Day To Day News Headlines

[Paranoid Dot Calm]

Hey!

I'm a news hound.
It's been an obsession with me since childhood. I've never
purchased a comic book.
I know I'm weird.

I'd like to use this thread to post links to interesting news
stories which I find each day. If I were to post each story or
headline separately or as separate posts, my Nic would flood
this board.

Here is a poem which I wrote about the Iraq War.

I Remember

"Look at you, Society!"
I heard a hippie scream;
"You've failed us all repeatedly,
While portraying a no-where scene".

"You ban the gun, but hug the bomb;
While attending church to sing your psalms".
"What might you think we hippies are"?
"Rejects from the planet Mars"?

Shocked at this, I chose to pause.
Afraid to answer in fear to cause
Identical riots as those obliged
So, I stated this with solemn pride.

"What of you and your youthful scum;
Who eat the cake and waste the crumbs?"
"Yuh got 3 meals and your dowry;
Why impose yourself on life's peaked Calvary?"

Feeling that I had said quite enough
And knowingly sounded extremely rough
I awaited for the hippie replies
To tell me that I spoke of lies.

Moments passed and a young man rose;
To speak his views of slight impose.
"Sir", he said in truth dismay
"I speak for all who are here today."

"Employment is our greatest debt."
"We would work if you would only let
Us stay until the weathers warm
And our love-in childs are born."

Relax! I shouted, and perhaps unheard
But I was getting a bit disturbed
I wanted to call them a bunch of psychotics
But chose the word unpatriotic.

"This is not the time to ask of me;
For any help of any need that be."
It is a war of words that are left unsaid
Maybe you love Saddam instead?

I tried to shame them towards my beliefs
I promised a future of absolute relief
I spoke of pride and opinion polls
And claimed that dissent would take its toll.

Within the crowd whispers began
Another young man decidedly took a stand
His war of words seemed to bend the wind
And he simply asked: "Where is the peace dividend?"

Paranoid Dot Calm

 

[Paranoid Dot Calm]

What Have Our Weapons Done To Help Iraq?

Frequent contributor Maddi Bee delivered the following remarks on April 18 to the congregation of the Bear Creek Church of the Brethren, Dayton, Ohio.

Archbishop Oscar Romero, who was assassinated in church in El Salvador, said these words:

“We plant seeds that one day will grow.

We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development.

We provide yeast that produces effects beyond our capabilities."
We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.

We are workers, not master builders; ministers not messiahs.

We are prophets of a future not our own.”

And so we work today for sanity in a world gone mad.

My few words today are about the work required by the Golden Rule: Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you. Be a good steward of people and of the earth. Or, in more modern terms: What goes around comes around.

Today we know that our Military at the behest of our Government has attacked and now occupies the former sovereign nation of Iraq. Iraq is a country said to be the site of the Garden of Eden, the very birthplace of civilization – located where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers flow.

I ask you to think about how our “Shock and Awe” invasion taught Iraqis about Democracy. Did bombing Iraq with depleted uranium missiles win over their hearts and minds? Did using our very own Weapons of Mass Destruction help turn up the alleged Saddam Hussein Weapons of Mass Destruction?

What have our weapons done to help the Iraqis? Consider how two hundred tons of radioactive material fired by our invading forces into buildings, homes, streets and gardens all over Baghdad helped them. Ponder how some might label “us” terrorists. The lives of 300,000-plus people have been ruined. The Iraqi Soil, Water and Air have been contaminated. When Depleted Uranium strikes, it goes straight through armor, lead, walls, whatever – before it explodes into a burning vapor which then turns into dust. This DU dust and the shells and fragments have half lives of 4.7 billion years. That means thousands upon thousands of Iraqi children will suffer for tens of thousands of years to come. Conventional weaponry can destroy buildings and tanks without incorporating Depleted Uranium. Could our Government and Military have forgotten that the use of such Weapons of Mass Destruction are forbidden by the Geneva Convention? Or did we back out of that Convention?

Imagine these scenes: Poor Iraqi people using the discarded weapon shells to carry water, and to sell milk from the family goat, or to feed the milk to their babies.

The fallout will be fetal deformities, sterility in men and women, increased miscarriages and premature births, congenital malformations, abnormal organs, hydranencephaly, anencephaly and delayed and dramatically retarded growth in children. Skin cancers, bone tumors, an increase in all kinds of cancers can be expected in the coming years. I won’t even mention the effects on Mother Earth, Water, and Air.

One of the Iraqi doctors in hospital recently said: “I’m fed up with delegations coming and weeping as I show them children dying before their eyes. I want action and not emotion. The crime has been committed and documented – but we must act now to save our children’s future.”

We, the U.S. citizens, must act now to save our children’s future and ourselves as well. The government acts in our name. Is this what we want our government to tell the world about us, the People – that we are stone cold killers, invaders, people without any morals?

And yet, that is what is happening. Remember: what goes around comes around. We can never know the path God’s Justice will take. If the Golden Rule prevails we are condemned.

Already it is being documented that even some of our GIs are suffering the illnesses associated with Depleted Uranium. And our government is turning its back on them, too.

We need to pray and work every day to bring this horror – this illegal pre-emptive war – to an end.

In closing, let me leave you with a special Franciscan Benediction:

May God bless you with DISCOMFORT at easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships so that you may live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with ANGER at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people so that you may work for justice, freedom and peace.

May God bless you with TEARS to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation and war so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and to turn their pain into joy.

And may God bless you with enough FOOLISHNESS to believe that you can make a difference in this world so that you can DO what others claim cannot be done. Amen.

 

[Paranoid Dot Calm]

What a nightmare?

For 2 long months, April to May, my bathroom was under attack, it was
over run by cockroaches. What a nightmare? They terrorized me,
literally. I had cockroaches walking all over my sink, dozens of them
at a time, every time I went to the bathroom. A few were on the wall's
electric socket, apparently crawling towards the sink. But they
congregated in my sink, obviously because of the water.

Every time I woke up, I was greeted by this terror. When trying to get
ready to go to work, there they were. When going to take a shower,
there they were. All over my sink. I had to chase them around, slap
'em down, squash 'em, flush 'em, and so on. A disgusting site.

This wouldn't end. Day after day after day. And then when I came back
from work, there they were again. A real nightmare, I'm telling you.

The major congregating point was my bathroom sink. Over a period of 2
months, I must have killed hundreds (perhaps thousands) of them there,
in the sink. I squashed a few by the electric socket, but they usually
crept back in. The big war was in the sink.

It was a 2 front war. The 1st front, the major front, in the bathroom
sink, and then the electric socket on my wall, the 2nd front.

