Commentary Corporate colonialism Village Voice by James Ridgeway

"Like one of the 19th-century European colonial empires, the Bush government is calling on Bechtel, Halliburton, and other major corporations to take over the job of running the Iraqi colony. These companies are to act in the name of the government. They are to be paid out of our taxes. It might just as well be the British East India company. The colonial corporations become the instrument of the nation-state, in this case to undertake the reconstruction of Iraq. They, not the government, are the purveyors of laws and customs and democratic ideals." (04/24/03)

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0317/mondo1.php


Commentary New Fox reality show to determine ruler of Iraq The Onion by staff

"Fox executives Monday unveiled their latest reality-TV venture, Appointed By America, a new series in which contestants vie for the top spot in Iraq's post-war government.... Describing the new show as 'American Idol meets the reconstruction of Afghanistan,' Darnell said Appointed By America will feature contestants squaring off in a variety of challenges, including a democracy quiz, a talent competition, and nation-building activities that will demonstrate their ability to lead a bombed-out, war-ravaged Mideast country." (satire) (04/23/03)

http://www.theonion.com/onion3915/new_fox_reality_show.html


Commentary Turn it off Strike the Root by Craig Russell

"Chances are you have one of the most insidiously dangerous objects ever created -- and one of the State’s most powerful tools of domination -- in your living room right now. You may very well have one in your bedroom, too, and in your basement. It’s insidious because most Americans don’t think of them as dangerous, nor do they think of them as tools of State domination; otherwise they wouldn’t have them in their homes. In fact, most Americans love them. Most can’t go a single day without them. You might even say they were addicted to them.
I’m talking, of course, about television." (04/24/03)

http://www.strike-the-root.com/3/russell/russell4.html

Commentary Do you regret being an American? Strike the Root by Annie Higgins

"There has been a continuing stream of reasons for regret, from my country's support of assassination in Palestine to -- come to think of it, to my country's support of assassination in Iraq, and these are just the obvious ones. But my country doesn't really support such evil deeds. My constitution, my neighborly culture, my conviction in the rightness of freedom of speech -- these things define my country. These are not pushing invasion and occupation of another nation. Those making the decisions and taking the actions that shame us all are not of the American people, nor for us." (04/24/03)

http://www.counterpunch.org/higgins04242003.html

Commentary Short-sighted U.S. foreign policy spells trouble ahead Yellow Times by Firas Al-Atraqchi

"U.S. foreign policy is as astounding in its fallibility as it is in its short sightedness. The Bush administration's plans for Iraq are faltering primarily due to incompetence, cultural ignorance, and ethnocentricity. These mistakes have all come on the heels of the toppling of Saddam's statue, an infamous moment in history." (04/24/03)

http://www.yellowtimes.org/article.php?sid=1289&mode=thread&order=0

Commentary The Baghdad deal Asia Times by Pepe Escobar

"Much of the world was surprised. After the spirited resistance in the south of Iraq, how could Baghdad possibly have fallen in only two days? An Asia Times Online investigation in Baghdad, Tikrit and Najaf has yielded a clear certainty among Iraqis, both Sunni and Shi'ite, as to the answer: The Pentagon and the Ba'ath Party leadership made a safqua ('secret deal' in Arabic) for the (almost) bloodless fall of Baghdad. Crucially, this safqua may have included a package of American green cards for top Republican and Special Republican Guard commanders and their families." (04/25/03)

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/ED25Ak04.html

===========
News We've got nukes, North Korea warns Sydney Morning Herald

"North Korea's lead official at nuclear weapons talks in China told a US envoy that his country has nuclear weapons and may test, export or use them depending on US actions, a senior American official said today.The comment was made by North Korean delegate Ri Gun to US Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly during a social gathering yesterday following formal discussions on the North's nuclear weapons program." (04/25/03)


http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/04/25/1050777388004.html


News Lazy gardeners face fines Ananova

"Residents in a Czech town face fines of up to £650 if they let weeds grow in their gardens. Karvina town council is introducing a special weeds commission which will monitor gardens from the beginning of June.... The move is among several measures included in a new set of by-laws designed to 'provide cleanliness and public order' in the town. The by-laws include bans on spitting, throwing cigarette butts on the street and drinking in public places." (04/24/03)

