A pretty real piece, "Victims of Realtime...on the bizarre memorialization of 911," currently appears on the first page of the refreshingly-irreverent site, HOLY FUCKING SHIT DAY.

I posted my own comment there, but I'm including it below as well, to bring more forward my feelings about what's planned for next week in New York and elsewhere in the country. We're out of here.

We'll be in Europe most of September, where I expect to appreciate people acting like grown-ups about this thing, allowing us to do the same.

Just serendipity. We had planned the trip last spring, without even thinking about what we would be missing at home here in New York. It just hadn't occurred to me that the anniversary would end up looking like such a monster.

What is being planned is not a memorial. It's an obsessive orgy of victimhood. I know of history, and it is my passion. It is not history we are recording, but a self-serving and dangerous myth which will forever conceal the truth which we absolutely need in order to move forward.

Tony Blair says that the world cannot stand by while Iraq is in "flagrant breach" of United Nations resolutions.

"Doing nothing about Iraq's breach of these UN resolutions is not an option.

"That's the only decision that's been taken so far. What we do about that is an open question."

If the issue is that of the violation of UN resolutions, we should have attacked Israel and removed the current regime a long time ago.

Obviously the real issue is not the one presented to us, by London or Washington.

We're still waiting them to stop lying.

It is not necessary to have illusions about the liberality of the Palestinian Authority, or Palestinian society as a whole in order to oppose what is being done to the Palestinian people by Israel, a government and a society fundamentally so much more liberal. Still, some people are clearly impacted far more than others by the violence of a society--any society.

The agony of gay Palestinians is a part of the current horror in the middle east, but it did not begin in 1948, nor even with the Occupation or the Intifada, and it won't end when the fighting ends.

With bombs once again exploding all over Israel, and the Palestinian territories under seemingly permanent curfew, the woes of Palestinian homosexuals haven't exactly grabbed international attention. But after spending two days with gay Palestinian refugees in Israel, I began to wonder why the liberal world has never taken interest in their plight.

Perhaps it's because that might mean acknowledging that the pathology of the nascent Palestinian polity extends well beyond Yasir Arafat and won't be uprooted by one free election. Indeed, the torment of gays is very nearly official Palestinian policy. "The persecution of gays in the Palestinian Authority [P.A.] doesn't just come from the families or the Islamic groups but from the P.A. itself," says Shaul Ganon of the Tel Aviv-based Agudah-Association of Gay Men, Lesbians, Bisexuals and Transgender in Israel. "The P.A.'s usual excuse for persecuting gays is to label them collaborators--though I know of two cases in the last three years where people were tried explicitly for being homosexuals." Since the intifada, Ganon tells me, Palestinian police have increasingly enforced Islamic law: "It's now impossible to be an open gay in the P.A."

[Descriptions of what should be unspeakable tortures follow in the text.]

Life is only marginally better as a refugee in Israel, subsisting on the margins.

[In Tel Aviv, a group of teenage prostitutes,] refugees from the West Bank, live in an abandoned building. They tell me that sometimes a client will offer them a meal and a shower instead of payment; sometimes a client will simply refuse to pay in any form, taunting them to complain to police. And sometimes police will beat them before releasing them back to the streets.

A 17-year-old refugee from Nablus named Salah (a pseudonym), who spent months in a P.A. prison where interrogators cut him with glass and poured toilet cleaner into his wounds, tells Ganon that he has been stopped by Israeli police no fewer than four times that day. He recites the names of the different police units who stopped him by their acronyms. "Try not to do anything stupid," Ganon says.

"I've tried to kill myself six times already," says Salah. "Each time the ambulance came too quickly. But now I think I know how to do it. Next time, with God's help, it will work before the ambulance comes."

More on the American car vs. public transit thing.

The rest of the world is becoming more and more aware of our special cult and addiction, and they clearly aren't going to be indifferent to its planetary impact going forward.

... Beaufort county [South Carolin] planners have been meeting to discuss a regional transportation system.

The [county's daily] paper explains what this is - it would link the county to outlying areas including the nearby city of Savannah, Georgia and the holiday resort of Hilton Head.

People wouldn't have to use their cars. But outraged residents want to use their cars - and they fear the kind of people who use public transport just would not fit in these parts.

"We're not that kind of community", one of them is quoted as saying - and that is the rub.

America is not that kind of community. It is a car-driving society - not in an easy going, take-it-or-leave-it "oh we'll try something else" sense, but in a profound, almost religious way.

The right to drive is a deeply valued blessing - and one that will not be given up lightly, in fact will not be given up at all.

The BBC correspondent realizes that we worship our own gods here.

In the hotel in Mobile I saw on American television a mention of the development summit and a discussion about the plight of the Maldives - that gorgeous island archipelago which we are told is threatened with inundation as sea levels rise.

When I say a discussion - well it wasn't quite that - by the time they had worked out where they were and marvelled at how small they were there was no time to talk about saving the islands.

Do Americans know that the rest of the world is ganging up on them again and accusing them of polluting the planet? - yes vaguely.

Do they care? Not much.

Yet.

Disgusting, but really no surprise. We got the toady and the fascist to forgive future American war crimes.

I've finally realized where I've been for almost the last two years. I'm in the midst of a really stupid comic book, but it's not made of paper, and it's not comic, and it's not ending!

If you still have to be convinced you're in it with me, but only if you can stand the pain, go back over the past quotes of any of the current gang in the White House. Bush's best can be found here. He has not monopolized the class by any means, but his seem to be the only ones with something like their own website--and a book.

Barry has already posted this rather fresh Dubya doozy tonight, but it's just so comically horrible I feel compelled to do what I can to broadcast it farther.

"There's no cave deep enough for America, or dark enough to hide."—George W. Bush, Oklahoma City, Okla., Aug. 29, 2002

One can only weep.

For the crew in Washington, war is the end, not the means, according to an argument which would have been familiar to Thomas Merton.

They want war. It's not that they want peace and a better way of life for the Iraqi people blah, blah. It's not that they want security and freedom for us. They want the war. As if they have a chip, not on their shoulder but in their brains and it is programmed for war.

Thomas Merton believed what the rest of the world is trying to tell Bush, Cheney and their tapestry of advisers: war will exacerbate all problems - it will bury the chip deeper in some and release it in others but war will only make more war - more violence - more anger - and more of what war has always given us.

War is not, as Rumsfeld told a sea of soldiers in camouflage, a difficult means to a positive end. Thomas Merton believed that for the likes of Rumsfeld, war is the end.

....

A clueless cabal agitates and sells their nobility as they lay the groundwork for war and tolerate the objections. They "understand" the natural apprehensions of informed and learned people of good will but they are further along in the decision-making and they may or may not wait for the rest of the world to "catch up."

This nation has become a theocracy, as proven by the absolute astonishment of the overwhelming majority, and their extraordinary virulence, when they hear that anyone might object to the state imposition of their particular cult. I hugely admire those who work to bring it in line with the principles of its fundamental document, and this particular citizen seems to be able to move mountains.

The California atheist who sued to remove "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance now wants to kick the House and Senate chaplains out of Congress.

Michael A. Newdow, a lawyer and emergency room doctor, this week filed suit in federal district court in Washington contending that it is unconstitutional for taxpayer-funded chaplains to pray in Congress and minister to lawmakers. He wants the court to prohibit the House and Senate from employing spiritual chaplains, who are paid by Congress to lead prayers, counsel members and perform other religious tasks. Chaplains make as much as $147,000 per year.

"If congressmen want to go to church, [then] walk down the block like other Americans do and go to church,'' Newdow said in an interview yesterday. "Don't get my government engaged in it. There are some people who don't love God Almighty. That's why we have an Establishment Clause," the constitutional ban on government establishment of an official religion .

