“If you're going to tell people the truth, you better make them laugh; otherwise they'll kill you.”  —George Bernard Shaw

Monday Links

Caller Pete from Idaho mentioned the rumored nationwide truck strike. There’s no telling how widespread it will be until it happens, but he wasn’t pulling the idea out of his ass. Here’s a New York Times story on it.

Bush’s WarHere’s the online version of Bush’s War, the PBS Frontline special. Personally, I was disappointed that the documentary really is not about the war at all. It’s actually about the White House, State Department, Pentagon and Coalition Provisional Authority, and the politics and decisions surrounding and interlinking them all. It’s not about the troops, or Iraqis, and makes virtually no mention of international public opinion or the unprecedented antiwar movement. Still, it’s very good reporting for what it actually covers, and it will likely drop your jaw at several points.

Update: Here’s the website for We Can Solve It, the project that guest Cathy Zoi of the Alliance for Climate Protection.

Comments

  1. Todd in Titletown FL
    March 31st, 2008 | 3:06 pm

    For those who like a little balance to the relentless anti-Bush drums: Frontline’s ‘Bush’s War’: Not About Bush or His War

  2. Todd in Titletown FL
    March 31st, 2008 | 3:12 pm

    Pete,

    Regarding what you just said on air - look in the mirror. You don’t listen to both sides and you don’t answer YOUR critics.

    A snippet from the above critique:

    The belief that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction is presented largely as a fact pushed by Cheney rather than as something believed by every major intelligence agency in the world, including those of nations that vehemently opposed this war. French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin is once again allowed to oppose the war on humanitarian grounds with no mention of France’s keen interest in doing business with Saddam. The “16 words” controversy is presented by none other than Joe Wilson, with no mention of the view that – yellowcake deal or no yellowcake deal — Saddam Hussein in fact had been in the market for uranium in Africa. You can also remain innocent of the fact that Joe Wilson is himself a controversial figure whose qualifications for his task are highly questionable and were in fact a bizarre case of nepotism.

  3. Todd in Titletown FL
    March 31st, 2008 | 3:15 pm

    Sorry, this ‘graph is too good not to pass on and points out one of the big problems with the revisionist versions of this war and the lead up to this war that are spouted on this show almost constantly.

    This is probably a good place to mention one of the (other) fundamental shortcomings of this documentary. It takes place in a fishbowl. A Washington D.C. fishbowl, in which history largely doesn’t exist. The Sept. 11 attacks are presented only as a horrific event that prompted Cheney and Rumsfeld to start rabidly pushing for the invasion of Iraq. The history of Saddam Hussein, and the many reasons why his removal made sense and still makes sense get lip service at best. The fact that the UN sanctions regime was on the verge of collapse, the danger that posed, and what was subsequently learned about Saddam’s plans to resume his weapons programs in that event get no airing. The questions that remain about what Saddam might have done with the dormant elements of his WMD programs and whether they were shipped to Syria, not mentioned. The positive geopolitical ramifications of the removal of Saddam Hussein … Libya’s capitulation and last summer’s revelation that Iran stopped its nuclear weapons program after the invasion of Iraq, if only briefly … not part of the scope of this project. Presumably the recently released Pentagon study that found extensive contacts between Saddam Hussein’s intelligence agents and al Qaeda came out after this Frontline series was put to bed. But there is no reason to think Frontline, like most of the American media, wouldn’t just have reported the “no direct operational links” part.

  4. Travis from Vermont
    March 31st, 2008 | 3:27 pm

    Todd, I’m begging you…can we not turn this into a place to post what other people are saying? If you’ve got something to say, say it yourself. My eyes just glaze over when I see you post paragraphs of other people’s words. I and many others will be much more inclined to listen to your point of view if you just say what you think.

    We don’t care what they think…they can log on and tell us what they think if they care to do so…we care what YOU think about what they think.

    We are not Ditto-Heads here…leave that shit on the Rush Limbaugh forums.

  5. Martin from Virginia
    March 31st, 2008 | 3:38 pm

    Why wouldn’t Saddam get uranium from one of Iraq’s neighboring countries? Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan both produce uranium and are a lot closer to Iraq than Africa. Unless, of course, he didn’t want his neighbors to know what he was up to. If I was producing weapons of mass destruction I wouldn’t want my neighbors to know about it.

  6. March 31st, 2008 | 3:42 pm

    Guys, check this out…

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LHoyB81LnE

    that’s an elephant PAINTING!!!!

    I thought I was half/joking when i said a sea cucumber would have made a better president… but now I’m quite convinced that this is a fact.

  7. Martin from Virginia
    March 31st, 2008 | 3:49 pm

    You know, if he is substituted in the presidency by a sea cucumber, AND by a cucumber in the bedroom, maybe he isn’t a real person but merely a figment of our imagination. A bad dream, if you will.

  8. Todd in Gainesville FL
    March 31st, 2008 | 7:15 pm

    Travis,

    I’m sorry big paragraphs give you trouble. They go directly to the uncritical and myopic acclaim Pete was shoveling fast and loose today.

  9. April 1st, 2008 | 1:14 am
  10. Travis from Vermont
    April 1st, 2008 | 9:07 am

    Kind of a nasty thing to say to a very polite request, isn’t it Todd? Are personal attacks really necessary?

  11. Pete from IOWA not Idaho
    April 1st, 2008 | 2:58 pm

    Hey Brian…it’s Iowa…not Idaho…LOL.

