Bartcop Entertainment - Tuesday, 13 April, 2004

Tuesday

13 April, 2004

(Updated Daily)

Issue #100

 

The Bush administration wants to cut $35 million from the national lead poisoning prevention program, the Department of Agriculture is trying to block mad cow testing while Dick Cheney is using his visit to Japan to convince them to resume imports of American beef, the Forest Service has been accused of misrepresenting forest conditions by using misleading photographs in a brochure that urges more logging to prevent wildfires, and North Korea says Bush is driving the military situation on the Korean peninsula to the brink of a nuclear war."

 

"The government has decided not to warn parents a mercury-laced preservative virtually eliminated from other vaccines because of health concerns will be included in flu shots given to hundreds of thousands of infants and toddlers this fall. The decision by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to recommend the shots with the preservative thimerosal despite the pleas of parent activist groups apparently conflicts with recent federal heath warnings about exposure to mercury..."

- Feds won't warn parents about vaccine -

 

"You are lost in a foreign city, you don't speak the language and you are late for your meeting. What do you do? Take out your cellphone, photograph the nearest building and press send. For a small fee, photo recognition software on a remote server works out precisely where you are, and sends back directions that will get you to your destination."

- Photo recognition software gives location -

 

Let Freedom Ring

 

The FBI has made a proposal to the FCC that would require all Internet Providers to rewire their current system in order to make wiretapping accessible to the FBI. Experts claim that if the new proposal were to pass, MSN Messenger, Xbox Live and any voice over Internet protocol would be accessible for wiretapping.

 

A federal judge has awarded back pay and damages for emotional distress to a Christian employee who objected to his employer's policies requiring him to "respect and value" the differences of his gay colleagues.

 

"It's a groundbreaking court decision that legal experts say will affect everyone: Police officers in Louisiana no longer need a search or arrest warrant to conduct a brief search of your home or business."

- TheNewOrleansChannel.com: Court Opens Door To Searches Without Warrants -

 

Don't Take My Word For It

 

"Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power."

- Eric Hoffer -

 

"What you cannot enforce, do not command."

- Sophocles -

 

"A year after the seemingly victorious war, the Americans are again bombing Baghdad and conducting intimidation operations in Falluja. This means that the war has not ended and... is now being waged not against Saddam but against the Iraqi people... The simple truth is that Saddam was doomed because he prevented Washington from gaining control of [Iraq's oil]. The US Iraqi war is a classical example of the imperialist foreign policy of the late 19th and early 20th century. It was then called gunboat diplomacy. Today gunboats have been replaced with tanks, aircraft and missiles, but this has not changed the essence, which is to grasp control of countries with rich mineral resources, dominate them, and create military bases and deploy troops in the occupied territories."

- Gennady Chuffrin: Iraq is Not a War for Democracy, But a Failed Example of 'Gunboat Diplomacy' -

 

"The International Court of Justice does not have jurisdiction in Texas."

- Texas Governor Rick Perry responding to an International Court of Justice ruling that U.S. courts must review the death sentences of 51 Mexican citizens whose rights were violated under the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations -

 

"[International treaties] are "the supreme law of the land."

- the U.S. Constitution -

 

"This evaluation makes clear that, in general, this Administration's track record is toxic to our children, lessening protections for children and missing opportunities to keep toxicants out of our children's environment. Even as this report is being finalized, a number of emerging issues reiterate the overwhelming pattern that children are losing out to other priorities of this Administration. Of the 78 decision points identified in the report, only 16 were found to have a positive impact on children. The remainder, 62, were decisions with a negative impact on children. For many of these decisions, their impact will be felt for years to come. Why has this Administration failed to protect children? Frequently, as this review illustrates, the decisions made on environmental health were marred by science distorted or ignored."