Trent Lott doesn't quite get it.

"The Capitol is the people's house,'' Lott said, "and I believe the overwhelming majority of Americans who send their senators and members of Congress to Washington to represent them, are comforted by the fact that our chaplains lead us in seeking guidance from a superior power, as we are called upon to make decisions. We should not look upon this as a frivolous case but as another attack on religious liberty."

The plucky plaintiff does not lack confidence in the ultimate success of his case. He points out that the Supreme Court issued a ruling in 2000 which concluded that "the religious liberty protected by the Constitution is abridged when the State affirmatively sponsors the particular religious practice of prayer."

Newdow, who says he "absolutely denies the existence of any Supreme Being," claims he applied for the jobs of House and Senate chaplains, and was passed over.

Wish us luck.

Alright, I'm back. I've recovered just a little from the impact of the item I posted below.

Still I can make only a very few observations for now. Just how much free speech is "too much" free speech?

Even more to the point, whose speech will say my speech is too free speech?

And finally, this is a citizenry which has decided that the huge corporate payoffs which determine the choice of all of our presidents, legislators, governors and even the composition of our courts, supreme or otherwise, is and must remain free speech, yet half of those same citizens think there is too much freedom of real speech, meaning yours and mine and also that of the press from whom they get all of their information.

How do people like this get through even an ordinary day?

I just don't know how to tackle this one. It's simply beyond my comprehension, but it tells me that we really are doomed.

Roughly half of Americans think the constitutional freedom of speech guarantees of the First Amendment go too far.

"Many Americans view these fundamental freedoms as possible obstacles in the war on terrorism," said Ken Paulson, executive director of the First Amendment Center, based in Arlington, Va., which commissioned the survey. Almost half also said the media has been too aggressive in asking the government questions about the war on terrorism.

Unrestricted constitutional freedom of speech is the one civil rights element of our system which stands out above that of every other nation on earth, and half of us want to chuck it.

There are all kinds of cultural heroes, and Fred Plotkin belongs in their rank.

Mr. Plotkin, 46, is one of those New York word-of-mouth legends, known by the cognoscenti for his renaissance mastery of two seemingly separate disciplines: music and the food of Italy. He is the author of "Opera 101," an operaphilic perennial since it was published in 1994, as well as five cookbooks-cum-social histories about Italy.

He is a very hands-on legend, and one of his best anecdotes involves a cellphone story which is hard to top.

The New York Philharmonic was playing energetically, but the gentleman on the aisle in Row M of Avery Fisher Hall was bored. He wasn't that much of a gentleman, either, for he actually pulled out his cellphone and began talking. "Hi, how are you?" he announced in a Texas drawl. "What's going on?"

Here is what was going on: Kurt Masur was conducting the Brahms Second Symphony in front of a hushed full house, and Fred Plotkin wanted to listen.

"I was incensed," recalled Mr. Plotkin, a onetime performance manager of the Metropolitan Opera who was also seated in Row M. Mr. Plotkin sprang from his seat and snatched the cellphone from the yapper's hand, turned it off and pocketed it. He returned it only at intermission. Our hero.

But wait, there's more.

There was the night he politely, but firmly, asked Imelda Marcos to leave a 1986 "Tosca." ("After she was seated in Row H, she began offering patrons $1,000 in cash to buy extra tickets for her entourage, and I ejected her for scalping," he said.) Then there was the time Mr. Plotkin barred a tardy Prime Minister Indira Gandhi at a 1983 "La Boheme" until she could be seated at intermission with her eight security guards. ("Nobody is above the law," he said.)

Oh, and we'll definitely vouch for his understanding of Italy and Italian food.

The question is for America only, for Europe and the remainder of the world have maintained their responsibilities, in many cases with very advanced systems. Americans however have so confounded their own real interests that here virtually any form of public transportation is looked upon as something only the poorest of the poor have to resort to.

Actually, we was robbed.

The major answer to this question is the long-standing opposition of The Highway Lobby -- the auto, oil, tire and cement industries. You don't hear much these days about "The Highway Lobby" as such. The reason is that it has done its destructive job which is to make America an occasion for ribbons of crowded highways carrying millions of motor vehicles as the only "practical and direct" way to get around on the ground.

At times the lobby has to resort to crime to achieve its assaults on public transit, while at other periods, it just used its money, muscle and propaganda with state and Washington lawmakers. Twenty eight crimes were committed by General Motors and its oil and tire company co-conspirators in the Thirties and Forties leading to their convictions in federal district court in Chicago during the late Forties. The U.S. Justice Department's charge, upheld in court, was that these large companies, inorder to eliminate their major rivals -- the trolley industry -- bought up these firms, tore up the tracks in and around 28 major cities in the U.S., including the biggest one in Los Angeles, and lobbied legislators to build more and more highways to sell more and more vehicles, gasoline and tires. Earlier, GM tried to pressure banks to reduce credit to these trolley companies and when that did not succeed sufficiently, the conspiracy to buy out their competitors and shut them down was hatched.

This is more than corporate crime history. Everyday, today, tomorrow and the next day, millions of Americans find themselves on clogged, bumper to bumper commutes because there is no convenient mass transit or no mass transit at all where they live and work.

Appearing to be railing against himself, the Shrub was back on the campign trail today.

"We must not allow the world's worst leaders to develop and harbor the world's worst weapons," Bush said at a fund-raising speech [on thursday]. The remark is his standard stump-speech line generally regarded as referring to Saddam. [but at least as appropriate for a description of George W. Bush and the rest of the White House crew]

Meanwhile, in San Antonio, his (sorta vice-)president, Cheney, was once again beating his own little drum for the same absurd obsession.

Vice President Dick Cheney on Thursday hammered home the U.S. case for pre-emptive action against Iraq, brushing off a groundswell of unease among European allies, Muslim states and broader world public opinion.

So, I guess that's settled; the ayes have it.

Cheney used a gathering of Korean War veterans to repeat an earlier indictment of Saddam Hussein, charging the Iraqi leader with acquiring weapons of mass destruction and posing a "mortal threat" to the United States.

[This is not going to be the biggest issue any of us have to deal with today, but, what the heck, we can't do important stuff all the time.]

I did not know until this morning that this was the reason I normally have no interest in tennis, but does the story surprise me? Uhuh.

Tommy Haas simply took the dare to bare. If Anna Kournikova could expose her tan hipbones in a low-ride skirt, if Serena Williams could pack her dangerous curves into a Lycra cat suit, Haas saw no reason he could not follow the skin-is-in trend at the United States Open by showing a little . . . biceps.

His sleeveless shirt was breathable and built for range of motion but completely illegal in the discriminating eye of Brian Earley, the tournament referee. In Earley's opinion, Haas's attempt yesterday to inject a little zing into the moribund ATP Tour, to employ the same sex-appeal strategy the women have used so well, was out of step with Earley's interpretation of the rules for customary attire.

Yikes! Are these guys real? I don't know where to begin to address this stupidity, but let's just say that not all of us out there thinks this is equivalent to this. And why would anyone want to see these gentlemen work in more comfortable attire, even if it meant we had to be exposed to a little more of their physical beauty?

Ah, much better.

The Israeli government issued a statement thursday admitting its forces killed innocent civilians in Gaza. [four dead, eight wounded]

But anyone who sees what is being done to every Palestinian under illegal Israeli control would long ago have had to assume that, for the Israeli government, there were no innocent Palestinians.

Is this a moral breakthrough, or a momentary absence of mind?

For more, see Bloggy.

He was arrested at 81 for soliciting sex from a professional (actually a police officer in professional disguise), and not for the first time, and he's neither ashamed nor hesitant about talking about it. He answers the reporter's question, no, he doesn't need viagra. He's Italian. He says he doesn't see why he has to sneak around for satisfaction.

