Exaggerated Fear

Anyone who has seen Michael Moore´s film Bowling for Columbine (or the local news for that matter) knows that big business, the media and politicians use fear to control people, often employing spin to make things appear like more of a threat than they really are (case in point: all of the evidence given for invading Iraq). And do you know what happens when we blindly, unquestioningly believe that spin? Well, I guess the above comic says it all.

Source: In These Times Magazine

As the World SPINS

I always thought that spin was reserved for the Bush Administration and conservative talk show hosts (please, please, please, please read Al Franken’s book Lies and the Lying Liars who Tell Them), but a lecture by Kerry O’Brien, an Australian journalist and television presenter, reminded me that spin is not limited to politics. Spin is also rampant in the pharmaceutical, tobacco, banking and telecommunications industries. Everyone that wants to come out winning and isn’t worried about integrity knows the value of media favor. Good press for you and bad press for your competitor is the kind of marketing money can’t buy. Or can it?

Although O’Brien doesn’t take sides in the whole spin debate, he does admit that the people in power are the most likely to use spin because they have the financial resources to employ a whole PR and marketing troop to find the best way to take old or out of context news and twist it as much as possible to make their camp look good and the opposition look bad. That should come as no surprise.

Nor should it come as a surprise that spin generates revenue. Look at the popularity of TV and radio shows that have hosts known for making outrageous statements and claims. Whenever presenters like Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh misquote someone or take quotes out of context and then rant and rave and come to ridiculous conclusions, they are generating dollars. Why? Because they are creating drama where there isn´t any or excusing and pishawing the drama that actual journalists are all in a tizzy over. That’s entertainment, and these spin doctors are entertainers, not journalists.

The truth is that spin wouldn’t be as prevalent as it is if our collective attention span wasn’t the size of an amoeba. Look no further than the length of our news programs, on average between half an hour to an hour. How the hell is that enough time to report on everything, positive and negative, going on in the world? Our news is reduced to sound bites and video clips that last only seconds, and “full” story coverage is reduced to a matter of minutes. Yes, the fact is that modern day journalism is not only allowing, but promoting spin. It’s a lot easier for the “big boys” to make things up when the general public is never given all of the facts.

Source: “Marketing and spin: journalism’s big challenge,” www.onlineopinion.com, August 5, 2005

Republicans: Who They Appeal to and Who They Serve

This cartoon is by yet another amazingly talented cartoonist named Ward Sutton, who has done a lot of work for In these Times. Is funny because he speaks the truth, and I love his use of bright colors.

Selective Taxing: Charging the Public for Censorship

I am a Democrat. If there were any party left of the Democratic that was actually taken seriously in the United States (say a strong Socialist Party), I would cease to be a Democrat and align myself with the more liberal party. But for now, I am a Democrat, which doesn´t mean that I agree with everything that every Democrat does. For example, Senator Zell Miller is supposedly a Democrat, yet he dislikes Kerry and supported Bush in the 2004 election. OH Zell, NO! However, that is somewhat old news. More recently, I have decided to disagree with Senator Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and all of the Democratic senators that are sponsoring her bill, the Internet Safety and Child Protection Act of 2005, that would impose a 25% tax on the revenue of most adult-themed websites (a.k.a porn sites).

Lincoln claims that this new law would "keep products unsuitable for children from view," and keep pornographers from "pushing those products in children´s faces." Now, I am no pornographer, but I am not aware of any porn website or company specifically targeting children.

Do I think children should be allowed to look at porn? Of course not, what do you think I am, a perv? But I do think that it is a parent´s responsibility and not the government´s to keep their kids from looking at such things. If protection is the issue here, why don´t we tax action and horror movies and violent video games at this arbitrary 25% rate? I´d rather my child see two people having sex than a person being disembowled. Hell, let´s tax the evening news, all the news we´re getting from Iraq can be really traumatizing to small children. It seems to me like sex is a little more natural than decapitation and torture.

How the hell is taxing porn going to keep it from reaching children anyway? All it´s going to do is make poor, hardup Joe Schmoe fork over a little more cash to get his nightly kicks, because whatever the pornographer has to pay is just going to get pushed onto the consumer. And the consumer is taxed heavily enough as it is. Maybe when my tax dollars start supporting education, head start and the environment instead of that quagmire in Iraq, I´ll support legislation that ups tax rates.

The good part is that legal scholars are saying that the bill doesn´t stand a chance. "The general principle is that if you can´t ban a certain category of expression, they you cannot selectively impose tax on it," says Jamin Raskin, professor of constitutional law at American University. "If it were constitutional to tax a disfavored category of speaker, then there would be 99% taxes on pornography and hate speakers and Howard Stern... But the courts understand that the power to tax ultimately is the power to destroy."

Oh dear, so not only would it appear that this is just a way of getting more money out of us, but the bill may also be considered censorship. Well, if it´s argued that way, the scholars are probably right, this bill is just a waste of Congress and the Democratic party´s time. There are certainly more pressing issues in this nation that would better benefit from Senator Lincoln, Carper (Delaware), Pryor (Arkansas), Landrieu (Louisiana), Lieberman (Connecticut), Salazar (Colorado), Stabenow (Michigan), Bayh(Indiana) and Conrad´s (N. Dakota) time.


Source: "Senators seek Web porn tax," www.news.com, Aug. 1, 2005

Proving Atkins Wrong

To understand the irony, it is very important to be able to read what it says at the tippity top of the strip. For those with bad vision it says: Conservatives say that the rice pilaf served at Guantanamo PROVES that detainees haven´t been tortured. Inspired by that flawless logic, we present:

This insiteful cartoon was plucked from In These Times. An excellent source for news based right out of Chicago, Illinois!