- Children's Environmental Health Report Card on Bush - Average Grade F -

 

    "Education has failed to adjust to the massive transformation in Western culture since the rise of electronic media. The shift from the era of the printed book to that of television, with its immediacy and global reach, was prophesied by Marshall McLuhan in his revolutionary Understanding Media, which at its publication in 1964 spoke with visionary force to my generation of college students in the United States. But those of us who were in love with the dazzling, darting images of TV and movies, as well as with the surging rhythms of new rock music, had been given through public education a firm foundation in the word and the book. Decade by decade since the 1960s, popular culture, with its stunning commercial success, has gained strength until it now no longer is the brash alternative to organized religion or an effete literary establishment: it is the culture for American students, who outside urban centers have little exposure to the fine arts...

    "The visual environment for the young, in short, has become confused, fragmented, and unstable. Students now understand moving but not still images. The long, dreamy, contemplative takes of classic Hollywood studio movies or postwar European art films are long gone. Today's rapid-fire editing descends from Jean-Luc Godard, with his hand-held camera, and more directly from Godard's Anglo-American acolyte, Richard Lester, whose two Beatles movies have heavily influenced commercials, music videos, and independent films. Education must slow the images down, to provide a clear space for the eye...By processing depth cues, our eyes orient us in space and create and confirm our sense of individual agency. Those in whom eye movements and vestibular equilibrium are disrupted, I contend, cannot sense context and thus become passive to the world, which they do not see as an arena for action. Hence this perceptual problem may well have unwelcome political consequences."

- Camille Paglia: The Magic of Images: Word and Picture in a Media Age -

 

   "Musings about a second Bush term typically assume another four years of the same right-wing policies we've had to date. But it'd likely be far worse. So far, the Bush administration has had to govern with the expectation of facing American voters again in 2004. But suppose George W. Bush wins a second term. The constraint of a re-election contest will be gone. Knowing that voters can no longer turn them out, and that this will be their last shot at remaking America, the radical conservatives will be unleashed. 

    "A friend who specializes in foreign policy and hobnobs with sub-cabinet officials in the Defense and State departments told me that the only thing that's stopped the Bushies from storming into Iran and North Korea is the upcoming election. If Bush is re-elected, '[Dick] Cheney and [Donald] Rumsfeld are out of the box,' he said. 'They'll take Bush's re-election as a mandate to wage the "war on terror" everywhere and anywhere.'" 

    "The second term's defense team will be even harder line than the current one. Colin Powell will go. Condoleezza Rice will take over at the State Department. Rumsfeld will consolidate power as the president's national-security adviser. Paul Wolfowitz will run the Defense Department."

- Robert B. Reich: W.'s Second Term: If you think the first is bad... -

 

"A conservative believes nothing should be done for the first time."

- Lynwood L. Giacomini -

 

"The only difference between Al Gore & George W. Bush is the velocity with which their knees hit the floor when corporations knock."

- Ralph Nader -

 

"A leadership is someone who brings people together."
- George W. Bush -

 

"Capital punishment is our way of demonstrating the sanctity of life."

- Orrin Hatch -

 

"Most of us here in the media are what I call infotainers... Rush Limbaugh is what I call a disinfotainer. He entertains by spreading disinformation."

- Al Franken -

 

"Researchers have uncovered the perfect excuse to eat lots of chocolate Easter eggs this year, for pregnant women at least. The study of 300 mums-to-be showed those that ate chocolate every day had babies who smiled and laughed more."

- Chocolate Cherubs -

 

    "Washington has given up on its plans to hand over power to an interim Iraqi government on June 30, and it is now creating the chaos it needs to declare the handover impossible. A continued occupation will be bad news for George Bush on the campaign trail, but not as bad as if the handover happens and the country erupts, an increasingly likely scenario given the widespread rejection of the legitimacy of the interim constitution and the U.S. appointed Governing Council.

    "It's a plan that might make sense in meetings in Washington, but here in Baghdad it looks like pure madness. By sending the new Iraqi army to fire on the people they are supposed to be protecting, Bremer has destroyed what slim hope they had of gaining credibility with an already highly mistrustful population. On Sunday, before storming the unarmed demonstrators, the soldiers could be seen pulling on ski masks, so they wouldn't be recognized in their neighbourhoods later."