"I just felt like, you know, having a feeling — being close to someone," [Dominick] Salerno told the Daily News when asked about his second arrest for being a john in less than eight months. "It happens."

Salerno's rap sheet shows he has been looking for love in all the wrong places since he was 71, when he was first charged with soliciting a prostitute.

"As long as the girls are clean and checked medically, [prostitution] should be legal," he contended.

The spry senior from Ridge, L.I., said he was cruising for a quickie Monday night when a young streetwalker in tight black pants and a white blouse caught his eye.

"I made the proposition, $20 for oral sex," Salerno said candidly. "But I felt something was wrong and drove away."

But faster than he could say early bird special, "two cop cars pulled me over."

The unenlightened Daily News website displays this new story in its "Crime File" drawer. I could think of any number of more suitable labels, even though their beknighted subscribers are not yet offered "Activism" as a story category. PONY (Prostitutes of New York) should grab him fast--no, I mean as a poster boy!

But if we have any intelligence we already knew this.

Researchers at the University of Michigan and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory announced on Wednesday that lightweight, fuel efficient autos are safer for the driving public than the average sport utility vehicle. The study found that SUVs are just about the most dangerous cars on the road for all drivers combined, and that even for the SUV driver alone they are "as risky as the average mid-size or large car, and no safer than many of the most popular compact and subcompact models."

[Tom Wenzel, who co-wrote the report,] said his study indicated that design, rather than size, appeared to be the critical safety factor for vehicles, noting a wide range in risks between different subcompact and compact models.

According to the report the safest small cars, the Volkswagen Jetta and Honda Civic, were shown to be twice as safe as the comparably sized Chevrolet Cavalier, Ford Escort, and Dodge Neon.

Even so, when considering the combined risks to all drivers on the road, most cars are safer than the average SUV, the report said.

"All the evidence in our study shows that vehicles can be, and in fact are being, made lighter and more fuel efficient without sacrificing safety," said Wenzel. "The argument that lowering the weight of cars to achieve high fuel economy has resulted in excess deaths is unfounded."

Let's get Smart.

This is a months-old interview conducted by Ha'aretz on the last of Steve's days in Palestine this spring. I'm posting it here and at this time for the background it provides for the impulses which brought Steve and others back this summer. He returns to New York tomorrow, thursday, and I expect to soon post something in the way of a follow-up.

[Steve tells the reporter,] "When I went to Hebrew University in the early 1980s, I was a Zionist with Peace Now views and not very involved. The turning point for me was the outbreak of the Al-Aqsa Intifada. It forced me to assimilate information I've accumulated over time and to come to conclusions ... Since then I've been working for a free Palestine."

Quester joined Jews Against the Occupation, a New York-based organization: "I feel (the Jews in New York) are really relieved to know about us. There are Jews whose stomachs turn when they hear what's going on here, but they're afraid to say so ... I feel ordinary people have a responsibility to make the world better so, I reacted to this situation by coming here."

[His colleague, Dr. Robert Lipton, describes himself.] "I am a Jewish American and feel intimately involved because of my identity. (The occupation) seems like a very obvious wrong that needs to be righted and it's in my own backyard, culturally and religiously. For the first time, at Jewish Voice [for Peace], I have felt like an insider - it's a place where I could feel comfortable with other Jews about articulating my opposition to the occupation. People often say (we are) 'self-hating Jews,' but we're actually helping Jews live here better because the occupation has distorted Israeli and Jewish American societies. It's not that I'm discounting violence toward Israel, but it doesn't happen by itself."

The myth is that our Republican White House hijackers represent and worship free market capitalism. The reality is that they embody and practice crony capitalism,

in which whom you know is more important than what you do and how you do it. That's the world Bush's key policymakers come out of: they've made their careers by circumventing the free market. Why expect them suddenly to embrace it?

The examples within the inner bunch, while not quite legion, may be without exception.

Almost none of the C.E.O.s on the Bush team headed competitive, entrepreneurial businesses. The majority of them, in fact, made their bones in protected or regulated industries, where success depends on personal lobbying and political maneuvering. Bush himself, of course, built a small fortune on family connections, finagling a spot on the board of Harken Energy, and securing a publicly financed stadium for the Texas Rangers. Dick Cheney, meanwhile, got the top job at Halliburton almost solely because of his political connections. His successor there, David Lesar, has said, "What Dick brought was obviously a wealth of contacts." Wealth of contacts, indeed: under Cheney, Halliburton expanded internationally, gained $1.5 billion in subsidies from the U.S. government, and added a billion dollars in government contracts.

What about Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill? Yes, he did a fine job of reviving the fortunes of the aluminum giant Alcoa. But he did so, in part, by helping to orchestrate an international price-fixing cartel. In 1994, in Brussels, after a fierce lobbying effort by O'Neill and his corporate peers, five countries and the European Union agreed to slash aluminum production to drive up aluminum prices. By the end of that year, prices had nearly doubled and political favoritism had rescued Alcoa from the whims of the free market.

Secretary of Commerce Donald Evans ran an oil-and-gas company. Mitch Daniels, the head of the Office of Management and Budget, was a vice-president at Eli Lilly. Army Secretary Thomas White was the head of energy trading at Enron. Air Force Secretary James Roche came from Northrup Grumman. And Navy Secretary Gordon England put in time at General Dynamics. All these companies depend for success on regulatory approval, government largesse, or cartel-like machinations. This is especially true of the energy industry—the Bush Administration's finishing school—in which the greatest determinant of a company's annual performance is a price more or less fixed in Vienna by a cabal of sheikhs.

So, while it's long been clear that the unelected one serves neither the lower nor the middle classes, it looks like his bounty may even be limited within the upper ranks to those who are part of the right interest groups, those who don't hesitate to sell themselves, and the entire country.

I'm a little late with this indymedia item, and I hope it hasn't been rendered null by subsequent police events, but here it is, in a great and honorable tradition.

RETURN OF THE TOMPKIN'S SQUARE SPEAKER'S CORNER!

Take your muzzle off and speak your mind at the weekly Tompkins Square Speaker's Corner. Every Saturday starting at 8pm on the S/W corner of Tompkins Square.

Not ready to spend that last $20 dollars at an overpriced East Village bar? Step over the police barricades and join the poets, the anarchists, the loudmouths, the crusty old reds, and the crusty young squatters! Step up on the soap box and take back your neighborhood by telling the consumer zombies and the cops exactly what's on your mind! War on Iraq? Police brutality? Palestine? George Bush? EVERY SPEAKER WELCOME! EVERY SPEAKER A KING! Every Saturday night starting at 8pm on the S/W corner of Tompkins Square.

--to the olympics.

First they tried just selling us the billion-dollar sports stadium, then they switched the bait to a plan for a New York City Olympics. Gee willickers, how can you be against that?

Both plans are ludicrous through and through, but I'm not going to go into the case here. Instead, I'm registering my amazement at the lead column on the front page of the NYTimes sports section today. I said the sports section!

There is no hard evidence that major sports events benefit their hosts. Building stadiums is often a Chamber of Commerce boondoggle, to put the Greatest Little Town in the World on the map.

Imagine how embarrassed New York would be right now if it had been stuck building new stadiums for the Mets and the Yankees only to have the blockhead owners and the dunderhead players stage a ruinous long layoff.

Sports have a close connection with bad civic values. There are high schools in New York spending money for football helmets while the city cannot provide enough textbooks to enhance the brains inside the helmets.

