You Don't Say

From ABCNews.com: Washington, April 25 ó To build its case for war with Iraq, the Bush administration argued that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, but some officials now privately acknowledge the White House had another reason for war ó a global show of American power and democracy. [read more...]

I like this part:
Officials inside government and advisers outside told ABCNEWS the administration emphasized the danger of Saddam's weapons to gain the legal justification for war from the United Nations and to stress the danger at home to Americans.

"We were not lying," said one official. "But it was just a matter of emphasis."

I suppose that's so. Emphasize the misleading information; de-emphasize the truth.

So here's a report from ABCNews that essentially says the Bush administration misled the American people and the rest of the world with respect to the real reasons for launching a war in Iraq. That they actually hadógasp!óanother agenda.

Fallout=0.

Ah yes, the power of the liberal media.

The Problem As I See It

Honestly, I think it's time we all began to raise our hands in the air, and wave íem like we really do care! Who's with me?

While you're making up your minds, here's some more of WFMU's Sites For Sore Eyes.

I'm Baaaack!

Woo! My proofreader's eye managed to pick out the anomalous piece of code in my template that was screwing everything up. You'll have to pardon my self-back-patting, but I was beginning to think I had scotched the whole thing.

For those of you who haven't been by for a few days...nevermind.

Cool test pattern though, eh? I found a bunch of them through Google. There must be a program that can take several images and make a screensaver, right? Anyone know?

Something Funny Happened...

...on the way to my blog forum. I think I may have screwed up my template code when I was updating it over the weekend. Hopefully I can figure out what went wrong. Probably just an errant keystroke.

Wilco Complies

God bless Wilco!

Just when I had resigned myself to the fact that I'd have to hunt down a rare (and expensive) import of Wilco's Australian tour edition of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, so I could get my hands on the bonus 6-song EP the band had promised some time ago to release "early in 2003", they've gone and decided to give the EP away as a free download! Cover art and all!
(I know... that was a very long-winded and at times awkward sentence... but the pay-off was worth it, wasn't it?)

It's apparently to celebrate the one-year anniversary of YHF's official release. They say it's a way of saying thanks for supporting the band over the past year.

They're also streaming the six songs through the site, so you can listen first. You may need Quicktime 6, which you can download here.

It was also just announced that they'll be playing here on June 20. That's the good news. The bad news is they're playing Kool Haus, which is as bad a venue for live music as the name is pretentious. Use to be more aptly named The Warehouse. Oh well, I haven't missed a Wilco show yet, so I guess I'll be at this one.

Yes...will comply.

Links du jour

Just some stuff from today's trolling on the íNet.

ï Why Am I Getting All This Spam? Unsolicited Commercial E-mail Research Six Month Report

ï Man Bites Dog!

ï Bye Bye Felice Bryant

Dirty (em)Bedding?

I read this article in the New York Times yesterday, and it sure raised a few questions in my mind about military censorship of the press. Why does this writer need to submit a story to the military now, when hostilities in Iraq have pretty much ceased? Will the military censor the media in the new, "free" Iraq?

Nice to see Slate is, as always, keeping a critical eye on things, and Jack Shafer is on the case.

You da Boss!

On his web site, Bruce Springsteen has posted a statement about the Dixie Chicks. Right on Bruce!

On a related note, in case you haven't seen this: the "real" apology from Natalie Maines.

Brothers In Funk

I went to see The Funk Brothers at Massey Hall Tuesday night. If you've seen the film "Standing In The Shadows Of Motown", then you know who The Funk Brothers are.

They were essentially the house band for Motown Records' Detroit era from the early í60s to the í70s, before Motown moved to LA. They supplied the music on just about every Motown hit you could name. Think of hits by The Temptations, The Supremes, The Four Tops, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Martha Reeves, Smokey Robinson... They played on more #1 hits than the Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones, Elvis and The Beatles combined.