Women Find a Voice at Iraq Radio Station

For all of the horrible things that have happened as a result of the Invasion of Iraq, I suppose there are a few positive things too. Not that the positive will ever outweigh the negative, but it is interesting to see how the country is changing and how some people are discovering their voices in "Post-war" Iraq. The following article, by Yochi Dreazen, is extremely interesting and makes me hopeful that the situation in Iraq isn´t completely hopeless.

BAGHDAD — Three years ago, Majda Jabouri earned a small living as a housekeeper, the only job she could find after being imprisoned because of her family’s opposition to the regime of then-Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Today, she hosts a popular daily call-in show on Radio Almahaba, Iraq’s only station dedicated to women’s issues, called “Cup of Tea.” Most episodes are devoted to relationships, parenting, and other topics that would be familiar to any “Oprah” viewer. The show is also a product of its environment: a recent episode dealt with women’s feelings of jealousy and powerlessness when their husbands take second wives.

It isn’t Almahaba’s only nod to the challenges of life in Iraq. With policymakers debating just how many legal protections women should enjoy in the country’s new constitution, the United Nations-funded station finds itself on the frontlines of a bitter showdown over women’s rights. Several employees have been threatened with death for working at the station, although no one has been attacked. Many Shiite clerics have ordered their followers to boycott it.

The station has responded by shifting from simply covering the raging debate over Iraqi women’s political and legal standing to actively participating in it. At issue is whether Iraq’s new constitution should include expansive women’s rights, including a guaranteed 25% of the seats in Iraq’s parliament, enshrined in the temporary constitution written last year with heavy American involvement. The Shiite religious parties that dominate Iraq’s government have long disapproved of those provisions and are now pushing to strip them out.

Almahaba, named after the Arabic word for love, regularly broadcasts portions of U.N. resolutions on gender equality and encourages listeners to make sure their interests are represented in the country’s draft constitution. After recording several interviews at a recent rally against proposed cutbacks in women’s rights, meanwhile, an Almahaba reporter put down her microphone and began helping protest leaders pass out fliers and petitions.

The station’s willingness to openly advocate its views of a highly politicized issue sets it apart from many of the country’s other media outlets, which try to avoid picking sides for fear of sparking an attack by the insurgents and sectarian militias responsible for Iraq’s near-daily violence.

But Almahaba executives say that Iraq has too few voices devoted to women’s issues for them to sit out the current constitutional debate, which pits secular-minded Kurds and Sunni Arabs who want to preserve the rights accorded to women — who make up an estimated 60% of Iraq’s population — by the country’s temporary constitution, against fundamentalist Shiite Arabs eager to curb women’s rights and give Islamic law greater prominence. Iraqi policymakers face a critical Aug. 15 deadline for delivering a draft constitution, but remain far apart on a range of issues.

“We encourage our employees to get involved,” says station manager Kareem Jabbar, an Iraqi exile who fled the country in 1990 and spent more than a decade working as a journalist in the Netherlands and Britain. “We don’t want them just sitting on the sides.”

Almahaba began broadcasting this spring out of a suite of shabby offices decorated with photos of famous Iraqi female artists and musicians. Its eight hours of programming a day include cultural shows designed to teach women about art and poetry, health programs and news broadcasts. More than half of Almahaba’s 40 employees are women with little or no radio or journalism experience, but the station’s male employees — which include several veterans of Iraq’s former state-run media — say they are learning quickly.

“We men are really just trying to teach the women to take our places,” says Khalid Aziz, a program director who had formerly directed films for Iraq’s state-owned cinema industry. “We hope to only be here temporarily.”

The station was founded by Deborah Bowers, an American humanitarian worker whose interest in Iraq was sparked by her experiences helping Iraqi war refugees adjust to life in upstate New York in the early 1990s. In 1995, Ms. Bowers and one of the refugees she had befriended, Steve Sharrif, created Opportunities for Kids International Inc., a relief agency devoted to Iraqi children. It has since sent medical supplies and thousands of pairs of children’s shoes to the country.

Ms. Bowers, 50 years old, says that the idea for the station began with her Iraqi staffers, who saw Mr. Hussein’s ouster by U.S.-led forces as an opportunity to dramatically improve the legal and political standing of Iraqi women. Although Mr. Hussein’s government had been nominally secular, women had numerous restrictions on their daily lives, including an inability to leave the country without being accompanied by a spouse or male relative.

Ms. Bowers developed a grant proposal for the station and presented it to the United Nations Development Fund for Women, which supports private initiatives around the world devoted to gender equality and women’s rights. The U.N. agency ultimately gave her $500,000, which allowed the nascent station to purchase broadcasting and recording equipment and rent office space near the heavily fortified Palestine Hotel here. Employees chose the name Almahaba, and it began broadcasting to Baghdad and the surrounding area in March.

On a recent afternoon, Seeham Fadhallah, a cheerful woman in a blue Muslim hair covering, sat down in a small recording booth and nodded to Najid Dijbari, an engineer sitting on the opposite side of the glass. He gave her a thumbs up, and she began reading news items about that day’s attacks in Iraq, the investigation into the London bombings, and Sudan’s apology to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for scuffling with members of her official delegation. When she finished the segment a few minutes later, Mr. Dijbari switched to a popular Lebanese pop song.

The station’s funding from the U.N. agency was seed money, so the grant can’t be renewed when it runs out next year. Almahaba employees say the station’s survival will depend on its ability to sell ads and find other funding from Iraqi, American or international organizations.

Employees are united on trying to help prevent Iraq’s increasingly theocratic government from imposing strict Islamic law on the country. On-air reporters and hosts encourage women to make their feelings known at public hearings. Almahaba recently launched a program that mixes the latest news about the Iraqi constitution with analysis of the women’s rights contained in other constitutions and legal systems around the world.

Even Ms. Jabouri, whose shows generally deal with relationships, plans to devote several upcoming episodes to the constitutional debate. “I don’t want to just tell my audience about the problems it could cause,” she says. “I want to help to find solutions.”

