God told me to strike at al-Qeada and I struck them, and then He instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East. If you help me, I will act, and if not, the elections will come and I will have to focus on them.

-George Bush, during Middle East Peace Negotiations (more at The First Stone)

*

It's the end of another week, and another chance to take stock of the world.

Before you become too depressed, there are some good things to consider. Now that we're moving into fall, you should take stock of your involvement in your community and try to decide whether or not you're satisfied with your actions. Whether you feel informed. Whether you are volunteering enough. Whether you are making your views heard. Whether you will look back on this very eventful time in history and wish you were more engaged.

Take a moment to try to think back and remember, before the media bombarded you with corporate idealism, as to what YOU think the world should be like. And then figure out how you can make that image real.

*

As the World Trade Organization and the September 11th memorials overlap, it's time to think, act, and plan a way to make the world a better place. Sweatshops, undermined environmental regulations, exploitation, and exported jobs overseas aren't things that serve any of us but the 'captains of industry'/Enrons/WorldComs.

There is a host of activities going forward during "A WEEK FOR PEACE & GLOBAL JUSTICE SEPTEMBER 6-13, 2003" including candle light vigils, anti-exploitation/polluter/war profiteer protests, and more. Additional information is at Act Against War dot Org.

*

The San Francisco Video Activists' Network is screening its brilliant film, We Interrupt This Empire, a documentary about the Bay Area protests against and media coverage of the early days of the invasion of Iraq.

I saw it on Thursday at the Roxie Cinema, after many days of obsessively watching the Quicktime trailer over and over again. (As an added bonus, the screening I attended was a benefit screening for Food First and UNORCA, the latter an organization sponsoring buses to bring Mexican farmers/indigenous workers to protest the WTO's ministerial meeting in Cancun (Indymedia Mexico City/Chiapas) and the adverse impact they are already feeling from prior trade negotiations.)

It's worth seeing. The inanity and bias of the media; police violence; the thrill and humor of the protests; police cars with the Anarchy symbol spray painted on them; ranting, misinformed pro-war protesters... It is documented with wit AND good editing!

The documentary is running with a couple of shorts, including a hysterical subtitled sendup of scenes from Lord of the Rings.

SEE IT.

*

Follow the demonstrations against the WTO in Cancun at Espora.org (an Indymedia host site).

*

Stay Informed: Don't sedate yourself with network television news! For a completely reasonable price you could subscribe to any of the fabulous 'alternative' (meaning non-corporate) news magazines that grace our better newsstands.

The September 1st/8th issue of The Nation is excellent, and not just because hysterical movie poster cover about the California recall election debacle. It also has great articles on how the Bush Administration is censoring health and science information (about AIDS prevention, global warming, the air quality in New York after September 11th, and more); how the US lags behind other nations in recognizing gay unions; McGovern baiting (including some great quotes by McGovern, who notes that the change his candidacy stood for went forward even though he lost); dirty dealing in the Phillipines by the government with regard to 'terrorism,' and some darned good essays on photography, among other things.

The September 1st issue of In These Times includes a detailed list of Bush's lies about the war; an article on how even Republicans object to the so-called Patriot Act; and a rather spooky article about "Psyops," or how public relations firms stage international news events to manipulate the public. *shudder*

There are MANY great news sources: these just happen to be the two paper publications I have in front of me at the moment. Non-corporate news magazines don't seem determined to persuade me to buy wasteful objects, don't have ads suggesting that my life will be perfect if I change floor waxes or make my spouse's shirts whiter; and they actually contain NEWS about people, including working class people and others who are not completely aligned with corporate interests. Such publications can provide a completely different, authentic view of the world when compared to the 'store openings and celebrity gossip are news' networks. Try one! Try two! Support as many as you can!

In the midst of Bush's month-long AWOL from his duties as president during wartime (and crises like the worst blackout in U.S. history), the Department of Defense announced last week it intended to cut the pay of the 148,000 U.S. troops in Iraq and the 9,000 still in Afghanistan. These troops were to receive increases in imminent danger pay (from $150 to $225 a month) and family separation allowance (from $100 to $250).

Read the rest of Bisbort's editorial at Truthout.org.

Torture is coming up again, now in an article originally published in Newsweek, of all places.

First of all, as a Lebanese torturer—er, interrogator—of my acquaintance once told me, the real challenge comes if someone is telling the truth: “How do you know?” And what if that truth doesn’t fit with what you really want to hear? ...What if, for instance, there really are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq because they really were destroyed to keep United Nations inspectors from finding them? The United States now has captured 37 of the 55 most-wanted Iraqis in the famous pack of cards. That’s what all of them are saying, and lesser-known scientists have told the same story. Yet still the WMD beat goes on.