If you saw me, you'd think I was doing a superb job of protecting my
apartment, my way of life, my freedom, e.t.c., from the invading
cockroaches. But I wasn't. I was spinning my wheels, fighting the
wrong war, in the wrong place, a war that would never end.

While I've been posting on these newsgroups about Bush's war on terror,
I was fighting my own war on terror.

It only got worse and worse. Then my older, wiser, and more mature
brother-in-law came to my rescue, he gave me this gift last month (early
in June), an electronic pest repelent. It looks like a night light and
plugs into any electric socket. So I plugged it into the bathroom
wall's electric socket. Then I noticed something happening. I was
flushing fewer and fewer cockroaches down the drain every day. For
more than 2 weeks now, and it's July already, but I notice that there
aren't any cockroaches any more. Problem solved. The key to my war on
terror, obviously, was the 2nd front, the neglected front, on my
bathroom wall, where all the cockroaches came from.

What's my point? Bush's 2 front war is no different. Iraq is like my
bathroom sink, Afghanistan is like the electric socket on my wall. Bush
is pre-occupied with the bathroom sink, and is completely overlooking
the electric socket in the wall, where the real source of terror is.

We have a token force of less than 15,000 troops in Afghanistan, but
more than 140,000 troops in Iraq. Afghanistan is like the electric
socket of my bathroom wall, where all the terrorists are coming from.

Kudos to Spain's new Socialist government, less than a week after they
pulled out their last remaining troops in Iraq, they announced last
Friday that they are going to double their troops presence in
Afghanistan. Good for them! Afghanistan is where the al Qaeda
terrorists are really at, not Iraq.

Spain's new Prime Minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, is like my
older, wiser, and more mature brother-in-law, he knows where the real
source is, it's not in Iraq.

Zapatero was elected 3 days after the March 11 train bombings in Madrid
that killed 191 people. He campaigned largely on a pledge to pull
Spanish troops out of Iraq. For more info, go to this link:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/07/02/international1813EDT0684.DTL

Sun, 4 Jul 2004
alt.politics AbelMalcolm

 

[Paranoid Dot Calm]

By Robert Fisk
3 July 2004
The Independent

A team of US military officers acted as censors over all coverage of the
hearings of Saddam Hussein and his henchmen on Thursday, destroying
videotape of Saddam in chains and deleting the entire recorded legal
submissions of 11 senior members of his former regime.

An American network cameraman who demanded the return of his tapes,
which contained audios of the hearings, said he was told by a US
officer: "No. They belong to us now. And anyway, we don't trust you guys."

According to American journalists present at the 30-minute hearing of
Saddam and 11 former ministers at Baghdad airport, an American admiral
in civilian clothes told camera crews that the judge had demanded that
there should be no sound recording of the initial hearing. He ordered
crews to unplug their sound wires. Several of the six crews present
pretended to obey the instruction. "We learnt later," one of them said,
"that the judge didn't order us to turn off our sound. The Americans
lied - it was they who wanted no sound. The judge wanted sound and
pictures."

Initially, crews were told that a US Department of Defence camera crew
would provide the sound for their silent tapes. But when CNN and CBS
crews went to the former occupation authority headquarters - now the US
embassy - they found that three US officers ordered the censorship of
tape which showed Saddam being led into the courtroom with a chain round
his waist which was connected to handcuffs round his wrists. The
Americans gave no reason for this censorship.

"They were rude and they didn't care," another American television crew
member said. "They were running the show. The Americans decided what the
world could and could not see of this trial - and it was meant to be an
Iraqi trial. There was a British official in the courtroom whom we were
not allowed to take pictures of. The other men were US troops who had
been ordered to wear ordinary clothes so that they were civilians' in
the court."

Three US officers viewed the tapes taken by two CNN cameras,
Al-Djezaira' (a local, American-funded Iraqi channel), and the US
government. "Fortunately, they were lazy and they didn't check all the
tapes properly so we got our audio' through in the satellite to London,"
one of the crew members told The Independent yesterday. "I had pretended
to unplug the sound from the camera but the man who claimed he was a US
admiral didn't understand cameras and we were able to record sound. The
American censors at the embassy were inattentive - that's how we got the
sound out."

The only thing the Americans managed to censor from most of the tapes
was Saddam's comment that "this is theatre - Bush is the real criminal."

Television stations throughout the world were astonished yesterday when
the first tapes of Saddam's trial arrived without sound and have still
not been informed that the Americans censored the material. "What can we
do when an American official tells us the judge doesn't want sound - and
then we find out that they lied and the judge does want the sound?" an
American camera operator asked.

Video showed the face - and audiotape revealed the voice - of Judge Raid
Juhi, whose name was widely reported in the Arab press yesterday.
According to the camera crews, Judge Juhi wanted the world to hear
Saddam's voice. Nevertheless the Americans erased the entire audiotape
of the hearings of the 11 former Saddam ministers, including that of
Tariq Aziz, the former deputy prime minister, and "Chemical" Ali,
Saddam's cousin accused of gassing the Kurds at Halabja. The US
Department of Defence tape of their hearings has been taken by the US
authorities so there is now no technical record of the words of these 11
men, save for the notebooks of "pool" reporters - four Americans and two
Iraqis - who were present.

Judge Juhi said not long ago that "I have no secrets - a judge must not
be ashamed of the decisions he takes."

The Americans apparently think differently.

http://www.k1m.com/antiwarblog/archives/000110.html

 

[Paranoid Dot Calm]

In charge, Iraqis crack down hard
The announcement Wednesday of a new national
security law is the most dramatic in a string of
recent moves by Iraqi officials, both local and national,
to get tough on crime and insurgents. It illustrates
the new interim government's priorities - and
underscores the use of hard-line practices often
avoided by US soldiers and the now-defunct
US-run Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA).
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0708/p01s04-woiq.html

Iraq is now another Palestine
Before Iraq had unravelled, Tony Blair last November
delivered one of his most impassioned defences of
the war at the Lord Mayor's banquet. He was hoping
to undercut critics before President Bush's visit.
Iraq, he said, was "the battle of seminal importance
for the early 21st century. It will define relations between
the Muslim world and the west.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1255539,00.html

 

[Paranoid Dot Calm]

The brother of a Marine corporal captured in Iraq is denying new reports that the serviceman has been released and has contacted family members.

"I hope we hear from him, but so far, nothing," Mohamad Hassoun told The Associated Press.

CNN reported Wednesday that Wassef Ali Hassoun had been in touch with his family in Utah and Lebanon, telling them he had contacted the U.S. Embassy in Beirut and asked to be picked up at an undisclosed location in Lebanon.