In the article, "THE RISE OF THE CREATIVE CLASS--
Why cities without gays and rock bands are losing the economic development race," Richard Florida describes what he call the "creative class" as those who "do a wide variety of work in a wide variety of industries--from technology to entertainment, journalism to finance, high-end manufacturing to the arts. They do not consciously think of themselves as a class. Yet they share a common ethos that values creativity, individuality, difference, and merit. These are the engines of the new urban civilization, of the revival of (certain) American cities.

It is a telling commentary on our age that at a time when political will seems difficult to muster for virtually anything, city after city can generate the political capital to underwrite hundreds of millions of dollars of investments in professional sports stadiums. And you know what? They don't matter to the creative class. Not once during any of my focus groups and interviews did the members of the creative class mention professional sports as playing a role of any sort in their choice of where to live and work. What makes most cities unable to even imagine devoting those kinds of resources or political will to do the things that people say really matter to them?

The creative class is not indifferent to athletic activities, but they are into active sports, from traditional ones like bicycling, jogging, and kayaking to newer, more extreme ones, like trail running and snowboarding.

Not once during any of my focus groups and interviews did the members of the creative class mention professional sports as playing a role of any sort in their choice of where to live and work.

For the purposes of this argument, I think we can safely exclude spectating Olympic events from the category of "active sports," and safely include Olympic Games in the category of professional sports.

[Today's report, probably his last from Palestine on this visit, is directly from Steve himself. I can only comment that I'm unable to clearly see the keyboard or the screen as I try to post this. Once again, the links are my doing.]

A million thanks to Donald, my Most Excellent Support Person, for
calling me every day and sending out reports. I'll read through
them when I get home, and elaborate on whatever stuff I forgot to
tell him on the phone.

On Sunday night, a Palestinian-American friend and I stayed once
again at the home of a family in New Askar Refugee Camp in Nablus.
Two sons of this family have been killed by the Israeli army, and it
is reasonable to assume that the house is slated for demolition.
(The Israeli Supreme Court recently ruled that the army is not
required to give any advance notice before coming to demolish a
home.) I had many fascinating conversations with the family during
the 4 nights I stayed at that particular house, and was of course
treated to the usual warm Palestinian hospitality. It's amazing how
generous people are here, even when they have nothing.

I hope they'll be OK. They've suffered so much already. I'll try
to stay in touch with them, but access to the Internet is very
limited at Askar, and Israel is not currently allowing mail delivery
in the West Bank.

At about midnight, the army sent up about 12 very bright and long-
lasting flares over New Askar, Old Askar, nearby Balata Refugee
Camp, and the nearby village of Azmut. One of the flares fell to
the ground in Azmut, and started a fire. We saw military vehicles
moving from the Jewish settlement of Elon More, on the hill above
us, toward Azmut. There were also F-16s flying overhead. We were
really scared; I though that the flares were a prelude to aerial
bombardment or an attack on foot. We called the U.S. Consulate to
tell them what was happening and to inform them of the U.S. citizens
on the ground; we were thinking of our own safety, and of using our
presence to increase the safety of the Palestinians in the camp.
The consulate was as hostile as always; European activists inform me
that their consulates are much more helpful.

In the end, nothing happened in Askar Camp on Sunday night. Azmut
probably got hit hard. The villages around Nablus are really
suffering; while Nablus has been under curfew for more than 60 days,
there are villages that have been under curfew for one or two
years. The residents have no access to medical care, markets for
their produce, etc.

On Monday morning, I took some video footage of graves of non-
combatants from the camp killed by the army. They're buried in a
playground, because curfew did not allow people access to the
cemetery. I also heard the story of the 7-year-old boy who was
killed by Israeli fire while walking from his home in New Askar to
the school in Old Askar. I've witnessed many instances of
gratuitous Israeli firing, not aimed at anything in particular,
meant for intimidation, and it is not at all suprising that, from
time to time, someone gets in the way and is shot and killed. The
solution to this problem, though, is not better military procedures
for the Israel Occupation Force. The solution is an end to the
occupation.

We set out from Askar Camp to walk to the Union of Palestinian
Medical Relief Committees. We were going to get a taxi from there
to the Howarra Checkpoint. But when we go to the main road
alongside Askar, we found a tank in the road. We stayed in sight of
the tank for quite some time until it left; there were a lot of boys
in the street, some of them throwing stones at the tank, and we
didn't want them to get shot at.

We then walked down to an armored personnel carrier, where, we were
told, two boys had been taken by the army. We got nowhere with the
soldiers (but they didn't arrest us, as I feared they might), but we
found the parents of the boys, who were of course beside
themselves. We put them in touch with an Israeli human rights
organization that tracks detainees, and got a cab to the UPMRC.

The cab had to leave us a short walk away from the UPMRC because of
tanks in the road. The informal curfew network in Palestinian
cities is amazing; drivers always stop and talk to each other,
people keep in touch via cell phone, and boys in the street run up
to drivers and pedestrians with information. Everyone is trying to
figure out where the soldiers are and what's a safe route from A to
B. Movement under curfew is not prevented, but is reduced to about
10% of what would be normal. People out tring to make a living, or
obtain food or medical care, or visit a loved one, are criminalized,
and risk injury or death.

Curfew seemed especially tight on Monday in Nablus, with tanks and
APCs in a number of unwonted locations. I have a really bad feeling
about what the Israeli army may be planning for Nablus, especially
as internationals beging to leave the city to return home for work
or school.

We, with our international privilege, wer able to walk right by one
of the tanks. As we turned the corner and approached the UPMRC,
there was an explosion so loud I felt it. It may have been one of
the sound bombs the soldiers use to disperse crowds, but I could
detect no prvocation for it.

We were able to make it from the UPMRC to the Howwara Checkpoint OK; our driver waited until it was reported that the tank on that road had moved. We were allowed to cross without questioning, but a member of our group, a 72 year old Republican Arab-American from Cape Cod, then intervened on behalf of a family of ten, including a one-week old baby, who were waiting in the sun while the soldiers refused them passage. They were seeking medical care, and had documentation to prove it. The activist from Cape Cod nagged the soldiers until two of the family were let through, and he put the family in contact with the same Israeli human rights organization, who later that day got them all across.

We took a taxi from Howwara to Jerusalem, picking up three activists
at the Qalqilya Checkpoint along the way. Our taxi had Israeli
license plates, so we were able to travel on the settler road. The
roadside is dotted with graffiti in Hebrew calling for death to the
Arabs, vengeance, and expusion. "Kahane was right" is a common
one. Road signs indicating Jewish and Palestinian communities are
in Hebrew, English, and Arabic, but on many signs the Arabic has
been blacked out with spray paint.

The Qalqilya activists told me how they hade busted through that
checkpoint a couple of days before. They had waited for two hours
(the army has figured out that it is in their interest to keep
international witnesses out of occupied cities), and then just
walked through. An Israeli film crew, there to film the wall that
the army is building between Israel and the West Bank, refused to
document the activists' defiance, and urged the soldiers to arrest
the activists. The film crew made a special point of indicating the
one Palestinian among them, and said, "Arrest him! Arrest him!"
Fortunately, by the time the soldiers got over their astonishment,
the activists were speeding away in a taxi. This was, of course,
the kind of action that only internationals can undertake;
Palestinians alone would run a high risk of being shot.

I've always thought of Arab East Jerusalem, victim of Israeli
underdevelopment, as kind of pathetic, but after Nablus it seemed
like the land of plenty. It was amazing to see fully stocked food
stores, open restaurants, and crowded sidewalks. I don't know how
people in Nablus (Ramallah, Jenin, Tulkarm, Gaza...) can endure the
deprivation, month after month.

On Tuesday morning, the Cape Cod activist and I went to the offices of HaMoked, the Israeli group that had helped us help people in Nablus, to thank them. We had a really good conversation with their director about the work they're doing, and the work we're doing. Today (Wednesday), I'll try to meet with someone from the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, to talk about their struggle of many years(a losing battle...Israel is now talking about bulldozing houses if Israeli Palestinians as well. To my knowledge, the homes of Jews accused of crimes are never detroyed.), and about the successs we've met with so far by sleeping in threatened homes.

