Morning Call

Fireworks in Washington, despair around the world

Since George Bush was re-elected over 200 more US soldiers have been killed in Iraq. Each new day brings another 70 attacks on the occupation forces as the territory dominated by the insurgents expands and the area which the occupiers can safely patrol shrinks. This week a senior Kurdish leader, although a supporter of the occupation, admitted that for a lot of its citizens, "the Iraqi government exists only on television"...

The president and his speechwriters have yet to confront the tension between their rhetoric about freedom, which is universally popular, and their practice of projecting US firepower, which is resented in equal measure. That explains why, on the very day when the president set forward his mission to bring liberty to the world, a poll revealed that a large majority of its inhabitants believe that he will actually make it more dangerous. The first indication of whether they are right to worry will be whether the Bush administration mediate their differences with Iran through the state department or through the US air force.

American Perverts Upset, Aroused by Greek Nudity

A clutch of complaints by U.S. viewers that the Athens Olympics opening ceremony featured lewd nudity has incensed the Games chief, who warned American regulators to back off from policing ancient Greek culture.

"As Americans surely are aware, there is great hostility in the world today to cultural domination in which a single value system created elsewhere diminishes and degrades local cultures. In this context, it is astonishingly unwise for an agency of the U.S. government to engage in an investigation that could label a presentation of the Greek origins of civilisation as unfit for television viewing."

U.S. Military Preparing PULLOUT

Meanwhile, the U.S. military says it is preparing to wind down tsunami relief efforts around the Indian Ocean. The comments were made by the chief of the U.S. Pacific Command, Admiral Thomas Fargo, and came after he toured the devastated areas of Thailand, Indonesia and Sri Lanka.

Fargo says international aid is starting to focus on reconstruction and it is now time to gradually reduce the military's huge initial deployment. He says operations will be gradually transferred to the host nations and various international organizations.

Fargo says the U.S. military has no deadline, but is looking to withdraw by late next month.

from the Department of Sweep It Under The Rug
FCC Orders Probe of Williams-Bush Deal

The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission ordered an investigation Friday into whether conservative commentator Armstrong Williams broke the law by failing to disclose he was paid by the Bush administration to plug the president's education agenda...

Also Friday, two Democratic senators asked the Government Accountability Office, Congress' investigative arm, to review whether any other federal agencies have paid commentators to support the administration's agenda.

But for a more insightful look at the Armstrong Williams Dirty Deal, read Black Commentator's Armstrong Williams, The Biggest Whore of All.




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