Source: Wall Street Journal, July 29, 2005

Small Doses of Rebellion

Too much seriousness has been going on in this blog lately, so to end the week, I would like to include a little ray of sunshine that will hopefully put a smile on your face and remind you of the crazy old La Justa that you all know and love.

When I first came to Spain and was looking for a job, I had all kinds of interviews, but the one that pissed me off the most was for a secretarial position for a car manufacturer in Spain. The company (or the employment agency they were using) received my resume and called me to set up an interview. They told me on the phone that there would be a brief English exam as it was necessary for the position to speak English fluently. No Problem!

But there was indeed a problem. When I arrived at the interview, I was put in a room full of desks and approximately nine women. Hmmmm...this was a fishy set up to say the least, but I said to myself, "Maybe this is just the waiting room." But of course, I was wrong (not that I ever really believed it was just a waiting room).

A few minutes after arriving, a woman came in and passed out pencils and test booklets. She explained that we would be tested in spelling, math, general intelligence and perspicacity and English. Those of us that scored higher on the test would then be invited to interview. I wanted punch the woman in the face! How flippin smart do you have to be to be a secretary? And how obnoxious of a company was this that they would insult us by giving testing us to make sure we didn´t have the IQ of a monkey? If I was a chimp, wouldn´t it become perfectly clear at some point in the interview?

But I was poor and desperate (still am), and I thought that walking out of the test to show my indignation was not the best way to get a job. So I took the damn test. It was actually sort of fun because we were timed, and when the woman would call stop, I´d quickly look around to see how far the others had gotten. They´d usually gotten further than me because I´m slow as a slug when it comes to taking tests. I tend to read into things way to deeply or get bored and stare off into space. While taking my SAT´s there were a number of times where I unconsciously stopped taking the test and began thinking about what I would be doing later that day. My brain doesn´t deal too well with boredom.

The last part of the exam was an essay we had to write in English. Now, I was already miffed at being treated like a moron that has to prove she´s literate, but the English exam took the cake.

The prompt: Write about your personal trayectory (120 words). Don´t forget to sing the paper when you have finished. (6 points)

Who the hell were these people? And where did they come off asking us to test in English when their English was embarassingly sub-par?

I quickly crossed out "trayectory" and wrote "trajectory" above it, then crossed out "sing" and wrote "sign" above it.

Then, I started my essay.

I´ve been assigned to write about my personal trajectory, that is to say, the experiences I´ve encountered and survived from the date of my birth to the present. This is no easy task, as the assignment is vague and my "trajectory" quite long, although I´ve only lived 24 years. So I suppose I´ll start at the beginning, as most stories do, and explain that I was born in Chicago, Illinois, which also happens to be where I was raised. I am what is now commonly referred to as "first generation American." Neither of my parents is from the U.S. My father is a refugee from Chile, and my mother is a beautiful, modern woman from Spain. I grew up speaking both languages, but only visiting Spain. I didn´t visit Chile until I was 24 years old, but that story comes later in my "trajectory." I loved Spain from the first time I set foot in it, and I visited every time that money would allow. But then I hit 18 and college was the new, necessary major expense. I left Chicago for Northampton, Massachusetts to attend Smith College, a women´s university with an excellent track record dating all the way back to 1876. Smith gave me a lot: a great appreciation of big cities, a forum to express my creativity, and it gave me Spain. My junior year of college, I came to Madrid to study at the Universidad Autonoma. After that year, I knew that there was nowhere I would rather be than here. So I went back to the States, finished my degree in English and Spanish Literature and worked for two years to save up money, and here I am today, writing about my personal trajectory. Maybe you wanted to know more about my professional trajectory, but honestly, that isn´t quite so interesting as what I´ve just told you. And now you know that I choose Spain over even the greatest super power in the world. Even though there are so few worthwhile jobs. Even though the pay is mediocre at best and ascending the professional ladder almost impossible. I still choose Spain. But I guess that´s just where my personality has led me. Now I can only hope that after all the tests to see if I can add and subtract, spell and speak English, I can manage to earn a living and keep adding to my "trayectoria personal."

Then I signed it and added: P.S. This may or may not be more than 120 words.

Proud as a peacock, I exited the testing room and asked the lady if she could photocopy my essay. She did so without asking for an explanation, but if she had asked, I was ready to say, "I´m going to have my English teacher critique it."

Photocopy in hand, I thanked the lady and left. Needless to say, they never called me for a formal interview. Although if they´d been smart they would have.

Blogging From the Frontlines

Blogging is the internet’s greatest gift to free speech. However, as is the case with all free speech, there’s always someone watching to make sure you don’t get out of line, especially now with the Patriot Act.

I’m lucky. I get to rant and rave and nobody has tried to shut me off yet, but that is not the case with Leonard Clark, a 40 year old Arizona National Guardsman in Iraq, who was demoted from Specialist to private first class and made to pay a fine of $1,640 for allegedly publishing "classified" military information on his blog.

Clark has been slapped with a gag order, and his blog has been erased for supposedly violating two articles from the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which prohibits the dissemination of information about troop movement and location, soldier attacks or military strategy. "The intent of the policy is not to violate soldiers' rights, but to safeguard soldiers," said Col. Bill Buckner, a spokesman for the Multi-National Corps-Iraq. But was Clark operating under the intention of harming the troops? One would think that the inclusion of such information was not done with malicious intent or probably even knowingly. Why not just have Clark remove the information in question? Why delete every single entry?

This all seems extremely fishy, especially in light of the fact that Clark is opposed to the war, and according to General Wes Clark’s progressive Organization WesPac, maintained a blog so that he could keep friends and family informed about the "reality on the ground there." Could it be that this anti-war progressive, who ran on the Democratic ballot for Arizona Governor, is being targeted solely for telling a truth the U.S. military doesn’t want American’s to know?

The military refuses to reveal what Clark wrote on his blog that has caused all of this commotion and claims that the investigation is ongoing.