When asked about the supposed call from Hassoun, his brother in Lebanon, Sami Hassoun, said: "We have nothing to say." The US Embassy in Beirut said they have "no information."

Secretary of State Colin Powell was asked at a news conference Wednesday whether the missing Marine had been in contact with the embassy.

"We have received reports he may be in contact with various individuals," Powell said. "There are other reports he may be in Lebanon. I can't confirm any of these."

http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/s...ngs/9099868.htm

 

[Paranoid Dot Calm]

At least one aspect of the occupation of Iraq was well planned by Washington. The USA needed help conducting mass interrogations of Arabic-speaking detainees. Foreign Report can now reveal that, to make up for this shortfall, the USA employed Israeli security service (Shin Bet) experts to help their US counterparts 'break' their captives.

The USA could have approached other friendly regimes in the Middle East, such as Egypt or Jordan, which have vast experience interrogating Muslim fundamentalists. The Israelis may be brilliant linguists, but they cannot match Arabs speaking their own language. But there is a significant difference between the Egyptian and Jordanian interrogation techniques and those of the Israelis. For the Egyptian and Jordanian secret services, physical torture is an essential part of interrogation and a key element in breaking the prisoner's will and making them co-operative.

In the past, Shin Bet would use torture when it interrogated prisoners. But 20 years ago, an Israeli government committee investigated the security service's practices and the use of torture was subsequently banned, forcing Shin Bet to adopt a variety of techniques that did not cause physical damage. These new methods are much more palatable to US sensibilities. They also brought faster and more convincing results.

Foreign Report has learnt that top Shin Bet interrogation experts were sent to Iraq to help with the most difficult interrogations, such as the captured heads of the Iraqi intelligence - and perhaps with former president Saddam Hussein. US sources say that in spite of the incidences of abuse in Abu Ghraib prison, such events are not representative of the sophisticated methods that Shin Bet used in Iraq.

Most of the Shin Bet interrogators are of Ashkenazim (European) origin who study the Arabic language only when they are in their twenties after joining the security service.

http://www.janes.com/security/international_security/news/fr/fr040707_1_n.shtml

 

[Paranoid Dot Calm]

(FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE)
The following is the "first final" list of events for the Republican
National Convention in New York City, August 30 to September 2.

AUG. 30
6 p.m. -- OPENING PRAYER read by Mel Gibson, while being flogged with a
spiked leather strap wielded by Ann Coulter (who will enjoy it a little
too much.)

DAVID DUKE and TRENT LOTT speak: "Why Lynching is Beneficial"

TOM RIDGE raises National Alert Level to RED.

LEST WE FORGET -- HONORARY ROLL CALL of All Members of (and Friends of)
Bush Administration Who Might Very Well Have Been Killed In Vietnam If It
Hadn't Been For Nasty Trick Knees, Anal Cysts, Recurrent Headaches, and
Highly-Placed, Overly-Protective Parents. (Sponsored by Tyson Chicken)

ANTONIN SCALIA speaks -- "Slavery - The Original Intent of Our
Forefathers

DICK CHENEY hosts AMBASSADORSHIP RAFFLE - Opening Bid 1,000,000
(cash, non-sequential bills 20's or less)

EVENING BONUS -- FILM - "BRING IT ON!"
Stirring fictionalized re-creation of Mr. Bush's actual dental
appointment in Alabama in 1972, where he showed the incredible courage to
allow "deep cleaning" of gums without anesthetic. (Sponsored by Sinclair
Broadcasting)

AUG 31
6 p.m. -- OPENING PRAYER read by Jesus Christ, as channeled by Lt.
General William G. "Jerry" Boykin, the man who first revealed that Mr.
Bush was chosen by God to lead this country into war against the
heathens. Mr. Boykin will then give a short, upbeat presentation on Islam
called, "My God can Beat Up Your God."

TOM RIDGE raises National Alert Level to FLASHING RED.

WAYNE LAPIERRE will pry Davy Crockett's Kentucky Long Rifle out of
Charlton Heston's cold dead fingers (subject to Heston's death)
(Sponsored by Smith & Wesson)

DESIGNATED BROWN PERSON (Hispanic or Muslim, or possibly an Hispanic
Muslim, if we can find one) will speak on how being a brown person
doesn't automatically disqualify you from being a Republican (subject to
finding a brown person capable of being bribed to do this)

EVENING BONUS -- PAUL WOLFOWITZ announces American plans to invade Iran,
strip them of nuclear weapons, and turn over entire country to Bechtel to
be run as a subsidiary. (Wolfowitz will tell anxious voters that the
operation will involve 200 out-sourced "consultants", will take one week
and will be entirely funded by pocket change found in a White House
couch.) (Sponsored by Halliburton)

SEPTEMBER 1
6 p.m. -- OPENING PRAYER by the REVEREND JERRY FALWELL who will
demonstrate the spirit of Compassionate Conservatism and the eternal
mercy of God by wishing a horrible fiery death and an eternity in the pit
of hell for all non-white, non-male, non-Christian non-heterosexual non-
Republicans.

TOM RIDGE raises National Alert Level to PULSATING RED

THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF INSANELY RICH PERSONS (AAIRP) will present
LAURA BUSH with A PLATINUM CHAINSAW in thanks for the Bush Administration
tax cuts (Sponsored by Gulfstream)

ANN COULTER, BILL O'REILLY, RUSH LIMBAUGH and SEAN HANNITY will lead a
special TWO-MINUTE HATE aimed at photo of John Kerry.

EVENING BONUS:
DIEBOLD CORP. will announce election returns:
BUSH WINS RE-ELECTION WITH 51% (JUSTICE ANTONIN SCALIA will certify vote
results) Diebold Board member Wilbur H. Grafton will deny fraud, announce
his retirement, and be named the new Ambassador to Jamaica. (Sponsored by
Diebold)

SEPTEMBER 2 (nomination night)
6 p.m. -- OPENING PRAYER by ATTORNEY GENERAL JOHN ASHCROFT, who will then
sing "Let the Eagle Soar" and light the ceremonial "TORCH OF FREEDOM with
the (actual) Bill of Rights.

TOM RIDGE raises National Alert Level to Fire Engine Red and announces
capture of Osama bin Laden.

CONVENTION SHIFTS TO "GROUND ZERO" - DICK CHENEY will introduce and
personally re-nominate PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH, who will impale Osama
bin Laden with Davy Crockett's Kentucky Long Rifle donated by Wayne
LaPierre (Sponsored by NRA)

PRESIDENT BUSH WILL GIVE ACCEPTANCE SPEECH, standing on Osama's dead
body.