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_773822.html?menu=news.quirkies


News The Dixie strips NY Post

"The Bush-bashing Dixie Chicks have struck back at their critics by baring their souls -- and their bodies.
The country stars appear nude on the cover of next week's 'Entertainment Weekly,' with contradicting slogans painted on their skin: Saddam's Angels, Dixie Sluts, Patriot, Proud Americans.... 'We wanted to show the absurdity of the extreme names people have been calling us,' Maguire said about the band's cheeky pose for photographer James White." (04/24/03)

http://www.nypost.com/news/nationalnews/74257.htm


News Americans accused of turning blind eye to killings by Kurds Independent

"A bitter conflict is unfolding in northern Iraq between two minority communities, with the Americans accused of turning a blind eye to killings and ethnic cleansing.
The Kurds, the victims of oppression by Saddam Hussein and previous regimes in Baghdad, are being blamed for a violent campaign of intimidation against the Turkoman population. Organisations representing the Turkomans say they want British and European troops to protect them because the Americans are acquiescing in what is taking place." (04/23/03)

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=399572

News Iraqi children die as infections spread Islam Online

"For five days Samya Ilihadi has prayed over her son like a machine at Baghdad's main children's hospital, waving a cloth over his sunken eyes and swollen belly to try to keep him cool. Her five-month-old boy Hassan is just one of thousands of Iraqi children caught in a deadly outbreak of diarrhea and other infections which have erupted in the aftermath of the war, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said. 'They are being caused, especially in the capital Baghdad, by a vicious combination of water contamination, electricity blackouts which are rotting food, tones of garbage which have piled up in the streets and open sewage.'" (04/24/03)

http://islamonline.net/English/News/2003-04/24/article05.shtml

News Free State Project considers Wyoming Cheyenne Network

"A Yale political science student wants to set up a libertarian utopia in a sparsely populated U.S. state. Wyoming is a strong contender. Wyoming is under consideration because of its low population (less than 500 thousand), and therefore small number of voters, among other factors. Jason Sorens, founder of the project, told WyomingNetwork 'Wyoming is an attractive state for many Free Staters because of the self-reliant, independent attitudes of its citizenry, its low taxes, its open spaces, and the oft-demonstrated willingness of the state government to challenge the federal government when it oversteps its constitutional limits.'" (04/24/03)

http://www.cheyennenetwork.com/today/news/state10.asp

News Elderly victim turns tables on teen car jacker ABC7 Chicago

"The 76-year-old victim was at a gas station near the corner of Garfield Boulevard and Princeton late last night when an 18-year-old suspect tried to take his car at gunpoint. Details are sketchy, but police say that instead of surrendering the victim struggled with the suspect. During the altercation the gun went off. The bullet struck and killed the younger man." (04/23/03)

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/news/042303_ns_carjacking.html


News Homeowner shoots, kills home invader Columbus NBC 4 News

"A robbery suspect died Tuesday night after a homeowner apparently used his gun to stop an apparent home invasion. When police arrived they found a man in the front yard with gunshot wounds to his upper body. The victim was transported to Mount Carmel Hospital West and died at 11:16 p.m. Police said that they believe that the man who died had broken into the home." (04/23/03)

http://www.nbc4columbus.com/news/2152445/detail.html

Commentary Iraq war, rated PG-13 for US audiences
Daily Times by Ahmad Faruqui

"A majority of Americans feel the war in Iraq would be justified even if no weapons of mass destruction were found there. This comes as no surprise, since the war they saw on TV 24-hours a day was a 'good war'. America’s bravest sons and daughters risked their lives to free the 24 million people of Iraq from an evil tyrant .... American viewers were spared the carnage of war. But those who read the American print media found ample evidence that this war was no different from other wars of history. US Lieutenant-Colonel Bryan McCoy, whose unit killed 92 Iraqis and took 44 prisoners during the war without the loss of a single Marine, was quoted by TIME in its April 14 issue as saying: 'Let’s quit pussyfooting and call it what it is. It’s murder, it’s slaughter, its clubbing baby harp seals.'" (04/23/03)