To get a better feeling for Leonard Clark, you can read some of his letters by clicking on Mail From the Frontline.

Sources: "Army punishes soldier for blog posts," www.news.com"Arizona National Guardsman Leonard Clark Demoted and Fined for Posting Classified Content on His Blog," www.blogsofwar.com

Does Anyone Really Trust the EPA?

According to a press release from August 1, 2005, the organization Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) has finally gotten its hands on a 2003 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) internal survey.

Overall, the survey of EPA employees cites "lack of trust, communication and shared vision" within the agency. One scientist wrote, "Despite email and the like, there is no real communication in the organization and no consistent mechanism to share knowledge." While another said, "A complete lack of communication exists, leading to the strong distrust that is present today." This deficient internal cohesion could be why the EPA is so completely useless when it comes to protecting the environment!

The EPA's Research and Development Office, which consists of three laboratories, four national centers and two offices and employs about 2,000 scientists, puts out this survey every two years to gauge the agency’s "organizational climate."

It’s obvious that the agency wasn’t too happy with the results of the 2003 survey, as PEER had to sue the EPA under the Freedom of Information Act to obtain them. Although the survey, which had a 66% response rate, showed that overall morale remained positive, it also revealed that there are serious doubts as to the "competence" and "trustworthiness" of the agency’s leadership. In fact, employees find those higher up in the chain of command less trustworthy, with only 23% of scientists expressing trust in their laboratory managers.

About 30% of the survey’s respondents believed that their laboratory managers addressed "challenging situations competently," and only 56% were optimistic about the Office of Research and Development’s future. That means that nearly half of ORD's employees must see the futility of their research and their discoveries. Could this have anything to do with the current anti-environment stance within the Bush Administration? PEER believes there is a connection.

The organization’s Director Rebecca Roose noted that during Bush’s administrations, "the EPA has been plagued by reports of political suppression of scientific results on issues ranging from global warming to asbestos to mercury regulation." She also claimed that the EPA "has chosen to mask problems by initiating and aggressive PR campaign."

Other Departments within the agency even believe that the EPA is becoming more and more dysfunctional. The Agency’s Science Advisory Board claimed in an April 2005 draft report that the EPA is falling behind on important issues and "is no longer funding a credible public health research program."

With all the politicizing of science going on now-a-days, it’s not hard to understand why scientists feel like their research doesn’t matter. It’s hard to trust the boss when he or she can just ignore his staff’s findings because they don’t appeal congress or the president. With the blockage of stem cell research, doctored reports on global warming and America’s reluctance to look into alternate forms of energy, every kind of scientist, from physicist to botanist, is being marginalized because it doesn’t suit a political or big business agenda. This survey goes to show that the American Scientific community is feeling the repercussions of said politicization and that our health and our environment will be paying the price.

Holy Crap! This is A Great One!

By the ever brilliant Rob Rogers

Funky Numbers Challenge a Woman´s Right to Choose

July 5, 2005 marked the 20th anniversary of the legalization of abortion in Spain. To celebrate this huge step in women’s rights, the free Madrid daily newspaper Qué! published an article with the headline, "There is an abortion every 6.6 minutes in Spain," printed above the picture of a fetus in its mother’s womb.

The article goes on to say that one in every six pregnancies is "voluntarily interrupted" and that since the day abortion was legalized there have been 850,000 abortions. It also claims that in the last five years the number of women seeking abortions has doubled and that 14% of them are under the age of 19.

Of course, one has to ask where these numbers come from. I always question an article that lists lots of numbers and percentages but lists no source. Especially when the article ends in the statement: "These numbers have caused the Institute of Family Politics to request that the Ministry of Health create serious campaigns to increase issue sensitivity." Not surprisingly, many of Spain’s religious and “pro-family” web pages that broach the subject of abortion give the exact same statistics.

It’s obvious that the article is biased against abortion, so I automatically question everything in it, but even if the figures are correct, rather than spending money on creating "abortion sensitivity," we should be teaching kids (and apparently adults) to use a condom! Make "the pill" and morning after pill more readily available to young adults. And families need to catch up with the times. I can’t tell you how many young women won’t go on the pill because they are scared their parents will find out they are sexually active.

We should also wonder how many abortions were being performed daily in back alleys with unsterilized instruments when abortion wasn’t legal. Prophylactics had to be nearly impossible to find in über-Catholic Spain prior to 1975, during the 39 year reign of reactionary dictator Francisco Franco. How many of those women were under the age of 19? I don’t think anyone honestly believes teen and premarital sex have only become a problem in the last 20 years. Also, how many of the abortions carried out in the past 20 years were due to rape, incest or to save the mother’s life?

All of these facts and questions are important to keep in mind because numbers can be very persuasive and very deceptive.

Cartoons Taking Us Where the Cameras Won´t

These cartoons on Iraq are by an excellent political cartoonist that I just discovered: Ted Rall.
Give it to em straight, Teddy!

Divorce: Proving Feminine Strength

An Article in "The Independant," a British publication, reported in July 2005 that men suffer most during a divorce. The man is the more likely of the pair to become stressed and depressed, while the woman is generally ready to move on and start from scratch. Women, the "weaker sex," tend to feel happier and liberated after a divorce, with 53% of recently divorced women reporting that they felt relieved, refreshed and renewed. Maybe that´s because marriages are so rarely 50/50. Even though equality of the sexes is slowly but surely making its way into the personal sphere, women are still the primary caregivers to both husband and children. Cooking, cleaning and raising the kids is still very much a woman´s job, and let´s face it, one less person to cook and clean for and support emotionally is always a relief.

A man is also twice as likely to commit suicide after a divorce. Seven out of every ten men studied contemplated committing suicide.

Men, also have trouble letting go, with 25% of the men studied admitting that thier mood has not improved with the passage of time. However, 80% of women say that after a couple of years, they no longer feel betrayed.