BONUS FIRST PEEK! - Here is the proposed text for President Bush's
speech:
"Hey, Freedom-Lovers! 9-11 Democracy Freedom Stay The Course Evil-doers
trust my gut 9-11 Freedom Evil-doers Stay The Course Democracy 9-11 Evil-
doers trust my gut 9-11 Democracy Freedom Stay the course Trust my gut
Tax cuts Who cares what you think Evil-doers Things are great Jesus
speaks to me 9-11 Democracy Freedom Stay The Course Evil-doers 9-11
Freedom Evil-doers Stay The Course Democracy 9-11 Evil-doers trust my gut
9-11 Democracy Freedom Stay the course Trust my gut Tax cuts Who cares
what you think Evil-doers Things are great Jesus speaks to me. G'night
everybody!

CLOSING NIGHT PARTY OPPORTUNITIES:
"GET MAXED with RUSH "ROCKET CAP" LIMBAUGH!" (Sponsored by
GlaxoSmithKline)
BILL O'REILLY shows off his Pulitzer Prize, Academy Award and Nobel Peace
Prize

 

[Paranoid Dot Calm]

George Bush's Reactionary Religious Beliefs

At the beginning of the 21st century, the leadership of the most
economically, technically, and socially advanced nation in history has
fallen to a politician with reactionary religious beliefs from a part of the
country with a primitive extractive economy. This article will examine
George W. Bush's reactionary religious beliefs and the impact of those
beliefs on the domestic and foreign policies of his administration. To
start our examination of Bush's fringe religious belief, we must go back in
history - back to England in the 1820's.

John Nelson Darby was an Anglican priest in Ireland who left the Church of
England in the 1820's to form his own sect, The Brethren. Over the years,
The Brethren spread through the British Isles, Germany, and North America.
Darby developed an elaborate end-times theory that he called Premillineal
Dispensationalism - this theory is one of the prevalent influences on
Southern Protestant fundamentalist to this day.

Darby's vision of the "end times" - which has not been altered by his
successors - holds the following beliefs.

· In the end times, Israel will be re-created as a nation-state.

· God will intervene repeatedly to save Israel from destruction.

· Eventually, Israel will be destroyed by in the battle of
Armageddon, in which an international federation will be led by the
Anti-Christ. Many fundamentalists believe the federation that will destroy
Israel is either the United Nations or the European Federation. Also, many
believe the antichrist will be a Jew who had renounced Judaism.

· Most Jews will be killed in Armageddon, but 144,000 will convert
to Christianity and be "saved."

· Jesus will physically return to Earth to defeat the antichrist.

· At this point, the ancient Jewish temple on the Temple Mount -
where the Al-Aqsa mosque stands today - will be restored as will the Throne
of King David, one of the kings of ancient Israel.

· Jesus will establish a world government in the form of a
theocracy and rule as a benevolent dictator for the next thousand years at
which time Satan will escape and be defeated again, this time forever.

The most prominent and influential Americans to accept this view of the
future were Dwight L. Moody, founder of the Moody Bible Institute, and Cyrus
Scofield of the Dallas Theological Seminary. Scofield's Scofield Reference
Bible has persuaded generations of Protestant fundamentalists that Darby's
bizarre interpretation of scripture is correct.

According to Darby, one of the conditions necessary to the return of Jesus
was the restoration of Israel to its "biblical boundaries" and the
establishment of a secure Israeli state. Israel's victory in the 1967 war
and its conquest of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank created a wave of
apocalyptic anticipation among Protestant fundamentalists in the U. S.,
especially in Texas and the rest of the South. The restoration of Jews to
"the Holy Land" has been a priority for the Southern right for a generation
before the Southern right hijacked the national Republican Party.

Now, review and think about what you have just read. In the 1820's a fringe
priest developed a theory that, before Jesus can come to earth again, Israel
must be established as a state. This belief led American fundamentalists to
sponsor the "restoration of the Holy Land" to the Jews so that the Jews can
be destroyed in the final battle of Armageddon, except for 144,000 who will
convert to Christianity.

By 2002, Southern Protestants fundamentalists in the U. S. had launched an
"adopt-a-settlement" program in which they provided financial assistance to
settlements in Israel to further the establishment of a state of Israel
occupying "Israel's biblical lands." One of the principal actors in this
movement is John Hagee, pastor of the San Antonio, Texas, Cornerstone Church
who announced that his congregation would give $1,000,000 to the government
of Israel to resettle Jews from the former Soviet Union. When Hagee was
told that U. S. law considered the Israel settlements to be illegal, he
replied: "I am a Bible scholar and theologian and from my perspective, the
law of God transcends the law of the United States government." According
to Hagee, the Israeli colonization of the occupied territories "is a
fulfillment of biblical prophecy." Some American fundamentalists are allied
with Jewish fanatics who dream of destroying the Al-Aqsa mosque in order to
build the restored Temple on the Temple Mount.

The leading conservative members of Congress from Texas were among the most
fervent supporters of the far right in Israel. In the last week of April
2002, House Majority Whip Tom DeLay said that all of the West Bank - which
he called "Judea and Samaria" in accordance with Jewish practice - belong to
Israel. On 1 May 2002, House Republican Majority Leader Dick Armey endorsed
the call by the Israeli right wing for their military to engage in ethnic
cleansing to purge the West Bank of native Palestinian Arabs. In an
interview with Chris Matthews, Army proposed that over three million people
be expelled for the homeland where they had lived since history began.

The fervent support of Israel by Protestant fundamentalists - rooted in
Darby's fringe interpretation of the Bible - has been manipulated for over
25 years by right-wing Israeli politicians and their American
neoconservative allies.

From 1948 until 1977, moderates and progressives in Israel kept the radical
right wing Likud party at bay. Then came the election of Menachem Begin,
the first Likud Primer Minister, followed by Yitzhak Shamir, Benjamin
Netanyahu, and Ariel Sharon. The Likud Party has opposed and eventually
destroyed every peace plan put forward for Israel. Since Begin's election
in 1977, American Protestant fundamentalists have been an echo for the
Israeli Likud Party: supporting Israel's invasion of Lebanon; opposing the
Oslo peace process; demanding an end to US negotiations with the
Palestinians; and, encouraging the expansion of Jewish settlements.