And they were great! It was like an old-time Motown review. The six surviving membersótambourine genius and vibe-player Jack Ashford, keyboardist Joe Hunter, bassist Bob Babbitt, guitarists Joe Messina and Eddie Willis and drummer Uriel Jonesówore red blazers, and were augmented by other players, including a 4-piece horn section and three back-up singers, most of whose pedigrees were from the Philly Soul stable, MFSB, etc. Like the movie (and if you haven't seen the movie, go see it) they had guest singers along, including Joan Osborne, Maxi Priest, Darlene Love and various solo turns by each of the back-up singers. Unfortunately, Bootsy Collins had apparently fallen ill, so he had to cancel. Too bad.

But with a set list that included such songs as "Uptight (Everything's Alright)", "Ain't Too Proud To Beg", "How Sweet It Is", "My Girl", "Stop In The Name Of Love" (both these last 2 songs featured members of the audience on stage), "What's Going On?", and many other hits, it was hard to complain. And let me tell you, these guys might be oldósome of them could barely walkóbut they can still play! They got the funk out all right!

But for my money, Joan Osborne gets highest marks, especially for her rendition of "What Becomes Of The Brokenhearted". That song obviously means a great deal to her, ícos she sang the shit out of it. Talk about heart and soul. It was one of those transcendent moments in live music that just carries you along with itóup and up and up, and on to some place else entirely. It was magnificent.

The only moment to beat that was when they played "Heard It Through The Grapevine", which Osborne also sang. When they started with that ominous keyboard intro, that tribal beat, then the drums come tumbling in, the guitar slices on the 2 and the 4... it put a chill up my spine. It was quite surreal actually. I thought to myself, this isn't some band playing "Heard It Through The Grapevine"; it is the band that recorded that track. They created this song. They made it sound the way it sounds. And they're doing it again, right in front of me. I would pay the full ticket price again, if only just to go back in time to hear them play that song again. It was amazing.

If you get a chance to catch these guys on tour, do it. They're just getting the acclaim they deserve now, after 30 or 40 years. They are pop music history, and they won't be around much longer. And they are a great funking band.

SARS-casm

So here's my question about SARS: It's Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, right? So why "severe" and "acute"? Isn't that pretty much the same thing?

My theory is that it was originally called Acute Respiratory Syndrome, and all the medical researchers had a little giggle when they referred to it amomgst themselves as ARS*.

Medical Researcher Guy #1: "Hey, that guy's got ARS."

Medical Researcher Guy #2: "Uh-huh-huh. Yeah. Hey, so have you. You've got ARS."

Medical Researcher Guy #1: "Uh-huh-huh. Uh-huh-huh. Yeah. Everybody's got ARS."

Medical Researcher Guy #2: "Uh-huh-huh. Uh-huh-huh. Yeah."

But then when it got popular, they had to add the "severe" bit.

Ya think?


* with sincerest apologies to the Atlanta Rhythm Section, makers of such mid-í70s glossy and melodic southern rock hits as "So Into You".

Of Cards And Chaos

So by now we've all seen the news of looting and chaos in Baghdad and Basra. And the coalition forcesí unwillingness to stop it. But hey, don't blame them. They're trying to police the globe; you can't expect them to police a whole city!

And by now you've also seen the news about the "Most Wanted" playing cards that are being handed out so soldiers can identify the 50 or so top members of the (former) Iraqi regime who are soughtódead or alive.

That's a nice touch, isn't it?

Apparently the trading of these cards is hot and heavy among US soldiers. Particularly desirable is the Osama bin Laden rookie terrorist card, and the weapons of mass distrustion cardóboth very hard to find anywhere in Iraq.

Younger Than...

For some people, it's springtime all the time.

(courtesy of inconduit.comóa very cool photoblog.)

Happy Birthday to...

Jimbuck2!

I can't believe I completely forgot the first anniversary of my virgin blog entry. (Easter came a lot earlier last year.)

So have a slice of cake on me.

Or maybe some, um, "pudding"? (courtesy of Heather M.)