- Naomi Klein: Freedom Fires -

 

    "The reprisal mentality guiding the American military forces calls to mind nothing less than the conduct of Nazi occupation forces in Europe during World War II. By the end of the war, the very term reprisal had become synonymous with the mass killing of civilian populations supporting popular and legitimate guerrilla warfare against the Nazis. Hitler, in answer to the operations of Soviet partisans, for example, issued instructions in 1942 that whatever succeeds is correct. The German military command responded by ordering its occupation troops to use any means, even against women and children, provided they are conducive to success.

    "The prospect is looming in Iraq for an orgy of killing by US troops, in desperate and murderous efforts to carry out the orders of the Bush administration that they bring the situation under control. Bush declared from North Carolina that the US had to stay the course, and we will stay the course [in Iraq]."

- James Conachy: Operation Iraqi Bloodbath: US prepares reprisals against uprising -

 

"George Bush is Saddam Hussein. George Bush is terrorist!"

- Iraqi children dancing on a burned out American Humvee -

 

    "Suppose that in March or April, 1941, 14 Americans with lengthy backgrounds in national security affairs had reported to President Franklin Roosevelt that the United States was going to be attacked somewhere, sometime, somehow by the Japanese, that this attack would result in large numbers of American casualties, and these officially-appointed Americans had strongly recommended to the Roosevelt administration that it take urgent steps to help prevent such an attack. Further suppose that Roosevelt had done little if anything in response to this warning, and that almost eight months later, as it happened, the Japanese attacked American facilities at Pearl Harbor, and almost two thousand Americans died. Suppose after this attack official inquiries were launched, as it also happened, as to why there was a failure of intelligence, what actions were or were not taken based on what intelligence there was, and what could be done to prevent such catastrophic surprises in the future. And finally suppose that the official commission created to investigate the tragedy of Pearl Harbor failed to call upon the original 14 Americans who forecast the attack and forewarned against it. 

    "Now move this supposed scenario forward to 2004 and you have virtually a perfect fit."

- Gary Hart: A Paul Revere no one wants to hear from: I co-chaired a national security panel that warned the Bush administration the terrorists were coming. Why hasn't the 9/11 commission called any of us to testify? -

 

"The Bush regime's argument for shunning a global treaty on land mines rests largely on the U.S. military's use of 'smart,' self-destructing mines that don't linger after war's end to kill and maim civilians."

- U.S. Bets on Land Mine Technology -

 

"Bush thinks it's OK to kill and maim civilians 'during' a war."

- the previous article paraphrased -

 

"A 'runaway' grand jury, loosely defined as a grand jury which resists the accusatory choices of a government prosecutor, has been virtually eliminated by modern criminal procedure. Today's 'runaway' grand jury is in fact the common law grand jury of the past. Prior to the emergence of governmental prosecution as the standard model of American criminal justice, all grand juries were in fact 'runaways,' according to the definition of modern times; they operated as completely independent, self-directing bodies of inquisitors, with power to pursue unlawful conduct to its very source, including the government itself."

- Roger Roots: If It's Not a Runaway, It's Not a Real Grand Jury -

 

"The delusional leaders of our occupation army are fond of pointing to signs of progress. Occupation viceroy Paul Bremer likes to rattle off statistics: 2,500 renovated schools, three million vaccinated children, 18,000 reconstruction projects underway, healthcare spending up 30 times, a 29 percent increase in the value of the Iraqi dinar. Hey, it's the least we can do--after all, Iraq wouldn't need new schools or hospitals if we hadn't bombed their old ones."

- Ted Rall: Cut and Run Now -

 

"As we go on meditating, that divine light inside of us, the light of Consciousness, begins to fill our eyes. Then our eyes see the same light outside, and we become aware that this universe is nothing but that light, that Consciousness, that supreme Self."

- Swami Muktananda -

 

"Soldiers riding on the top of tanks with their soles showing are not trying to offend anyone. They have no idea that they are doing...the equivalent of foreign army troops driving down American streets with their middle finger raised. How would Americans react to that? Cultural mistakes cost us valuable goodwill and have allowed the insurgents to convince the people we are indifferent or hostile to Iraqis."