One of Israel's chief supporters among US Protestant fundamentalists is
Reverend Jerry Falwell, a Lynchburg, Virginia, Baptist preacher and founder
of the "Moral Majority." In 1981, when Israel bombed Iraq's nuclear
reactor, Begin phoned Falwell before he told President Reagan. In 1979, the
government of Israel gave Falwell a Lear jet. In 1998, when Netanyahu
visited the US, he addressed more than a thousand evangelical
fundamentalists at a Falwell rally before he went to Washington to see
President Clinton.

The relationship between the Protestant fundamentalists and the Jews is
strange because the Protestant fundamentalist leadership is frequently on
record with anti-Semitic statements. Bailey Smith, an influential Dallas
Baptist preacher proclaimed that "God does not hear the prayer of a Jew."
Pat Robertson, in his book The New World Order, claimed that Jewish
financiers and Freemasons have caused most of the world's wars.

The alliance of white Southern Protestant evangelicals and Jewish
neoconservatives is strengthened by a sense on both their parts that they
are embattled and despised minorities in both the world and their own ethnic
groups. The Jewish conservatives are a minority within the American Jewish
community, which remains predominantly liberal in domestic policy while
Southern right-wingers and religious fundamentalists have always been a
minority among white Americans.

The fierce religiosity of Southern Protestant fundamentalists can be traced
back to Ulster and Scotland. The 18th century Irish and Scots who moved to
the American colonies from Northern Ireland combined frontier ferocity with
simple, unquestioning, fervent Calvinist Protestantism. These people
compare themselves to the oppressed Hebrews of the Old Testament and have
little or no use for the forgiving, loving, peaceful Jesus of the New
Testament. It is no accident that Southern Protestant fundamentalism is
called "the old-time religion." It consists of near-literal translations
from the Old Testament law; laws and social strictures in the South today
are near-literal transcriptions from the book of Leviticus. The gun-toting,
Bible-thumping Southerner with his devotion to the Ten Commandments is no
different from the Torah-thumping, gun-toting Israeli settler in occupied
Arab territories.

The parallels between white southerners in the historically majority-black
Deep South and the Israeli occupation of Arab lands are obvious. In each
case, a minority, surrounded by an oppressed majority without rights lives
in fear of rebellion by the subjugated majority. In each case, the isolated
minority promulgates an ideology of racial and religious solidarity to
enlist the support of its ethnic kin to help keep themselves in power.

In his approach to the Middle East, the first President Bush and his
advisers - such as Secretary of State James Baker - reflected the pro-Arab
tilt of big business in the oil patch - rescuing Kuwait from Saddam Hussein,
pressuring Israel not to retaliate against Iraqi rocket attacks. In
response, the Israeli right-wing directed bitter, vicious attacks against
the first President Bush - attacks that no doubt were not lost on his son,
the second President Bush. George W. Bush is a devout Southern Protestant
fundamentalist and he shares with the likes of Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell,
and long-dead Charles Nelson Darby his commitment to the "restoration of
Israel and the temple" so as to prepare for the "second coming of Jesus."

The conservative imperialism of George W. Bush's administration has no
precedent in US foreign policy. However, it is strikingly like 19th century
British imperialism. Just like the British in the 19th century, the US
wants to rule the world in isolation - "dominance" is the word used in Bush'
s September 2002 National Security Strategy of the United States - wants to
promote free trade, and foster the return of Jews to "the Holy Land" - which
was also a project of British evangelical Protestants in the 19th century
and now of American Protestants in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

In the 19th century United States, British imperialists found their closest
allies in the Southern planter class. The fact that the 21st Southern
conservative world view resembles 19th century British imperialism is no
surprise. The South, including Texas, is a provincial museum of dead
British ideologies, British religious denominations, and British customs.
The South's religion is 17th century British Cromwellian Puritanism with a
large dose of Darbyist Dispensationalism. The South's notion of social
relationships is that of the 18th century British landed elite.

Southerners failed between 1861 and 1865 to separate themselves from the US
and establish their own militaristic, devoutly Protestant empire,
conservative Southerners now seek to use the American presidency to remake
the world in the image of the 19th century British Empire. The fact that in
order to do so they must repudiate over half a century of US
internationalism and social justice does not bother Southern Protestant
fundamentalists - including George W. Bush - not one bit. After all, they
regard Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt as the enemy.

 

[Paranoid Dot Calm]

How does one know if their prayers are being
answered by God or being answered by the devil?

For an ordinary person, this is an important
question. When the president of the United States uses his beliefs to
justify war, it makes many Christians uncomfortable, to say the least.

The obvious way to know if it's Satan or if it's God that's answering
your prayers is to talk to your clergy. In Bush's case, though, he has
cut himself off from his Methodist church and it's leaders.

His own Methodist church has said that the Iraqi war is without
justification and is against the teachings of Christ and Bush refuses
to talk to them. The Pope is against the war. Archbishop Desmond Tutu
has called the war in Iraq "immoral". Here are some other statements
from mainstream church leaders:

LUTHERAN CHURCH
"Morally, I oppose it because I know a war with Iraq will have great
consequences for the people of Iraq, who have already suffered through
years of war and economic sanctions. I do not believe such a war can
be justified under the historic principles of ‘just war.'"

UNITED METHODISTS
"United Methodists have a particular duty to speak out against an
unprovoked attack. President Bush and Vice-President Cheney are
members of our denomination. Our silence now could be interpreted as
tacit approval of war. Christ came to break old cycles of revenge and
violence."

EPISCOPAL CHURCH
"[War] will immediately endanger the Iraqi civilian population and our
own United States Forces, that will alienate many of our closest
allies, and destabilize the Middle East. We will all be better served
to see our national energies and resources expended in resolving the
Israeli/Palestinian conflict, such that Israel finds security and
peace with its neighbors and Palestinians achieve statehood."

NATIONAL COUNCIL OF CHURCHES USA
"We do not need to march down the path to Armageddon. Pre-emptive
military action now being contemplated by the Administration cannot be
morally justified."

US CONFERENCE OF CATHOLIC BISHOPS
"Given the precedents and risks involved, we find it difficult to
justify extending the war on terrorism to Iraq, absent clear and
adequate evidence of Iraqi involvement in the attacks of September
11th or of an imminent attack of a grave nature.

WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES
"Weiderud's letter to the US, UK, French, Russian and Chinese
diplomatic missions…draws attention to its call to the "international
community to uphold the international rule of law, to resist pressures
to join in preemptive military strikes against a sovereign state under
the pretext of the 'war on terrorism', and to strengthen their
commitment to obtain respect for UN Security Council resolutions on
Iraq by non-military means."

STATEMENT OF 100 US CHRISTIAN ETHICISTS
"As Christian ethicists, we share a common moral presumption against a
pre-emptive war on Iraq by the United States."

