Author: david

  • How an unconscionable punishment became an enlightened incentive.

    DKo: Boldface is mine. USA TODAY, 6-22-04 On Nov. 27, 2002, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld approved 17 “Category Two” interrogation techniques….He also approved one “Category Three” technique,…”non-injurious physical contact.”….Rumsfeld rejected three proposed Category Three techniques: exposure to cold weather or water;… DKo: So in November, punishment by exposure to cold was unconscionable, not allowed even…

  • Don’t They Know It Hurts?

    “Remember, more than 90 percent of American homes celebrate Christmas. But the small minority that is trying to impose its will on the majority is so vicious, so dishonest–and has to be dealt with.” –Bill O’Reilly, Fox News: Cited in NYT, 2004: The Year of ‘The Passion’, by Frank Rich I was reading the Newsweek…

  • The Iraqization Program

    But the police have performed poorly in the Sunni Muslim areas in central and northwestern Iraq…. A wave of attacks [in Mosul] on police stations and other government buildings prompted 3,200 of the city’s 4,000 police officers to abandon their jobs. (Washington Post) DKo: The apparent reliance on former Kurdish militia as backup is explosive,…

  • A Wily Adversary

    Reuters: “Hundreds of mortars, rocket-propelled grenades, rocket launchers and bomb-making equipment have been uncovered inside couches, behind hidden walls and even on top of the city water tower, Marine officers said.” –Glass? Last thing you’d suspect!

  • How Different Are We?

    “…a poll taken just before the elections showed that 75 percent of Mr. Bush’s supporters believe Iraq either worked closely with Al Qaeda or was directly involved in the attacks of 9/11.” (NYT 11/04/04.) Not only that, according to the original report, they also thought this was the belief of “experts” in the field. We’ve…

  • WOW!

    http://www.gnn.tv/content/eminem_mosh.html Here’s the Eminem Mosh vodeo. Blew me away. (Big file, 32MG, downloads in four minutes broasdband, but you can also click for a dial-up version.)

  • Why There Is Very Good Reason to Feel a Draft

    Need for Draft Is Dismissed by Officials at Pentagon, NYT Rumors of a secret plan to reinstate the draft are churning across the Internet, worrying some in Congress and even coloring the presidential campaign…Officials note that Congressional proposals for…30,000 to 40,000 more troops, would hardly require a new draft … DKo: A few points for…

  • Bush on the Hook

    Street poet Wordsworth from the Slam Bush convention in Florida Pretty cool. You have to stick with it past the part where Bush is “kicking his game.” It didn’t stream for me, but it downloaded for replay. I know I’m obssessing with the Hip-Hop angle, but we kids feel so misunderstood. Fight the Power!

  • Dropping Props* for Eminem (of Battleground Detroit, MI)

    *Props, i.e., proper respect This from Rolling Stone: [BTW, the post-11/2 dates don’t mean anything. The song will get its play–after this “leak”–before the election, and the issue of the magazine (despite its “cover date”) will also be out.] Eminem Talks Bush Song Rapper calls Iraq war “mess,” blames president Eminem’s upcoming album, Encore, due…

  • Encouraging Report Today Re: “The Kids Are Alright”

    Poll Finds Pro-Kerry Vote Fever at Colleges LA Times “[A]ccording to a poll released Thursday by Harvard University…84% of students said they would ‘definitely be voting’ this year, compared with 50% who said so in the spring of 2000.” “The poll surveyed…210 campuses in 48 states. Students…preferred Kerry over Bush, 52% to 39%….The Massachusetts senator…

  • FYI

    Washington Post [T]he Indian Health Service, was created by treaties drawn more than a century ago that promised quality health care (along with quality education and decent housing) for every Native American in exchange for the federal government’s taking vast swaths of Indian land. But the health service, run by the Department of Health and…

  • The Kids Are Alright

    A lot of people have been wowed by the intensity of campaign communication this year. Fair enough. It has been intense. But not intense like the Green Day back-beat, or Hip-Hop’s “Vote or Die,” or the amped-up slackers of 2004. I think there may be an intensity of yet a higher order still in store.…

  • Kerry, Bush Trade Charges

    “I”ll give you Nincompoop and In Denial, if you give me Flip-Flopper and Liberal.” “Flip-Flopper AND Liberal? You’ve got to be kidding!”

  • A Phrase We Would Not Be Likely to Hear

    A phrase we would not be likely to hear in our own media, from the Arab News, referring to Iran: wedged between the American occupied countries of Afghanistan and Iraq.

  • The “Ties” That Blind

    AFP The White House insisted there were ‘ties’ that linked the former regime of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to the Al-Qaeda terror network. DKo: Even if there weren’t any actual Al-Qaeda-ties, there were certainly Al-Qaeda-ties-related-program-activities. And actual Al-Qaeda ties could have been deployed within 45 minutes.

  • Will the Hip-Hop Nation Stand Up?

    I think it will. I have been among the eldest citizens for years (though my attention has drifted lately). I have felt it was a unique dialectic of candor that would turn out to be redemptive for the United States. The OG’s (“Original Gangstas”) of my own generation are on tour right now for the…

  • Sorry..couldn’t help it…

    China’s Hu takes Army reins Former President Jiang Zemin resigned his post as head of military Sunday CSM, 9/20/04 “Jiang,…was China’s top ruler until 2002 – when he gave up his post to President Hu….Yet Jiang, still regarded as the most powerful politician,…had retained a firm grip on the Central Military Commission. “Jiang’s half-in, half-out…

  • The Magic Bullets of Baghdad

    Army Defends Baghdad Battle That Left 16 Dead, LA Times, 9/16/04U.S. commanders acknowledged Wednesday that their helicopters fired seven rockets and 30 high-caliber machine-gun rounds onto a crowded Baghdad street this week during a battle that killed 16 Iraqis…Military officials here have adamantly denied Iraqi charges that U.S. forces…fire indiscriminately…[US] soldiers are fighting a guerrilla…

  • Still Fostering Abuse, Publicly, Shamelessly, Even Now

    Rumsfeld Downplays Detainee Mistreatment, AP, 9/10/04 “Amid allegations he fostered a climate that led to the prison abuse scandal, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Friday that the military’s mistreatment of detainees was not as bad as what terrorists have done. “‘Does it rank up there with chopping someone’s head off on television?’ he asked.…

  • The Right to Bear Arms. EVERYWHERE!

    Increasingly, we are fighting a war to defend the right of American troops to enter Iraqi cities. Per this 9/5/04 NYT article… One by One, Iraqi Cities Become No-Go Zones “In Iraq, the list of places from which American soldiers have either withdrawn or decided to visit only rarely is growing: [Samarra,] Falluja,…Ramadi,…the holy Shiite…

  • Could you just roll that back a little, please?

    I love the abrupt juxtaposition of styles in this AFP article, where the gray grit of war slides suddenly into comfy corporate pastel. I leave it to you to decide where the transition seems to occur. This is an unbroken quote from the article. “Four Turkish nationals have been executed at the hands of hostage-takers…