It's Not Dark Yet...

I'm beginning to get the feeling we've regressed into the Dark Ages. War in Babylon, contagious diseases, quarantines, sea monsters...

Sea monsters?

"There be sea monsters here!"

Sites For Sore Eyes

Yes, it's more of WFMU's Sites For Sore Eyes.

Please do yourself a favour and check out garyspivey.com. Like most psychics, he leaves you with many questions. Like, "Is this guy for real?" and "Is that really his hair?" and "I wonder if the lady in my life would like The Gary Spivey Classic Thong?"

And if you had any doubt about Gary's credibilty, the photos section will set you straight once you see the quality of people he attracts.

...But Who's Counting?

Iraqometer.

Pinhead Accuracy

Yes, if there's one bright spot in the Iraq War, it's that the superiority of US weapons technology will mean that only strategic military targets will be hit, sparing civilians. Cruise missles never go astray.

CAMP AS SAYLIYAH, QATAR - U.S. officials have halted Tomahawk cruise missile launches over Saudi Arabia after some of the weapons landed in parts of the kingdom's desert, U.S. Central Command said Saturday.

War On War

Are we powerless to fight back? Maybe not.

Consumers battle war through boycotts.

Boycott Brand America!

Hit íem where it hurts!

Support The Truth!

Experts Texperts

It seems not all of the analysts agree.

Analyst says US defeat inevitable

Down On War

I know I'm not alone in this, but this Iraq war is really getting to me. It's depressing. The lies. The deceit. Bush's smugness. Rumsfeld's arrogance. The poisonous lip service being paid to ideals and values that we all hold dear. And the people who are trying to speak up as the real defenders of those values, being demeaned and maligned.

Like everybody, I was unspeakably sad on and after 9/11. But I never felt scared or threatened. Sure, I wondered if something similar could happen here, to the CN Tower, the subway, the office buildings downtown. But the fear never crept into my gut.

Now, I'm afraid. Not so much for myself, but for the thousands of people around the world, especially in the Middle East, who are going to die and suffer as this insanity crawls forward. It's a black cloud over humanity. And it seems it's just begun...

Considering the stuff I posted a few days ago, it would appear that it's Washington's policy to keep this war going, i.e., it's not going to stop with Iraq. Of course, after 9/11, Bush has spelled out who the members of the "Axis Of Evil" are: Iraq, Iran, Syria, Libya, North Korea, etc.

Assuming the "coalition" is victorious in Iraq (and they seem to be having a harder time than they anticipated, even before getting into the urban warfare in Baghdad), that's only the first step.

Of everything I've read so far, this article from Washington Monthly Online puts it all together quite nicely. This excerpt nicely sums up the central point:

"Today, however, the great majority of the American people have no concept of what kind of conflict the president is leading them into. The White House has presented this as a war to depose Saddam Hussein in order to keep him from acquiring weapons of mass destruction--a goal that the majority of Americans support. But the White House really has in mind an enterprise of a scale, cost, and scope that would be almost impossible to sell to the American public. The White House knows that. So it hasn't even tried. Instead, it's focused on getting us into Iraq with the hope of setting off a sequence of events that will draw us inexorably towards the agenda they have in mind."

So, naturally, the question now is: who's next?

And wouldn't you know it, there's Donald Rumsfeld today, rattling his sabre at Syria and Iran.

Unbelievable.

It's nice to see articles are being written about it, though. Not sure how much good they're doing, however. One can only hope that eventually the mainstream media and enough of the American public will start to question the sanity of this policy and these actions, and bring it further into the light of day. And even if rhetoric and reason and sanity and body counts don't carry the day, there's always the possibility that the American public will start pulling on the reins once they realize the economic impact it'll have on them. The rich have already had their $700 million tax cuts slashed in half.

And amidst all this, isn't it kind of ironic that the Lord Of The Rings trilogy should be the dominant film event of these times.

"One ring to bind them..." !!

Here's hoping the little people will once again rise to the occasion.