Bush seems to be a loose cannon on the deck of Christian religion.
Some ask if he is the antichrist. I ask who's answering his prayers?
Is God telling him something different than he's telling everyone
else, or is Satan answering Bush's prayers?

 

[Paranoid Dot Calm]

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has ordered
a halt to further deployment of troops to Iraq
after a Filipino worker was abducted.
http://www.theadvertiser.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,10076235%5E401,00.html

Britain closes down Pakistan embassy
Threat forces US to postpone reception
http://www.nni-news.com/current/main/news_07.htm

Pakistan President General Musharraf may dissolve
Assembly before December 31.
http://www.nni-news.com/current/national/news_26.htm

The Army has given non-judicial punishments to three
commanders linked to the drowning of an Iraqi civilian,
saying they conspired to impede a homicide investigation.
http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/...itics-headlines


Norway Pulls Out of Iraq
Norway has withdrawn its second peacekeeping unit
in Iraq, a 130-strong unit deployed in the southern
town of Basra. In an official statement the government
stressed that this is not a political decision. The troops
have already landed in their native land.
http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=36678

Afghan security forces have arrested three Americans
and four Afghans after a shootout in the capital and
accused them of illegally detaining and interrogating
locals, security officials have said.
http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=543252§ion=news

 

[Paranoid Dot Calm]

Republican National Committee Convention
Schedule in New York, New York

6:00 PM -- Opening Prayer led by the Reverend Jerry Falwell
6:30 PM -- Pledge of Allegiance
6:35 PM -- Burning of Bill of Rights (excluding 2nd amendment)
6:45 PM -- Salute to the Coalition of the Willing
6:46 PM -- Seminar #1 Getting your kid a military deferment
7:30 PM -- First Presidential Beer Bong Water Pipe
7:35 PM -- Serve Freedom Fries with extra catsup
7:40 PM -- EPA Address #1: Mercury, it's what's for dinner.
8:00 PM -- Vote on which country to invade next
8:05 PM -- Debut gameshow "Humiliation"
8:10 PM -- Pope issues clemency to all priests and contributors to CREEP
8:15 PM -- John Ashcroft Lecture: The Homos are after your children
8:20 PM -- Debut gameshow "Spank the Darky"
8:30 PM -- Round table discussion on reproductive rights (men only)
8:50 PM -- Seminar #2 Corporations: The government of the future
9:00 PM -- Condi Rice sings "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man"
9:05 PM -- Second Presidential Beer Bong Water Pipe
9:10 PM -- EPA Address #2 Trees: The real cause of forest fires
9:30 PM -- Break for secret meetings
10:00 PM -- Second prayer led by Cal Thomas
10:15 PM -- Lecture by Carl Rove: Doublespeak made easy
10:30 PM -- Rumsfeld demonstration of how to squint and talk macho
10:35 PM -- Bush demonstration of trademark "deer in headlights" stare.
10:40 PM -- John Ashcroft demonstrates new mandatory kevlar chastity
belt
10:45 PM -- Clarence Thomas reads list of black republicans
10:46 PM -- Third Presidential Beer Bong Water Pipe
10:50 PM -- Seminar #3 Education: a drain on our nation's economy.
11:10 PM -- Hilary Piata
11:20 PM -- Second Lecture by John Ashcroft: Evolutionists: The
dangerous new cult
11:25 PM -- Free amphetamines
11:30 PM -- Call EMTs to revive Rush Limbaugh again.
11:35 PM -- Blame Clinton
11:40 PM -- Laura serves milk and cookies
11:50 PM -- Closing Prayer led by Jesus who does magic trick (M&Ms fall
through the holes in his hands)
12:00 PM -- Nomination of George W. Bush as Holy Supreme Planetary
Overlord

 

[Paranoid Dot Calm]

British Broadsheet Links Mossad to 9/11
http://www.world-crisis.com/print_format/163_0_1_0/

 

[Paranoid Dot Calm]

TORONTO (Reuters)

A blind Quebec student, who was denied entry to English classes at a Canadian university because his guide dog responds only to French commands, will be allowed to attend class, the school said on Wednesday.

Yvan Tessier was turned away from an English immersion course at the University of New Brunswick because he would be forced to give his dog, Pavot, instructions in French.

Students in the course are expected to communicate only in English, at all times, during the intensive five-week course. That was to include talking to the dog, but the university relented, saying in a statement that Tessier will be allowed to use "essential commands in his native French language to his guide dog."

Earlier, Tessier said he would file a complaint with the human rights commission if the university stuck to its decision.

"They don't have the openness of spirit to understand that it's better for me and my mobility to operate with my guide dog. It's only 17 commands in French; it won't compromise the English program," he said from Fredericton, New Brunswick.

Tessier has been guided by the black Labrador retriever for the past two years. Pavot was trained by the Quebec-based Mira Foundation specifically for French speaking clients.

"We were astonished by this," said Pierre Noiseux, a spokesman at the foundation which placed Pavot with Tessier.

"The dog doesn't speak French or English. He doesn't know how to spell 'en avant.' He doesn't know it's French. He just knows that 'en avant' means forward."

The university, in the eastern Canadian town of Fredericton, New Brunswick, said it turned Tessier away because it did not have enough time to prepare for his special needs.

"In the past, the service has been provided that we do teach their guide dogs commands in English, so the dog learns English as well," a university spokeswoman told CBC Television.

Tessier said it would take too long to teach Pavot English commands. The Mira Foundation said it was also dangerous to teach the dog new commands just as Tessier arrives in unfamiliar surroundings.

"He's in a new city, he needs a dog that will be really alert," Noiseux said. "Sure we could take the dog, bring him back and recode. But why would I do that? The guy is French."

 

[Paranoid Dot Calm]

LIVES IN THE BALANCE
by Jackson Browne

I've been waiting for something to happen
For a week or a month or a year
With the blood in the ink of the headlines
And the sound of the crowd in my ear
You might ask what it takes to remember
When you know that you've seen it before
Where a government lies to a people
And a country is drifting to war

And there's a shadow on the faces
Of the men who send the guns
To the wars that are fought in places
Where their business interest runs

On the radio talk shows and the t.v.
You hear one thing again and again
How the u.s.a. stands for freedom
And we come to the aid of a friend
But who are the ones that we call our friends--
These governments killing their own?
Or the people who finally can't take any more
And they pick up a gun or a brick or a stone
There are lives in the balance
There are people under fire
There are children at the cannons
And there is blood on the wire

There's a shadow on the faces
Of the men who fan the flames
Of the wars that are fought in places
Where we can't even say the names

They sell us the president the same way
They sell us our clothes and our cars
They sell us every thing from youth to religion
The same time they sell us our wars
I want to know who the men in the shadows are
I want to hear somebody asking them why
They can be counted on to tell us who our enemies are
But they're never the ones to fight or to die
And there are lives in the balance
There are people under fire
There are children at the cannons
And there is blood on the wire.