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_22-4-2003_pg3_2

Commentary If you thought Patriot I was bad Too Good Reports by Chuck Baldwin

"What the Clinton administration could not accomplish in 8 years, the Bush administration is doing in less than 4. What international terrorists such as Osama bin Laden could not do through violence, power-hungry politicians within our own government are doing through bureaucratic and congressional statute. Even worse, the American people seem content to let it happen. Patrick Henry must be rolling over in his grave!" (04/22/03)

http://toogoodreports.com/column/general/baldwin/20030422.htm

Commentary We interrupt this broadcast Village Voice by Mark Fiore

Cartoon by Mark Fiore (04/23/03)
http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0317/fiore.php


Commentary Red means Big Brother's in charge Village Voice by Chisun Lee

"If the nation were actually to reach red alert status, odds are the 'Privacy Threat Index' color chart at epic.org would be wiped from the virtual world. Red means the government controls everything, the lives of Americans online and off. And the Washington, D.C.-based Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), a watchdog group focusing on privacy and technology, is a frequent critic and courtroom challenger of the surveillance-minded Bush administration." (04/23/03)

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0317/lee.php

Commentary Bush barbarians teach by example Counter Punch by Chris Floyd

"As the desolation -- sorry, liberation -- of Iraq continued apace, the Masters moved quickly and efficiently to secure the country's oilfields, but they blithely and deliberately failed to secure the lives of innocent people left in bombed-out cities without any system of law or governance. Unlike oil rigs -- which, after all, could be restored if something happened to them -- the actual human beings destroyed in the chaos that followed the invaders' high-tech blitzkrieg cannot be replaced -- not even by no-bid, $7 billion reconstruction contracts to Dick Cheney's Halliburton." (04/23/03)

http://www.counterpunch.org/floyd04232003.html

Commentary No wonder nobody believes you, Mr. Bush Yellow Times by Dr. Farish A. Noor

"Some of us may think that the USA is a force for peace and good in the world. Some may even welcome further American intervention in other countries -- including Malaysia -- to help them further their own short-sighted political agendas. But we should not forget that America's own record as far as its aggressive foreign policy is concerned is far from rosy. For them, we offer this short lesson in American-ASEAN relations." (04/23/03)

http://www.yellowtimes.org/article.php?sid=1285&mode=thread&order=0


==========================
News Children held at Camp Xray, US admits Australia Broadcast Co.

"The US military has revealed it is holding juveniles
at its high-security prison for terrorists at
Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, known as Camp Xray. The commander of the joint task force at Guantanamo,
Major General Geoffrey Miller, says more than one
child under the age of 16 is at the detention centre.
The children are still being interrogated and will
continue to be held at Guantanamo." (04/22/03)

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s836988.htm

News Model sues city over topless parade arrest Ananova

"A woman arrested for parading topless through a part of New York, is to receive £6,000 after claiming her freedom of expression was violated. Amy Gunderson, 31, sued the city claiming her First Amendment rights were violated when she was arrested for wearing only a thong and body paint at the 2001 Mermaid Parade in Coney Island." (04/23/03)

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_773482.html?menu=news.quirkies

News Toronto is put into 'quarantine' over Sars outbreak
Independent

"Toronto, the largest city in Canada, was placed under an unexpected quasi-quarantine yesterday after the World Health Organisation put it on a list of three destinations people should avoid because of severe acute respiratory syndrome. The advice, issued as the global death toll reached 251, said Toronto, Beijing and the Chinese province of Shanxi were places to avoid because of the risk of catching the virus. The organisation had previously warned against travel to Hong Kong and the Chinese province of Guangdong." (04/24/03)

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_medical/story.jsp?story=399870

News Bush says no new war planned BBC News

"US President George W Bush has said he has no plans for any new military action following the conflict in Iraq.... He also played down fears about Shia fundamentalism in Iraq, saying he was pleased Iraqis now had freedom to express their religion The president said of the financial cost of the war: 'I told the American people it didn't matter how much it cost to win the war, we're going to spend it.'" (04/23/03)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2968923.stm

