...not as "daily" as the name suggests...
|
|
| The Daily Oh Really ...not as "daily" as the name suggests... |
|
|
Saturday, March 29, 2003 US Navy dolphin goes AWOL Takoma, one of the US Navy's much publicised mine-hunting dolphins, has caused great embarrassment by going AWOL just two hours after the handler said this: “Why would they go missing when they have the best food and daily spruce-ups and health checks?” It's now been over 48 hours since Takoma deserted. Strangely, this story isn't being widely reported in the mainstream media, but here it is on the UK's Times (link via fark). posted by Jojo | 4:36 PM Friday, March 28, 2003 US slams "biased" coverage by the Arabic language media Now that I've finally stopped laughing... This reported on news.com.au: the US is complaining about the anti-war "bias" of the Arabic language media. Senior officials of the US State Department complained that many Arab media outlets were distorting the facts and perhaps deliberately misinforming their audiences. Biased war reporting? When does that ever happen? posted by Jojo | 1:02 PM More civil liberty news from the USA Found on cursor, this story from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer: A prosecutor was suspended (put on paid leave) because she was seen pointing out two undercover police officers at an anti-war demonstration. Purportedly, she is being punished for "putting the officers in danger" rather than for, say, exercising her free speech rights to protest against the war, or anything undemocratic like that. And here at SMH Online, a summary of similar stories like an old woman walking along with a peace banner being arrested by a local sheirff because she didn't have a permit to march. posted by Jojo | 12:52 PM So, this isn't still about the democracy is it? OR "F__ Saddam. We're taking him out" says George W, this time LAST YEAR This story can be found on CNN, and comes via Wil Wheaton Dot Net: I'm speechless, Rumsfield unfortunately is not The SMH Online reports that the Pentagon is rejecting responsibility for the mounting civilian toll in Iraq, and adopting the political strategy of blaming all such casualties on Saddam Hussein: "Any casualty that occurs, any death that occurs, is a direct result of Saddam Hussein's policies," a spokeswoman for the United States Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, told journalists. posted by Jojo | 7:22 AM Thursday, March 27, 2003 Books against bombs 33 people were arrested at yesterday's student strike and pro-peace marches, some as young as 10. Authorities are condemning the violence that broke out, very stridently. At last, here's their excuse to tell us why protest is bad! Speaking of violence, some 300 children and adult protesters were trapped inside a police cordon, at Sydney's protest, for 2 hours. They were not released until different protesters, outside the cordon, dispersed. Normally that's called "false imprisonment" and not only is it a criminal offence but it's also one of the torts related to assault. Made me smile: kids throwing eggs. The egging tradition continues! I wonder if eggs will be considered missiles from now on. Could we now get arrested for walking along holding eggs at a protest march? I hope I remember to test this on Palm Sunday. Made me not smile: the other violence. Also, conservative commentators such as Alan Jones, making much of the fact that some of the children involved in violence were of "middle-eastern appearance". At the moment I'm responding to the racism of Alan Jones and his cronies, with hatred and anger of my own. This is bad for me and helps no one. When I calm down I'll try to say something constructive. But right now I'm outraged. How can you tell from a person's "appearance", what their family background, their ethnic background, really is? Do they have relatives in Iraq who are out of contact and in danger? Does the fact that they MIGHT come from the middle-east, make their trouble-making behaviour, any different from any other kid's? And most importantly: does anyone really think it's in Australia's best interests to provoke more race-based controversy right now? Or ever? What are you trying to do, Alan Jones? Oh by the way, Alan Jones: I belong to the same minority you do and once again I'm disgusted by your persecution of other minorities. Have some empathy. You make me ashamed to belong to this particular minority we both belong to. posted by Jojo | 12:50 PM So, is this about the oil yet? The US army has given a massive contract to Halliburton's (well their subsidiary KBR), the oil company once run by US Vice President Dick Cheney (and still paying him $1 million a year in "deferred compensation") - without a tendering process - in fact without any competitive or public process at all. This quote from a senior democrats senator, reported in SMH Online: The contract - to extinguish oilwell fires in Iraq - has no set time limit and no dollar limit and is apparently structured in such a way as to encourage the contractor to increase its costs and, consequently, the costs to the taxpayer. posted by Jojo | 12:37 PM Wednesday, March 26, 2003 Today's sci fi nightmare worsens The Moroccan government has been accused of offering 2000 trained monkeys to the US government, for help in detonating land mines. Full story here. (this link via a small victory) Shocker Company selling "Shock and Awe" t-shirts ("Operation Shock and Awe Baghdad Tour tee shirt"). posted by Jojo | 12:41 PM My worst sci fi nightmare comes true Reported on the SMH Online today: The US Navy is about to put Atlantic bottle-nosed dolphins into active war service. (...)soldiers made last-minute preparations today for the imminent arrival from Florida of a team of specially trained dolphins to help divers ensure the coastline is free of danger before humanitarian aid shipments can dock. (...)three or four dolphins would work from Umm Qasr, using their natural sonar abilities to seek out mines or other explosive devices which Iraqi forces may have planted on the seabed. NNNNOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! But hey: They will be given restaurant quality food and vitamins. posted by Jojo | 7:52 AM Recursive It's not possible to summarise even a fraction of the media's commentary, on the media's own bias and propaganda, which is, of course and as always, an inevitable factor of the war. But the same three threads seem to run through just about everything: (1) Cable TV news is so biased towards the US government's interests that even other media outlets are calling shenanigans. Especially Fox which is almost purely running the government line, without any critical distancing at all. Other Murdoch-owned media, including print, aren't much better than Fox: here's a story on SMH Online. (2) "Embedded" journalists are a novelty; but the news coming from them is still treated as suspect because of the likelihood of bias and censorship (if you're bunkered down with