 

[Paranoid Dot Calm]

Jewish neoconservatives led US into Iraq

An elite group of unelected Jewish neoconservatives and Zionists admit that they, not the US government, are responsible for the American policy on Iraq.

Last year, the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, interviewed the real policy-makers behind America's invasion of Iraq, who admitted: "we are responsible for what is happening".

These men openly confirm what most people have already realized about the true reasons for the war on Iraq. They reveal that that, deep down, the war on Iraq was not about finding WMD or removing a dictatorship. The war on Iraq is just part of their plan "for the shaping of a new Middle East". For some individuals, the riches of Iraq's oil alone was enough of an incentive. The ultimate agenda is to change the world.

Those who follow the Israeli media can sometimes gain a privileged insight into future events too. For example, if the conquest of Iraq is successful, which it was, the next step is "to go on to other Arab states after Iraq".

The shadowy figures who control the US government, whose faces are not as public as George Bush, intend "to create a new world order". With America at their disposal, they have the power to make it happen.


Source:
Haaretz, "White man's burden", 4 May 2003.
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=280279

The war in Iraq was conceived by 25 neoconservative intellectuals, most of them Jewish, who are pushing President Bush to change the course of history. Two of them, journalists William Kristol and Charles Krauthammer, say it's possible. But another journalist, Thomas Friedman (not part of the group), is skeptical.
...
Are they wrong? Have they committed an act of folly in leading Washington to Baghdad? They don't think so. They continue to cling to their belief. ... This is no longer an academic exercise, one of them says, we are responsible for what is happening. The ideas we put forward are now affecting the lives of millions of people. So there are moments when you're scared. You say, Hell, we came to help, but maybe we made a mistake.
...
What is the war about? I ask. Kristol replies that at one level it is the war that George Bush is talking about: a war against a brutal regime that has in its possession weapons of mass destruction. But at a deeper level it is a greater war, for the shaping of a new Middle East. It is a war that is intended to change the political culture of the entire region. Because what happened on September 11, 2001, Kristol says, is that the Americans looked around and saw that the world is not what they thought it was. The world is a dangerous place. Therefore the Americans looked for a doctrine that would enable them to cope with this dangerous world. And the only doctrine they found was the neoconservative one.
...
This war will enhance the place of America in the world for the coming generation, Krauthammer says. Its outcome will shape the world for the next 25 years. ...

 

[Paranoid Dot Calm]

US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage's claim that the Labor Party was divided over Iraq policy was thuggish and dumb, former AustralianLabor prime minister Paul Keating said today.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/08/1089000272020.html?oneclick=true

President Bush is disliked by more Hungarian secondary school children than former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden, according to an opinion poll published on Wednesday.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=5609517

Pakistan For Bush
July Surprise?
http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=20040719&s=aaj071904

Iraqis, US soldiers killed in Samarra attack
At least six Iraqis and four US soldiers have been killed in fresh violence in Samarra, north of the capital, according to US military and hospital sources.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/9358B0C7-9223-4643-A1A7-10BFC5744956.htm

Philippines government bans travel to Iraq
Alarmed by the capture of a Filipino worker, the Philippines has ordered a complete halt of all travel to Iraq.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/F7CC6E91-6FFC-49B0-B1E0-C693277E1EB1.htm

Fleeing US soldiers seek asylum in Canada
Two US soldiers pleading for asylum in Canada after walking out on their units over fierce objections to the Iraq war have appeared in a Toronto courtroom.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/82045E8A-05AD-42FF-929A-A58740173248.htm

A U.S. fighter pilot appealing a dereliction of duty verdict in an accidental bombing that killed four Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan is also suing the Air Force.
http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2004/07/08/world/schmidt040708

A judge denied Martha Stewart's request for a new trial on Thursday, just days ahead of the home decorating icon's sentencing hearing.
http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2004/07/08/business/martha_040708

Svend Robinson to plead guilty to theft charge
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1089287074307_61/?hub=TopStories

Missing marine at U.S. Embassy in Lebanon
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1089282146923_99/?hub=TopStories

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency says Israel is concerned about Iran's nuclear ambitions.
http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=0FCBB843-92D7-4A47-933A9767E2E14035

 

[Paranoid Dot Calm]

Despite extraordinary steps by the Army to limit online public access to a new report on the Iraq war, the study has nevertheless been published without the Army's cooperation.

The Army recently completed a book-length study of Operation Iraqi Freedom entitled "On Point." It is a revealing and fairly critical account of lessons learned from the war.

Last month, the Center for Army Lessons Learned posted the study here:

http://onpoint.leavenworth.army.mil/

Incredibly, however, the web version of the Army document is coded in such a way that it cannot be downloaded, or copied, or printed out. It must be read online at the Army site, or not at all.

This may be unprecedented for a government web site. The very notion of a document that cannot be downloaded is antithetical to the web and seems like an artifact from an alternate universe. If the Axis powers had won World War II, the whole internet might look like this.

But in a marvelous feat of textual engineering, the intrepid Francois Boo of GlobalSecurity.org managed to overcome the Army's restrictive coding of the document and to make it publicly available.

It can now be found -- and downloaded or printed -- here:

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/2004/onpoint/

Among the highlights of the report is the disclosure that the toppling of the statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad was not a spontaneous act of an Iraqi crowd, but was instigated by a U.S. Marine colonel backed by a psychological operations unit (reported in the LA Times July 3).

 

[Paranoid Dot Calm]

Afghans Arrest Americans in Abuse Case
By Amir Shah
July 8, 2004

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Afghan forces arrested three Americans, including a purported former Green Beret, after raiding a jail they were allegedly running in the Afghan capital and finding prisoners hanging from their feet, officials said Thursday.

The U.S. military, facing a widening inquiry into prisoner abuse, quickly distanced itself from the three, who had been posing as American agents before being detained Monday. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Thursday "the U.S. government does not employ or sponsor these men."

Afghan officials also dismissed claims by the apparent ringleader, Jonathan K. Idema, that he was a "special adviser" to their security forces, saying the three had posed as military agents on a self-appointed hunt for terrorists.

The Americans and four Afghans who were detained along with them "formed a group and pretended they were fighting terrorism," Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali said. "They arrested eight people from across Kabul and put them in their jail."