News Homeowner shoots, kills intruder Statesman Journal

"A South Salem homeowner shot and killed an intruder Saturday morning when he found him starting a fire in his garage .... The shooting followed an apparent confrontation with a suspected burglar who had started a fire with boxes in the attached garage of the house, said Lt. Dave Okada of the Salem Police Department... the suspected burglar was shot in the neck when he came at Stordahl, who was armed with a handgun." (04/20/03)

http://news.statesmanjournal.com/article.cfm?i=60294

News New landmine is a real shocker Sydney Morning Herald

"From the country that brought us the atom bomb, the cluster bomb and the so-called mother of all bombs comes the 'non-lethal' landmine -- a nasty little critter that can fire 12 pairs of darts independently at different targets, with a battery capable of delivering up to 200 three-second shocks of 50,000 volts.... The Pentagon, though, is interested in an automatic version that would be a de-facto landmine, dispersed to create no-go areas. The device would satisfy the 1997 Ottowa Convention, which bans explosive landmines, but experts fear it could still be lethal." (04/24/03)

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/04/24/1050777336512.html

Commentary Freedom for Iraq? SC Libertarian Party by Doug Kendall

"The Bush Administration says it wants to 'liberate' Iraq and bring 'freedom' to that country's people. Are they talking about the same kind of freedom that we are experiencing, here in the USA? Under American 'freedom' and 'democracy,' we have books and other literary items that adults cannot read, because they have been banned -- books such as the recently-banned The Federal Mafia." (04/20/03)

http://www.sc.lp.org/Press/4_13a_03.html

Commentary Freedom begins at home Laissez Faire Times by George F. Smith

"A tyranny is a government in which a single ruler is vested with absolute power. We call such rulers tyrants. But notice: most people hold Hussein in contempt not because he's a bad tyrant, but because he's bad. Tyranny per se is not unpopular. Many people have wanted a stronger presidency following 9-11, no matter what the cost. And we're getting it. Indeed, if Bush has continued success with his bum-of-the-month tour of Third World tyrannies, the election of 2004 could turn out to be a coronation." (04/22/03)

http://freedom.orlingrabbe.com/lfetimes/freedom_home.htm

Commentary At last! The necessary evidence Counter Punch by Gary Leupp

"Imagine you are Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense [sic] and de facto Secretary of State. You ... have insisted for many months that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction threatening me here in Boston. Your troops encountered no such weapons in their invasion, and have found none since the occupation began.... One option is to simply fed-ex the anthrax to Iraq and stage its discovery, rather like you staged the jubilant welcome by kids waving U.S. flags on one or more streets in Baghdad as it was liberated. There are risks in that, which you've listed and mulled over carefully. A more refined approach would be to plant a story in the New York Times, a reliable vehicle in the past for such operations ..." (04/22/03)

http://www.counterpunch.org/leupp04222003.html

Commentary What Republicans deserve The Libertarian Enterprise by Anthony Gregory

"Sometimes I think Republicans deserve every tax they whine about, every gun law they resent, and every edict that keeps them from praying in public schools.... Why am I being so harsh? Why am I saying the Republicans deserve to be harassed by my greatest enemy -- the state? Because for too long they've watched Lady Liberty get raped and beaten, sitting on the sidelines and cheering on the brutality, salivating at the sight of America's one truly singular value -- freedom -- being turned into a pile of violated, mutilated raw meat." (04/21/03)

http://www.webleyweb.com/tle/libe220-20030421-02.html

Commentary Don't believe all the patriotic fire on American TV Independent by Rupert Cornwall

"There have been times, living in America of late, when it seemed I was back in the Communist Moscow I left a dozen years ago. Turn on the local all-news radio station, and between the war bulletins, there's Lockheed Martin running spots extolling its commitment to national security and American greatness .... Everyone, it seems, is on-side and on-message. Just like it used to be when the hammer and sickle flew over the Kremlin. Those vanished Central Committee propaganda bosses would have been proud of how the Bush crowd, who operate with a similar hermetic secrecy, are running things." (04/23/03)

http://argument.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=399525

Commentary A first strike could cost the world Sydney Morning Herald by John Edwards