an army unit and sharing the dangers, hopes and fears of the soldiers, any objectivity must surely disappear pretty quickly, it's just human nature): here's Robert Fisk's story in the UK Independent. (3) The internet and especially bloggers are being given credit for a reasonably good job of gathering and disseminating information and analysis - although the point has been made (by a blogger) that they're really only watching lots of TV and surfing other websites for their info so it's second hand at best: Tom Tomorrow ("the relationship of blogger to mainstream media is roughly that of woodtick to deer") vs Howard Kurtz in the Washington Post. posted by Jojo | 7:44 AM Tuesday, March 25, 2003 Definitely last post for today: police warn against kids' exposure to anarchist propaganda Reported on SMH Online: Police are warning parents to keep their kids home from the planned student's strikes and protests tomorrow because "they fear demonstrations could turn violent". Assistant Police Commissioner Dick Adams said he feared a coalition of extreme protesters would incite anarchy and violence. "I want parents to know about the dangers children could face should the protest turn violent," Mr Adams said. "They should also know that their child might be confronted by anarchists' propaganda at the demonstration." Oh, so you're worried about their propaganda? Of course Johnnie's pro-war propaganda is much safer than the peaceniks' propaganda. By the way if anyone is worried about peacenik propaganda they probably shouldn't read this blog. posted by Jojo | 3:53 PM OK one more post for today: now for the truly disturbing Lucky I didn't label the latest newspoll numbers as "truly disturbing" (see post below) or I would now have nowhere left to go, with this piece right here (via Tom Tomorrow). In Oregon, the legislature is debating a proposed new law to label protestors "terrorists" and enable them to be jailed for life for intentionally causing injury to another person while disrupting commerce and traffic. No one should harm another person as a deliberate act of protest - but jailed for life? What if a protestor is assaulted by onlookers or cops - retaliate and you're jailed for life? This is democracy disappearing as we speak. posted by Jojo | 12:55 PM First the funny, then today's disappointment The funny: American military campaign name generator, at f-train. My visit generated "Operation Strong Gorgon" and "Operation Congested Dirk" among others. Link via Davezilla. Now for the bad news. A newspoll reported on news.com.au has found that now that war has actually begun, support for military action in Iraq has more than doubled to 50 per cent, and opposition has dropped from 75 per cent to 42 per cent. This turnaround is mirrored in polling for British Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President George W. Bush. John Howard has also experienced an increase in his approval rating. It would be nice to know exactly what questions are asked in the poll, and how the respondents are being selected - because it's easy to drum up these sorts of figures once a country has actually gone to war - for example, asking a respondent simply whether or not they support Australia's campaign in Iraq would lead to a "yes" answer from just about anyone. Especially if newspoll is targeting respondents already registered as tending to support Howard - hmmm nice PR work for the government. Perhaps I'm being too cynical. I guess only time will tell. The first casualty of war etc. posted by Jojo | 12:33 PM Monday, March 24, 2003 From Tom Tomorrow: On Tom Tomorrow, today (you'll need to scroll down): Not just forged documents but CIA agents pressured to present "findings" in line with predetermined policy. The story links to a report in the the NY Times: "WASHINGTON, March 22 — The recent disclosure that reports claiming Iraq tried to buy uranium from Niger were based partly on forged documents has renewed complaints among analysts at the C.I.A. about the way intelligence related to Iraq has been handled, several intelligence officials said. Analysts at the agency said they had felt pressured to make their intelligence reports on Iraq conform to Bush administration policies." posted by Jojo | 5:45 PM From Cursor: Confirmation that 50 civilians were killed in heavily bombed Basra (their story links to a report in the Washington Post). Counter to the mainstream news footage of Iraqis, overjoyed at being liberated by the US, is this report by a journalist a day later, who encountered hostility, doubt, fear and most significantly, questions like: "Why are you here in this country? Are you trying to take over? Are you going to take our country forever? Are the Israelis coming next? Are you here to steal our oil? When are you going to get out?" Oh, and the promised aid for Iraqi civilians will be delivered "soon", but not yet. There are people who are injured and without food and water, today. posted by Jojo | 5:29 PM Michael Moore wins Oscar, gives blunt acceptance speech Upon receiving the Oscar for his doco Bowling for Columbine, Michael Moore spoke out against George W and the invasion on Iraq in his acceptance speech. Moore was boo'd by some but received a standing ovation from others in the audience. "We live in a time with fictitious election results that elect fictitious presidents", he said. "We live in a time when we have a man sending us to war for fictitious reasons. We are against this war, Mr Bush. Shame on you. Shame on you!" See full report on SMH Online. Tony Blair is in a dark place
Sunday, March 23, 2003 Today's march About 50,000 people marched today in Sydney: it was fun, creative, loud, big and beautiful. I wish we could stop the war. We can't. But what we can do is keep some hope going, for peaceful solutions, and for an end to aggressive action by a superpower. Sure they can crush whoever might be standing in their way - but the rest of the world doesn't like it. We can at least register dissent. And what better way then dressing up as a giant kangaroo with actual pogo springs inside the back legs of the kangaroo suit? The man in the kangaroo suit was actually hopping...There were people on stilts inside giant skeleton suits...and a toddler in a stroller whose "no war" shout was louder than any adult's! (Her parents were hoping she would get all of her shouting for the rest of the year, completely out of her system during this one march.) Channel 9 TV news reported that 200,000 marched in Montreal and another 200,000 in London, yesterday. Four year old with 90% burns Sending out massive healing mojo for the four year old Iraqi kid with 90% burns. I don't know the kid's name or even gender but I hope he or she recovers. According to the news story, the kid probably won't survive. But if enough people send out mojo..... posted by Jojo | 10:09 PM |
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||
|
 |
||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||