    No biggie though. Corn, potatos…both good starch foods. LOL

    Also, if you go to my hometown newspaper The Quad City Times, the nationwide attention actually started there. Drudge, whatreallyhappened.com and others caught it there. Then it just blew up…

    Here are three links to the stories they’ve had:

    http://www.qctimes.com/articles/2008/03/19/news/iowa/doc47e03e9ea03bd427238845.txt

    http://www.qctimes.com/articles/2008/03/31/opinion/columnists/barb_ickes/doc47e884ee13767185626302.txt

    http://www.qctimes.com/articles/2008/04/01/news/local/doc47f1a054e2d43574108209.txt?sPos=3

    My responses are under “RedRockinMonkeyBoy” Not a lot of them, but fairly informative…

  12. Pete from IOWA
    April 1st, 2008 | 3:02 pm

    By the way, I’ll be in Jersey City on Thursday. If I get the chance or down time, I’ll see about skipping across the bridge to see you Pete

  13. April 1st, 2008 | 8:51 pm

    It doesn’t matter “if” Saddam Huessain was planning on buying plutonium or not, the fact of the matter is we attacked the wrong country! If, Ifs and Buts were candy and nuts, everyday would be Christmas. On Sept. 11, 2001 we were attacked by Bin Laden and his al Qaeda. We should have “stayed the course” in Afganistan and lynched Osama. Sure, its nice that the dictator of Iraq is gone, but if America’s dictator didn’t send the troops to the wrong country to finish his daddy’s loss, maybe our CIA hired Bin Laden would already be gone. Now we’re in a quagmire that is killing our citizens in a land we are not wanted, and killing our economy. Also I find it to be ironic that “quagmire” was the word of the day on Sept 18, 2001. I imagine Bush used it with his plans to sink the country and someone characterized it as his first five dollar word!

  14. April 1st, 2008 | 9:36 pm

    First of all Thank You Eminemsrevenge for that video. Secondly. Todd in Florida, I bet you don’t have a hair on your ass to sit down and watch that video, all 24 minutes of it. When war veterans from 18 to 118 are against this war, doesn’t that fucking tell you anything? When a young man feels hes going to Afganistan and instead is sent to Iraq, for what? When he demands to meet with President Bush and Bush is to much of a coward to meet with him because George will have to see the destruction he caused. When W. keeps sending more and more and more and more are dying and he doesn’t fucking care one bit. Doesn’t that tell you something? When we track down Huessain in a cubby hole by accident but we can’t find Bin Laden, doesn’t that tell you sometihng?

    The oddest part of my life just recently happened. I started to drive truck. I bought a Sirius radio and in the past 4 or 5 months I have learned so much. Not just from Pete either, Petes only been on for a hair over a month. I’ve learned alot from other stations and their listeners and their bloggers. I also learned today that my views against the war may not be correct. Oh, they’re correct to be against the war but are they correct since I didn’t go to war? Can someone who has never served his or her country or lost a friend or family member be against something so big? I seen the video, I seen a paralized person who can’t piss without help, I seen a young man who can’t stand on his own two legs, I seen a man who will never be the same. How fucking fortunate am I? right now I sit here and type my thoughts for everyone to read, I get up, go in the truck stop and piss (on my own), I get behind the seat and work the peddles, work the shifter, I go for a walk or jog or run, I go home now and then and relax, maybe go swimming, or hiking. There are 4000 people plus who will never do this again, there are thousands more who survived that will never live the same life pre-Iraq. All because of a war-monger. And I sit here and bitch about the heat in Florida (where I am as I write this), I bitch about high fuel prices, I bitch about the war itself. Do I really have the right to do all that? And you Todd get on your fucking soap box and put up quotes about “ifs” and “buts” I say go play a game of hide and go fuck yourself Todd, its obvious your Governer has been a Bush and your brainwashed by the Bush family tradition of my way or the highway horse shit antics.

    Oh by the way Pete, if your really myopic as Todd says you are, maybe you should get eye glasses or maybe some contacts.

  15. April 1st, 2008 | 10:58 pm

    Just got watching part of PBS’ Frontline: Bad Voodoo’s War,

    http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/badvoodoo/?campaign=pbshomefeatures_1_frontlinebrbadvoodooswar_2008-04-01

    Watch it, its not the media making this film its the soldiers, open your eyes and close your mouth. I was once told you learn nothing by running your jaw, but by opeing your ears.

  16. John from Cleveland
    April 1st, 2008 | 11:00 pm

    Scott, before you throw the moniker of a war monger out there. We have been known to do this for a long time. We took Noriega out. We took Milosevic out. We tried to take Kadafi out (sorry bout the spelling).

    And that is what we know about. About every president, whether overt or covert, has tried to topple a regime one way or another.

    Also, ask Saddam about the tens of thousands of his own people he gassed.

    Don’t get me wrong, I think that this war sucks donkey, we just can’t blame the current president for swinging the big dick of the oval office around. They all do it.

  17. April 1st, 2008 | 11:43 pm

    JfC, I understand that, my point is how can someone support these acts? I think its better supported if we didn’t get off the topic of what really happened. We got attacked by al Qeada, and we in return attacked Iraq. Theres no proven connection between the two. Of couurse I’m glad to see Saddam gone, but he shouldn’t have been the target, Osama is the target and after 5 years not only is he still the target and the only time we hear from him is when he makes another tape to rub into the western world his existance. Otherwise, we don’t hear about him at all. But when we were supposed to be finding Osama, we heard all about Saddam and even after Saddam’s exucution, he’s still talked about more then the original problem. And thats what I have a problem with. Bush is clearly a war mongor, his Dad was well is, and he is and the Bush family will always be. When and if you watch the video posted by M&M’srevenge and the one I posted these are stories from actual soldiers, the people who were there and still are there.

Leave a reply