Yesterday afternoon, I went to Bethlehem, where I was during the Israeli invasion in April. There was only one APC in town--the Israelis have otherwise pulled out, although they're expected to re-invade soon--and it was wonderful to see the city alive and vibrant. Sadly, I learned that 5 houses had been demolished there in one week; there was an insufficient international presence there to provide the houses with protection. A couple of weeks ago I had been there and had visited a demolished house; the family was living in a tent on top if the ruins. It was like 1948 all over again. I had some money that had been donated by workers at Oxygen, and gave it to a community leader to pass on to the family. They phoned to thank me a few days later.

I had a fantastic visit with my family is Azzeh Refugee Camp in
Bethlehem, where I had been in April. It was hard to say goodbye to
them, just as it had been hard the day before to say goodbye the day
before to our wonderful friends in Askar. I hope to come back for
all of next summer, but that's a long way away.

I fly home tomorrow, and will once again be checking my email at
negroni4u@yahoo.com. I am looking forward to opportunities to speak
about Palestine, and to show the video and still documentation and
Palestinian testimony that my group collected. It's become harder
to do that, though; Jews Against the Occupation had three report-
backs scheduled for August, but all three host venues cancelled
after receiving threats from the Jewish Defence Organization.

As for the rest of my JAtO affinity group: Lisa is home in New York,
safe and sound, and by now Ryan and Erica should be, too. Jeremy
and Zaid are still in Askar; Jeremy comes to Jerusalem tomorrow and
flies home Friday, and Zaid is here until the middle of November.

If you're thinking of joining ISM for the olive harvest (Oct. 15-
Nov. 15), go for it! The farmers really need your protection from
soldiers and settlers. You can register at www.palsolidarity.org.

Free Palestine!

Love,
Steve

The "deeply decent" handsome, eponymous star of the soap opera-like strip, Rex Morgan M.D. has come out in favor of what his creator calls "a single-payer, state-supported health care system."

Interestingly, the man behind Rex Morgan's position isn't some "communist or liberal socialist" -- although he has received plenty of mail calling him that, and worse. He's Woody Wilson, a 55-year-old registered Republican from Tempe, Ariz., who voted for George W. Bush in the 2000 elections.

"I believe the country that is supposedly the richest and most powerful in the world shouldn't be forcing its citizens to choose between paying their mortgage or saving their lives. Yet that is what is happening with millions of Americans right now," Mr. Wilson said in an interview this week.

"What's needed is health care for everyone instead of dividends for stockholders in pharmaceutical companies."

Unfortunately "everyone" doesn't make the decisions in this country. Decision-making ability is instead the biggest big stockholders' dividend of all.

Unsurprisingly, those Americans critical of Mr. Wilson's position like to ask him, "Do we want to have a Canadian health-care system? Do we want rationing? Do we want to wait in line for hip-replacement surgery?"

Mr. Wilson chuckled. "My wife and I were talking about this and she said, 'Well, in Canada, [health care] is about waiting; in America, it's about money.' I want the waiting."

Universal health care, in America it's still just an idea in a not-so-comic strip.

Why do we have to be eternally blind to the experience, whether successful or disastrous, of other nations or societies? Because we're so damned provincial--or foolishly convinced we're always right.

The germans, who love the forest perhaps more than any people, have long worked with a system which evolved over at least a millenium. There may be problems with the monoculture which often accompanies strict forest management, but the aesthetic and the discipline is striking. If you walk into a German forest, more often than not you will see trees, but no underbrush, no fallen trunks, no rotten stumps. It's been cleared down below. It all looks tailored. It is.

I [Gilgamesh] would conquer in the Cedar Forest.... I will set my hand to it and will chop down the Cedar.

--Epic of Gilgamesh

The visual sign of the well-managed forest, in Germany and in the many settings where German scientific forestry took hold, came to be the regularity and neatness of its appearance. Forests might be inspected in much the same way as a commanding officer might review his troops on parade, and woe to the forest guard whose "beat" was not sufficiently trim or "dressed." This aboveground order required that underbrush be removed and that fallen trees and branches be gathered and hauled off.

Our own studies today support the german practice as a fire deterrent.

Scientists for and against thinning the forest at large say it has to be carried out according to a prescription or it may cause serious ecological problems. Just small fuels on the ground and trees up to three or four inches in diameter should be removed instead of larger trees, which are more fire-resistant.

Researchers report further that "Timber harvest, through its effects on forest structure, local microclimate and fuels accumulation, has increased fire severity more than any other recent activity," and that includes fire suppression. The American forest looks like a mess (ok, an attractive, if impenetrable, mess), and its undergrowth, potentially useful for fuel, fill or other purposes, rots away (unless it ignites first). It would be nice if we could find a way to reduce the scale of destructive forest fires without giving away the store.

Bush wants to sell to big corporations the right to log mature trees which are not a fire danger to populated areas, in return for clearing out the stuff that should be removed. The clearing responsibility is not likely to be policed and logging and clearing operations should be treated as separate issues. The Shrub is using the recent spate of destructive fires as an excuse to further enrich his class.

In fact, the government doesn't make money when it sells timber rights to loggers. According to the General Accounting Office, the Forest Service consistently spends more money arranging timber sales than it actually gets from the sales. How much money? Funny you should ask: last year the Bush administration stopped releasing that information. In any case, the measured costs of timber sales capture only a fraction of the true budgetary costs of logging in the national forests, which is supported by hundreds of millions of dollars in federal subsidies, especially for road-building. This means that, environmental issues aside, inducing logging companies to clear underbrush by letting them log elsewhere would probably end up costing taxpayers more, not less, than dealing with the problem directly.

So as in the case of the administration's energy policy, beneath the free-market rhetoric is a plan for increased subsidies to favored corporations. Surprise.

A final thought: Wouldn't it be nice if just once, on some issue, the Bush administration came up with a plan that didn't involve weakened environmental protection, financial breaks for wealthy individuals and corporations and reduced public oversight?

A magnificent, sober discussion of the morality of war, particularly of what war means in a democracy, and most particularly of the war we are about to launch. No hysterics, no cant.

One common philosophical argument for democracy is that democratic regimes are particularly unlikely to start wars. When the power to declare war is closely tethered to the preferences of those who would bear the costs of fighting, it stands to reason that this power will be used sparingly. Thus, many political philosophers have followed Kant in supposing that the universal embrace of democracy offers the best hope of world peace.

Our nation now finds itself on the verge of initiating war against another sovereign nation. We have not been attacked by Iraq, and we have thus far failed to produce convincing evidence that Iraq has aided, or plans to aid, those who have attacked us. If we go to war, we will be the initiators of aggression.

It would be a mistake, however, to take this as fresh cause for doubt about the link between democracy and peace. We ought instead to view this imminent possibility as an occasion for raising hard questions about whether, in the critical matter of waging war, we still function as a genuine democracy.

What a country! Can we still say stuff like this? Yes, but it doesn't matter, since we're still not able to influence what passes for our own government, even if we talk nice.