Another Afghan security official said intelligence and police officials who raided the group's house Monday found the prisoners strung up by their feet.

"They were hanging upside down," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. He said a report showed the men also were beaten.

Jalali said the Americans had no "legal link" to any Afghan or other authorities.

Still, officials said they were seen regularly around Kabul wearing military uniforms and armed with assault rifles.

Idema, described in media reports as an ex-special forces operative known as "Jack," first appeared in Afghanistan in late 2001, when U.S. and allied Afghan forces routed the Taliban.

He featured prominently in a top-selling book, "The Hunt for Bin Laden," which says he fought for 10 months alongside the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance.

He also offered his services to Western television networks, including an apparent al-Qaida training video.

On Thursday, police gave an Associated Press reporter a business card apparently handed out by Idema.

The card bears an Afghan flag with a small Stars-and-Stripes at its center and a Northern Alliance flag. "Special Adviser" is printed on the bottom and "Jack" is scrawled in the Dari language at the top. None of the three phone numbers worked.

In Washington, Boucher confirmed Idema was one of the men in custody and identified another as Brent Bennett. He gave no other details.

One police official said Idema's group appeared to be behind the disappearance of a man in west Kabul three weeks ago.

The missing man was identified as Abdul Latif, and his wife told authorities she believed he had been taken into custody by members of the NATO-led force that patrols the capital, said the police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

He said three foreigners, dressed in military uniforms, returned to the house earlier this week, where police confronted them.

He said a man called Jack told the officers he had orders to arrest a terrorist before he could blow himself up in a government building. The three said they belonged to "an important network," but gave no other details, the police official said.

Jalali said all eight prisoners found Monday were released. It was not clear how long they had been held.

There was no sign of Latif, however, at his house in a quiet residential street of Kabul's Khoshal Khan district.

Two men who answered the door Thursday said they were refugees who had returned recently from Iran and the previous tenant's wife had recently moved out.

Idema and the two others were seized by Afghan police and intelligence officers in downtown Kabul on Monday. Jalali said the men were operating in Kabul under the guise of working for an export company.

On Thursday, uniformed Afghan intelligence officers refused to admit reporters into the house where the eight prisoners had been found in the city's Kart-e-Parwan district, which was barely visible over a high wall topped with barbed wire.

Residents said foreigners had lived there and they had noticed nothing suspicious.

The U.S. military took the unusual step Monday -- before news of his detention was widely known -- of distancing itself from Idema, saying in a statement: "The public should be aware that Idema does not represent the American government and we do not employ him."

A spokeswoman would give no details of Idema's activities, insisting Afghan authorities were leading the investigation.

U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Beth Lee said Thursday the Americans had been visited by U.S. officials, but she had no information on whether the United States had sought to take them into custody.

 

[Paranoid Dot Calm]

Breck Girl Takes On Dr. No
By Maureen Dowd
July 8, 2004

I'm happy for John Kerry.

Long-faced guy, as some Bushies refer to him, finally found somebody to stand at the podium and give him an adoring look.

Heaven knows Teresa was never going to do it. Her attention rarely seems to light on her husband when she's at a microphone with him.

It's sort of mesmerizing, really. She's unlike any other political wife I've ever seen — unscripted and ready to do as she likes, in her intriguing, world-weary way, even as her second husband introduced his running mate at her adored first husband's 88-acre, $3.7 million "farm" in suburban Pittsburgh. The white-columned colonial mansion and swimming pool were out of sight and bales of hay strategically placed to give a populist touch.

She doesn't gaze like Nancy or glare like Lee Hart or look appraisingly at her husband like Elizabeth Edwards. She doesn't always seem to notice he's there. When Mr. Kerry moves in for a nuzzle or a kiss, she sometimes makes a little face.

She's easily distracted, waving and mouthing "Hello" at the audience and languidly arranging her hair and the red-and-blue "John Kerry for President" scarves she designed.

She siphons attention from a husband who has a hard enough time getting it. Yesterday, she distracted the audience when she seemed to be trying to get young Jack Edwards to stop sucking his thumb. Sometimes she'll laugh and smile in inappropriate places — she once chuckled while her husband talked about curbing tax breaks for the rich.

Teresa has the air, as Chris Matthews noted, of an old-fashioned European movie star. She projects a quality like Marlene Dietrich or Jeanne Moreau, a sultry touch-me-and-you-die look with an accent to match: a rare political perfume of I don't give a hoot, I'm worth a billion dollars and you're not and he's not and the Bushes are not; of I have four mansions and he doesn't; of I'm so confident I can admit to using Botox and I can wear Chanel while my husband complains about manufacturing jobs' going overseas.

Her detachment seems all the more appealing now that John Kerry can't stop patting and grabbing his new pup, John Edwards. Mr. Edwards awkwardly reciprocates, sliding his arm around the big guy's torso.

(But nothing was as painful as watching Mr. Kerry determinedly trying to cavort on the farm's lawn with the adorable little Jack.)

Ordinarily, the John-John ticket might seem a bit off-putting — a little too glib, a little too ingratiating, a little too forced, a little too expedient, a little too eager to please. But when the competition is two oilmen who don't seem to want to please anybody but Halliburton and the Saudis — ask Pat Leahy, Old Europe and the 9/11 panel — overeagerness is a relief.

It's hilarious that the Republicans are trying to paint their ticket as the more optimistic one.

Mr. Cheney and Mr. Bush radiate negativity, even as Mr. Edwards and his photogenic blond kids glow for the cameras. Dick Cheney glowers for the camera, a Dr. No with a dark vision that has resulted in a gigantic global mess. (When he was stopped by applause at a campaign stop in Altoona, Pa., on Sunday, he asked, "You guys want to hear this speech or not?")

Unfortunately for this White House, it is Mr. Edwards's great talent to talk about the class warfare of "two Americas" in a sunny way. The Breck Girl is already getting under the Boy King's thin skin.

President Bush should have easily knocked a question about Mr. Edwards — nicknamed the Breck Girl by Bush officials — out of the park. But he whiffed. Steve Holland of Reuters noted that Senator Edwards was being described "as charming, engaging, a nimble campaigner, a populist and even sexy. How does he stack up against Dick Cheney?"

W. should have given a sly smile and drawled, "You mean you don't find Vice sexy?" Instead, he looked irritated and spit out his answer: "Dick Cheney can be president." Indeed, he already is.

Except for the fact that the Secret Service has already advised journalists to bring "escape hood respirators" to the Democratic convention in Boston in case of a terrorist attack, it looks as if happy campaign days are here again.