"Negotiations between the United States and North Korea were scheduled to begin today and it is much too early to judge how the crisis will play out. But we can confidently predict that it cannot possibly play out as the Iraq crisis played out, because the risk presented by a military solution to North Korea's ambition to acquire nuclear weapons is a global economic and financial calamity as damaging to America and her friends in the region as to her enemies." (04/23/03)

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/04/22/1050777252668.html


=================
News Thailand claims success in war on drugs MAPINC/Phuket Gazette

"Phuket Governor CEO Pongpayome Vasaputi has announced that more than three quarters of those on Phuket's black list of drug dealers are now under arrest or dead .... 181 of Phuket's blacklisted drug dealers were arrested and five others died, bringing the total of those no longer dealing drugs in the province to 186 people, or 77.5% of the 240 names on the blacklist of drug-dealers.... A total of 734 drug users surrendered to the government and 528 of these received treatment. The provincial blacklist of drug users initially contained 704 names." (04/22/03)

http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n572/a04.html?397

News Hemp dealers offer taste at rally Cleveland Plain Dealer

"Three people were giving away hemp food products at East Third Street and Lakeside Avenue in Cleveland yesterday, trying to bring attention to new Drug Enforcement Administration hemp guidelines that they say would have made hemp foods illegal." (04/22/03)

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/105100416

News Moshul dangerously close to civil war Yellow Times News

"Sources in Mosul with access to satellite phones (Iraqi entrepreneurs are selling a minute of conversation for 10 U.S. dollars) have said that the city is on the verge of a civil war. All the military hardware abandoned by the Iraqi Army and Republican Guard have been confiscated by the PUK and KDP Kurdish factions who are now employing them to threaten the Arab, Chaldean Christian, and Turkomen communities in the north, the sources say." (04/21/03)

http://www.yellowtimes.org/article.php?sid=1276&mode=thread&order=0

News Organ-allocation club criticized New Orleans Times-Picayune

"The 60-year-old Metairie man suffers from congestive heart failure and has only one fully functioning kidney, so he expects he'll need an organ transplant someday.
But because the odds of getting a medically acceptable organ can be slim -- 6,187 Americans died waiting for organs last year -- he decided to hedge his bets. He joined LifeSharers, an Internet-based network whose members agree not only to donate their organs when they die but also to give other members first dibs on their body parts." (04/22/03)

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1050990941125910.xml

News Car ticketed after yellow lines appear Ananova

"A teenager has been given a parking ticket after double-yellow lines were painted on either side of his car.... The charity worker parked his Peugeot 205 so he could catch a train to Birmingham.... He said that when he moved his car there was a car-length gap between the sets of yellow lines. A Stoke-on-Trent City Council spokesman said Jack's £28 ticket had been rescinded. 'It is normal practice for contractors to paint yellow lines around cars and then the gaps to be filled in later,' he said. 'What is not normal is for cars to then be ticketed.'" (04/22/03)

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_773260.html?menu=news.quirkies

News Ex-hoops player kills home intruder San Antonio News

"Fennis Dembo, 37, who played one season for the Detroit Pistons, was at home when he heard someone inside his house on the 400 block of North Pine Street, police said.
Dembo told the man to stop before shooting at him seven times .... The unidentified intruder was shot in the head, chest and arm, and taken to Brooke Army Medical Center where he was pronounced dead at 3:32 a.m." (04/21/03)

http://news.mysanantonio.com/story.cfm?xla=saen&xlb=180&xlc=983819

News SARS mutating becoming more virulent Sydney Morning Herald

"The deadly SARS virus appears to be becoming more virulent, attacking the intestines as well as the respiratory system, according to a leading Hong Kong microbiologist. Speaking on Hong Kong radio station RTHK, Professor Malik Peiris of Hong Kong University said the change might indicate the virus had mutated, as many experts feared." (04/23/03)

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/04/22/1050777253672.html

Commentary Bush's political ends always justify the means The Libertarian Enterprise by Todd Andrew Barnett

