Author: Gareth

Bigger than the Downing Street Memo…

Jeremy Scahill has written an article on the website of The Nation, revealing that the War in Iraq was begun almost immediately following the Downing Street Memo…and months before it was declared.

The RAF and US aircraft doubled the rate at which they were dropping bombs on Iraq in an attempt to provoke Saddam Hussein into giving the allies an excuse for war. The Times of London cites newly released statistics from the British Defense Ministry showing that the Allies dropped twice as many bombs on Iraq in the second half of 2002 as they did during the whole of 2001 and that “a full air offensive” (in other words, a war) was under way months before the invasion had officially begun. Supposedly part of enforcing “no fly zones,” the bombings were actually systematic assaults on Iraq’s capacity to defend itself. Targets included telephone exchange buildings, ground units of the Republican Guard (because we all know that ground units violate no-fly zones all the time, right?), and radar installations. The US had never declared war. Bush had no authorization. He was simply attacking another nation because he’d decided to do so. This preemptive war preempted our own Congress, as well as international law.

Of course, this will most likely be ignored by the American media as well.

Rep. John Conyers (D-Michigan) and other Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee are holding a public forum (they can’t be called “hearings”, because no Republicans are showing up) on the Downing Street Memo, and these newly uncovered facts. Of course, CNN (and the rest of the American media) are reporting it as a minor, partisan event. Much more important to spend coverage time on Michael Jackson, after all.

It only takes one member of Congress to begin an impeachment process. Conyers has said he’s considering it. I hope he does–that’s a sexy enough story that the mediawhores couldn’t possibly ignore it.

Attention Browncoats: You May Goob Now.

Check this out:

A PDF of the script for a never-filmed FIREFLY episode!

Grab it while you can….

Just read a great blog entry by Karen Finley, over at The Huffington Post, about the failure of NYC’s Republican Mayor to get a plan to build a new Olympic Stadium passed.

My favorite exerpt:

Let me tell you the real reason the Olympic stadium didn’t go through: It’s payback time. New York City is sick and tired of having the party in their house, providing the booze, food, the space and then everyone putting their cigarettes out on our rug. After last summer’s hosting of the Republican Convention, (even though 75 percent of Manhattan voted for Kerry) New Yorkers have had enough.

During the Republican Convention last year, the city turned into a military zone, with unnecessary sweeping arrests. Citizens were held in mass holdings at the pier. The military and police were lined along thoroughfares, visibly armed. Pedestrians were regularly searched, stopped. Democrats watched the Republicans USE The Red Apple, exploit Ground Zero as a backdrop to justify the occupation and war in Iraq. Then leave us being a standing duck.

Republicans came to our town for fun, then in a month felt guilt and made it all better with continuing the agenda of No Stem Research, No Gay Marriage. Everything done here, stays here. And that needs to change. Believe me the Republicans didn’t come to New York for the weather in August. They came for the clubs, the loving, the sex, the art. No one said, “Oh I can’t wait to have the Republican Convention in a town that doesn’t serve liquor and you go to church when you can’t sleep.”

We have had enough of our city’s Red Alert, being used as an erotic zone for conservatives to facilitate their agenda at our expense. They are pimping us. Ground Zero’s fear becomes propaganda to continue the Patriot Act.

Amen.

I remember, right around the time the war started, graffitti and t-shirts started to appear in the city, saying “U.S. OUT OF NYC”—there was even the occasional wild-eyed rant about seceding…becoming a “Free City-state.” I tell ya, if that happened, as much as I love the friends that I have here, I’d be packing my shit and heading back east in a heartbeat.