- Michael Fjetland: Iraq's Inferno: Created by a Shoe -

 

    "This story is about American weapons built with Uranium components for the business end of things. Just about all American bullets, 120 mm tank shells, missiles, dumb bombs, smart bombs, 500 and 2,000 pound bombs, cruise missiles, and anything else engineered to help our side in the war of us against them has Uranium in it. Lots of Uranium. 

    "In the case of a cruise missile, as much as 800 pounds of the stuff. This article is about how much radioactive uranium our guys, representing us, the citizens of the United States, let fly in Iraq. Turns out they used about 4,000,000 pounds of the stuff, give or take."

- Bob Nichols: There Are No Words ...  Radiation in Iraq Equals 250,000 Nagasaki Bombs -

 

"As the Bush administration comes under increasing fire for its decision to attack Iraq, the Democratic contender, John F. Kerry, is profiting from his perceived status as a critic of Bush's foreign policy. A patrician grandee with a pleasing mix of liberal and patriotic views might seem to many Americans a welcome relief from the bellicose Texan with his faux swagger and his team of men who seem to have 'military-industrial complex' written across their menacing foreheads. But if anti-war Americans do elect Kerry for that reason, they will have duped themselves. Warmongering will be worse under Kerry than under Bush, and real peaceniks should therefore vote for Dubya."

- John Laughland: Kerry the SuperHawk? -

 

"Iraq under Saddam Hussein did not pose a threat to the United States but it did to Israel, which is one reason why Washington invaded the Arab country, according to a speech made by a member of a top-level White House intelligence group."

- Emad Mekay: War Launched to Protect Israel - Bush Adviser -

 

"Have you seen all those article and pictures of Bush 'at home on the ranch' in Crawford - the ones that imply that he is 'just an ole ranch hand' more comfortable on the family homestead than in the 'Big City,' be it Austin or D.C.? Well, if you bought this image, you've been royally snuckered. The Bush family homestead in Crawford is nothing more than an elaborate set. The house, built in 2000, was designed to be ready for Bush to step into - like a set awaiting an actor - during the 2000 presidential election. Not only was the 'ranch' created in 2000 - so, essentially, was the 'town' of Crawford! Before then only about 400 people lived in the area. The Crawford Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture were formed shortly after the ranch was finished. "

- Cheryl Seal: Phony to the Core - The "Ole Family Ranch" in Crawford is a Set Completed the Same Day the Election was Stolen -

 

"[T]he 9-11 Commission... has only one purpose: to justify the creation of a domestic Gestapo to carry out the USA Patriot Act I/II abolition of the American people's Bill of Rights. The Bush administration put these laws in place, and just as General Tommy Franks warned, the administration will now ensure the Sharon-style terrorism necessary to invoke them."

- Ted Lang: Bushroom Fungus Humongous -

 

"Widening the White Houses growing credibility gap, a new report released today by John Kerry for President reveals that President Bush has proposed or passed $6 trillion in new, unpaid initiatives during the first three years of his administration. The report shows that while the President and administration officials have publicly touted their commitment to fiscal discipline, they were quietly pushing trillions of dollars in unpaid proposals that have resulted in skyrocketing deficits and contributed to state budget deficits across the country."

- New Report Reveals $6 Trillion in Hidden Spending in Bush Budget: Who is Going to Pay for the Bush $6 Trillion Spending Spree? -

 

    "'Bremer follows in the footsteps of Saddam,' screamed the headline in al-Hawza, a tabloid newspaper run by firebrand Shiite Muslim cleric Moqtada Sadr. With incendiary language, the article accused L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator of Iraq, of deliberately starving the Iraqi people. 

    "A month later, on March 28, Bremer ordered the weekly paper shut down. According to U.S. officials, Bremer believed that after months of waiting, the moment was right to pressure Sadr to capitulate to American demands to disband his growing militia, which had attacked American troops in the past. 

    "But instead of relenting, Sadr and his supporters responded with protests, the seizure of government buildings and a spate of violent attacks. He unleashed a major revolt in Shiite-dominated parts of Baghdad and southern Iraq that has become the gravest challenge to the U.S. occupation. 