Read the entire article at Truthout.org. If there's anything the US doesn't need, it's to further dirty its hands with new sources of unreliable intelligence tortured out of captives who will say anything to stop the torture...

The venerable Iraqometer has undergone an update. The war financial cost meter now skips all those pesky decimal places and goes straight to 'billions'; there is now a purple heart to designate wounded US soldiers, as well as a separate statistic for the number of troops currently in Iraq; and, painfully, there is a meter that measures how many days it has been since there has been an American killed.

Ouch.

Of course, as it has, the WMD meter reads zero.

A big, glaring zero.

[S asked me today if I thought a WMD or two might conveniently appear immediately prior to the 2004 election. Golly. By then, I don't think anyone (aside from the 30% or so of Americans who already think WMDs were found) would think the Bush Administration didn't fly it in or build it on the spot. But American politics work in unusual and inexplicable ways. I know this, because I live in California, where an action movie actor is running for Governor during a bitter recall battle lead by a party that couldn't manage to get a single, state-wide seat in the last election. Because losing once hurt so badly, they need to do it again? Or because they REALLY want to inherit the woeful finances of a state tapped out by an energy scam/dot com bust/war economy? Inexplicable ways, I tell you...]

Much heralded by the Democratic Party's mailing list, The Washington Post's Weapons of Mass Destruction Feature provides a lovely compilation of the entire, can't find 'em, doubt-ridden, WMD saga.

A good essay to read: Beware the bluewash: The UN must not let itself be used as a dustbin for failed American adventures, by George Monbiot (Guardian UK). The premise: that if the U.S. can unload the mess it's made onto others, the Bush Administration can wash it's hands and get back to campaigning to keep the presidency in 2004.

Interesting aside that I hadn't considered: with the occupation raging, the US can't yet invade anyone else. And to think I've been seeing the occupation so negatively. :-/

"My son signed up to defend the Constitution.... This war has nothing to do with the Constitution."
-- Susan Schuman, mother of a Massachusetts National Guard soldier stationed in Iraq

Military families have started an organization called the Bring Them Home Now Campaign. They have a great links page, and updates (complete with profanity) about how no one signed up for occupation.

*

A new site to monitor: Occupation Watch.org.

*

Iraqbodycount.net has a new editorial tabulating Iraqi civilian injuries from a review of over 300 sources.

*

"We've adopted a new strategy for a new kind of war. We will not wait for known enemies to strike us again. We will strike them in their camps or caves or wherever they hide, before they hit more of our cities and kill more of our citizens.'' -- President Bush, in this New York Times article.

*

Maureen Dowd summarizes the Bush Administration rhetoric on how well things are going:"Yep, we've got 'em right where we want 'em. We've brought the fight to their turf, they're swarming into Iraq and blowing up our troops and other Westerners every day, and that's just where we want to be." (Common Dreams/NYT) If this is what the plan was...

Also of import: Naomi Klein's report on how governments are using the War on Terror to kill dissidents, union members, and anyone who is inconvenient. (Common Dreams) The first time this came up, there were only a few countries taking the initiative to pretend that human rights only exist when they say so: now many nations are on the bandwagon.

"You have to be willing to go on the offensive against terrorism - kill them before they kill you." - Paul Bremer, US Administrator for Iraq (BBC)

*

Between long days at work and a lovely backpacking trip, I've been away from occupation news for a while. It doesn't appear much has changed, so it's hard to know where to begin. It's especially difficult because of the American media system, in which anything that isn't deemed one of the top stories abruptly ceases to exist. (One day the big fire up at Glacier National Park is on the front page, the next day it disappears completely, the next day it's back... Who can tell if it's burning in between?) I think, from what I've read so far since my return, that I can safely state the following things that have not changed in my absence:

The U.S. doesn't appear to be safer from terrorism.

The rest of the world doesn't appear to be safer from terrorism.

The Iraqi people don't have democracy.

American troops are still being killed.

Violent overthrow of a regime following by occupation is not being questioned as a technique for making the US and the world safer from terrorism, spreading democracy, or keeping US troops safe.

The false choice of 'kill or be killed' is still being promoted, even when our troops must travel half way around the world to a country that hadn't threatened us, leaving them in a situation where many are likely to be killed.

It's not that I was expecting a serious re-examination of tactics by the Bush Administration in my absence. Though it would have been a very pleasant surprise.