Mark Morford's "SF GATE MORNING FIX" email raised a few eyebrows monday when he introduced the White House lawyers war authority story with this extended paragraph:

**Geedubya Makes Big War Stuff Go Boom**
White House lawyers have told President Bush he would not need
congressional approval to attack Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Two senior
administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity but who's names are Bob and Louis and who live at 3566 Kensington Lane and 220 Jackson #3 in D.C. and who's home phone numbers are 555-8761 and 555-9002 and who like a nice Chard with dinner and interestingly enough each have a secret stash of hardcore bizarre German fetish porn and who really really loathe traffic and wish their wives were just slightly more into the whole oral thing and who love animals and who, deep down, really crave more profound insight and honesty and deep tongue kissing and to have more love and magic in their lives, respectively, said White House counsel Al Gonzales advised Bush earlier this month that the Constitution gives the president authority to wage war without explicit authority from Congress, especially if all his oil-sucking jackass crony advisers and warmongering lint-sodomizing CEO patrons tell him to and he bounces on Dick's knee and licks his pockmarked bald demon skull and giggles giggles snorts.

These are the words of a madman, and not merely the ravings of an idiot, ignorant of fact, of the world and of history. Actually they are certainly both.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Reuters) - Vice President Dick Cheney called on Monday for a liberated Iraq, saying now not later is the time for a preemptive strike against President Saddam Hussein.

The news bulletin's description of Cheney's rant and the quotes it supplies show it to be based on lies, but even aside from that it cannot even be parsed sufficiently to apply a rational rebuttal.

Can't we at least understand that Hussein is not dangerous until he does something to defend himself from attack, the attack Cheney seems about to launch in the name of our own rogue state, a superpower running amok under a government arguably as insane as Iraq's own (maybe more so, if we really think about it)?

Finally, note that even in its nonsense form all that Cheney and everyone else in his [sic] administration says about our next target could actually be a description of the U.S. rather than Iraq, especially under the current junta. Aren't we lucky that there is no bully to threaten a preemptive attack on ourselves? Or are we, or is the world?

A Kuwaiti political science professor who had come to the U.S. in 1971 for undergraduate and graduate studies, and who was working in Washington last September, is saddened, like many of us, at the prospect of a less open and accepting America.

A day after the attacks I walked to my office and noticed that people were looking at me more than usual. I kept smiling back and telling myself, "Shafeeq, you have become unusually handsome overnight. Be happy with it."

The America I knew in the 1970's taught me that whatever your ideology you could still be accepted and have a meaningful connection with others. When I first came to the United States I was a leftist and had in me all the anti-American slogans of the Vietnam war and the Palestine struggle. My American professors surprised me with their tolerance. Even when the professors were hard-core Republicans or fundamentalist Christians — I studied for one year at a very small junior college in the Midwest — the fair-mindedness was consistent. It amazed me.

In graduate school, in the 1980's, the most Zionist of all my teachers would listen with empathy to my opinion and my difference of perspective, then argue. This opened the way for respect, learning and understanding. Tolerance, even without accepting the other view, does have a moderating power on people and permits for the repetition of the cycle of understanding. Tolerance breeds tolerance. As a professor of political science at Kuwait University, I practice my old professor's technique on my own fundamentalist students.

--is not limited to the subject of health coverage.

But let's start dismantling it right there.

Free-Market Myth of Health Coverage

To the Editor:

Re "Unproductive Medicare Bashing" (editorial, Aug. 20):

In urging President Bush to "stop the Medicare bashing and work to improve the system," you note that the sick and elderly "are not always in the best position to shop around" for medical coverage. You assert that "it might be possible to design" the free-market solution that the White House and its backers seek, but say only that "nobody has done so yet."

But health care isn't like other commodities. Ordinary people seldom know much about its fast-changing options. By definition a free market can exist only where buyers are as well informed as sellers.

The free-market myth is trumpeted by health-industry interests to maximize their money-making opportunities. It's also attractive to libertarians and others who believe that lower-income folks don't deserve first-class care.

You should be less reluctant to expose this fallacy.
JOHN GLASEL
Hoboken, N.J., Aug. 20, 2002
The writer is secretary of Health Care for All, New Jersey.

[The U.S. won't remonstrate against the Saudi government.]

Are we "Drowning Freedom In Oil"? The Muslim world does not hate the West. They quite reasonably hate what the West is doing to their world.

[An Indian Muslim community leader insists,] They hate that you are monopolizing all the nonrenewable resources (oil). And because you want to do that, you need to keep in power all your collaborators. As a consequence, you support feudal elements who are trying to stave off the march of democracy."

The more I've traveled in the Muslim world since 9/11, the more it has struck me how true this statement is: Nothing has subverted Middle East democracy more than the Arab world's and Iran's dependence on oil, and nothing will restrict America's ability to tell the truth in the Middle East and promote democracy there more than our continued dependence on oil.

Yet, since Sept. 11, the Bush-Cheney team has not lifted a finger to make us, or the Arab-Islamic world, less dependent on oil. Too bad. Because politics in countries dependent on oil becomes totally focused on who controls the oil revenues — rather than on how to improve the skills and education of both their men and women, how to build a rule of law and a legitimate state in which people feel some ownership, and how to build an honest economy that is open and attractive to investors.

The Saudi ruling family stays in power not through the support of the progressives, the secularized, U.S.-educated, pro-American elite and middle class.

It stays in power through a bargain with the conservative Wahhabi Muslim religious establishment. The Wahhabi clerics bless the regime and give it legitimacy — in the absence of any democratic elections. In return, the regime gives the Wahhabis oil money, which they use to propagate a puritanical version of Islam that is hostile to the West, to women, to modernity and to all non-Muslim faiths.

That money also finds its way into the hands of the terrorists with whom we insist we are at war.

And it is our oil addiction that keeps us from ever confronting the Saudis on this. Addicts never tell the truth to their pushers.

[Donald just sent this message describing Steve's report of his experiences yesterday and today in Palestine.]

I am writing this around 10:30 AM on Sunday, August 25, New York Time

This report covers Saturday, August 24 and some of Sunday, August 25.

As reported previously, a demonstration protesting the occupation was
being planned for Saturday in a town called Hawara (sp?).
Internationals from ISM were joining Palestinians, along with an
Israeli group from Jerusalem, Ha Taayush.

Approaching Hawara, the ISM contingent was met by soldiers. These
soldiers did not advise the group of anything, they simply started
detonating sound bombs and launching tear gas. Steve says he got
mildly tear gassed.

The groups were split up as they dispersed, and Steve ran into an
olive grove. It was while he was doing this that I happened to make
my usual morning call. He told me he would call me back. A few
minutes later, I heard from him. He was in the olive grove, and told
me everything I have just written. He said he had been invited to
someone's home and was going there. While he was in the olive grove,
Palestinians came out with onions, which can provide some relief from
tear gas when you sniff them.

While he was in Hawara at this person's home, tanks went through the
streets with bullhorns and shouts of "Curfew", while launching
teargas. Steve and his hosts locked their doors and shuttered their
windows and decamped to their hallway. Some little boys were brought
in off the street. Steve helped the little boys and they helped
back, offering their onions, as well as rags soaked in vinegar (which
helps alleviate the stinging of tear gas).

Later, when Steve was in the town, he spoke with a woman, saying what
a shame it was that little boys were getting tear gassed. She
said "Tear gas is nothing. You can get over tear gas. Bullets are
the problem". Steve realized that it was possible that the soldiers
might have used live ammunition if it weren't for the presence of
internationals.

Steve and the ISM people never met up with Ha Taayush. Ha Taayush
was physically stopped by the soldiers from entering the town. They
weren't tear gassed but as Steve put it, they were manhandled. They
weren't allowed to march to the checkpoint, but were allowed to hold
a rally. Then they went back to Jerusalem.

So how to get back home to Nablus and Askar refugee camp? Steve and
about 30 other internationals (plus two Palestinians) got in cabs as
started a journey along a settler road. Eventually they were stopped
by the Army because the cabs had West Bank plates and weren't allowed
on the road. The soldiers made everyone get out of the cabs. It was
unclear what would happen next. Obviously, they would have to walk
to the village of Iraqborin. But before they could do that, the
soldiers wanted to check everyone's ID. This would have guaranteed
arrest of the two Palestinians. So Steve and others fluent in Hebrew
argued and obfuscated and generally prevented IDs from being checked.