    "Several American and Iraqi officials now regard Bremer's move to close the newspaper as a profound miscalculation based on poor intelligence and inaccurate assumptions. Foremost among the errors, the officials said, was the lack of a military strategy to deal with Sadr if he chose to fight back, as he did."

- Rajiv Chandrasekaran and Anthony Shadid: U.S. Targeted Fiery Cleric In Risky Move -

 

"Well done is that action of doing
which one repents not later,
and the fruit of which,
one reaps with delight and happiness."

- Buddha: Dhammapada 68 -

 

"Don't expect Condoleezza Rice to apologize for messing up on 9/11. She hasn't apologized yet for getting it wrong on the collapse of the Soviet Union. When the national security adviser [took] her stand before the Independent Commission April 8, she [brought] with her into that camera-filled hearing room her treasured reputation as a foreign policy expert to two successive Bush presidents. But Rice, who claims an expertise in nothing less than the high-stakes world of global power, has failed spectacularly-not once but twice-failing to anticipate the most critical shifts of her time... Don't judge Rice too harshly. The national security adviser's expertise has never been in serving the nation-it has been in serving the house of Bush. At the first job, she has been a disaster. At the second, she is the best."

- Laura Flanders: Condi Missed the Collapse of the USSR and the Rise of Al Qaeda -

 

"...Progress is amazing. Many people who knew only repression and terror now have hope in their heart and prosperity in their grasp. Every day the Iraqi people stream out into the streets to cheer and wave at us as we drive by. When I'm on a foot patrol, walking among a crowd, countless people thank us -- repeatedly. I realize the shocking image of a dead soldier or a burning car is more sellable than boring, detailed accounts of our rebuilding efforts. This is why you hear bad news and may be receiving an incorrect picture... The reality is one of an ever-increasing defeat of the enemies we face."

- Joe Roche: Keep the Faith: A letter from Iraq -

    "Is there a psychologist in the house? And what early childhood trauma did you suffer that makes you constantly want to kill kill kill?

    "Hey. You. The guy in the White House. In the future, pleeeze try to think of more creative ways to rule the world than just copy-catting Hannibal Lector. And also bear in mind that Hannibal Lector did end up in jail. You have already collected your 200 billion dollars, George. You are not allowed to pass Go.

    "For all of you Dr. Strangelove death squad special op suicide bomber sweat shop East Timor Rwanda Stern Gang Kosovo Nazi Taliban serial killer types, I have just one word for you. 'Rehab!'

    "And with regards to all you redneck blogger 'Christian' militia pricks drooling over your Blackwater training, your AK-47s and your fond memories of killing gooks in 'Nam? Get over it! Start a 12-step program. If you wanna be a macho dude, get up off your duffs and start PLAYING Monday night football.

    "How come the people who control the world all appear to be certifiable psychopaths? Guess what? The rest of us are tired of your lack of creative imagination. 'If it moves kill it! Women and children first!' Surely we can do better than that."

- Jane Stillwater: Matchstick Men: The Bush-Pentagon-Shiite-Freddie Kreuger approach to governance -

 

"There has always been debate over what separates Man from the Beasts. Tools, recognition of death and opposable thumbs are debatable. The obvious answer is beasts don't have any stuff. And there you go and here we are."

- Rack Jite -

 

Everything Else

 

Pepsi's new "patriotic" cans with the flag and the pledge of allegiance leave the words "under God" out of the pledge, so Christian idiots have organized a boycott.

 

A CBS News poll taken after Rice's testimony shows that more than three out of four Americans believe the Bush Administration is either hiding something or lying about September 11.

 

Ever wanted to just print out list of files in a directory? Do it with Karen's Directory Printer.

 

Got an idea for a community program that's based upon "faith" instead of actual facts or figures or service to the community? Go here to find out how to get money from your government.