After a divorce women turn to their friends and family for support, spending the majority of their time with them, while men rely on ex-girlfriends, casual sex and dating agencies to get them through the rough spot.

Men rely on women (particularly mothers and wives) for just about everything. They need women to care for them, support them emotionally, make them feel good about themselves. It makes you wonder why every damn society on the planet treats women as inferior when it´s quite obvious that men depend on us for their own well being. I suppose they assume that if they keep us feeling like we need them or like we owe them something, we´ll never leave, which is ultimately what they need and want. It´s easier to keep someone by making them think it´s in their best interest than by admitting your own weaknesses and having to give, not just take. I think Virginia Woolf said the same thing in A room of One´s Own only a little more eloquently.


Source: Qué!, Madrid, Spain, July 5, 2005

Take a Chill Pill

Ah, satire. It really is the highest form of comedy, especially when it´s about American Society. Check out this little number about our over-dependence on both prescription and over the counter drugs. Just click Lisence to Pill.

Skunk Update

At a roundtable interview with Texas newspapers on August 2nd, Bush announced his "complete confidence" in his unscrupulous top advisor, Karl Rove.

For those of you who don´t get around to reading my blog very often (shame), you should check out these entries:

Skunkus Maximus (June 27th)
Cunning Like a Skunk (July 26th)
The Plame Game (July 26th)

And for those of you who want the concise, less educational version, here it is: Karl Rove is an ultra-conservative, reactionary skunk. His favorite pastime is saying jaw-droppingly offensive things about liberals and democrats, and he´s as spiteful as can be. So spiteful that he decided get back at former diplomat Joseph Wilson (for suggesting that the Bush administration lied in intelligence reports that led to the invasion of Iraq) by outing his wife, Valerie Plame, as an undercover CIA operative. A move that was both dangerous for Valerie and the United States, as she was assigned to cases dealing with weapons of mass destruction.

Since the outing in 2003, Rove has admitted to speaking with Matthew Cooper of Time Magazine, claiming that he only mentioned that "Wilson´s wife" worked for the CIA, but hadn´t revealed her name. Maybe I´m being silly here, but wouldn´t a simple search on the internet or at DC´s city hall provide Wilson´s wife´s name within a matter of minutes? I got news for you, Skunk-o, just because you didn´t say her name doesn´t mean you didn´t reveal her identity. You louse!

And knowing all of this, Bush still has the audacity to tell reporters, "Karl´s got my complete confidence. He´s a valuable member of my team."

Rove is currently being investigated, along with other Bush administration and CIA officials, by special prosecuter Patrick Fitzgerald. Chances are that Rove´s loose lips spilled the beans to more than one reporter.

In June of 2004, Bush said he would fire anyone involved in the leak, but judging by his recent statements, it doesn´t look like he´ll be making good on that promise.

And now events such as Bush´s Supreme Court nomination and the London and Egypt bombings are starting to overshadow the Plame-Rove debacle. Many politicians, journalists and even marketing experts are starting to claim that Bush announced his nomination of John Roberts (Another reactionary louse) to the Supreme Court earlier than originally planned in order to draw media attention away from Rove.

I´m happy to say that the Bush administration´s attempts have been fruitless. The media is still chipping away at Rove´s credibility, and a Pew Research Center Study has shown that half of Americans are still closely following the Rove case and that half of them think Rove should be fired. I happen to agree. So on behalf of those 50% of Americans and on behalf of Lady Justice, I will continue to report on every little thing that comes out about this big, fat, foul mouthed skunk.


Sources: "Bush resolute on Rove despite alleged role in leak," Associated Press, August 2, 2005.
"The White House: The tactics and politics of deflecting media attention," PRWeek, August 1, 2005.

Modern Marketing for a Public that Thinks It´s Seen It All

Anybody ever heard of GoldenPalace.com? Apparently it´s an online casino that is litterally trying to make its "mark" on the American public. You see, in a shameless attempt to promote itself, the casino paid Utah native, Karolyne Smith, $15,000 to permanently tattoo their URL to her forehead.

Smith claims she did this outlandishly ridiculous thing to raise money to pay for her son´s private school (I say put the damn kid in public school, it can´t possibly be as bad as having a lunatic for a mother).

"I really want to do this. To everyone else, it seems like a stupid thing to do. To me, $10,000 is like $1 million. I only live once, and I'm doing it for my son ... It's a small sacrifice to build a better future for my son." Awe, there´s nothing quite like a mother´s love. (I actually think she´s doing it for drug money. How else can she justify this outright stupidity?)

"I think this kind of advertising will become increasingly popular as time goes on. It is a perfect way to get attention amid the clutter of advertising that people see every second of every day," says a GoldenPalace rep. "Conventional forms of marketing just don't cut it anymore. To get people's attention, you have to stand out from the crowd. In light of Karolyne's story and her intentions to improve her son's education, we have given her additional $5,000 on top of the $10,000 spent on the auction." Wow, an extra 5-thou, is their no end to this company´s giving?

I don´t think the GoldenPalace higher-ups actually thought that a walking bilboard out in Nowheresville, Utah was going to garner them much business or that the general public is so jaded that they simply won´t respond to some creative commercials or print ads. The simple truth is that they´ve found a cheap way to get a lot of media attention. What magazine or newspaper wouldn´t write about this mentally challanged pawn and mention GoldenPalace.com multiple times in the process. Look at me! I´m doing it right now! I´m part of their agenda!

And don´t think this is the first kooky thing Golden Palace has done to attract the media´s attention. It´s also paid a woman $15,199 to legally change her name to GoldenPalace.com. The company also purchased a ten-year old grilled cheese sandwich that supposedly has a picture of the Virgin Mary imprinted on it for $28,000, with chief exec Richard Rowe adding, "We will definitely use the sandwich to raise money for charity, and we hope it will raise people's spirits as well." And I repeat, is there no end to this to this company´s giving?