They were all welcomed very graciously by the people of Iraqborin and
spent Saturday night there.

One of the Palestinians in the group had not been allowed out of
Nablus for more than a year. She was very happy just to have been
out for a little while.

On Sunday they went back into Nablus. This wasn't supposed to
happen. Steve says the soldiers are preventing internationals from
getting into Nablus and trying to remove all the internationals who
are inside. Apparently, soldiers are stopping everyone, even
searching ambulances, and not allowing them through if they contain
internationals. Steve believes that the military is planning a big
action in Nablus and does not wish to be fettered by humanitarian
concerns which internationals might call attention to. Nevertheless,
with the help of some seasoned drivers who knew all the right dirt
paths to circumvent checkpoints, Steve was delivered to the door of
the Nablus office of the Union of Palestinian Medical Relief
Committees.

Steve is going to rest today. He was exhausted by Saturday's
activities. Tonight he will stay in Askar refugee camp, and tomorrow
he will go back to Bethlehem to visit people and bring things to them.

Steve says "It's amazing how hard life is here under curfew. You
risk imprisonment just for going out to get food."

That's the report.
dsg

It's a chink in my atheistic armor, but I'll admit I have a soft spot for both the people and the institutions of the world's most human and progressive religious communities.

The folks connected to St. Paul's Chapel in downtown Manhattan, along with their ancient stones, wood and plaster, answered to that description long before September 11 last year. They're good and gentle, often gay (although regretably too often male). They minister to the homeless (the eighteenth-century baroque balconies were furnished with good beds), the place is very beautiful and very old, and besides, their often adventurous noon-time concerts with their eclectic audiences were the regular highlight of my workday at the World Trade Center. What's not to like?

For most of the last year the Chapel has served the City in a very different way, but one not out of its character. Tomorrow finally marks its return to a more conventional ministry, after a thorough cleaning and restoration, but Mike Borrero, the property manager for Trinity, the episcopal parish of which St. Paul's is a part, says, "It feels like there's something missing. It feels empty."

What is missing are firefighters and police officers and construction workers stretched out on the pews, desperate for a few hours' respite from ground zero; chiropractors, massage therapists and podiatrists stationed along the north aisle (the podiatrists working out of the presidential box in which Washington worshiped); volunteers dishing out hundreds of meals at tables under the organ gallery or handing out supplies — socks, gloves, sweatshirts, ponchos, boots, shovels, aspirin, lip balm, toothpaste — along the south aisle. What is missing are the banners, photos, greeting cards and children's drawings that hung from every surface but the altar.

Pointedly, however, the scratches and scuffing remain from the boots and belts and equipment of the emergency workers who camped out in the pews. "Our decision was to leave it as a monument," said the Rev. Samuel Johnson Howard, vicar of Trinity parish. "These are real marks of their ministry, sacramental marks."

Can I just go home now?

Some people are suspicious that President Bush will go for a "wag the dog" strategy -- boosting Republican prospects with a military assault on Iraq shortly before Election Day. But a modified approach now seems to be underway. Let's call it "wag the puppy."

What if they can keep us distracted from our problems and their foibles just enough to squeak through the November elections and what could then be an all-clear signal for further domestic and foreign shenanigans.

For the next couple of months, the president has domestic political incentives to keep "wagging the puppy" while floating a variety of unsubstantiated claims -- like references to wispy dots that implausibly connect the Iraqi dictatorship and al Qaeda.

Meanwhile, sending more ships and aircraft to the Persian Gulf region can be calculated to evoke plenty of televised support-our-troops spectacles. With Old Glory in the background as tearful good-byes are exchanged at U.S. military ports and bases, how many politicians or journalists will challenge the manipulative tactics of the commander-in-chief?

Even if the White House doesn't sic the Pentagon on Iraqi people before the November elections, its efforts to boost pre-war fever between now and then could have enormous media impacts with big dividends at the polls. This fall, our country may see something short of a "wag the dog" extravaganza provided by leading officials of the Bush administration. But unless we can stop them, the full-grown dogs of war are not far behind.

The only actual rationale for an Iraqi war was recently provided by Richard Perle, a leader of the Administration’s neoconservative hawks. "The failure to take on Saddam after what the president said would produce such a collapse of confidence in the president that it would set back the war on terrorism," Perle told the New York Times.

Each of the governments which entered into a World War in 1914 felt compelled to do so largely for the same reason argued by Perle. Each felt that if it did not take action, its legitimacy, its power, would be undermined or dissolved. But that is precisely what their acts of war accomplished anyway, as apparently no one in Washington knows or cares, but only after the end of a world, and the death of about eight million combatants (not counting civilians--and there would be civilians this time). The twenty-year intermission, the second act (World War II) and, finally, the epilogue of the Cold War totally buried the horrible record of even the 1914-1918 production.

Dulce et Decorum Est

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame, all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.

Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! - An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And floundering like a man in fire or lime.-
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams before my helpless sight
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,-
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

Wilfred Owen

[The Latin reads, "It is sweet and proper to die for one's country"--Horace]

Maybe something's finally clicking out there in the head- and heartlands. Today even the NYTimes has to admit it's worth a few lines, but without a doubt this story has real legs--and great pictures!

The violent demonstrations against President Bush caught White House planners by surprise, a presidential spokesman said Friday.

It's not unusual for presidents to be confronted by small protests when visiting outside Washington, D.C. But demonstrations that result in the kind of skirmishes with police that erupted here Thursday night have been rare.

"We did not have any inkling" that such protest would occur, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer told reporters.

What does this say about Washington intelligence, including the kind that is supposed to stop real evil-doers?

Officials with the National Lawyer's Guild asked Mayor Vera Katz to fire Police Chief Mark Kroeker, claiming Thursday's actions by police were "atrocities against humanity."

Katz' spokeswoman, Sarah Bott, said the mayor and her staff were reviewing film and videotape of the incidents. She said the primary objective was to protect the president and that was accomplished.

The Shrub has a bulletproof limousine, a locked-down hotel, and the entire American military establishment to protect him, but the people who are sovereign, whom he is supposed to represent, who under normal circumstances elevate a president to the temporary position where he is expected to serve their welfare, mean nothing, and their safety is not even the concern of their own city police force.

Get rid of those thugs before they really get into trouble! You don't want Brown Shirts on the public payroll.

But thank you, Portland! We really really love you.

There was not a word of this in the New York Times today, and only four inches of a narrow column hidden just past the comics section of the Daily News. But doesn't it seem worth some real notice when the pretend-president of a nation at war is successfully confronted by an eclectic group of hundreds of (by one Oregon paper's account, a thousand) citizen-demonstrators who are then pepper-sprayed and hit with riot police nightsticks?

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP)- Riot police used pepper spray and struck some demonstrators with batons after ordering hundreds of people to leave a protest near a hotel where President Bush attended a fund-raiser.

Protesters hammered on the hoods of police cars as pepper spray wafted through the air. Protesting Bush's foreign policy, they chanted "Drop Bush, Not Bombs."

Bush supporters in formal attire were jostled and taunted by protesters as they arrived for a fund-raiser for the re-election campaign of U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith. After elbowing through the demonstrators, they were checked by Secret Service agents before they were allowed inside the hotel.

Not the way to treat the people. [By the way, the entire trip to Oregon was to support a local Republican candidate. The Shrub made no public appearances; you had to pay up front--a lot--to see him.] The photos say a lot.

Police seemed unprepared by the size of the crowd, not providing traffic control for motorists whose evening commute suddenly ground to a halt.