"Do we, as American citizens, have the moral, ethical, legal, and constitutional right to invade any country, 'liberate' the people from the vestiges of slavery and tyranny, and place them under a different system of slavery and tyranny -- all propped up by our own government?" (04/21/03)


http://webleyweb.com/tle/libe220-20030421-06.html

Commentary No more flyboy foreign policy Strike the Root by Douglass Hermann

"The hubris, the self-righteousness, of our flyboys at the controls of airship America -- smirking and cocky as hell -- is akin to that of Icarus launching himself at the sun. Never mind the caution of cooler military heads; most of them have either been forced into silence or early retirement." (04/21/03)

http://www.strike-the-root.com/3/herman/herman2.html

Commentary Thank you for not shutting up Strike the Root by Cat Farmer

"This column is dedicated to the courageous journalists, activists, and artists who have kept a finger of dissent close enough to the public eye to keep it watchful. Only the fear of becoming blind can prevent blindness on a national scale; the reflexive action of the nation is to close its eye to anything that reflects an unsightly image. Blindness is as blindness does; vision is more imperceptive than sightlessness when it chooses only to observe pleasant reflections of itself." (04/21/03)

http://www.strike-the-root.com/3/farmer/farmer6.html

Commentary Next stop, Syria Strike the Root by Anthony Karnowski

"Am I alone in thinking these people are completely crazy? Seriously, what the hell are they thinking? We have just come out of an illegal war that has changed most of the world’s opinion of us, and now they want to start another one? Is there really anyone in this nation of ours that is truly secure with being seen by the rest of the international community as a rogue state? " (04/21/03)


http://www.strike-the-root.com/3/karnowski/karnowski2.html


News Pols find place to live in D.C. with secretive religious group Chicago Sun Times

"Six members of Congress live in a $1.1 million Capitol Hill town house that is subsidized by a secretive religious organization, tax records show. The lawmakers, all Christians, pay low rent to live in the stately red brick, three-story house on C Street, two blocks from the Capitol. It is maintained by a group alternately known as the 'Fellowship' and the 'Foundation' and brings together world leaders and elected officials through religion.... Few in the Fellowship are willing to talk about its mission. It organizes the annual National Prayer Breakfast attended by the president, members of Congress and dignitaries from around the world." (04/21/03)

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-rel21.html

News Classes to stop bunnies behaving badly Ananova

"An animal expert will this week begin teaching pet owners how to train unruly rabbits. Pet behaviour counsellor Emma Magnus, 33, believes that her rabbit training clinic in Kesgrave, Suffolk, will be the first of its kind in the UK." (04/20/03)

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_772532.html?menu=news.quirkies

Commentary The search for WMDs The Onion by staff

"US military personnel continue to search Iraq for weapons of mass destruction. What have they found?" (satire) (04/16/03)

http://www.theonion.com/onion3914/infograph_3914.html

News DARPA cancels open-source software project after anti-war comments Salon

"The U.S. military's research agency cut off grant money for helping to develop a secure, free operating system after a top programmer made anti-war statements to a major newspaper. The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency halted the contract less than two weeks after The Globe and Mail of Toronto published a story in which programmer Theo de Raadt was quoted as saying he was "uncomfortable" about the funding source." (04/18/03)

http://www.salon.com/tech/wire/2003/04/18/darpa/index.html

News N.Korea reprocessing 8,000 nuclear fuel rods Reuters

"Communist North Korea said on Friday it was
'successfully reprocessing' more than 8,000 spent fuel rods under its nuclear program that will be the focus of talks with the United States and China next week. 'The Iraqi war teaches a lesson that in order to prevent a war and defend the security of a country and the sovereignty of a nation it is necessary to have a powerful physical deterrent force only," the North's KCNA news agency said on Friday, quoting a foreign ministry spokesman.'" (04/18/03)

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=2589493&src=eDialog/GetContent

News U.S. told to leave Iraq Swiss Info

"Iraq's neighbours, led by Saudi Arabia, are telling the United States to get out of the country as soon as
possible and keep its hands off Iraqi oil. As U.S.-led forces struggle to reconnect key services such as water and power, foreign ministers of eight Middle Eastern
states said on Saturday the United States had to restore order and then leave so that Iraqis could form their own government." (04/19/03)

http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/Swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=1774613