Yes, there probably is, but there is definitely no end in sight to the sleezy ideas they´ll come up with to push their company and earn a few more dollars. Their marketing team need look no further than 24 year old Andrew Beutin, who is selling his corpse on eBay as a prime advertising space for $10,000.

His ad reads:

You are bidding for the sole right to advertise on my corpse....as soon as my corpse is discovered and otherwise legally available to you. As the winning bidder you will have the right to advertise on my corpse, definitely during the funeral. You are welcome to photograph the ad after it is finished as well as attend the funeral.

I probably won't die soon but... my risky behaviors include, snowboarding(still highly unskilled), motor scootering (several wipe outs resulting in nasty road rash), bicycling (rode into a telephone pole once on step moms bike 11yrs ago, please dont tell her), running (been hit twice already different drivers), avid climber of things (fell backwards out of barn, stranded on Pike's Peak) and I have aspirations of base jumping, bunjee jumping, running with the bulls in Spain and mixing coke with pop rocks....

Be sure to have an alibi when you see my notice in the paper. No need to e-mail me with your design and placement ideas, I am not going to be able to gripe about it anyway. Just keep the ad as tasteful as would be expected for an add on a corpse. Currently I'm a 5'7'' white male with normal appendages, digits, a head and my grandma tells me I'm handsome. I'm not posting a personal photo because I don't want to ruin the surprise/repercussions of my identity before I'm sure this ingenious bit of marketing will work but, my photo is available upon request.

Good job, Andrew. Although you didn´t receive a single bid, I am 100% sure that your morbid idea has already captured the sickly interest of GoldenPalace.com and purveyors of tabloid smut everywhere (myself included).


Sources: "eBayer auctions ad space on corpse," The Register, August 5, 2005
"Online casino tattoos woman's face," The Register, July 1, 2005
"eCasino snaps up Virgin Mary cheese sarnie," The Register, November 23, 2004
"Woman rebrands as GoldenPalace.com," The Register, March 31, 2005

Lifestyles of the Rich and Pathetic

Hunting is retarded, unless you need to eat, and if you hunt because you derive pleasure from killing an animal and putting its stuffed head on your wall, you very well may be retarded. But you are flat out too pathetic for words if you have to pay thousands of dollars so that you can shoot a caged animal. That´s right, it´s just like shooting fish in a bucket, but in this case the fish are exotic and large mamals and the bucket is a pen out in suburbia. Jeeze, you think with all the money these people have they could buy themselves a life.
Now, please click here to watch this educational video.

Bad News for the Candy Man

MasterFoods, the manufacturer of Mars and Snickers chocolate bars had to pull tens of thousands of chocolate bars in July from over 40,000 outlets around Australia after receiving three threatening letters since May claiming that seven contaminated Mars and Snickers bars had been placed in shops around Sydney.

"No one should eat a Mars bar or a Snickers bar they have bought," said Andy Weston-Webb, the president of MasterFoods Australia and New Zealand. "Please destroy it … It's not safe to eat Mars or Snickers bars." Uff! That´s not something I´m sure the MasterFoods Marketing Department had a hard time listening to.

An earlier letter, sent to the Ballarat office in June, included a contaminated Snickers bar. Tests concluded that is was laced with a pesticide-like substance that could be harmful to children.

Police called the whole ordeal an extortion attempt, but Detective Superintendent Cotter would not say what demands, if any, had been made. The letters did not contain demands for money, but the sender made a series of complaints to a "third party".

"The demands are rambling and extremely hard to follow," he said. The letters contained "veiled threats and demands. It's extremely unclear as to what the perpetrator wants to achieve."

Less than a week after the recall, more than three million chocolate bars were crushed and then deep buried at Lucas Heights a suburb of Sydney.

"We've discussed this destruction process with the NSW Health Authority, they believe deep burial represents the most secure, most environmentally sound and most efficient way of disposing of this quantity of product," said MasterFoods regional president Andy Weston-Webb.

"Nobody has been hospitalised, several people have visited hospital but none have been admitted and the symptoms have been as broad as people having a headache, flu like symptoms, several people have been nauseous," he said.

"In every case we've taken it seriously but there is no established pattern and I'm happy to say that no one has reported to have eaten a Mars or Snickers bar since Tuesday." Can you hear the Marketing Departments death rattle?

It's not yet known when the chocolate bars will be returned to store shelves, with MasterFoods saying it will consult the NSW Police and health authorities before making a decision.

Sources: smh.com.au, July 2, 2005
IndustrySearch.com, July 7, 2005

Making Sexual History Japanese Style

Back in July, Japan made history with the first arrest relating to the importation of foreign girls and women for sexual exploitation. A 24 year old woman and a 65 year old man were arrested for pimping out a 13 year old Thai girl. The girl was sold to the two goons for $20,000 in a restaurant in a seedy Tokio neighborhood. Much like an indentured servant, her purchase incurred the girl a "debt" of $44,000 that she had to pay off by having sexual relations with over 200 men.

This arrest shows that Japan is determined to enforce sexual exploitation laws and crack down on the criminals breaking them. And it´s about time, cosidering that 150,000 women are exploited sexually each year in Japan, a black market valued at $20.350 million. The majority of women that are prostituted are Thai, Filipino and Columbian.

Source: Qué!, Madrid, Spain, July 5, 2005

You Ain´t Gonna Get Squat

Ok, a lot of the recent entries have been about some pretty negative things, and this entry is really no exception. I´d like you to see a short film about one more of the Bush Administration´s wonderful ideas. The topic is a surprise, and while depressing, it´ll make you laugh out loud. Make sure you´ve got your volume cranked up and click on Look At Granny Go to watch.

Graham´s Gone Crackers

Please allow me to introduce the ugly little fellow to my left. His name is Michael Graham and he is the host of of a conservative talk show on Maryland Radio Station 630 WMAL. Now, I want you all to know that I am not calling Michael "ugly" because of his receding hairline, lame comb-over or silly, good ole boy grin. No, no, I think Michael´s soul is ugly. He´s a wanna be Rush Limbaugh that makes racist comments on his show and lists the quote "Every Day We’re On The Air, We’re Keeping Reagan’s Vision Alive" on his page of the radio radio web site.