 

Contact George W. Bush - president@whitehouse.gov

Contact Jeb Bush - jeb.bush@myflorida.com
Contact Saddam Hussein - president@whitehouse.gov
Contact Kim Jong Il - eng-info@kcna.co.jp
Contact Jacques Chirac - france-presse@un.int
Contact the Pope - accreditamenti@pressva.va
Contact the Democratic Candidates:  Wesley Clark, Howard Dean, John Edwards, Dick Gephardt, Bob Graham, John Kerry, Dennis Kucinich, Joe Lieberman, Carol Moseley Braun, Al Sharpton

Embassy of France in the US: 202-944-6000
German Embassy in the US: 202-298-4000
Embassy of the Russian Federation: 202-298-5700
Embassy of the People's Republic of China: 202-328-2500
White House switchboard: (202) 456-1414
Contact your Senator - http://www.senate.gov/senators/senator_by_state.cfm
Contact your Representative - http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW.html
House and Senate switchboard: (202) 224-3121
Links to Central Government Agencies - http://www.firstgov.gov/

 

 

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Acknowledgment

dIsInFoTaInMeNt ToDaY is free and may be reproduced in any form. This little chunk of type at the bottom of the page has been reprinted so many times that no one looks at it any more so I can basically say what I want and no will read it anyway. Poop. There, I said it. Basically, if you're still reading, it is further proof that you are suffering from "Got Nothing Better To Do" syndrome, which has been around since caveman days. I don't know what I'm doing here any more than you do. If you're still pissed off, hey, get over it. Everything is either satire or fair use and I'd like to see you prove otherwise.

Thanks,

Dawna D'Dead

 

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'TBH Politoons'

Thanks, again, Tim!

Sick Of This Crap!

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Nekromantik

from Mark

Selected Readings

INCURIOUS GEORGE

UP YOUR FLAG POLE

UNTERMENSCHEN

PDB NOT R AND R YOU SOB

CLUELESS CHIMP

WINNING THEIR HEARTS AND MINDS

STONEWALL CHIMP

CONDI GIVES THE "CHECKERS SPEECH

CRISCO GOES MONGERING

THE PDB WAGMIRE

A FACE FULL OF TITS

JESUS VOMITS

PDB SNAFU

In The Chaos Household

Wednesday  -  04/14

Lyricist Stephen Sondheim gestures during a gathering at Tufts University in Medford, Mass., Monday, April 12, 2004.
Photo by Charles Krupa

The Information One-Stop

Moose & Squirrel Information One-Stop

Russia Celebrates

A crowd watches hip-hop dancers perform with the Eiffel Tower in background in Paris Monday April 12, 2004.
Photo by Francois Mori

The Religious Experience of Philip K. Dick

In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends

Visas Denied

A worker shovels up cocoa beans after they have been dried in the sun, ready to be put into into sacks for export, in Guiglo in western Ivory Coast Tuesday, April 6, 2004. Competition over land to grow cocoa, the key ingredient in chocolate, is fueling a cycle of ethnic violence in Ivory Coast, the world's largest producer where 40 percent of global supply is harvested.
Photo by Ben Curtis

EyeWitness to History

Formerly 'The Vidiot'

pissed

Salary Doubles for New 'Apprentice'

A facial reconstruction of H.L. Hunley crew member Arnold Becker is shown in these photographs released by the Friends of the Hunley on Monday, April 12, 2004. Becker likely was the smallest and youngest crew member of the Confederate submarine. Becker was aboard the oard the Hunley on Feb. 17, 1864, when it sank the Union blockade ship Housatonic, becoming the first sub in history to sink an enemy warship. Leading up to Saturday's funeral for the Hunley's crew, biographies and facial reconstructions of two crewmen were being released each day.

Yanking TV Ads

* Slightly Vulgar *

Ashcroft Portrait

A polar bear did it's own imitation of an elephant as it played with a plastic-like drain pipe Monday, April 12, 2004 at the Como Park Zoo in St. Paul, Minn.
Photo by Jim Mone)

'The Osbournes'

Custom Kaleidoscopes by Ed the "BearMan"

Take Back The Media!

Blah 3

PersephonePlus

The Slab

What Really Happened

The Iraq Page

Today In Iraq

I'm Not Sorry

Progressive Spirit Blog

TrimmedBush

Raw Story

George W. Bush for President 2004

Who served?

The Chickenhawk Database

Congressional Members with Military Service

Who Died and Made You President? :: The Bean Magazine

100 Most Banned Books

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