News Feds target domestic-born terrorists of April 19 ilk
Arizona Republic

"The federal government has had remarkable success in (the past year) getting rid of many of the most vocal leadership' of homegrown extremist groups, said Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism in San Bernardino, Calif.... 'The idea is that any time we can nail someone who is potentially dangerous, we do it,' he said. 'It's now a prevention, however you can do it. The heightened response to international terrorism has ensnared domestic terrorists in their net. It's one of the byproducts of 9/11.'" (04/19/03)

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0419page2fill19.html

News Terror 'risk' closes miniature village Ananova

"Owners of a miniature village say they have been forced to delay opening because insurers will not provide cover because of a heightened threat from terrorism. 'We were set to open on April 12 but were told just a few days before that the site was uninsurable because of the high risk factor.'" (04/18/03)

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_771996.html?menu=news.quirkies

News Store owner shoots would be robber Channel 6 News New Orleans

"New Orleans police are investigating a Thursday morning robbery attempt at a Lakeview convenience store, where the store's owner and the suspect exchanged gunfire, leaving the store owner wounded and the suspect dead.... the suspect entered the store, produced a handgun and demanded money from the 58-year-old store owner. The supect then forced the victim behind the counter, where the store owner retrieved his own weapon and fired at the suspect. Both exchanged gunfire." (04/17/03)

http://www.theneworleanschannel.com/news/2119506/detail.html

==========================
Commentary Wait for Syria Danziger Cartoons by Jeff Danziger

"We're going to delay our attack on Syria ..." cartoon by Jeff Danziger.

http://www.danzigercartoons.com/cmp/2003/danziger1626.html


Commentary The SAPS epidemic Working for Change by Tom Tomorrow

"Strenuously assertive patriotism syndrome". Cartoon by Tom Tomorrow. (04/17/03)

http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=14841&CFID=6678621&CFTOKEN=45394424


Commentary Fun & games with Philosophy The Philosophers Magazine

Series of interactive games to testyour philosophical best. Includes Test your knowledge of philosophy in this interactive quiz. See if you can silence your computer opponent. Battleground God - Will your beliefs about God and religion survive on our intellectual battlefield?

http://www.philosophers.co.uk/games/games.htm]


Commentary Unfinished business Time Maagazine by Nancy Gibbs

"Nothing but a battle lost, said Wellington of Waterloo, can be half so melancholy as a battle won. And so it is as the war in Iraq turns into a fight for peace and a nation's soul. The conflict may be over, but the combat hasn't stopped. Markets are open, but the lights are still out, and there are shortages of everything but flies. Iraqis are free to march through the streets demanding that U.S. troops pull out, and to walk up to Marines and ask why there aren't more of them to help
keep the peace. The oil wells have been kept safe, but many ancient treasures are lost. Bodies have piled up, and the gravediggers have disappeared, so it's up to people to bury their own. Peace is painted in more subtle colors than the black, white and blood-red days of war." (04/20/03)

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/printout/0,8816,444892,00.html

Commentary Can non-violence overthrow an oppressive dictator? Hunter Thinks by Hunter Hogan

"Benigno Aquino's widow, Corazon Aquino, ran against Marcos in a presidential election in 1986. When the government announced that Marcos had won, the people were stunned. They knew that their voice had been oppressed again.Millions of Filipinos took to the streets in non-violent protest. In less than four days, Marcos was overthrown. Non-violence was and still is more powerful than oppression. Following the overthrow, there was neither looting nor killing; the momentum of non-violence kept the peace after the oppression ended." (04/20/03)

http://www.hunterthinks.com/politics/history/philippines.html

Commentary Remembering April 19th The Libertarian Enterprise by Peter Vinton, Jr.

"It is with great sadness and not a little fear that I write this essay. Certainly the words 'April Nineteenth' don't set off emotions at the same level as 'July Fourth,' 'December Seventh,' or 'September Eleventh.' I am distressed that Americans nowadays must acknowledge April 19th as twin anniversary dates of tragedy, rather than the proud moment in our nation's history that the date should inspire. " (04/21/03)

http://www.webleyweb.com/tle/libe220-20030421-03.html