore contingent in their attitude toward Vietnam, and they continually call for a withdrawal of troops at a time when we haven't finished the job," Hatch said on the network's morning show. Hatch's spokesman acknowledged the error, which was first reported on the American Prospect Web log.

BWAH-HA-HA-HA-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!!! Ahhh.... Well done, Orrin.

Spokesman Peter Carr said the Utah senator had been reading a magazine article that referred to analogies between the Iraq and Vietnam wars and misstated what he meant to say.

The new number 1 on the list of People Whose Jobs I Don't Envy: Peter Carr!!!! "Um yeah, my boss tends to get confused by the sight of words, and he's a little unclear re: what decade and century we're living in, and his picture is now in the dictionary next to the entry for "Freudian Slip", and, um, what was the question again?"



Main Entry: Freudian slip
Function: noun
: a slip of the tongue that is motivated by and reveals some unconscious aspect of the mind

Actually, it must be said that Orrin at least gets on the bad side of conservatives once in awhile, even if the less we say about his music career, the better...

It's oh so easy...

Most folks have probably already seen the above picture, of a little Iraqi girl crying after U.S. soldiers gunned down her parents on the off-chance that they were suicide bombers. And a lot of people in the blogosphere have already made the ironic connection between that photo and the "Freedom on the March" mantra of little Georgie. So there's not really too much more to say on that score, other than to note that my sympathies are also extended somewhat to the soldiers who participated in this particular monumental fuck-up; some sleepless nights ahead for them, methinks.

However, the picture looked oddly familiar to me; a little girl, in terrible fear, her life destroyed by American imperial ambition and greed maskerading as donated freedom. Where have we seen that before? Oh yeah, here:



Perhaps someone on the right can explain to me why the iconic images of America's purported attempts at liberation are always children crying. Any takers?

International Edition...

Well, as very quietly went pretty much unreported in the mainstream press, the U.S. administration finally admitted that, hey, there were no WMDs in Iraq. This stunned nobody. I was going to write an long and scathing post about it, but the proprietress of Baghdad Burning has beaten me to the punch. And she's actually there. Go check her out.

Well, Happy New Year again. And it looks like 2005 is just going to be the bannerest year ever. We've got another year of the moron to the south of us, who apparently is now considering introducing, um, political action committees to the good folks of Iraq, who apparently haven't suffered enough, while his idiot followers ponder a new method of treating women who've suffered miscarriages. We've got another year of Ralph up here, with the ultra-conservative wing-nuts baying in the background, although that's providing as much comedy as alarm these days. Mother nature seems moderately ticked about something. More people than ever are just confused (sorry dude, but "Proud to be Canadian" and unironic links to Ann Coulter should not really on the same page). One does find some diamonds amid the pig shit though, to mix a metaphor... Well, maybe things will be alright, and maybe, especially in certain parts of the world, they won't.

Came across an excellent blog yesterday. Here's its very very first ever post, from last August:

So this is the beginning for me, I guess. I never thought I'd start my own weblog... All I could think, every time I wanted to start one was "but who will read it?" I guess I've got nothing to lose... but I'm warning you- expect a lot of complaining and ranting. I looked for a 'rantlog' but this is the best Google came up with.

A little bit about myself: I'm female, Iraqi and 24. I survived the war. That's all you need to know. It's all that matters these days anyway.

Riverbend

Anyway, it's not an easy read, but I'm going to force myself to keep up with it, even when I'm feeling like reading 'happier' stuff. And now back to work, unfortunately.