The bulk of the crowd moved from barricade to barricade, chanting slogans, beating drums and yelling at police until abruptly pulling back and moving to another barricade.

But the confrontations turned violent at a barricade at the intersection of Southwest Sixth Avenue and Taylor Street when police decided to push the crowd back, first with nightsticks and then with pepper spray.

The Oregonian reported that the demonstration lasted seven hours.

The protesters represented peace groups, labor unions, environmental organizations, churches, low-income advocates and, overwhelmingly, just themselves.

They were irate over Bush's plan to relax environmental standards for logging, a possible war with Iraq, the U.S. stand on the Palestinian question and what they called rampant government corruption, among other issues.

Mustn't report this stuff outside Portland. It might be catching.

[This report from Steve himself just came through. The photo links are my own doing.]

First: The end of the truck story is that both guys got their trucks back. The one guy got his back after all the vegetables rotted.

Early on Thursday morning Steve and other folks went to a roadblock
outside a village called Tel. There was an outbreak of hepatitis in
the village, and there was an ambulance scheduled to come and set up
a mobile clinic. Steve and company set to work on the roadblock with
picks and shovels. Along came soldiers in a tank (Steve calls tanks
APCs for Armed Personnel Carrier). They weren't interested in negotiating anything and told the internationals to be gone in 5 minutes. Steve says "We saw one of them giving another one a tear gas grenade. We talked about it and decided the best thing was to leave." There was another roundabout way for the ambulance to access the village. A confrontation wouldn't accomplish anything, and people might get hurt.

In a previous report an occupied apartment building [in Nablus] was mentioned, with all the occupants locked in their homes. Steve and company went there. Soldiers told them to leave. Steve talked on his cell phone with a woman locked into an apartment in the building. People from across the way waved the internationals into another building, and brought them to an office. This was very timely, as it turned out some tanks were coming down the street.

Steve says this is life under curfew. You go outside your home, but not too far, and when tanks come, you get back inside and lock the door. Nablus has been under curfew for 60 days, during which the curfew has been lifted a total of 60 hours.

Curfew was lifted for 4 hours Thursday afternoon. Steve went with others to watch the checkpoint outside the occupied apartment building. Women and children were allowed through, but all men were stopped, their IDs taken and added to a big pile for examination. The delays for men were substantial, so that by the time their identification was checked, it was almost the end of the break in the curfew.

Among other things Steve witnessed: A woman in labor came to the
checkpoint with her husband. They were meeting an ambulance on the
other side of the checkpoint. The soldiers said they would let the
woman through but not her husband. She wouldn't leave without him.
They added his ID to their pile. Eventually, the soldiers got their
list of "approved" men who would be let through. They made no effort
to even look at the man's ID until they got this list, and even after
they got the list, they did not prioritize checking for this man.
The end result was that the woman in labor stood in the hot sun for
half an hour.

Another man had been waiting a week to rejoin his wife and children
on the other side of the checkpoint. His wife came with the kids, to
advocate for her husband. He was not let through, but the soldiers
said they could come across. The wife wouldn't cross because she was
afraid she couldn't go back, but she sent the kids. There was barbed
wire across the road that adults could step over, but was completely
impossible for the children to cross. The soldiers would not allow
any Palestinians to help the children. They were persuaded to allow
internationals to help the children. Steve was very upset by this
incident.

Steve stayed in Askar refuge camp in the home of family who has lost two sons, so their home is at risk of demolition.

Two internationals stay in Askar camp at all times, and Steve was one
of them today. He heard about Erica's arrest. He wants people to
know that she was just walking down the street, in the company of a
young Palestinian man. This man was arrested along with Erica. He
was taken inside an occupied home, his hands were bound, he was
blindfolded, hit and kicked. After two hours, the soldiers told him
he could leave. It was after dark, and curfew was in effect, so the
man asked what he should do if he was stopped by other soldiers. The
soldiers who detained him answered that they would be glad to hold
him for longer if that is what he wanted. He left (and did not come
across any soldiers on his way home).

Steve says there is a big demonstrations being prepared for tomorrow. Everyone is "hunkering down" because a tank was overturned (in Nablus??). Apache helicopters have been heard overhead.

Also, a soldier was killed in Balata refugee camp and a heavy
retaliation is expected.

Steve says: "I can't imagine how the Palestinians live with this day
after day. It's really very stressful."

That's the report.
dsg

[Steve did report that his friend Erica had been arrested, and that she has support people here. This report just arrived from JATO (Jews Against The Occupation) rather than from Steve directly.]

Nablus-A member of the New York-based group Jews Against the Occupation was arrested by the Israeli Military earlier today after delivering food and medicine to Palestinian families. She has been falsely charged with shielding rock-throwing boys.

Erica Weitzman, a Manhattan-based humanitarian aid and human rights
worker is currently being held at the Shogai Shomron military base
and will be transferred to a prison at the Ariel settlement to await
deportation.

Ms. Weitzman has been in the West Bank since August 9th, 2002 and has
been visiting civilian Palestinian apartment buildings that have been
taken over by the Israeli army for use as bases. The army generally
forces several families who live in the building into one small
apartment. Ms. Weitzman has been observing living conditions and
bringing food and medicine to these families who are not permitted to
leave their buildings, even during the short periods when curfew
is lifted. In the past 60 days in Nablus, the round-the-clock curfew
has only been lifted for a total of 60 hours, most of which have been
concentrated in time blocks.

Ms. Weitzman denies having contact with rock-throwing children.

"The more crimes the Israeli government commits against the
Palestinian people in the name of Jews everywhere, the more I felt it
was precisely my responsibility as a Jew to speak out against them."
Ms. Weitzman said at a press conference held in front of the AIPAC
offices in New York before leaving for the West Bank.

Members of Jews Against The Occupation have maintained a presence in
the West Bank since April 2002, working in solidarity with non-
violent Palestinian organizers against the daily military violence
visited on Palestinian civilians. Jews Against The Occupation
recognizes that the acts of the Israeli government are not only
illegal and immoral, but pose a threat to Jewish lives and the fabric
of Jewish identity worldwide.

To interview members of Jews Against The Occupation currently in the
West Bank call:

- Ryan Senser, 011-972-56-375-202:
Former Hebrew schoolteacher, temple youth group leader, and college
Hillel President.

- Steve Quester, 011-972-67-308-192:
"Great evil is being perpetrated on the people of Palestine. Evil is
being done in my name, because I am a Jew. Evil is being done with
weapons I purchased, because I am an American. If I don't stand up
against this evil, who will?" Former Hebrew schoolteacher, current
New York Public School teacher.

- Jeremy A. Hoffman, 011-972-56-711-040:
"My grandparents and great grandparents did not flee the Cossack
raids of Czarist Russia to have their history, culture and religious
tradition exploited to justify the destruction and devastation of
another
people."

Jews Against The Occupation is a New York City based group of Jewish community leaders, and part of a growing movement of worldwide Jewish dissent against the illegal, violent actions of the Israeli government and the occupation of the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem.

[see the last ten lines of yesterday's blog for an update on the radio sex story]

From Palestine, Steve has left messages saying that he is fine, but, because of logistical and technical (phone) problems, we don't yet have another real report or live conversation. We expect one soon.

It was either just a stunt or it was the real thing, but it's just sex! A Virginia couple was accused this week of having sex in St. Patrick's Cathedral for a shock radio prank. It seems to me that the worst charge that might be leveled would be that of bad taste--arguably. The Daily News loves this sort of story, especially if it involves a real or perceived insult to the Catholic Church [Is it actually possible to insult that thing?], but they don't mind ending their story with a small dose of reality for our entertainment.

[Leaving court yesterday, one of the defendents] shrugged her shoulders and nodded when construction worker Michael Prin