Graham´s hate speech has managed to turn the national spotlight on him, which I´m sure he´s basking in. Well, live it up, Michael, these are your 15 minutes of fame. For the rest of you, check out the following article. You´ll find my commentary at the end.

Muslims Call Comments by WMAL Host 'Hate-Filled'
by Paul Farhi

A local radio talk show host touched off complaints from an Islamic civil rights organization yesterday after repeatedly describing Islam on the air as "a terrorist organization" that is "at war with America."

The organization, the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), asked the station to take disciplinary action against Michael Graham, who hosts WMAL-AM's late-morning call-in program.

A station executive, Randall Bloomquist, said yesterday that Graham's comments were "amped up" but justified within the context of the program. He said the station, which is owned by the Walt Disney Co., had no plans to reprimand Graham.

The show host touched off the flap during a discussion of the Muslim community's response to recent acts of terrorism. Graham suggested the fault lies with Muslims generally because religious leaders and followers haven't done enough to condemn and root out extreme elements. "The problem is not extremism," Graham said. "The problem is Islam." He also said, "We are at war with a terrorist organization named Islam."

CAIR denounced the comments yesterday as "hate-filled" and "Islamophobic" and asked its members to contact the station's advertisers to express their dismay.

"It's amazing," said Ibrahim Hooper, CAIR's communications director. "I talked with Mr. Bloomquist and asked him if he would reprimand someone who used the n-word on the air. He said yes. I asked him if he would reprimand someone who read [approvingly] from the [anti-Semitic] 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion.' He said yes. So I asked him if he would do the same if someone had called Islam a terroristic organization. Well, he said, it's all about context, but he never quite explained it to me."

Added Hooper, "The First Amendment allows people to be idiots and bigots. All you can do is embarrass people and have them defend their reputation. If WMAL doesn't feel embarrassed and doesn't want to defend its reputation in the face of anti-Muslim bigotry, then there's not much we can do about it."

Graham, who broadcasts locally, is one of several conservative hosts heard on WMAL (630). The station's daily lineup includes the syndicated Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity programs.
After rising slightly during the months preceding the presidential election last year, WMAL's audience ratings have fallen precipitously. Exact ratings for Graham's 9-11:45 a.m. time slot are unavailable, but WMAL's morning programming, which includes part of Graham's program, are off 25 percent since last year. The station overall has lost 41 percent of its core 25-to-54-year-old audience in the past 12 months, dropping from 158,200 individual listeners per week to 116,600.

Graham declined to comment when contacted yesterday, saying, "I'm saving all my comments for my show. You'll just have to listen." But in his weekly column, which will appear on WMAL's Web site today, he repeats the statement that "Islam is a terror organization" and makes the following analogy:

"If the Boy Scouts of America had 1,000 Scout troops, and 10 of them practiced suicide bombings, then the BSA would be considered a terrorist organization. If the BSA refused to kick out those 10 troops, that would make the case even stronger. If people defending terror repeatedly turned to the Boy Scout handbook and found language that justified and defended murder --and the scoutmasters responded by saying 'Could be' -- the Boy Scouts would have been driven out of America long ago.

"Today, Islam has whole sects and huge mosques that preach terror. Its theology is openly used to give the murderers their motives. Millions of its members give these killers comfort. The question isn't how dare I call Islam a terrorist organization, but rather why more people do not."
Bloomquist said his station had received more than 100 e-mails protesting Graham's comments, many of them, he said, apparently generated by CAIR's e-mails to its members. He went on to defend Graham, saying, "Remember that this is talk radio. We don't do the dainty minuet of the newspaper editorial page. It's not 'Washington Week in Review.' It depends on pungent statements to drive it. Michael is rattling the cage. It's designed to start and further a conversation, and it has certainly done that."

Graham made waves earlier this year when he scuffled with Montgomery County police after he tried to attend an event for illegal immigrants while wearing a T-shirt that read "INS (I Need Border Security)." He also recently led a rally in front of The Washington Post's building in the District seeking the dismissal of Newsweek reporter Michael Isikoff, who wrote a story that inaccurately reported on alleged abuses of the Koran in the military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba (Newsweek is owned by The Washington Post Co).

Graham has also clashed with CAIR in the past. The group last year cited him in a campaign called "Hate Hurts America" for what CAIR described as implicitly advocating violence against Muslims.

Source: Washington Post, July 26, 2005

My favorite part of the story is where Graham justifies his unjustifiable statements with the Boy Scout comparison. It´s the perfect example of ultra-conservative spin. Bigots like Graham and Hannity and Limbaugh try to push their opinions and vision of the world by simplifying everything and flat out lying whenever possible. To learn more about these tactics, read Al Franken´s super excellent book Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right.

First, Grahams comparison of Islam to the Boy Scouts is in itself demeaning. An increadibly diverse variety of people stretched across the planet should never be compared to small children learning the appropriate way to pitch a tent and sew a badge, and second, if the whole issue of terrorism was as simple as Graham makes it in his comparison, we would have flushed out all of the terrorists by now.

It´s not like governments or organizations or mosques or each and every Muslim individual know who the terrorists are. Part of being a terrorist is a secretive attitude. In most cases, such as with the suicide bombers in London, not even their families knew the plot they were hatching. So I ask you, Michael, how are the troop leaders gonna kick out the rotten scouts, when they don´t know which ones have gone sour?

I haven´t read the Koran, haven´t read the bible either, but I´ve read excerpts and know enough about both holy books to know that neither one of them defends terror or murder. However, they both have a fair amount about infidels and cleansing the Earth of such unscrupulous and unsavory characters.

And what mosques have you been to recently, Michael, where you´ve heard "terror" being preached? I seriously doubt Michael has ever even set foot in a mosque, so then he must have read or heard about this terror preaching from a credible source. Or, maybe he just made it up. After all, I read the news daily, and I have yet to hear of anyone finding a particular mosque dedicated to churning out terrorists.

Let´s face it, Michael, you´re wrong. There are about 1.200 billion Muslims in the world, and they can´t all be terrorists, and if they are, well, I think you´d better watch out.

Ironic Lemons

Bush is like a kid in a toy store. He still hasn´t given up on his "Star Wars" missile system, a project that was started ages ago and would cost tax payers billions. The Pentagon has already used tax-payer dollars to buy 30 "interceptor" missiles that don't work, dollars that would have been better spent on education or saving welfare and social security.

But doesn´t the Pentagon´s persistence beat all?! They want to invest in more of these lemons. I know where they´re coming from: quantity breeds quality. If we buy enough of em, one of ems gotta work!

However, Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) introduced an amendment to cut the money for the extra missiles and spend it instead on nuclear nonproliferation programs. Now that is bold! We have enough bombs to bomb the whole world over four times. Why not spend the money we´ve set aside to work on our "five times over" goal to the prevention of a nucleat holocaust. Well, the irony is still sinking in, but I guess irony is better than wasted American tax dollars.

And the icing on the cake is that these programs have been proven to work, actually keeping nuclear weapons out of the "bad guys´" hands! Maybe some day they´ll prove useful in keeping American proliferation of nuclear weapons at bay.

To let your senators know that you´d rather see positive programs than military duds, you can send them a message by clicking I prefer milk duds!

How sick is this?

On June 20, 2005, Jalil Ahmed, 45, tied his wife and daughter to a wooden bed, doused them with kerosene and burned the women alive, after his brother told him that his daughter had been having sex with a neighbor in a nearby town.

Ahmed killed his daughter to cleanse his honor and murdered his wife because she had supposedly not done enough to discourage the daughter´s behavior.

In July, two young men were arrested in Cairo for burning their 18 year old sister alive and watching the fire until she had been reduced to ashes. The girl had become pregnant out of wedlock (making this another double homicide) and they wanted to cleanse the family´s honor. And to top it all off, their father held off anyone that tried to come to the girl´s aid.

First, I would like to say that their is no honor in murder, especially if you are killing a family member. It is a cowardly and inhuman act. Even animals don´t kill their young. So in my book these men are less than animals, not worthy of ever being allowed to set foot in the civilized world again. Unfortunately, honor killings are rarely taken seriously, with the perpetrators often facing little to no punishment.

There have been over 4,000 honor killings in the past four years, and the victims are primarily women and girls. All you have to do is type "honor killings" into any web search engine and you will find hundreds of stomach turning stories that are all too similar to ones above.

Sources: Qué!, Madrid, Spain, July 5, 2005
All Headline News, June 20, 2005

Keep Your Laws Off of My Sexuality

Did you know that homosexuality is illegal in 60 countries?! Hmmm...I wonder if being born a female or a flipper baby is illegal anywere? Because, you see, to me it´s all the same. I think you´re born straight or you´re born gay, so penalizing a person for their sexual orientation is that same as penalizing them for their color or sex.

And as though making people have to bottle up their sexuality or live it in secret isn´t bad enough, homosexuality is punishable by death in Afganistan (I´m sure Bush doesn´t object to this law in this newly "free" land), Iran, Mauretania, Nigeria, Pakistan (our friends!), Saudi Arabia (our rich friends!) and Yemen. What these eight countries have in common is that they are ruled by sharia, the radical interpretation of islamic law. And I´m sure if the religious right had it´s way in the States, the US would be number 9 on this hateful list.

And let´s keep in mind that just because homosexuality is legal in the majority of the world´s countries doesn´t mean homosexuals are safe throughout the majority of the world. Amnesty International reported that gay rights are violated in at least 80 countries worldwide, most of which are found in Asia and Africa. Homosexuality is also illegal in Jamaica and Nicaragua, and in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Guyana, India, the Maldives, Uganda, Nepal and Singapore, the penalty for being caught is life in prison.

But ignorance is not exclusive to the "East" or the Third World. Just look at Bush and his right wing zealots. Let´s change the constitution so that we can take away rights instead of give them. Yeah, that sounds like plan! Or look at Joe Comuzzi, Canada´s ex-Secretary of State, who resigned back in June to protest the legalization of gay marriage in the country. No, no, the west has got a pretty good handle on hatred and injustice too.

Source: 20 Minutos, Madrid, Spain, June 29, 2005

If Only Bush Would Get Eaten By a Bear

Those of you familiar with George Bush´s environmental policy, the screw Kyoto and who gives a crap about the environment policy, probably know that he has been dying since the beginning of his presidency to allow oil drilling in northeastern Alaska´s National Arctic Refuge. Um, hello, dingbat, it´s called a "refuge" for a reason, so that you can´t let your Black Gold-Texas Tea cronies get their greasy little paws on it (no matter how many millions they donated to your re-"election" campaign).

Just last Tursday (07/28/05), the House of Representatives passed a new energy bill that just happened to sidestep the whole refuge issue, but House Republicans promised to persue it later on (greedy bastards).

In September, Congress is set to vote on the budget reconciliation bill, the piece of legislation that´ll decide the fate of this amazing land. So of course that means that it is time for any friend of the environment to send their representative and senators a little note demanding that they oppose any version of that bill that would open the Refuge to oil drilling and destruction.

The National Resources Defense Council has now launched an email picture-postcard campaign, where you choose the photograph of the refuge that you like the best to send to your respective politicians. It´s like a gentle way of saying, "See what you´re gonna f-up if you stick oil rigs in the background?" NRDC has four gorgeous photographs to choose from, the cutest being the big cuddlies that you see above. To pick a postcard just click Too Pretty To Make Ugly!